Who's that girl???

That's my sweaty fat face after my second workout of the day!! Whaaaaat?  

Could somebody maybe just maybe be trying to FINALLY be a better somebody?

Here's the back story. Max woke up Tuesday looking like this:

It's impetigo. It's pitiful and it guaranteed us another week of being awesomely dramatically woe is me I have to stay homers. Until yesterday. It looked so much better. I work Fridays so we prepared to take the kids to daycare and I got up at 4:45am and did Zumba Rush*.

And then I heard Max whimpering and found a feverish boy in his bed. So Rob stayed home with him till noon, them we switched and I came home. Little pitiful was sleeping like, well, like a baby. So I got my step aerobics step out and did whatever moves I could think of while I watched a dvr'd Project Runway.

I don't know who this girl is that would not only wake up at 4:45 am to work out, but that would do a second one just because my kid took an extra long nap. But, I like her and I want her to stay.

I don't, howeva, like these bugs that keep plaguing my Maxerpoodle. It's just so sad.

*I got the Zumba dvds that you see infomercials for recently. I've tried out the basic and the 20 minute one (Rush) and a tiny bit of the Advanced. I LOVE LOVE LOVE the Rush. I like the music, I like the dances, I literally hum the tunes all day after I've done it. Its 23 minutes, and I know I should do a longer workout, but I just don't like the others as much, so I've started doing the last two songs twice, they are exactly 7 minutes, which gives me a complete 30 minute workout.

Let's talk about dairy

Or the lack thereof.

A year ago (and some change) we took Rylan off of dairy. He wasn't showing actual allergic reactions to it, but he had a strange group of symptoms and was sick, like, ALL THE TIME. We took him off dairy, voila. The rash on his face and arms that came and went for the first 2 years of his life? Gone. The (sorry, too much info), watery doo? Not so watery. The asthma? Still there, but not making such common visits. Ear infections? One since giving up the sauce, er, milk. One tiny infection in over a year.

And here comes Max. Lover of milk. Max got ear tubes at 7 months after having 6 ear infections. Between 7 months and 15 months, Max had eight more ear infections, with ear tubes. EIGHT! So, we had the doc take the adenoids. This was the week of  Christmas. Between the week of Christmas and February, he had  four more ear infections. If you are doing the math, that is 20 ear infections in 17 months. Tired of medicine, tired of surgeries, and tired of seeing our kid sick and hurting, we threw caution to the wind and ditched the dairy for him to, because, really, what could it hurt?

Its been five months. Zero ear infections. Wha WHAT?????

Life without dairy takes getting used to, but it has been so worth it. And yes there are hard times, like playdates when I have to tell them they can't have the childhood favorite of goldfish crackers. And yes, I do occassionally let my guard down and let the poor kids have a cupcake slopped with buttercream icing at a child's birthday party. My theory is that they are not ALLERGIC to milk, they are intolerant, so it isn't life threatening. A very once in a while treat is okay. And skipping a few goldfish crackers on a daily basis makes it okay to have the very occasional yumminess like a yummy cupcake.


I have been able to substitute non dairy for most meals to the point that the kids don't realize they are missing out. It requires a lot of homemade vs. quick and easy, which is time consuming but healtier anyway. Bye bye Kraft mac n cheese, previously mentioned goldfish crackers, and out to eat pizza.  The only things I haven't mastered at home is a non dairy cake icing and lasagna. What do you do for the ricotta/cottage cheese part? I guess I have their whole lives to figure it out.


Here are some helpful things that have helped us with our switch.


