Five Question Friday

I saw this on Mama M's blog, and then on Tiffany's, so I decided to play too. Here goes...

1. If you could, would you go back to high school?

No. High school was not fun for me. I always wanted to be one of the "popular girls", and that never happened. I do, however, still have my two best friends that I had in high school, and I wouldn't trade them for all of the cheerleaders in the world!

2. If a genie appeared and granted you two wishes, what would they be? (And, no saying "more wishes".)

My first wish would be for good health for my children. I want them to live long, fulfilling lives.

My second wish would be for money. And I'm not talking like a billion dollars or anything. I just want enough to pay our outrageous daycare bill, start college funds, pay our mortgage off, etc. and still have some left over at the end for some fun. (And so that my husband doesn't want to divorce me every time I go to Gymboree!!!)

3. What kids show do you secretly like?

We don't watch too many kids' shows yet, but I will admit that I actually *like* Yo Gabba Gabba! I honestly think it is a great show for the kids and I find myself singing along to most of the songs. In fact, Rylie and I just did the "Wiggle Wiggle" dance last night.

4. What is your beverage of choice?

Well since I have absolutely no tolerance for alcohol anymore, I will just say fountain Coke. Yum!

5. What is something that you would change about yourself (or are working to change in yourself)?

I would love to not be so emotional. I'm a cry baby. I cry when I am sad, when I am mad, when I am happy... Pretty much any emotion causes tears. It is usually OK, but sometimes it can be ridiculously embarrassing.

Little Vandals!

After we got home from the haircut Saturday, Cole was waiting outside for Rylie to play. They had a great time coloring all over the sidewalk and pulling everything out of Cole’s garage that they could find. They are such great friends and I am so glad they will grow up together!









And after Cole decided he had played enough, it was time to color with Daddy.


I love the weekends!

Haircuts Are Fun Now

Remember this?



That was Rylie’s first haircut. You would have thought the lady was cutting off her ears by the way she was screaming.

It is so different now! Rylie seemed to want to get her hair cut this past weekend. The lady originally brought her over to the “princess station”, but she requested to sit in the car instead. She watched Dora and sat very still while she got her hair cut.







I’m so glad she has overcome that fear (and her fear of doctors)! Now she just needs to get over her fear of her swim teacher…

Bryce & Kendall's Second Date

Play date, that is.

I kept Bryce home from school yesterday. He had been up all night with his Daddy and wasn’t in the best mood in the morning. His ears were still spewing gunk and I figured I was going to have to take him back to the ENT.

Elisabeth and Kendall came over to see us. We haven’t gotten together since the kids were like a month old. I don’t usually get to see Bryce interact with the other babies at school, since he is one of the first ones there and the last to leave, so it was fun to see how he was with her. He was so happy to see her! He just kept smiling at her and talking to her. He seems very social. So the kids played and had some yummy Puffs and Yogurt Melts while Elisabeth and I caught up, and then we all went to lunch. Bryce and Kendall both fell asleep on the way home from lunch, and they both had nice long naps later. I guess chewing on those books and staring at each other wore them out!

Oh hi. Yes, I have a girlfriend.


She loves books!


Or maybe we just like to chew on things.


She thinks my hair is awesome.


Or is it the chub that keeps her coming back for more?


We sure have come a long way since our first date...


Another update on the ear situation: I didn’t have to take Bryce in yesterday. They told me to continue the antibiotic drops through the weekend and call back Monday if his ears were still draining. I can’t wait to get those tubes in!

Wordless Wednesday: New 'Do

Happy Birthday Cameron & Carter!

Rylie went to (yes, another) birthday party last weekend. These adorable twins were celebrating their second birthday. What a great party! It was at the park, and Rylie was so happy there was a bounce house to play in, along with the swings and slides. A fire truck even stopped by too! Thank you Cameron & Carter for inviting us to share your special day with you!

Rylie loves bounce houses with slides!


Climbing.


She will only go down tube slides with her Dad.


Swinging with Daddy!


