While Daddy's Away, the Kids Will Play

And by kids I mean my two kids plus me and my sister, Tammy.

Rob has a yearly canoe/dudes camping weekend. Because in my mind camping in July is batshit crazy not my idea of fun, I gladly sent him on his way for some time with his guy friends and made a list of air conditioned things to do here in LR..

Rob's always afraid of leaving us, we do live a crazy life with these two sleep hating crazy boys, but all was well. I mean, not one load of laundry got done, the vacuum didn't run, and I'm pretty sure I gained 6 lbs in onion ring induced bloating. But we had a fun weekend too!

First of all, Aunt Tam came to hang out, which is always a fun time. We took her out for Purple Cow her first night in town, aka Child Friendly (and Dairy Free friendly) eating. We recently discovered that Purple Cow has milkshakes with soy ice cream and soy milk. Yay for Rylan and Max. Tammy and I shared a Dreamsicle shake full of the devil's milk.

Saturday morning we went to Wonder Place. Rylan was invited to his very first classmate birthday party. It was for this completely adorable girl, Emily, or if you are Rylan, "Emerhee". I ok'd it with the mom paying for the awesome Wonder Place Party that I bring Maxerton, since they have a certain number of kids they are allowed. Yay for some no-shows, Max got to come too. And I'd say he enjoyed himself completely.

My boys spent a good deal of time in the doll house area. I would be a little nervous, but it was something new to them.

Not only did Rylan's awesome teacher show up, but she played with the kids more than their own parents. That is her hand doing a puppet show for Rylan.

Max preferred his shirt wet to the point of being see thru and no shoes.

I finally got to meet Kate that we'd heard so much about. 

Birthday girl. She was so completely precious and]

Max might have had a pink cupcake. I'm not sure.

This is 3 year old for "putting the moves on". You blow the party blower directly in the girl's face.

After the party we went to the Rivermarket to enjoy the Farmer's Market and then get Tammy one of her favorite Little Rock lunches: BLVD Bread Company. After we ate our lunch, we noticed a new establishment in the Rivermarket hall called Gourmet Lollies. Oh holy moly. So Freakin Good. Tam and I had salted caramel, Max had strawberry, and Rylan had watermelon. Now Tammy has a new favorite place to visit.

Gourmet Lolly coma

Gourmet Lolly Yosemite Same Stache

Gourmet Lolly inspired happiness

Rivermarket Hall. Love.

After we got all our produce, and our bellies full, we decided to take our sticky, tired kids to the library. Cause where else would you take kids that are sticky and tired but to a place where they need to be quiet. They still did pretty good. And we got all new books, which is always nice. I love Main Library. They are so child friendly.

This is Rylan pretty much sleeping standing up inside the tent.

On Sunday we bid our precious Tammy** farewell and got ready for church. Except Max was a pistol and threw dogfood and water everywhere and Rylan badgered me so many times "where are we going, where are we going, where are we going, where are we going?" that it took my eight times as long to get us in the car and we left the house wayyyyy too late to attend that church service. We were in the car with no where to go, and what would any rational mom who had to wayward children do in this situation? I chose Chuck E. Cheez. I am batshit crazy a little nutty like that.

Let me just tell you, I had heard rumors that Sunday morning is the best time to go to Chuck E. Cheez. Prior to Sunday morning I thought NEVER was the best time for Chuck E. Cheez. I stand corrected. Sunday morning at Chuck E. Cheez is AWESOME. There was like 2 other families there. Chuck E. himself came out and did a little dance with the kids and at the end he threw like 500 tickets in the air. My kids didn't GET it that they should be excited about all the tickets, but we were able to score quite a few from nice workers that felt sorry for the mom wearing a Sunday Mass skirt at Chuck E. Cheez on a Sunday morn. I would definitely suggest going at this time!  This was our weekend in a nutshell. We did good with no Rob but we are glad to have him back!

High fives prior to Max deciding Chuck E. was the devil

This Chuck E. was okay. He got a hug.

Best day of Max's life. He got to ride a "hearse"

**I realize there is not one picture of Aunt Tammy in this post. I'll try to do better?

Chatty Kathy

Sometimes its hard to remember to update the good. Let's talk about Rylan's speech. We realized when Rylan was 18 months or so that his speech was not up to the level of his pals of the same age. Its been a few years of trying to get the doctor to refer him for speech and then to get him evaluated. After 5 months of evaluations, he has been accepted into speech therapy and will start in August (don't get me started on the fact that they took 5 months to EVALUATE my kid, right in time to go on summer vacation). I worked with him at home during this time, we added a day of daycare to increase his socialization and we eventually moved him to an actual school where they have curriculum and teach Spanish and sign language. I don't know if it was all of the above or one of the above or if he merely just needed a little more time to develop, but my darling boy is speaking in paragraphs these days.

