A Wonderful Day

Max got ear tubes on May 17th. On May 27th he got another ear infection. Oh my sweet poor baby. We were on our way to Gulf Shores and happy baby wasn't so happy. He was super sad. And there was gook pouring out of his ear. This happens with ear tubes. The real hope is that ear tubes will keep all their secretions moving and there won't be a build up of fluid in the ear canal causing it to sit there and fester and become infection. That's the best case scenario. The less best case is that, if an infection forms, the tubes allow the festered infectious grossness to drain out of the ear instead of building up and causing the baby to want his head to explode, or, more scary, for the ear drum to rupture. That's where Max's ears are right now. So, we've been combatting this $%^% infection ever since. I put antibiotic drops in his ears every day of vacation. The drainage stopped, but not the sometimes sad Max. Then grossness started coming out his eyes and nose. Our first day home, I went to the doc and there was still an infection, so he gave Max oral antibiotics. The grossness out the eyes and nose (clogged tear ducts from infection) stopped, but some wheezing started. Oh. My. Poor. Baby. Now he is getting albuterol 4 times a day and he is on steroids for his lungs.

The good news is that the steroids are working. The better news is that the steroids have not caused him to grow a beard or start beating women. The bad news is that the steroids have him wired for sound at approximately 3am. He still gets up some nights, but usually he's super sad about it, eats a little bit and promplty passes back out for 4 more hours. Not so much right now. He's up and ready to party. Laughing, scooting around, pulling hair, and trying to eat my chin.

ANYWAY, where I was going with all this, is that we have been HERMITS the past two weeks (minus a jaunt up to KC for a wedding). No playdates, no dinners out, no frolicking at the library. We've been hanging at the house, playing with the toy cast of Kung Fu Panda, reading Good Night Moon, and caring for sick Max. Rylan's terrible twoness has gotten a bunch better and the kid is talking more than ever. Max's cough is much better and no more gook is coming out of any orifices. So, it was for the better that we've been shut-ins.

So, we decided to go out amongst the people. We ate lunch with Rob at Larry's Pizza with the intention of letting Rylan play on the arcade machines. Then 2 groups of daycares showed up and school age kids poured into the arcade and my face started twitching and my head started spinning, because, I might like kids, I might be a mother AND a pediatric nurse, but I do not do well with large groups of kids. God bless every teacher on earth, even the bad ones.

I decided to whip out my Wonder Place punch card and use it for some good ole air conditioned, inside play place, fun. We usually go with our playgroup on free adult day. Its nice that I get in free, but so does every other stay at home mom in the central Arkansas area. This random Friday, there were only about 5 kids total and it was just what we needed to ease our little hermit selves back into the world.

Playing dressup

Um, Rylan, don't mind that door next to you.

What's better than one Max? A million tiny Maxes.

"You like my peaches?"

And then, Max got smooched on by two little red head cuties. He's probably going to get , like 5 new illnesses, but these girls were the sweetest kids in the world and they thought Max hung the moon.

These are the two girls from the previous pic of the make out session. The little on kept putting on that witches hat, jumping up and down and shouting "I'm a cowboy, I'm a cowboy." It was so cute. SEEEEE I do love kids.

Family vacation

Finally, it only took me 9 days to upload pics and blog about them. And me and the boys jetted up to Kansas city the very next weekend for 5 days, so I think I deserve, at minimum, a bozo button, if not a bottle of bubbly and a strawberry salad from Panera. Just kidding. Kind of. And now I shall stop patting myself on the back and talk about the vacation.

My more awesome than awesome parents did something more awesome than usual. They stayed married for 40 years. In a row. To each other. Kind of a big deal. My sisters and I were starting to whisper about throwing a party. Maybe a lake affair? Maybe a little dancing. And then they informed us that they didn't want a party. They wanted to celebrate their anniversary by taking their offspring and THEIR offspring down to Orange Beach, Alabama for an entire week vacation.

Oh holy moly was this a big gift. I mean, it is a huge present to give anybody a trip, but to Rob and I, it was HUGE. Since we decided to start shooting out babies every year and a half, we have taken one road trip to Missouri for a family reunion and one trip to Kansas to see my extended family for Easter. It was something we knew we were going to do without when I quit my full time or even part time job. I would have been happy with a little lake vacation, but Oh. My. Gosh. THE OCEAN!!!!!!

So, we headed down to Orange Beach and met up with my parents, my two sisters, my niece, and my nephew and enjoyed the luxuries of a gigantic 4 bedroom condo with a porch that overlooked the ocean, a water slide, a lazy river, a swimming pool, and a big ocean.

Our awesome condo, can you see our room? Its on the 11th floor on the right.

The kids were in their beach-wear within minutes of entering the condo. They didn't really understand the unpacking the car process or the need for it. Krystal-Ry loved his Buzz and Woody floatie that Harpert gave him in the goody bag.

Max's first shot of the ocean. I feel I captured his excitement well, right?

The walk to the ocean. Rylan still with his arm floaties AND Buzz and Woody floatie

Anthony took a small time out from body boarding to try to teach Max to crawl.

It helped, he's a full time scooter now

And, Tam and I got up early to walk a few days and she helped me carry my 20lb tiny baby around. You really get a good workout carrying Max while trying not to sink into the sand.

