Wednesday, March 16, 2011

11 Months!



I can't believe that Silas is about to be a year old! Before I get sentimental, I will spend this time thinking about this month.

Our little buddy is a moving machine. Though he flat out refuses to crawl on his hands a knees, he is constantly rocking the army crawl. This completely stresses Richard out, and he has declared that he WILL teach Silas to crawl properly even if it takes him until he is two. Silas has now gone from "has walked" to "can walk." Do not confuse this with "always chooses to walk alone" as he would rather hold onto your finger for comfort. He walks all over our living room without help and thinks it is hilarious to drop to his bottom so we will laugh and clap. Another skill he has finally mastered is going from laying to sitting- PRAISE THE LORD!! Man, he would wear us out! Si would slither to where he wanted to go and then whine until someone came to sit him up because he could not figure it out. This skill has made our lives much easier.



We have had another bout with illness. All I can figure out is that Richard and I bring it home from school to him since he doesn't go to daycare. Thankfully, as of today, our human vacuum has returned. He adored the chicken and fries at Chick fil a tonight. When he doesn't want the food you are feeding him, he holds up his hand to stop you, turns his head, and closes his eyes. The closed eyes are lovingly referred to as "Uncle Travis-ing" since Uncle Travis did that to ignore us while in the hospital. Silas has been doing that to ignore us since birth. Sadly, Uncle T was not around to see Si on this earth, but our little buddy definietly has some of his traits!

We are greatly struggling with a sippy cup. I am extremely nervous about taking the bottle away in 2 weeks, but everything I hear/read says go cold turkey and he will drink when he is thirsty. We will see... I got in a new cup today that looks more promising. Needless to say, I am savoring every single bottle feeding- most especially the snuggle time that comes with it.



Silas can say ball, night-night, bye-bye, e-i-e-i, a crude version of lawn mower (mawn mo mer), more, da-da, ma-ma, bok-bok, and make numerous growls for different animals. (He makes a different distinct growl noise for bear, shark, and tractor.) Si also will call the dogs and love anything when you say "Oh wee..." His receptive vocabulary astounds me daily. I think it is from all of the reading we do. He loves books and will usually choose a book over a toy. Si isn't content to read/look himself. He wants to snuggle in with you and turn the pages while you actually read it to him. Resolved as he is, Si will let you know exactly what book he wants you to read and will reject any subsitutions.

Currently, his favorite past-time, besides reading, is jumping on the bed. We have had 2 banged chins, but, as evident by this picture, it has not deterred him in the least.



Most of my pictures turn out like this lately. I am not sure how to remedy my problem lest I use a tazer or tranquilizer darts. Suggestions are much appreciated.

Silas loves to be outisde. We discovered his love for the Cozy Coupe at our neighbors' this week. Good thing his birthday is right around the corner! It is all beginning to come together, and I have it on the up and up that Gruncle Barry is making a wonderful wagon cake fit for a Birthday Boy!

We really, really, really, really, really, really, really struggled to get good pictures with John Brown. I took over 130 and only two, without smiles, were acceptable. Because of the noises Richard was making to help out, I had flash backs to our experience with Olan Mills. Maybe next month...

Friday, March 11, 2011

In a cabin in the woods...Final Chapter

After breakfast, naps, showers, and snacks, we decided to head out on the town. (Now, I have many mini stories I can tell you about each and every one of our outings. I will just provide the highlights of some here.)


LA pulling carseat duty.

