a quiz

W was trying to quiz R in the car. Here is the transcript...

W: "What hops?"
R: "tiger"

W: "What has leaves?"
R: "tiger"

W: "What has 8 legs and lives in the water?"
R: "tiger"

love those boys!
{and I WILL start doing this again!}

tonight’s funnies

Well, hello!

tonight… I let William barricade himself in the kitchen with play dough. I am in the other room and I overhear, “and he took the bread, broke it in half, and told them to eat”; then I hear “and he gave them juice”

that crazy kid is re-creating holy communion with his play dough!

super-cute or super-sacrilegious? you be the judge…

tonight, I was scratching my calf because well, it itched. Ryan walked over and started scratching my calf as well. thanks, kiddo!

did I mention he is in the “mimic everything that everyone does” stage? no? well, there it is.

tonight, William threw a monster cry fit when it was time for him to go to bed and I am D-O-N-E with his little fits waking up Ryan. my solution? I let him cry it out in the garage. (and for the record, I tried this once a few months ago but I put him on the back porch – Mike said that was not good because someone might hear him and call the police). it totally worked! he came back in totally fine.

tonight, I had to put eye drops in the eyes of two people in my house. wanna guess who got eye drops? not me. not William. wanna guess who threw a bigger fit about it? not Ryan.

cooties!

At the pediatrician yesterday, R was SUPPOSED to have his 15 month check-up.
{We got the check-up and vaccinations, but also came away with a double ear infection diagnosis and an antibiotic prescription.}

At the pediatrician yesterday, W was SUPPOSED to have his hearing rechecked after he failed his hearing screening at his 4 yr check-up and fluid was found in his ear.
{He had been sick all weekend and so the hearing test didn’t happen. Instead, he got a flu test (negative, thank goodness!), a double ear infection diagnosis, and an antibiotic prescription}

Summary:
2 children
4 infected ears
2 antibiotic prescriptions
2 shots (vaccines for R)
2 probable ENT referrals (we will recheck ears in 3 weeks)
2 probable sets of tubes

And while we are talking about things to make our life a little easier, let’s discuss the antibiotics. I LOVE our pediatrician and I know this is the way medicine goes, but it just doesn’t make sense to me:
- the boys are on two different antibiotics
- one has to be refrigerated; the other can’t be refrigerated;
- one is given twice a day; the other is given once a day;
- the dosing for each is 6ml (something the same!); but you know how much the dosing syringe holds? yup. 5ml. nice. reload.

So when W was still running a decent fever last night and I was hacking up all kinds of nastiness (remnants from my weekend cooties), it was decided that I would stay home with W today. Today is Feb. 8. Between the ice, snow, and cooties, he has not been to school since Jan. 31.

The good news? It is supposed to snow and ice again tonight. bring it.

P.S. Everything else checked out great for R at his check-up. Dr. Poole was impressed by his verbal (i.e. shrieking and yelling and pointing) skills. He is 15% for weight, 35% for height, and 75% for his head. Remember when he looked like this?!?!

go ahead and call it

I gave it a valiant effort. At one point, I thought I might make it to the finish line. In fact, I was actually enjoying myself.

And then, all of a sudden, it was over. At precisely 4:35 this afternoon, the realization of what I was dealing with hit me like a ton of bricks and I was done.

maybe it was the sudden, for-no-reason-at-all allergy attack;
maybe it was the 15 month old screaming bloody murder, then just smiling once you looked at him;
maybe it was the super-awesome idea to make cookies from scratch with the 4 year old;
maybe it was the dog peeing on the carpet;
maybe it was the oh-so-charming sound of Nick Jr. in the background; 
maybe it was the impending mark of 96 hours straight with my little lovelies (minus 2 separate 30 minute trips to Target – praise the lord!)

whatever it was, the point was made. Can I PLEEEEEASE go back to work?

To be completely honest, we have had a great time these past few days. There has been cooking, playing, and projecting. The boys have been sleeping relatively late (8:00 is like heaven around here, y’all), taking great naps, and having so much fun playing together. The house has stayed relatively picked up and dishes were done. And looking back, it has been good for us. We haven’t eaten out once. And I have cooked every night + one breakfast. R has worn pajamas for 4 days straight (and yes, he got clean ones every day). W only got dressed because, “Mommy, I want to.” {Poor guy, he hasn’t left the house since Mon. afternoon – I think it was wishful thinking on his part. In fact, W was playing with R and pretending to take him to school.}

But today. Today, I was going to be productive. A shirt project for R was finished. I washed and put away a bunch of dishes. I showered (don’t laugh. it has been a little difficult with Mike at work and me not getting up before the boys). I. Cleaned. Out (and organized). The. Pantry! I thought about doing the taxes (a big step, actually). Cookies were made. from scratch.

And I should have known it would do me in.

Good news: Mike is off tomorrow and can take W out in the snow. We might actually make it above freezing so I might roll the dice and head out for a third trip to Target. watch out!

mo’ mobility, mo’ problems!

R is a walker… when he wants to. Seriously, this kid will go all the way across the room at his school and the minute I try and get him to do it, he’ll take a couple of steps and then just fall.

Mike got some video of it on his phone and it is on his FB profile. {wow, I sound totally tech-savvy}. at this point, you have to go see it there – sorry.

