Bored Shmored

Counting down the days till Ry and I are coworkers. I've gotten some comments about how bored I'll be. I'm aware it might not be as stimulating as a pediatric colonoscopy. I am also aware that the minute I realized I get to (for sure!) hang out with Rylan full time and work maybe twice a month, a huge smile graced my face. I know I'll get bored. I know if Ry could talk, some days he would say "take me to my Tiny Town." I also know that I love love love being his mommy. I love being home with him and taking him to fun places. I also know that if there is any way taking him out of daycare will make him less sick, I'll do it. I also know that if we have another year like the previous year (illness wise) I'll be blogging from a padded room. RSV, broken foot, bedrest, ear surgery, tongue surgery, bronchitis, Fifth's disease and Piggy flu nearly made the whole house Crazy Town. We deserve some good wholesome healthy family fun. Not that the past year has been a bad one. Its been the best year of our lives. We just would assume not repeat certain aspects, that's all. So, I'll take some boredom. Bring it.

In the story group we go to, they sing a song

Shake, shake, shake

Shake your moraccas

Shake, shake, shake

Shake your moraccas

They give the kids 0-2 years old all mini-moraccas and its the most adorable thing you've ever seen. The other night, I was making Poppyseed Chicken and Rylan and I did a version called

Shake, shake, shake

Shake your Ritz crackers

Shake, shake, shake

Shake your Ritz crackers

He's a super help in the kitchen. Especially if the help requires crunching up some Ritz crackers.

P.S. I promise to post more when I finally get done at this dad gum job!!!! I've been a mommy and nurse for 10 months now, but I am all of the sudden very overwhelmed. I think the fact that Rylan is no longer happy to sit in one place and play with his sock monkey has something to do with it. November 12th please come quickly.

SAHM

So, I kinda quit my job. I am uber excited. Ever since I went back to work 9 months ago, a little part of Rob and I have wanted me to stay home. At the time, I was coming off of a 4 month leave and my job had created a part-time position especially for me. I just didn't feel like I could leave them at that time. We toyed with the idea several times since then, especially when we were in the midst of a bad illness. When the swine flu hit before October even began, the straw broke the camel's back. It was time to get Rylan out of daycare and stay home.

The truth is, I've been trying to act like a stay-at-home mom AND still work. I did the homemade baby food thing. I go to the story time and joined a little mommy group to go to the park and such. I like it and I miss doing it when I'm at work.

At the same time, I'm scared of being completely out of the working world. I am trying to work out a plan so that I can go in for 6 hours or so once a week. Just to keep my foot in the door, keep my seniority and remember how to be a nurse. Some mom's have a mother's day out, I'll just go to a hospital for mine.

So, as of November 12th I will be a SAHM. Stay at Home Mom. Trying to be as fun as Rylan's friends at the Tiny Town. Trying to make my house cleaner and my bills lower. Did you know people out there have whole websites just to teach you how to get the most bang for your buck at Walgreen's, Kroger, and Wal-Mart???? Seriously, the first time I read it, I felt like I needed an Accounting Degree from Harvard. Its almost as hard to understand as LOST. There are coupons and register rewards, BOGO, rebate slips, then all the sudden they have a stack of groceries for $30. HUH? I'll get it. Someday.

It might mean that we have to put all the vacations I come up with in my head on hold for awhile. We might be driving our 2000 and 2003 (paid off!!!) vehicles till they die. When Rylan and I go to eat with Rob during his lunch break, it will be more a shared $5 Footlong than a Cobb salad at YaYa's. But the payoff will be so worth it. For one, we are hoping, Rylan might stay a touch healthier this winter.

Here are some pics of my boys and I on a fabulous fall day last weekend. Rylan loves pumpkins. The look. The touch. The veggie of our lives.

Is this how the Cocker Flu starts?

Mini-me, you complete me

So, its been established that I play no part in the genetic make-up of Rylan Qualls. I was merely a vessel to get Rob's clone on this earth. That's okay with me, I kinda have always liked the looks of Rob, so to raise a mini-Rob ain't so bad. Well, the other night, I'm in the back of the house, and I come into the living room to see this:

The red striped shirt, jean, both with a remote. Cracked my stuff UP!

Pigs and Pumpkins

You know that dream where you are running from the bad guy, but you have quick sand in your shoes, so you know he's eventually come get you, no matter what you do? I realized I've been having that dream. Except the damsel in distress is Rylan, and the bad guy is Swine Flu. He caught us. Rylan's got the H1N1. He's had the ear infections, the RSV, the Fifth's Disease, stomach flu, and lotsa colds. Why wouldn't the Piggy Flu hit us? I was just kind hoping. Alot. He's being such a trouper. He did roll over and try to eat the plant last night, so maybe he's on his way back to health. So far, crossing fingers and toes, Rob and I are well. Tired because poor Rylan is up alot at night, H1N1 is painful. But well all the same.

On a happier note, the day before he got sick, we took Rylan to a Pumpkin Patch. So much fun. We went to a middle-of-the-road Pumpkin Patch. Somewhere in between simply going and picking a pumpkin out of a bin of pumpkins and having a carnival and scarecrow clowns and such. He fed some goats and chickens at the petting zoo, then we took him to the actual Pumpkin Patch and got a pumpkin for each of us (large, medium and small). He was very serious about the pumpkin being in the wagon with him. I'm pretty sure it became his baby and he felt he needed to protect it. And eat it. He cried when we took them out to weigh them.

I'm hoping he had a good time. I know we loved watching him. I think I have a bucket list of all the things I want to see my son do and see. I didn't realize it, but everything that I hear is happening I'm automatically thinking "oh I need to take Ry!" Check off Pumpkin Patch. Except I think the list resets itself with each birthday.

New best friend

Protector 'o' the pumpkin

Rylan decided to do his "woo" pig sooie mid picture

I guess we just put Rylan down in lots of pumpkin spots