Tyler and Backyard Fun!

Hi everyone! Great news! Our synthetic grass and turf was installed last week, and BOY are we happy with the results. I figure we'd take you guys on a little trip back in time to see the progression of this project. :)

1) June. I finally convince Will & Company that the deck needs to go. Why? So many reasons but the main ones were that wood was unfinished (lots of splinters for Tyler), there were different levels (tripping hazard for Tyler) and most importantly - RATS living underneath the deck. Whoohoo! Here's Will starting the demolition with Tyler looking on.
2) The demolition started really slow. It was tough to work while Tyler was wandering around. He was pretty good in the beginning in helping us pick up screws (which there were a million) but then even he got bored. A couple days in, we realized we might have bitten off more than we could chew. There was a deck underneath the deck! AHH!

3) Never surrender! We pushed on, thanks to a day's help from Will's dad and my dad each. Plus an awesome professional powerdrill that Will's dad had! By this point Tyler was NOT allowed in the backyard since it was just way too dangerous. Man, there was SO much wood!

4) omg. We finished. Found random concrete slabs in the ground. Very strange. Hired Trina's handyman to dispose of the close-to-6,000 pounds of wood. By this point, we were not interested in any more hard labor. You can see the discoloration on the low walls - which we had to paint-match and repaint. Also, there were holes where the beams came out that we needed to patched. AND bricks needed to be laid along the whole corner where the wooden bench used to be. Amazingly, we did it all ourselves!

5) July. We filled the holes, repainted and laid down the bricks. Whew! Ready for some grass! The next few weeks we had various companies come out and give us estimates on putting in the fake grass and putting green. It's quite amazing the difference in product quality these companies represented as well.

6) Last week of July, installation begins! We went with SouthwestGreens. They started out by moving a lot of the dirt, adding their special stuff and then compacting everything. Oh yes, they also got rid of those pesky pieces of concrete too.

7) They worked fast! By the second day they were already cutting turf! Here's the putting green grass. The grass actually comes in big rolls, like carpet. They were very efficient, and explained things along the way.

8) Voila! Finished product! A LAWN in our backyard! I am extremely happy with it. For the first time, Tyler can run around and we don't have to worry he's going to fall and hurt himself on the splinter-y wood. He LOVES it! Plus he can play on his slides now, and we moved his house/car outside where there's more room for him to play.

Wow, that was a lot of information about our yard huh! Sorry, was just too excited and wanted to share. Next task? Cleaning up all the trees/bushes/weeds surrounding the yard now. Before we didn't care really how it looked because we were never out there.. but now - everything's different!

One of Will's coworkers (Tim) was on an Alaskan vacation recently and brought back this cute train engineer dressup for Tyler since he knew Tyler was crazy about trains. The bandana and hat were still pretty large on him, but you get the idea. It also came with this wooden train whistle that sounds just like a real train's whistle!

Ooh, this was a big deal this past week. Will actually got a home cooked meal! Obviously, I can't take all the credit. :) T and M came over and we made curry dumplings and green onion pancake. From scratch! Very fun, very tiring, but worth it since it was so yummy and we had tons of leftovers! Keep an eye open for our monthly home cooked meals. :)

The curry dumplings were really yummy and ridiculously filling. Tyler ate one and was full. The cool part about it was that we BAKED them! And the green onion pancakes were SO good. I want more.

Family picture! That night encouraged me to maybe think about possibly potentially cooking more. Although, I did make some chicken wings earlier in the week - which was quite unlike me. To think, maybe Tyler would get unmicrowaved food? Wow!

With the new yard, we have been playing outside EVERY DAY. No exaggeration. Tyler is so excited that he can actually go outside and will keep asking to put his shoes on so he can go out and play. He's gotten better at putting them on himself too... hehe. Here's a video of Tyler the first day the installation was done and he got to go outside. Funny moment: Tyler getting the ball into the hole and then whacking Will in the eye. Ok, maybe not so funny...

Here's Tyler about to push the ball into the hole. He's deep in thought.

