The Tyson Times

Lint Free

2010-04-20T16:25:00.000-07:00

Everytime Tyson takes off his socks now he has to check in between each of his toes to get the lint out. I think I got him doing that because I used to alwasy do it for him. Its so funny bc one time we were in an indoor playground and his sock fell off and he sat down and started looking in between his toes haha.

HAPPY EASTER!!!

2010-04-06T15:55:00.000-07:00

For actual Easter Day we spent the evening at my friend Allison's house. She had an Easter party with some of her friends and family to celebrate the holiday and her dad's birthday. Tyson loves her house because her son has so many cool toys in the backyard. Once again Tyson got to Easter egg hunt except this time we didnt have our own basket so he was running around trying to carry as many as possible in his hands and then put them down so he could go get more. He got so many eggs, he was happy.

We had a fabulous dinner and then sang Happy Birthday to Allison's dad and had cake for dessert. Tyson then dyed some eggs with Allison's mom. I havent dyed eggs in so long I forgot it was part of the Easter tradition. So good thing he was still able to do it.

When we got home Tyson had a little Easter basket that I made waiting for him. He tore it opened and immediately started to eat candy. Not such a good idea before bed though. He wa still able to go to bed though and konked out hard from all the running around. We definitely had a fun Easter weekend this year.

Easter Festivities

2010-04-06T15:06:00.000-07:00

This year we took Tyson to the same park we took him to last year for some easter festivities and of course and Easter Bunny Picture. It was Grape Arbor Park in Calabasas. We tried to make it in time for the easter egg hunt but of course we missed it again. The first thing we did this year was take pics with the Easter Bunny. Last year Tyson was a champ and didnt cry at ALL. This year...not so much. I figured it would be somewhat of an issue considering he was terrified of Santa Claus and he isnt a huge animal. So Justin and I sat on the Easter Bunny's lap with Tyson first and Tyson refused to sit on his lap. I had to put him on mine. Then... after that picture was over I quickly handed him over to the bunny and snaped a picture of him... obviously trying to get away. WARNING: RESULTS MAY CAUSE YOU TO PEE YOUR PANTS!

This is the cutest most sad picture ever. I mean definitely adorable in the fact that its just priceless crying bunny picture but sad bc i felt bad making him do it. I posted this on my facebook and got more then 20 comments of people saying it made their day! awww my poor papas.

After the terrifying picture we then let Tyson run around and play in the park for a little bit. We ran into a lot of mommy friends with their kids so Tyson got to play with some familiar faces for a little bit. Then we left in search of an easter egg hunt. Since Tyson wasnt old enough last year I was determined to participate in one this year. I thought he would have so much fun. We ffound one close to my house at Los Encinos Park and since my friend Chelsea was in town, her and I took Tyson.

He LOVED it. We were in a little corral with a bunch of 2 year olds and they scattered tons and ttons of eggs everywhere for all the little munchkins to find. Tyson was on a mission picking up every egg he found. He was running around back and forth searching for more sometimes picking one up right before another little kid would (of course I made him share though). He was also soo excited to open them up and find what was inside.

On our way home I, obviously not thinking, let him ride with his gifts in his lap and when I reached home I turned around to look at him and this is what I see:

He's pretty darn smart and of course found his way to the chocolate. You cant even mad at a face like this.

Happy 80th Birthday Grandma Evelyn

2010-03-26T15:25:00.000-07:00

SURPRISE!

We had a surprise party at Braemar Country club for Tyson's great grandmother, Evelyn. It was her 80th birthday. She has no idea all of her family and friends were going to be there. Well she thought it would just be the usual of us that goes to Sunday dinner but she definately was surprised to see everyone else.

It was beautifully set up and decorated but Auntie Doris. Of course she makes things so crafty and personal to the touch.

It was such a lovely brunch. We sat at the table with Great grandma and grandpa and Tyson had this new stuffed animal we got on they way, an alligator and he loves pretending to scare Great Grandpa Jerry with it.

Tyson: ROARRRR!!!

Jerry: AHHHHH!!!!

Thank goodness for all Tyson's toys that keep him company throughout his meals. After dinner some family gave some speeches and Nicole presented her with a present all of the grandchildren pitched in for. It was a new laptop computer which was a very nice gift.

Then we all stepped outside and took family pictures. One wish Evelyn wanted was to take a family picture with all of her immediate family (kids, grandkids, great grandkids) so we did that first then we got an extended picture with everyone from the party.

Here's an extra one of Tyson and his favorite auntie Doris and his cousin Cory. Tyson, Justin, and I got charicatures of us done by this artist which were "alright" i think they made me look more like Cher but hey..... maybe i'll scan those in sometime soon.

Happy Birthday grandma Evelyn! I hope u had a wonderful surprise and I wanted to let you know how much I appreciate being a part of your life. You are such an amazingly nice woman and especially since my grandmother is now gone, it is nice to have another grandmother around to ake memories with. You've accepted me as a part of the family before we ever met and I cant wait to share many more occasions and Sunday dinners with you!

Mommy Group: St Patty's Day Playdate

2010-03-19T14:49:00.000-07:00

On St. Patricks Day we decided to host a playdate for the mommy's in the mommy group. It was sooo much fun. We had 23 people signed up to come with 10 more on the waiting list that werent invited. That means 23 adults and about 27 kids since some had more then one. It was CRAZZY! Tyson had sooo much fun. He loves when we have playdates at our house because he gets to show all his friends his toys and he's more comfortable to fun around. I feel like I hardly saw him all day. He hadnt napped so afterwards we were both pooped out of our minds.
We had everyone bring a green dish to eat and wear green so our house was full of GREEN!!

Even Pheonix's mohawk was green!

Mohawk

2010-03-15T09:23:00.000-07:00

his hair is getting long again.... may be time for another haircut

Piano Prodigy

2010-03-12T15:29:00.000-08:00

Tyson practicing piano with his Grandpa Neal. His favorite pastime. :)

Purim at Temple Aliyah

2010-03-11T14:36:00.000-08:00

This year Purim started on February 28th. Purim is supposed to be one of the most fun holidays on the Jewish calendar. It commemorates a time when the Jewish people living in Persia were saved from extermination.It is customary to hold carnival-like celebrations on Purim, to perform plays and parodies, and to hold beauty contests. Americans sometimes refer to Purim as the Jewish Mardi Gras. Justin's Temple was holding a carnival in the parking lot so we met his parents there and enjoyed the festivities.

The first thing we did was play the water balloon game and of course being the queen that I am I won. :) We then let Tyson play a few games. One where he had to roll a ball and try to knock down these two ppins at the end of a table. He was trying to throw the ball so he had some practice to roll it. When he did it himself, it wasn't making it far enough so with a little help from his daddy he was able to make it and win a lot of tickets.

Later on he got to ride hte Merry-Go-Round with his grandpa Neal. He loved it. Everytime he would pass us on the outside he would wave to us. So adorable. Then it was Grandma Stacey's turn and she took him on a bumble bee ride while Justin and I got on a drop-zone like ride which was unbelievably scary.

Tyson even got on the super slide with his daddy. I think he was a little scared but he had fun. Then we took him to the petting zoo. He was a little older this time compared to when he went for Easter last year so he enjoyed it a little more and even tried to feed the animals although it was unsuccessful. Getting the food to stay in his hand was a challenge.

THEN, for some odd reason we decided t o get his face painted by the worse face painter alive. Justin told her to to a pirate and I though she was gonna draw a small pirate on the side of his face but instead she was making him into a pirate. It first looked as though she was gonna color his whole eye black for a patch but then she stopped and only made the outline which ended up being worse then if it were all black. Her hand was shaking sooo bad that she could hardly draw. Poor guy looked like a little puppy with a spot on his eye.

She then proceeded to draw a black scar on the side of his face and a beard that wasn't really a beard but black dots on his chin. THIS face painting was HORRIBLE. Tyson looked miserable as he walked around with it on his face. I think we were all a little embarrassed for him so it quickly had to come off with the help of some wipes. Of course it wasnt easy so more or less he just had black stains on his face and a ruined white shirt.

Overall, minus the face painting we all had a great time at the carnival. Now it's time to take Tyson to DISNEYLAND before he turns two and it costs $60 for him to get it. Only a month more left.

Mommy Group: Zimmer Children's Museum

2010-03-10T13:57:00.000-08:00

A few weeks ago Tyson and I took a trip with the Mommy Group to the Zimmer Children's Museum. It is a museum in LA hand on exhibits for children 0-8 to explore. I didn't know this before I went there but most of the exhibits have a Jewish culutral theme. I thought it was pretty awesome because Tyson could play and learn a little more about part of his heritage.

When we first entered there was a mock Western Wall. I learned that this is an important Jewish religious site in the Old city of Jerusalem. Just as on the real wall, there are many prayer notes slipped into the crevaces of the wall. It is said that over a million notes are placed on the wall each year. They are removed twice a year and buried on the Mount of Olives.

There were all different kinds of rooms in the museum, each with a theme. There was a children's synagogue where they had a Torah that you could scroll through and a little play synagogue. Tyson enjoyed playing with the people in there and making them sit in the chairs.

There was a BIG ambulance on one side of the museum. Tyson and his friend Alex tried to take it for a joy ride. It was so cute looking at them pretending to drive with their little heads sticking hardly seeing out the window.

There was a room with a kitchen and dining table where Tyson decided he was gonna go grocery shopping and then eat the fake food for lunch.

His favorite room was the Bouncy room. He was running around and falling everywhere. We stayed in this room the most.

Then he proceeded to go to the community board and I think he spelled out his name. Can you find it?
We had to leave our hand prints on the board so everyone knew we were there.
Upon exiting there was a huge plane. Tyson loves planes. Every time he hears one in the sky he stops whatever he's doing and looks up trying to find it yelling "Plane, plane". So of course he had to go inside and try to give it a fly.

my little co-pilot looked like he knew exactly what he was doing. He was having so much fun here he didn't want to leave. I'm sure we'll be back again some day.

Bundle of Joy

2010-03-09T16:55:00.000-08:00

This is how I bundle up my little pumpkin after a shower.... he loves it. He'll sit and watch cartoons for a little bit before he has to put clothes on. Luckily he hasnt peed on the bed yet :::knock knock:::

Car, Train, Bike, Ball

2010-02-26T22:31:00.000-08:00

Tyson loves his books and it is just absolutely the most adorable thing when he grabs them and lays on the floor and "reads" them. He loves this book because of the noises it makes and he knows all the pictures in it so I guess technically he can kinda read it. I love it!!! He has been learning sooo much, especially talking wise, he's gonna be having a conversation with me in no time.

He hears TRAIN and he says TOOOOTOOOO!!! uh I just wanna eat him up.

Mommy Group: Remo Drum Circle

2010-02-21T12:25:00.000-08:00

yesterday we after our walk around Lake Balboa, we decided last minute to hit up a mommy group that was near by at the REMO drum circle. It's a huge warehouse on saturdays they have the free drum circle where they take out tons of drums and instruments and they have a leader lead the kids with the drums. I had always seen this as a meetup but had never been and it was a lot bigger then i had expected. I was expecting a small room with a few kids playing with instruments but this was huge. We walked in and everyone was already playing. It was so loud but beautiful at once. They had ear plugs for people and children, thats how loud it got. tyson actually wore his the whole time.

He loves playing music and banging on things so this was right up his alley. He sat and played on the drums the entire time. I think we'll definitely try out this place again sometime.

I wanna hold your haaaaand

2010-02-20T12:18:00.000-08:00

I told you he was a ladie's man... on our way to the park we stopped at the gas station and we were next to my friend Robin's stroller with baby Izabella inside and of course Tyson reaches over and grabs her hand. SO CUTE!!!

Mommy Group: Valentine's Day at the Park

2010-02-19T11:58:00.000-08:00

The Friday before Valentine's Day there was a mommy meetup at Lake Balboa. I brought Tyson of course in his best Valentine's shirt. It said "Cupid is my Homeboy". LOVED IT!!! We got there and I have never seen so many desserts in my life. And they kept coming. Most of them red or pink themed. Of course I had gained a few pounds this day. There was sooo many desserts that Aja, the mom that hosted, had to beg people to take them. She was even giving away cupcakes at the park. People probably thought she was weird. lol.

Tyson spent a lot of time trying to chase birds. He also wanted to play at the park a lot. He likes going down the slide and swinging. He even found a little girlfriend. In the previous post you could see him work his magic. He kept hugging her over and over. I think he even tried to get her phone number once.

Of course before we left he practically tried to jump in the lake to pet the ducks. He LOOOOVES animals. so he was so happy. Its so amazing to watch him grow and see his little personality develop. he's definitely gonna be a ladie's man. Now just gotta make sure he's at least a good one.

WILL YOU BE MINE?

2010-02-13T11:12:00.000-08:00

Miss You

2010-02-13T11:11:00.000-08:00

Man I miss my blog. I have just been off the face of the earth with it lately. Ever since I got my new laptop I dont have any pictures on it and not only that ever since I got back from Hawaii I havent taken hardly any pictures at all. I have been focusing a lot on my photography but more on the end of setting it up as a business and not the actual picture taking part. I want to keep my laptop clean to use as a work computer so its hard not to download all my pics on here, only the ones for my portfolio.

Hopefully now that I have completed a few things (including getting a website started) hopefully I can take more time to keep this as updated as possible. I think I jinxed myself back in November when I said I was gonna write everyday of the month and right after that I havent written much since. And when I did it was catch-up posts. NEways, let see how I do now.

HAWAII

2010-01-27T10:51:00.000-08:00

So Justin decided to take me and Tyson on a last minute surprise trip to Hawaii for New Years and my Birthday! I had never been before so I was super excited and of course Tyson had never been either. This was our first huge vacation together. I was really anxious to see how the 6 hour plane flight would play out. I got back from Northern california on Monday from xmas and we left for Hawaii Wednesday night. We had so much to bring for all three of us. I definitely over packed but better to over pack then under pack right? and with a toddler you need even more. We had 3 big bags we had to check, two backpacks filled, a diaper bag, a stroller, and a carseat. Imagine us trying to walk and check in with all of these items. It was hard. And going through security was even more of a mess taking out everything, folding strollers, taking off shoes and practically all of our clothes...all while holding a baby too. well that was just the beginning!

The cool thing about the plane was each seat had its own tv in the headrest which you could independently watch shows, movies, music etc. Which meant we could turn on cartoons for Tyson. This worked for a little bit but he wasnt too keen in having earplugs in his ears. The other cool thing was that the plane wasnt full so we got a whole row to ourselves and a whole row behind us which was good as far as letting Tyson move around a little bit. The sleep situation didnt work out too well though. Tyson slept for maybe an hour of the whole trip and when he woke up we still had 3 hours left. Not only that, he had some bad diarrhea and went through his clothes... i changed him in the incredibly small airplane bathroom and guess what, a little later he went through those too. So we had two hours with a smelly baby on our hands. good thing no one else was around. lol.

