Trick or Treat

...or as Ryan would say, "Can I have some candy, please? I mean, Trick or Treat!" He had a ball going door to door with two of his favorite people: Caleb and our neighbor, Morgan. She was Super-girl, so Ryan decided to be Super-monkey. Then Caleb joined us and decided that Ryan was Spider-monkey. Who knew this costume would be so versatile?

A tale of two costumes

Ryan's not really "into" anything particular, but I felt like a genius when I realized he could be a monkey for Halloween. He loves Curious George lately and he's easy to please, so any monkey costume would do. I was really ahead of the game and bought him his costume weeks ago. Kaylin was set to be a flower, a hand-me-down from my cousin. I decided to set up a little photo shoot before the chaos of the big day and quickly discovered that not one, but BOTH of their costumes were too short. (*sigh*)

A friend offered to give me a butterfly costume, so for Kaylin, I had another choice, but the tags for Ryan's costume were long gone.

The other night, I went out in search of brown socks so Ryan wouldn't look as silly with the monkey feet half way up his leg and his bright white tennis shoes sticking out. Four stores, no socks his size. But Old Navy had all of their costumes 1/2 off. Tempting...oh so tempting...sure enough, they had his size in a great monkey costume. So I bought it. Yes, a second costume.

Yesterday, I found the receipt for the first monkey costume, told the sales lady the story and was able to return it. I was relieved to not have the cost of 2 similar costumes on my conscience.

So here we are on Halloween. I took NEW pics of the kids, but they weren't in the smiling mood. At least not at the same time. I barely got them to look in the same direction at the same time sitting still!

I do like this costume significantly better (the picture on the right). It's 2 pieces (for easy potty access), isn't as furry and cheesy looking, doesn't crowd his face, is plenty long and was half the cost. His shoes are even covered by the feet. It's going to be too warm tonight for the butterfly costume, so Kaylin will be a flower with a stem that only covers her to her knees. (The butterfly is a sweat suit and way too hot...sometimes it's tough that it's still so warm in AZ in October!) My little cuties are excited for Trick or Treating tonight.

The littlest phone-aholic

It's starting...and it's starting early! I can't remember if I've blogged this before, but Kaylin loves to mimic me on the phone. She's done it for months. She'll pick up the phone, put it to her ear, talk - "Bada ba ma namana?" then end the call with "BAH!" to imitate, "Bye." It's hilarious.

Unrelated, another funny thing she does is when she knows she's in trouble or when I snap at her or raise my voice (I'm such a saint of a mother, these things rarely happen...HA!) she'll wait a minute or so, then say, "hi" like "HIIIII-eee," with a really high pitched voice at the "i" and a lower voice at the "e." A little hard to describe, but it's her obvious attempt to make peace. I wanted to be sure to write it down somewhere before she stops doing it and I forget. It's the cutest thing.

Bob the Tomato shirt

I saw this shirt and couldn't resist, so I got it for Ryan as a souvenir from my girls weekend. For those of you who aren't familiar with Veggie Tales, it's Bob the Tomato. You'd never think that a shirt would make a kid feel SO special. He wore it two days in a row. Now that I think about it, I could have gotten Kaylin a Larry the Cucumber shirt and they would have been a pair! I found the shirts at Cracker Barrel, of all places.

A much anticipated girls getaway!!!

This weekend, I had the privilege of going up to Flagstaff with three good friends. No husbands, no kids, just girls. It was a kind of "fun" that I haven't had in years. We got there Friday afternoon and headed to the mall to do some child-free shopping. My girlfriends helped me pick out a new lip color (I'm embarrassed to say how long I've been wearing the exact same shade of Clinique lipstick...) and an amazing, over-priced, "I've-never-felt-this-good-in-a-pair-of-pants" jeans from The Buckle. They seriously fit like a dream and I love, love, love them. After shopping, we ate a long, lazy dinner (complete with drinks and dessert...pregnant Sari was our DD) at Oregeno's then headed home to scrapbook, read, play board games, relax, whatever we felt like doing alone or as a group.

