2 more months Rylan, 2 more months

That's how long Rylan has to be all terrible two-ish. I thought it was over. We've had some pretty magical weeks for about a month now. Rylan was amazing everyone with his increased talking, a tiny bit of sharing, playing with toys lots and lots, learning to potty, and helping mommy out with tasks like getting a new diaper for Max and such.

And, I'll tell you. I did this silly thing. I thought we'd been lucky enough to skip certain things. Like hitting. He really hasn't been much of a hitter, very occasional hits and they were more overzealous "I like you and I must touch you a little too strongly" type hits. I also thought he'd skipped the picky eater phase. And I really thought we'd said good-bye to the constant "no's" and I thought we'd cut down the whining considerably.

This last week was a real bitch. And I'm not going to apologize for that swearing. Cause, not only did return of the Two-ness come at us, but this weather change set off both boys' wheezy/coughy crap for airway selves. Cue albuterol induced crazy toddler and baby. By Friday, Rylan had bloody lips, I had a bruised toe and missing hair, Max had a bruised eye and a boo boo on his finger and everyone's nerves were frayed. The carpet had new spots on it, the air conditioner vent fell off and I think I gave myself lock jaw from grinding my teeth when I was stressed. Okay maybe not, but I might have been on my way.

On a bright side, our carpets are professionally cleaned and our cocker, Lola, got groomed. Lola tends to look like Alf when she's ready for a trim, and our carpet was starting to beg for a good wash. Both cleanings should help decrease the allergen level in this house and good moods happen naturally when things look cleaner and your cocker isn't bringing leaves and garden gnomes in matted in her hair.

The other good news is that we had a weekend of restarts and refreshment. I've put together some stuff to help use Rylan's energy for good instead of evil. Good boy charts, preschool packets, and some field trips to help the matter.

Before the crazy albuterol/terrible two induced craziness, we marveled in the decrease in temps and met up with our friends Krystal, Harper and Hayes at the zoo.

So excited to see each other

Harper loves her some Rylan

Really, really loves him

Max checking out the elephants

Our first time on the train

A stop for some lunch. Rylan spilled salt and Harper was teaching him to "clean up"

Massive turtle

A shared moment at the penguin tank

So, there are many differences between Max and Ry. Max is a seriously chillaxed baby, but one thing that Rylan has on him is, what I call, he's an "easy transfer". If he falls asleep in the car, I can get him into the house for a good nap *most of the time*. Even now, at almost 3, I carry that extra extra tall toddler in and get him cozy for a good snooze. Max....not so much. Even when he was an infant, I'd tiptoe into the house carrying his carseat, gently place him on the floor, look down, only to see his big eyes staring at me. At first you hope for both kids to nap at the same time, so you can nap or have some peace, but I've come to enjoy our afternoons where its just me and him. With the second, you get so little one on one time.

At first Max crawls around looking for Rylan and tries to break into his room to get to him, but then there is a moment when he realizes he has free reign of all toys. And he quits looking for Rylan and goes to town!

Here's some pics of such a day in our life. I must go now, part of our refreshing restart is getting my booty in shape.

I didn't get up at 5am

I had that whole intention. I also had the intention of starting my 545am workout regimen. I have crap for will power. I do. I admit it.

The truth is, our little dog and pony show has had a tough summer (year? year and a half?). And I know my my Bleaders (blog readers) are as tired of reading about our latest insect infestation/crazy illness/asthma flareup/ear infection as much as we are tired of living it. It'll get better, I know it will. Just feeling a tiny bit impatient on that one.

Howeva.......

Me and Rob? Got some cute kids. Like real cute. Here's a update on that business.

This baby????

Why, this baby is 11 months old. How did that freakin happen? He was born yesterday, I swears. I'm totally in love with this kid, he's the happiest kid on the planet. Except when you aren't holding him. But then don't sit down to hold him, cause that's super boring and he must get down. He has a LITTLE problem with biting, for which we are doing the totally correct thing that I'm sure we should write a book about: putting a pacey in his mouth. The way I see it, he's biting because his shark mouth has 8 teeth and more on the way and he doesn't understand that my fat thighs are not teethers. He isn't going to kindergarten with a pacey. I hope not anyway. And if its still a problem, I'll just homeschool. I have it all planned.

He has said his first word: LOLA. The two of them have a love like no other. Lola tolerates him pulling at her ears and crawling on her, in return she gets lots of yummies dropped in her general direction from his high chair.

