It's a new beginning

Hey friends and family!

We have something to tell you! Nope, we're not pregnant! We've moved...... to a new place on the web. It's redesigned, more organized, complete with video, pictures, updates on the girls, us and everything about our lives as the Tidds. Please come join us in our new space as this site won't be updated anymore. We'd love to have you! There you'll find an info post on what's new on the site so you can navigate it easier: www.thetiddbits.com.

Love to you all!

GCAI

February flew by!

All is well at the Tidd house - we're in the midst of changing places for our blog, how it's going to be laid out, new features where Gary and I can talk about how we manage our finances, parenting, house projects, technology and of course, the girls. It'll be a place where if Anna goes into her room, gets her little chair, brings it into Izzy's room in front of her crib where she's found waking up from her nap and Anna saying "hi sweeeetttheart" and pats Izzy's little fuzzy head, I can put that in there without having to update about everyone. Or if Izzy learns how to say "no" and shakes her head while saying no, I can put that in there too. Or if Gary's killing it on the treadmill, shedding some pounds and trimming out his studly body, I can put that on there (or he can if he's feeling prideful that day). Or if I run 2 miles straight and finish a 5k on the treadmill in 47 minutes, something I never ever ever thought I'd say I'd try, let alone do. It'll be more short stories, funny things we don't want to forget, milestone in our debt free lifestyle or a flat tire. It'll be there. So hold tight friends and family, we'll be back bigger and better... hopefully sooner than later. These little girls keep us busy and staying healthy, just the same. So bear with us while we design and build our new site.

The girls are doing well. We have a bought of pneumonia with Izzy last weekend that ended her in the ER, having a hard time breathing. We got a nebulizer and she started to sound a lot better. I called her a gremlin baby the way she was breathing and talking. Poor thing, now she's back to her temper tantrum, cuddly self (oxy-moronic, yes, but true). The woman who cares for our girls during the day says she has red roots somewhere in there. I don't doubt her one bit. Anna's growing a lot. Growing in her height as her jeans no longer need to be rolled up or pinned. Her hair is still thin but growing quite long. Her vocabulary continues to increase daily. We constantly have to remind ourselves that her pronunciation and comprehension of words is high but she's still 2 and still acts 2. Both these girls give us grey hair, but they bring more joy to our lives that we could ever have imagined. Their squishy hugs and dimples, Anna running around yelling "naked baby" after bath and Izzy swaying to the music of her books. We're certainly blessed and try not to forgot that everyday.

The parentals are holding their own, itching for the spring weather to come full force. We're working 2-3 days a week with running on the treadmill or swimming in the pool, continuing our journey of training for the 5k run in May, losing weight and getting fit. I joked at the Dave Ramsey show we went to a couple weeks ago, "Our kids will always think of us as rich and thin!" Hehe. I hope so. Work continues to be busy for both us and side work is a steady stream of projects. So many other things we're working on at the house and in our lives that we can't wait to share about them more in our new blog.

Hope this finds you all well, readying yourself for spring cleaning, gardening and sunshine!

Love,
Gary, Christie, Boog and Squeaky

Isabella's Big Day!

Isabella turns the Big One!

Miss Izzy had 2 big day's as her birthday fell on hump day. So we sent her off to Miss Michelle's house with yummy cupcakes and a big squishy hug. We made, what we would call her favorite meal, spaghetti and garlic bread. Both the girls scarfed it down and have the red 'stash to prove it. I picked up Itzy Bitz ice cream (those space agey ice cream balls) for dessert and again, in-hailed. Being #2 in the line up, we're filled to the gills with toys and hand me down clothes, so I picked up a few Izzy specific things for her gifts: a scoot around puzzle, small board board, a bucket for all her little treasures and her favorite, sunglasses all of which Anna claimed as her own. :) So for a small birthday celebration, she had a great day!