She didn't care to sit in the truck by herself, so Daddy climbed up with her.




Check out the cool Mickey Mouse cake! It was so yummy! The top was vanilla and the bottom was carrot cake.


The birthday boys getting ready to blow out their candle.


Black icing and 2 year olds don't mix.


Happy Birthday Cameron & Carter!

Update: Bryce's Ears

We got the lab results back from Friday. His left ear tested positive for Haemophilus Influenzae, which sounds worse than it really is. It is a common cause of ear infections in little ones. It is not a resistant bacteria, so we are going ahead with the tubes on the 20th. I hate to put him through that at such a young age, but I know it is the best thing for him.

Spring Gala

The kids’ school put on a “Spring Gala” last week. All of the classes from the 2 year olds up sang songs, and afterwards there were refreshments.

I went to this thing fully expecting that Rylie would not perform. Usually when I pick her up from school she is attached to me from the second I get there, so I just figured she would see us and want to be with us. Boy was I wrong!

I am so proud of my little girl! She saw us when we got there and stayed with her group. Then when they walked out to sing she stood there and smiled. Her friend Eleanor got a little nervous and her daddy came and stood with them, so Rylie moved over by him too. She sang a lot of the song and stood there happy the whole time. I honestly couldn’t believe it.

I’ll say it again…I am so proud! I realize it was only a little daycare “production” but it was so freaking cute. Call me silly if you want to, but it was just so awesome to watch her. I can’t wait to be able to watch dance recitals, or soccer games, or (hopefully) to watch her in a little skirt with pom poms cheering on her team! What a great feeling to be a proud mom!

So here is the video. You can pretty much only hear her teacher singing, but it is still cute. (There are usually 10 or so kids in her class, but I guess they couldn’t be there.)



And here are a few cute pictures I took...




Cookie time after the show.

McFatty Monday - Week 4

I have nothing exciting to report today. My weigh-in this morning was 168.2, so at least I’m not telling you that I gained weight last week like I thought was going to have to. We went to a birthday party Saturday and I couldn’t resist the delicious Mickey Mouse cake, and then we went out Saturday night for our anniversary and I overdid it with drinks and dessert. Sigh.

Unfortunately, dieting is going to have to be a way of life for me. It just isn’t in my genes to be thin. Sometimes it gets so depressing knowing that I will always have to watch what I eat. It isn’t fair. But that is life and sometimes life isn’t fair.

I’m all about instant gratification. And losing weight at the speed I’m doing it also gets depressing. The only way I can lose weight any quicker is to give up carbs, and I just can’t do that again. I’m not going to make two different dinners every night, and I’m certainly not going to put my 2 year old on a no carb diet. So a pound or two a week will probably be it for me. That’s OK, though. At least it is coming off.

I hope I can get through my birthday weekend this weekend without gaining any weight back. We also have a baby shower to go to on Sunday, so there will be plenty of cake temptation for me, I’m sure.

I Won Something!

I never win anything. So imagine my surprise when I got an email from Xenia at Thanks, Mail Carrier saying that I won something from her blog.

I won a Pillow Pet! They are these cute stuffed animals that turn into pillows. I had this bright idea to print out all of the choices and let Rylie pick the one she wanted. Anyone ever try to get a 2 year old to make a decision like that? LOL Her immediate pick was the Comfy Panda. Then she kept looking at it and kept picking other ones. But she did go back to the panda several times, so that is the one she is getting.

So cool!

Well That Sucked. Literally.

Bryce had a follow up with the ENT last Friday. And good thing too, since he was up all night screaming and had a fever. I took Rylie too since her ear had been infected the week before and I wanted to get her checked out.

The good news is that Rylie's ear looked good. Her tubes are still where they are supposed to be. I didn't think she would get ear infections with the tubes, but it happens.

And now for the not so good news...

He took one look at Bryce's ears and said "We need to drain these ears today." They were really bad. He said that he didn't necessarily meet the classic profile of a kid that needs tubes, since he wasn't really getting multiple infections, but the one he had just wasn't going away. So he wanted to see if there was some kind of resistant bacteria in his ears. He would culture the fluid and if it was some kind of bacteria we would go from there, but if not, he wanted to schedule surgery for tubes.