He is a lover of all things meat. Its like he's on a self imposed South Beach diet. Well, if bananas and cheerios were allowed on SBD.

He is definitely sleeping better. And Rob and I grew some guts and have let him cry it out and go to sleep on his own. Some nights now, he almost seems thankful to be put in his crib, flops on his belly and is out, other nights, he tells us in baby talk that we are the worst parents on earth and he'd like to phone a friend (or Grammy). He's on about an 8pm to 6am sleep shift, and this I cannot judge.

I learned with Rylan to slow down and enjoy the ride. Enjoy them as babies, you don't get it back. Well, Max doesn't want to be a baby. He wants to hang with Rylan. He ate baby food for maybe 5 minutes, he crawled at 6 months, he'll be walking within the month, and now he stands up in the middle of the bathtub "look ma, no hands."

This big boy?????

Is 99.9% potty trained. And you'd never know he was adverse to the idea of peeing in the potty a day in his life. And that e-book I followed to do the super crazy 3 day training? She kind of knows what she's doing. I'm not saying its for everybody or even normal at all. It just worked for us. It was more like 5 days, and I changed some of the rules. But, the end result was that he's potty trained, he now tells me when he's got to go and we've used a million and a half public potties with success.

And sure, he did pee at Whole Foods next to the play area. And we did stick a diaper on him before driving 3.5 hours to see my parents. And I put a pull up on him to go to a play date cause he'd had some, um grossness the night before and I'd rather take a step back in potty training than clean grossness off of someone's furniture. But, I am soooooo proud of that kid.

We've been trialing him off of dairy for the summer with some luck. He's always had some stomach issues. I finally talked to one of the GI docs I work with and he gave me a list of symptoms that kids with dairy intolerance have. They include bumpy skin on the cheeks, arms and legs, lots of ear infections at an early age, asthma, and diaper grossness. Rylan got a checkmark next to every thing on the list. His, bathroom issues are sooo much better, and most of the other issues are too (minus the asthma one).

That's them in a nutshell.

Wanted: blogger that keeps up with her blog!

Before you see a tumbleweed blow across my blog, I'll get right on updating it. Not exactly immediately or anything, I'm just updating you all that I'll soon be updating you more.

1. Potty training takes longer than 3 days. Just sayin'. And doing it the fast way can wear a sister out!

2. A week after Max got the Herpely Derpelies, Rylan got the Herpely Derpelies. He would grab his throat and say his tummy hurt. It would have been funny if it was so pitiful. Sadness abounded. Babies needed mama rocking them.

3. My mom came to visit us. Read: save my sanity. The boys both had asthma flareups and Max had an ear infection/clogged ear tube followed by a week of potty training in which poor Max got the Herps, then Rylan got the Herps equalled yet another month gone by with us mostly stuck in the house. Thank you mama, I'll gladly throw blogging out the window to hang with you.

4. We went to visit my parents. As if we hadn't shoved our insane/insect infested/herps having mugs in my mom's face enough, we took our crazy show on the road and went to Mountain Home for the weekend. Ahhhhhh fishing for Rob, sleeping in for me, long talks with mom and sister. We unlabored for Labor Day.

I have a new goal to get up at 5am and blog/clean my house while everyone else is still asleep***. You'll be reading the fruits of that labor soon and very soon.

***I am aware that it is super sad I have to get up at 5am to be up before my kids who are 2.75 and 11 months old. This is why anyone who complains about their kid getting up early at 7:30am gets a face from me that requires at least 3 chins. 7:30 is a dream. A fantasy. I wish I was you!!!!

An Update, a Review, and More Illness

So, potty training has kind of been a pain in my arse ever since I started thinking about it. I have friends (more adequatenses) that thrive on their child being the first to do anything. They happily post on Facebook that their 16 month old just peed on the potty. There are others that I've watched make a yearlong battle out of the potty training and others (namely one in that crazy playgroup that I got kicked out of) that finally potty trained her kid at the age of 5. Its just such a crapshoot (no pun intended) on what you should do, how you should do it, and when your child is ready. I promised myself I would wait till Rylan was ready. I took a few "readiness" quizzes so that I knew the signs. I was patient. I dutifully bought my 41 inch two year old diaper after diaper after diaper. Having two kids in diapers, I chased diaper deals all over the this town, and had 3 friends and family members saving me coupons in the process. And I watched as 2 1/4 years old went by, I stayed patient. He turned 2 1/2, I saw signs he was ready, so we bought a book on how to train a boy. It was all about taking lots of time, doing it for an hour a day, not freaking out, being totally okay as time after time after time no pee goes in the potty and lots of pee goes on the floor.