When we exited the plane finally at 10pm which was midnight in Cali time, we forgot to pick up the stroller from the door near the plane so after we got our baggage, which by the way was the first three bags, we had to wait until practically everyone was gone and done for the doorman guy to bring down the unclaimed stroller. We headed to the hotel and finally got to check in our awesome room. It was a family hotel so all the rooms had two separate parts with a big living room area and full kitchen with breakfast bar in one area and room and bathroom in other area separated by big sliding doors. We got a crib brought up too so Tyson even had his own place to sleep. AND the best part is that we were only a block away from the beach and the strip mall with an ocean view from our room. The hotel also had a playground for kids, a nice pool, a basketball and tennis court, and huge bbq areas.

The first day we woke up and went to breakfast and walked down the stripmall. we headed towards the boardwalk to check out the scene and stopped near the beach so Tyson could chase the birds for a little bit. He had so much fun. He loves animals and esp chasing birds. He'll keep his eye on one and chase him wherever he goes. I think he did this for about 20 minutes. After we decided to go back to the hotel so Tyson could take a nap but we had to find or way to a grocery store first. Since we had a full kitchen we decided to get food so we could save some money and make our own breakfast and lunches. AND with Tyson we needed milk as well. To get to the grocery store he had to take a bus and we ended up having so many bags on the way back, the stroller was full adn justin and i had 5 bags to carry between us. Not only that but we had to walk all the way back to the hotel which wasnt that close. lol. Tyson didnt wait until we got back to take his nap. lucky guy didnt have to carry any bags while mommy's arms were about to fall off.

That night was New Year's Eve. It didnt even feel like it since we were in a new place. No worries about what to do, what to wear, or where to go all night. After Tyson's nap we didnt know where the spot of the night to go was with a child to celebrate the new year. We decided to just walk the streets and end up on the beach for fireworks. We ate dinner at Round Table pizza and went through a happy new year with friends and family that were 2 hours a head of us. It was kinda cool being the last ones to go through new years. It started raining very hard, which I guess isnt unusual. It rains for about 10 minutes then stops which is exactly what happened. But now everything was wet including the beach. We still made it down to teh beach after walkin around for a bit. We were all pretty tired, esp Tyson considering the slight jet lag. We waited on the beach for half hour then experienced a great fireworks show. Immediately after we were so tired we headed home and went straight to sleep. The next day we were going to go to the aquarium but decided to walk down to the Hilton Hawaii and meet Justin's friend Jason who was on vacation with his family. This hotel was really nice. they had a very nice pool that we laid at for a little bit and then had lunch.

The third day we decided to wake up early and rent a car. We wanted to be able to do things around the island and instead of taking tour buses so we could have our own itenerary esp with Tyson. We drove along the coast of the island and took pictures then decided to go to Hanauma Bay which is a bay filled with coral reef and many different water species so its really big on snorkeling. I went snorkeling for my first time ever. I was kinda scared. Since we had Tyson Justin and I had to go snorkeling seperately. I was scared because I am not too fond of fish swimming near me. lol. The second time around I got used to it and went for alittle longer. I wish we had a water camera to take cool pictures.

After snorkeling we had to rush back to the hotel and get ready for the Luau we signed up for earlier the day. We had to make it to the bus that was taking us. It was very fun. We got a bus ride to and from and two drink tickets each. We got to see the dancers dance and the guys get the pig from the underground oven, and best of all eat some amazing food. I even went on stage and learn how to hula. Tyson had a great time dancing on the table mimicking the dancers. He even got his own non alcoholic drink to sip on.

The fourth day we decided to take a trip along the coast all the way to North Shore which was about a two hour drive. We got some amazing picture yet again and found some amazing beaches. When we got to the North Shore our first stop was Waimea Falls. We entered the park and the lady was telling us about all teh wild animals we could see. We saw two mongoose right as we entered and then a huge peacock. The peacock was first on the roof and when he jumped down he was immediately surrounded by people and cameras. This scared him so he put up his beautiful display of feathers for all to see.... or actually to show his strength.. Justin and I decided to move out of his pathway and as soon as we did he put his feathers down and walked away. We took a walk through what felt like the jungle until we reached the waterfall. It was so nice. We saw people in the water swimming and sitting underneath the falls. We got Tyson a lifejacket so he could go in the water then Justin and I took turns sitting under the falls. It was a refreashing experience. After that we left the falls and headed to the North Shore market place for some lunch and famous Hawaiian Shaved Ice. Which reminded me of shave-it because it had ice cream underneath. Then we took teh short route through the middle of the island back to the hotel.

The 5th and 6th day we decided to lay out at the beaches all day so we could attempt to still come back with some sort of hawaiian tan. we rented an umbrella on waikiki the first time and Tyson got to go in the ocean with Daddy. he was scared at first but got used to it after a while. That night was cool because we got to meet some of my friends that live out there for dinner. The next day we took a scenic route and drove to a few of the beaches we had previously seen along the coast from the previous day. They were all so beautiful. Our last day was very cloudy and windy though so the beach didnt last too long because the sand kept hitting us so hard we had to leave. So much for our tan. Our last night we had a wonderful dinner at Margaritaville. Both nights we hit up the International Market place to get gifts for friends and family. We shopped with this one lady who was in LOVE with Tyson. She wanted his picture to hang in her stand. The last night we got back to the hotel to pack adn prepare to wake up at 5am the next morning so we could check out, return the car, and check in at the airport by 7am. Our flight home was Different. The plane was super old and didnt have Tvs this time. It was a FULL flight which meant no run room for Tyson...But he did sleep for 4 hours of the time which was good. We had the worst turbulance in the world for 30 minutes I thought we were going to die and I have never prayed so hard in my life. Glad we made it home safely though. Now gotta sort through the hundreds of picture I took to make my photo book.

Merry Christmas!!!

2010-01-20T14:42:00.000-08:00

For Christmas this year Tyson and I came up to Northern California again to celebrate with my mother and my aunt and cousins and their kids. We have been doing this for a very long time. We used to go to my grandma;s house when she lived in the bay area. It used to be all my aunts and all the kids which was like 30 people with everyone's presents under the tree.. could you imagine. When she moved everyone kind of dispersed and a few of us would have it at my aunt Brenda's house. We go to her house on Christmas eve and eat dinner, watch movies, play games until midnight. Then when the clock strikes 12 we start opening all of our gifts. I remember being a kid and just anticipating the time so I could only imagine how the kids feel these days. This is Tyson's 2nd Christmas and this year he could actually open presents. He probably loves this time of year considering all the gifts he got to open from Hanukkah too. Since he got so many toys from the Bass family and friends, its a good thing my mom is obsessed with clothes because thats what he got from her. ALL CLOTHES. and a few toys. She got him a little tricycle and a bouncing turtle toy too. He also got to finally get a potty so we can start potty training him.

It took about 45 minutes for all the presents to be opened. Afterwards everyone was playing with their toys. Since Tyson mainly got clothes we had brought over some toys he got from Hanukkah. Everyone was amazed with the LUCKY dog he got that does commands by voice recognnition. He sits, sings, sleeps, stands on his head, plays dead, everything. After everyone was gone we stayed the night at my aunts and had breakfast the next morning and went back to Tracy. Now time to do a little re-arranging so we can figure out how to fit all of Tyson's new toys and clothes. Time to start getting rid of some old stuff.

FIRST HAIRCUT!!!

2010-01-20T13:01:00.000-08:00

So it was finally time for Tyson to get his first haircut after 19 months of letting it grow. Good thing its curly because it's hard to tell how long his hair really is. Trust me it was long. And not only that it was just becoming hard to manage. It would get really tangled and he HATED when I would have to comb it out which was practically every day. We already had to compromise his night time baths and change them to daytime ones because I had to do his hair every morning and it had to be wet.

Well this new place had opened up in the mall called FIRST CUT and we figured it was perfect for our little guy to get his first hair cut. It was definitely a place for the younger hip crowd. They had these cool airplane chairs and each seat had flat screen TV's that played cartoons so the little ones could be pre-occupied while they got their hair cut which worked magic with Tyson. And we had Daddy ready with our new video camera to get everything on tape.

Seeing his first curls get cut was sooo sad yet exciting all at once. I cant wait to make the scrapbook page with his first cut curls.

Before his harcut his hair was halfway down his back.

He had a good time. We just had to stay close to his seat otherwise he would get scared but cartoon helped a lot. We also had a huge crowd watching which I'm sure made him a little more nervous.

Thank goodness the lady didnt chop off too much because we love his little curls. The average person wouldnt be able to tell he even got a haircut probably but when you look at his wild mane in the before and after you can tell. His next one will probably take 6 more months :) The hairdresser then packed up the first few cuts of hair in a little envelope and gave Tyson a certificate for his first haircut. Then he got a sucker for being such a good boy. THANKS GRANDPA NEAL for paying for this special time.

BEFORE:

AFTER:

If I Were...

2010-01-20T12:54:00.000-08:00

A GIRL.....

I'd look like this. haha. Tyson's hair was getting so long I decided to comb it back in a little pony tail to see what he would look like. What a cute little girl he'd be. At least I can picture what my girl would look like If I ever have one. :) Dont worry I dont dress him up in dresses....

yet ;)

Happy Hanukkah!!!

2010-01-20T12:06:00.000-08:00

So back in December from the sundown of the 11th-18th we celebrated Hanukkah. On the second night we went to Tyson's great grandparents house and had a wonderful dinner, lit the second candle, and had a gift exchange. Well most of us watch Tyson open all of his presents since he is the only kid. We definitely had a full house. It was Great grandma Evelyn, Great Grandpa Jerry, Grandma Stacey, Grandpa Neal, Uncle Josh and Jordan, Jordan's girlfriend Brittany, Auntie Doris and Uncle Mark, Cousins Nicole, Cory, and Jamaal, and of course Tyson, Justin, and I. Everyone got some really good presents. We all got these really nice Hanukkah cups that had menorahs on them and the candles light up when they are hot. All the dad's got a really nice blanket that had a poem on it which made Grandma Evelyn cry every time she tried to read it. Tyson got some really cool presents. Stuffed Animals, which I am sure he has too many now :) He got a Mr. Potato Head which is cool because its something I used to play with when I was a kid. Which I'm sure we all had one. He got a really cool Drum set from Auntie Doris which was one of the highlights of the night. He opened it and got right on it to play as if he were professional and knew exactly what he was doing. We all had a little concert. He got a cool rocking horse and a big Easel to paint and draw on. I got a cool video camera from Justin so I can FINALLY start video taping Tyson's life. I feel awful to have already missed his first year on camera. Luckily I at least have thousands of pictures! and this blog. After all the presents were opened Grandpa Neal and Justin and Jordan played with the dreidel some. It was cool because Tyson was just watching and learning. It definitely was a fun time.

The next day we headed to the Braemar Country Club for Hannukah Brunch with some extended Bass Family. We had a wonderful brunch buffet with soooo much food. Although it wasnt sundown we lit another candle and said a prayer and then after everyone was eating all the kids 12 and under got lots of gifts to open. Again Tyson got so many cool presents. We only opened a few there so we could save some for home. Usually kids get a gift every night of Hannukah to open so we took some home so we could have enough. He got a cool chair, car that moved around, more stuffed animals. He evn got to pick out of great grandpa Jerry's bag and get a dollar ring.

After we went home later that night we lit the 3rd candle for the night which was the 1st candle for us as a family in our home and said a prayer and let Tyson open another present. I finally got to use my video camera for the first time. Tyson got a marine aquarium lamp which is one of his favorites. He was sooo amused by it. We now use it as a night light in his room for bedtime.

Every night we lit new candles and added one and said a prayer and let Tyson open another present. By the end of Hannukah Tyson had so many toys we didnt know what to do with them all and it wasnt even Christmas yet. What a lucky little boy!

Noah's Ark

2010-01-20T11:30:00.000-08:00

SO I FINALLY GET TIME TO CATCH UP OVER THIS LAST MONTH AND A HALF. SO BE PREPARED FOR 6 OR MORE POSTS TODAY.

So back in the beginning of December, Tyson and I went to Skirball and visited the Noah's Ark exhibit. It was sooo much fun. First they start off in a room where a lady tells the story of Noah's Ark. Then we venture to a room where she explains that everything in the exhibit is hands on and you can play with everything which is always great for little kids. The exhibit is specifically for little kids. All the animals that are built around the ark are made of other products like purses, fans, spatulas, fly swatters etc. They have a HUGE ark with tons of interactive activities. You can turn a handle and make it rain, turn another handle and make the wind blow the leaves, pull a string and see the stars. They had cubbies with tons of puppet animals. There was also another small ark with tons of toy animals. That was Tyson's favorite. He walked around with 3 little toy animals the entire time. So protective and wouldn't even let anyone touch them. They even have a room with a crawl around play area but you had to be at least 4 so Tyson couldn't enjoy that one yet. It was nice they the kids are allowed to touch and play with everything because we didn't have to be so careful and watch everything. They had a room where people were doing arts and crafts. Again something that Tyson was too small for. It was really fun. We went on free day which they have once a month. We are definitely going to make a trip back soon so Tyson can play some more. He had so much fun he didn't want to leave.

so sorry

2010-01-12T11:20:00.000-08:00

so so sorry i have not updated in SOOOOO long i know. I have so many pictures i was just dreading uploading them and of course that only means that by this time i have even more!!! now i cant find my cord to even download them onto my computer...

soooo i will try to give the last MONTH update asap!

What Happens...

2009-12-14T21:43:00.000-08:00

....when my 1 year old pays too much attention and I'm not paying enough attention

he gets into my makeup!

Christmas/Hannukah Tree

2009-12-09T10:21:00.000-08:00

We picked up our Christmas tree the other day. Its the first time I have had a real tree in YEARS. My mom got a fake tree a while ago so I havent gotten to go out and look for a tree in a long time. I didnt even know what to look for and didnt realize how expensive they are. We went to this one place by our house first and I found a tree that was calling me that was in our price range. Justin wanted a taller one though and with height comes more money u have to pay. Men and their egos with the big trees. lol. So we decided we would just look around and just in case we remembered where this tree was in case we wanted to come back and get it.

We ended up going to a tree place in Sherman Oaks off Ventura and Hazletine but it was raining and I didnt want to get out of the car. Justin decided he was still going to look. He called me in th e car and said "You want to know what tree we're getting?... its a noble and its originally $80...you want to know how much we're getting it for?... $39" I told him to just GET IT! Noble's are the most expensive trees because they are generally the best looking so we couldnt walk away with a deal like that. It was raining and the guy wasnt getting any sales so he gave us that spectacular deal. We tied the tree up to the car and headed home. The tree was a pretty good tree. It had its bad sides which I should have gotten out of the car to look at before we got it but overall I love it and with the deal we got who could pass. And it was tall enough to make Justin happy.

