Boys day out...and anyone have a good bag?

It is a quiet sunday morning. I am alone in my house. WOW. Ethan is meeting his dad about 45 min away and taking Ryan to his first car show. In theory that is a good idea because Ryan loves cars. But as with any theories, there could be some problems.

1. Ethan will not carry any type of bag. So, if Ryan needs a diaper change they will have to go back to the car. I do not know the parking situation at this place, I just know the event is HUGE. I convinced him to stick a granola bar in his pocket, and most likely he will carry a bottle of water but thats it. There will be no hand sanitizer (OMG). Any extra outfits will also be in the car. It was funny to see Ethan take an extra shirt for himself. He said when he spends the day with Ryan he always has food on his shirt, LOL. For what its worth, they left around 8:00 and will have to leave the car show between 12-1 so Ryan can nap on the way home. It is not a whole day, but I will give him props for making the effort. My dad goes to this show every year and told me its really crowded so Ethan is gonna have his hands full since Ryan will not go in a stroller. Not that Ethan would push it anyway.

2. Did i mention no hand sanitizer? That grosses me out.

Ok, so maybe those are the main issues. On to the bag issue. We went to the zoo last week and are members. Ryan and I will go a few times this summer, and do other day outings. I realized I need a good bag to carry around for those particular occasions. Something that will hold a few snacks, water, disposable changing pad, diaper, wipes, camera, hand sanitizer, etc. But it cannot be too big. When we went to the zoo I used a small backpack purse. Good thing I didn't bring my wallet because it wouldn't have fit. Everything was crammed in and I hated that I had to take everything out to get something. A regular backpack would be too big. I was thinking more of small messanger bag because I hate having to take the backpack off to get stuff. Am i lazy?

This is a time where I miss the stroller. It was good for holding things. I love my diaper bag but it seems like right around the time we quit using the stroller it got left in the car. I used to carry it with me everywhere, and just put my wallet inside. The funny thing was I hardly ever used anything in it, other than the bottles. I would put it in the grocery cart for a 30 min trip. I would put it in the basket in the stroller to walk around the mall, but other than a diaper change or bottle it just sat there. And it is too huge (though awesomely cute) to carry around. You should kind of be jealous because I didn't need the bag. Never had any big accidents where I needed to do an outfit change. I know...super lucky. Sometimes I would even forget to change the size of my emergency outfit in the bag so its good I didn't need it or my 9m old would be wearing a 0-3m outfit. Now ofcourse that he is older he seems to spill a lot of drinks on himself, or go down a slide that is wet and then freak out. As a matter of fact yesterday we had to do a pants change at the park, but that is easy when you are parked close by.

So, if you've seen a cute messanger bag that would be good for my day trips let me know. My old stand by bag will live in the car with the major things like clothes, first aid kit, etc.

Oh, and just to show how Ryan has grown. We put the carseat in Ethan's truck. He has the kind with small seats in the back, and the door swings out, but its not a full door. Club cab or something like that. We used to push the passanger seat up and there was no problem. Today we had the seat pushed up as far as it would go, and even tilted the seat forward, and Ryan's feet still were resting on it. He is getting so big so fast. So, you are asking why Ethan didn't take my car where Ryan comfortably fits. Because his truck is a stick...i don't do that.

Happy Easter & stuff

Isn't that cute? That was his first time sitting with the Easter Bunny and he did such a great job. Yes, I did bribe him with french fries, but don't all moms?

I really should be taking a nap right now since my child was up every 1-2hrs screaming "sleep in mommy's room" ALL NIGHT LONG. You could sit in the bags under my eyes. But that is another story.

Ryan had a great Easter but how could he not. The easter bunny came here, and to grandma's house, and aunt lisa's house. The kid makes out like a bandit at every holiday. He is spoiled-not to mention grandma and grandpa wanted to buy him an entire swing set for easter and we said to wait until we actually bought a house and know the size of yard we'll have--and Ethan didn't want to put it together and take it down again in a few months. Totally don't blame him.