In order to head out, we had to load the babies into the van. Silas and Cooper shared the way back seat. Their carseats literally filled the entire thing. There were straps and cables coming in from all directions to hold them in place since the 3rd row did not have the latch system. Since there was no room between the carseats, LA and I had to lay down the 2nd row seat, sit on it, grab a baby, and slide them like we were at the park down into their seat. Then, somehow, we had to wedge ourselves between the 2nd row folded down chair and the carseat back in order to buckle them in. After buckling, we had to suck in our stomachs and bend ourselves to a 45 degree angle in order to reach the strap tightner which would not pull tight from the position we were in. This caused us to have to lay on top of our sons, after instructing them to hold their breath and pray not to be squished, so that we could pull the belt tightner from the correct angle. It wasn't discovered that the belts didn't tighten from the reverse angle until we got to the mountains and saw that Si was not snuggly buckled in for the entire trip. (Remember, Richard put him in his seat the first time. He is a novice.) Once we regained our bearings and dabbed the sweat from our brows, we were off!

Our first stop was the Apple Barn for a delicious meal on the swings. Closed.

Next we tried the Old Mill. Open. Score! This was by far the most delicious food we ate on our entire trip. Our waiter, however...sketchy! His name was Kip, and his parents got his name from a TV show. That should say it all, but, alas, I will continue. It began well- our drinks were full, the babies got water, he reccomended the highest rated foods (and gave us the rundown of the top 25 best sellers and why they were best sellers in order.) I missed his first rundown dealing with Silas who decided he wanted only grown up food and accidentally asked him which of two entrees would be the best choice. That started his whole spill again. Oops. For future reference, number 1 was Country Fried Steak, and I went with number 2, the delicious Chicken and Dumplings. After delivering our meal, overly jubilant Kip filled us in on his life story. He has a son named after Cade's Cove, a girlfriend with a girly pansy son named Luke, a love of the outdoors, an unbelievable memory of all things mountains, and the desire to have another child with his girlfriend since they are both already the sole caregivers of their sons. Oh, and he said Silas closely resembled some football quarterback that also has blonde hair since he was so big. If he told us once, he told us 27 times. Each time Kip returned to our table, Allen and Richard began commenting...stressed me out! Anyway, that was our only adventure for the first day.

When we decided to visit Cade's Cove a couple days later, since Kip's son was named after it of course, we got off to a late start. It was almost dusk when we got there, and there was a brisk wind. By the way, did you know that you needed tennis shoes when you go to the mountains because you might like hike or something? I didn't either! But it is true, you do. Especially if you go with the Blakeneys. I just packed 2 pairs of flats and flip flops in my 4 super large bags. I thought all you did in the mountains was shop. Lesson learned. So anyway, when we pulled into Cade's Cove after 8 stops to vomit on the side of the road since Allen was speed racing, both boys were able to get out of their carseat. Here was Silas's experience.



Here was Cooper's.




I am telling you, Cooper is the fastest most inquisitive baby I have ever seen. Silas is more of a studier. After Cooper crawled under Allen's feet to press the brake pedal twice, Allen insisted he return to his carseat. I think he was peturbed that Cooper agreed his driving was out of control. We stopped and walked around the old Baptist church, but chose to stay in the van for the remainder of the trail. Luckily we did see some deer and a red wolf.


Blakeney family



Daddy and Si

Mommy and Si

On the way into the cove our gas light came on. "No sweat," Allen informed us. As we neared the end of the trail, for some reason, Dale Jr. reemerged and our speed intensified. The G's were so overwhelming that I could hardly open my eyes. I couldn't get sick because I knew it would just fly back and hit my face. I heard whispers from the front seat about us all pushing and Cooper steering. (Si would have to push too because he is a heavy weight.) Sweat beads the size of peanut M&M's began rolling down Allen's forehead. Richard was on his knees in the front floorboard pleading with God to multiply our gas fumes. Finally, after much puttering and high speed downhill coasting, a gas station appeared out of nowhere. Phew!

Then the crying started. Sleepiness? Yes. Hunger? Yes. Did Cooper eventually go to sleep? Yes. Did Silas ever stop crying? No. When we arrived back at our little cabin 45 minutes later, we discovered his diaper had leaked. Richard got the pleasure of unstrapping the spider's web of cables holding Si's carseat in place so we could wash it. If only I had videoed...