We unloaded but then needed to go ornament shopping. Boy was that an ordeal. I really loved these turquoise bulbs but also the dark blue. We decided to go with Blue and White in order to decorate for Hanukkah as well. Then i figured we needed an accent color so I got a few red bulbs as well. We came home with like 75 bulbs. of course not needing all of them. I didnt even realize until we started decorating that it was red, white, and blue. I kept wondering if the red would match but of course it would. When Justin was putting the lights on, Tyson was afraid to touch the tree. I had to bring him closer so he know it wasnt gonna bite him ;)

Then he got excited to decorate. He started putting candy canes on it. He thought the ornaments were balls and was taking those off and throwing them around. Oh boy! I have a few more weeks of having to try and save our ornaments.

When we were done decorating our tree came out SO NICE. I love it! especially the colors.

Favorite Chair

2009-12-09T09:58:00.000-08:00

So the chair my dad got for Tyson for his birthday has been a huge hit. Tyson lovves sitting in it and watching his cartoons. In the mornings he will ask me for milk and when i'm making it he runs to the chair for me to give it to him. Cute until its his bedtime bottle and he still runs to his chair. :) He just looks so cute sitting in it and eating a snack or drinking milk. Now he even lays sideways in it and relaxes.

I thought these pictures were especially cute bc his sweatshirt is pulled up on his head and he looks like a little Bevis. lol.

Fall Trees

2009-12-09T09:49:00.000-08:00

Here are some pictures of the trees I was talking about. Except I took pictures of them at night which is why there is a bright flash on some of them. But I was just amazed at how bright the leaves were. It was amazing. I wish I would have gotten better pictures in the daytime. Hopefully they are all still like that when I go back up north for Christmas time.

Thanksgiving Day

2009-12-08T23:01:00.000-08:00

So I finally downloaded some pictures from Thanksgiving. We went to my aunt's house in Hercules which is on the bay. She lives in the cutest little neighborhood. It's very new but oldfashioned. All of the house are so cute and vintage style. She lives in a three story "flat". in the front of the house on the bottom floor is a store. Her whole side of the street is like that with store fronts. Then across the street is the vintage looking houses. From her back balcony is a view of the water and trails you can walk or ride horses. She is constantly seeing people riding horses right out the back.

I love Thanksgiving time mainly because of the trees. The trees near her house werent that pretty but all o f the bay area everywhere I drove I saw the PRETTIEST sights I have ever seen that involved trees. Bright red, yellow, orange, green. It was definitely fall time.

So we used to have Thanksgiving at my grandma's house with my entire family. tons of cousins, aunts and uncles but when she moved to Las Vegas in 1996 we all kind of dispersed and started to do our own thing. My aunt, Cookie (thats her nickname) and her husband have been having my mom and I over every year since my grandmother moved. She has two daughters too. It used to be just us but now we all have kids too so there have been 5 more kids added to the mix over the last few years. We have some of the "traditional" food that most people have like of course Turkey, stuffing, cranberries, sweet potatoes, but we also throw in some collard greens with hamhocks, and homemade baked mac and cheese. I think everyone's favorite is the mac and cheese that my mom makes. I feel like our dinner wouldnt be complete without it. All of my friends even ask me to try to bring some home for them :) I try to make it myself sometimes but it never comes out quite the same. Trust me, mine is good but hers is better. Isnt that how it always is though.

When we go to my aunts house, besides my uncle Edward, Tyson is the only boy so he's constantly surrounded by little girls. Si'nayah was his little keeper this time. She was constantly helping us watch Tyson from going down the stairs or outside. Everytime he would go near the stairs that went down she would run up to him and say "No Tyson, come this way" and she would grab his hand and walk him back to the living room. At dinner my cousin brought over this little kids table with chairs for the kids to sit at and eat. Tyson was big enough to sit with the girls this year and eat his dinner himself. It was so cute, he sat in his little chair and ate his food. Not all of it though.

After dinner we got him in his pajamas and thats when my mom decided to put his hair in the little pony tails like I mentioned in the entry before. Si'nayah was staying the night too so she got in her pajamas and that is when the fun started. They started playing tag and hide and go seek. Chasing each other up and down the stairs and around the couch. Tyson was having so much fun. It was seriously just so nice seeing him play and have fun with his cousin. I cant wait until he's older and maybe have some brothers and sisters to play with.

We spent the night at my aunt's house and in the morning it was Black Friday. My cousin wanted to wake up and go shopping at 5am but we didnt get up until 8am. They were already late. Everyone was going to go to Sacramento to go shopping. I had a photoshoot with a friend so I didnt go ANND i didnt really have money to go shopping anyways so I let my mom take Tyson so I could go to the photoshoot. Next Thanksgiving we'll be with Justin's family and we'll have a whole new adventure because Tyson will be even older. Cant wait!

Crazy Hair

2009-11-29T21:18:00.000-08:00

So if you see Tyson lately you know his hair has been getting quite long. Definitely in need of a small haircut! Although i t fun to play with just not as fun trying to actually "do" it in the morning. Especially for him. Well my mom loves seeing what he looks like with ponytails. On thanksgiving she got a little out of hand though. She twisted his hair in a bunch of pony tails and it actually stayed like that until the next morning. He was running around all night with little ponies in his hair. So funny!

Happy Thanksgiving!

2009-11-26T21:27:00.000-08:00

Hope everyone has a a wonderful TURKEY DAY! grub lots

Blog Month

2009-11-14T18:20:00.000-08:00

So much for trying to blog everyday in November. That failed pretty quickly. eek. I have been sort of busy I guess. Or just not logging in as frequent as I used to. I like blogging with pictures though and I havent really taken any in the last few days though. I'll try.

Hey only 12 more days until Thanksgiving. what is everyone's plans? I think i'll be in the Bay Area this time around with my family since last year I spent it with Justin's family. I'd like to switch it up. Have some of my mom's yummy mac and cheese. She makes it better then I ever can.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY & 100TH POST

2009-11-03T17:10:00.000-08:00

SOOOOOO YAYYYY TODAY IS THE 1 YEAR BIRTHDAY OF MY BLOG FOR TYSON. I'M THINKING OF GETTING THIS FIRST YEAR MADE INTO A BOOK AT BLURB!

ANNNNNNND

I THIS IS MY 100TH POST. PERFECT!!!! I'M SO EXCITED.

NEXT GOAL: BLOG ONCE A DAY EVERYDAY IN NOVEMBER. HMMMM

Playdate in the Park [in costume]

2009-11-03T15:32:00.000-08:00

So since I made Tyson wear his costume for practically a week straight [i loved it so much] why not post some more pictures of him in it. [can you tell i'm trynna to get to 100 posts?] haha. We went on a playdate with all the mommy's and babies to the park adn all the babies had to dress in costume. It was funny when we arrived bc it was like all the babies were staring at each other wondering why the other was dressed so wierd not realizing they were too. LOL. awww i just love babies in costumes... so freaking adorable!!!!

Lucky #13

2009-11-03T15:28:00.000-08:00

Tyson won #13 out of top 30 for Celebuzz cutest Kid's costumes. yay... you had to win top 3 though to win a prize...btu it was still cool to see his picture in the top 30 best.

check him and the other best out:'

KIDS CUTEST COSTUMES

Halloween party

2009-11-02T15:16:00.000-08:00

Here are a few pictures from early Halloween when we went to the Sherman Oaks party with all my mommy group friends. It was fun, I wish we could have stayed longer. Tyson spent the whole time in the "kitchen". He was putting stuff in the microwave, burning stuff on the grill, cooking, cleaning... the whole sha-bamm. all the adults were laughing at him bc he was loving it. He must watch me a lot in the kitchen although i admit i rarely cook. LOL. lucky woman who marries him in the future!

Mullet

2009-11-02T14:06:00.000-08:00

HAHA these pictures make me laugh so much. For Halloween I wore my extensions and afterwards I took them out and decided to put them in Justin and Tyson's hair. Didn't last to long in Ty's hair but Justin had some fun with them. hahahha. so funny.

Trick or Treat

2009-11-01T13:44:00.000-08:00

So although this halloween wasn't Tyson's first, it was the first time he could actually walk and trick or treat. We had 2 parties this day. One with his playgroup friends in Sherman Oaks and one with his grandma's friends in Calabasas. Luckily they were at different times so he could go to both. How popular he is. We only got to stop by the one in Sherman Oaks for an hour before we had to leave so he only had time to play with this friends for a little bit. We went to Calabasas and he had some mroe friends to play with and tons of food to eat. His favorite was the pizza. It was an adult adn kids party so there were a lot of both. We ended up going trick or treating around 6:30pm and he walked up to a few doors but he was pretty timid t he entire time. Most of the doors we had to hold him but he was getting pretty good at taking the candy adn putting it in his basket. We didnt go to many houses though but it was a very nice neighborhood and we soon got word that Britney Spears was in the area. She lives in the community we were in. When we were back at the house where the party was Travis Barker [from Blink 182] and Britney [as in Spears]came to the house. CRAZY! When we went outside to leave at like 8:30pm there were so many kids out trick or treating. Specifically on the street we were on. I'm thinking mainly due to the celebrity buzz on the streets. It was kinda wierd for that many people to be out at that time. Tyson was soooo tired that we ended up just going home around then. Of course when we got home though He was wide awake throwing candy around everywhere.

I was hoping this halloween Ty would have been a little more into it and excited but he's a timid guy so he has to get used to it. Come next year though he'll be so ready I cant wait. I'm glad I get to enjoy trick or treating again. :)

Pumpkin Patch at Pierce

2009-11-01T12:56:00.000-08:00

We finally got a chance to go the pumpkin patche the other day. I had been wanting to go for so long we finally got some time where both Justin and I could take him. We went to the one at Pierce College. There were lots of activities to do. It was a little expensive though and very cold outside so we didnt end up doing much but I think Tyson still had fun. He loved walking through the pumpkin patches and trying to pick up pumpkins and push wheelbarrels around. We werent really gonna have any time to carve pumpkins since we waited so long so we didnt get anything big. We ended up just getting Tyson two of those small $1 pumpkins which he was happy with.

Next year we'll have to go earlier in the season to get the most out of it. We have to try the corn maze adn hay rides of course.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN

2009-10-31T13:43:00.001-07:00

from the KING OF THE JUNGLE

more costume pictures to come!!

Dress-Up

2009-10-31T10:16:00.000-07:00

in Daddy's shoes...

...and Mommy's shoes!

no discrimination here

Countdown

2009-10-30T17:13:00.000-07:00

i have 4 days to do 8 more posts... on November 3rd it is my year anniversary for Tyson's blog and I wanted to have 100 posts by then.... eek didnt realize it was so soon. guess i gotta start taking more pics these next few days. 2 posts a day not toooo bad. Then November is blogging month where I have to try to post at least once everyday.... oh the pressure!

Love my Doggy

2009-10-30T17:09:00.000-07:00

and who says Pit Bulls aren't nice? Dillinger loves him some Tyson kisses, as does everyone!

Bed Head

2009-10-27T09:51:00.000-07:00

This is my papas every morning. I think it's time to cut his hair...just a little

Now u can see why he is a lion for halloween. :)

It's funny how it falls when it gets wet in the shower. little jerry curl!

20's Man

2009-10-23T09:53:00.000-07:00

Ok I wanted to wait until his 18 Month newsletter to share these pictures but i simply couldn't wait. So Tyson's auntie Doris bought him this cute little outfit for Hanukkah last year and he finally fits into it. When the outfit was off it looked completely different. The pants appeared to be really high so yesterday before putting it on him we were thinking he could wear it for Halloween with some little glasses and be a little nerd. [no offense Doris, we still thought the outfit was cute]. We just figured with the suspenders and the white collar shirt it could work. Well when we got it on him, it was absolutely the most adorable thing I have ever seen. He looked like this little business man from the 20's. All he needed was a cab hat and a briefcase. He wouldn't stay still long enough for me inside the house, I'm sure due to his comfort level so I decided to bring him to the front of the house to snap some pictures. OH I just love looking at them. They came out SOOOOOO cute. Of course I have a hundred of them [OK maybe not that many] but these are the ones I edited so far. I have to say my photoshop skills are highly increasing. These definitely look professional [to me at least]. I just picture him on the porch waiting for his wife to come home. lol. If only we had a cute little girl dressed up with him in the pictures. OH how adorable. I have been getting better with my photography, thanks to my class, and have seriously been trying to get a little portfolio going so maybe I can pursue something on the side. I think that would be a dream. Child photography could be my start. :) Newho, I had to share these right away bc I couldn't keep them to myself. Let me know what you think. [you can click on the pictures to see them larger]

Check out my other blog: ashleyjaninephoto.blogspot.com

Old Man

2009-10-16T15:49:00.000-07:00

Tyson turned into a little old man over night...such a cute one too!

Messy Marvin

2009-10-15T23:46:00.000-07:00

Tyson's favorite past time

Taking every single thing out of the cabinets...and not putting them back

Laguna Beach

2009-10-12T14:44:00.000-07:00

So a few weeks ago my friend Chelsea was visiting in San Diego and we decided we would meet up half way for the day to hang out. We ended up meeting in Laguna Beach and it was probably one of the most relaxing days of my summer. First of all Laguna Beach is one of the cutest little beach towns ever. It is just so nice and peaceful.

Chelsea and I love driving around and just looking at big nice homes. I dunno, maybe its just the dream of knowing one day i'd like to live in one. So the first thing we did when we met up was drive around the hills sight seeing and house watching. Everytime we'd stop at a viewpoint we would whip out our SLR cameras and take pictures. We of course tried to find Lauren Conrad's parent's house but with no direction we really didnt know where to look. Chelsea thought she saw it from Pacific Coast Highway so she took a picture and of course when she got home she looked it up and it was indeed her house. Crazy!

On our way down the hill we saw these deer on the side of the road so we stopped to have a photoshoot with them. Zoom lenses can come in quite handy for this type of work. They stayed for a long time but then they had to leave. We then headed to the beach and stayed for about an hour. Had to load Tyson up on the sunscreen because we didnt have any umbrellas or coverings. This was one of the first times I have been to a beach where it was actually 100 degrees. Usually beaches are cooler but this was one hot day. We even saw some dolphins swimming. Another good thing we had zoom lenses. Mind you, this was one of the presttiest beaches I have ever been to. The water seemed so blue and the sand so light and clean. I got a lot of good pictures to post to my other blog. After this we went to this nice little sandwich shop on PCH and got Tyson the Biggest Peanut butter and Jelly sandwich I have ever seen. It was ooozing out Jelly. We then headed to this restaurant above the beach and had dessert and a drink. You could see the coast. It was just so relaxing.

