Family Time

1) Being a family of four is tough.  #adults = #kids = chaos most of the time
2) I'm thankful every day for Jason and his level of involvement with our family.  I know there are a lot of single parents or parents who have to do the majority of the parenting on their own while the other is a bystander, and I do not have that.  Jason is amazing!
3) Most of our outings involve a (hopefully) sleepy Holly and all hands on deck to keep Tyler in check.  Which means Jason and I are on defense the majority of the time and leaving said outing feeling... well, feeling exhausted!
4) We occasionally have outings that are thoroughly enjoyable for the whole family.  They're rare, but wonderful.
5) Before I go any farther, let me be clear.  I love my family.  I love my kids.  I've been pretty vocal about difficulties these past few months, but please know there are just as many (if not more) moments of smiling and commenting to Jason how happy I am with our family.  Please do not read #1-3 up there as me being ungrateful or having any regrets.  Just telling it like it is, honestly.

Recently, we had an absolutely lovely day playing outside in our backyard (the day of baseball).  Here are a few more pictures from that day.

The many faces of Holly:

I promise, she WAS having a good time!

I have a leaf.

Once Tyler got tired of playing baseball, he switched over to playing swings and slide.  Gotta love the hat hair!

I even got a moment of peace to take a Selfie with Jason.

And then Jason grabbed the camera from me to capture this moment:

Self, Family of Four.  Making it work since 2015.

Siblings

Several people have asked how Tyler acts around Holly.

1) Most of the time it's the "Tyler show" and Holly is mostly ignored.
2) If too much attention is directed towards Holly, he will start acting up to get attention.
3) He shows a general love for and interest in his little sister.

Things Tyler likes about Holly:
~When she kicks her blanket off.  This, according to him, is "hilarious"
~Giving her night-night "gentle" kisses
~Comforting her when she's crying, especially when they're in the backseat together.  "It's ok, Holly, you don't need to cry.  We're almost home."
~Telling us to turn down the music and/or tv when Holly is sleeping (though he forgets three seconds later and decides to whoop and holler!)
~Giving her toys to play with (aka, plopping them down on her!) and giving her her pacifier (can almost do this without poking out her eye).
~"New" toys (aka, his old baby toys) that are in the living room
~When Holly wears "no pants"... how silly!

We have some room to grow, but I think he's accepted her into our family.

Holly's reaction to Tyler:
1) Mostly ignores
2) Looks of terror.  Let's just say, Tyler hasn't quite mastered the "be careful around your sister" command.
3) General interest.  She loves watching him eat and listening to him/watching him on the video monitor (btw, how did we go so long without a video monitor?  love it!)  Big brother is awesome, and he is (hopefully!) showing her how to be a "big kid."

Baseball

I'm not sure how it started, but when the weather turned nice a few weeks ago, Jason decided to play baseball with Tyler.  We already had the gear, thanks to a Christmas present from Beth and Jake and a hand-me-down from my coworkers Will and D.

teaching correct form

pitching the ball

That is the face of a happy boy!

some tee action

Holly = nonplussed

Then, Jason put out bases...

heading to first

rounding second

third base in his sights

 He's a natural.