"I have a lot of time to make up for, wanna hear about this stick?"

He still needs speech, but the words are there. A year ago I couldn't have told you that. I was concerned there was something else going on in there that was holding his words back, but they are there. They just need a little tweaking. Its heaven to be able to talk to him. Its heaven for him to have the ability to tell me his needs. Its heaven for him to tell me his feelings and his fears. Its heaven to hear "I love you to the moon, mommy."  And, for all the physical attributes that Rob gave Rylan, I have, apparently, given him the gift of gab.

With good language, comes the not fun part. The part that corrected me when I said "damn" the other day. He said, "no mommy, DAMMIT." Whoopsie. Or the part that used my words against me. One day I was having a mommy meltdown and he told me to "get yourself put together." He has started yelling "5 more minutes" like a freakin teenager when its time to get up for school and he informed me that I shouldn't have ice cream. Wh-What??????

I'll take it. I'll take the same question 1,000 times in a row. I'll take the correcting me and using my words against me. He rocks the casbah and I can't wait till the whole world can understand him like Rob and I can. The whole world can understand a whole lot more, and for that, I am thankful.

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.

My past year as a mother....in pictures

Halloween 2011. Loved this costume

 One of his very fave places to be

 Preciousness

 Asleep at the wheel

 oh my gosh, I can't look at this pic enough.

 serious travelers

 my favorite oldest son

 my favorite youngest son (with his dinner rubbed in his hair)

 they love their food

 Really really love their food

 They love their mama

And I love them. 

Bye bye Grandpa Gene

This is the last picture I took of my Grandpa Gene. Yeah, the lighting isn't awesome and Rylan has his hand in his mouth and Max looks like he's trying to bolt from Grandma's lap, but I love this pic. It is from Max's birthday that we spent in Kansas last October. Grandpa was in the best health he had been in a while and is up, smiling and wrastling with my kiddos.

He has been battling heart disease and emphysema for years. Our Grandma's excellent care for him has kept him here with us many years longer than anyone could have predicted. Partially because she was such a good nurse and wife to him and partially because he loved her so much, he tried so hard to stay. This past month, my Grandpa's health deteriorated and it became apparent that God was calling him home. After such a long battle, everyone was ready for Grandpa to have some peace. Last Saturday he died. We left for Kansas and have been mourning him since.

He was a spitfire, never afraid to tell you how he really felt. At his wake, many stories came out of my Grandpa's sense of humor, ability to cuss even while laughing, and his very sassy spirit. My favorite story is when I took Rob to Kansas for the first time. We were there for a big fat German Catholic wedding and I thought it was time to introduce Rob to my family. My Grandpa came in the room and I stood up and hugged him and said "Grandpa, my boyfriend, Rob, came with me" and my Grandpa looks at Rob and says "well, what the hell did you do that for?" I hadn't prepared Rob for Grandpa's zanniness and Rob was standing there ready to shake Grandpa's hand with his eyes open wide. Grandpa busted out laughing shook Rob's friend and spent the night making sure Rob was having a good time.  Under his cussing, rough exterior was one of the sweetest, kindest, most loving, and Godly men I've ever known or ever will know.

My memories of my Grandpa range from being a small child and helping him pick blackberries in his yard, playing cards, making us stiff drinks (even if we weren't of age), watching him fight back from a terrible heart attack, hearing him congratulate me when I called to say I was engaged, watching my kids gravitate to him as soon as they met him, and finally watching him sit in his cozy chair, praying rosary after rosary and trusting his life to God. I love that man.

If you have a minute, pray for my Grandma, as she is starting a new chapter of her life after being my Grandpa's wife for nearly 64 years and being his most amazing caretaker. She has exhibited more grace and courage in the last month than I will have in my life.  Love her.

Sorry for the delay in updating the blog, I will do better. Other than the passing of my Grandpa, our life has been great, just really busy. Been busy keeping Max's hand out of the toilet and the dog food bowl, I guess. I was posting all my to-do's but my to-do list became too long for a blog, and doing all my to-do's took time from blogging. However, I have a slightly cleaner house, and a super de-dustmited life for my allergy/asthma ridden kiddos. I have also taken on an extra day of work, and the kids have left their daycare (sigh) Tiny Town and are in real big boy preschool. sigh sigh sigh. Life is moving so frackin fast!