We ended up leaving not too long before sunset so I decided to take PCH all the way back to Long Beach hoping to be able to stop and take a nice sunset picture with the beach but was already in town when the sun was setting so my sunset picture didnt turn out like I planned. I then stopped a friends house in Long Beach and Tyson and I stayed for dinner. Finally we got home at 10:00pm which gave us a pretty long day considering I woke up at 6:30am

I'm sad its now getting cold outside because I definately would like to go stay a weekend in Laguna Beach. Hopefully we'll get a few more sunny weekends before my chances are too slim.

Lake Shrine

2009-09-30T12:53:00.000-07:00

Tyson and I went to Lake Shrine recently and it was soooo beautiful. I wanted to go somewhere to use my new camera skills and my friend suggested this place. It is a place of meditation and peace. There is a temple where they have actual services for meditation and other things.
Upon arriving I didnt really know what to expect. It was reall quiet and probably one of the prettiest places I've been out here. There was a path around the lake that you walk around where you could see TONS of beautiful flowers. In the lake there were swans, koi fish, turtles. There were statues with wonderful sayings and two waterfalls. The picture above was a statue that is holding a portion of Ghandi's ashes.

There were plenty of people just sitting peacefully reading books or meditating. Tyson loved it and I want to go back and just sit and read one day.

I took plenty of good pictures. Too many to download but you can check them out HERE at my other blog geared towards my photography and designs. Havent updated it yet but they will be there soon. promise

Tigger Ride

2009-09-27T12:48:00.000-07:00

haha maybe we should buy him a pony.

Im so Fly

2009-09-20T10:31:00.000-07:00

hahaha. these pictures of Tyson just crack me up. If you were only here to witness this in person. I put my headband on him and then he put on my glasses and he was just walking around with em on, dancing and smiling and it was making me and Justin cry we were laughing so hard. HAHA. i absolutely love the age he is right now. Just so fun and amusing!

The Best

2009-09-16T13:21:00.000-07:00

My absolute favorite thing in the world now is when Tyson gives kisses. I LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE IT!!!! he puckers his tiny wittle lips and says "mmmm". now I can't wait until he says "mommy...you're pretty". haha

Such Style

2009-09-13T11:44:00.000-07:00

So Tyson is now getting into dress-up. Mommy and Daddy's stuff. He constantly walks around holding my purse and he looooves putting on daddy's hats. He now even tries to put on his shoes and walk around in them.

SO ADORABLE!!!

San Diego Friends

2009-09-08T13:40:00.000-07:00

After Sea World, Tyson and I dropped Justin off with his friends at the beach while I went to visit the friends I came from the cruise with as well as some other friends and their kids. My friend Rihannon has a son named Marcus and he is about 6 months older 9 months older then Tyson. He is mixed with black and white but has darker skin and features. She says people ask her all the time if he is hers. She is white with light hair and blue eyes. I swear we could trade kids and no one would even ask. Tyson and Marcus looked so cute playing next to each other. Marcus is older so he was showing Tyson all his toys that he has. And he has A LOT. Tyson probably felt like he was in toy heaven.

Justin willb e happy because he was playing with toy cars most of the time. He always gets nervous when Tyson is playing with my makeup and purses. As if there is really anything to worry about. I assure him he probably did it too when he was little. I saw the picture of him with his mom's bracelets on. haha.

After a little bit my other friend Danielle came over with her two daughters Jenae and Jayden. They are mixed little kids as well. And coming from the mother they look as different as Marcus and Tyson. They are mixed with white black and mexican and you can see Jenae has darker hair and features while Jayden has practically blonde hair and green eyes. All with curly hair, of course the boys hair the curliest. :) It was so cute to see all of them playing. Katie had to get a picture with all of them.

Tyson had fun meeting all his little friends. It was his first time getting to meet either of them and I had never met Marcus or Jayden. The last time I saw Jenae she was 2 and now she's 4. Of course she didnt remember me. So it was nice for me to get the chance to catch up with some old friends. We'll have to venture to San Diego more often for Tyson to play with all his friends again and to keep in touch.

Family Trip: Sea World

2009-09-08T11:02:00.000-07:00

So I went on a 4 day cruise to Cabo with my two friends over labor day weekend. We left/returned in San Diego. We came back on Labor Day Monday. Justin and Tyson met me in San Diego and I was so thrilled after not seeing them for practically 4 days. I missed htem even more because I couldnt even call them. Justin has been wanting to bring Tyson to Sea World for a while so it was perfect for them to meet me down there. It was my first time going to Sea World too!

When we got there, Justin was like a little kid in a candy shop. Immediately he was showing me the program for all the shows and which ones we had to go to in which order. First we stopped at the Seal and Sea Lion show. It was called SLL [Sea Lions Live]. It mocked all the reality shows on Tv. They did Dancing with the Stars skit, Survivor, American Idol, Top Chef. It was funny. It was so cute watching Tyson watch the show too. He would sit in between Justin and I and lift his little head up too watch the show. Adorable. He would also clap when everyone clapped and danced when music came on.

After thatg show we had to head over to Shamu Show. We sat very high up so we wouldnt get drenched. The first 16 rows were the drench section and believe it because the 16th row sure did get wet. I couldnt even imagine being in the first row. This show was nice adn inspirational. I even cried during it. You'll have to watch the show to see why. It made me want to be a whale trainer. haha. How cool would it be to have a job where you can train and ride whales.

After this show, as we were walking around Tyson fell asleep in his stroller which was very surprising because he hasnt done that in a while. He usually stays awake whenever we are out so he won't miss anything. This limited our options becuase for all the shows we werent allowed to bring in a stroller and we didnt want to wake him up. So Justin and I played arcade games for a while and went to see the animals that weren't in shows. Tyson woke up right before the shark exhibit. Just in time to take a peek in Jaws mouth!

We then took Tyson to Seseame Street World and we got to ride his first attraction. It was an Elmo ride like the Dumbo ride at Disneyland. I was afraid Tyson was gonna be too small but as long as he could walk by himself they said it was fine. They even made me prove it. It was so cute. He looked so small in the ride with his little head barely poking out. He enjoyed it. We cant wait until he gets older to enjoy it even more.

After this we ate and decided to leave because we were all pretty tired. Especially me. We got passes though good until the end of the year so we have an excuse to make it back to San Diego. We'll go earlier next time and be sure to catch all the shows and attractions.

Mommy Group: Santa Monica

2009-08-30T15:46:00.000-07:00

The other day Tyson and I met up with two mommies the other day in Santa Monica at the pier. We met first at Bubba Gumps where we had lunch. It's funny because almost everything on the menu there is shrimp or other sea food and all three of us ordered chicken sandwiches. All the kids got balloons tied to their chairs to keep them occupied and Tyson loooved his. He also loved flirting with all of the people at the tables next to ours. He must have stared at this lady and her husband for like 20 minutes straight just laughing and waving at them. After we finished eating we headed down to the pier aquarium. It was really cheap to get in...only $5 and once we entered I could understand why. It was super small. lol. There were about 5 big tanks with sea animals in them, mostly just fish and then just a few little learning things spread out around. I geuss they had a good amount of animals though

When we first walked in there were HUGE eels in the first tank. I mean they were so big. I dont even think i've ever seen an eel before. But there were starfish, and huge lobsters, and a tank with small sharks in them. They also had a hands on exhibit where you could touch sea enineme (sp?) and sea cucumbers and stuff.

After the aquarium trip, which only took about 20 minutes, we decided to head to the beach and hang out a little bit. Tyson played in the sand some and then we headed off home. It was a good day to get out of the house. We rarely go to the Santa Monica area so it was nice. The weather was perfect too!

Rash Be Gone

2009-08-27T15:27:00.000-07:00

So after my poor baby's fever broke he broke out in this reash for 3 days. Justin noticed it first on his back and arms. I didnt think it was anything because sometimes he gets these red bumps on his arms anyways. BUT THEN, later that day it was spreading all over his body. From his face to his toes. I got worried and after already being at the hospital 5 times in 5 days, i was dreading having to go back. This all happened on a Sunday and we already had a follow-up appt on Monday so teh advice nurse over the phone said that since it wasnt itching him and he wasnt having any difficulties from it then we could wait it out. I mean he was acting perfectly fin as before he was sick, just a little spotted.

Monday morning it got worse and was more red. I had looked up a few things about rashes and saw that it could have been a virus called ROSEOLA. It usually happens in children 6mo-3yrs of ages starting in a high fever for 3-5 days then a rash for a few days. Sounded exactly like that. The doctor didnt tell me that's what it was for sure but she did say it was probably a virus and it's common for younger children to get rashes for a few days after having a fever for so long and it should clear in a few days. Well the next day i t was practically gone and the day after that my lil guy was ALL BACK TO NORMAL!!! yay i'm so happy to have his smiling face back.

I know the pics are small but if you click on them you can see the rash better.

1 Month Catch-up

2009-08-20T10:44:00.000-07:00

So i don't know if u noticed but usually when i behind on posting, I back date it so it seems as though I'm still on schedule. Well I have gotten so far behind (over a month) that I am going to do one big catch up post right now just semi-going over what's been happening in Tyson's life. THEN hopefully I can stay caught up.

TEETH ARE FINALLY HERE (7/14/09)

So Tyson finally has some teeth. We all know he was gumming it for a while (about 14 months) and technically still is but he now has 4 teeth. This picture is when they first started coming in so it's too accurate anymore but he got his bottom tooth and two top teeth at the same time. Now he has two bottom and two top. I think they are still coming in a little more. He looks so different with teeth now. His cute little smile has these little white teeth poking down now. The pain it must have been for 4 teeth to come in at the same time but being the precious angel face he is, he hardly complained more then normal. I'll have to update later with a better picture.

NEW FRIEND (7/16/09)

So my mom didn't want me to post these pictures but I had to. I have to have at least something to embarrass him with when he's older.

I think the pictures explain themselves.

Enjoy like he did!

Thief (7/17/09)

Sometimes i wonder how Tyson managed to get some of my things and they end up on the other side of the house. I think I figured it out. I caught him red-handed...(well almost)

Mommy Group: Swim Play date (7/19/09)

On this day we went to a mother's house and had food and swam in her pool. I thought this picture of Tyson was just so cute I had to share.

Mommy Group: Griffith Observatory (7/22/09)

Tyson and I went to the Griffith Observatory with Laura and Alex. I had never been before so it was definitely a cool experience. More for Laura and I then for the kids though since they didn't really understand what where we were. The observatory is all about science and sun, moon, and stars. I guess they have this really big telescope where you can see planets and stuff but it was closed when we went because of the clouds. We also couldn't go to the Planetarium show where they do a show about the planets and stars because the kids were too young. They only have one showing where you can bring young infants and it has to be the first show of the day.

Alex is becoming one of Tyson's best friends. They are similar in age and of course they are both just little cutie pies. While we were eating in the cafeteria they were playing with each other and holding hands and stuff. Too cute. Alex even pulled Tyson;s hair and made him cry. Even that was cute haha.

We'll have to check out this spot again when Tyson's a little older.

Callsource Summer Party (7/24/09)

Tyson and I were invited to attend the summer work party with my old job at Point Dune in Malibu. It was nice because I got to see a lot of old/current friends that I used to work with. Most of them haven't gotten to see Tyson in a long time. I was pregnant most of my time working there and left shortly after maternity leave was over. Liz and I were pregnant at the same time and her daughter Hailey was born 3 weeks after Tyson so it's always cool when her and I get together with the kiddies. It's crazy too to see how big they both are getting now. Hailey is Tyson's little GF. It was a match made from in the bellies.

The beach wore him out. This is how he slept in the car on the ride home. TOO CUTE!!!

VIVA LAS VEGAS (7/29/09 - 8/1/09 )

Justin ended up getting two free rooms in Vegas. One at MGM and one at Mandalay Bay so we invited some friends from San Diego and Santa Barbara and went to Vegas. We stayed in the MGM. Most kids don't like to bring kids to Vegas because they are limited on what they can do. Us on the other hand have absolutely no problem because I have tons of family that live there that love watching Tyson if need be. My dad lives out there and usually he would have watched Tyson this time but he had to fly to the bay area last minute because my grandmother got sick. This time my cousin Andrea watched him every single night we were there. We of course would do fun things with him in the daytime like swim, walk around, eat and then I would drop him off at my grandpa's house where my cousin was staying and put him to bed and go out for the night and pick him back up in the morning. It's definitely a relief knowing he;s being taken care of by good family members. Plus my grandpa and cousins don't get to see him a lot so I have to bring him with me so they can visit with him.

One of my long lost friends lives out there too and we got a chance to meet up with her as well. We were friends from 7yrs old until about 14yrs old then we lost contact. I have not seen or spoken to her since. I always looked for her on myspace, her mother and sister but never found her. Then she ended up finding me on facebook even years after me looking for her and we've been in contact since. She now has a 3.5 year old daughter. Crazy we both have kids now. our drive to and from Vegas was a nightmare though. On the way there Tyson puked while in his car seat all over himself and the car and we had to stop in the middle of the desert and clean his seat and change his clothes. The car smelt like puke the entire rest of the way. THEN on the way home he threw up AGAIN. This time i caught most of it in my hands (oh the joy of motherhood) and i just changed him in the car as we were driving and we didn't even stop b/c by this point we just wanted to get home. I wonder if he's getting motion sickness now after long drives.

Bay Area (8/2/09 - 8/8/09)

The day after Tyson and I came back from Vegas we had to drive to the bay area since my grandmother was sick and visit with her and my dad. I was fearful for the long drive b/c of Tyson's previous puking scenes. The way there was fine. No throw up, just an hour of crying. lol. We stayed in the bay area for a week, which Grandma Frankie was excited about. We got to spend a lot of time with my grandma as well. She has been on hospice since May and this time she went into a coma for a day so we thought this was it but when we got out there she was doing a lot better. awake, talking, eating, everything. It was very sad leaving her though because she was crying and scared. I got to see my little brother as well. He came down from Sacramento to visit with my grandma as well. He is so tall now. Taller then me and he's only 13. During the trip out there I was using my mom's camera a lot so once I get her to send me the pics I can update again. My dad drove with us back to LA so he could see my house and then he flew from LA the next day back to Vegas. The day we left to go home I got extremely sick extremely fast. I woke up with a sore throat and by the end of the night I felt like I was dying. I could hardly move with sore skin, stomach, and head. Good thing for my dad because he helped me drive half way back. and THEN, Tyson threw up yet AGAIN....TWICE!!! The first time was just a little bit I unchanged him while driving then 20 minutes later it happened again but A LOT and this time we definitely had to stop. we had to stop at a gas station and clean him up all over again and this time he cried for nearly two hours on the way back. Me feeling very not myself had to entertain him as much as possible. We made it home and i just had to pass out. Glad my dad got to see my house though.

