Fun with Aaron

Today we met up with Aaron, his older brother Luke, and his mom. We went to "story time" at the Central Library, which actually turned out to be the movie Ratatouille. We left a little early and looked at some books before heading over to Center City Park for a picnic and some running around by the fountains.

The first thing Skylar showed Aaron was her band-aids on her foot that she got yesterday. Priorities here.

Skylar didn't want her picture taken here for some reason...

After we ate, Aaron and Luke ran around under the fountains for a little bit before we realized they weren't supposed to do that. Skylar would have joined in if I had brought her cast cover and Grey was too engrossed in the extra food to care at that point.

Then he got out and ran around a little bit, but kept wanting to just get in the fountain. Luke showed him how to splash in the puddles and he thought that was hilarious.

Aaron wanted some more yogurt, so he and Skylar chilled in the stroller while he ate.

Grey was still trying to figure out how to get in the fountain...

Are boys and girls really different?

So far, Grey and Skylar have been mostly different as babies and toddlers. Although they were/are both happy babies, Skylar was a bit more high-strung than Grey. Especially as a baby. She learned to walk super early, learned signs very quickly and amassed a pretty large vocabulary by the time she was two. More than most kids speak. And was always very playful.

Grey was a late bloomer, shall we say? Remember, this time last year, I was about to take him in for an evaluation to make sure he was developing alright. Because he was just too happy lying around to be motivated to move anywhere…

He also does not have a large vocabulary of spoken words, but has not taken to signing very well either (maybe that's b/c I haven't been working with him as much… ya know, job and all). For the last few months, we have noticed a trend with Grey's play habits. He enjoys the dishwasher. The vacuum. The laundry. The broom. The baby dolls and accessories (stroller, food). You can see the pattern, I'm sure. Ken likes to say that he enjoys tools in any capacity. It also might be my fault for not getting him more boy toys...

Recently, however, I have started noticing a trend in the opposite direction. He likes his cars, balls, and running around the rooms. He throws everything he can get his little hands on, and it if hits someone, the more the better. He has also bit Skylar twice and likes to give Ken super strong hugs while bitting his neck…

But there are some things that don't change. Grey can be a super snuggler- especially if said snugglee has a certain pillow pet. Anywhere he sees his giraffe or monkey, he will throw himself down on it and start sucking his thumb.

I just found out that Target is selling mini-pillow pets and I'm kinda excited about them! That huge pillow is pretty awkward to carry around with us to places like Church or the pool, where he might take a nap.

And then here is the difference between boys and girls: where Nana would just snuggle little man and rock him, Papa decided this is a good time to teach Grey how to punch.

His giraffe. And Grey loved it.

Oooh, look at me Papa, that one was so funny!

Our summer activities

Last Tuesday, I took the kids to McIver to do a little gardening (we plan on going most weeks this summer) and we were all hot and sweaty by the time we left, so we decided to try our luck at Wet'nWild to cool off. I was a little nervous since it was my first time since "the incident" taking both of them swimming by myself, but figured Skylar could crabwalk and float around and I could hold Grey's hand. They did great at the pool and we had a blast!

Until we got back to the car and I took Skylar's cast cover off… and her cast was dripping water. Something went way wrong somewhere, and I checked that thing constantly throughout the day and it was dry.

After hours of using the hairdryer and a tongue depressor to push a towel in between the bottom of her foot and the cast, it was still soaking wet when she fell asleep. We went to see our nice cast doctors on Wed. and luckily for us, they thought it was fine to leave on, but did recover the ankle part where it was mushy.

Not sure where that leaves us as far as the pool goes… but we have exciting plans for the rest of the summer!

Skylar and I have been practicing her writing and numbers, and doing lots of coloring and art projects. Our church is starting a summer story time this Tuesday that we will go to, and possibly some more kids movies at the theater on Wednesdays. We went this past Wednesday to see Alpha and Omega with my mom and their cousins, but Grey was interested for only about 15 minutes. And that was mostly because of the popcorn and drink… But we did get a free dentist visit for Skylar (which we used on Thursday) and a free happy meal for Grey, so maybe we'll try it again.

I work on Mondays and Fridays, and am hoping to spend Thursdays catching up with friends.

In the meantime, there are also a bunch of projects that I want to get done while I am at home, starting with our garage. It is disgusting. And filled with creatures.

So, the past two days, I have put Skylar and Grey down on a blanket at the top of our driveway with a bunch of bubbles, sidewalk chalk and toys while I have been working on the garage. And yard. Did I mention that I finally finished my bush? Thanks to hubby who stood there with a can of wasp spray and chased them all away while I worked.

Bubbles!

