Winter 2017

This winter has been as great as winter can be for the kids. They’ve done a great job at hibernating: constantly playing the Sneaky, Snacky, Squirrel Game until someone cried (twenty minutes), building magna tile castles in every room of the house, watching a huge amount of TV and movies (it feels so good! How could you turn down Trolls)?  The kids even resorted to begging to run errands. Bryce, not one to chat about his feelings, would respond immediately after being asked if he wanted to go outside with “shoes” “coat” and be standing by the door in 30 seconds without either, ready to roll.

Bryce has been talking so much better! The other day, trying to passionately insist that Mommy put him to bed, he covered his heart and said “MOMMY….PUT….. BED”. Got it, buddy! I was so excited to hear him say put in a 3 word string (WITH A VERB) that  I nearly fainted. He is so sweet that sometimes I forget that he is a two year old boy, and am reminded when he doesn’t listen, lays on the ground, stomps his feet, hides in the closet, screams “AWAY! ALONE!” which really sound like “WAY! LONE!” ... all when he doesn’t get what he wants.

The Majestic Diner (gluten free diner we've been going to since Gilly got diagnosed with Celiac)

How about those Pats?

Chad and Glenna finding common ground

Bryce is still **a teeny bit** attached to mommy. Example? Sometimes you’ll hear him sitting somewhere by himself saying, “Mommy…. Bryce.  Mommy…. Bryce” on repeat. What could be better?  If I could fit this cuddly little mama’s boy in a baby bjorn, I’d stuff him right in there and take him out  in a few years for kindergarten. Then I’d put on camo gear and head to the bushes where I’d watch him all day to try to soak in the sweetness.

My big girl Gillian is so … big! She has been very busy running a full service orphanage, stocked with baby dolls of every shape and size, all of which she would try to feed, bottle, diaper and bathe if their body types allowed it.   They are now all sleeping on a well disguised shoe rack after I couldn’t take the sight of them piled on top of one another in Gillian’s toy kitchen oven. #disturbing.  For her birthday, she has requested even more babies, complete with a potty from Grandma, that Gillian has told me is currently being made in London. I don’t ask questions.

Gillian’s birthday festivities just ended, so I will follow up with a post that is full of sap, omitting all the moments this past year when Gillian pushed me so far to the brink that only wine could save me.

xoxo

T'was the Season

Greetings from the new year!

2017 is off to a great start. First of all, 17 is a lucky number (Bryce's birthday and my aunt carol's birthday), so we expect this year to hold lots of great things for our family.

We are attempting to ensure this happens by clearing the not so great stuff out of the way, first!

On Jan 3, Bryce had a bi-lateral inguinal hernia repaired @ Cornell in NYC. He was a trooper, the hospital staff and physicians were all wonderful, and he recovered in two days.  Everything went well and we're happy to have this behind us!

Working backwards, we had a GREAT christmas and a trip to Florida that, in all honesty, went a teeny bit downhill for some people. I'll tell you the whole story.

Team Tully flew down to florida to visit Mimi, Papa, and Uncle Tim (who has sworn never to reproduce since our visit). No one threw up on the flight, and there was a double rainbow on our drive from the airport to the house. A sign of a great trip to come!

 We went to the beach, and had a glorious day. Gillian said that she LOVED the ocean, and frolicked in the sand. Bryce ate more NOCKS (= snacks) than you could imagine a two year old eating in the span of a day, and life was good.

Then something happened that I have no pictures of.... Gillian barfed ALL OVER THE PLACE after she went to bed one night. In an unexpected turn of events, I was out with a friend, ignoring my phone, and arrived home at 11 to Mimi doing laundry, and the faint scent of puke still lingering in the hair of Gillian's dolls. Luckily, Chad got barfed on (not Mimi, as in previous years), and everyone went to bed sort of clean, but pretty unhappy about the night's events.

It took Gillian approximately one day and 15 episodes of Doc McStuffins to make a comeback, and she was back to her carb only diet in no time.

 Unfortunately, with daddy as the barf target, he fell ill shortly after Gillian recovered. Mimi refused to acknowledge that he was unwell and I was only able to offer a limited supply of true sympathy before I encouraged him to get back in the game. Poor Chad.

This aside, everything was still going great. Someone is always throwing up in Florida, so you can't let that get you down. We took the kids to the carousel and they had a blast riding around, until they didn't and Gillian melted down and we had to leave immediately.

The wheels officially came off the trip on Day 5, which we have now been informed was exactly two days longer than we should have stayed, with two additional days remaining on our trip.

Mimi and I took the kids to target. To avoid fighting (between the kids!!) , we had separate carts. I was with Bryce, who was on his 48th NOCK of the morning, when he started to choke and then PROJECTILE VOMIT ALL OVER HIMSELF, THE SHOPPING CART, AND THE STORE. For the second time in a week, Mimi found herself being paged to assist someone covered in vomit. Having learned from her first mistake (answering her bedroom door when chad knocked on it asking for help with Gillian), she went in the opposite direction and never returned... sending two Target employees in what should have been full hazmat suits to clean up the area. I stripped Bryce of his clothes and zipped him into these nifty batman pajamas. He made a remarkable recovery, but I think this was the beginning of the end for Mimi.

 But look at how cute these kids are in their pajamas!

 Anyway, we made it to the end of the trip without anyone checking out to go to the Hampton Inn. We got to the airport (somewhere between 2-4 days too late) and sat through another two hour delay (see activity below).

