Saturday, November 21, 2009

Halloween...a bit late!

Here it is, almost a month late, and I'm just now getting to our Halloween post. October was a busy month for us. It seemed as if we celebrated Halloween quite a bit! The weekend before Halloween, we took the kids to a great family-friendly party, hosted by a friend from my school. Abby had a blast! She had several kids to play with. We enjoyed a pot-luck dinner and a pumpkin carving contest. Todd was ambitious and found a template of Mickey Mouse and so this year we had a Mickey pumpkin. It was really cute!



The weekend of Halloween proved to be pretty busy as well. That Friday night, Todd and I actually had a grown-up Halloween party! We got together from some friends at my school and had a blast. It was the first time we have left either child with a babysitter for an evening out. Tyler did great. Abby did well, but was still awake at 1 am when we returned home. Guess we will have to work on that one next time. The day of Halloween, we had a wedding to attend. Our friend Jennifer got married and the wedding was so cute! It was completely a Halloween theme. We had to leave between the wedding and reception so that we could go Trick or Treating with the kids. This year Abby was a very pink princess and Tyler was Winnie the Pooh. They were both so cute! Thanks to Aunt Jessie for the pictures...we actually forgot our camera that night. By the way, we did not carve the awesome pumpkins. They were just so cool that we had to take a picture. The carriage in the picture just happened to be driving around downtown New Bern that night and the driver was so nice to let the princess have her picture taken with it. Every princess needs to travel in style, right?

Wednesday, October 7, 2009

Pumpkin Time

Lately around the Williamson household it has been Pumpkin Time! This past Saturday, the whole family took a trek down to Mike's Farm. We took a hay ride out to the Pumpkin Patch where Abby and Tyler took a turn as professional pumpkin pickers! While we were there we made a trip around the farm to see all the animals. Abby enjoyed feeding the goats and donkey and Tyler just enjoyed the day hanging out with all of us.

Earlier today Nana and Granddaddy took Abby and Tyler back to the pumpkin patch, this time right here in downtown New Bern. Christ Episcopal Church has a pumpkin patch each year and some of the pictures below are from their trip today. Tyler and Abby took a wagon ride, went swinging, and hung out with the pumpkins. Uncle Ryan is excited about Tyler's shirt: Farmer in Training.

The final piece in the Pumpkin Puzzle is the Mickey Mouse Inflatable Pumpkin that Grammy Nan got for Abby and Tyler. Hopefully we'll get it blown up to get us in the real spirit of Fall and Halloween! Enjoy the pictures!


Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Back to School!

Todd and I have been back in school now for a few weeks and we are trying to get back into the swing of things. We are both dealing with large class sizes and other effects of the budget crunch. Todd's team of 7th graders has 100+ students and my group of 1st graders is at 24, the legal cap for 1st grade in North Carolina. It has been a hectic opening of school, but we are surviving! The hardest part is not being able to spend as much time with Abby and Tyler as we would like.
Our Abby is growing up so much! We have been practicing on her big girl bike, and she is finally getting the hang of pedaling. Now we just have to work on the steering part! She really seems to enjoy it and she's really cute with her little Ariel helmet. We are having a new challenge with her...sibling rivalry. Now that Tyler is mobile, he is finding her toys. We are trying to teach her constructive ways to deal with this rather than the typical 2 year old responses of snatching and pushing him away. We're working on it! We have also noticed that the more tired Abby gets...the more clumsy she gets! Just the other week she got a black eye from running into a table on my mom's deck. Thank goodness that has faded! She also made her singing debut at church on Sunday singing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. She was able to sing a few lines before she realized she had an audience and got embarrassed!
Tyler is doing a lot of developing lately and will turn nine months on Thursday. He is becoming such a big boy, although he's starting to thin out some. I can't believe that in a few months we will have another toddler on our hands! He's been scooting on his belly across the floor for a while now, but just Sunday he starting crawling on all fours. He's pulling up on furniture and finding all sort of cool things he shouldn't have! My baby is now waving bye-bye and saying "da-da" when he does it. I really think he means bye bye! He also loves peek a boo and pat a cake!
The pictures on this post are from a variety of things. There are some of Abby playing on the McDonald's playground on the way to Sanford on Labor Day weekend. There are also a couple of Tyler taking in the mariachi band at a new Mexican restaurant in town. He was mesmerized! And of course, I put in a few of Abby riding her bike.
On a more serious note, I need all of you to add a little girl named Rachel Smith to your prayer list. She is the great-granddaughter of Abby and Tyler's babysitter. She is 4 years old and has been fighting a disease called Blackfan Diamond Anemia all of her life. She's had a bone marrow transplant to counteract this disease, but is now having complications and may not make it. Pray for a miracle, and also keep her parents in your prayers too. They really need strength during this difficult time. Here is a link to her website through the Children's Organ Transplant Association.

Rachel's COTA Site

Saturday, August 29, 2009

Tea Party

One of Abby's favorite thing to do it play tea party. She has a few tea sets and it's one of the few things that can keep her occupied for an extended period of time. She even has one in the bath tub. For months my mom has promised Abby a real tea party. So in memory of my precious Nana (Abby knows her as Nana Carol) we had a tea party. We invited our favorite New Bern ladies, dressed up, and had a fabulous time. Nana Hix, Grammy Nan, Auntie Dot, Aunt Elaine, my aunt Dot's friend Sally, mama, Abby, and I were in attendance. Nana Carol was watching over us as mama and I wore her hats! Mom had her kitchen decorated with a lace table cloth, pink plates, and bright orange daisies (Abby picked these out). We had hot tea, lemonade, and iced tea and ate some yummy fancy food. A good time was had by all, and we will definately make a habit out of it for Abby. A big thank you to my mom for organizing it for my girl!

