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!

Too much illness, never too many smiles

Instead of going into detail, I shall just say that Rylan, Max, and I all have the immune systems and bodies that can SUCK IT!!!!! So, instead of describing mean ole' ear infections, allergy induced pneumonia, and death fever any more, I will give you some cute, gummy, happy babies. Cause they are more fun to talk about.

Max is finally big enough to enjoy the Wonder Place, he loved it. Shortly after I shot this pic, he puked peas all over that mirror. I did my best with a wipe and we scooted away.

Mini tub for the babies, he was in love. And really really wet.

I figured out that putting Rylan in a bright shirt is a smart idea on free adult day. So many kids and I start to hyperventilate when I don't see my boy. This shirt did the trick.

This is just a random day. I got some free samples of Emergen-C and they came with stickers, which Rylan put all over his person. He loves this hat so much, he wore it to the doctor's office. Oops mentioned THAT wretched place.

Speaking of doctor's offices I went to a rheumatologist today that was neither creepy or mean. Both things I feared just because I figure to play with rheumatic problems full time you would have to be both creepy and mean. So, through my two ouchy pregnancies, and my death fever issues, I have discovered some diamond of doctors (and some duds-my OB doc for Rylan and orthopedic surgeon). So, if you need an OBGYN, rheumatologist, PCP, or eye doctor, give me a holla!

Surprise fun filled Saturday

So, last Saturday Rob says to me "want to go to Garvin Gardens?" WHAT????? Rob isn't a giddy up and go kind of a guy. He's a planner. And after a week driving 80 miles round-trip every day, he likes a nice weekend at home. (Rob, if you are reading this, I'm not complaining, just telling a story, love you boo!) So, when he suggested Garvin Gardens I spent a few moments not knowing what to do with myself, then I sprung into action and we packed up the cutie-patooties and headed to Hot Springs for the day. We had never been to Garvin Gardens in the daylight, just for the Christmas light festivites. Its BEAUTIFUL! And pushing 55 pounds of children in a stroller the size of a VW bug is great exercise.

Blurry cuteness

Koi pond, before Rylan tried to jump in

And on his farm he had some lambs and penguins

Last week, the boys and I went to Mountain Home for a few days with the grandparents. During our stay, we made a trip out to some friends' farm to see some animals. They had lambs that had literally been born the day before we came, chickens, bunnies, and dogs for the kids to see.

Chasing chickens

A three day old lamb. so precious

Such a closeup, but oh so cute. Here's our Max. All smiles and happiness.

We eventually packed up and made the journey back to the big city to see Rob/Daddy and had a great, relaxing weekend. Thank goodness the warm returned. Soon I'll be blogging about the dad gum heat, but seriously? That little cold spell wasn't a fun joke Madre Nature!

This past Monday was a real boring day....It rained....and poured.....and I am too accident prone to get two kids out when it rains, pours, blows, and sleet/hail/snow/slushes outside. So, we stayed in and read 20 books, played blocks and playdough, lots of army men, and watched some movies.

But Tuesday? Tuesday we got to meet some friends at the zoo. They have penguins now. I didn't know I loved penguins. I love penguins. I'm not sure I want to be real close to one, but through a glass partition, yes please.

Here's Ry trying to be one with the monkeys.

Making a call to Daddy on his hand phone, he's all business

Getting his head stuck in the fence

Ry's favorite zoo animal

The penguin exhibit. Look how excited Ry is about it!

And at some point, these three cuties gave us the cutest show in town. To Rylan, these girls are Diddy and Harpie, to everyone else they are Lily and Harper.

Catching up

I have every intention of getting up early every day and doing a quick blog post about the goings on of the Q-Fam, but then something shiny catches my attention, or dad-gum Facebook gets my attention and takes up my no-kids time, or I check my eyelids for cracks for an extra hour (sleep). Basically I have ADD of housework and computer time. Oh well. My kids are fed and loved and played with and my house only halfway looks like a landmine went off in it.