The big party was partied on Saturday. We kept it simple with pulled pork and beef sandwiches, fruit and jello salad with cupcakes and ice cream to top it off. We decorated in red balloons and giant snowflakes with a teal snowflake cake to share and a her own chocolate cake with red and white frosting which I think she loved. :) She was gifted a whole new wardrobe, some toys and books. She, again, had a great time with all the paper and new exactly how to open presents (Christmas was just a warm up). We had a great time with family and Izzy crashed after her sugar high. What a fun first birthday!

Slacker..... Christmas Part II

Yes, it's true. I've given myself the title of slacker for the moment, but!... I'm trying to change or really just get back to my more consistent blog posts. Poor Izzy, her life isn't near as chronicled as Anna's has been. Such is the life of a 2nd born I suppose.

Since Christmas is long gone, I'll give a more brief snapshot of the rest of the holiday with the Tidd's. The morning of Christmas we spent in sweatshirts and socks as the power decided to take the holiday off as well. The "big" gifts was a new slide for the basement and a table and chairs for Anna's room. The highlights for Anna was the 6 pack of chapstick and her new monkey watch. Izzy loved her new little duckies. Gary and I decided to get a Wii and not have anything to open on Christmas. I don't mind joint gifts at all, but I missed the excitement of the gift giving, things I found that Gary would like. So next year we'll mix it up a little again. We headed to Gary's parents for the rest of the day where we opened gifts with the family and extended family. It was followed up with a delicious meal! New Years weekend we spent in Chicago with my family. New Year Eve we met up with old friends and had a great time! The next day, we all were in town together and had a great time opening gifts, having Anna help everyone open, Izzy just enjoying all the paper and just having a fun time being together. All in all, Izzy had a great first Christmas and I'm sure the girls will really enjoy Santa following them to Chicago and back and having 2 Christmas'. Who wouldn't!? :)

Christmas 2009 Part 1

Happy 2010! We had a great, but cold and snowy December. Before I begin, here are the latest pictures of happens around the Tidd House. Izzy was able to experience her first Christmas and seemed to love it. Definitely different having Izzy at almost 1 year old experience the holidays than we did with Anna being just over 2 months old. Anna certainly understood the meaning of presents and that she felt entitled to open almost everyone's gifts whether they liked it or not. She recognized Santa everywhere and loved seeing "mish mish" trees outside and at home.

We spent Christmas in Michigan this year. Christmas Eve we had a mid-day dinner and hoped to go to the early service at church but very icy roads and 2 sleepy girls, kept us from going. Gary and I braved the roads to get to the late service to do nursery. We opened up stockings with Grandma, Grandpa and Aunt Sheila. After Anna emptied her stocking, she moved on to the rest of ours helping us unwrap and showed off the goods. We finished up the night watching some of Polar Express on the big screen in the basement. Anna was intrigued for moments at a time, but I think as the years go by, they'll love this tradition. Izzy, of course, snuggled mostly.

Christmas Day we woke up at about 6am to the click of our power going off. Any slightly severe weather seems to knock us out. About 7am found us all in bed realizing that this may be the last year the girls are clueless as to the bounty that lies on the floor below. So we all bundled up in sweatshirts, pants and socks and followed Daddy downstairs with the video camera. Anna was thrilled with the new slide for the basement and then discovered a table and chairs where she remained to open the rest of the gifts. Izzy enjoyed the toys that fit snuggly in her hands and climbing the slide. The most loved things Anna got..... a 6 pack of her very own chapstick. She could have put it on all day if we didn't snag it. Gary and I decided to not do gifts this year and buy a Wii as a joint gift. I really like the Wii so far but I really missed the giving of hunted down treasures and little keepsakes this year. So think we'll figure out a better mixture of next year's festivities. Just as I was thinking "it's starting to get cold in here" I heard a click. The furnace! Thank you Consumers Energy people to coming out on Christmas morning so we can be warm. We promptly got ready to spend the day with Gary's family. We had a wonderful dinner and opened up more gifts.

