Halloween 2010

I was having a difficult time trying to figure out what the boys could be for Halloween this year. Ryan couldn't really decide and Cayden just kept telling me he wanted to be "Lightning McQueen." As much as I am all for allowing my children to express themselves, I wanted them to be something that 'matched' again, this year.

Last year, they were Buzz Lightyear and Woody.



Anyway, I'm not a huge fan of the costumes that have the child splitting the costume, like a race car or something. I prefer their costumes to *be* someone/something.

As I was sitting at my mom's looking at the ads on a Sunday, the lightbulb immediately went on! I've got it! I know what they're going to be and it's perfect! I suggested the idea to Ryan and he immediately loved it. I talked to Cayden about it and he was all excited, too. It was settled. We had their costumes picked out. We just had to find them. The week leading up to Halloween was pretty hectic. Trying to find the costume Ryan wanted in his size was like trying to find a needle in a hay stack. After searching all the stores in our area, we called a store in Perry, UT (about 40 minutes north) and found one! A friend of mine picked up the costume for me and we were set. Just in time! Ryan needed his for Thursday morning's parade at school. Thursday went over great! Come Friday morning, Cayden's turn to dress up for day care came. He was *NOT* a happy camper. He hated part of the costume. We finally got him to at least smile in some pictures, and took advantage of it before we went Trick-or-Treating on Saturday evening.

Introducing: The Mario Brothers!

Funny story about Trick-or-Treating. While at a house, someone asked Ryan what the "L" stood for on hat (I guess the guy didn't know who Luigi was, or at least he said he didn't because he doesn't play video games.). Ryan replied, "Luigi!" The guy looks at me and I said, "Mario's brother." Cayden decided to reply, too. "NO!" he exclaimed, "He's not Luigi. He's Ryan; my brother." haha!

Balloons, Chaos and... Muffcakes?

Has anyone else ever wondered why we, as mothers, put ourselves through so much stress just to put on a 'show' for our child? The party is no longer for the child, rather a challenge for the mother to get the best cake in town, serve the most high-quality food and make sure there is enough to do so that the chlidren attending aren't so bored that they are attempting to use you as the ransom figure in a game of cops and robbers.

Ryan turned four this past week and we had some festivities. We took him to Applebee's for his birthday. He was chuffed when they came out to sing to him. I made cupcakes for him to take to his pre-school and he was all sorts of excited! The morning of his birthday he saw me frosting the cupcakes and asked "momma, are those muffcakes for me to take to Miss Diane's?" I replied, "Yes, buddy, these cupcakes are for you to take to your friends at school for your birthday." He corrected me. "No, mom! They're muffcakes." Okay, guess he told me!

We had a party on Sunday. My boss, Summer, is one of the most amazing people I have ever met. She was determined to let Ryan have the 'best birthday ever,' and took him and Cayden to Chuck E Cheese's Sunday afternoon. After a few hours of playing, we packed up and headed home so I could finish the last minute preparations for the party that night. We had planned to have the party at a park. It's June. Weather should be immaculate and shouldn't cause a problem, right? WRONG. The party would have been held under a pavillion, so if there was rain that wouldn't be a huge issue. The problem was the wind! The wind came and picked up almost immediately after I started setting up for the party. The balloons I had gotten that afternoon were tied to the table and came loose. I look over and there are 13 balloons stranded in a tree. My brother, Josh, was ever so kind to go and retrieve them for me. Anyway, back to my boss. She noticed the wind and everyone standing around wishing they had a warm place to go and offered her house to hold the party. We had 20 people attending this party and she offers her house like it's no big deal! We accept, sheepishly, and pack up and follow her and her husband to their house. Their house is beautiful. The kind of home I intend to own one day. The kind of home I was afraid to stick tape to the walls in, because i was afraid of damaging something. Summer and her husband opened their home to us all and we had a great night. Ryan got lots of presents and thoroughly enjoyed himself. I guess all the fretting and stressing paid off in the end. I leave you with a picture of my most recent masterpiece:

Lightning McQueen.

p.s. Please disregard the horrible focus on the picture, I took this with my phone camera and forgot to take one with my 'real' camera. More pictures of the birthday party and birthday boy to come later! Stay tuned.

Can't Leave Ryan Out.