Visit with Robin and Izabella (8/13/09)

One of my best friends Robin came out to visit with her daughter Izabella. They stayed at my house for two nights. Tyson loved Izzy. She would be on the bouncer and he would bounce her up and down. It was so cute. I had to really watch him though because he's not used to babies and how gentle you have to be with them. He kept trying to pat her on the head. While they were here it was funny to see all the baby pink and blue. They are going to grow up as good friends though like Robin and I.

POBRECITO (8/17/09 - present)

So I noticed Tyson had a little fever Thursday night and the following nights so I would give him some Tylenol before bed. He wasn't complaining too much so I figured it was apart of him teething. I was just hoping he wouldn't get sick from when i was sick. Well Sunday night I let him go to his Great grandmother's house for dinner with his grandparents and they said he had a fever and was whiny all night. I was out with some friends for a going away party and when I got home that night Ty was sleeping. He then woke up at like 1am and would not go back to sleep. I put him in the bed with me and he woke only slept in 20 minute increments the rest of the night and the entire next day. Poor baby! he would sleep for about 15-20minutes then wake up tossing ans turning and crying. I had to hug him and console with him all night. That's what moms are for right?

The next day my little sick guy was just miserable. Not only did he hardly have any sleep but hardly any food either. It's so unusual to see him like this. When he's not up and laughing then he must really be sick. That whole day he was just burning up and it was neat impossible to get him to keep down the Tylenol. He slept again all day in 20 min increments and that night. I was convinced he had an ear infection bc I;ve been through this once before and he had a double infection really bad. He was also pulling on his ears. The next morning I took him to the hospital and they checked him out and said his ears were fine, his throat was fine and maybe he was just feeling like I was when i was sick, especially since Justin started to get sick too and if he still had a fever in 3 days to come back. Well he started to get better but then worse again and he still had a fever and was still pulling on his ears. We took him to the hospital again and THIS time they said he had an ear infection in both ears. MAN DO MOTHERS KNOW BEST!!! I was thrilled to find this out because at least now there was something we could do for him to stop the pain. That same day, earlier Justin found out he has strep throat and they prescribed him Amoxycilin. So there we were at the Kaiser pharmacy picking up Amoxycilin for both of them. Crazy hat within a week and a half we all had different stuff wrong with us. Flu, Strep, and Ear Infections.

Tyson just started his medicine the other day so he is still feeling really bad. Hopefully the medicine kicks soon. He has to take it for 10 days along with Tylenol and Ibuprofen. He is in much better spirits but still not feeling well and sad mostly before and after nap/bedtime. I can't wait to have my normal little guy back and hopefully we don't have to take him to the hospital anymore.

my poor little guy!

Mommy Group: LA Zoo

2009-07-08T22:40:00.000-07:00

Today Tyson and I went on a trip to the Los Angeles zoo with a few mommies. I ahd never been there adn i had a coupon so I was excited about it. We drove with Laura and Alex. It was a very cloudy day earlier that morning so I put on jeans and a shirt and by the time we got there it was so hot I couldnt hardly move. Luckily I had a tank top under my shirt because I had to take my shirt off.

Laura and I were about an hour or more late meeting the other moms so when we got there we had to eat while the other moms were walking around. We finally caught up to them but shortly after, they were all leaving to go home. We had hardly seen any animals yet so Laura and I decided to stay and look around.

We saw every single animal there as to see there. We ended up staying there for 5 hours. The kids were great the entire time.

This zoo had tons of more animals then the zoo in Santa Barbara so I think I ended up liking this one better. It was also a lot bigger which just means we got more exercise. Tyson also got to see the animals a little better.

We'll still have to go again once he gets even a little bigger so he can really enjoy it.

Peek-A-Boo

2009-07-07T21:30:00.000-07:00

This is What Happens When...

2009-07-06T16:53:00.000-07:00

You let your 14 month old be independent and feed himself

Happy Independence Day!!!

2009-07-04T23:29:00.000-07:00

Today was Tyson's second 4th of July. 1st where he can actually enjoy it. Last year he was only 3 months old so he didn't really get to enjoy the food and celebration. This year Justin and I went over to his aunt Sherry's house. She had some family over for swimming, games, movies, and food. When we arrived Tyson's cousins were already taking advantage of the pool. Grandma Stacey volunteered to go in with Tyson which saved me from having to where a bathing suit although the water looked great. Lucky Tyson, swimming twice within a few days. He enjoyed the water this time even getting dunked once more by grandma.

After the pool we put on a copied version of the move Hangover and startedd to watch it downstairs. Of course until the little cousins came in. We had to turn it off because it's definitely not a movie for small ears. Everyone finished watching it upstairs though.

After a while most of us went out into the front yard and hung out a little bit. Tyson got to explore the streets a little bit. Taking grandma Stacey and I for a trip up the court around the other houses. It was uphill and going downhill was a little scary because Tyson kept trying to run down and I was afraid he was going to fall.
Of course the food was the best part. There was very good food might I add. They had chicken, ribs, mash potatoes, salad, and tons of desserts. The mash potatoes were my favorite. I think Tyson's too because he had more then enough of it. They were so good. The dessert was even better because I am a sweet head. Looked too good to eat.

Of course being the "wanna-be" photographer I am, I took some time to get in some very good pictures. My FAVORITE being the MOON. I have this other lens that zooms in very far and the moon was out before it got completely dark so I decided to see how close I could get. I was absolutely AMAZED!!! it looks like a satellite picture or something. You tell me how u like it?

At around 8:30pm we headed off to see some fireworks. I was very determined to get Tyson to see the fireworks. I wanted to see his reaction. We drove down to warner center and parked in the promenade and watched them from the parking lot. There were tons of people on the street watching. Even the traffic on the streets stopped for the show. It was about a 20 minute show and Tyson was amazed the entire time. He actually watched the whole thing. Sometimes even putting his hands in the air with excitement. Crazy to think that in a few years he'll be begging me to go see them. I'm glad he got to enjoy them this time.

Mommy Group: Northrige Rec Pool

2009-07-02T13:39:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we went to the Northridge Recreation Pool for some swimming with the mommy group. It was our first time there and we had a lot of fun. I hadn't really gotten the chance to take Ty for a swim since his swim groups. We went a little bit in Vegas but the water was really cold and at Hansen Dam we didn't get in past our feet. This time I took him under the water structures and all the way into the pool and even dunked him a few times. He was very scared at first but like with everything after a little bit he started getting used to it. This pool had a slide but of course Tyson is too small so he wasn't able to go down it. Before and after we got into the pool, Arianna had a small tent set up so we had a mini picnic throughout the time we were there. All the babies got to hang out and play. I was surprised because this time Tyson actually stayed under the tent and didn't try to walk away...as much. After a while the mommies just threw the food in the middle and watched the kids eat it. Of course food always gets the babies attention. For one of the groups they had OPERATION SPLASH where they are going to be trying out different pools around the valley. This was the first one. I'll update you as we go to more.

Hi Straw!

2009-07-02T11:17:00.000-07:00

So I introduced straws to Tyson a few months ago and he's actually been pretty good at it. but lately he'll take a drink and maybe 3 out of 5 times he'll let all the fluid fall right out of his mouth all over himself.
Point proven! then he'll look down like "What is this all over me and how did it get there"

Mommy Group: Summer Celebration

2009-07-01T10:14:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we met up with Laura and baby Alex and went to Summer Celebration in Woodley Park. When we got there, there were already a lot of people there. There was a band playing music and people BBQing and a few bounce houses and kids games. Most people were laying on blankets around the band.

It was Laura and I's first meetup with the Valley Mom's Social Club so we decided to go together. We saw the mom's laying on a blanket near the bounce houses. They had a sign up that said Valley Mom's so we knew who they were. Everyone was so nice and welcoming. We sat with Devora who was super mom of the day. I didnt have too many snacks for Tyson because we had to go to the grocery store but Devora had every snack in teh book in her back and was so willing to share and make sure Tyson had enough to eat. She even shared the meat off of her own sandwich. We needed sun tan lotion and she had that as well. She had the bag of magic tricks.

Most of the celebration I of course spent running around after Tyson. He loves to wander off away from the rest of the group. So I was walking around the outskirts of the party following him. I kept trying to keep him dstracted from walking away, one idea was taking him into the playground area. It is so funny because he isnt really used to sand yet. He's kinda scared of it. I'll take his shoes off and stand him in the sand and he just looks afraid to move. I'm sure it feels different underneath his feet. Then he'll bend down and touch the sand and put his hand up like "Look it's on my hand". He walks so slowly around too as if he doesnt want to fall and get dirty.

We played in the sand for a while then we were off wandering around the park again. My next move was to bribe him with food. Of course food I didnt bring. The mom's group had provided drinks so I let him drink his very own Koolaid pouch. It didnt stay in his mout for too long. He would sip out of the straw then every few times he would just let it flow out of his mouth and it would get all over his shirt. Being that it was red, there I was wiping his shirt with wipes so that his shirt wouldnt stain. It worked until he started drinking again. We then just sat and listened to the music. Got into the crowd and danced a little bit and after that we decided to go home. Well to the grocery store.

We had fun at the celebration. I like doing little park parties like this. So I'm sure this summer we'll be at a few more.

Strong Man

2009-07-01T09:55:00.000-07:00

So Justin and Marcus came to move this dresser out of the house and as they were pushing it towards the door Tyson jumped in to help. It was so cute. He wanted to be one of the big boys. Then Marcus backed up and let Tyson take over. Of course Justin was pulling it himself but Tyson felt like a strong man and thought he was really helping. I have such the little body builder.

Happy Birthday Daddy!

2009-06-28T09:50:00.000-07:00

i love you!

In Loving Memory

2009-06-27T12:17:00.000-07:00

So today was a very tragic day in the world as earlier in the morning Farrah Fawcett lost her battle with cancer and later in the afternoon Michael Jackson passed from a cardiac arrest.

I personally never had much of a connection with Farrah Fawcett as she was not really my era but I was aware of her battle with cancer and how she was nearing her end. It is sad that her death seemed to be surpassed by the death of Michael Jackson so I felt the need to give her a little tribute here on Tyson's blog as well.

Michael Jackson on the other hand has been very saddening for me. He was just so HUGE in the world and has had an influence on a substantial amount of people, myself included. I completely remember my mom having the BAD record and waking up and taking the record and playing it really early in the morning. It was and probably still is one of my favorite. I also remember watching the movie moonwalk repeated times. I have always liked Michael Jackson and always stood by him through everything he ever went through. I was completely SHOCKED by his death and I still feel a little bit of denial as if he is going to come back.

Thinking about his influence, I can not think of any other person who has inspired and influenced so many people. EVERYONE knows who he is. Even kids who were born way after he was a big deal. He is the one musician that has completely TIMELESS music. And the main thing is that ALL OF HIS MUSIC is timeless. Not just one or two tracks. There are other artist who do have timeless music such as the Beatles for example but I personally do not feel that even they have inspired such a WIDE range of people and genres. Michael Jackson touched every age, race, culture, genre, and creed. and it is amazing that through everything he's been through people still stand behind him 100%.

I just felt the overwhelming need to show my respects and be apart of honoring his death. Also being that I actually live in LA, I am a fan, and have the opportunity more then others, I wanted to go somewhere and show my respects. I never really venture into the LA/Hollywood area that much but being that Friday (the day after his death) we had a mommy group in west LA not too far from the Hollywood Walk of Fame, we decided to go visit Michael and Farrah's star.

It was MADNESS down there. We stopped by Farrah's star on the way b/c we parked right near it and it was on the way to Michael's. Hers was easy bc there were not so many people blocking it. Michael's star was INSANE. There were media and cops everywhere. They had completey blocked of near his star and they were only letting people walk down the street one way. There was a group of people in line to walk past his star and pay their respects. Only a few people were allowed to walk by at a time so it took a while for us to get through. Tyson was in his small stroller too so it was hard bc it got so crowded not counting it was probably over 100 degrees outside. Towards the end Tyson started crying and trying to get out of his seat and he was getting crowded over thatI had to get him out of seat while holding my HUGE purse/diaper bag, my camera, adn his stroller. I lifted him up and some nice people helped my fold his stroller that then had to hold as well as Tyson was crying his head off. But were were so close to the front I was NOT going to turn back. We finally made it through and I was able to put Ty back in his stroller before my arm was about to fall off.

I wanted to take a picture of Tyson during all of this so when he gets older and he hears about how big Michael Jackson was, it'll be great for him to have a picture knowng that he was part of his memorial and tribute. I mean I would love to have a picture of me at Elvis' memorial, i think that would have been a cool picture to have BUT then again, I wasn't born when he died. :)

Here's Tyson next to Michael's Star.... even he looks sad... Or just hot!

Here is a picture of all the news trucks and media in front of his star

Here is a closeup of just the star and all the flowers and notes and pictures

Here is the picture of Farrah's star and all her flowers and pictures.

REST IN PEACE MICHAEL JACKSON 1958 - 2009

REST IN PEACE FARRAH FAWCETT 1947 - 2009

Mommy Group: Play

2009-06-26T14:04:00.000-07:00

Today we did some messy art at Play in West LA. This was a very fun place. There was a room set up with easels and paint and all the kids got little smocks and got to go to town. Tyson LOVED it. He loves getting messy so he got in right away. He was mixing paints and paintbrushes, painting all over his paper. He kinda stayed to the right side of the page and it started getting really thick with paint that after a while I had to rotate his paper so he could the other half done. He ended up making two paintings then he was done. He kept trying to go to other easels to paint on. Play also had another room that kids could play in so we could wait while the paintings dried. This was a new group I hadn't gotten to meet with yet so I again got to meet some more new mothers. It was fun and I'm sure I'll meet up with them again sometime soon.

We now officially have Tyson's first painting on our fridge. I LOVE IT!

Dr. Suess

2009-06-24T11:44:00.000-07:00

This was so cute... i looked over and Tyson had grabbed his book, sat down, and started reading. Or acting like he was reading. He loves books as he has so many and he loves when I read to him. Now he's trying to read himself

Happy Birthday Alex

2009-06-23T17:52:00.000-07:00

a

Today we went on a play date for baby Alex's first birthday. It was at Katherine's house and was so much fun. Of course her house is totally baby proofed so it was safe for all the children and she had tons of fun toys. All the babies were loving the play house. They kept crawling in and out of the door and climbing all over it. Tyson was interested in all the food. He kept flirting with whomever was eating trying to get some food. I was funny b/c without food he wasn't paying them any attention. We spent a couple of hours here which was nice b/c all the moms got to totally hang out while the kids played and we didn't have to watch them TOO close. I think I like indoor play dates and want to try to do them more often.