Saturday we had an egg hunt and picnic with our playgroup. The kids had a great time and Ryan follows around that chicken all day. Poor girl. (oh, i know you guys told me how to put captions under the pics but no time yet). My sister took all the pics because there is no need for me to bring my camera if she is there. We also had a professional photographer there and I will have my proofs soon. Ryan thought it was necessary to open every egg as he picked it up so it kinda took a while. Then he would scream "candy" LOL. Our family picture at the park is not flattering to me at all so ignore that.

Sunday we had my family over, and Ethan's mom. Ryan basked in all of the attention, plus got to do another egg hunt, AND had every adult handing him candy. He enjoyed all of his gifts from the Easter Bunny, especially the bubble blower. I do feel bad that I couldn't find his real easter basket that is a frog. It is so cute! Poor kid had his gifts delivered in a Walmart bag. His grandma bought him a plastic wheel barrow and put his gifts in there and he loved it. Aunt Lisa got him a t-ball set. The poor kid was on a sugar high which his parents had to pay for later. My dad and aunt did an adult egg hunt also. It was in remembrance to the "good old days" when our entire family would gather at my grandma's out on the farm (did you know I'm a little bit country?) and there would be over 50 people. We had separate egg hunts for kids and adults because the adults were agressive. Now it has dwindled down to just immediate family. We played lots of Wii, and my brother bowled a 235 which is a house record. He also kicked my butt in tennis and I believe I now have Wii tennis elbow/shoulder and I am embarassed. Then Sunday night Ryan woke up 3x before 12:30 and I was exhausted so I let him sleep with us......which is why last night SUCKED.

Ryan was up almost every hour crying for about 10 min, then would go back to sleep, only to start again. Now we are back to square one. I am proud that we didn't cave last night but it was so hard. I knew he was fine and just mad because he wasn't getting his way, but when you hear your little one specifically calling for you, you just want to make it all better.

Ryan's speech therapist re-evaluated him today and he scored 35 months!!!! So, on Oct 30 he scored 12-15m and with 4 months of therapy he is at 35. Amazing! I have said before that I'm not sure the therapy actually helped, I really think it was just him being ready at his own time, and she confirmed that to me today. She is about ready to release him from the program, and I don't want to take up a spot for a kid that really needs it. We talked about having her check on him every month or so until he turns 3, just in case anything should pop up it will keep him in the system. Now we just have to wait for the other disciplines to test him again and we are done. Eventhough he tested at age level for occupational and cognitive they still have to do an exit assessment and make sure he didn't lose ground there while he was gaining in the speech area. Plus, his "teacher" that sees him twice a month--though I was never sure exactly what the purpose was-has to do an exit eval. The only goal he hasn't met is potty training and its really hard to meet a goal when your mommy hasn't bought you the insert for the potty:(

Answers...and Dora the Explorer

I realized if I get enough people to read my blog (you know I love all 4 of you!) that I could just answer questions from the comments and not have to think of anything interesting myself. But then when there are no comments I'm kind of screwed. But anyway...

As for Disneyland, I have re-thought my rules and decided that potty trained is not a must. Changing diapers really isn't that bad. I wouldn't mind stopping a few times to do it. But, I will not back down on the NAP. He will have to be on a no nap schedule for a few months before I think anyone should attempt this trip. My sister is begging to take him NOW and really I am just trying to spare her, and make sure she continues to love him like she does cuz after a few days with a child that doesn't nap but still NEEDS a nap, bad things happen. And, let us not forget the 6+ hour car ride to get there...and the fact that he will be sleeping in an unfamiliar place and wacked out on sugar and out of his mind....and totally over stimulated. So, let's wait til next summer AT LEAST. And my sister doesn't read this, but i will clarify summr of 09. Not this summer. And truly, we should be starting potty training now. It is my fault we haven't started, but I plan to...really I do.

