Tieger Tales

Cody and I managed to secure a babysitter to finally get out on a date this past weekend. When we got home she gave us a full report but left one little gem out. Her mom called the next day sharing a story that was too good to pass up.

 

Let me preface that this was all done in complete innocence, or otherwise it would have held no humor. Apparently Tieg was sitting on the babysitter’s lap. He looked at her very seriously and asked, “Are you going to have babies someday?” I think he probably caught her off guard with that question, to be sure. She fumbled a little, and responded, “Um, yea, someday.” His response, “ Yeah, I can see your milk is coming in,” and proceeded to grab her chest. AAHHHH!

 

Thank goodness he is only 3, for all our cases! Fortunately she was able to laugh it off. And, after a discussion of dos and don’ts of our hands, we were able to laugh about it too. I just hope he didn’t embarrass her away for good. It’s hard to find a good babysitter nowadays.

Hallow’s Eve

Halloween this year had a, well I’m not sure if there is a single word to describe it, we’ll go with Celtic Disney theme. And, once again thanks to my talented mother, they wore very authentic looking costumes. (She has ruined me to ever buying a store bought costume again). Rya went as Brave’s Merida and Suri was her bear. Tieg went as How to Train Your Dragon’s Hiccup. All three fully encompassed their characters, costumes, personality and style (Suri even started growling—cutest thing ever).

We spent the holiday spread over several sleep-deprived nights celebrating with many friends and definitely got our fill of dressing up, going out, and sugar-overloading…not that I can speak for the kids. But, on to the good stuff—PICTURES!!!

 

RYA

	Rya looks so much like Cody in the picture above—it’s good he makes for such a cute little girl!
Our own little Princess MeRYAda, or Merida if you would so prefer.

 

TIEG

Tieg was Hiccup, right down to the war wounds. Notice the large abrasion on his nose?? I almost edited it out, but thought the story was too good. He decided to stick his face on the floor and run as fast as he could—hence a large carpet burn on his nose. When asked if he would do it again he wisely said, “No.” Fortunately it healed before Halloween day so we could get some unblemished pics. Until then we just told everyone he had a run in with a dragon.

Best looking Viking I ever saw!

 

 

He played his part well—and loved posing, Hiccup-style, for the camera. This was my favorite, but we had many a warrior faces in the rest.

 

 

SURI

What more can I say—CUTE, CUTE, CUTE!!! Once she got used to wearing the costume—I almost didn’t want to take it off—she was my little teddy bear through the whole holiday.

 

Love this last shot! Merida and her Bear.

 

As if we didn’t get enough sugar from all the candy, there’s a little more visual sugar-overloading for you. Happy Halloween!

No Chickens allowed

With Halloween so close, I felt this post was appropriate…and far over due (only because it has taken me so long to get ahold of the pictures). Chicken costumes are expressly forbidden in our household! And, even though I have on more than one occasion found an adorable chicken costume and suggested it for one of the babies, I have quickly and assuredly been shot down. This long standing mandate comes from Cody and is attributed to a “traumatic  experience” as a tween. Personally, I find the whole thing rather comical (in fact, I cannot in words describe how hilarious I find the whole situation), but to give Cody his due, here is the story:

Cody, in 6th grade, was forced into wearing a chicken costume for Halloween, where they went to the local mall to go trick-or-treating. As his mother explains it, they only so many costumes that would fit a kid of his height and stature and they didn’t have the endless funds needed to purchase one of the “cool new costumes”. Understandable! Cody, on the other hand, instead of playing it up, was so nervous that he would run into his friends wearing a chicken costume that he had no fun the whole time. Understandable!

 

But, really, I look at these photos and see the cutest chicken boy ever!  And, I daresay, he may have been over-exaggerating how horrible the whole experience was for him, as evidenced by the second photo (or maybe it was the candy consoling his wounded pride).

Look at that face…just pitiful!