To Be Continued very soon......

Only 10 more days!

I'm currently working on our Christmas card and hoping to not break my record of December 21st and getting it finished this weekend and out! Meanwhile, you can check out the latest girly girl photos here and if you want a little more Tidd, check out our video page here.

Hope this finds you filled with peace and joy, with all your cookies baked, presents bought and travel plans arranged!

Love,

Gary, Christie, Anna and Izzy

Where did November go?

Well, I apologize for my delinquency. For whatever reason, I've put this blog to the back burner but have plans to revive it now and at the start of the new year. Here's a run down of how the Tidd's are fairing this late fall.

Izzy: She is 10.5 months now! We had her 9 month check up where she was over 10 months by then and she tipped the scales at 18 lbs. 2 oz. and about 27" long. She's in the 25% for her weight and height but her head is in the 95%. The first time a Tidd girl got anything in the 95th percentile! She's an eater, she'll eat as long as we give her food. Well in recent days, she starts to sweep her hands rapidly over her food, letting it fall to the floor. We consider that done. She'll eat anything we give her from fish, steak, chicken, broccoli, any fruit and crackers. Almost done with that darn baby food! We thought she'd never have any teeth at this rate, but just last night I felt a little pearly white poking through. I only swept my finger in her mouth because she was doing that "theres something that's different with my mouth b/c my tongue keeps flicking it" movement that I remember Anna doing. So finally, she cut her first tooth as of November 30! For a couple months already she's been standing on her own, more recently walking around furniture and repelling only one step to something else. But last night, yes another milestone, she took her first few unassisted steps! Again, I thought she might lolly-gag and wait till after she turned 1 but she may just beat her sister out with only a week or so to spare in the walking department. She also learned how to climb the stairs last week. I guess I would say, another milestone, but I could have gone awhile yet before she figured that one out.

Story: Gary and Anna were racing their cars down our long hallway from the stairs into the kitchen one night. As with most events not originally featuring Izzy, she found her way over to them near the stairs. Gary and Anna were playing and Gary just so happened to turn to catch Izzy falling from the 3rd stair! What a little stinker! So we let her climb both sets to stairs to declare her victory.

She's becoming quite the character. She'll scream with Anna, jabber on and on by herself or in sister language, she'll race over to snatch the toy of the minute from Anna only to find herself tackled or poked or hit by Anna followed by a trip to timeout stair. Oye. She smiles the biggest goofiest smile and lays her head on your shoulder (awww...!). She whips her head around from side to side so she won't miss a thing. I'll have to snag a video of that someday - too funny! She'll even wave on command now. The whole clapping thing.... nahhh.... She needs tricks to pull out later.

I can't believe in less than 2 months she's going to be 1! What an unexpected surprise she was to us and we can't imagine her not in our family anymore.

Anna: Our little 2 year old. Two. Wow. We have a 2 year old. Where did all that time go? It wasn't that long ago that it was just Gary and I. Now we have 2 kids in less than 2 years! Crazy. Anyway, Ms. Banana is developing so many words, phrases and sentences every day. She says words I didn't even know she knew. And she says them with such clarity! She puts a person (Mommy, Daddy, Uncle Alex, Papa) with a feeling (hurt, fall, read, eat) and a thing (leg, book, chicken). When we're driving down the road, something that happened months ago pops into her head and start rattling off who was there, what happened, what she saw, etc. Her stats are 35" tall and about 25 pounds. Her head is in the 75th percentile and the rest, you guessed it, the 25th. So Gary and Christie make giant headed baby girls. :)

Story: Driving home one day, she said Munga (grandma) hurt leg. Munga fall. I wasn't with when this happened, but a few weeks back they all went out for dinner and Grandma fell outside. And she remembered that. She also remembers that she bit someone. "Bite Jayden. Anna timeout. Anna naughty timeout chair." Not the best thing to recollect but she did. :)

She likes to tattle on Izzy. "Mommy.... Izzy touch." I tell her I'll take care of it and walk over to where Izzy is (by the receiver near the TV) and Anna's going "No no Izzy!" with a firm voice like we do. Oh boy. She loves music and loves to sing. She sings herself but loves it when "Mommy sing Jesus" or "Daddy sing spider" which sounds more like farmer. She sings along or fills in the word. She bops her head to music anywhere and sometimes she gets us all to dance together.

