Self

In the past few days the one word out of Ryan's mouth more than any other is "self."

Ryan would like not to be picked up and carried up the stairs. He'd like to do it himself. So, yesterday when I was trying to get us out of the house for a little bit, I picked him up and walked up the stairs with him yelling "self!" When we got upstairs, he walked back down and then walked up. Self.

To get into the truck isn't so easy for a two-year-old, yet Ryan wanted to do it "self." I let him. I let him when we were leaving Target and while he did that I was putting Timothy into the truck on the other side. Ryan was sitting so nicely in his car seat that I forgot I hadn't buckled him in. Lucky for me, we didn't even get out of the parking lot when he said, "Mom buckle."

It was time for a bath and Timothy gets his bath first. Ryan wanted to go in and I told him he'd need to have his clothes off before getting in. Of course he said he wanted to do it himself. Off came his pants, then the socks, then the diaper, but mom had to help with his shirt.

It's been "self" for eating anything from rice to yoghurt. It's been "self "during diaper changes (we're so glad potty training is just a few more diapers away. We told Ryan when his current stash of diapers run out he gets to wear big-boy pants... aka Pull-Ups.) where Ryan wants to wipe his own butt, pull the diaper tabs and pull off and on his own pants. It's been "self" for helping with Timothy (which is cute), "self" for putting on shoes and "self" for putting toast in the toaster oven. It's been "self, self, self."

My baby boy is not such a baby anymore. Really I realized this when we came home from the hospital with Timothy and Ryan seemed so big. Now, he really seems like a big boy. In some ways it's sad because mom likes doing some of these things (and I can get them done faster), but I know he needs to be able to do these things as he grows.

More fall fun



Ryan and Madison played together yesterday. I was so tired by the end of this visit that I really didn't want to do grocery shopping, but it had to be done.

Ryan with Madison's grandpa. We call him Uncle Frank and he's awesome with the kids.
Timothy and Uncle Frank pose for a photo. Uncle Frank is my sister-in-law's dad.
Ryan at the BK playground. A word of advice about these playgrounds... make sure your kid is confident enough to do them on their own or you will be climbing inside also... and it's not very big inside.

We went apple picking again on Wednesday. Here is Ryan washing some apples for eating.

I really wish Timothy would use a pacifier. You can take a pacifier away, but thumb and finger sucking will be hard to break. He's sneaky too. He'll start by sucking on the pacifier, spit it out and then put in his fingers or thumb. We were laughing about this photo. He put himself to sleep with two fingers in the mouth and one in the nose.

Also a funny photo to us. We have these cup warmers that you put on the bottom of a cup. We asked Ryan if he wanted one since he said his milk was really cold. When we gave it to him he asked for two and put them on like mittens.

Fall photos

For lack of something more interesting to do today, we went outside and took fall photos during playtime. The majority are of Timothy since Ryan didn't really want his photo taken.

Doesn't this look professional? I'm really proud of this photo of Ryan.

A happy Timothy in the leaves.

Sitting outside. He looks ilke a little man!

Cooing in the leaves.

This is his bubble making face. I love it! It reminds me of my dad.

Things I'm looking forward to

I haven't been very bloggy lately, so I thought I'd write about things I'm looking forward in the next few weeks.

The first thing is that we are going apple picking again on Wednesday, this time it's with the mom's group at church. I'm really excited for this. Ryan loved apple picking and it's just so nice to be with other moms and outdoors with the kids.

October 4th is the beginning of Adam's fall vacation. We aren't going lots of places or doing lots of things, but we do plan on attempting to potty train Ryan. We'll see how that goes. He goes on the potty once or twice a day, so we think he might be interested in the potty in general, but I do need help with those first few days. Also during that week, we plan to go to the New England Aquarium in Boston with Ryan's Godparents. We've planned this trip since before Tim was born and are now just getting around to it.

Most exciting of all is that my parents are coming to visit at the end of October. I was a bit diasappointed at the thought of us not seeing them until sometime next year. Then they decided to make this trip and I am really looking forward to the time with them. Ryan also believes he will be going swimming with Papa....too bad it will be too cold. We'll have to figure out something else fun to do with Papa. Maybe they can talk about planes... Ryan keeps saying, "Nana, Papa come on plane high in the sky."

I do have photos to post..I've mostly put them on Facebook these days along with two silly videos of Ryan.... so get Facebook if you don't have it. =-)

New photos

This was what Ryan looked like nine days ago... before all the ER stuff went down. You can see his right eye is still a bit red from where he got stung by the bee.

Timothy really likes to sit up. He doesn't use his little gym much any more because he hates being on the floor. He'd much rather sit in Ryan's chair and smile at us.