Ryan is going to get his own post. He has been misbehaving a little bit lately and I'm pretty sure that I know the reason behind it. Doesn't make dealing with the behavior any easier, but understanding it is a good step in knowing how to take care of it. I've been listening to a man/therapist on the radio recently and will probably end up buying his book. He has so many great ideas on how to parent in an effective way and also to give you tips on how to be your child's friend but also the person in charge. .
Anyway apart from the behavior, Ryan is coming on in leaps and bounds. His vocabulary has increased tri-fold since we've moved and he is becoming more efficient in his shapes, colors, letters and numbers. I definitely have to give props to my childcare provider for a lot of it. She seems to have this effect on him where he wants to go to her house on MY days off, too! Haha! I love that he likes her so much though.

Ryan's recent feats:
Alphabet
Counting 1-15
Spelling his name
knowing his birthday, age and brother's age.
He can color mostly in the lines now
And he can pretty much have a full telephone conversation now. :)
We're working on his address and phone number and shapes and colors. He's so stinkin' cute! He's getting better at understanding things too. ... When I talk to him about something he is starting to understand more of what i say. He amazes me. :)

An Entire Month?

Wow. Time flies when you're having fun. I can't believe an entire month has passed since I updated this. Lots has happened.
The boys are enjoying daycare. Although, they brought home some kind of stomach virus that has made its' rounds in the family. That wasn't fun. Ryan got it first, then Cayden, then ME, then I gave it to Josh, my dad got it, mom got it and Chris got it. We've also all been fighting some kind of viral infection that has affected us all differently. We're still battling with that part. :\
i'm working quite a few hours, which means the boys are at daycare more than I wish they had to be. Another thing, Cayden got his first ear infection. Poor little guy.

Let's see. Cayden got his first TWO teeth a day apart from one another. His first popped through on Dec 2. His bottom left. And his bottom right popped through on Dec 3. He also started crawling right around my birthday (16th). He's thinning out now, but he was a little chunk for a while.
Ryan is doing really well with everything now. He only doesn't behave when he's getting tired, otherwise, he seems to be doing a lot better with listening. Thank you, Miss Diane! haha!

Ryan and Cayden made me gifts at school. Cayden "made" me a plate with his hand print and the year on it. And, Ryan painted a little ceramic snowman. They were adorable. They were wrapped for me and everthing, it was totally sweet opening them up on Christmas morning.

Both boys had an enjoyable Christmas. Cayden was sick, but still seemed to enjoy everything when he wasn't feeling sick. It was nice waking up to Ryan saying "Merry Christmas, Momma", since last year all he could say was "mayee kimmups" haha. I can't believe that another year is almost over. Once this year is over, I'll have a baby that will be ONE in 3 months! I cannot believe how fast this year has gone. Time flies when you're having fun

We are Back!

I'm so sorry I haven't posted in nearly a month! Things have been a bit hectic. The trip across the pond was fairly uneventful. The boys were fabulous on the plane, I had so many comments on how well behaved they were for me being on my own with them. I had lots of help. A friend of mine met me in Manchester to help me through the airport and get my bags checked in (If you're reading this, Sue, thank you so much for your help!). Once I got past security there were people that would help carry things for me if they saw me and thought i was struggling. They were all so nice.

I got to Utah at about 8pm. I had a welcoming committee waiting for me! Mom, Dad, Chris, Josh, Rachael, Corban and Isabelle. It was a nice warm welcome home.

Once we got here we kept pretty busy for quite some time. Went to Idaho to visit family and have been doing what I need to to make sure the kids are taken care of, etc. I will start working here shortly, which will give me a little bit more freedom. I am wanting to take a weekend and just do what I want. Get away, without the kids if I can, and just go out and let my hair down. I'm feeling pretty wonderful right now but it would still be nice to just go out and have a good time and do what I want. That's not too much to ask, is it?

Thank you all so much for your continued support. I wouldn't be where I am today without all of you behind me.

I will leave you with some photos of our endeavors since we arrived.

I was in the kitchen changing laundry over (yes, I live in England and unless you're a wealthy person your "laundry room" is also your kitchen) and I hear *tap tap tap* "Grandpa!" *tap tap tap* "Graaaaaaandpa!" *click click click* "hi Grandpa." I look over and see Ryan in the computer chair and trying to look on the screen to see if my mom and dad are on webcam! I thought it was sweet!