-"Light" margarine is dairy free
-Duncan Hines cake mixes and brownie mixes are dairy free
-If you take your own cheese, nice pizza places will make your kids a pizza with dairy free cheese and they don't have to do without.
-Anything labeled "vegan" is dairy free.
-Whole Foods has almond milk yogurt that my kids would like to swim in.
-Snack time was hardest, my kids have come to love peanut butter crackers, pretzels, nutra grain bars, dried   fruit, applesauce, oreos, soy or almond milk yogurt, nuts, jelly toast, cereal, and hummus and veggies.
-DAIYA cheese melts the best for pizza
-Veggie cheese (found by the tofu) is nasty if you eat it as is, but isn't bad on a sandwich.
-When you remove massive amounts of milk from your kid's diet, they are hungry for food like meat, veggies, and fruit. At least at my house.
-Restarants that are easy: fast food (real butter costs a lot, they fry in cheap non dairy grease), chinese food, and seafood.
-Restaurants that are hard: pizza, baked foods, expensive restaurants such as a steakhouse. They cook in butter mostly. If you remember to ask for no butter, its fine, but I don't think of things like this.

 July 4th Ribs and corn on the cob, he's in a dairy free food coma.

Holiday candy is tough. Mostly skittles and jelly bean type stuff. The flip side for my kids? More swag. Spiderman hats/color wonder paper/color books are dairy free.

Branson!!!!

I added it up last night and me and my little family have traveled in my poor, 180,000 miles, 2003 Escape for over 50 hours in the last month! Holy moly. This partially explains my infrequent blogging. The fact that I have adult ADD (not actually diagnosed by a medical professional, just by me) also can explain the blog break. After my grandpa's funeral, but before the salmonella outbreak, after the trip for Aunt Staci's graduation, but before the second trip to Kansas for a wedding, we ventured up to Branson, MO for a family vacation. Love my family. They are worth the car trip.

The amazing house that we rented

Happy Rob, tired Max enjoying the porch

Sister Tammy

Max has reached the "mom, quit taking pictures of me" phase of his childhood.

He will smile with his Aunt Tam

Cars swimmies? Check. Cars swim trunks? Check. 

Our niece, Zoe. Rylan's bff.

How awesome is this pool? How awesome does that guy floating in the pool look? 

Goggles are meant to be carried not worn, fyi.

Nephew Anthony. 

This was supposed to be a pic of all of Zoe, because she hilariously jumped in the water prior to applying massive amounts of sunblock that was pooling in white clumps all over her body, but I accidently zoomed it. She's just so darn cute that I still managed a good pic.

After an awesome first night, chillaxing in our rent house, and an excellent morn chillaxin in our pool, we ventured to Silver Dollar City. See that baby that my mom is holding? His name is Max and he had a fever at this point. Unaware that he had stomach death and thinking it was teething, we dragged the poor bear to Silver Dollar City with us.

Trolley shot. 

Our family. We did good for a spur of the moment pic taken by a complete stranger.

Rylan thought riding rides with his mom was super LAME, but Aunt Tammy makes it awesome

Luckily Zoe thinks I'm cool or I'd have issues. Well, more issues.

Angie, Clay, Zoe, and Rylan.....riding rides with them is cool too.

The next day the family wanted to chillax more at the house/pool, but Rob and I and all our low mature level glory wanted to go back to Silver Dollar City. Zoe came with us. She's so good with our kids and they act better with her there. She's like our 5 year old nanny, really.

Once again, we drug our poor feverish (though low fever at this point) kid.

Eventually the rest of the fam went back to Silver Dollar City and, of course, Rob and I went back for a third time in two days. Why are we always tired? oh, yeah, we can't relax.

Someone started feeling better

Happy camper. Shortly after this pic, or maybe while I was taking it, the awful poo-tuation started. 

We are home for a full two weeks before our next trip commences. Hopefully lots of blogging will be done and all my pent up "I should blog about that" ideas can finally happen. Your welcome in advance.

What. The. Frick.

Anybody that has read this blog knows about my family's ability to catch some nasty crap. Let me list a few of the major ones:

Swine Flu (Rylan)

Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever (me)

Herpangina (Rylan once and Max twice)

Fifth's Disease (Rylan)

That nasty stomach death Max had last week? SALMONELLA POISONING!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I've already gotten a phone call from the health department.

We've pretty much narrowed the source down to the kiddee pool on vacay. Max drank massive amounts of that pool water. Ewwwww

Totally expecting the locust infestation and plague shortly. 

 The good new is, this little boy is feeling lots better. I never thought I'd be so happy to see normal poo.