Personally, I say ‘Best in Show,’ and no matter how much he rants against it, of all of his costumes to date, the Chicken is by far my favorite!

Tieger Tales

Let’s just begin this post by say, “THANK GOODNESS!” Thank goodness nothing terrible happened.

 

With that said, here is my story. We went to visit my parents, Grandma and Grandpa Deer (as both sets of grandparents have the same last names, Rya assigned them nicknames when she was very young, Grandma and Grandpa Deer because they have deer constantly loitering on their front lawn). We had laid Tieg down to bed but not surprisingly we heard the pitter patter of little Tieger feet roaming the upstairs rather than sleeping. Being that this happens often I sometimes just let him be, hoping he will realize he is tired and put himself back to bed. Most times it doesn’t work, but every now and then we have a lucky night.

 

This, unfortunately was not one of those nights.

After conceding that he would not go to bed on his own, I headed upstairs after him. I hunted him down, finally finding him in my parents’ bathroom with a mischievous grin and a hand behind his back. Knowing something was up, I grabbed for whatever he was concealing behind his back. Shock is the only word to describe my feelings on discovering his toy was a SWORD! Yes, an actual metal, sharp and pointy, dangerous sword. (My dad is a collector of many things). Apparently this particular sword was hidden in a cane and tightly screwed in, which Tieg managed to find and remove. To make matters worse his sword play began on my parent’s water bed.

 

Now, as you know, nothing terrible happened. THANK GOODNESS!!!

Fortunately my dad had the foresight to put a cork on the end of the sword on the off chance a small, stealthy, incredibly smart and obviously stronger than they look grandchild would find it, manage to remove it without any adult supervision and begin playing swords for real.  No telling how long he had played with the sword, but fortunately I got up there when I did, it was probably only a matter of time before he would have figured out and eliminated the cork deterrent.

 

I know we’ll laugh someday, but this one still gives me nerves. So grateful he, the other kids, and the waterbed made it through unscathed.

Tieger Tales

For family night tonight, the topic was WORK. Our purpose was to impress upon the kids that work is necessary but that it can also be fun. As our object lesson we headed over to the car wash to have a little fun/work.

 

Tieg ran immediately for the large power sprayer when we got to the car wash. He kept squeezing the trigger and was disappointed when no water came out. While this continued, Rya went over and put quarters in the machine. Just as the first quarter slid down into the slot, Tieg once again pulled the trigger, only this time had a different result. The pressured water shot out of the spray gun, and Tieg weighing in at only 29 pounds, was no match for the force. He was completely lifted off the ground and sent flying into the car a foot away. It was a good thing the shock of that caused him to release the trigger or he probably would have gone farther.

 

Please understand that Tieg was not hurt, definitely stunned and a bit confused, but with no real damage. A moment later we, Tieg included, were all laughing. I even think it helped to drive home that work can be fun, in Tieg’s case maybe dangerous too, but definitely fun.

Tieger Tales

We went to Texas to visit the cousins. After our recent move to Oklahoma we were glad to take a break from the monotony of unpacking to play. We went to the New Braunfels public pool at Landa Park. This is one of the cooler public pools I have seen because in addition to an Olympic size lap pool and a zero depth kiddie pool complete with slide, they have a whole section where you play in the actual river water. The river section was down the hill and was equipped with a natural pool of river water, slides and a rope swing.

 

It was packed at the pool and we had the whole crew that day, so it was 10 kids (counting all the cousins) to 4 adults. The ratio was formidable. So we kept constant roving eyes to know all kids were safe.

After a couple hours, we decided to brave taking the kids to the rivered portion. Grandma Deer, however, stayed up top at the kiddie pool with Suri.

 

After a while down in the river pool, Tieg and I headed up to get Grandma Deer to join the rest of us. We climbed the stairs and found Grandma only to head back down the hill. It was at this point that Tieg decided to make a run for it. Literally! He took off running. This happens often, and I couldn’t run very well because I had Suri so I quickened my pace and kept  a close watch on where he was headed while shouting at him to “STOP.” He ran around the corner of the large bathroom facility, heading for the stairs to the river area.