Bath Time!

One of my new favorite mommy things to do is give Tyler a bath. Right now I'm bathing him in the sink (minus the baby bath tub) since I don't quite trust him sitting up in the big tub yet. It also is a life saver for my back! When it's time to give him a bath, Abby and I put one the bar stools up to the sink and she climbs on. She is always my big "helper" when I give him a bath. The two of them have an absolute blast! Tyler has two of his favorite toys, a plastic spoon and a rubber duck. Abby and Tyler laugh, play, and splash. By the time we are finished, I have one clean baby, a toddler ready for her bath, a messy wet kitchen, but two happy kids! It is one of my biggest joys as a mom to watch my two children play together. Their laughter is priceless, and I will always treasure it!




I included some pictures of our Tyler snoozing with his daddy a few Sunday mornings ago. He was so cute sleeping with Todd that I had to snap a couple of pictures. He is still very much a mama's boy, but he is warming up to Todd. They have had more opportunities to hang out lately and that has helped a lot. As you can tell from some of these pictures, Tyler has already learned how to be a ham for the camera. It doesn't take them long to learn! He continues to learn and grow every day. He now eating Cheerios or the Gerber puffs on his own. He uses his thumb and first finger and pinches them. Not all of them make it to his mouth, but he's learning! Here is a video of one of his "I'm tired" performances. He takes his fist and rubs not only his eyes, but his entire face. Many times he'll include his ears too. It's quite hilarious!

Link to Tyler Video

Saturday, August 15, 2009

Where did summer go? **UPDATED**

**POST UPDATED WITH PICTURES**

Well, it's that time of year again! Unfortunately our summer is fading quickly away and Todd and I will be back at school once more. Todd went back on Friday to a day-long meeting (yuck). I go back on Monday for two days of training and then I start workdays on Wednesday. The kids come back for both of us on Tuesday, August 25. It seems like we are just now getting into our easy summer routine and it's already time to go back!
We've been keeping busy as usual over the last couple of weeks. Tyler has had several big firsts. He pulled up for the first time on Wednesday night. It's all over now...he'll officially be into everything! He also had his first trip to the beach. He loved the waves! Despite being as careful as possible, I think he ate a few handfuls of sand as well. Since he's still exploring the world by putting everything in his mouth I think that's par for the course! I'll post pictures as soon as I get them onto my computer.
Abby has officially completed her first swimming lessons. She was not promoted to the next level, but I expected that. She still is awful young...she was actually supposed to be 3 to take the class. She did great her first two days of class, and the last two days of class, but really acted like she was scared all the days in between. Anytime it was her turn to swim with the teacher she would get out of the pool and run to me crying. And I would go to her and put her the pool. The funny thing is, once she was actually in the water with her teacher, she did everything she was supposed to do just fine! She also refused to jump off the side of the pool everyday, but the last two days she would as long as I was right there with her. All in all, I say we made progress. I think I'll wait until the spring to repeat the class, but I'm glad she had the exposure.
By the way, I'm glad you found us at our new home @blogspot. Mark this new site in your favorites so you can visit and check up on us all the time!

Thursday, July 30, 2009

July is flying by!

Over the last few weeks we have kept busy around the house, the library, and the YMCA. Our most recent adventure has been Abby's swimming lessons. We were going to enroll her in the Mom and Tots swimming again, but the teacher has taken the summer off. So, I talked to the aquatics director at the Y, and she told me to go ahead and enroll her in the Pike swimming class with the understanding that we would pull her out if it didn't work. This class is for 3-5 year old beginners, so she is still quite young for the class. Since she is so fearless in the water we really thought she needed some formal lessons. She is actually doing quite well. We are pleased with how well she is listening to her teacher and following directions. She is still working on putting her head back in the water when they try backstroke and she is hesitant to jump off the side of the pool. She may need to take the class over, but that's fine because we just really wanted her to be exposed to the water this go 'round. Wow, this is starting to sound like report card comments...school must be around the corner unfortunately. Other than swimming, Abby is still enjoying our weekly library story time. The summer reading program is coming to a close, and we have the end of summer party this coming Tuesday.
We also have a lot to report with our Tylerbug. He is scooting EVERYWHERE! I can leave him playing in the living room, come back a minute later and he is down the hall looking for me. He is not crawling on his hands and knees. He prefers to army crawl where ever he goes, but hey, it works! He is babbling more and more, and yesterday we started to hear dada for the first time. He can be really loud sometimes, but I think he's trying to talk over his sister:). He almost pulled up yesterday on Abby's block table. He made it to his knees. He is getting stronger with his sitting up. It is so nice now that he can sit in a restaurant high chair and grocery cart. He's still an easy-going little guy for the most part, but he is very much a Mama's boy. He tolerates Daddy, and will even have some fun with him if I'm not around. But, as soon as I come into view, he fussing and holding his arms out to me. I secretly don't mind, but it does make it hard to get things done because he wants me to hold him, or is crying for me to hold him quite a bit. Well, unless he is crawling and getting into something he shouldn't. Then he is perfectly content without me:).
Enjoy the pictures of our cuties!

July 2009