Weekend activities

Our kids are condiment lovers. 

Mr. Man is working on his motor skills with dipping hot dogs in ketchup. 

Miss M and I went to the mall yesterday to waste some time while Andrew tried to get some work done while Mr. Man took a nap.  

It was hot and we needed a snack/drink when we left the mall so we ran to McDonald's b/c it was across the street and a cold McDonald's coke is all I want in life. And all Miss M wants in life is french fries with ketchup. 

We went to the play cafe Saturday morning to get out of the house. We needed a change of scenery and the thought of chasing Mr. Man all around the park sounded exhausting. The play cafe is an air conditioned and contained area.  

There were play hammers which Mr. Man found wonderful to bang on the table. He loves to bang/hit anything he can find.

He also enjoys playing everyday activities adding a bit of risk. Why not have a tea party standing up on a chair.

Or squatting on a table. He squats majority of the time when he plays. He doesn't sit on his bottom. I am sure he doesn't like the idea of being limited and having a few second delay to get back up off the floor.

 It is also rare that he sit in the bathtub or the pool. He usually squats like the above picture. He was quite entertained in the pool with a spoon and a bucket of water.

 Miss M enjoyed putting her chairs in the pool and kicking her feet up. Clearly she's overworked around here.

Andrew had a novel idea of putting the slide in the pool. The pool isn't really that big and I was a little worried Miss M was going to hurt herself but she loved it. Mr. Man loved it too.

Mr. Man being Mr. Man

Grandma Nan gave Miss M a baby doll bed that the girls used to use. Mr. Man loves nothing more than to climb in and out of it. So far it is holding his 26 lb self. 

He also loves eating crayons. Gross.
He really enjoys eating most things he isn't supposed to...sand, dirt, mulch, food dipped in rain water that's been sitting outside. I can only stop so much.

 A quiet moment where they both laid together without attacking each other.

Miss M knows that Mr. Man can't get down the stairs b/c he refuses to learn. So she sets him up a slide with the tunnel. She thinks its hilarious and a great idea. I keep trying to explain that it's an awful idea. I don't know when the kid will figure out how to get down the steps.

On Monday I was back to freaking out that either Mr. Man's hearing isn't well or there was something else wrong with him. The internet can be a great resource but it can also lead you to insanity. I finally broke down and called Jessie and told her I was freaking out and she talked me off the ledge. I knew she would which is why I called her.  Boys are just different than girls. I think this is a lot of it. I am used to Miss M. I am not used to the energy of a boy yet. I am not used to the climbing on everything and trying to fall off. 

I called the doctor. I was able to get him an appt the same day. I went to the doctor afraid they were going to think I was the neurotic parent that calls and comes in for no reason. The doctor was really nice and told me to alway come in if I thought something was wrong. I am so happy with the new doctor. I wanted to give her a hug.  

She had asked if there was more wax than usual in his ears or if his balance seemed off. I had been noticing/pulling out wax out of his ear which I just thought was normal. This weekend in DSM Andrew mentioned that with as long as Mr. Man has been walking one would think he was a little more stable on his feet. I told her these things an then she looked in his ears and told me that one of his ears is 1/3 blocked which is affecting his hearing, balance and responsiveness. The stuff in his ears is supposed to naturally work its way out. We are to schedule an appointment in 4-6 weeks to see if it's cleared up. If it's not cleared up we schedule an appt with an ENT doctor. 

I was happy to pay the $30 co-pay for peace of mind. Next time maybe I will take him in before I lose my mind and end up calling Jessie crying but probably not. 

Trip to DSM

We loaded up the car first thing Friday morning and started our journey to Des Moines for a wedding.  Miss M was excited about the idea of a wedding. She hasn't really been to a wedding since she was a baby. 

I get to be the driver. I appreciate being the drive. Andrew is the passenger. I appreciate having a passenger who has the ability to communicate above a 3 year old vocabulary level.  I do not appreciate when he has conference calls during the trip. It's hard to explain to the kids they need to be quiet.  Andrew wasn't able to pick up wi-fi in the car like he usually can so he wasn't clicking away on his computer or taking many conference calls. It was delightful. 

We stopped in Iowa City to eat lunch and play with Grandma D and the girls. The last time the kids and I were in Iowa City we told Miss M she could ride the carousel but by the time we got ready to ride it the operator was on lunch. So we made sure we rode the ride before break time.