We went into a room with a big microscope. They put Bryce on a table and "papoosed" him. Of course he started screaming right away. The doctor went in and cut his ear drum, took a culture and then sucked all of the fluid out. And then did the same thing to the other ear. It was horrible. Bryce was hysterical the whole time. I had to keep it together for him and for Rylie, who was sitting right there watching it all. Once I was able to pick him up, he immediately stopped crying. The doc said "I was going to tell you that he would probably cry for 30 seconds or so, but I didn't realize he would stop so quickly." I'm sure just getting all of that pressure out of his ears actually made him feel better.

We should get the results back Monday afternoon. If they come back clean, his surgery is scheduled for May 20th.

That was, by far, the WORST pediatrician visit I have been to so far. I hope we don't have to go through that ever again.

Product Review - Ultimate Crib Sheet

Changing a crib sheet can be a workout. Especially if you have a bumper in the crib like we do. And let me tell you, when you have to change a crib sheet in the middle of the night, you want it to be easy.

I am so thankful for the Ultimate Crib Sheet!!! It makes bedding changes so much easier. And when you need a quick change because of an unfortunate incident involving some kind of bodily fluid, you’ll be happy you have this.



This sheet goes on top of the regular bedding and snaps around the crib slats. It is just a white sheet (and I believe they have ecru now too), so it isn’t the prettiest thing. But in my opinion, the convenience is much more important than the prettiness. It is completely waterproof, and nothing gets through it. When you need to change the sheet, you just unsnap it, pull it off, and put another one on. It takes like 2 minutes, compared to the 10-15 it takes me to completely disassemble and reassemble the entire crib when I change out the regular sheet and mattress pad monthly or so. (The kids don’t sleep on their regular sheets, so I just change those out every few weeks to freshen things up.)

We have 7 of these sheets, so we usually always have a few clean ones. I haven’t really needed them for Rylie’s room in a while, but when Bryce’s overnight diapers don’t hold the gallons of pee he seems to have some nights, I can just pop the yucky one off and put a new one on. I did actually run out of clean ones the other night after Rylie’s ear had been draining so she slept on her regular sheet. When we put her in bed she was like “Where is my sheet?” I guess she is just so used to seeing that white sheet and it confused her when she saw the cute yellow one with animals on it.

So for all of you moms-to-be out there, make sure you add a few of these to your registry. You will be so happy you did!

Wordless Wednesday: Three Years Ago Today

Well That Works Much Better

I posted last week about our “fun” trying to move Bryce to the big bathtub. I was finally able to find a bath ring for him, and that made everything so much easier! The kids have so much fun in the bath now. They get to splashing so much that we’re all soaked by the time they get out.



And speaking of bathing, what is the deal with bathing brother/sister siblings together? How long are we “allowed” to do this for? Rylie has yet to ask about his boy parts, which actually surprises me since she is full of questions about everything else these days. But I just don’t have a clue of what is acceptable in this situation. So for those of you reading that have boy/girl siblings that are close in age, what are you doing, or what did you do? I appreciate any advice you can give me on this one. Thanks!

McFatty Monday - Week 3

160s! Woo freaking hoo! Granted it is 169.4, but still, I am out of the 170s! I haven’t seen the 1 and the 6 together since probably about this time last year, and that was only because my all-day “morning” sickness was still preventing me from stuffing my face on a regular basis.

I always check to see what Blair is talking about on McFatty Monday before I write up my post. I had already planned to write about how I’m making better decisions so that I can keep this up long term, and that is along the same lines as what she is talking about today.

People have been asking me what diet I am on. I am not really on any particular diet. I am just trying to make better decisions. That is what it comes down to. I am taking in way less calories on a daily basis than I was taking in, but I am still letting myself splurge one day a week. I think you pretty much have to give yourself a “free day” when you’re dieting, or you’ll get sick of it. And even on my “free day” I find that I am still really thinking about what I’m eating and not overdoing it. Here are some examples of my better decisions…

*We had an “Employee Appreciation Breakfast” at work last week. I passed. I ate my cereal bar and my yogurt instead.