ANYWAY, like a week and a half ago, we joined our playgroup at the skating rink for some cute kid-time. Once a month they open the rink for little kids to bring any form of wheeled vehicle they can carry in and they get full rein of the place for a couple hours. The first time my playgroup went, I was a scaredy cat and didn't go. I was a little concerned about the whole two kids, one that doesn't walk situation. But, then I remembered my beloved ERGO kid carrier (more on that in another post). I strapped my snuggle-Max to my chest and was able to run after Rylan all I wanted.

Aunt Angie, Uncle Clay, check out how awesome Rylan was on his battery operated 4-wheeler. I saw at least 2 other kids coveting the awesomeness.

Snack time with Lily. She shared her m&m's.

Rylan was happy just to run around the floor under the disco ball and strobe lights. Then he found the Little Mermaid car, and became obsessed.

Ry's friend Drew, he scootered so much he got real tired.

The obsession continues, and he basically tried to steal it

Cutie Eli. His mama Cheryll is sooooo smart. Next Friday, when we do this again, Max is getting hooked up with a walker.

I turned around when we got home to see this. Cutie patootie.

Then last week, or so, we met our friends at Allsopp Park. I think this might be our spring/early summer Wednesday hangout. We've been two of three of the past Wednesdays. I was picked to host a House Party for Philadelphia Cooking Creme. If you haven't heard of www.houseparty.com, let me tell you about it. When a company has a new product line, they offer House Parties to get word of their product out. You apply to host a House Party, and, if chosen, you are sent a huge box of free stuff and coupons to pass out to your guests, products to demo at your party, and a hostess gift.

This was my first time being chosen. I decided that playdates at my house are uber stressful on me, and after the last one, we had a ripped up book and cookies all over the floor. This wasn't a problem when we had Curt, the wonder cleaner upper of all things meat and cookie. But, our other dog, Lola, isn't what you'd call "helpful." So, I hosted the party at Allsopp Park. I was given free Philadelphia Cooking Creme in every flavor. I used the Original to make spinach dip, the Savory Garlic to make calzones, and the Santa Fe to make chicken enchiladas. It was all delicious. My hostess gift was the world's most awesome skillet, and my guests got coupons and wooden cooking spoons and cookbooks with recipes using the cooking creme.

Oh yeah, the day of the house party, Rylan, randomly decided 3am was a good wake-up time. So, here he is at 8am, about to crash and burn. Usually he's my kitchen helper. Not so much this day.

The spread. I added some cut up veggies so that we didn't completely clog our arteries in one day, eating 3 kinds of cream cheese.

Rob successfully survived his 2nd playdate. The first one was a little overwhelming to him and he skirted out early, but this one was better. When the estrogen became too much, he took Rylan to the swings and had some dude time.

Our friends enjoying the party delights.

After filling our bellies with cheese, the kids decided to romp in the creek that I can only hope isn't full of waste water from the local restaurants. The other kiddos did this thing called "wading." Rylan fully submerged himself and eventually tried to drink the water.

6 months of sweet cheeked love

Happy 6 month birthday Maxton! I am not entirely sure WHERE the last 6 months have gone, but I do believe they've been six very awesome months! You are the happiest baby that I've ever known. Thank you for your sweet smile, your slobbery kisses, your sticky hands, and your tolerance of brother Rylan's intense love for you.

They always say that God never gives you more than you can handle, and although we've dealt with ouchy pregnancy, Death Fever, full blown flu, our dog dying, and lots of ear infections and colds in the last year, God gave us a baby so precious, happy, and cuddly, we were able to handle it all.

Getting a ride in the coke cart from Rylan

I'll make his malnourishment appointment THIS WEEK, I promise

Hello, sweet babyface

My current very favorite picture of him. I sat him in the bumbo and turned to grab his bowl of prune goodness, turned back around and look what I saw. So freakin cute. And all caught up on the latest news.