Mr. Man discovered ketchup. I did not give it to him rather he screamed so loud repeatedly that I finally caved and let him have it. It's a disaster.

But like his sister - he loves it.

The kids got all dressed up and looked so adorable. I bought him orange shoes b/c Uncle Craig has a pair of orange loafers that I think are so awesome so I thought Mr. Man needed a pair to match.

Miss M was in awe with all of the wedding stuff. She loved the ceremony, the dresses, the dancing, the cake. She just wanted to shake her stuff on the dance floor the entire reception. She was disappointed when she couldn't dance during the first dance. We had to leave the reception a little early due to the kids which disappointed her again b/c she couldn't dance anymore.

Mr. Jack looked so dapper in his suit. He is getting ready to bust some moves on the dance floor. Or he's looking for his father.

After we returned to the hotel from the reception the kids just raced up and down the hallway over and over again. Andrew stood at the end of the hall to turn them around. 

We started our journey home around 10:30am and we rolled into the driveway a little after 5pm. After we got home the kids wanted nothing more than to play in the car. I couldn't believe they wanted to stay in the car after they just sat in it for 6+ hours.

Overall, the kids were really good car riders. I have definitely had shorter rides that went worse. We get to make another long car ride soon when we go to STL so hopefully they take to the car as well as they did this trip. 

A special day with Miss M

I get a weekly email listing out most of the activities that are going on in town. I usually don't pay much attention to it but last week I was looking through it (probably while I was stalling to get out of bed) and saw one of the local library branches was doing a rocket ship craft time.  Miss M has been quite into rocket ships and space and planets. I think I credit/blame Mickey Mouse and Chick-Fil-A. 

I arranged for the babysitter to come take care of Mr. Man while Miss M and I went to lunch. Her choice was McDonald's. Shocking.  She ate her four piece nugget meal with five ketchup cups. 

 Then we went to the library and made a rocket ship on paper. It was really cute. The kids could tape/glue crepe paper to the rocket ship to signify the blast off.  There were some parents who were very concerned with helping their kids make the rocket ship look like the example. I was just happy to sit back and watch Miss M do her work. I did get recruited to help color the rocket ship but that was about all of my contribution outside of the transportation.

We were leaving for a wedding a couple days later and I wanted to get my nails done before we left. There wasn't really time to take Miss M home and drop her off and leave again so I decided to take her with me. I had convinced myself she would sit on my lap (what's left of it) or sit next to me and watch shows on the phone and there would be silent bliss. Nope. She did sit next to me but she sat next to me and asked 1,980,934 questions about the happening inside the salon.

Including but not limited to the massage chair. 

When I moved to get a manicure the lady offered a little stool for Miss M to sit on. This might have been the worst idea ever. All she wanted to do was spin in it and roll all over the place in it. Thankfully they weren't busy but I am not sure some of the other customers appreciated a busy/talkative three year old.

When we got home she was worried we wouldn't have cupcakes for Uncle Craig's birthday so we whipped up some cupcakes. They weren't really that tasty. We lugged them all to Des Moines and all of them back just to end up in the trash. It's the thought that counts.

The pool is now open

Our local pool is now open. They had their grand opening on Saturday. We weren't able to go to the grand opening b/c Mr. Man was sleeping and b/c Andrew was working.

Mr. Man and I dropped Miss M off at school today and since he slept until almost 9am we had a full three hours of each other before we picked Miss M up from school. I thought I would attempt a trip to the pool with one kid before I ventured there with two kids. Thankfully the pool is very close so if things are a disaster we aren't more than five minutes from home.

It was a success. I think we'll do it again tomorrow. The kid pool is a zero entry and really shallow so it feels like it will be manageable with two.  Due to the fact that there are two kids and only one of me (and because it's just good water safety) the kids won't be allowed to be at the pool with some sort of floatation device.  Mr. Man didn't complain today and being the risk adverse Miss M she won't go in the water without one.

He also wore his hat the whole time we were there. He usually rips off every hat I put on his head but he seems to be either willing to wear a baseball hat or he realizes that it isn't fun to have the sun shining in your face all day.