Oh, and we did have to stop to take a picture by this before we got gas.



Yes, those bears are doing what you think they are. Who carves this and thinks it is a good idea?

Outing 3- the Apple Barn. When we arrived, the parking lot appeared semi vacant. When we entered, it was wall to wall. Once we got to our table, not a swing table because the high chairs won't quite reach, I realized I left Silas's high chair cushion in the van. I headed to get it, but got wedged in behind some old folks flirting in the hall. I was too shocked to even gasp "Excuse me." Finally, Grandma looked up and yelled at deaf Gramps to scoot over and let me by. Gross. When I got back in the restaurant, I couldn't get back down the hall because of the children's piggy back freeze tag game occurring. Where were their parents? I should have known there it was time to pack it up and go home...

Our waitress was a grinch-ette. I guess I would be too if I had to wear that garb everyday, but she did sign up for it. I never knew it was such an inconvenience to get someone a glass of tea. While she was grumpily headed to put in our order and after we offered up the blessing- adding in a line about our waitress not spitting in our food, I decided to let Si try some apple butter. He loved the apple fritters, green beans, corn fritters, mashed potatoes, dumplins, and soup veggies I had let him try earlier. As soon as the apple butter on the fritter hit his lips, the gagging began. It was like a slow motion movie. He gagged. I gagged. I held my hand for him to spit it out. He gagged. I gagged. He gagged. I gagged. He gagged. I gagged. He barfed. Yes, barfed. All over his outfit. All over his cushion. It was covered in nasty chunks. I almost barfed too. You think, "No big deal grab his extra clothes in his diaper bag," right? Well, Silas hasn't needed his extra clothes since about last September. I hadn't thought of them since then. They were shortalls. It was freezing. Good-bye after dinner plans.

I told Richard to strip his longall off and I would change him right there instead of carrying a chunky barf covered baby to the bathroom through the hall of death. At that very moment, you could have heard a pin drop in our extremely crammed, over crowded dining room. The watresses froze holding their trays. The family next to us stopped moving mid bite. The table of 8 women having a ladies brunch next to us all turned their heads towards me and began eye-daggering me until I looked like Swiss cheese. You would have thought I had abused my child. No, instead I did a 20 second outer layer change at the table. Shame on me! Seriously, you might have seen his clean, empty diaper a total of 10 seconds, and it took 1o more seconds to button the straps. Geez.

After a poor quality meal, we headed home. Apple Barn, I will not see you again. Oh, and please post "No make out" and "Please save the freeze tag for outside" signs in your hallways. Thanks.

One other day, we did head to Gatlinburg. This was a fun time. Richard recorded 78 mullets, 3 unitards, and a Mennonite teenager holding hands with a boy in public. Silas loved this day because he ate a bowl of macaroni as big as his head. This was when we realized we needed to begin choosing restaurants that let kids eat free.


Macaroni and Cheese!

After lunch, we went hiking. I in my adorable black flats. Silas loved it! Allen had chosen our course and swore it circled back. We kept walking, and walking, and walking. Approximately half way through, the trail still hadn't turned. Richard began muttering something about the sun going down and the Blair Witch Project. Allen began shaking and rocking in the fetal position and asked to turn around. LA and I looked at both of them as if they were crazy.




As the elevation continued to increase, Richard remembered his inhaler was at home. Allen hid his tears claiming dirt in the eye, and the babies continued giggling- having the time of their lives. Finally, we reached the end of the trail. Richard and Allen chest bumped and let out a sigh of relief. As we turned around, the grown men began having stroller races. I did have to remind Richard as he was running what I deemed dangerously close to the edge of the 45 foot drop off that our stroller had a baby in it and Allen's didn't. His competetive nature had obviously lost its everloving mind. Some of the bridges were so narrow that Richard had to carry the stroller over them because it wouldn't fit to roll.