*I was talking to my friend last Friday and she mentioned that she had forgotten to bring her lunch and needed to go get something. So I went with her to Pollo Tropical. And instead of getting my usual Cuban wrap and red beans and rice, I looked online before we went and found something that was low fat and low calorie.

*I went to a baby shower on Saturday and rather than stuffing my face with a huge helping of baked ziti like I normally would have, I had a small portion and had some salad too. I also had a small piece of cake, and let me tell you that cake tastes even better when you’re dieting!

I know that individually these decisions don’t seem like much, but when you consistently think about what you’re eating and make better decisions, it works. I am already down like 7 pounds in a little over two weeks!

So I think I can keep this up. Losing weight is great, as long as you can keep it off. So many of the fad diets out there help you lose weight so quickly, but then you go back to eating normally and put it all back on. You have to change your lifestyle, and that is what I’m trying to do.

Oh! And I was able to fit into some jeans that I haven’t been able to get on in well over a year. Yay me!

Spring Into Spring

You have probably noticed the Spring into Spring button on the right side of my blog by now. I hope you have clicked on it and checked it out. But if you haven't, let me tell you about it.

Two lovely ladies, Emilie at Baby Loving Mama and Kate at The Shopping Mama, have teamed up to provide some awesome giveaways! I'm not exactly sure how long this is lasting, but they have already posted 13 giveaways each. Oh, and these are great blogs, by the way. They have product reviews galore, and talk about their cute kids too!

While I would be excited to win any of the giveaways, I wanted to share my favorites...

1. The KidKraft Red Roof Outdoor Playhouse Giveaway from Hayneedle. Hayneedle is a collection of 200+ online stores. One of their stores is PlayHouses.com and they have some really cool playhouses. Check them out! Rylie would love to have one of these houses to play in!

2. The Boon Oval Animal Bag Giveaway. Boon makes some really innovative storage solutions, including these bags that you fill up with stuffed animals and then they can be used as a seat. How cool! I would love to have one of these to get some of Rylie's "friends" up off her floor!

3. The Guidecraft See, Store and Take-a-Long Giveaway. Guidecraft makes some great educational toys and furniture. With a toddler and a baby in the house, I could certainly use one of these storage shelves!

4. Either one of the Little Tikes Giveaways at The Shopping Mama or Baby Loving Mama. Little Tikes makes some great toys, and I know my kids would love both the Backyard Barbeque and the School Bus Activity Gym.

Of course my favorites are stuff for the kids, but not all of the giveaways are for kids' stuff. You can also win clothes, sunglasses, scarves and gift cards! Feel free to enter the giveaways for the kid stuff and give it to me, though.

And you don't have to be a blogger to enter these giveaways. You can enter by visiting websites, following some new blogs or by becoming a fan on Facebook.

So check out these blogs and the sponsors of Spring Into Spring and maybe you'll be lucky enough to win something. Good luck!!!

Big Boy!

Well, it's official. Bryce (at just over 7 months) is now heavier than Rylie was at 1 year. She was 18lbs 14oz then, and he weighed 19lbs 2oz tonight. I figured that he would outweigh Rylie by the time he was 18 months old, but it may not take that long.

My 100th Post!

Check it out! 100 posts. I'm so happy that I started this blog back in January. I didn't realize back then just how much fun this was going to be. I really enjoy writing this blog, and I have had the pleasure of "meeting" some wonderful people in the process. I have found some really great blogs out there.

A big thank you to my GFC followers and regular readers for checking in on our happenings. I hope Rylie's silly antics and Bryce's cute smile continue to keep you coming back for more.