Happy Father's Day

In my opinion Andrew had the perfect Father's Day. I would have liked to have his Father's Day (minus the working). 

The kids slept in and I woke up just in time to make it to my Pilates class. Andrew and the kids played for the hour I was gone. I went to the coffee and donut store down the street from the Pilates studio. The donuts are so big...they are expensive too but it was for Father's Day.

I bought three donuts thinking we could share with Mr. Man. Mr. Man had other plans. He snagged a donut and wanted it all to himself. He was still carrying part of it around later that morning before he lost it to the pool.  The donut is as big as his head and we all know his head is large. 

We played outside for a bit and then Mr. Man took a nap. I decided to take Miss M shopping to get a few things done and to get out of Andrew's way so he could enjoy the paper and some downtime and get some work done while Mr. Man was resting.

Mr. Man rested for nearly four hours. Miss M and I finished our last bit of shopping about the time he was waking up and so we loaded up and went to an early dinner.  After dinner we played downstairs and then it was time for baths and bed.

I wish someone would come take my kid(s) somewhere for a couple hours. I do get a babysitter but sometimes I just want to hang out at the house and get stuff done or sit and do nothing and not feel like I have to go somewhere. There are some days when the babysitter comes over and I am happy to run away but then I realize I don't know what to do with my time. I can go to the store and wonder around and spend money or waste time at the coffee shop but sometimes I just want to be home. Take note Dad-O.

Accident prone

I need to make a new first aid kit since it's summer and I am responsible for toddlers who just seem to find trouble. 

Mr. Man is getting tall enough that he can reach the canned goods in the pantry. I try to keep them stacked and pushed back so that he can't grab and actual can but my best efforts failed me last week. A can of condensed milk slammed onto his foot. He cried something awful. His toe swelled up a bit over the course of the day.  

Miss M.  She's just a disaster sometimes. It's amazing that she has the ability to hurt herself as much as she does b/c she is generally so risk adverse.  She's cautious and careful and doesn't like when people don't follow the rules. She gets stressed out when her friends run off from their parents. If Miss M can't see me at any given point in time she loses her mind.

On Saturday morning Miss M and Andrew went to her first swim lesson class and after they finished they went to the gymnastics center so they could get their pool passes. Mr. Man and I got ours earlier in the week when Miss M was at school.  

She was so excited about surprising me with her pool pass that she was walking with her pool passes behind her back.  As she was walking up the back stairs she fell flat on her face and cut her lip open and scrapped her chin on the wooden steps.  No one saw the incident as Andrew was trying to get stuff out of the car and I was upstairs in the house. 

I heard her crying and Andrew screaming at me so I ran downstairs and saw the blood.  It looked pretty bad after we got the bleeding stopped and the blood cleaned up.  Her lip is fat and her chin appeared to bruise immediately. 

Day after the accident. It looks so much worse.  She doesn't appear to be affected by it at all. It doesn't hurt when she eats or when we wipe her face or when she brushes her teeth. Apparently it just looks a lot worse than it is which is good I suspect.

I can't get Mr. Man to learn how to walk down the stairs so I am sure this will end up being a near death experience sooner than later. I try to work with him and turn him on his tummy to crawl down but he refuses to be molded and he just starts crawling back up the stairs.

A bit about Mr. Man

Mr. Man is finally showing interest in things more. He used to seem indifferent to just about everything except a bottle. He doesn't get bottles any longer but the sippy cups he uses/prefers/demands are kind of like a bottle. You can't say I didn't get him off the bottle at one year though! 

He is obsessed with these flowers down our street. He gets excited when he knows we are getting close to them. I have no idea what they are or why he finds them appealing.  

Mr. Man is obsessed with Violet, the puppy dog. Miss M received it as a present when she turned one. She hasn't ever wanted much to do with it. He wants to carry it around and snuggle with it and eat it's ear. On this particular day he wanted to eat lunch with it. She needs a bath.

Mr. Man also loves soy products even though he's not supposed to eat them but when life hands you lemons eat soy based products.  Right?!?!

Mr. Man has had some bowel movement problems. It's gotten worse since he's gotten off formula which is odd since the doctor said it should get better. It's a lot worse. Like I might call the doctor's office worse.  The difficult part is determining what to feed him. I shouldn't be giving him cheese or applesauce apparently which are both staples in his diet.  I can't imagine what people do with multiple allergies...what do they eat.