Apparently, R is of the opinion that his new-found mobility options should also transfer to the bathtub. I am going to have to disagree. This kid was up and down and trying to cruise all over the bathtub tonight. Oh, and he KNOWS what “sit down” means because he does it. Until he doesn’t want to anymore. And then he just grins at you and stand up again.

sigh. this is going to be the crazy kid. you know the one. W was the cautious kid. R is the whatever is opposite of that. When you hold him and he decides he wants down, he basically dive bombs {arms flailing, sharp bend at the waist} out of your arms. I can’t tell you how many times I really thought he was going to fall to the floor! And when you are sitting and holding him face to face, he will suddenly rear his head back and fall backwards. and then laughs. like it is sooooo funny that he nearly bit it onto the hard floor.

Love you, sweet boy!

happy Sunday

We had a pretty mellow day around here. W and I went to church while Mike stayed home with R, who has a cold.

Today was the first Sunday of the month, Communion Sunday at our church. {As Methodists, we believe that all those who believe in Christ, regardless of age, religion, denomination, church membership, etc. can partake in Communion. With W turning 4, he is officially out of nursery/playroom during service. Normally, the kids leave and go to Children’s Church after the children’s time during service. However, on Communion Sunday, they don’t have Children’s Church.} All this is to explain that W took Communion today. I tried to explain a bit in basic terms but I don’t think he really understood.

When it was his turn, our wonderful Pastor Brady knelt down in front of William, placed a piece of bread in his hand and said simply, “When you dip the bread in the juice and eat it, remember how much God loves you.”

sigh.

that is exactly what it is. and nothing more. remember how much God loves you.

we said a small prayer together at the altar so W could understand and it was the most sincere prayer I have said in a long time. it is amazing how clear everything becomes when you keep it simple.

come home. lunch. naps. Cowboy game (Gig ‘em McGee!). play. dinner. grocery store. boys to bed. and now here. I have to go because Mike and I are starting a workout plan/thing/whatever. yikes!

I leave you with a W pic from our museum trip this past week and R from today:

resolving…

… to do a better job with this! The boys are full grown and have left the house and mike and I have retired {not really, but it might as well have been that long!}

Some MINOR recent events in the Life of Preston:

Ryan turned 1:
 

The Rangers had an awesome season!

William turned 4:

and oh yeah, Christmas:

If I get time, I’ll go back and post pictures from the past, oh, 6 months. But I am not going to make any promises. I tend to not do as well when I am trying to “catch-up”.

But I AM going to be updating much more often (every day? gasp!) – so stay tuned!

We really have had a wonderful fall and holiday season. Our little family is growing so fast and if I stop to long to dwell on it, I get a little sad. But I must live in the moment, because they really are wonderful moments!

ryan loves lucy

brothers?

you think?!?!

W @ 9 months

R @ 9 months

W @ 9 months

R @ 9 months

at this age,
W wins the teeth race
R wins the hair race

W wins the gross motor award
R wins the fine motor award

they look a lot alike! W’s chin is more square and cleft like Mike’s and R’s chin is longer like mine, but eyes/nose/mouth/cheeks are all the same!

to my…

To my super-hero-cape-wearing, chicken-hat-loving, binoculars-craft-project-toting, little man – I love you!

 

and to my pants-on-the-head-wearing, bumpo-sitting, so-tolerant-of-whatever-your-momma-does-to-you, sweet babe – I love you!

final day in Galveston

it rained. a lot. it was cloudy. all day.

we went to the aquarium!

 

 

then we had lunch down at the pier/dock/strand/whatever you want to call it!

4th of July

were were still in “vacation recovery” mode, so all we managed to do was watch fireworks!

Here’s a pic from that evening:

the good stuff

So as we were enjoying night two of Awesome Shrimp Boil, watching the bay water creep ever closer to our condo building with the surge from Hurricane Alex, and seeing our perfect picture-taking place slowly become covered in water, Emily and I decided to move our final-night-in-galveston photo shoot to, oh, an hour ago! We realized the weather was just going to get worse {and it did!} so we hustled! {For the record, Em hustled much faster than me – I don’t care what is going, on, that girl can look like a million $$ in just a few minutes.} And this was not just a hang-out-and-take-a-picture kind of moment. There were pre-selected wardrobes, people! And Emily and Nick’s fabulous camera. I even got to snap a few shots with it – so fun! I am really loving all this photo-editing stuff!

{spoiler alert and disclaimer to all relatives – some of these MIGHT end up in a gift of some sort!}

he-men {W is trying to show his muscles…}

 

don’t ask…

my fave

more vacation!

The next day started out gray, so I convinced Mike to take W fishing at the “fabulous stocked fishing pond” right next to our condo building instead of doing the beach again – seriously wore me out the first day!!!

um, ew. I had seen this deck/pier the day before and it was covered with seagulls. and you know what seagulls do? they poop. Mike said it was covered and gross and slimy and smelly. but the fishing poles and tackle box had made the trip in the car and they were going to be used, dangit! it didn’t last too long.

Mike and Nick had some quality time on the couch

ah, the pool. the rain cleared off in the afternoon and we were all over it! this pool had a lazy river. not the Wet N Wild kind of lazy river – just a small circle – but you could be in it and move with minimal effort – still a winner in my book!

this kid should never complain about anything. ever.

this just cracks me up!


mohawks are back “in”
 

Strittmatter family fun!
 

he said the goggles would help him put his face in the water. um, no.