Mommy Group: Hansen Dam

2009-06-22T23:28:00.000-07:00

Today we went to Hansen Dam Aquatic Center in Sylmar. It is a huge wading pool which is perfect for the little ones. Sorta beach like, it's very shallow around the edges and gets deeper in the middle. Tyson loves the water and being that this was pretty shallow, seemed like a fun opportunity.

When we arrived most of the mothers were already there and had tents set up with blankets and food. It was a very nice day to be outside. We had a little picnic and ate lots of snacks. One mom had a wagon there and Tyson fell in love. He wanted to play with the wagon all day.He was climbing in and out of it, pushing the other babies around, and he even took a ride in it himself. We didnt get in the water for too long because it was really cold and it he didnt really want to get in too far but he was splashing around in it.

I am in about 4 or 5 mom groups and 3 groups were at the dam this day, one in which I never got to meet with before this so I got to meet a few new mothers whom were all really nice.

Overall we had a fun day and it was so fun Tyson took a 4 hour nap when we got home. So maybe we'll do mroe things like this more often. :)

Happy Father's Day

2009-06-21T11:23:00.000-07:00

Happy Father's Day Dad!

(and grandpa Alfonso and Neal, great grandpa Frank and Jerry)

Mommy Group: Kidspace

2009-06-17T22:35:00.000-07:00

Last Wednesday Tyson and I met up with the mommies and kiddies at Kidspace in Pasadena. It's like a discovery museum for kids. They have different areas geared towards certain ages and I think it's very cool they have sections for children 4 and under. Most places like this are usually only for bigger children but this was perfect because even the little kids had some fun stuff they could do.

When Ty and I got there, I wasn't feeling too good. My allergies had gotten the best of me and I was a dripping mess. I could not stop sneezing and dripping fluid from my nose. Also, I didn't wear a belt that day so bending over every couple of minutes to pick up, move, or stop Tyson wasn't that easy either way.
We started in this playroom that was for children age 4 and under. It was perfect because it had soft mats on the floor and tons of things to play with the baby. Plus it was only for smaller kids so we didn't have to worry about the older kids getting in the way. This was only the meeting area for the moms so we only stayed there for a little bit. We then moved on to the main area that was the exploration area for all ages but I found that it was most interesting for older children. The babies were just too small for most of the areas in this section but they did have some pretty cool things. They had this huge bee hive and there was this tube that came from outside, so the outside bees would fly in the tube and into the hive and you can see them making honey. You can also point out the queen bee. They also had these cool stairlike things that were suppose to be clouds that you could walk up all the way to the top of the building and look out. Tyson and I tried this but I had to hold him the entire time because there were so many children running up and down so fast, i didn't want him to get hurt, although I hit my head on the top of a "cloud" more then once. This section did have a lot to do but like said, it would be something more interesting as Tyson is a little older.
We then moved on to a new section that was geared towards the smaller crowd ad where we stayed for a long majority of the time. It was a little water playground. It was kinda chilly outside but the kids were still having so much fun playing in the water. This part was easier for me because I didn't feel like I had to bend down so much to watch him or move him out of the way from older kids knocking him down. There were bridges and steering wheels, and a play house... and a big area with buckets and slides that carried water. Tyson of course loved the water part because he thinks splashing is so fun.
It was so cute to see him playing among all the kids. He gets along with other kids pretty well. He's at the stage where he kinda plays by himself because he is so busy exploring the world and learning how everything works. When he does come up to the other kids, he usually tries to hug or kiss them. With the babies I have to watch him, because sometimes he can grab on too hard. At this time, my eyes had begun watering and I had blown my nose a million times. I had to continually carry paper towels on my back pockets because of my dripping nose and sneezing. I was starting to get a little annoyed and the trip was becoming a little harder for me. It was just hard watching Tyson because of all the bigger kids running around. Not counting how many kids were there in the first place. There must have been like 10 field trips that day.

After the water area, we all decided to head back to the playroom. There was a lot more to see but I definitely rather save it for a better day. We headed back to the playroom and Ty loves the slide. He kept climbing up the stairs and wanting to slide down this mini little slide. With my help of course. Well at one moment he was NOT playing with the slide but with these blocks and balls so I decided to run into the bathroom really quick to grab some toilet paper for my nose. OF COURSE I come out and I see like 4 mommies in a crowd around Tyson crying. "OMG WHAT HAPPENED?" well turns out he tried to go down the slide again in that 1 minute that I was gone and he fell and hurt himself. I felt like such a bad mommy at that moment because as m child is crying, I'm in the bathroom and all the other mommies were probably thinking "why did she leave her child". Probably the last time I do that without making sure someone could watch him. Was good to know though that the other mommies were so helpful. And Tyson is so cute how could anyone resist that cute crying face

We ended up leaving Kidspace before most of the other mothers because I just couldn't go any longer. My allergies were getting ridiculous. More like a cold. So we said our good byes and headed home and good thing because by the end of the day I felt like I wanted to die. It turned out I was actually getting SICK!!! I have been sick all week, getting better each day but for some reason my snot and sneezes are just dragging along. So one week later, here I am, still sniffling and sneezing and what's worse is now Tyson has a runny nose, and Justin is catching it too! great. i guess that's inevitable though right. Even if you do try to sleep on the couch for 3 days to avoid me ;) This last week we've had to miss all our mommy groups because I didn't want Ty to get the other kids sick and the mommies to be ad at me. Hopefully tomorrow can kickstart a new for us. We have Gummy the Bear indoor playground..... yay!

Mommy Group: Travel Town

2009-06-09T10:53:00.000-07:00

On Monday we went to Travel Town with all the mommies and babies. Travel town is a very interesting train museum and they even have a little train you can ride around the park on.
When we got there we first had a picnic with everyone. There were only two walkers, of course Tyson being one, and I think once you have a walker you can no longer have a picnic. Of course Kim and I spent the whole picnic chasing after our little ones and trying to get them to sit down for at least 5 minutes at a time. I have to play hide and seek with Tyson to try to get him to come back. He loves looking for me so I would hide behind a tree so he would come towards me.

After our picnic we decided to ride the train around the park. I'll post those pictures when I get them. Tyson had fun on the train. I think he liked all the movement. He even tried to stick his hands out to touch the flowers, which was against the rules. Already a little rebel on our hands. Besides that, travel town is not really a place for babies so maybe we'll re-visit when Tyson gets a little older and can appreciate the history of all the different kinds of trains there were.

Golf

2009-06-08T10:51:00.000-07:00

I think we might have the next Tiger Woods on our hands. Watch out for Tyson!

Santa Barbara

2009-06-06T10:21:00.000-07:00

This last weekend we took a trip to Santa Barbara and while we were there we decided to stop at the zoo. Tyson is a little too small to really enjoy it but he did get to see some of the animals and even make friends with a meercat. We saw so many cool animals. Elephants, gorillas, sloths, a toucan, leopards, giraffes, lions, flamingos, penguins, lots of cool birds, and many different types of monkeys. While we were next to the giraffe cage there was this cute little meercat all alone in his tiny cage. The glass from his cage touched the ground so it was perfect for Tyson to walk up to and take a peek. The instantly became friends. The meercat looked like he wanted to play with Tyson. At the end of our trip at the zoo we bought Tyson this little monkey that hangs around your neck so he could have his own animal for home. He loves it.

We'll probably try to go back to the zoo when Tyson is a little older and can fully get the whole experience but this was a fun first time for us. Tyson just loves animals. Who knows maybe we'll have our very own vet. The next zoo we want to go to is San Diego zoo. None of us have been so we're looking forward to it. And Sea World. Until then...

Mommy Group: Creative Leap

2009-06-03T15:45:00.000-07:00

Man I hate that I have been slacking so much lately. I actually miss posting little videos and pictures on here almost daily. Now i'm lucky if i get weekly.

NEwho, my friend Sandy was telling me how she joined a mommy group and they meet up often and do things with the kids and have mommy nights out. Well i got pretty interested since Tyson and I stay are at home most of the days. I thought this is a great way to get to meet other moms for me to become friends with and for Tyson to have the opportunity to meet other kids to interact with. Well asked her about the groups and she opened me up to Meetup.com. I joined about two weeks ago and I am now in 4 mommy groups who all do different types of things.
When you go to this site you can look up groups for just about anything. You type in your zip and you get groups in your area. So of course I looked up some mommy groups and found a bunch. The ones I am in are definitely active too.

When you join the group the organizer has to accept you as a member and when they do you are welcome to browse the calendar for upcoming events. So far I have something to do almost everyday for the next two weeks. LOL. It's great to actually get out of the house and meet new people and SOCIALIZE. All of the moms are so great and accepting and I cant wait to do more things together. I have been to 6 meetups already including a picnic at the park, a walk around Lake Balboa, two different music classes, an indoor playgym, and today we went to Color Me Mine and made some art. We have so much more coming up as well. We have Travel Town which is the train museum near the zoo, the Getty Center, Under the Sea (another indoor playground), Kidspace, Fathers Bowling Day (yes the fathers can meet each other too). I am looking forward to all the events. I think its great to meet other people with kids because you can relate on a whole different level. And when your kids are similar in age you can share stories and learn new things from each other. It's also great when birthdays come around so there can actually be kids there :)

Well here are a few pictures of Tyson at the Creative Leap (the indoor playground) from Tuesday. Enjoy!

Happy Birthday Tyson...AGAIN!!!

2009-05-25T23:50:00.000-07:00

ok i'll admit i have been very veyr bad at updating the blog lately. I promise i'll try to get better. Just so much has been going on lately it's been hard. Not counting that uploading pictures can be very time consuming and annoying.

But since last post we celebrated Tyson's first birthday...AGAIN! this time in southern california with his family and friends down here. THIS party was pretty expensive. Well the party itself wasnt too bad but the ideas that Justin and I wanted for the house was expensive because the timeline sped up a little bit. Originally we were going to have the party at a park, then a friends house, then it ended up at our house. WELL we had a lot of things we wanted to change and decorate in order for the house to look more..."homey". The reason it sped up was because we especially wanted all of this before everyone came to the house. I mean plenty of the people had seen the house before but a lot, especially some of Justin's family hadn't seen it at all and we wanted to make a good impression.

So let's see everything we did.... well when I was gone in Northern California for the two weeks Justin had the idea that he wanted to buy a pool. (if you know Justin, he always has an idea). Well he told me that he already bought an above ground pool but would wait until I came home to put it up. Well anyone that knows Justin also knows he can be pretty darn impatient or shall we say compulsive. Well low and behold I come home and not only is there a pool but an entire two story deck to go with it. I am baffled. Our backyard looks a mess because this deck is hardly put up, wood everywhere. Basically an entire mess with only 3 weeks until the party. Long Story short, with the awesome help of friends, more then once, the deck was put up nicely and the backyard was clean by the time of the party. We bought some nice trees and plants and Justin and his friend did some gardening and made everything pretty. Justin filled up the 9,000 gallon pool. (yea i can't wait to see this water bill). The gardeners came and cut this huge treee/plant/bush and removed this huge tree stump which expanded the backyard by a ton. Justin also tore down this fence that seperated the backyard from the side yard because it was practically falling apart anyways, so that also gave us plenty of more room. Justin put up some misters, we bought new outside chair furniture and the backyard was ready to decorate. Inside we bought a bunch of new frames and printed out pictures of our family and families and put them up by the entry. We had Ty's crib finally so we fully decorated Ty's room, wallpaper and everything... which looks amazing by the way. And we super cleaned everything to look sparkling.

As far as the preperation for the actual party we rented two big tables with umbrellas for the backyard, borrowed a long table for the food, and got tons of safari decorations as that was the theme. We also made our own fruit platters and cheese and cracker platters. I was so nervous for people to show up. The day of we woke up super early to clean up everything and make sure everything was good. Justin was gonna take the dogs to the groomer so we wouldnt have to worry about them. Well only one could go so he had to take the other one to his parents house. I'm assuming after he did that his mother helped him go get the wonderful BBQ food she had ordered for us. The only thing is, Justin somehow told her there were going to be 80 people when there were really only half of that. so we had LOTSSSSS of food. Not counting all the food we had sitting out to snack on. It was already one when they came which was the time the party was suppose to start but luckily the only person that had showed up then was Justin's cousin Corey which I was thanking God for becuase he was helping me a lot with Tyson while I still set up everything.

People started showing up and of course "The house looks really nice". Yes all the time and money for the 5 words we had wanted. We had a bounce house that Justin bought for the not so many kids we invited and a sno cone machine with three different flavors (all Justin's ideas and creations of course). We had plenty of seating, and mostly plenty of food. Well considering it was pretty hott outside, even with the misters we installed, most of the party stayed inside for the most part. SO the misters and tables and umbrellas and chairs didnt get much use. Considering there was probably only 4 kids, the bounce house didnt get much use either. The pool and deck definitely got no use, so pretty much out of all our "re-decorating" the picture frames got the most use. lol. who would have thought. A lot of people showed up though so it was definitely a good turn out. So many people just love Tyson and I know I say this a lot but he is sooo lucky to have so many people around him that love and care for him so much. He was being passed around so much I hardly held him the entire party. He entertained some of the guests for like 30 minutes just climbing in and out of the chair my dad got him. He would climb up, sit down, clap and smile really big, and climb down. Turn around and do it all over again.....over and over again!!! His friends Damien and McKenzie were there so he played with them a lot with his toys. He got to eat sno cones and lots of crackers too.

When it was time for cake, we sat him in his high chair and everyone crowded around him and we sang hapy birthday to him. It was way past his naptime so at first he was really cranky but once we all started singing he started to smile. It was so cute becuase after we were done he started clapping which was so cute so everyone then laughed. Well this time, instead of stuffing his face into the cake and making a hige mess, he HARDLY touched it. I literally had to shove icing in his face so I could get a cute picture. Maybe he had stage fright with 40 people looking at him waiting for him to do something. I know this part made Justin a little sad because I know he wanted us to get a great picture like we got at his other party. OH AND DONT GET ME STARTED WITH PICTURES... so its cake time I'm trying to get these cute pictures and MY CAMERA HAS NO MORE SPACE.... i had only taken like 5 pictures the entire party...how could this be? so the whole time we're singing and waiting for him to dump his face in the cake im taking a picture them scanning through old pics trying to erase some to take some more. It was horrible becuase I did miss some good pictures. SO many people had their cameras though so they HAVE to send me their pics. After cake Tyson was so tired, he hung out for a little longer but then he took a nap. The only thing is i put him down for a nap BEFORE he opened his presents. So pretty much everyone left before he even opened his gifts. I felt bad becuase no one got to see him open what they had bought him.

