accessories...

For those of you searching for new ways to jazz up an outfit look no further. Turns out your child's stackable rings can add a great splash of color.

Add on a snazzy pair of sunglasses and you are set.

Fun in the sun

Just like any other mother of a toddler (or any age child I'm guessing), I am constantly looking for some way to keep my child occupied for longer than 10 seconds while simultaneously wearing him out in hopes of a long nap. Luckily, during the warmer months, we are able to burn some energy outside at one of the many parks in our town. We both had a great time...

even though 72% of the time Tyson was trying to eat the sand and I was trying to stop him. Little sneaker even tried to hide it from me (as evidence by the above picture with his back turned) but luckily I'm smarter than an almost 16 month old...for now.

Multiple attempts were made at climbing the big kid stuff...

but he soon realized he couldn't quite muscle himself up there.

Dirt: added to the growing list of favorites. This kid is all boy.

Heinz

I like ketchup...

a lot.

How to keep a toddler occupied: travel edition.

So on an extremely positive note, Jason found my camera wedged underneath one of the seats in the minivan. I was thrilled to be able to upload our pictures from the most recent trip from South Dakota. Above is a great pre-wedding shot of Tyson and Darel (his uncle). Here's a little tip for those of you who didn't already know this...15 month old children don't sit through a wedding very well. The first 5 minutes after being seated were spent alternating between testing out the cathedrals acoustics with his various loud noises and banging his head on the pew cuz he thought it was funny.  

I thought the food at the reception was phenomenal. Tyson thought the plates were great.

At one of our rest stops at a McDonalds, Tyson enjoyed playing with the super cool picnic benches...

but was appalled at some lady who LEFT HER TODDLER IN THE CAR while getting her food. Around here people get in serious trouble for doing that to dogs and she LEFT HER TODDLER IN THE CAR unattended and strapped in his seat WITH THE CAR RUNNING...in a not so small town. Someone easily could have driven away with that kid. He screamed the whole time. I almost called the cops but didn't have my phone with me because Jason had taken the van to fill up so I took down her license plate number and waited there until the mom came back. I am still shaken up by that. After that we got back in our van and Tyson found his feet.

I know my sisters are dying of laughter at this moment while viewing this picture of Tyson sucking on his toes. I chose to preserve the tiny bit of dignity I have left and will let your imaginations run. 

All in all, it was a great trip. We loved seeing everyone and as always it was hard to come home. We miss you!!!

PS- for those of you wondering, we did in fact have a DVD player this time and it was glorious. Elmo, Baby Einstein and I are now great friends.

so sad...

Well folks, today I am going to tell you a story about a very flighty girl who may have possibly lost her camera.  I took it with me to the park over the weekend to take some great pictures of Tyson playing in the sand (and by playing, I mean eating). Unfortunately, the camera has been MIA since then. I am usually extremely careful with my camera as I use it pretty frequently but I know I did put it in the diaper bag and left it somewhat unattended momentarily while I gathered Tyson up and tried to force his little jaw open to spit out the remaining sand (seriously, he'll eat sand like it's a gourmet meal but green beans are offensive???). I then grabbed the bag and set off for home and have been camera-less since then. Of course, that's when Tyson has been at his cutest and most mischievous. I've now missed some fantastic (though pretty unsuccessful) attempts at using cutlery all by himself (the fact that there is a "right" side to the spoon seems to escape him) as well as some other interesting sitcom worthy situations. I am oh so sad. Beside the fact that I am going through camera withdrawals, I am mourning the loss of some great pictures from our trip back to South Dakota for Danielle and Wes's wedding. Hopefully a prayer to St. Anthony or two will help it turn up but in the meantime, I have no pictures.

 A few months ago I began selling things on ebay to save up enough money for a digital SLR camera and I am tantalizingly close but here's the kicker: in order to sell more items (to earn more money to buy my camera), I need to be able to take pictures of said items. Now I have no camera so I can't sell the items so can't buy my camera! See my dilemma? So maybe I could use a few prayers from you all as well. Without my camera, you will have to put up with all of my rants without the distraction of new cute Tyson pictures....so get crackin'.

summertime fun...