We tried to sleep in on Saturday, but after waking up with kids for 3-5 years, the latest sleeper woke up at 7:15. We went out to a great little dive for lunch (and ate breakfast food) then went shopping again and to a movie. A movie in the middle of "naptime." What a concept! Complete with popcorn, Hot Tamales, Red Vines and Peanut M&Ms. (We saw "Dan in Real Life" which was a cute, funny, family movie. Loved it!)

It was just a great weekend. There were fall colors on many of the trees, it was a beautiful 70 degrees by day and freezing at night, it couldn't have been a better time to escape. We really need to make time to do things like this annually!

Playing with the big boys

This is the scene I just found when I went downstairs. (click to enlarge to get the full effect) Mike teaching Ryan how to play Mexican Train (a Dominos game) complete with the rules we play as adults. The dominos were face-up so he could help him play, but seriously! We haven't even bought the kid Hi-Ho Cherry-O or Candy Land yet. I guess if Mike has the patience to teach him an adult game, he can hang out with the big boys next time we have a get together.

An ER visit to close our weekend

There's nothing like a visit to the ER to end your weekend with a bang! I thought my laryngitis from last week was gone, but Saturday it became painful to swallow again. By yesterday morning, I was ready to go buy more Mucinex (it helped a TON last week) and we were completely out of Tylenol for the pain. By the time I made it to the store, it felt like I was swallowing around a golf ball in my throat. I assumed it was phlegm (sp?) and that the Mucinex would break everything up and I'd recover from there. (Sorry to make you read about mucus!)

I rested on and off all day and was reduced to whispering again, then insisted on going to a pumpkin carving party that we'd been looking forward to. There was going to be apple bobbing for the kids, s'mores, a bounce house and an outdoor viewing of "The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown." I was willing to take a hit for the team so Ryan could go to the party and play with some of his little friends Halloween-style.

That may not have been my best idea b/c I ended up straining to use my voice all night. By the time we got in the car, it hurt to even silently mouth words, let alone whisper, so I did a lot of nodding and pointing until falling into bed at 8:23pm. I took a Tylenol PM to help me sleep through the pain of swallowing and oh, was it painful. I had to grip the headboard every time I swallowed...it was awful.

I woke up every 15 minutes in pain until 10:00 or so...and at that point, I couldn't take it anymore. It had gotten so bad that I was having trouble breathing and would gag when I'd swallow. So I called the Blue Cross/Blue Shield 24 hour nurse help line. I guess I was just hoping for some home remedy that would get me through the night. Like, "Put a cold/warm compress on your throat for 2o minutes" or "The concentration of saltwater that you're gargling might be too weak. Try this..."

I did my best to whisper my problem to the nurse and she asked a string of questions, all with negative answers. "Do you have a cough?" "No." "Fever?" "No." Then she asked, "Is it so difficult to swallow that you find yourself drooling?" "YES!" It's gross, but that was totally happening. Finally a symptom that I was having! Was I going to get an answer to my problem? I sure was! She said, "You should probably go to the ER right away." WHAT?!?!?!?? "The golf ball you're feeling isn't phlegm. (something - I was barely listening at that point) is swollen so large in your throat that it's blocking your airway and could potentially close your throat completely."

I went upstairs to get dressed and started bawling. That sure didn't help the situation! Mike woke up asking what was wrong and got pretty freaked out when I couldn't calm down long enough to tell him. I had planned on driving myself so we didn't have to wake up the kids b/c my mom was on her way home from California and Mike's parents are in Indiana. My mom said she'd be home from CA around midnight, but something made me wonder if she had gotten home early. Sure enough, Mike called her and she had JUST gotten back in town and was 10 minutes away from us, headed back to her house. It couldn't have been more perfect b/c she lives 25 minutes from here and it would have taken her longer to get here if she hadn't been driving home from California. What are the chances?!?!? God is so good to me!

