Bats and Paint

Jaydon got see his first bat up close and personal.  (We saw a tons of huge fruit bats in the Seychelles but they were too far away to actually see their face.) 

My parents cat Isabel caught it and let it go in the house.  The next morning the dogs found it hiding in the corner.  My Mom was able to catch it and tried to let it go but the cat had had too much fun and the little guy and he didn’t make it. 

When Jaydon was 3 months old we had painted some canvases with his hand and foot prints.  Well my mom wanted to be sure that Tylor didn’t miss his chance at the fun so we bought some paint and canvas and had a painting day. 

We first started with the easy subject. 

Jaydon was all about covering his hands and feet with paint but wasn’t quite as thrilled with how precise we wanted him to be with the artwork. 

He got into it later when Grandma told him he could paint the wall too. 

When I was in middle school, I redecorated my room with black and white checkered floor and painted one of my walls with black and red handprints.  Jaydon got to add some of his own handprints to the wall which was fun for all. 

Next it was Tylor’s turn. 

Baby foot prints are much easier to get so we started with them.  I seemed to recall that with Jaydon we did his 3 month hands while he was sleeping so waited until Tylor was asleep to try – well that was a disaster, and woke him up so then we had an uncooperative, overtired baby to get handprints from.  We finally gave up for awhile and tried again after he had had a good nap.  We got the canvases painted but the candid shoots ended before the handprints were finished (painting baby hands is a 2 person job so no more cameramom).  The final products ended up being quit nice.

Tylor Swims

So Tylor finally got his chance to give the pool a try.  He thought is was great fun and focused his full baby concentration into the experience. 

He liked standing on the stairs the best. 

After awhile he got comfortable with ‘swimming’ around on his tummy, until his neck would give out and he’d dunk himself. 

He would always be super tired after all the fun, one of the time she actually fell asleep on me in the towel before I put his diaper back on. 

Needless to say we all needed a bath once he woke but if ignore the warm wetness it was a beautiful day to sit outside and enjoy the perfect weather.

Dinosaur Museum

One of the must sees for any kid in the Grand Valley is a visit to the dinosaur museum. 

I remember it from school trips when I was a kid.  Jaydon is just starting to get into Dinosaurs thanks to a couple of Dinosaur Train books (and he got to see the actual Dinosaur Train TV show in Denver to keep him entertained while getting ready in the morning). 

He thought the Museum was great and couldn’t get enough of it.  He ran around to each of the animated Dinosaurs over and over again. 

I was sure the big roaring T-rex was going to scare him (or we’d be up with nightmares that night) but he was very brave and was more curious then scared. 

We had planned for the adventure to take about an hour but we stayed almost 3 hours.  He loved the sand pit where you could dig for bones.

The visit turned him into a complete dinosaur fan.  All of sudden shirts that he’s had for months with dinosaurs on them are the coolest things and all he wants to wear.  Good thing Halloween is coming up…I think I know what Jaydon will want to be J 

This animated dinosaur really had Jaydon concerned and confused.  It’s the very first animated dinosaur you come to in the museum so we had to visit it several times so Jaydon could figure it out.  At first, he thought it was a Mommy dinosaur eating its baby.  We had to explain that the rest of dinosaur was under the one eating and that he was a carnivore.  He knows carnivore from the Dinosaur Train (that’s what Buddy the T-rex is) so now whenever we have beef for dinner he tells us how he’s a carnivore eating up his meat.

Lots of Firsts

Jaydon had a lot of ‘firsts’ during his trip to Grandma and Grandpa’s.  The reason I’m posting this picture isn’t because it’s an adorable naked toddler picture (I don’t even remember why he was running around naked that night) but because of the big bandage on his hand. 

Jaydon got his first wasp sting from sticking his hand up the drain pipe right after a wasp had flown in (Grandma tried to warn him but 2-year olds are not known for their listening skills).  I wasn’t there when it happened so he took the sting like a man and didn’t even cry (I’m still astounded by that).  We covered it up with a baking soda paste (hence the bandage to keep the paste on for awhile) and Jaydon did fine. 

He got really hyper and really hungry.  We scanned the internet and called up my brother who is in med school and was out to dinner with a bunch of med school buddies and they all decided that hyper was a good thing – his body was going into overdrive to deal with the venom.  The next morning he woke up with hardly a mark on his hand which was amazing since it had been pretty swollen right after he got the sting. 

He also loves throwing the ball for Jimmy but that night decided to throw it in the sprinklers which Jimmy wanted nothing to do with, so I told Jaydon that he had to go get the ball.  He did it and had his first run through the sprinklers – and they were COLD, it’s probably the coldest water Jaydon has ever been doused with.  (I made this picture big so you can see his expression)

He’s used to the water temp out of the hose being close to warm bath temp not mountain reservoir temp.  And speaking of cold water his other first was going fishing for the first time with his Uncle Mike.  Mike and his girlfriend Jen took Jaydon up to the Mesa for the afternoon.  