Our friends Kyle and Sarah got Timothy this cute onesie that says, "New in the Neighborhood." I can't believe he already fits into it. Timothy also loves this toy. He is also getting his lower left tooth... it's almost out. We can feel it and he drools everywhere while biting on his little fingers.

And this is a silly, but happy Ryan playing on the Boppy. Sadly, I know this was one of the throw-up days by the shirt he is wearing.

Ryan is doing much better today and is almost back to being himself.

Mum knows best

Ryan had a fever for eight days. Eight days!

It all started with the bee sting. The night of the bee sting Ryan had a fever of 102.6. We gave him Tylenol and hoped he be better in the morning. The next morning I called our doc to make sure this was normal and she said most kids can get a fever after a bee sting and that he should be okay, but to call if things didn't get better.

To make a long story short, Ryan had a fever, which kept getting higher and higher for eight days, accompanied by vomiting and diarrhea. He kept saying his stomach hurt and we figured that had something to do with it being upset.

On Wednesday night, when we put Ryan to bed he was a little warm, but it seemed the fever might actually go away. At 2 a.m. we packed our stuff and headed to the ER because Ryan had been talking to the wall and had a fever of 103.7.

The doc at the ER pretty much made us feel like we wasted her time. She said all kids get fevers, but that Ryan probably had a virus. We should go home and let him rest. When we persisted that he'd had this fever for eight days, she said he was fine.

The next morning I made a call to our doc and was squeezed into a very busy day. I was so thankful to see her and have someone REALLY listen to me. While waiting to be seen a wonderful lady came by to entertain Timothy while I held a very hot Ryan who cried and slept off and on.

Doc checked a lot of things, but also took a culture of some pretty white spots on his throat. She called the ER, told them we'd be coming for blood work, a urine sample, chest and stomach x-ray and IV fluids. In addition, she wanted us not to leave until we saw a pediatrician.

We had a bad experience with the triage nurse who shouldn't be in medical care at all. The hospital will be recieving a letter from me detailing her horrible bedside manner with my child and how rude she was to both Adam and me.

The nurse who spent the night with us was wonderful. The hospital will recieve a letter from me about his wonderful way with children and their scared/worried parents.

The ER doc again tried to tell us this was viral and that kids get fevers all the time, but I was firm with him and told him we weren't leaving until the tests our doctor order were done and the pediatrician had seen us.

Against our better judgement, Ryan had a catheter put in to collect urine to be sure he didn't have a bladder infection. It was the most painful and frightening thing my son has ever experienced and will never trust another doctor or nurse to look at his penis again.

When they came to take a blood sample, which Ryan is really good at, he freaked out and put his hands over his penis and screamed over and over, "please, no!" I'm sure it didn't help that both Adam and I were emotional wrecks by this point, yet we were trying to offer comfort.

The pediatrician showed up, took a look in Ry's mouth and said he thought he had tonsillitis. He looked a second time and said that was for sure what he had and that why no one else had determined this, he wasn't sure.

While Adam feels this guy was so old he could fart dust, at least he found out what was wrong with my precious two year old. Apparently while I took Ryan to examine pictures on the wall this doc scratched together a prescription for Ryan then decided that he'd written too high a dose, did some calculations on the back of the pad and then wrote a new one. Then Adam was told how to count by the pharmacist..."1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, mls of this medicine." Thanks bucky, we're not stupid. Sigh.

Ryan is a bit better today. Has managed to actually eat, but still complains his stomach and penis hurt.

Mum knows best! I KNEW my kid didn't have a virus and I hate that they blew us off thinking we were parinoid parents. At least Ryan will be okay.

All through the night

Little Timothy slept through the night for the second time last night. It's almost 7 a.m. and he's still sleeping! The first time Timothy slept through the night was when Kyle and Sarah were visiting. We joked that little Katy wore him out.

Ryan slept through the night once at three months while we were visiting my grandparents in Ohio and then he finally started sleeping through the night on a regular basis at five and a half months which was also the same time he started eating solids and crawling.

I was rather thankful both nights that Timothy has slept through the night. The first time, we'd stayed up late playing Dutch Blitz with Kyle and Sarah and I wasn't looking forward to getting up in two hours to feed a little boy, but I would have done it anyway.

This time, I have some sort of cold and went to bed at 9 p.m. and really wanted some rest. I got it!

Now to see if this will be a regular thing or if it was just a beautiful act of God to let me get some much needed rest.

Bee

If I bumble bee lands on your eye, you probably shouldn't hit it. It WILL sting you. We know this becasue that is what happened to Ryan today. His eye was swollen shut and he was miserable until after our doctor visit (it was actually a visit for me). His eye is now open and his face looks lots better. I'm so glad he didn't have an allergic reaction.

Right now Ryan is sleepy from the Benadryl and watching some Dora. Timothy is sleeping, Adam is working and this mum is taking a break.