By the time Mike got me to the hospital, I had sent myself into a complete anxiety attack. I was crying and having trouble breathing on TOP OF my difficulty swallowing and extreme pain. Luckily, they got me in right away. A mere 2 hours and several tests later, they announced that I have Pharyngitis. A fancy term for "sore throat." I guess it's good that they didn't need to rush me to surgery, but did I seriously just go to the ER for a sore throat?!?!?

I immediately started crying again, knowing that they weren't going to be able to fix my problem right away. I didn't think I could take any more of the pain and knew I wasn't going to be able to sleep. And the kicker was that the anti-inflamatory they gave me wasn't going to truly start working for 24-36 hours! They did give me something for the pain that would make me sleepy, so I was banking on that to help me endure the discomfort.

While waiting for the prescriptions to be filled, Mike and I went and got 1:15am chocolate milkshakes (did you know a "medium" is 32 oz at Whataburger???) and headed home. My mom had been on her feet for 3 days straight at a convention and drove home from California in the dark for 6 hours to sit at my house, dosing off in a chair. All of us were glad to get to bed.

I feel much better today, but still flinch when I swallow. The prescriptions should be kicking in later today or tomorrow and I should be completely healed. I'm not sure why I tried to dodge this bullet alone this time...I had laryngitis this summer and had to get a prescription to get rid of it. The kids' pediatrician said that laryngitis is kind of an adults croup, so either I got it again from Kaylin or never got rid of it from last week and pushed myself too hard. Either way, I'm looking forward to being back to normal ASAP.

Ryan's little friend

Most of our friends have daughters. It's not a huge deal; at ages 2 and 3, kids will play with (or near) anyone. Well this summer, we spent many of our Sunday afternoons swimming with some new friends of ours who have a 4-year old son, Caleb. Ryan's so tall that he and Caleb are the same height and he's really verbal, so he is able to converse with him pretty well. They became little buddies really quickly. Every once in a while, Ryan's immaturity shines through (Caleb was the kid who got the giraffe beating at the gym that I mentioned in my "a week in my life" blog) but for the most part, they do great together. Caleb's mom and I work out around the same time of the morning, so the boys get to play together in the "kids club" several days a week.

Last night, we went to a wedding and Caleb sat a few rows ahead of us. Ryan knew he was up there, but couldn't see him very well until everyone turned around to watch the bride walk down the aisle. The music was playing and all else was quiet until, "HI CALEB!!!" came from a little booming voice next to me. Everyone in our section turned and giggled. Sure - it's cute when it's someone else's kid! I really hope the bridal party didn't hear and think the moment was ruined. At the reception, I snapped this picture of Ryan and his first little boy buddy, Caleb.

A month of Ryan-isms

9/18/07 - Ryan peeked his face into the printer while I was printing something and said, "Hey! It's almost like a train!" (Sure enough, our printer does sound like a train.)
9/29/07 - I asked Mike if we should go on a W-A-L-K (spelling it just in case he wasn't in the mood) and Ryan said, "Yea!!!" I said, "Yea, what? Where are we going?" Ryan replied, "To the W-A-L-K!"

10/2/07 - Every 3-5 minutes from 4:30-5:00pm, Ryan ran to the garage door, opened it up, stuck his head into the dark garage, then walked back into the house disappointed. Finally, he sighed, "Oh, MAN! Daddy keeps not coming home!"

10/9/07 - Ryan asked to go to "pretty school." I'm sure he meant "pre-school."

10/11/07 - I was quizzing Ryan on his coins and when I pointed to a nickle, he thought for a minute and said, "It's a tabernacle!" (Note to self...explain that the Tabernacle from the Old Testiment is not a taber-nickle.)

10/12/07 - Ryan fell in love with a harmonica at a friend's house and she decided he could take it home. (considering he'd been sick and had slobbered all over every inch of the thing) He kept cracking himself up because he thought "harmom-mica" sounded just like "thermom-meter."