Cayden's DMSA & Ryan Funny

Today was Cayden's appointment at the hospital for his final test in the reflux testing he's had to have due to a UTI in June. The test is called DMSA.

We went in at 10am to have a cannula put in. I was expecting them to put it in the back of his hand or the crease in his elbow. The last time he had a cannula put in, it was put in the back of his hand. It took them three tries but they eventually got it. This time, they looked at the back of his hands. They looked at the creases of both elbows. They didn't see ONE vein that they thought would work. They immediately started looking at his feet. He ended up getting a cannula (IV) in one of the veins on the top of his foot near his ankle. Poor boy screamed the whole time it was getting put in. :(

Once the cannula was in we were sent down to the medical physics department. We went down and waited in the waiting room while two members of staff (unsure if they had a proper title so I'll call them nurses) went into a room with a ton of yellow "warning, hazardous" stickers all over the door. They emerged, one gesturing us to come with them and the other was carrying a small white metal box. It looked like a tiny toolbox.

We got into the room and they unwrapped Cayden's foot (it was wrapped up to keep the cannula in place) and rinsed the cannula out with a tiny bit of saline. Then one nurse was holding Cayden's foot, I was holding Cayden, and the other nurse was opening the metal box. Inside laid a small metal syringe. Something totally out of a horror movie or even Breaking Dawn. Had I not seen it with my own eyes I would never have thought something like that would happen in real life. The nurse dealing with the syringe saw the look on my face and said "this syrum we're using is mildly radioactive. It isn't enough to make Cayden sick or anything, but it needs to be this way so that our camera can pick up the images it needs to." That explains the metal syringe and box. She injected the syrum into Cayden and rinsed the cannula through again with saline. Once she was done they worked on taking the cannula out. It was maybe 20 minutes since he had the thing put in and they were putting him through more pain again to take it out. :( Once it was out, it bled quite a bit but they did what they could to stop it and then put a plaster (band-aid) on it.

That was easy. We then had two hours to do what we wanted. We fed Cayden his lunch (porridge with apple and pear. Yum) and then decided to get something to eat ourselves. Ryan was being so funny he was just talking away and the woman sitting next to us loved every minute of it. We went back up to the room we were given for the day and sat and talked while Cayden slept.

Once our two hours was up we went back down to the medical physics department and I went into a room with a gigantic table with two flat pieces connected together to form a 90* angle and a huge hole at the end. The hole and table reminded me of what I always imagined a CAT scan or MRI machine would look like (I've never seen either of these). This is what it looked like.

The two flat pieces were angled so that one was directly beneath him and the other side was perpendicular to his body. They took a "scan", the nurse kept calling them pictures, for 2 minutes and then the nurse went to look at the images taken. She said that one turned out fine but she had to do another one. This time she angled the camera under Cayden so that the crease of the angle of the two slabs was directly beneath his spine. She took another "scan" for another 2 minutes and then we were done! She said because of the syrum used it would be best that any nappies (diapers) changed in the next 24 hours should be disposed of directly outside. This has been sort of difficult since I am on my own at home right now, I live on the first floor (a flight of stairs) of a building and have a little boy that likes to follow me everywhere. If this happened with Ryan it wouldn't take 2 seconds to do - but with Ryan following me all the time I have allocated a special bin that can be thrown away and will throw all the nappies away inside the bin when the 24 hours is up. We will get the results of this test more than likely when we see the pediatrician on October 14. The test is to see if there is any scarring on his kidneys because of the reflux. Fingers crossed there isn't.

Now for a Ryan funny. He needed to go to the bathroom so I took him to the "parent's bathroom" on the ward we were on. I got him in there and helped him with his pants and helped him get on the toilet. When he was finished he turned around so I could help him with his pants and as he was reaching to flush the toilet he shrieks "CAPTAIN'S HAT!!" "CAPTAIN'S HAT!!" I look around thinking, what?! So I look around and I see some of those cardboard bed pan things that are used in hospitals for urine collection for tests... He wanted to put one one. He got one and put it on his head and he looked like a cowboy. It was hilarious!

Silly Boy

Ryan got into my scrapbook stickers and asked me to "decorate [his] face".