Rybearski is now 2 3/4 years old and he no longer fits in several brands of size 6 (the largest size) diapers and he had started bringing me new diapers when he was wet. If he couldn't find a diaper, he'd bring a pair of pants. Unaware that is 190 degrees outside, these pants were not always shorts, sometimes he'd bring corduroy pants, sometimes jogging pants, one time the bottoms to a football uniform. Obviously, he now minded being wet. But, the laid back, take your time approach wasn't working for us.

1. I'm pretty sure the book is written by someone smoking marijuana. You cannot be THAT laid back about potty training. I'm pretty laid back and did my best, by come on......

2. I think our next step in diapers was a size small Depends and I just don't think that beats more rigorous potty training on any level.

3. Max is now a mover and a shaker and having pee spots on the floor doesn't mix with crawling toddler.

I had heard of the approach Potty Training in Just 3 Days, and I thought it was insane. You know, back when I had a child that wasn't ready to potty train. Several months, a billion diapers, and a baby crawling through pee spots later, I started thinking it was genious. I needed have a period of time, where I could get Rob to take Max, and Rylan and I could go 90-nothing potty training.

I won't bore you with all the details, but the weekend starts with throwing away all the diapers, going underwear only and flooding them with liquids. You then are supposed to watch them for signs that they have to go and run them (sometimes while they are peeing all over themselves, you and your house) to the bathroom, thus teaching them when "they gotta go." Then you say "tell mommy when you have to go pee pee" a million times a day. Guess how many times Rylan told us he had to go. 3. Every time he was put in bed or time out. Guess how many times he had to actually pee? A 1.7 million. Approximately. I tried, to the best of my ability, to follow the program to a T. It worked about 70 %. Rylan isn't scared to go potty. He has kept a dry bed every night and even woke up last night to go potty at 3am. I feel like it was a success in the sense that we got a really good start, learned all about the potty and how its not the Antichrist, and he got the start on feeling when he's got to go.

Last pic with a diaper on. He felt the need for a backpack and one of his old paceys as well.

Nothing says Potty Party/Boot Camp/Training like a cocker with a hat on. Oh, and Lola, your potty party is coming. Like, you keep up your antics and you'll be partying OUTSIDE. (Please note the towel lined hallway and Elmo with big boy underwear on. Both were big needs for a Potty Party)

Very excited about his plethora of Buzz, Woody, Nemo, Cars, Scooby Do, and Spiderman underwear

This pic was taken before Rylan really grasped what Potty Party meant. He kept saying Happy Birthday, Mommy to me. He got the hint after the 80th time to the Potty. And off came the hat and that smile.

Howeva, this whole "tell mommy when you need to pee"? Its going out the window. Its for the birds. I've got a boy that likes to tumble and play and read books and watch movies (moodies). He isn't about to stop and randomly say "mommy I've got to go potty." No amount of prompting or making him help me clean up his accidents is going to make him slow down at this juncture. I figured out that you have to learn what's best for your child and what works for your child. You know what works best for Rylan? "Let's go potty, mommy's gonna go first!!!!!" You've never seen a kid hightail it to the bathroom faster to beat his mom to pee. I love it. Not sure if its enough to write a book about or make my millions on, but, it has led to a visible lift in stress at our house. Today, as of 5pm, he's had a whole bunch of hits and only 2 misses. Yay Rylan!

As for illness.........someone in our house is sick again. Like, really sick. Like 104 fever sick. I'll give you a hint. It rhymes with snacks. Poor Max. He had a slight fever and sadness over the weekend, that we assumed was his shark mouth growing more teeth. Monday night he sprung 104 fever. I took him to the doc and he has a mouth full of ulcers and sores. Its similar to Hand Foot and Mouth Disease, its called Herpeangina. Bad name, terrible really. Because, the doctor assured me it isn't herpes like you get on your lips or down there.

A couple of weeks ago, when they both had their asthma exacerbation, Rylan complained of throat pain. I'm praying he had a slight case of this and we didn't know it and he isn't going to get this 104 fever business. He's already had a horrible wretched virus or 20 in his young life.

Almost as sad as Max? I keep quoting Dane Cook's comedy set and saying that Max has the Herpily Derpilies.