10/13/07 - Before saying our bedtime prayers, I asked Ryan if there's anything he wanted to pray about? He replied, "Could you pray to Jesus that I wouldn't want to suck my thumb?"

10/15/07 - Ryan walked into the bathroom just after I sat down. He walked to the corner of the room and said, "I'll give you some privacy. Let me know when you're done," and stood facing the corner until I was ready to flush.

10/19/07 - Kaylin was crying in the backseat and Ryan was trying desperately to appease her. He handed her a toy, her sunglasses, her sippy cup, tried singing, finally he gave up and said, "Kaylin, I just don't know what's the matter."

Pajama Day

Kaylin was still really sick yesterday and we were obviously stuck at home, so I declared it "Pajama Day." Ryan was up and dressed, but when he saw that Kaylin was still in her PJs long after breakfast, I said, "Oh, that's because today is Pajama Day." You'd think I had told him it was his birthday. This kid loves anything out of the ordinary in our structured-to-the-extreme household. His face lit up, then (like the good little boy I'm trying to raise) he asked permission to go change back into his pajamas and as soon as I gave the green light, he raced upstairs to put his old, stained, hand me down, mismatched PJs back on. It was hilarious.

We spent the morning baking and doing crafts while Kaylin slept, slept, slept, then we all took a walk after lunch. The shame of it was that it was an amazingly beautiful day outside and I was able to enjoy having the windows open, but because Kaylin was so miserable, I couldn't take the kids to the park or anywhere to play outside. The backyard would normally be perfect if the winter seed wasn't still coming in. BUT I got the brilliant idea to go for a walk. Fresh air, change of scenery, a little exercise, it was perfect. Kaylin stayed in her PJs (though I didn't think to put sunscreen on her poor exposed-the-entire-time-in-the-noon-sun feet), I finally got dressed and I was even able to convince Ryan to put his outfit back on. Taking my 22 and 38 lb kids in a long, awkward double stroller proved to be quite a workout! My arms were actually sore from trying to steer that monster down the curvey paths through our neighborhood. (Who's bright idea was it to make the sidewalk curved and interesting, anyway? Straight is so much EASIER!!!)

So really, it was more of a Pajama Morning than a Pajama Day, wasn't it? How sad that we can't go an entire day inside!!! I love being out and about and I guess I have to admit that I get a little cabin fever after a while. Especially when it's finally out of the 100s around here! I have to enjoy the little taste of the 80s while it lasts.

Croup!?!?!?!

So our family has croup. One by one, we've fallen victim. First, Ryan had a cough last weekend. Monday, he was getting pretty bad, so I took him to the doctor. They gave him a one-time steroid med to "keep him out of the ER tonight." I was so thankful. He continued to cough all week long, but I was comforted that it wasn't croup. The cough he had was just recovery noise, in my book.

On Saturday, my throat started hurting. By Sunday, I couldn't speak. I spent 2 days whispering because I had a meeting today that I was responsible for running. And, of course, we didn't have guest speaker today. Instead, we had a panel of 5 ladies that I was to interview...which requires a voice. So I whispered. Thankfully, lots of gargling and throat lozenges later, I was able to speak this morning. It hurts, but I can talk again.

Then Kaylin woke up this morning coughing, crying and hot as a flame. Mike stayed home with her until lunch so I could run my meeting and I took her right to the doctor afterward. Sure enough, she now has croup. The pediatrician explained that laryngitis is actually an adult-like version of croup, so Ryan gave it to me, I gave it to Kaylin. If Mike were smart, he'd move out for a few days. Man, poor Kaylin is miserable. She avoided the stomach flu Mike and I shared a few weeks ago, but she picked right up on this croup issue. The doctor said he's seen a record number of cases of croup already this season, so it's spreading like wildfire. At least we've all gotten it and hopefully will build up immunities to NOT get it again this year. Well, except Mike. Maybe he'll avoid this mess altogether???