After he woke up only Justin and My friends were left so we all sat outside and watched Tyson open his gifts. He got so many cute things. From a sponge bob sprinkler, to pool toys, to beach toys, to spoons and forks, books books and more books, clothes, and two pair of nike Jordan shoes. lol. He even got a swing which was absolutely perfect because our new deck had an extension with hooks specifically for a swing. Of course we put that up right away and tested it out and of course it was a winner. He loved it.

NOW i still have one more project to make the birthday finally complete and thats make my thank you cards to send to everyone. If you know me then you know I like to make everything myself. Being that I only have so little pictures on my camera I dont have many to choose from so hopefully I can get some people to send me pictures quick so I can choose one for the thank you card, otherwise the one I want out of my bunch will have to work. But I want to thank EVERYONE that made this party possible and for being there and celebrate for Tyson during this milestone. Although he won't physically remember it, it'll be fun telling him about it when he's older and i'm glad he was surrounded by so much love. Next year we'll be more low key.

Enjoy the few pics I have

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY

2009-05-10T11:05:00.000-07:00

This Mother's Day is in loving memory of my grandmother, Tyson's great grand mother, who passed away just a few days ago

Artie Ruth Beall

October 2, 1933 to May 7, 2009

I'm a TODDLER

2009-05-08T13:18:00.000-07:00

since I finally have some extra time on my hands guess i'd grace you all with some wonderful pics of Tyson's first birthday. We went up north to celebrate his birthday. I have a lot of friends with kids and figured since it is a kid's birthday probably should have a lot of kids.
The day started out (technially weeks before) at 6am when I had to pick Justin up at the airport by 8:30am. I drove up a week before and since Justin had work and finals he stayed hom the week to study. I picked him up and previously had remembered that I had forgotten my high chair back in LA. We stopped by Wal-Mart to pick up a cheap one that we could return after the party. Of course we had to have a king's throne to decorate. We then had to run to party city and pick up a dozen and half balloons as well as some extra stuff we needed to decorate.

I was stressed out about getting a spot at the park because it's a very nice park on a very nice day. Of course we got to the park at 11 and there was no one there. Gave us time to run to get something to eat as well as money to pay the clown and lion we got for the kids. But then OF COURSE we got back and had to rush to set everything up before people showed up at 1pm. I mean on top of that people calling and texting left and right.

My mom had the birthday boy though so at least that was one less worry while we had to set up. So she calls on her way and realizes she forgot the potatoe salad at home and had to go all the way back. Mind you her home is about 25 miles away from where the party was. People started showing up and there was NO birthday boy! Luckily I at least got to bring some of the food and some toys for the kids to play with. So all of a sudden there a friends and kids at the park and my mom has fruit and veggie platters and TYSON. I aske her to ring Ty to the park at least before she has to pick up the cake from Safeway.

She did that and the party began. But hey it was 1:30 and only 3 friends and 4 kids down. I was happy because it gave me more time to setup but stressed because I felt like no one was going to show up. Well the birthday boy was there at least so had to at least entertain him since he decided to get shy around all the people. We stuck him in his birthday chair with toys and food and he was set. So everyone started showing up around the same time when I realized "Where is my mom?". She dropped off Tyson and the food but she had all the stuff to start cooking the hot dogs and the ice so all the drinks were warm. None of my family had shown up at this time either.

Finally around 2:30 my mom shows up with the cakes as the lion gets there and is slowly setting up (of course dressed as a real man at this point). Family come in one by one and as we begin to finally cook some real food (besides rice cakes, chips, PB&J sandwiches, and fruit). From the parking lot we then see a clown and lion walking towards the party. Some kids are happy, some already crying. Tyson.... just eating non chalantly with no clue what day it is nor that all of this is for him. They begin their show and not to be mean, but it was VERY corny. Since I had scared half the kids, they didn't want to come close to the clown or lion so only a few (and by few I mean like 3) participated in his games which made everything I guess a little more amusing for the adults.

The show was about an hour and 15 minutes. It consisted of birthday presents for the birthday boy, educational interactive games for the kids to participate in, magic show, and balloon animals. They gave Tyson this big glasses to wear that looked so funny on him. He actually kept them on for a long time too during the show. Tyson was in his chair for most of the event until the end he finally wasn't shy to walk around. The lion took some pictures with the kids and Tyson and they were on their way. Now it was time to bring out the cake and sing "Happy Birthday". A few days befor ehis Birthday we recieved this coupon in the mail for "Buy a 1/4 sheet cake or bigger

and get a 4x4" cake for free. This was perfect because I was planning on having a tiny cake for Tyson just to stick his face in and mess up himself. We ordered those two and an extra cupcake cake for the kids only because they look so cool. So I bring out the madagascar cake (his party was safari themed) and the cupcake cake but where is Tyson's cake? My mom forgot it while rushing for everything else at the store. I was a little mad but luckily the cupcake cake had this little section of 4 cupcakes I could just give Ty for himself.

We gathered around Tyson and started singing Happy Birthday. I think this was the first time he was around so many people with all eyes on him and everyone singing (i mean where else would this all happen besides his birthday...lol). He had the biggest smile on his face. I'm glad my friend let me use her video camera becuase besides his birth I dont have Tyson on film at all. How ironic both times are on the same day.

After singing Happy Birthday of course it was time for the borthday boy to stick his face in his cake. I handed him the 4 cupcakes and the laughs begin. He immediately just sticks his face in the cake as if he knew that's what everyone was expecting. It was the most adorable thing I have ever seen. We left him with the cupcake/frosting heaven and he went to town. I dont even think he realized it was food and he could eat it. It was like he was just shoving his face in the icing the whole time. My mom was freaking out "Ashley he can't breathe" becuase he had frosting ALL over his face including his nose. I just laughed b/c I knew he was having so much fun. He then tried to start throwing the cupcakes on the ground but he has so mcuh frosting on his hands, everything was just sticking. We then decided it was time to clean him up and attempt to clean the highchair (b/c remember we were going to take it back). It was a a mission trying to get all that cake and frosting off hsi hands and face not mentioning it was dying him blue. We opened all all of presents, cleaned up,stuffed the high chair back in the box and was out the park by 5pm. Gave Justin and I just enough time to stop back at Wal-Mart and back to Oakland by 6:15pm to catch his plane home. I havent gotten the chance to mail the Thank You cards yet (dont worry they're coming) but I wanted to thank everyone that was able to come and celebrate this special time with Tyson. He enjoyed himself and I hope you all enjoyed yourself and he's so lucky to have so many people around him that love and care for him so much.

SO many that Birthday Party number 2 is just around the corner. Hopefully I'll be a little more organized. This one is at our house in LA with LA family and friends. AHHHH let the wildness begin!

I'm It!

2009-04-24T17:35:00.000-07:00

I was tagged by the lovely Mrs. Law

8 Things I Look Forward To:
1) Getting Married
2) Having more kids
3) Going on a vacation with my family
4) Watching my kids grow into wonderful adults
5) The Beach
6) Tyson's BIRTHDAY PARTY!!!
7) Meeting my grandchildren (i kno I have a long way to go)
8) Going back to school to get my masters

8 Things I Did Yesterday:
1) Got a ton of food for Tyson's birthday party
2) Went to Chile's with Katie and Ashley
3) Had two margaritas and thought of Mexico
4) Ordered the birthday cake
5) Ate Costco pizza
6) Blow dried and straightened my hair
7) Made a list of things i still need to get for the party
8) Uploaded pictures from my camera to my computer.

8 Things I Wish I Could Do:
1) Go swimming
2) Get into some kind of shape
3) Run everyday
4) Travel the world
5) Make someone a scrapbook (and they pay me for it of course)
6) Buy photoshop and learn how to use everything on it
7) Graphic and web design
8) Invent something

8 Shows I Watch:
1) Gossip Girl
2) 90210
3) The Game
4) Oprah
5) House
6) Weeds
7) Californication
8) United States of Tara

I Tag the following people! (i dont have many blogger friends)

The Mueller Chronicles
Jamie and Lance Hunter
Baking Baby Lovf
Waiting for Baby Foreste
Whatever Happens Happens
Katrina is a Princess

i'll have to cmoment to even tell these people they are tagged!!!

Baby Einstein

2009-04-23T00:33:00.000-07:00

So I have about 3 Baby Einstein movies and when I moved back to LA I left them at my mom's house on accident. So now that we are up north visiting, Tyson get the chance to watch them. It's actually a little better at his age now b/c I feel that he can understand it a little more. It was so cute, he had his own little chair on the floor as he ate snack and watched his portable DVD player. He actually watched the whole thing. I was amazed. He didn't want a second one though, b/c then he tried to keep climbing out of his chair. We'll try that one again tomorrow.

T & D

2009-04-20T00:29:00.000-07:00

I had to share this picture b/c it's seriously so freaking cute. It's Tyson and his best friend Damien. We are having a joint birthday for them in so-cal and Jackie I wanted to make an invitation with their picture on it so we set up this mini photo shoot outside of IHOP after breakfast the other day and this is the BEST picture i got and I actually love it. I wish I could see a little more of Tyson's face in it but it's still cute. Taking pictures of two toddlers is not easy. Especially trying to get a good picture where they are BOTH paying attention. and yes, Tyson is officially a TODDLER on saturday!!! wow almost a year already....this is too crazy

Easter Weekend

2009-04-14T13:51:00.000-07:00

So since this year is Tyson's first Easter I really wanted him to be involved in an egg hunt. I know, I know he's too small but it still would have been fun to see him picking up the eggs to place in his basket. Even if it was only 1 or 2. Well I had no idea where and Egg Hunt would be, esp since I am not from around the SFV. I kept telling Justin that most of them were going to be on the Saturday before Easter but he was convinced that Sunday they'd have to have something. Well according to my hunch, early Saturday morning I decided to do some Internet researching and found that I was right and most egg-stravaganzas were being held on Saturday. Well the one that was the closest to us was the one in Calabasas at it was only being held from 10am-12noon and it was already 10am when I found it. So of course we RUSHED getting ready and headed to the Grape Arbor Park for the fun festivities.

We missed the egg hunt. But there was an Easter Bunny and they were taking pictures with him for $5. So Justin and I really wanted Easter picture with the Bunny so we stood in the VERY long line to get one. It was so cute. We took a family picture first and then I took one with my camera of just Tyson. Tyson sat on his lap and kept looking up at him like "what is this thing". I couldn't stop laughing. Glad I got a good picture of it though. [I have the family pic on the other computer so when I get to it I'll post that up too. There was a petting zoo at the event so after we took pics with the Easter bunny we stood in another long line so Tyson could pet all the animals. Well I stood in line while Ty and Justin went to eat food. It was funny because about two people in front of me this lady was holding her little baby that kept crying and the man directly in front of me turns and says "i don't know if it was just me, but my son NEVER cried like that". I said "MEE TOO...my son hardly ever cries and when he does he's tired that's it". It was funny b/c then we just started going on this tangent about our kids that never cry. I was hoping that poor lady couldn't hear us.

We finally got into the petting zoo and there was this little Tyson sized baby goat. Just perfect for Tyson. He had this tiny little horns and everything. Tyson didn't really pet him that much but we could tell he liked him. Then there were bunnies, horses, big goats, sheep, chickens, ducks, and I'm sure more kinds of animals. Tyson wasn't paying too much attention to them but he got a few pets in here and there.

I think he was more interested on what was going on outside the fence. It was so cute though. He went over and stood next to the fence and looked out as if he were a little animal locked in the cage. So we took him out after that. Since we missed the egg hunt, there wasn't much to do after that and it was already getting past 12pm so we went home.

The next day was Easter and Justin and I decided to have some friends over for a BBQ. I had been lazy and didn't take the time to get and make an Easter basket for Tyson until last minute. And of course there wasn't much left in the stores. Luckily I found at least a few things to scrounge and make this one for him. I thought it was just the perfect size for him.

He didn't care about anything in the basket though except for the plastic eggs filled with candy. Although he has no clue what candy is. I guess the Easter basket was more for me since I'm the one that ate all the candy for him anyways. :) I was on a sugar high for the next few days afterwards searching for candy everywhere.

We did have a small egg hunt though. I boiled some eggs and since we obviously weren't prepared and didn't have dye Justin decided to color them with the only marker we could find. I thought it was really cute! I ate all of those too! hahaha.

All in all we had a fun filled Easter and I'm glad we got to share it with family and friends. Like I was saying below, I am not that religious and really haven't been to church in years so kinda embarrassing to say this but until now I had no idea what Easter was even about. Learning more about Passover made me want to learn more about Christian holidays as well. So I read up on it and learned that Easter was the day that Jesus was resurrected from death. It is the holiest day of the Christian year. THAT is something new I learned. To me, Easter was probably one of the least important and obviously because I never understood its true meaning. Easter is actually linked to Passover. The original Christians were of Jewish heritage and they believe that the last supper may have been a Passover Seder. The celebration of Easter likely evolved as a new facet of passover with emphasis on the resurrection of Christ. Easter starts 40 days prior which consists of fasting and penitence known as Lent. Holy week is the last week of Lent which commemorates Jesus entry into Jerusalem and Good Friday, the Friday before Easter, is the anniversary of Jesus' crucifixion. It concludes with Easter Sunday. Easter is held on the first Sunday following the full moon following the spring equinox. Rabbits symbolize fertility while colored eggs represent new life. Egg Hunts are traditions for the children. Similar to the hiding of the afikomen at passover.

And all this time I would stop eating a certain food for 40 days and never really knew what I was doing. Not that I ever made it past a week anyways. Maybe from now on, I'll actually try and fast during Lent for the right reason.

Passover Seder

2009-04-10T14:09:00.000-07:00

so this year Ty and I both had our first 2 passover seders. One with Justin's close family and another the next day with his extended family as well. To tell you the truth I was kinda nervous because I didn't know what to expect. When Jerry (Ty's grandfather) had sent me the invitation via email about the big passover seder I started researching what passover was all about. But of course that was a while ago and when the time came I completely forgot what I learned. Of course when we started some things started to come back to me.

On Wednesday April 8th, when we arrived at Justin's Grandma's house, she had two tables set up beautifully for everyone. The setting's included wine, boiled egg in salt water, matzah, and gefilte fish. In the middle of the two tables that were set up was the Seder plate which had symbolic foods that would be eaten or explained throughout the course of the Seder. We each received a copy of the Haggadah which is text that explains the complete Seder service. What I thought was cool was that everyone is equally obligated to participate in the service. I had never read the Exodus, which is the story of how Moses led the Jews out of Egypt from the salvery of the Pharaoh, so it was very interesting to me to be able to learn something new.

This was also my first time trying most of the food like Matzah Ball Soup and Gefilte fish. The fish I could do without, although it wasn't that bad, but the Matzah Ball Soup was delicious. There's no way anyone wouldn't like it. I also am NOT a wine person. All wine just taste sour to me and I usually never drink it. Sometimes when I think I can possibly handle it, always turns out that yep I don't like it. Well I discovered Manischewitz Wine which is a Kosher wine that tastes oh-so-good.