Dora. Ryan first found out about Dora a few weeks ago when I was sick and the Nick channel was on all day because I was near death and it kept him quiet. It also has something to do with the fact that we lost the remote to the TV so one of our inputs was stuck on that channel. We have 4 video inputs, it is extremely complicated. Actually i think there are 5 because there is an input 0. I was told that everything would be better when we got our new TV (handed down from my parents because they got an awesome flat screen). This TV was newer than ours and would allow us to watch TV channels 0-99 when the Tivo was recording instead of our old TV where we could only watch 0-10. We don't know why. IT JUST WORKED OUT THAT WAY AND THE ENGINEER HUSBAND SAID SO. Got it? Didn't think so. I believe that Video 0 is the input we can watch if we are recording something else. Video 1 is our Tivo, but we usually watch TV on this input if its not recording. Video 2 is nothing that i know of. Video 3 is for the Wii and dvd/vcr. Video 4....again, nothing. So when we switch between o-1 a cartoon usually flashes on the screen and Ryan has to watch it. Tantrums ensue, its fun.

Anyway, we were stuck on Nick (i have since changed the channel manually on the TV--who knew?). He saw Dora, I let him watch it. No big deal. Then Diego came on and he told me "NO mommy Dora." He is not interested one bit in Diego, or Handy Manny for that matter. Or the Backyardigans. Or little Einsteins. He likes Paz and Hip Hop Harry on TLC and I'm pretty sure he is the only kid watching that, and Spongebob...and now Dora. Ethan said it was a girl show and I said it didn't matter. Then I happened to be at Walmart yesterday without Ryan and decided to get some stuff for his easter basket. They had Dora balls, coloring books, etc., all in bright pink and purple. I just couldn't do it and I don't know if I should be mad at myself or not. I ended up buying a yellow car with Dora in it, and it looks like it will fit on his train table. Then I found some disposable Dora cups that are green and got those but you know someone in this house wouldn't let him take them outside of the his house.

Sleep/Happy Anniversary to my Parents/Happy St. Patrick's Day/And we're almost done w/ speech!!!

Sleep: It's back. Thank goodness. Though I never sleep through the night myself, it is important for Ryan. And generally, we have much better days when the little man gets in his 10 hrs. Friday night we decided that we really had to fix this issue. I thank everyone for all their support, cuz it DOES suck. And as for the sleep therapist we used previously, I didn't call her because I knew what she would say. But, let me tell you if it didn't work I would have been on the phone for a phone consult no matter what Ethan said about the $....cuz it would have been worth every single cent--as it was the last time. Now usually I would not go behind is back on a $ issue, but had I done that the first time when Ryan was about 5 months we would have fixed it right then!!! Anyway, Friday night I decided we would try and fix it right away instead of letting him cry for a while I went outside his door right when he started...3am. I told him it was nite nite time and to lay down and go to sleep. Ofcourse that didn't work--I hope you didn't think it would be that easy. So, for the next hour he alternated between whining and crying and quiet and then reciting "Brown Bear Brown Bear." Ethan and I were cracking up. We almost decided to watch a movie since we were awake. Around 4:15 I had enough and told Ethan to go in his room and use the stearn daddy voice. He went in, told Ryan it was time to lay down and go to sleep and Ryan screamed hysterically. Ethan came back to bed and told me what a fantastic idea that was. 3 min later=sleep. Solid til 6:30. So, we were up for about 2 hrs but we got our point across. Ryan has been sleeping from about 8-6 since then. :) :) :) Davis (the sleep lady) would be proud of me.