My Kids And Their Ears – Chapter 247

I woke up from my “couch nap” last night to Rylie screaming for me. She hardly ever does that, so I ran upstairs to see what was wrong. I assumed she had a bad dream so I let her come get in bed with me. That is a rare occurrence in our house, mainly because she is a wild sleeper and kicks us all night. But when she is really upset or sick, we let her. Anyway, she kept putting her finger in her ear and saying there was water in it, and then she would touch me with her wet finger. Ewwwww. Sometimes her ear drains after her bath, so I didn’t think anything of it.

When she woke up this morning the first thing she said was that her ear didn’t have water in it anymore. But then she touched it and started crying because it was “yucky”. I looked at it and it was all crusted with yellow drainage. Her ENT said that might happen and to not worry about it. When I tried to clean it up she started crying because it hurt. I figured we better go get it checked out.

I also figured we might as well take Bryce too, since we were going. He has been digging at his ears all week, and even has little scabs inside them from scratching them. He hasn’t had a fever, and was eating and sleeping well, so I was letting it go since we have an appointment at the ENT for him next week. After all, a lot of ear infections don’t even respond to antibiotics and usually resolve on their own.

I was right. They both have ear infections. Just one for Rylie, and both ears for Bryce. So Rylie now gets drops in her ear for the next 10 days, and Bryce gets Omnicef.

On a positive note, though…other than the ears being infected, they both are fine. They haven’t had any fevers nor have they been fussy. So if we have to deal with these ears, I’m glad it is just the ears and they are both dealing well with it. Oh, and Rylie was so good at the doctor’s office! I’m so glad she has gotten over her fear and doesn’t cry anymore. Now we just have to get her brother over it too.

This Kid Cracks Me Up

Some of the things Rylie says really make me laugh. Her defiance is even hilarious at times.

Last night after her bath she was trying to play with her puzzles. By “play” I mean she was taking them all apart and messing her room all up. Brian told her that she couldn’t play because it was time to go to bed. Then he made a comment about her messing up her room. She said “Susan cleans my room up.” (Susan is our cleaning lady.) First of all, she has met Susan ONCE in recent months. I was amazed that she remembered that. And second, even though it really isn’t funny, it amused me that she already thinks that someone else will clean up her mess. I guess we will have to start working on that with her, before we really have a little princess on our hands!

Then there is the sweet side of Rylie. When I picked her up from school the other day she said “Mommy, are you my best friend?” I almost started crying. How sweet! I told her that of course I am her best friend and I always will be.

And then there are the not-so-funny times. Like when I woke up at around 4:30 this morning to Rylie belting out the ABCs! I looked at the monitor and I honestly think she was singing in her sleep. OK, so maybe that is funny too.

Wordless Wednesday: Like Father, Like Daughter

Swinging

Come on now. Get your minds out of the gutter. This is a family friendly blog.

We met up with my good friends Dawn and Andrea at the park this past weekend. Rylie had a great time playing with her friends Reagan and Angelica, and Bryce got to try out the swings for the first time. He had so much fun!

Rylie and Reagan.

Hugs for Angelica.

After we played at the park we stopped at Tijuana Flats for some lunch. There weren't really any picture worthy moments, except when Reagan got her hands on the sour cream!

I love playdates! Thanks ladies for hanging out with us!

Happy Birthday Cole!

Cole turned 3!!! Rylie got to help him celebrate at Monkey Joe's over the weekend. It was a great party and all of the kids had a great time! Thank you Cole (and your Mommy and Daddy) for including Rylie in your special day!

Here is the birthday boy!

Kristen went down the BIG slide with Cole and Logan.
Rylie LOVED Monkey Joe. In fact, it was hard to get her away from him. Every time she saw him she wanted to hug him and talk to him. She kept trying to get him to go on the slides with her too. She is still talking about how she misses him.

Rylie and Logan with Monkey Joe.

Happy Birthday to Cole!

Bryce was fascinated with Monkey Joe.

Cole and his family.

Oh, Rylie and Monkey Joe again. Imagine that!

Bryce in the birthday chair.

Bryce's first slide...

...he loved it!

Rylie loves the slides!

Here she is on the BIG BIG slide. She came down a little too fast, though.

What a great party!