This is Tyson and his Auntie Doris, who is a huge follower and commenter for the blog, thank you Doris, if it weren't for you I wouldnt be so sure anyone takes the time to actually read this. lol. Everytime we go to great Grandma and Grandpa's house, of course everyone just loves Tyson and wants his attention because he's the only grandchild and great-grandchild in the close family. We always joke around if Justin, Tyson, and I arrive before Stacey and Neal about how everyone has about 10 minutes to spend with Tyson before Stacey and Neal come and steal him away. So lucky auntie Doris got a picture with the infamous Tyson and this day everyone got a little time with him.

This is Justin and Tyson wearing his Kippah aka Yamaka, which used to be uncle Jordan's when he was younger. It was a little big for Tyson but it was cute for him to wear it all night. Sooner or later he'll fit in it better. The Passover Seder is a great tradition where in the telling of Jewish history and tradition is transmitted from one generation to the next. One way to encourage children to participate is by hiding the afikoman, which is a piece of Matzo that is broken during the early stage of passover, and encouraging the children to find it after the Seder proceedings for a prize of money. Well Tyson, being the only person under the age of 12 was lucky that he had no competition. He found the afikomen and got $5 for it.

All and all my first passover experience was great and I look forward to many to come and teaching Tyson more about his Jewish heritage. I think that with most other holidays, specifically mentioning Christian holidays, many people lose the true meaning and reasons they are celebrating the holiday in the first place either from being caught up through presents, food, or suedo-figures. WHat really amazed me about Passover was that since the Haggadah serves as the guide, the seder must be performed pretty much the same all over the world. I learned a lot of new things during teh passover seder and I think it is a wonderful way for Jewish people to praise, gives thanks, remember and passdown the true reason the holiday is celebrated in the first place.

And the next day we did the whole thing all over again...but with more family.

How Lucky Am I...

2009-04-08T10:07:00.000-07:00

...to get to wake up to this every morning.

He check son the doggies too!

Lake Balboa

2009-04-07T10:58:00.000-07:00

We went for a walk to Lake Balboa the other day and Tyson was actually awake this time to be able to go in the sand for his first time ever. He was just touching it and looking at it on his hand. It was a new exciting feeling for him. He didn't go to much in the sand though. He was staying pretty close to mommy. A little girl next to him even let him play with her shovel. which lasted about 1 minute.
Lake Balboa is so pretty. Out of the 1.5 years i lived in the valley last year I never knew this existed until about 2 weeks ago. And from where we live now, it is literally in walking distance. I mean I will walk there if I know I'm only going to play at the park, but if I plan on walking around the lake, I will be taking my car. I mean maybe I was still sore from the canyon but walking around the lake did not seem possible after walking all the way from the house.
There a lots of ducks and geese too so I brought some bread and we got to feed them. There is also fishing allowed in the lake. By looking down you could seriously see HUGE fish. Maybe we'll try fishing for dinner one day.

Runyon Canyon

2009-04-06T11:24:00.000-07:00

Ok so i know i haven't updated in a while but it has been crazy planning for Tyson's birthday party up north, especially since I am not up north to do so. But I finally found some time to download some pictures and start blogging again.

Last week we went on a hike to Runyon Canyon. It's a spot in Hollywood that is literally the EPITOME of LA. I have never seen so many people with their dogs walking or jogging all in the same spot at one time ever. of course we fit right in with the baby and the two dogs. I didn't have my cool Chanel glasses though to match. But it was a good excercise. After we parked and walked 10 minutes to the trail I was already hurting. Not only was a walking a dog but I was pushing a 23 pound baby (+ stroller) UPHILL the entire time. After a little bit I think I was just walking through the pain because I couldn't feel anything after that and felt like I could walk for miles. After a bit Justin and I traded and he pushed the stroller. When we got to the top it was a beautiful view of LA. One side was the Hollywood sign the other was the city.

I then walked the baby back down while Justin ran down with the dogs. Walking down became a lot harder then walking up. especially while pushing a stroller making sure you don't let go. and not to mention sore legs. Let's just say Justin had to wait a while before I made it all the way back down. Definitely a good way to spend a Saturday morning. Can't wait to go again

Happy St. Patty's Day

2009-03-19T15:28:00.000-07:00

look at my little lepre-cutie! he had a st. patty's day party at daycare. He was so cute dressed in all green with his little hat!

Missed Out :(

2009-03-12T22:22:00.001-07:00

So yesterday I was at the car dealership [we'll talk about that one later] and my friend and her boyfriend were watching Tyson for me. Well she calls me and askes "so how many steps have you seen Tyson take?" I was like "WHY?!" and she says "Because I have witnesses and we all saw him take 4 solid steps... we got the camera and got 2 steps on video"

WHAT!!!! The one night I decide to go to the car dealership and leave him with my friend he takes his first steps!!!! I mean of course though right. Isn't that always the luck. I know it'll kill Justin to miss his first steps too since he's in LA but I think he'll feel better knowing that I missed them as well. Of course I can't even get him to take a picture standing, how am I going to get him to take a picture walking...

Well tonight my mom and I had to bribe him to get him to walk. Sorry Justin, I had to see at least 1 step... and of course thats all we got.

Independent

2009-03-10T22:03:00.000-07:00

so he has learned how to find and grab the baby stars

Opens them and opours them all out

And then stuffs like 10 in his mouth at one time... luckily they melt in your mouth

[this specific scene was staged for the sake of this blog]

Scrapbooking

2009-03-01T23:03:00.000-08:00

I decided to write this blog because today I became a follower of a few people's blogs that are having or have babies. I see all of their pregnancy pictures and I just want to dedicate this blog to them. I love being able to go through friends and other people's pregnancys with them because it is an oh-so-exciting time in a couples life and it is just amazing to know that you and someone else created a human being and it grew inside of your body. [I know i sound a little mushy but that's how I feel]. I strongly advise each mother to make a scrapbook for their baby. It takes time and it gets VERY expensive but in the end it will last FOREVER if you take care of it. My word of advice though, is START NOW before your little one is here. Take some time out and make some pages with the pictures you have of your belly. Another word of advice is check out scrapbook books and get ideas and think of a theme for a page you want to make BEFORE you buy the materials for that one page. I made the mistake of going out and and just buying everything that I saw that had baby or boy on it and all blue pages at first and then saw other pages and realized that not all stickers have to do with babies or boy and not all pages had to be blue to make it go well. So after spending tons on supplies I found myself still having to go back after I got a better idea of how I wanted my page to look.

So as some of you know, for my baby shower I got a beautiful scrapbook and I have made it not only a promise but my mission to make sure I complete it with original pages made by yours truely. Well during my maternity leave when I thought I'd have some time I decided to start shopping around for stickers and paper and all the materials I needed to start.

Well, who would have known scrapbooking can be so darn expensive. And when I say that I am not lying. $3.99-$5.99 per pack of letters [which by the way once u use certain letters you need another pack if u want the same font] $0.39-$0.99 per sheet of 12X12 paper, $1.99-$5.99 per pack of stickers depending on if they are flat, 3d, or glittered etc, $14.99-$25.99 for letter stamps [which by the way i dont have], some stamps with just phrases could be $10 each.

Then if you want to get really into it with buttons and ribbons and a bunch of extras it could be $7.99-$22.00 depending on what u get. SO basically it's not hard to see that everytime I go into the scrapbook store or Michael's I spend AT LEASt $60 each time. I have spent well over $400 on supplies I have thus far and that might be an understatment.

Well the after product is well worth the money and it is something I will have forever as a memory of my son's first years. It is meaningful not only because it's pictures of him but because it was made by me, the woman who gave him life. [of course Justin was a part of that too] :) I made a scrapbook a very long time ago and it was nothing like what I am doing now. Before it was just cut and paste pictures and maybe write next to the picture what it was a picture of. Well walking through the scrapbook stores and seeing sample pages just blew me clear out of the water. I have nothing on some things that people do to make a single page it's incredible. Let alone the money to spend that much per page. But getting ideas and seeing how many different things you can do is definitely worth it when the after product is there. I had to get a special scrapbook book to get certain ideas for future pages. Well during my maternity leave I only made 3 pages and that was last June... now 8months later I began again making 6 more pages in the last two weeks. Mind you now it's even harder with a little one crawling around getting into things. BASICALLY i made this entry so I can share what I have done so far with you because I am oh-so-proud of myself. Click on them to see them larger and close up!

The pages I made for my pregnancy pictures was made mainly with a pregnancy kit I bought. It came with paper and stickers specifically for pregnancy. I also save my pregnancy test to put on the page. I didnt save it on purpose at first but after I found it I decided it was a good thing to save it for future memories aka my scrapbook.

The packet also came with stickers that described what was going on in each month. I copied my ultra sound pictures and added them on there as well.

I also pasted some writing from an online journal I had throughout my pregnancy to decribe my feelings during the times these pictures were taken.I skipped page for month 5-6 because its the page I like the least but thats the page when I found out I was having a BOY!!!

My printer is now broken so I had to leave some parts of the page blank so I can later add more journal entries.

It's cool to look through these and see how my stomach grew over time. Over course during the time and living with it it's hard to see how much it really grows over time. Looking back is when you really notice how small it really was. I remember when I was 16 weeks I thought I was so big at that time and now I look at that picture and it was nothing compared to what came after that. The last month is when it grew the most and when I got all my stretch marks. So beware girls, just because you make it to 8 months, it aint over yet. The bottom picture on thhat top page was 6 days before Tyson was born. The last picture I took pregnant. I wish I would have gotten more pregnant pictures with my actual face it em but then again I didnt really have anyone to take them for me. I had to take these with the timer on my camera.

This is one of my favorite pictures and pages that I made. I got the idea for the picture from another picture I saw. I love the made with love sticker because it is perfect for the picture. On the bottom I have a sticker with the definition of the word "create" since it similar to "made and on the right side there is a sticker with the definition of the word "love".

Now of course I skipped around and started making pictures with Tyson in them because I couldnt wait to use them. I still need to make pages for the hospital trip, my baby shower, and when he was smaller. This page is one of my favorite. I just love his little nakie booty.

I love the lettering on this page. The stickers that I used in RUB-A-DUB. They were perfect for the bathtime page. Also the stickers I used for "bath time" because they look like they are in bubbles.

This page I got from an idea of out the book I bought. Of course with different paper and stuff but I got the complete idea from the book. I like the lettering and how its a picture frame on a wall.

NEWAYS...I hope all of you find this inspiring and possibly start a scrapbook for your family. Hey if you dont have time, pay me and I'll make it for you. Trust me, if there were a way that I could do this for a living I totally would. So if you know anyone for weddings, babies, birthdays etc I can make theirs for them for a decent price. :)

so since i dont know how to tag people with my blog.... to all the new mothers and mother-to-be this blog is for you.

Going....Going....Gone!

2009-02-27T23:23:00.000-08:00

So I was changing his diaper and of course his ability to now move as I do so sometimes leads to him turning over quickly and making a mad dash with no diaper. Never thought this day would come. Can't help but to think it's funny and adorable [except when its poo poo]. Well now we've discovered that he can CLIMB...up horses! Well I thought it was a perfect time to have a photo opp. Of course I gotta have the pictures to show all his friends and his girlfriend when he gets older. So enjoy his ~~little~~ big booty like I get to.

Blue Mouth

2009-02-26T13:06:00.001-08:00

I was eating a popsicle and he just grabbed it out of my mouth and I could hardly get it back. Luckily it was sugar free b/c it was night time and who knows what the sugar would have done for him. He was acting like he knew how to eat it too! so funny. when it was finished his mouth and tounge was all blue. So cute. I'll have to get him some pedipops for the future.

Tyson + Alexandria = ♥

2009-02-24T21:54:00.000-08:00

Tyson and Alexandria sitting in a tree
H-U-G-G-I-N-G

I think it's love!

Family and Friends

2009-02-16T22:31:00.000-08:00

So this last week we went to LA to visit Justin and his family because we hadn't been since Thanksgiving. We got to see a bunch of family and friends. When we got into town Grandma Stacey, Grandpa Neal and Justin were all waiting to see us. We had a good flight and luckily got a row to ourselves because Tyson was all over the place. I can see the bigger he gets the more difficult it's going to be to fly with him. He just wants to climb all over. It was so cute though as we were landing he was looking out the window with a big smile on his face at all the light of the city. We went out to dinner for Neal's birthday with Tyson's grandparents, great-grandparents, cousins, uncles, aunt, and of course daddy. Since Tyson has been afraid of the tub lately, Justin took the opportunity to get in the tub with him. He's been getting a lot better especially since the swim lesson but it's like he still needs someone there so he doesnt get hysterical. It was a cute kodak moment to catch pictures of them taking a bath together though.

The next day Tyson's friend Damien came over to play. They are sooooo cute together. They were matching in plaid. Damien is almost two and really has hardly gotten the chance toplay with Tyson so it was cute to see them interact. I can't wait to see them as they get older and show them these pictures. I know they'll be friends forever. It's so cute he already has a best friend!

We then had dinner again with all the family for one last time before we left and finally got to exchange some presents left over from the holidays. It was nice to see everyone again. I always feel so welcome when I go. We'll be back down in March so can't wait to see everyone again.

Will You Be Mine?

2009-02-15T22:31:00.000-08:00

After Tyson was showered with cards and candy from his daycare buddies he asked Charlie to be his Valentine! how cute

My Little Fishy

2009-02-05T14:15:00.000-08:00

So my friend Katie works at the Swim Acedemy in Dublin and she's been begging me to bring Tyson there since he turned 6 months to a tiny tots class. I've been interested the entire time but never got a chance to bring him until today. Lately he has been really scared of taking a bath so I was curious to see how he would do in the pool. We arrived and when we first got in he was really scared. Wouldnt let go of me. Then as we continued to do the activities he got more and more comfotable. I think watching the other babies helped as well.

Normally they put the babies under water but since it was his first time they took it slow with him. We got him to go down to his chin. Then we practiced grabbing on to the side of the pool. The instructor said that we want the babies to learn how to grab on the side of the pool so if they ever fall in the pool they know to swim right to the edge. We always practices float on the back and going to the stairs and coming to mommy. The other babies were going under water and swimming to the instructor and kicking and splashing and some were younger then Tyson. Next time, he'll probably be ready to go under water. By the time the class was over Tyson was splashing and playing and didnt want to get out. Now we gotta try the bathtub and see if he'll enjoy it again.

sockies

2009-01-30T22:32:00.000-08:00

I guess it didn't taste that good

Kisses!

2009-01-26T22:42:00.000-08:00

Let me just say... you are lucky if you've had Ty munch your face with his gums! Sweetest kiss ever!