Saturday was my parent's 34th wedding anniversary. I know. Its awesome. Except for the fact that it means I'm turning 33 this year. Whatever. They are going to Disneyland for a week in April, and then to Vegas in May. Did I ever mention how they started these vacations after all their kids grew up? One year when I was in college they decided to go to Reno for a weekend. Its about a 2 hr drive. Then they just started going on these short vacations. Then after I moved to San Diego they decided they needed to go to Disneyland on the way. Didn't seem to bother them that they took me when I was 4 yrs old, left my 6 week old sister with my grandma...and then never took us again. The only way we got to go was our aunt took us every summer. Then when my brother got old enough to go I stopped going cuz I was too old and too cool by then. Our vacations consisted of camping...But now they go to Vegas, Monterey, wherever. And, they still go to Disneyland even though I'm not in San Diego anymore...and they stay a full week! My dad is in love with Disneyland which I think is so odd (BTW he is also in love with Tyra Banks). But, because of the great kids they have, we paid for their Disneyland tickets. Oh, did I mention I haven't been to Disneyland since Grad Nite 1993? Please do not tell me to suck it up and take Ryan cuz we are NOT ready for that. I have established the rule that Ryan must be poddy trained and no longer need a nap before we make that trip.

Happy BELATED St. Patrick's Day. We hosted a play group party here. 20 kids. I am insane. But you already knew that. I don't mind in general. Our formal living room is a playroom. We have a big train table that is always a hit, a ball pit and tons of toys. Plus we have a trampoline outside, a sand table, and lots of ride on toys. I don't even mind the prep or clean up. What I mind are the few kids who just don't behave. I'm sure its usually the kids that didn't nap that day or whatever, and lord knows my child has had those days so I'm not judging. I just hate when a mom isn't paying attention to her kid that is hitting MY kid, at MY house. For the most part everything went well and the screaming was a dull roar. I even made green jello shamrocks and we let the kids decorate cookies. I decided yesterday it would be a good time to disinfect all the toys after everyone left. It had been a while and its the cold/flu season...I could have been a nicer person and done that before everyone came...and I did think about it....just didn't get around to it. But now all is clean, but needs to be put away. The playroom looks like a tornado went through it, but its supposed to look like that. If we didn't have dogs that eat things it would look like that all the time.

Ryan had speech today for the first time in 3 weeks. He was sick, the therapist was sick, but finally we are back on track. I got to ask her about his progress and where she thought he would be for pre-school. As in, "are we gonna qualify for free preschool or not?" She told me IF he stayed in the program til he was 3 the school district would test him to see if he was eligible for free preschool or just a therapy session once a week. Her take was that he might not even be in the program when he is 3, and she is going to evaluate him next month since its been 4 months. So, it sounds like we are paying for preschool which is GOOD, and most likely he won't need speech therapy anymore. There is a chance she'll adjust him to once a month instead of weekly, just to keep an eye on him. I do hate that he might have the "stigma" of being speech delayed on his school records, but I can't do anything about that. I already know due to his Nov. birthday they will tell him to wait a year to start kindergarten once they see he was delayed. Thats fine, though its one more year of preschool to pay for. Sometimes I cannot believe that 6m ago he had NO WORDS. Such a transformation.

*Michelle, that is funny you mention Ryan being an only child. There were discussions on that topic recently and the sleep situation put those on hold. Can you believe that? LOL. But I'm sure if Ryan were to have a sister or brother they would be the best sleeper ever, right?

Today I could very well lose my mind

Yes, I stole that from Kate of Jon & Kate Plus 8, but its true. I know she has way more kids than me and I shouldn't complain about having to deal with one but these middle of the night wake ups that last for hours HAVE TO STOP. NOW. IMMEDIATELY. Here was last nights chant/scream/wail at 2am

"MOMMY'S ROOM"
"I AWAKE"
"OPEN DOOR"
"LIGHT ON"

Oh yes...and it doesn't stop. EVER. Unless we bring him in our room, but then it is another hour AT LEAST before he goes back to sleep so I/we have been up for about 3 hrs. And magically at 6:30am he wakes up chipper and bubbly and says "hey daddy." Me on the other hand, I'm a zombie.