Clay and Angie at the Shrimp Basket

Same Shrimp Basket, Rylan with his cousin's mermaid. Totally normal. Don't I look like I'm taking a picture with Justin Bieber or something? Or in my case it would have been New Kids On The Block. Guess I'm just happy to be on vacay.

My best friend, Brigid always takes a pic by the pool or beach and posts it on facebook and its everything I can do not to tell her to suck it. Here's my gangly feet (pre toe injury, see below) next to the pool. So what if its the kiddie pool.

Me and my pal Max. He was so Zen by the ocean.

For the most part, so was this guy

Rylan and Zoe trying to catch a Blue Angel air show

Swimming "poo" cutie

Family trip down the lazy river

Max ate ALOT of that sand

Proof

I tell you, it was his Zen place

Girls night out. We went and had some drinks and yummy seafood nachos, got a tiny bit tipsy and tried to go see the movie Bridesmaids. But, we were late, so we shopped and went to yet another restaurant and had another yummy meal.

On Thursday of that week, the older boys plus Mom and Angie went to a fishing charter. Tammy and I decided to take my two plus Zoe "on an adventure." For Tammy and I, an adventure involves learning how Krispie Kreme doughnuts are made, then going to Target. Here is Zoe making a silly face,

This was her first silly face and it looks like the doughnuts gave her a facial paralysis of some sort, still love this pic.

Krispie Kreme cutie

He likes frosting and sprinkles, no thanks on the doughnut.

Rob and our happy baby chillin on the beach

Tammy and mom cooking us some of the fish they caught. Each family took one night to cook a big meal to minimize how much we had to eat out. My night was Bacon Cheeseburger Meatloaf, mashed potatoes, and brownies that stick directly to your thighs. Angie made Shrimp Tacos, cheese dip and ice cream with Magic Shell, and Mom and Dad made Panko Crusted Red Snapper and Strawberry Ice Cream Sundaes. Yeah, we ate like kings. And queens. And princes, and princesses.

Our sand artist. He was feeling especially two this day and refused to put on a bathing suit, saying noooooooo when I asked if he wanted to swim. He then headed straight for the water fully dressed when we got down there. That would be why his pants are drooping.

We still got a sweet walk in to collect shells

On our last day, we had a 9th birthday party for Anthony. Cake and ice cream followed by a trip for all to an arcade/go cart/laser tag place. Fun times for all.

And then it was time to be sad and go home. This was a fantabulous trip. Had so much fun and wish I could bottle the joy I felt when my boys saw the ocean for the first time.

We weren't able to completly get away stress free, unfortunantly. Rylan was going through a major, major, like worse than ever before case of the twos. "NO" was his favorite word. So much that he made it a two syllable word. There was alot of toy stealing, pushing on brother and such. I hate the twos. It just looks like its so hard on him, the inner turmoil he's got going on in his head. Also, on the way to Alabama, Max got an ear infection. Stuff was oozing from his new ear tube ears. He was super sad about it. Then Rylan had night terrors from being in a new place and shouted out about 25 times a night for the first 2 or 3 nights. Then Rylan was about to be not so nice to his cousin and I went running to stop him and kicked an ottoman with my foot and promtly broke my toe. OUCH! Then Rylan's asthma flared up and the poor kid coughed all night a few nights. On the way home Rob developed a terrible sinus infetion. We returned soooo exhausted.

We stayed in for the whole week, nursing a still sick Max, a wheezy Rylan and a limping mom. No playdates, no shopping, nothing. Lots of hard core parenting to stop the current two-isms. Then the boys and I jetted up to Kansas City for my cousin's wedding. Rob stayed to do something silly like work for a living. Besides Max continuing problems with this current awful ear infection, we had a great time, with a seriously attitude improved (and nightime sleeping) Rylan who loved a wedding dance and Max who charmed everyone with his smiles and passed out in the middle of the reception.

We are home for quite a while now. I miss the ocean. I miss having my family just a room away. But I love my house. And the normalcy that helps children sleep better. And I even missed our dang cocker spaniel.

May....in pics

Our computer is fixed! We've returned from our much anticipated trip to Gulf Shores! Let the blogging commence!

We had a garage sale and the kids were SUPER helpful in helping me get rid of the old! We were going to sell Max's Halloween costume, but it got put in the keep pile afterall. I have a few items from each child that I've kept. They are clothes that I remember them wearing when they were teeny tiny, you know, the time that flies by so fast, you need to commemorate it?

I've started working every Thursday. Rylan goes to daycare, and Max goes over to my friend Michelle's house while I work. My work called one Thursday to say they didn't have many patients and didn't need me, so Rylan went to Tiny Town and me and Max hung out for some super special mommy and me time. He got to roll all over the floor without anyone coming in for a tackle. He got lots of extra snuggles and closeups with the camera. We even went and ate lunch with daddy. But, the poor kid had to accompany me to a rheumatologist appointment. They don't see many babies at the rheumatologist. They LOVED them some googly Max.

I need to blow this picture up, frame it and look at it every time we have a "terrible two" day in this house. Rylan loves that baby more than life itself. He's just not awesome at showing that love in a non-painful way sometimes.

And then, every night around 7:30pm, our sweet boy returns and we have good snuggles and read books and laugh at his antics.

I walked back into the kitchen to find this. I guess Rylan brought the zoo to Max

Playing together all sweet-like