 

It was at this point I dumped Suri into my mom’s arms and raced after him. Only a moment passed before I rounded the same corner, just  in time to see him sitting with a big grin in a golf cart about 10 feet away foot poised above the gas pedal. 

"This isn’t too bad… what little boy wouldn’t jump in and pretend to be driving… of course no one would leave the keys in the ignition for just anyone to go joy riding in,” was what you may be thinking. Yep, that’s what I was thinking also. WRONG! He put his foot to the pedal and little cart lurched towards me and a wooden pergola off to my left. My natural instinct (or stupidity) took over and I put my hand in front of me to stop the golf cart. Fortunately he was not tall enough to get the pedal down for full speed, and I was able grab him out of the cart before any real damage could be done. It was at this point that the girl working the snack bar under the said pergola (most assuredly the owner of the golf cart) got up realizing what just happened in front of her.

 

This could have been disastrous, and I am so grateful everyone/thing involved was safe. I have to admit it took me a day or two but now it just makes me chuckle.

Precious Memories in the wild

I have to admit that I have a bit of a love-hate relationship with camping. I mean, it is suppose to be a vacation, right; but with all it takes to go sometimes that fact is easy to forget. You spend days planning where to go, when to go, how long to stay, meals, activities, etc. But that is just the beginning. Then to actually leave the house takes a whole day of prepping, getting clothes and supplies, food and kids all into the car. Finally, you make it there and that’s when the fun starts, right?! Preparing the fire, the food, the campsite, pitching the tent, cooking the food, feeding the kids, cleaning the dishes, putting the food out of the way of prying animals, watching the kids constantly so they stay out of the fire, don’t throw rocks at each other, or fall into the river down the hill. Then you get the unique pleasure of sleeping on hard ground, sometimes with a rock massaging a bruise into your bones as you repeatedly tell your kids to go to sleep, well, with the exception of when in the middle of the night you have to put on shoes in the dark to trudge across the campgrounds by flashlight with one of the kids who urgently needs to go to the bathrooms which doubtless are infested little creepy crawlers. And, if that wasn’t fun enough, then you get to wake the moment the sun makes it less than dark and begin the process of cleaning and packing and keeping kids out of the fire and cooking and such all over again.

With all that griping, you may be wondering why I (and now perhaps why you) ever go camping. Well, I will enlighten you. It is for those moments when you think back or look back and know that you were there with the people most important to you doing what matters more than anything else—being together. You were there with the people that matter the most to you building deeper lasting relationships while working together, playing together, and getting dirty together. All this is done without the focus becoming addled by the all too common distractions of TVs and toys, work and school and other life responsibilities. You were making memories that can be looked back on with fondness without once thinking of all that went into making the experience happen.

When Rya went on her first campout with Cody, I had to write about it because it touched my heart. So it is with the same emotion that I share some pictures of Tieg on his first campouts.

 

 

1st Campout @ Devil’s den—September 2011

There is as much cinnamon roll on his face as there is mud. It is just hard to distinguish between the two.	He wore his mud with boyish pride.
Little sleep, sugary foods, constantly covered in dirt—he was in heaven.	The smile never left his face, I dare say even when he was sleeping.

 

 

1st Father/Son Campout in oklahoma—May 2013

	Tieg  was so excited to ride the ‘boats’ (which were canoes) that he stood without complaining in the longest line. And, despite Cody’s initial concern, he didn’t rock the boat, metaphorically or actually. It was a fun trip for both of them.
	He was bubbling with excitement the whole time. Boy’s night, this was a first that he would repeat again and again in a heartbeat.

 

So, I will continue camping despite my polarized feelings towards it, because there is no replacing the beauty that comes from the simple idea of sleeping on the ground, in the wild, with the people that matter most to me. And, there is no replacing the sweet memories that come from it for everyone involved.