My Ticket to Retiring Early

Dear Tyson,

If you’re old enough to read this, you’re likely already old enough to have realized that hockey was a HUGE part of your Daddy’s life growing up. He was on skates for the first time when he was 2 years old and according to him he quickly developed into one of the best skaters in the state of MN. Apparently no one could catch him on skates. He’s willing to tell anyone who will listen just how good of a hockey player he was. ( I say was, he says is. Potato/Potato) Go ahead, ask him. I’ll wait.

Did he put together a bulleted list similar to the one he generated for me? A few of his accomplishments include being a member of Team Minnesota (which apparently means he was one of the best 15 hockey players in his age group) from 1991-1995, setting a state record with 7 assists in one game in 1994, and playing for the University of St. Thomas from 1999-2001. He also was inducted into the North St. Paul Hockey Hall of Fame in 2009. This is a picture of your father on that night:

You were 3 weeks old and home with Auntie Katie. I was sleep deprived and pretty sure I didn’t realize how important this night was to your Daddy. I’m sure your recognize your uncles Brian and Bege, but you probably have no idea who the other guy is. It’s Bret Hedican. Bret grew up in North St. Paul across the street from your Daddy. He went on to play hockey in the NHL for several teams. He also competed with two US Olympic Hockey teams, and (my favorite) married Olympic ice skater Kristi Yamaguchi. They are the epitome of the quintessential skating family. Bret was inducted into the North St. Paul High School Hockey Hall of Fame on the same night as your Daddy. Pretty cool, right?

Needless to say, your Daddy loves hockey. That’s why this moment:

 Will likely live to be one of the best days of your Daddy's life. That’s right, you put on skates for the first time when you were also 2.

And apparently, you were good….really good. You were able to stand up without assistance on dry land. I’ve been told that this is super impressive.

And you loved to skate around the rink with Daddy and your friend Drew.

Daddy assures me that if you can skate like him and shoot and stick handle better than him, you will be in the NHL and we will be RICH. I haven't quit working yet, but I did start looking into private lessons for you-dream big, little one (and I will too)!

Love,

Mommy              

Elmo Makes Music and I Make a Blubbering Mess Out of Myself

Question: What do you get when an 8.5 month pregnant mother takes her toddler to Sesame Street Live?

Answer: Apparently tears. From the mother, not the toddler.  I like Elmo, but seeing “Elmo Makes Music” really shouldn’t have rocked my world. I’m not exactly their target audience. That said, when the lights dimmed and I saw this face:

I cried. And then I nonchalantly wiped my tears and looked around to make sure no one noticed. Oddly enough, Sesame Street Live might live to go down as one of my favorite moments of all time.  It’s pretty amazing to watch your child’s eyes light up with excitement.   The smile on his face is enough to keep one on mine for a very long time. I’m hoping I can find a way to channel this feeling and the permagrin that comes with it around the time my active labor starts.  

PS—I wasn’t sure what to expect when we bought the tickets to take Tyson to the show. We don’t watch a ton of Sesame Street in our house, but Tyson knows who Elmo is and he loves music and dancing.  We were hoping that these two facts would be enough to keep him entertained for 90 minutes. 90 minutes is a pretty big stretch from his standard 20 minute attention span.  We got 75. The rest of his time was spent sitting on the Target Center floor (which, for the record, is as disgusting as it sounds).

Future Chip & Dale Dancer?

No, he hasn't been potty trained. Yes, he did enjoy running around and dancing in his underpants. I'm praying this isn't is a sign of his future career path.

December

December was busy. It pretty much flew by. Seeing as how I’m 7 months pregnant, the flying by part was kind of like an added Christmas present. Now if January and February could kindly do the same..

I've managed to do a sufficient job of neglecting the blog for the entire month.  And, while It’s highly unlikely that you’ve been checking in every day wondering what we’ve been up to, I still find the need to update you. My apologies. Look on the bright side-this post will be filled with ridiculously cute pictures of the little man-that is if you can see him around my ever expanding belly.

We took a family vacation the first week of December to Wisconsin Dells. We stayed at an amazing resort with 3 indoor waterparks, a huge indoor playground, and arcade games galore. Needless to say, Tyson was in toddler heaven. As we had just moved him into his toddler bed a mere two weeks earlier, I was terrified that our trip would result in a 48 hour sleep strike, but he did surprisingly well. Either that or the three weeks since the trip have allowed me to forget the sleepless nights we endured.

 We built a snowman that melted the next day.  PS-This winter rocks.

We made lots of cookies. Which consequently means we also made lots of messes. Tyson loved to “help” bake. I say help loosely. Veeerry loosely.

We took Tyson to the Holidazzle for the first time after dinner out at the Old Spaghetti Factory. He loved it and I loved watching his face light up at each float. This will certainly be an annual tradition.

We had Christmas carolers come to our house on horses. Yep, horses.  Our neighborhood backs up to a horse farm and each year they bring the horses through our streets and sing Christmas songs. The horses don’t actually sing, but they wear cute Christmas saddles and reindeer ears.  If it sounds like something out or a Norman Rockwell painting, it pretty much is.

We hosted Christmas Eve at our house where Tyson was spoiled rotten by his Nanny, Papa, Auntie and Uncle. The kid hit the present mother load and we need to host a garage sale STAT if we plan on keeping all of his new toys around.

We left out Christmas cookies for Santa and reindeer food for Rudolph. We were amazed that they ate them and left us a note and presents in return!

We celebrated Christmas morning as a family of 3 for the last time ever.

We headed to Grandma and Papa’s house for Christmas dinner where the spoiling rotten continued coupled with lots of cousins to run around with and rounded off with three pieces of pie-for Tyson, not me. Also, sometime after dinner and present opening our kid stripped to his diapers and started a dance party. Because nothing says "Merry Christmas" like stripping to your skivies and dancing without any music.

It’s true that there is something magical about Christmas with young kids. I’ve always loved this time of year, but watching Tyson enjoy it makes me love it tenfold.  My heart will probably explode into a million little candy cane pieces next year when I watch my 10 month old and 3 year old enjoy it together.