Pedicure violation?

I had the strangest experience tonight...I just have to share. I never know what to ask for on my birthday and Christmas. I don't need a lot of "things," so I end up asking for useful, purposeful, seemingly boring gifts like kitchen appliances or storage bins for my closet. Recently, I realized that what really gets me excited aren't things that clutter up my house or my life. What I cherish are experiences. Especially relaxing experiences like pedicures and massages. Gift certificates that force me to find time for ME. Time to relax. An escape from the daily grind.

The last few gift certificates for pedicures that I've received have been for a place just up the street from my house. But for my birthday, my mom got me a gift certificate to a new "spa" in a shopping center a few miles from here. Knowing that Mike will be out of town all weekend and that I'll be the sole parent with no reprieve, I asked if I could sneak out tonight to get my pedicure.

I arrived at 6:10, they closed at 7:00. No problem, the girl told me, it would just be a 10 minute wait. I started reading my magazine. A few minutes later, she set me up in a massage chair with a foot bath to wait for the nail tech to finish the gal next to me. 10 minutes turned into 25. I watched as the poor girl tried to put a flower on this woman's big toe and repeatedly messed it up, taking polish remover and starting over, again and again. Each time, she looked up at me sheepishly and said, "So sorry - just 5 more minutes..." Finally, the woman said, "You know what? It's okay. I don't need a flower. I still need to get my manicure and my daughter is sitting over there waiting for me. We can pass this time on the flower." The poor girl doing her toes, who spoke very broken English, just looked up and smiled, saying, "Okay, I do flower." I finally had to intervene and said to the woman, "She doesn't understand you," then to the nail tech, "No flower...no flower." I wasn't condescending, by any means. Just short, direct and to the point. (Maybe this comes from having toddlers?) The woman clearly wasn't getting her point across with all of the apologetic words and long sentences. As soon as I butted in, she got it. "Oh? No flower? Okay." And that was that. Lovely. My turn.

I went on reading my magazine as I got my pedicure. At 7:00, the front desk girl wrote my check and collected my gift certificate, including my tip. I figured I was going to get jipped on the foot massage since it was getting so late, but sure enough, when the lotion was squirted on my legs, this wonderful girl went to town.

I noticed in my peripheral vision that she kept glancing up at me as she worked. Feet, face, feet, face. So I glanced up and made eye contact. "Feel good?" she asked. "Very good, thank you." She smiled and went back to work. Then I realized that I probably seemed like an ungrateful snob, reading my magazine without appearing to enjoy my massage. So, I looked up a minute later, closed my eyes a little and said, "This feels great, thank you." She looked incredibly proud and said, "Oh - you like?"

The massage seemed to last forever, which was fine by me. I started feeling guilty that my quick escape was going to result in Mike putting the kids to bed by himself, which really wasn't part of the deal. But I was stuck in the chair...what was I going to do? Leave?

Anyway, the odd part was that this girl repeatedly looked up at me asking, "You like?" and "That feel good?" I always thankfully agreed and went back to my magazine. The tone in her voice, though, soon became pretty uncomfortable and almost provocative in nature. "Ooooh, you like? You like that?" (As I type this, I'm sure the tone isn't coming across right...which is a bummer and likely a waste of this blog!) Seriously, by the end of the never-ending foot, calf, leg and ankle massage, I felt like I was getting a pedicure by a dirty old man. She asked me my name, asked if I was coming back, I even felt obligated to tell her that I was really enjoying the massage and wow, do I wish my husband would give me foot massages like this. Husband. Married. STRAIGHT. But still, the questions and sensual tone continued.

I enjoyed my pedicure and am very grateful for the getaway tonight, but can assure you that I won't be returning to that place again. I've morphed into a frumpy-ish stay at home mom and I'm fine with that at this point in my life. You'd think I'd be more flattered being flirted with or hit on...even it was by a woman. It was just too creepy on so many levels. But hey - at least I got a really great foot massage out of the experience! And my cracked heels are a thing of the past...just pretty toes on these feet!