Sometimes mommy rocks...other times NOT

Or as Ryan would say "Suntimes"...

We've had a hard time brushing Ryan's teeth. He loves to do it himself, unfortunately he doesn't do it well. So, we either have to hold him down, which I hate, or leave it. Then I got a bright idea last weekend. Let's try an electric toothbrush. He loves things that makes noise and it will be something NEW. We found a Super Mario toothbrush and since he "helps" daddy play Super Mario on the Wii I thought it would work. I rock on that. Since we got it we've had no crying at all. He let's me brush as long as I want. So, I might be mentally screwing the kid up but at least he'll have good teeth :)

Today I did NOT rock. I totally acted like a kid instead of being a parent. I knew we were having one of THOSE days--the kind of day when Ethan calls on his way home and I say "Ryan and I are fighting"...it happens suntimes. It's not all him, my mood and other things play into it as well. We've been having a rough time for a few weeks. I was sick for a week and I'm pretty sure he was bored out of his mind. Two days he actually told me he wanted to take a nap at 10:30am. He also was allowed to watch alot more TV/movies when I was sick because sitting was about all I could handle. So when I started to feel better and I said no to TV he wigged out. Then it all just snowballed from there. We had a rough weekend, even with Ethan here. He started giving the tude to his daddy too which made me feel a little better--equal opportunity over here! We are also trying to recover from when he was sick and was able to sleep with me. His sickness blended into my sickness and the sleep environment was just a mess. So, we've had three nights of him in our bed and last night we said no more. We were gonna tough it out. We know we just need to break the habit, we know it should only take 3 nights...but last night he was up for an hour at 3am. I caved because I was tired (did i mention i was tired?--and i'm not a fan of the time change right now) so he was in our bed at 4am but i didn't fall asleep til 5. Then Ethan's alarm goes off at 5:45. Seriously.

SO today I knew he had to be tired cuz I was tired. The 2 yr old TUDE was in full force. I managed to get him to the park where he played in a lot of mud. When we got home I told him we were going to wash off his shoes and that he could help--fully knowing he was going to soak himself and need to be changed. No big deal. I even took his socks off. I cleaned off the shoes best I could then gave him the hose, and told him to keep the water on the grass. I believe I gave 2 warnings about spraying water off the grass, then I got a downpour all over me. I even was calm for the first few seconds thinking maybe it was an accident so I stared right at him, but the water didn't stop. I took it away from him and the wailing began. I said we were done and going in the house because mommy was wet and she didn't want to be wet. Then the wailing turned to screaming at the top of his lungs and I did the not grown up thing--i sprayed him with the hose. No, not like the lady on Good Morning America who sprayed her kid at the car wash with a full pressure nozzle. This was his belly and legs, nowhere near the face and just enough to let him know I was mad. And, it made me feel better though it shouldn't have.

Now he is in his crib not napping and I'm going to go take a nap because I'm tired. On a more positive note, I got a pedi and eyebrow wax on Monday:) Both were badly needed. I also got a library card because Ethan said I had to cut back on buying books. Let's just say the library ain't what it used to be.

**update. after hearing a loud noise and crying I went into Ryan's room where he told me he hit his head when he was jumping in his crib. ofcourse. i was rather nervous since at 2.5 yrs old we are waiting for him to realize he can climb out and are soon it will happen any day now. so after another freak out I told him he could take a nap with me. fast forward 45 min of him not napping so back in his crib he was where he cried for a total of 5 min and slept for an hour and a half. its gonna be a long night over here...

Almost...

I am almost cured. I tried a different cold medication last night and dropped on the couch after we put Ryan to bed. Ofcourse we went online to see who got kicked off American Idol--no need to spend an entire hour watching THAT nonsense. Then, Ethan started Guitar Hero. If you don't have a Wii then you have no idea. But if you do....yes, he is obsessed. I found myself drifting to sleep and realizing I could breathe through my nose. Bliss. I awoke an hr later to what I thought was Ethan saying "mommy." Odd, so I interrupted his important guitar jam and said what is that? It was Ryan on the monitor saying "mommy" over and over again. He wasnt crying but it was so strange. He has never done that. I was still in a daze over my new found breathing and partly asleep but I decided to go upstairs and pop my head in and tell him to go to sleep. I occasionally have to do this at nap time and surprisingly he will lay right down and go to sleep. No such luck at night time.

