October and November in December part 4: Rylan turns 3

Its been a month and I still cannot believe Rylan is 3. And, it seems like the minute he turned 3 he suddenly started spouting off all kinds of new phrases and understanding so much more.

He loves to read the ABC book by Dr. Seuss. He is seriously into any Cars paraphenelia. He got to go see the new Muppet movie recently and he wants to talk about Termit and Ms. Titty alot. And some guy named Walter. Apparently there is a new Muppet named Walter. He won Ry's heart. He has become a huge fan of almonds and fruit snacks, and chicken nuggets. He misses Max when Max isn't with us or while he's sleeping, then the minute Max is back, he's ready for him to leave again.

When your kid starts talking, there are little things they say wrong, that you are sad when they go away and your kid starts saying it right. Like, when we first named Max. Rylan called him Maksh. And his friend Harper? He called her Harpert.

Right now, Rylan calls going #1, going "he pee." And he likes to make a palate on the "poor" and watch tv. He still calls a drink a "nurch", and he enjoys "ticken nuddets" and "pied rice."

For his birthday, we were in Fayetteville, so he got to share his birthday party with his cousin Zoe, who has a birthday 2 days before his. We had it at a bounce house place called Boingo Bounce. It was seriously fun. The kids ran and ran and ran. And then ate cake and drank juice and then they all passed out.

Awesome awesome cake

I love the way kids get so mesmerized by a candle lit cake. They lit 5 candles for Zoe, which she took care of immediately, but there was a lot of suspense for Rylan's 3 candles.

Rylan getting some help from his cousin Marley

Max getting help from his aunt Staci

My new favorite shirt of Rylan's

He looks a little bored with that hug

I wasn't supposed to be jumping due to ankle injury. The next physical therapy appt, the therapist was noting that it was swollen in all new places. Whoopsie. Oh well.

Debbie and Justin got to come too!!! Love them!

Rylan's Grammy, Poppa, and aunt Tammy

Update

May I interrupt my updating for an update?

1. Max's immunoglobulin tests came back normal. Yay!!!! Kind of. It means he needs surgery. He needs his adenoids (aka: harborers of mass grossness and ewww) removed. This will go down next Monday. I know its quick, but we are tired of seeing our baby in pain with infection coming out his ears. Hoping he'll be able to celebrate Christmas minus infection. Since his birthday, Halloween and Thanksgiving did not go down like that.

2. Rylan had his allergy tests. It was not fun. I might kill the nurse that administered it. He isn't allergic to milk, as we previously thought (there is a chance that he is still intolerant to the protein in milk, stay tuned...) but he did have a huge allergy to dust mites. Now we need to buy all kinds of pillow and mattress covers. Oh, and he had double ear infections. While on antibiotics.

My. Poor. Babies.

2012-get ready, cause we are wanting some health. Or I'll sue. I know a guy.

October and November in December part 3.....KANSAS

In part 3 of my catch-up of October and November (aka I blinked and the months were gone and I hadn't blogged), we went to Kansas for a wedding and to visit my beloved grandparents. To Rylan and Max they are Grandma Kathy and Grandpa Gene (or "Damma Tassie and Dampa Dean" to Rylan). They are my grandparents from my dad's side and 2 of my favorite people in this world.

The above picture is the best I could do. I'm not sure when, but someday we will learn to take photos early in a visit, early in the day. We always choose the end of the trip (read: overtired children) to take a family picture. But, Max and Rylan absolutely LOVED our stay with my grandparents. They live in the town I was born in, Hays, and it has magical brick streets and no hills and lots of parks and many many family members that stop by all the time! Here in Hensley, it takes 3 hours or so to get a visit from a family member.

Here's a pic where Grandma and Grandpa are both looking, just not the kids. Add the pics together and its perfect, yes?