Kaylin-speak

On the 4 hour plane ride home from Indiana, I wrote out all of the words Kaylin says. There are over 30!!! Being with just her all last week was interesting. I figured out so many things she says, mainly because I started paying attention, but also because we were so focused on her without Ryan around. Some funny things she says...

Bah-dee - Blanket...it sounds like "body" but could be easily translated to "buddy"

Mah-nee - Mommy...yes, she calls me "money"

Uh oh - that's the phone. We let her play with our cell phones on the plane (anything to keep her quiet) and she kept dropping it. Hence, "uh oh" every time the phone rings.

Eye-sah - Sunglasses...sounds like she's saying, "eyesight" without the "t"

Mah - More and Milk and after spending 5 days straight with just Kaylin and not Ryan to interpret, I can now determine with 100% accuracy when she means each of these things. Milk usually has more m's. "mmmmmmmmma"

App-ah, Op-ah and Up-ah can also sound the same. One is apple, one is open, one is up. I can now distinguish.

Hah-Bah-Day - Happy Birthday

She also tries to sing Happy Birthday, Twinkle Twinkle (this is why "up" is "up-ah" - from the line "up above the world so high..."), Pat-a-cake, E-I-E-I-O (otherwise known as Old McDonald) and The Farmer in the Dell (I sing everything with this tune, "We're going in the car..." or "It's time to take a bath..." all the way through the "Hi ho the dairy-o" line).

...and I thought I was pretty "natural"

Some of you may not know this about me (because I tend to keep certain things to myself), but we do lots of things pretty naturally around our house. We eat all natural, no preservative meals, avoid sugar and white flour, bring groceries home in reusable cloth bags, don't do soda or artificial sweeteners, eat ground turkey and limited amounts of beef, take Juice Plus vitamins and fish oil pills, avoid meds and don't vaccinate our kids, visit the Chiropractor weekly and work out like maniacs. I know it seems extreme and I can see why some of you think I'm "granola." However, I have friends SO much more natural than me who put me to shame.

For those of you who think I'm neurotic, I've got a good one for you. My most granola friend just emailed me about her group of friends in Michigan. She is just like me, but she also home schools, does cloth diapers, had a drug-free child birth and makes enough home made applesauce each fall for the whole year. She's amazing. To put it in perspective, it must be all about who you hang around, because she has friends even more natural than her.

Anyway, she was at a play group with friends who busted out some stainless steal sippy cups and mentioned that they won't use Playtex because of carcinogens. Have you even heard of stainless sippy cups? Because I haven't! What's crazy is that one of her friends is so natural that she even uses home made cloth toilet paper.

So when I get teased about my natural ways, I can now stand behind the fact that not only am I adding hundreds of dirty diapers to land fills each year and enjoying a pleasant, fully drugged-up experience when I give birth, but I don't make my own toilet paper and I'm so worldly that I've never even heard of stainless sippy cups. I'm not such a freak after all!!!

Inseparable

My kids are cracking me up today. They've been inseparable. This morning, I hear, "Kaylin - NO! My head is not an instrument!" I went into the kitchen to find them under the table, both with orange tinker toy sticks in each hand, playing drums on the chairs. Kaylin got a little over-excited and decided to start a beat on Ryan's noggin.

Then this afternoon, I was cutting out some handprints I made of the kids' hands and Ryan grabbed a chair to go get his little safety scissors to join me in the cutting fun. Within minutes, there was confetti EVERYwhere. (and I had just vacuumed - *sigh*) Ryan was blowing it out of his hands and Kaylin was trying to imitate. Her version, though, resulted in paper smashed up against her mouth and spit dripping from the scraps. When she was bored with that, she gently placed various pieces of paper on Ryan's shirt, creating a collage out of the poor kid. Click on the pictures to enlarge...these kids are just too entertaining!!!