Here is cute, sick stuff trying out his new, big boy car seat. In actuality, he should have probably had this sucker weeks ago, but we were so poor from buying diapers by the dozens, we had to wait for potty boot camp.

Look at him, he's saying "mom, quit saying I have the herpily derpelies and put me in a luke warm bath!"

Update on Pee on Floor 2011

3 Day potty boot camp is still in progress. Today is the final day of the actual 'stay in the house, flood them with liquids and follow them around for signs that they are about to leak' day. And, its not going awful. Or awesome. But it is going and we are seeing marked improvement. But, seriously, I. Must. Leave. This. House. Soon. I haven't even stepped outside. And I'm pretty sure we should burn our bathroom floor.

New recipe on that other blog

Potty Party/Potty Boot Camp/3 Day Potty Training

Whatever the name, it starts today. We've got a potty chart. We've got dum dums and gummy worms for each successful potty. We've got a a Bissell spot cleaner for the unsuccessful potties. We've got zone defense-I've got Rylan, Rob has Max. We have lots and lots and lots of activities (movies, coloring, playdough, stamping, car racing, pancake making, block building, and painting) to make it fun. We've got tons of fun food (Teddy Grahams, popcorn, pizza, corndogs, muffins, pancakes, hot dogs) to make it delicious and carb loaded. I have a bottle of wine, just in case.

According to the e-book I read, and a few friends that have tried it, if I stick to the program to a T, Rylan will be potty trained by Monday night. I'll be back Monday to update. Pray for us. And our carpet.

He can do it, I know he can

Sleephater: an update

A few weeks ago, I posted about Max's hate for sleep. He was starting to get mobile and I knew I had a short window before he was able to pull himself up in bed. I learned from Rylan that once they can pull up to standing, it sucks being you. It wakes them up so much more. And picking them up and laying them back down hurts their feelings so much more. Well, 3 days after that post, guess what happened?

Uh-huh. Mr "I'm going to grow up so much faster than you are ready for" was already standing up in the bed. And using his fancy crib as a teether while he waits for us to come get him. I would lay in my bed, trying to let him put himself back to sleep and think "he's chewing on the bed, his brand new bed is going to look like a beaver got hold of it." So, I went to my friend Amazon.com and bought the brown crib cover that you see in the picture. I sucked it up and started trying to let him cry it out. Sometimes it works. Alot of times it doesn't. A few times I hear silence and I think I've won, I go to check and I see this:

He found the 4 inch area between his teething pad and bumper pad. He looks through it and waits for me to peek in.

Once he sees you, you get the following (my apologies for it being a little dark):

And really, who can leave that baby in bed? He's up and ready to party. On this party animal's behalf, he does sleep 8pm-5am MOST days, which is a huge improvement. And lately, his middle of the night sadness can be blamed on those stinky ear infections.

August: please bring health, we've got the happiness

Notice a difference between the left foot and the right foot in the ankle area? Perhaps the ant infected bulge coming out the right one? I'm starting to get my feelings hurt at this point.

So, the recap for July is: a flu epidemic, a head injury, double ear infections and 2 anaphalactic ant bite reactions. Yes, I said it, TWO ant bite reactions. AND double ear infections for Maxerdoodles. And guess what else? The ear tube in his right ear is clogged!!! I am putting drops in there that might clear it, but he might have to have more surgery. Sad times.

Here's his "I'm still happy and trying to have fun even though my head feels like it

needs to blow off" face. Love that little boy.

Luckily, we have some awesome family and friends taking care of us, you know, when we aren't infecting them with our filth! In between the crazy, we had a nice visit from my sister, a visit to my parent's house, and Rob's parent's house, and lots of fun playdates.

We've actually went to Jump Zone twice in the last month and I forgot to post pics from the first one, so I'm combining the two. Basically, its a gigantic building full of blown up bouncies and the kids can run and play and bounce and slide and be crazy.

Sweet Andrew

Max and Eli in the toddler area

ANYWAY, Jump Zone is so totally fun. I've been scared of it forever. I thought Rylan would need lots of my help, and that I wouldn't be able to keep an eye on Max. Turns out, Rylan could get on almost everything himself, and there was even one that Max could go in.

Max enjoying some "jump" time before all the big kids show up

There was an attempt to take a group photo. This is how good it went
Rylan and sweet Addi having a blast on the slide.

This is Max's newest cuteness. He waves. Just like this, sticks a hand out, all fingers spread. Its so sweet.

And here are some pics of our trip to my parents house. You know, before we infected them with our flu-ness.