All in all our Majestic Mountain Vacation was well worth the $xxx.xx Richard excitedly paid for it at auction. Our trip home was peacefully uneventful. I would say much more uneventful than the overnight journey. Next time, I vote drive during the day- since I obviously did all of the driving. Well, now that I am reminiscing, I do recall that maybe it was so uneventful because the overhead storage thingie kept slipping so that it made a noise similar to a jet taking off, and we couldn't hear each other think much less the babies for the entire trip... Maybe next auction, Richard will get sucked in to the action and buy a Jammin' Jamaica Getaway!



Monday, March 7, 2011

In a cabin in the woods...Part II


I awoke from my uncomfortable sleeping position in the wee hours of the morning only to discover I was extrememly nauseous. Why you ask? That would be because of our crazy driver. For some reason, once we hit the mountains, it was as if Allen thought he was on Nascar's Motor Speedway! He promised he was going the speed limit- times 10. About the time I awoke, so did the boys. Finally, after pulling out my barf bag and holding it to my face just in case (which took a good 5 minutes because of all the G's working against me), we turned into our little "neighborhood."

Richard called out our address, and in the pitch black of night we began searching for our cabin. A couple of roads went by, but, because of excessive speed, we couldn't read the signs. Allen said he would turn around for us to read them in case they were our road. We were too nauseous to think straight, so we pushed onward. When we reached the top of our mini-mountain and the dead end of the road, there was no cabin. Actually, the two cabins in the cul-de-sac skipped our cabin number. Great. Now we were here, over packed, over tired, over hungry, and booked to stay in the disappearing cabin. No wonder Richard got such a great "deal."

Thankfully, LA saw a porch light glimmering down the other side of the mini-mountain. It seems we missed a driveway in the darkness! Hope! Our racevan driver decided to check it out. When we came to a screeching hault just before running into our cabin, "Peaches and Dreams," our dreams of a bed came to a screeching hault as well. There was a truck parked in front. Seriously. This is no joke.

Richard went to knock on the door and find out what was going on. LA and I began fixing bottles for the restless little ones, and Allen began revving the engine just in case he got to drive us to seek shelter somewhere else. Thankfully, Richard came back to inform us that the truck belonged to the cleaning crew. We had a cabin! Albeit a dirty one, but we officially had a cabin!

The 6 of us trekked in with the necessities- diaper bags, bottles, and pack and plays. We decided to wait out the cleaning crew downstairs next to the pool table. The boys went ahead and set up the pack and plays while we fed the babies in hopes that they would go back to sleep. Yeah. Right. (again) We began to realize during all of this activity that our breath was visible and we were shivering. When Allen checked the thermostat (no longer at lightning speed since we were out of the van) it said -9371 degrees Farenheit. Good thing I packed Si's snowsuit!

The heat was turned on, the babies were bundled up, the cleaning crew left (without the Fruit Loops on the floor), and our Majestic Mountain Vacation had officially begun. In case you haven't noticed yet, a vacation with the Tisdales is never a dull one!

Part III of the three part series to come.

Sunday, March 6, 2011

In a cabin in the woods...



Rewind to May 2010: I am sitting at my parents' house enjoying a nice Saturday with my beautiful 1 month old bundle of joy, and I receive the following phone call.

