I'll take 2 ear tubes and 4 teeth for the win

Just a week late. Max did AWESOME during surgery. He was so excited to have Mom and Dad to himself and all the lights and shininess of the surgery center that he was hard to hold! We settled for standing him on the bed, where he pretended the thing was a jumparoo. It was quite comical watching the anesthesiologist trying to listen to his lungs while he jumped away on the bed. I tried to take pics/do a video but between that dang anesthesiologist asking me silly questions like "is he allergic to medicine? Is there a family history of heart problems?" and Max's mad love for constant movement, I just couldn't get a pic or video to turn out. So, here you go, a cuter than cute pic from his 6 month photo session.

And, I must say that we couldn't have made a better decision of timing, because Max's gums sprung forth his top teeth this week, causing him to be snotty and sad, and such. With all that going on, he would have had double ear infections, no doubt. Instead he's got mad love for chewing on your shoulder. Or arm. Or boob. Whatever looks chewy. That makes 4 teeth at 7 months. He's right on track with trying to be a shark, like his brother was.

Oh, and Rylan's speech problem? I've got it figured out, tell him something you'd rather he not repeat: no more speech problem.

"Daddy pee pee potty!"

"Max poo pooed, ewwww"

"my turn"

"dat's mine!"

"NOOOOOOOOO"

By far, my very favorite thing that Ry has said of late: I saw that Rylan, as usual, had eaten his bread and veggie and I told him to eat his meat. Apparently he thought that he needed to extend the bossiness and tell his dad to eat his meat. "DAD! EAT MEAT!!!!" He says this all the time at dinner.

Along with getting us packed for vacation, taking care of kids, cleaning up my house that I'm always cleaning, yet somehow never looks clean, and just plain WINNING, my goal for tomorrow is to download about a million pics and blog blog blog.

Good night, I've been so busy getting kicked out of playgroups and kissing and hugging on my two tots to update my blog very well. The actual problem was that our laptop was down for awhile, I lost my cell phone, and well, yes I've also spent a lot of time loving a kissing on my tots. We've been having a blast lately. I have lots of pics to share, and yes, I'm going all the way back to Easter. Cause that's what I do. I'm an ass like that.

First off, Max is getting ear tubes tomorrow (Tuesday). The rule of thumb for doctors is 6 ear infections in 6 months. We went to the doctor at ear infection #5, the doc informed me that one more would win us an ENT appointment. He put Max on a ten day dose of antibiotics. While he was still on the antibiotics, Max got DOUBLE ear infections. His whole head looked like he'd feel better if it popped off. He was oozy and feverish and sad. So I took him three days in a row for antibiotic shots to finally rid the infection. Needless to say, he's earned his tubes now. I'm super sad to see our baby have to go through surgery, but they have helped Rylan SO much, so I'm hoping that he gets the same help from them.

Rylan, oh my sweet Rylan. Its hard to be 2. I've learned this. Especially when you were an angelic baby. Especially when you are going through the terrible 2's and there is another angelic baby at your house. We're working through it, but if anyone knows a Baby Whisperer, send me their number.

Ry is 2.5 now. How did that happen, and where was I? I blinked and now he's so tall, he goes past my belly button! He is so loving, so funny, so athletic, and just plain my favorite OLDEST child.

Current loves: Elmo, Elmo, Elmo. Reading books about animals. And books about Elmo. Milk (milsh), noodles and hot dogs.

Current hates: Most meat, being in the double stroller, and not being able to take toys from Max.

Rylan still has delayed speech. There are two theories for why this has happened. One, Rylan was sick a lot during his first year of life, and the problems were mostly with his ears. He had fluid in his ears for a good part of the year, a year that is very important in speech development. The other is that Rylan is extremely athletic and some say that kids that are able to climb and jump and such very early are late talkers. They are simply too busy being physical to develop speech at the normal rate. I don't know if this is the cause or something else. All I know, is that its hard. For him, for us, for everyone. He can't let us know what he needs and he gets frustrated, often whining. Frustration and whining leads to mom and dad being frustrated. But, we are persevering and hopefully more and more words will come every day.

Here's a vid of something that Rylan is NOT delayed in: Dancing. He loves it. And we love him.

Rebel without a cause

So I got kicked out of a playgroup last week......

See, I thought joining a mommy group was a chance to meet other moms and for my kids to meet other kids and we'd frolic about town and have a lovely time. Which we did for about a year. I know I spoke very highly of the playgroup back in the day. It turns out that in this particular group, you must not make TOO good of friends with the other mommies, and woe be to the ones that decide to hang out without inviting the entire group. And if some of the older kids tend to hit your kid and their mommies don't seem to notice or care because they are too busy judging what you are wearing or telling you about their ovulation cycles and trying to make you feel bad for getting pregnant? You MUST hang out with them too. In the end, it became about the mamas and not about the kids. Which is sad.

Here's the deal....I didn't get kicked out alone. Me and about 5 other fabulous women, whose kids are wonderful got kicked out together. Yes, Harpie and Diddy were kicked out with us. We were all sick to death of the drama and the rules, and the hitting kids and ovulation talking, clothes judging mamas. We were also aware that our leader was upset that we hadn't severed ties with a mom that had quit the group and started her own. But it didn't feel right to leave. We thought we were doing the right thing for our kids. And now, we all feel like we used to feel when we didn't like our boyfriend but he got to break up with us first.

When one door closes, another opens. A friend of mine, Ashley, who was smart and quit the group a few months ago, has started a much smaller, much more positive playgroup. So Rylan, Max, and I are the happy members of Small Fries. And it rocks. Although I don't like that someone made the decision for me, life without that passive aggressive, judgmental. and downright gigantic sack of crazy has been pure bliss. I never knew how stressed they made me until I deleted them all from facebook and my phone and any other form of communication. A million pounds of stress lifted off my shoulders.

Just had to share my story of how I'm a problem child. At least I had good company.

Mother's Day

My first Mother's Day November 15, 2008

My second Mother's Day October 1, 2010

And the two have been making us laugh ever since. Happy Mother's Day to all!