Flashback Friday - Mall Santa

I'm playing along this week, for the first time ever, with Tia from
Christopher & Tia.

I would like to share a picture of Ryan on his first Christmas (in the NICU), but that would require scanning a picture and I don't know how to work our new printer/copier/scanner :-/. And the software for it isn't on my laptop, only Joe's, and he took his laptop with him. Maybe next week :o). Instead I'll share the kids' mall Santa picture from last year.

(This is actually a picture of a picture (since I didn't have a scanner), but I think it turned out pretty good.)

Ryan smiled SO well in this picture :o). Brooke looks petrified or stunned...hehe. She didn't cry, though! Look how short her hair was...she's changed so much in the last year.

I think this Santa is awesome. He's very friendly, too. It's been the same Santa at that mall since Ryan was a baby. And I think they do a great job taking the pictures, too. I haven't been as impressed with the Easter Bunny and Santa pictures we've gotten done at the mall out here. I'll have to post this year's sometime soon.

Potty Progress

Doesn't she look happy in that photo? She was mad because I wouldn't get her more books and then she got even more angry when I got the camera out. She does lots of whining and crying these days. I hope this stage passes quickly.

Anyway, moving on....

I sort of accidentally figured out this past weekend the trick to getting Brooke to go on the potty by herself. Backing up a little bit, the past couple weeks or so I hadn't been pushing the potty thing too much. She was pooping her pants EVERY time (and really, isn't the biggest reason to potty train so you don't have to deal with poopy pants anymore??) and a lot of the time when I would ask if she had to go potty or try to get her to try, she would refuse. And she wasn't taking the initiative to go on her own, ever. I didn't want to push her. I backed off on the whole thing.

Saturday afternoon she got that look on her face like she had to poop and I actually got her to sit on the potty. She sat for about 10 minutes and didn't do anything. Then she decided it was time to get up and play. I went to get her a clean diaper to put on and got distracted (that happens a lot to me...haha). Ten minutes or so later she yelled "I have to poop!" and ran over, sat down on her potty, and POOPED! I was shocked....and thrilled. So I decided to let her run around with no undies/diaper/pants on and see what happened, crossing my fingers that I wouldn't be cleaning up puddles of pee everywhere...or worse. The next thing I knew, she ran over and sat down and peed!

Since Saturday, she's been running around here with nothing on her bottom half (except socks and sometimes leg warmers, if she'll leave them on). I try to have her wear dresses, but she only has two right now, but she does have a couple longer shirts. She has only had 3 pee accidents....twice on the couch (grrr) and this morning she peed a tiny bit on her highchair because she didn't get to the potty in time (she finished in the potty). She has pooped in the potty EVERY time (save for once in a diaper when I had her playing in her room while I showered and I can't really blame her for that one). I know eventually I need to try putting her in underwear, but I don't want to do it too soon. She is doing SO well now! I hope it continues when she does start wearing underwear again.

Hopefully diapers will be a thing of the past very soon (except for bedtime)!

As Promised

Brooke surprisingly loved the snow yesterday! We only stayed out a few minutes, though, since it was (is) pretty windy. She wasn't too sure about it at first, as you can see in the first few pictures. Then she had fun kicking the snow and throwing it. We really didn't get much (still haven't). But school is closed in my hometown for the 2nd day in a row today. I have to say I am VERY happy we aren't getting snow dumped on us like they are.

Ok, on to the pictures....

All bundled up and ready to go out.
(Now everyone knows what T.P. we use :-P. Should probably get that put away today.)

Some of the pictures turned out kind of dark, so I did some editing on Picnik.
This is one I edited.

Showing me the snow on her boot.

Kicking the snow, while saying "Kick! Kick!"...hehe.

She got brave and reached down to touch it...and then brushed her mittens off.

She grabbed some snow and got a leaf, too.

Throwing it!

My favorite :). Drool and all ;).

Time to go in! Showing me her snow covered mitten. She wasn't happy about that part ;).

That Bad 4 Letter Word That Starts With "S"

No, not *that one.

S-N-O-W!
It looks like it's here for real now and not just some flurries that don't really stick, or if they do, disappear before the day is over.

The cute little church that is kitty-corner across the street from our house.

I guess there was probably a time when I liked snow. You know, back when it meant missing school because of it or at least getting lucky with a 2 hour delay or maybe an early dismissal. Back when I didn't have to shovel any of that nasty white stuff. And back before I had to worry about driving anywhere in it.

Brooke is not too sure about it herself. Last year she thought it was funny. I missed her first experience seeing it this year. Joe and the kids were leaving church Wednesday night and it was snowing some. Brooke started whining and saying "ewww". Then yesterday when we woke up there was a coating of it on the ground and when we went to leave to go to church, she refused to step off the porch in to it. She started with the whining and "ewww" again. I picked her up and carried her to the car and as I was buckling her in, she kept saying, "It's messy. It's messy out there, Mommy." Haha. I think I'll try to take her out for a bit later and see what she does. I'll be sure to take some pictures and post them.

I don't think I really HATED snow until last year, when it seemed like that's ALL it did for two months. And not just an inch here or there....like 6 inches every day. The worst was going to bed one night and waking up to a foot of snow on top of probably a foot of snow we'd already had (there was so much snow last winter, the details are blurry :-P). I remember going out to shovel at times and trying so hard not to cry because I was seriously just SO sick of it. Thank God for my awesome parents (mostly my dad, but my mom helped some too) that came to help shovel me out, on top of shoveling out their own driveway.