In other good news, Rylan is still nutso. 

Max at 1.8 years, Rylan at 3.5 years

Aaaaack! So, the boys came home from Kansas 2 weeks ago with bronchitis. A few days later I developed laryngitis, then Max's became a sinus infection, then mine became a sinus infection. Fast forward two weeks and Max has developed stomach death. Like a 12 icky diaper a day kind of stomach death. For 5 days. He's been tested for a fun array of illness (salmonella, campylobactor). So much fun!!!!

My boys. Minus the bronchitis, pooping, whining, hitting,  love of putting all things (toothbrushes) in the toilet, my boys are at a really really fun age right now. Rob and I have actually felt the cloud of crazy that came with having babies so close together (especially boys that we have shitty ears and lungs too) lifting every day.

Rylan is 3.5. He is a sweetie-poo, especially right after waking and right before sleeping. I love those times of the day, when he wants to come sit by you and snuggle. He always whisper talks and tells us about his dreams (somehow, Humpty Dumpty is in 99% of his dreams).  At night, he loves to get in our bed and watch a "moodie". When we come to check on him, we get "I love you so much!" and other sweet nothings from him.

Lately he has MAD playdough love. He also loves all his "guys" which are a funny collection of action figures donated to him by his cousin, Anthony and his Grammy's mad garage sale skills, and many many McDonald's toys from our travels. Right now, Batman is playing a heavy role in the "guy" time. After watching Toy Story 9.5 million times, like I have, my first thought is to be happy for the guys when they get their time with their kid, like Andy and Jessie were. But when your kid is Rylan, it might not be such a coo. They are often drowned, buried, slept on, thrown in a fit of rage, sent down the slide, given playdough hair (and shoes and gloves), and sent off the porch like a canon shooter.

Max? Max is 20 months old. He weighs EXACTLY what he did on his 12 month check up. I'd maintain/lose weight if I ran EVERYWHERE too. Max is a happy, silly little kiddo. He loves his mommy and daddy, his dog Lola, and his brother soooo much. Guess what he loves more? His pacey. We are working on weaning, trying to make him take it out when he leaves his bed and only get it back when he naps or in the car. This is a blessing and a curse. It makes for better travel and the kid literally says "pacey night night!!!!" and hops in his bed. The curse is, Rob and I might be more hooked on that pacey then the baby is. And after this latest "poopsuation" he may never give that sucker up.

Max is so good at playing. Because he gets into lots of shinanigans (previously mentioned toothbrushes in the toilet, also eating playdough,we get a little nervous at any quiet time in the house. He is on his way to talking up a storm. Right now he does the most random and adorable thing: he adds "na na" to almost every word. Or uses "na na" as a catch all for words (or people) he can't say the name to.

Going through the book Brown Bear sounds like this
"bear na na"
"dog na na"
"horse na na"

Arriving at my parents house sounds like this
me "say hi to Grammy"
Max "hi Na Na"

A couple months ago, my boss talked to me about the possiblity of working Mondays or Fridays instead of my yearlong Thursday on stints. These are now their busy days, and being a girl that likes to feel needed, I checked into Tiny Town letting the kids move days. It was looking like that wouldn't happen. At the same time, we were getting sooooo sick of all the testing required to get Rylan free speech therapy from the state. Its been 4 months and he has just now got accepted, just in time for them to go on summer break! Yeah them!!!

So, we started looking at other school options. Rylan's bestie, Harper, goes to an awesome school and they just happened to have an opening for Monday/Friday for both kids. I was planning on just working Monday OR Friday, but the school wouldn't just do one day. After seeing the school and their curriculum including teaching sign language and Spanish, imaginary trips to the zoo, and a really awesome outside play area, we were sold. PLUS they contract with a therapy place that can come and provide Rylan speech therapy. DOUBLE SOLD! So, the boys have moved to real, big boy preschool. And, I have started working two days a week. If we could shake the illnesses and stop traveling so much, I think the switch will be awesome. At present time we are a little stressed. It'll work out.