Richard- Hey! Guess what? I WON! I WON!
Me- You won?
Richard- YES! I WON!
Me- You won what?
Richard- A MAJESTIC MOUNTAIN VACATION!!
Me- A majestice mountain vacation?
Richard- YES! A MAJESTIC MOUNTAIN VACATION!
Me- WOOHOO!!! How did you win that?
Richard- Well, I bought it.
Me- You did what?!?!
Richard- Remember me telling you about that auction at school? Well, one of the items up for bid was a MAJESTIC MOUNTAIN VACATION AND I WON!!!
Me- How much did you win it for, dear? We have a 1 month old and I am on maternity leave.
Richard- Well... it only cost $xxx.xx but normally it would have cost so much more than that and it sleeps about a million people and it is extremely nice and it has a pool table and air hockey and a jacuzzi and we can take Silas and it was such a good deal and I would have gotten it for less if Mr. Steed hadn't started a bidding war but I WON A MAJESTIC MOUNTAIN VACATION!! Oh yeah, I wrote a check.
Me- I can't believe you did that.
Richard- How are you not excited?! I WON!!! I love these auction things. We should really start going to more of these.
Me- Oh no. I don't like peanut butter and jelly and we have to buy diapers, lots of diapers.
Richard- What?
Me- I don't like peanut butter and jelly and we have to buy lots of diapers.
Richard- I don't know what you are talking about.
Me- I don't want to eat peanut butter and jelly and have Silas naked and diaperless because we have to pay for a Majestic Mountain Vacation.
Richard- Jenn, I am not sure why you are not more excited about this! Do you hear what I am saying? We are going on a MAJESTIC MOUNTAIN VACATION because I WON!!! I ACTUALLY WON!!!
Me (tearfully)- I am glad you won, babe. Looks like we are going to the mountains.

It turns out that even though my husband "won" a Majestic Mountain Vacation in a cabin that sleeps a million for a measly $xxx.xx, I never had to eat a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, and my son always had plenty of diapers. In a post-baby hormonal state, I slightly overreacted (and so did my overly excited husband who had just won a Majestic Mountain Vacation.)

Fast forward to January 2011: I tell my principal that I am taking a Majestic Mountain Vacation during the peak of SAT prep season because my husband, the basketball coach and PE teacher, decided to schedule it after basketball season but forgot about his wife the elementary school teacher who was in her crunch time. I tried to bribe Mrs. M with a scrumptious brownie (nevermind the fact that her husband baked it and she brought it to school) and with a semi-frown and a nod, her exact quote was, "Well, I guess you'll just have to work that much harder." As if there already wasn't enough pressure. The good news: my children work really hard and I am going on a MAJESTIC MOUNTAIN VACATION!

Jump to February 2011- Majestic mountains here we come! Our friends, the Blakeneys, decided to experience the Smokies with us. Since they also have a baby, the husbands decided to rent a van so we could all ride together, drive all night Tuesday night and arrive in the mountains Wednesday morning. The premise was that the babies would sleep the entire trip. Yeah. Right.

Picture this- Procrastinator me planning sub lesson plans for 3 days of lessons including small group reteaching plans, packing for three, one being a 10 month old who eats like a 350 lb grown man, being told that there is limited space in the van so be sparing, funeralizing our humble abode and having our first Bible study at 7 when we plan to leave at 9. Slight stress. When I left for Bible study I gave Richard specific instructions not to leave without sweeping the kitchen floor and most definitely not to forget Murdock the frog. (Allen, Silas, and Richard were packing our stuff in the van and picking LA, Cooper, and me up from the Blackneys after Bible study- yes LA hosted Bible study the night we were leaving for our Majestic Mountain Vacation. Props to her.)

When the loaded van arrived to grab the 3 of us, Silas was in the back seat screaming to the top of his lungs. Richard looked at me with an encouraging smile to remind me of the Majestic Mountain Vacation that was coming our way in a few short hours. As we climbed in and took our seats, Cooper was wimpering because he had just been snatched from his bed, and my knees were up to my ears- by "pack sparingly" I figured they meant only 3-4 super large bags per member of the household. Because of my slight miscalculation, I rode to the mountains propped on a toy bag, diaper bag, laptop, camera, video camera, clutch, a pillow and my Bible study book. Oh, and did I mention Silas was still crying? His crying encouraged Cooper's crying, and I figured we were in for a long, long trip. Si did finally quit about 10 minutes into the trip when he realized he was not getting back into his bed and that he did like his carseat.

219,342,576,238 hours later, we arrived in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. I will pick up with our arrival on the next post. Stay tuned!