We got this cool bubble rocket on clearance at Target. Supposedly you step on it and it bursts into the air leaving a trail of bubbles (or so they would like you to believe). The rocket part was cool, but the bubble part sucked. Still, Tyler really liked it. Check out this video - everytime Will shoots the rocket up, Tyler gasps and looks so surprised. It's super cute, but you have to look closely.

Over the last couple days, and with Will's patience, Tyler is starting to understand putting more, well as much a 2 year old can...

Here's another video of Tyler putting. Notice he's got much more controlled movements this time around. Keep up the good work Tyler!

I thought this was a funny picture. We have a family of lizards in our backyard that I don't mind at all. Tyler likes to see them too! Here's a photo of him hanging out the window of his little house checking out a lizard.

And yay! - Tyler and his slide. We had been hesitant, when we first got the slides, to let him go on them because he would slide onto the hard concrete or splinter-y wood. No more worries now! Tyler loves his slides.

Here's a video of Will playing with Tyler on the slides. Funny moment? Watching Tyler almost fall over because he's laughing so hard while trying to climb the slide. Silly moment - Tyler landing kind of on his face at the beginning. He's ok! No worries!

Thanks to this awesome Toy Clearance Target is having, we also got Tyler a little picnic table! Here's a picture of Will putting it together today - Tyler was all about helping out but instead spread all the screws/washers/bolts all over the grass.

Finished product! We ate dinner outside tonight! Although, I may rethink this in the future - Tyler was WAY too distracted the whole time - and kept wanting to go play with his toys. One not so great thing about synthetic turf - I try to not get food on it - whereas with real grass I wouldn't even care.

Here are some photos I took of Tyler with my phone at Tyler's school. The last couple weeks Tyler has been transitioning from the Toddler room to the Pre-1 classroom. Biggest change? He's playing in the BIG YARD with all the kids up to Kindergarten. Yikes!

They have a ton of little bikes there. This one is a 3 person one! Here's Tyler with his friend Dylan pedaling and pulling their friend Zoe behind. How cute is that! I watched Tyler in the front seat and he doesn't seem to fully understand the pedaling concept - he'd rather use his feet to pull them. Some of his friends are super fast on the bikes!

Another change? Free access to a drinking fountain! I try not to think about the associate hygiene and how I'm sure Tyler's mouth is most likely touching the spigot...but.. still - how cute is that - what a big kid Tyler is!

Before lunch and snack, the kids all know to go wash their hands. Like, all by themselves! I watched Tyler turn on the water, squirt soap into his hand, SCRUB for a good amount of time, wash off, and then get a paper towel to dry. I know, seems silly that I'm so amazed, but I am!

Tyler discovered a new enjoyment this week - Jamba Juice! I've been really into fresh fruit juice lately, and thanks to a Buy One Get One Free coupon for Jamba Juice - I've been getting my fill. Tyler had some for the first time this weekend and was hooked!

I threw this picture in to show how Tyler smiles on command. Hm. Not sure I'm a fan of the intense teeth-grinding smile. Hmm... this was a tough lunch too - we were running late and it was way past Tyler's nap. Sigh. Incidents like that remind us that we can not stray too far from his normal schedule or there will be hell to pay!

And lastly, we visited our friends S and J in West Covina to see their new baby girl! She was only 2 weeks old - I can't even remember Tyler like that! I guess I could look in the archives... heehee. Tyler loved wading in their pool - next time we'll have to bring his swimsuit.

One thing I wanted to mention so I wouldn't forget - Tyler fell out of his bed last night! How, I'm not sure. There's only one small opening at the bottom corner of his bed and he managed to roll out. The rest is all completely surrounded! We were in bed and heard a THUMP and then MA-MA!!! I rushed over there and he was standing there crying and just kept hugging me. Poor baby! Another thing - he is LOVING lychee jellies, and his fingers look like they are healing nicely.

Update on potty training: he's told us a few times that he needs to pee, but mostly I'll tell him that mommy is going to go and does he want to join me? He'll sit on his little potty and we'll go to the bathroom together! He's pretty good at going together. :) Last week he actually told us he needed to poop and then pooped in the potty! baby steps...

Have a good week!