When I opened the door I was shocked to see that he was laying down, blankets on...not what I expected. Ofcourse the bright light from the hall immediately had him standing up and then the crying started. It was like I was frozen. I"m just gonna blame it on the meds cuz I should have just turned around and walked away. But I didn't. I said he could sleep with me, mostly because I was so tired but wanted to take advantage of my new found nose breathing in case it went away. At that point I would have let him sleep with me for a month just to breathe again. Did I mention I hate being sick?

So I put him in our bed and got myself ready. Then Ethan comes and I hear Hi Daddy. We both get in bed. I lecture him that its nite nite time, he must go to sleep, no talking. It usually takes him about 20 min in this situation to fall asleep. More than an hr later he was standing up, getting ready to jump. I had warned him so many times but didn't have the energy to get up and actually remove him. Finally around 11:00 Ethan gave his one warning. Daddy means business. About 10 seconds later he was gone. Surprisingly he cried for about 5 min and was asleep. Then around 4:00 I hear "daddy" over and over and over again. For about 30 min. Whose child is this? We left him and he went back to sleep and woke up around 5:45 when Ethan got in the shower. I put him in our bed and ignored him. He was asleep in about 5 min then at 6:45 as Ethan is getting ready to go downstairs he immediately wakes up and says "hey dad."

Then there is a discussion about how Ryan is "no tired" because " i awake." But "mommy tired". YEP.

Because only I can

Because only I can be sick and still manage to gain weight. True talent. Call Guiness right now.

Our update. Ryan's fever is long gone, he had a great day outside and then woke up last weekend coughing. One day of rest my friends...We figured he had caught Ethan's cold, which Ethan was finally getting over after a solid week. At least this time he couldn't blame Ryan for it. This definately came from his work. Luckily Ryan's cough/cold lasted...ahem...3 days. I was totally stoked because I was expecting a long drawn out week and figured he would be sleeping with me again. Nope, and the best part was that he started sleeping til 6/6:30am. Hallelujah.

Then Sunday I started feeling the ickies. I knew it was coming. I get it last, and always when I think I'm in the clear. SO, today is day 4. Yesterday was miserable. Today seems a bit better since I'm actually upright at the computer at this very moment. Though Ethan will not stay home to take care of me..oops, I mean Ryan because ofcourse I can take care of myself....he has come home earlier than normal all week--and I'm sure it has nothing to do with me calling around 4:30pm sounding pathetic. He really wants to go to the gym now that he is feeling better, but bless his heart, he was home by 6:00 last night, cleaned the kitchen and made dinner. I got me a good one over here. Be jealous!

Some other things. Ethan was still ignoring the fridge issue. I bought more milk and lo and behold the next day it wasn't frozen. Just when we thought we had skirted the issue and the fridge from 1980 would hold on a little longer, stuff started freezing again a few days ago. Best Buy and Sears both have good deals with "no payments til" and sales, so I have a feeling that is what we are doing this weekend. I don't think I convinced him for the stainless/fake stainless. The matching argument does not sway him. If the fridge worked and it was orange and on sale he would buy that one. Gotta pick my battles. Though I should remind him that since I never get to pick out my own car again (VW Passat fiasco all my fault) that I should be allowed to pick my own appliances. Hmm....

It is now time to go back downstairs and get the little man a snack. He has been saying some hilarious things lately but ofcourse I can't remember anything in particular. He just started watching his shapes video and he already knew circle, but now knows rectangle, diamond and oval. Such a proud mommy.