This was our first post-potty training trip and we were a little worried about being in the car 10 hours and the fear of accidents. We were also a little worried about the fact that we had an almost 3 year old and a 1 year old in a car for 10 hours and a dvd player on the fritz

They both rocked it! No accidents and minimal sadness. The worst behaved was this girl:

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Here are some pics outside the wedding. Because I am awesome at taking pics, I have no pics of the actual wedding(our whole reason for going to Kansas) or the wedding dance. And, this is most unfortunate because Rylan and a few of his girl cousins made nice and did some super cute dancing to the hokey pokey and the chicken dance. I will blame my lack of awesomeness on the ankle injury that I suffered on our way to the wedding, involving the previously mentioned brick streets-high heeled shoes-my luck. It is hard to handle two babies, drink, dance, hobble and take pictures. So I chose to give up the latter.

Must frame this one

Dear Rylan, we're gonna take pics, get over it.

The day after the wedding we spent time at the park and went to cross over the stepping stones in this creek. Except it had been a blazing hot year and there was no creek to speak of and the stones looked like boulders. It was perfect for me, you know the one that can't walk to save her life?

We had a great time (you can tell by the look above on Rylan's face, right?), and four weeks of expensive physical therapy sessions later, I can almost not feel the pain of that brick street boo boo. I cannot wait to get to Hays again. Wish I was like Harry Potter and could apperate us or travel the floo network, though. Ten hours in the car is tough even with good kids :)

October and November in December part 2.

Let me just interject my trip down memory lane to ask for prayers. I don't do that alot. I tend to call myself a dork and say things like "diarrhea of the mouth" instead of be real serious. But, my kids are sick as shizzles. Its a bad cold (probably croup) that is aggravating their asthma. They are coughing so so so so much. Its hard to listen to them trying to sleep and not have any other things in my bag of tricks to help them. Rylan's fever was up to 104, but has stayed down today and he is on antibiotics now, which, paired with every 2-4 hour albuterol updrafts, seem to have helped. Max is a bit better, cough and fever wise, but he has double ear infections. Again. He had one on Halloween. And then another over Thanksgiving. In fact, he was actively being treated for the Thanksgiving one when these double infections occured. They did some testing on Max's immune system, testing for immunoglobulins and such, to see if this could be the reason the kid keeps getting ear infections. By my mommy count, this is infection #14 (the 8th since he got ear tubes). Max is 14 months old. His first ear infection was when he was 3 months old. That's an average of 1.25 ear infections per month. That's sad. So if you are the praying kind, say one or two or ten for my guys. Their lungs and ears will thank you. And their non-smoking, always cleaning, two humidifier owning, why is this happening to these poor kids? parents will thank you too.

Now for the fun, cute kids that felt good part. We went to a second pumpkin patch as a family. There is a pumpkin patch a few miles from our house and we have been lucky enough to make it every year since we had Rylan. They had a great time riding in the wagon, picking out the perfect pumpkin for our house, riding in the cow train and taking a hayride.

What is this? A totally cute pic with them looking at the same thing?

All my smiley boys in one place

Max had a wardrobe malfunction. Again and again and again. Just because they are name brand doesn't mean they are better.

Once again,Ry was mostly concerned about this guy.

Our 3 foot 6 inch three year old.

Another malfunction

October and November....in December Part 1

So.....we've been running like chickens with our head cut off. Trips, birthdays, family member's surgeries, Thanksgiving, trips to Vegas (more on that much later) and lots more. I am so behind and part of me wants to skip and just do recent updates. But the OCD part of me wants to document good times with cute kids, especially since my recent blogs have been rips on other peoples blogs and all.

October and November are very busy times for our family. Three of us have birthdays, the Razorbacks insist on playing all their games, Halloween and Thanksgiving get thrown in there and, since the weather is better, its prime playdate time of year. And now that we have rejoined MOPS, and we are still part of our new old playgroup (the branch off of the crazy one, filled with all the non crazies), we have had many playdates.

So, everyday this week, you get a look at our October. First off: our playdate's trip to the pumpkin patch. The kids had a great time wading through the pumpkins, playing on the tire, going on a hayride and chasing pigs around.

There just isn't getting these two to both look at me for a pic. this is the best I got.

Ry was seriously worried about this guy

Ry and Lily chasing the pigs. There was no attempt to touch, even when they were encouraged to. Notice Rylan keeping such a distance.

Attempt #2

Lily as a ghost and Rylan with his.....gord

Baby chicks...I'm sure he called them Lola

Such cuteness. Wuvs that boy

Serious pig race watching