Daily Musings

Ryan has started to use phrases we would prefer him not to. "That stupid boy. ", "I want him to shut-up.", etc. Not very nice things to say, especially for a three year old. So we were playing around the other day and Ryan comes out with "Mamma! You silly buggar (booger?)!" To *me* five years ago, the word wouldn't have bothered me. But knowing now that most British people use it as an offensive term makes me not want Ryan to say it. SO. I tell him "Ryan. That's not a very nice thing to call mammy." He kind of looks at me and says "silly cow!" I tell him that the word cow used in that way is a derogatory (okay, I used the word "mean") word to say and not nice. He looks at me and then at Cayden. He decides upon "silly monkey!" I tell him "that's better! you're a silly monkey!" and we began playing again.

I know he was only playing but it is so hard to try to teach them right from wrong when they're being cute about it.

Finally!~

Ryan finally spent the night somewhere other than home! He stayed at my sister-in-law's house last night and she said he did super well! That's a great thing as Mike and I are off to London with the baby in a little over a week and Ryan will be staying there again.

Fun Day!

I met my sister-in-law, Kerry, in town today and we went to the park with the kids. They had a blast!

We went to a play area at the park, first. The toys were crap, but that didn't stop them playing!

Cayden getting tired.

Ryan enjoying a Kinder egg.

Then we decided to go to the playground portion of the park.

They had a blast! Although, mammy put sunscreen on the kids and forgot to put it on herself and now she has red, sore shoulders. oops.

Child for sale

For the last three and a half months Ryan has refused to go to bed without a fight. It's tiring and it's getting old. The last three nights he has torn his room apart while he's in there. I go to check on him before I go to bed and it looks like an atomic bomb and a tornado went through there. What do I do? I've taken things away (privileges), I've tried sticker charts, I've tried a few other things and I am at a loss. I ~need~ some me time before I go to bed, because Cayden is getting up at the crack of dawn and I also need to pump before I go to bed. He's been getting up (to which my only action is put him back in bed without saying anything) and playing and crying and screaming for almost 1.5 hours now. Ugh. I think I want to cry, myself.

Sick boy.

I'm glad that Ryan can now speak well enough to tell me what is wrong when he's hurt, not feeling well, etc.. It makes parenting so much easier. For the last two days Ryan has had a fever. It's easily broken with Tylenol but soon creeps back up again once the medicine starts to wear off. He just kept saying "I'm tired mammy, I'm tired" the first day. Yesterday he was bouncing. Literally, bouncing. Today he wakes up and he's so warm! 101.5. Nothing to panic at, but not something to ignore either. I give him some Tylenol and he lays on the sofa. He looks and me and says "Mamma, my tummy hurts. And my mouth (nouf - haha) hurts, and my eyes hurt. I don't feel well." It was so sweet and yet heartbreaking because I don't want him to be unwell. I hope he starts feeling himself soon. I also hope Cayden doesn't get whatever it is that Ryan seems to have. Cayden has been warm today, but nothing too bad. We'll keep our fingers crossed.

I Feel Awful

Ryan fell today.


We were walking home from being in town and he wanted to see the big crocodile (a person dressed as one, anyway). I told him that the crocodile would be there tomorrow too, so we'd go see him then as we needed to get home so I could feed Cayden. We continue walking, he's holding my hand. We get to a large hill that is just before a tunnel we frequently go through, and he says "I want to see the cockolyle" I told him "you can tomorrow, mammy will take you up to see him tomorrow". He gets in a huff and pulls his hand to try to get it out of my hand. Just as he does this his hand slips out of my hand (it was hot here today so our hands were sweaty), he slips on some loose gravel and falls straight forward nearly hitting his face on the ground. Poor little guy. He scraped his knee and the back of one of his forearms. He's never actually fallen and gotten a scrape before, so this is a first. He is babying his "owwees" tonight. He wouldn't even crawl into bed; he had to have me put him in there. haha! I told him once he went to sleep, he should feel better in the morning. I hope he does. I feel awful that his hand slipping out of mine (fair enough he was trying to pull it out) caused him to get hurt.

For Rachael

Please excuse the naked chest

Ryan went to a birthday party for one of his friends today. The place is called Funky Monkies

And a cute one of Cayden.