 We finally arrived at JFK in the pouring rain (seamless travel day for us), only to discover that Gillian (specifically her frazzled parents), had left her bag with her new baby alive on the airplane. For those of you who ever leave something on the plane and don't realize it until you get to baggage, might I recommend that you just replace what is lost and move on. 90 MINUTES LATER we recovered the backpack and the baby alive, in another terminal, delivered by an airport employee who pitied us so much that she went and retrieved this for us from "lost and found" out of the kindness of her heart. *

Here's Bryce trying to lose a few fingers and catch Malaria at the baggage claim while we fretted about how we were going to recover the lost and soon to be dead doll.

All in all, and I cannot stress this enough, we had a great time in Florida! Our best (and Mimi's worst) visit yet! FUNNY how you can just be on two totally different pages when it comes to this stuff!

Shell, this post was for you. Thanks for your dedicated readership. God bless you if you made it to the end. Great to see you in FL!!!

xoxo
morgan

*As soon as we got home, baby alive became baby DEAD. The g*ddamn doll stopped working, after our incredible efforts to recover her on a rainy, freezing night at JFK. You cannot make this stuff up.

Back to School, Fall ... Fun?

 While it seems like ages ago, it was only one month ago that Gillian started school back at West Side.  It’s crazy what a difference a year makes (especially for Bryce)!

Gillian and Bryce are playing together more than ever before.  Here are some action shots:

In fact, we think they could be the next Jonas Brothers!

It’s hard to recall the past month, as Gillian has been back to her very early rising ways, and Chad and I aren’t firing on all cylinders. Gillian’s new favorite expression is “It’s been a long day”, picked up directly from her mother, who observes this most days at around 3pm.

Another one of Gillian’s favorite expressions is “NO! NOOOOOOO!!!!!! [Foot stomp] I DON’T WANT TO! NO!” No further discussion needed here, but child protective services has not been called and I consider this a victory.

While we may be a little foggy from the early mornings, we know we had some fun! We went to Rohsler’s with Gillian’s nursery school for a hay ride and to watch other small children torture farm animals. We picked out some pumpkins and got cold feet while waiting for the pony ride. Even our equestrian, Bryce, politely declined, “NO NO NO NEY NEY” while contorting his body to avoid sitting on the saddle.

Gillian has shifted interests back to babies, and every night, instead of a story about Princess Gillian, we now tell a story about Baby Emily, whose sole caretaker is Princess Gillian.  Let’s just say not a lot of imagination is required to tell this story. At the end of the story, Gillian informs me she wants a real baby, which I respond to via the path of least resistance (lying) with: “sure, no problem”.

Chad recently joined a men’s soccer league, which he seems to enjoy, despite the hip replacement or ACL surgery that we’re expecting imminently (Update: since starting, his attendance rate has been 40%).  Here are some highlights from his first game:

·      Everyone on the other team was 10 years younger than me

·      My ankle hurts. I think I rolled it but it might just be sore from kicking the ball.

·      I had to play goalie and some of the guys on the other team kicked so hard that I just jumped out of the way.

We’re headed to Boston this weekend, barf bags and all, to celebrate Grayson’s first birthday!  And we can’t wait to meet Ava’s new sister, due any day now!

Fall love from the Tullys!!

Bryce's Birthday Recap

Happy birthday to our sweet TWO year old baby, Bryce!

Happy Birthday to our sweet, doll baby, cuddly yum yum angel, Bryce!

Present Time!

Party Time Take 2!

Paula threw another epic party with the playdate crew. Check out these beach babes!!

August Fun: Sticks in the "yuck'!

Happy 2nd Birthday, Bryce!!

Happy Birthday, Bryce!!

We love you, little angel!!

Bryce had quite a year!

•  We figured out what he was allergic to (dairy, eggs, almonds) and watched the sensitivity of dairy and egg decline significantly (he can now tolerate baked eggs and is ready to try regular eggs, and baked milk)
• We also figured out that Bryce has been living underwater for the past year, and had tubes put in and adenoids removed. Bryce’s expressed language has improved dramatically in the span of two months since the surgery.

In honor of our buddy angel’s birthday, here are some of Bryce’s Favorite Things

• ·      Food: Cookies, Blueberries
• ·      Toys: Cars and Magna Tiles
• ·      Words: NO (or more often nonononononono)
• ·      Songs: Let it Go, Baillame, and Last Dance (yup, Drake)
• ·      Activity: Climbing on people and being (dangerously) thrown through the air
• ·      Book: Goodnight, Goodnight, Construction Site
• ·      Getting pushed around in the blue car
• ·      Cuddling, especially with Daddy
• ·      Yelling “waula!” 100x/day (poor Paula)
• ·      Getting Chased (often when it is preceded by “Bryce, come over here please. Bryce… Bryce!)

• 
  
• Gillian will undoubtedly help us celebrate Bryce’s birthday tomorrow by opening all of his gifts, treating them as if they are her own, and blowing out his candles (which might be in all of our best interests given the strong possibility of Bryce lighting himself on fire). She is a great big sister when she isn’t beating him over the head with matchbox cars and ripping toys out of his hands. She is at her best when she is teaching Bryce, “Brycie, say Bubble!!!! Brycie, say Auga!! Good job buddy! I’m teaching him to talk.”

Also worth noting about our amazing Gillian is that in honor of the U.S.A. dominating the pool this summer’s Olympic games, Gillian has **sort of learned to swim**! Via the magic of a woman named Margarete whose astronomical pricing for 1:1 swim instruction has sent Chad into a tailspin, Gillian has gone from not putting her head in the water to diving for rings and somehow managing to make it from one side of the pool to another while remaining afloat!  Watching Gillian learn to swim has made me realize the importance of sheer determination as a success driver. She wants to swim so badly, and works and tries so hard that it brings tears to my eyes to see her near drowning make her way from here to there and pop up one breath short of passing out, smiling from ear to ear.