And now it is back. It could be worse, though. Back in my hometown they've already gotten dumped on a decent amount and I think they are supposed to have a foot to a foot and a half by tomorrow sometime. School was canceled there for today. We haven't even had enough to shovel yet :::knock on wood:::. I can still see the grass peeking up through. I think they are calling for a possible 1-2 inches tonight and 1-3 tomorrow or something like that. But they've been calling for that for a couple days and we haven't gotten that much yet.

I'm just really hoping snow doesn't keep my parents from being able to come out here on Christmas Eve to spend the night. I will be SO seriously bummed if that happens. But I'll try not to even think about that yet.

Well, pictures of Brooke in the snow to come later, hopefully!

Ear Issues

Ryan had his first ear infection when he was around 18-24 months old. He didn't have another one until April 2009 and we only found out because I took him to the doctor for a bad cough he had. He wasn't complaining about ear pain. Then his next one was November 2009. Not too bad, considering I know of so many babies and toddlers and children that get them quite frequently. That didn't seem to be Ryan. Until August of this year. He had a really bad one a week before school started. He seems to have a high pain tolerance and I don't think his ear really started hurting him until it was almost ruptured. His dad took him to urgent care on a Sunday (Ryan was with him for the weekend) and then Tuesday morning he woke up and the cotton ball that had been in his ear was bloody. So I took him back to urgent care and his ear drum *had ruptured. They referred him to an ENT and we went there on Thursday. They put him on a stronger antibiotic and said to come back in 6-8 weeks for a recheck.

About a month later, I think it was September 20th, he started complaining again of his ear hurting (the right one, again). It was a Sunday morning and back to urgent care we went. Another infection was starting. The doctor said maybe it was because the first one hadn't completely cleared up. Or maybe he was going to start having problems with recurring ear infections. His follow up with the ENT was about 2 weeks later. The infection was cleared up, but there was still fluid in both ears. He said if he continued to have infections, they would probably want to put ear tubes in. I questioned him on why he might start getting infections all of a sudden and was told that sometimes the ear canal changes shape when kids grow and can cause the ear not to drain as well. He wanted to see him back in 6 months or sooner if there was a problem.

About 5-6 weeks later, Ryan complained AGAIN about his right ear hurting. I called the ENT to see if we could get in, but they didn't have an opening for a few days. I took the appointment, but then ended up taking him to urgent care the next morning because I didn't want to take the chance and wait it out. This time BOTH ears had infections brewing in them. I called and canceled the original ENT appointment and made a different one for the following week (that was November 18th). When we went in, the infections were cleared up, but once again, he had fluid sitting in both ears. The doctor thought it was time for tubes and so did I. I was tired of dealing with pretty much monthly ear infections and I'm sure Ryan was, too. Not only was he in pain from them, but he also couldn't hear very well. He still was not pleased about getting tubes in. They scheduled him for Monday, November 30th, which worked out great since he had that day off school anyway.

My mom was nice enough to come along with us, for moral support ;). I wasn't sure how Ryan was going to be since he was so against it. We had to be at the surgery center at 6:45....YUCK. But I would rather get up at 4:30 in the morning and have him be the first patient of the day, than not have to be there until later morning. He was in a GREAT mood that morning, as you can see.....

Talking to my mom while waiting for anesthesia to come talk to us.

My mom and I kept talking to him about how quick it would be and that he wouldn't feel anything and it wouldn't hurt or anything like that. I asked him to go back to the O.R. like a big boy and not cry and that we would see him in a few minutes after he woke up. I thought he was going to be okay. But he wasn't. He refused to go and so I picked him up and carried him to the doors and the nurse had to pry him out of my arms :(. It was a little before 8am...they were right on time.

My mom and I went to use the restroom and then went to the waiting room. We were sitting there less than 10 minutes before the doctor came out to tell us that everything went great and they would call us back to recovery to see him soon. I was a little nervous about this part because he is generally pretty crabby and uncooperative when he wakes up (I know this from the number of sedated eye exams he's had done). It was actually about 25 minutes later until they came to get us, but when we walked in, he was sitting on the bed eating a grape slushie and looking at the Rudolph ornament they had given him and in a pretty good mood. The nurse wanted him to take some tylenol, which he initially was fighting, but I finally got him to take it. He was discharged about 10 minutes later. We ended up getting home at 9:30am, which was awesome and Joe didn't even have to drop Brooke off at his sister-in-law's (who agreed to watch her) since he didn't leave for work until right after we got back.

Playing Wipeout on the DS not long after getting home.

Ryan was in a great mood the rest of the day. He only said his ear hurt a couple times, but he really wasn't complaining about pain. He didn't have a lot of drainage, which I was relieved about. He did take a 2 hour nap (and so did I!). He went to school the next day. He can hear very well again, which is great. I am REALLY hoping this is the last of his ear problems! He goes back to the ENT on the 30th of this month for a follow up and to get his hearing tested. I'm hoping for a good report :).

The Living Room

....or family room, whatever you wanna call it. I'm finally posting some more "before" and "after" pictures! Everything is all cleaned up and ready for Thanksgiving tomorrow, so it was the perfect chance to take some pictures while everything is uncluttered ;-).

Before

Only 2 before pictures. The red walls were hideous.

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After

This is the right side of the room as you step in the door from the kitchen.

This is the view from the kitchen doorway.

The view from the basement doorway in to the living room. Yes, the door to the basement is in the living room. Seems odd to me that it's not in the kitchen, lol.

Another one from the basement doorway, but in this one you can see the front door in this one and our family pictures hanging on the wall ;-).

Just a close up of the bookshelf and other closet.

Our picture wall ;-). I love love love having all the pictures hanging up everywhere. And that is the basement door on the left.

Wordless Wednesday

She makes me laugh.