He's also been sleeping kind of like a jerk lately (the last 2 months maybe). I don't know what is going on. I don't know if his teeth hurt or he's used to waking up and getting milk again (b/c I thought it was a phase and I just wanted him to go back to sleep) or if he's truly not eating enough during the day that he wakes up hungry in the middle of the night.

I plan to shove as much food down his face as humanly possible this week and then if it's still a problem next week stop giving him milk to see if I can get him back on track.  When he wakes up in the middle of the night he is usually up for an hour or so and then he wakes up later in the morning and then he's off all day. He's off for his nap schedules but his mood is also off which makes for a long day when you're dealing with a crappy baby for hours upon hours.

Everyone likes walking to the farmers market on Saturday mornings for some fresh veggies and some donuts. Miss M has decided she's big enough that she doesn't need to ride in her stroller. I don't mind that she wants to walk since in a few months she's going to get the boot from the schedule anyway but she thinks she can walk further than she really can.

I don't know the exact ingredients for the donuts but something tells me there's soy involved. I don't even care. The little guy loves his weekly donut and he doesn't much appreciate everyone eating a donut while he gets sidelined.

Same $h*t new day

I haven't posted much lately b/c it doesn't seem like our days are very exciting.  I haven't been taking many pictures probably because I am just lazy or else I am chasing Mr. Man down b/c he's put mulch in his mouth, he's gotten in the pool, he's running to the street, he wants to play in the garage, he's trying to fall down the stairs, he's climbing/standing on things that easily tip over, or any other endless things he does to try and hurt himself. Who knew keeping a kid alive was so exhausting?

Miss M goes to school for the morning. Mr. Man sometimes sleeps for portions of this event. We eat lunch. We go to the park to kill some time. We come home and sometimes all get a nap. We eat dinner and then play outside to kill some more time before bed. I was making it a goal to visit all the parks in town to see which ones were best suited for Mr. Man but after going to just a handful of them in the last week or so it is obvious the one within walking distance to our house is the best for toddlers who refuse to learn how to walk/crawl down steps as most of the playground equipment.

It feels like every playground is accompanied by a sandbox. Mr. Man is drawn to the sandboxes. It's not even worth the fight to keep him out of it. It's a guaranteed bath night because it gets everywhere. I have a serious dislike for sand. 

Miss M always insists we play in the front yard even though there are no toys to play with. She really just wants to run around in circles. I don't really enjoy playing in the front yard b/c Mr. Man is a run-away and thinks it's a game to run down the driveway and try to get in the street before anyone can catch him. 

I am working to get him to keep his hat on. I would prefer he wore a hat rather than spraying sunscreen all over his bald head. 

We received a package in the mail from someone who thought Miss M needed some pink flamingos in the garden.  They have been approved by Andrew that they are acceptable to stay. Thankfully they aren't large.

Mr. Man loves the pool. He often just gets in fully clothed without a concern in the world.

I don't know if he really is interested in his toy car or if he is really more interested in driving his sister crazy.  She's okay with him sitting on her for a few minutes...

Then she complains her legs hurt and he has to get off of her. He doesn't seem to mind that they are scrunched in the car.   

Miss M is more and more of a goofball everyday.  

Last day of gymnastics.

We finished our last week of gymnastics. We are taking a break for the summer. It's best for our marriage as Andrew has a hard time getting off work on Fridays for a 6:30pm class and it usually leads to yelling and disappointment. We may try again in the fall because when she turns 3.5 years old she gets to go to class without an adult.  I don't know why the park district has made 3.5 years old the magic cut off but she's excluded from a lot of stuff this summer due to her not quite being 3.5. 

On the last day of class they do an awards ceremony and the kids who are moving on to the next age group class are given medals first. Here are some of the kids with their Coach (whom we still aren't quite sure of the pronunciation of her name). Drew-B is sitting next to Coach in the green. He's moving up so maybe we can try for his class going forward because Miss M loves him being in her class. 

Miss M was the last one to receive her medal. She wasn't really pleased but she waited patiently. She was quite confused why everyone had been called but her. She was so anxious.

Drew-B and Miss M with their medals. He is physically so much bigger than Miss M it baffles me.