They didn’t get any fish to Jaydon’s disappointment but had a great time anyway. 

It was around 60 degrees up there and I think Jaydon got quite a chill, even when they got home he didn’t want to take his fleece off, took his afternoon nap it and wore it the entire evening (it was in the 90s back in Palisade so there was no reason for the fleece).

Botanical Gardens

We spent the day visiting Grand Junction’s quant botanical gardens. 

They have a butterfly house that is just the perfect size for a 2.5 year old. 

They had maybe 10 butterfly’s flying around and Jaydon had a great time watching them. 

I’ve been to other butterfly houses that seem like mansions compared to this one (with stairs, multiple levels etc.) but this one was just big enough that you could walk around or sit and enjoy the butterflies and feel like you’ve seen it all before kids attention spans diminish. 

One Monarch butterfly was particularly well behaved. 

He sat on the rock long enough for me to get several dozen pictures, and a video. 

After we finished with the butterfly’s we explored the grounds outside that had some neat local art work that focused on the history of the area. 

They also had a special kids castle which was great fun but unfortunately we got to it a little too close to lunch time so didn’t spend as much time there as we could of. 

Jaydon was not too sure of this guy when he first saw him; Grandma had to show him that he was just a sculpture and wouldn’t move. 

He also had fun sliding on the dragon (the other side was the slide). 

And did some gardening with the kid sized rake and ho. 

Inside the castle was a chest full of dress up clothes, I think Jaydon is a bit too young to get into dressing up.  He kept asking Grandma why he had to have the bib on for the picture :)

3 months old

Tylor is 3 months old today. 

Grandma and Jimmy helped him celebrate and Jaydon busted out in song for him. (well after a little convincing that is:)

And yes Grandpa, he does get a birthday every month until he's 1 then he can actually eat the good stuff (cupcakes, ice cream etc.) and that when they only happen every year.

Apple Trees

For those of who don’t know, my parents grow fruit (cherries, apricaots, peaches, plums, apples, pears) in Palisade.  During our trip it was peach season and just the start of apple season. 

The orchard right outside my parents house has Akani apples which are basically a small Johnathan and are the perfect size for kids hands.  

A trip to Grandma and Grandpa’s house just isn’t complete without some fun in the apple trees. 

Jaydon loved climbing the ladder and didn’t hesitate a bit to go all the up to the top rung.  He had fun climbing in the trees and picking all the apples he could manage to reach. 

Tylor enjoyed being outside and watching his brother. 

We also ventured over to the plum orchard and Jaydon got to taste tree ripe blood plums which he loved (they’re my favorite kind of plum too but you never see them in stores). 

Jaydon had a fun time in the orchard but by the end he was getting a little tired (and was especially sick of all the picture taking) so gathered up his apple bucket and went home…

Tylor Update

Based on the pictures and stories from our trip you probably are wondering where’s Tylor…

he was there of course but it’s a tough gig being number 2 with a big brother like Jaydon who is an attention magnet.  Tylor absolutely adores his big brother; one way to calm him down if he gets a little fussy is get Jaydon to talk to him. 

He’s also become very in tuned with Jaydon which means if Jaydon cries Tylor immediately starts up too. 

Tylor has had pretty bad reflux (excessive spitting-up) and the doctor prescribed Dopridrone right before we left for the trip.  It worked like a charm but gave Tylor fairly bad stomach cramps.  

I started to do research on the drug and discovered that it’s not for sale in the US (only used in Germany and France) and is in a family of drugs that have a reputation of having some fairly severe side effects. 

My brother is currently in medical school so I got his opinion and he agreed that this drug was like using a sledge hammer to pound in a framing nail (or whatever that analogy is) – it gets the job done but… well anyway I decided to stop the medicine and try just changing what I ate.  I noticed a definite link to tomatoes so stopped all citrus and acidic items.  This helped but he was still waking up every 2-3 hours all night.  I continued research and many women on-line said that removing dairy from their diet helped.  Now I love cheese, ice cream, have yoghurt every morning for breakfast so no dairy was not going to be easy. 

I waited until we got home (couldn’t skip the vanilla ice cream with all those fresh peach pies and cobblers) but once I did it all of sudden Tylor started waking up only 1-2 times per night.  He still spits up a little but there’s no more full wardrobe change for either/both of us during the day so I think it’s been a success.  I do have to say though that eating is VERY boring when you skip the dairy but I’ll trade it for sleep anytime.