Well, so far we've had a great summer....wild but fun. We've traveled to see family and had some family traveling to see us. Tyson had a great time in June with Grandma and Grandpa Svaren. PS-Grandpa, thanks for teaching him the headbutt...I now look like the 5th grader who keeps sitting on her glasses but wears them anyway.

We also took a day one weekend that Jason and I miraculously weren't working and headed to the zoo in hopes that Tyson would enjoy the animals. All in all it was a good day.

We saw everything from giraffes to flamingos (which made me want to imitate them while I pretended I was Chrissy from Three's Company...anyone else remember that...anyone?). At one point I'm pretty my child would've shared his cheerios with the alligator. That's kind of a big deal because he doesn't share food with ANYONE....unless it's half chewed and found to be something less than desirable and/or God forbid healthy. 

Though Jason and I found the animals fun and interesting, we could've saved a trip to Madison and just let Tyson try to figure out how the wheels on his stroller work. I have this sinking feeling that once he figures out his dexterity, many many things will be taken apart and sacrificed to the God of curiosity. 

I am still perplexed as to what the hell this thing is. It looks like a some sort of gerbil on steroids. 

The best part of the day was that it wore him out! Honestly, this kid sleeps so seldom in the car that we almost always have to catch in on film. Jason now has this picture as his screen saver on his phone...yep, it's that big a deal. 

Anyway, we've been having a great time lately. Tyson remains a ridiculously picky eater (though we discovered a new love of grapes in this household...oh happy day)  and as always is a little dicey with the naps. He's a strong willed little feller but loads of fun. He's repeating everything I say (always interesting) and even figuring out the meanings of some words. He spent a solid 20 minutes on our deck barking at the neighbors dog yesterday and I was so excited that he'd made the connection that dogs do indeed bark that I failed to realize that every kid in their yard (she runs a daycare) had stopped playing to watch the pale, barking kid. And I was darn proud to be the pale momma of the pale barking kid. 

Peek-a-boo 2.0

It all started like this. One Sunday morning a couple of weeks ago Jason and I miraculously both had the day off. We thought it would be a great idea to go to church like the good Christians we tell our parents that we are. All summer it's been a ridiculous juggle d/t work and travel schedules and thus far have only been able to consider the drive in service (which our church does offer...apprently catering to the new generation of technologically advanced but socially retarded). Since I already feel like I'm married to my minivan (yes, I drive a minivan...shocking I know), I really didn't want to take things to a spiritual level. So I thought it would be really cute to bring Tyson into our bedroom in the morning to wake his daddy up so we could get going. I set him up on our bed right next to Jason and he really was super cute...for about the 4 1/2 seconds it took for him to vomit all over our comforter. All day long I vigilantly watched for other signs of illness while simultaneously calculating how much purrell I would have to buy to fill the bathtub. Guess what? Other than one other incident, Tyson was completely fine. Not eating his normal lumberjack size portions but otherwise fit as a fiddle. 

I thought things were looking up. Imagine my surprise the next afternoon when (despite my best antibacterial efforts) I was suddenly doubled over with abdominal pain. I spent the next 2 days developing a close, personal relationship with my red puke-bucket and the view from my toilet seat (if I was taller, I would be able to see into my neighbors garage and perhaps a little of their backyard...it's awkward).  The hardest part was of course, trying to take care of Tyson  and keep him out of mischief when I was carrying on such interesting and lengthy conversations with my bucket. The funny part was that Tyson thought it was just another version of his old time favorite game of peek-a-boo. He would come up to me and push my hair to the side and give me his "head tilt-Iamsodarncute" look. Seriously, this kid is something else. As long as he's being constantly watched and smiled at, he's happy. Is it to early to worry that he will grow up wanting to be a game show host?