She loves to wear hats, mittens and shoes when they are laying around. She loves "runnin'" around in circles. She still loves reading and the occasional puzzle. She still would rather eat fruit all day long if we let her.

She's had a couple milestones of her own. First, we converted her crib into a big girl bed just over a week ago. The front part of the crib comes off and the little half rail takes it's place. We bought her new sheets and a comforter to go with it. She took to it just fine but doesn't care for all the covers quite yet. We don't think she knows she can get out of bed on her own yet as we haven't heard extra playtime post 8pm but only time will tell. Her second milestone is that we started potty training again. Ding ding ding, round 2. Our daycare provided felt she was very ready and wanted to feel it out last week and she did so well that we continued it over the holiday weekend. She had a few accidents here and there, but overall she's really doing well! No tantrums when we bring her to go potty every half hour, will actually try to go and not just say all done like she had been doing this summer. She's still in diapers for nap and bed but that's fine by us! Our goal is have her completely trained by Christmas! Merry Christmas mom and dad. :)

Parents: We are totally enjoying being parents. We get to see daily what strides they made that day, their new actions or words, being more confident in something they struggled with a week ago, their sicknesses (which is the worst) and their joys. We are blessed with beautiful little girls who keep us moving and keep us wanting to be better parents, a better couple and better individuals.

Our jobs are going well. Certainly very busy all things considered, so for that we are very thankful. We're in the process of cleaning out the basement some more and getting ready for trim and doors hopefully in the next few months. We (well I) am ready for it to feel a little more put together and a place for all of us to be. I have a lot of crafty/home projects I want to work on so maybe with the slow down of side work for the time being, I can fit that in.

We've also both taken to a newer, healthier lifestyle. Back story: Gary went in for his yearly once over with Dr. D. and finally did his bloodwork that he had set up since last year this time. Well it came back with his cholesterol a little high (which runs in his family) and his triglycerides quite high. This kind of hit Gary realizing that maybe what he thought was healthy wasn't so healthy. So when Gary gets something in his head, he runs with it. Literally. :) I've been trying to get him to do some working out or something active for awhile and was always quite tired at night. So with this news, we changed almost instantly. We bought all new food with a ton more fruit and vegetables as snacks instead of packaged anything. We started packing really good hardy sandwiches, baked chips, tons more water and lots of exercise! Gary started working out at Calvin 3 days a week with plans for a family workout on Saturdays. I've been doing a class at GVSU once a week since the semester started but needed more if I was going to drop the weight too. So I started working out at home and I have plans to join the gym very soon to keep up with Gary and his mid-day workouts that I can't do. We're inspired each year by the Biggest Loser but this year really hit us both. For me, being a mom now, things hit me like they never have before and I want to be the fun mom, who plays with her kids and can climb stairs without being winded. I didn't want to be the mom who sat on the couch for her kids to come play near me. For Gary, he knows there are some things that run in his family that need to be addressed now, to stop being so tired at night and to just be more active. So far, Gary's down about 10 pounds from his average weight, but 5 pounds down from when we weighed in first. I'm down 3.5 pounds since our first weigh in and have never known to be this low ever! So we're very excited about what we're doing together, individually and for our family. We're getting ready to start our blog to document our progress and a whole host of other things.

We hope this finds you full from Thanksgiving and thankful for all the many blessings and preparing for the most spirit-filled and joyous time of the year!

Love to all,
Gary, Christie, Anna and Izzy