Btw- is it okay to be jealous of your children's eyelashes? Cause I am.

Grey's are finally starting to darken up, but I think they will be about the color of mine- kinda dark on the bottom, with blonde tips.

And Skylar got Ken's eyelashes- super thick, long and dark. Seriously perfect. :)

Skylar has really learned to get around with her cast this week- a complete change from wanting to be carried everywhere last week. It's a good thing we go back in a few weeks to get a new one, because this one will not last the full 6-8 as much as she slides on it and drags it behind her.

Playing with her long-lost toys we found in the garage. I'm pretty sure they were set aside to go to consignment. Or maybe we threw them out there before Skylar's birthday party last October in an attempt to hide the clutter inside?

Grey's about as good of a walker as I am: not at all. And he fell yesterday and skinned up his knee. He let dada put some alcohol on it (yikes) and a bandaid. He was really interested in what was happening, but immediately ripped the bandaid off like, "what is this dada?" and handed it back to Ken.

And… one of our families favorite games is "stinky feet". Skylar has always taken her shoes off in the car- everytime, and now Grey is learning to as well. And seriously, during the summer time, it can get pretty stinky in there. Let's just say, I can always tell when they have their shoes off, even without looking. Well, they think it is hilarious when I say, "Ewww, I smell stinky baby feet!" and then they want me to smell their feet and say it again. Well, Ken has now adapted the game to where he makes the kids smell his feet. And then Grey will turn his head to the side and mumble something sorta resembling "eww, stinky" and giggle.

Poor kids.

Grey has not yet mastered the art of blowing bubbles, but he sure tried! Here was his best attempt, although no air came out and he wasn't holding a wand. Typically he likes to stick his tongue out and spit at the wand.

Swimming fun

The other day we tried out Skylar's swimming cast cover, praying that it would stay dry… and it worked! And to our amazement, her cast also seemed to float instead of sink to the bottom! Skylar was so ready to get in the pool and adjusted quite easily to her new situation. She floated in circles around the baby pool the whole time. She was hesitant to get in the big pool, and seemed afraid of what would happen since she couldn't use her leg to help her, so she stuck to the baby pool for the day.

But just because she has a broken leg does not exempt her from getting splashed. That's how we roll. Toughen' em up.

Grey did much better this time than the first couple of times he went to the pool this year. He was all smiles and attempted walking on his own most of the time. He even learned how to squat in the water and spent most of his time squatting down and standing back up.

And he loved the bucket of water.

And this is what dad's are good for: roughhousing. Anyone else think we should buy stock in medical supplies?

Shower babies

Both Skylar and Grey LOVE the shower. Grey wants to get in pretty much every morning and he is seriously the cutest thing ever, standing under the spray. He usually stands with his head under the spray and his face pointing down. He would literally stand there all morning, I have no doubt.

And did I mention that he is a huge cheeser now? He's been giving me this face lately when I have the camera. :)

The "incident"

Fair warning: I like to use run-on sentences with lots of detail. It's a bit long.

Last Saturday, I went to a graduation party of a dear friend of my family's. My mom used to watch kids at home so she could be home with us in the afternoons until I was in high school, and Christine was one of her kids. Christine was with us from 6 weeks old until she went to Kindergarten and quickly became part of the family. My mother and Christine's mother are best friends and although they have grown apart in the past few years, will always have a special relationship. We used to travel together every year for vacation. I used to take Christine and Melissa to the mall for walks and people would look at me like I was crazy for having two kids at so young an age… really people?? And she has now graduated high school. And now I feel old.

Susan put on a wonderful graduation party for Christine, with yummy food and fun entertainment in the form of Dance Party 2. Skylar was a little too shy to showcase her dancing skills, but Grey jumped right on in there for a minute!

They also have a wonderful, enclosed and fully-padded full-size trampoline in the backyard. I was kinda excited to get on myself, but Grey really just didn't want to be bothered with the heat. So, I let Cheyanne take Skylar out to jump on the trampoline while I watched from the window. They were happily jumping along, with Cheyanne enticing animated laughter from Skylar like only she can, and I turn to get Grey some more drink. I look back up and Cheyanne is pulling a crying Skylar out from the enclosed trampoline and run outside to meet them. No, she didn't fall or jump onto anything. She didn't trip over her own feet. She just got double-bounced. And it broke her leg in two places. :*(

I, being the wonderful mother that I am, believed she was just overtired and hot and needed to cool down and rest and she would be fine. She kept saying her leg hurt so we put ice on it, however there was no swelling or bruising and she fell asleep in my lap after about 10 minutes. I decided it was time to head on out then, and so we loaded up the car and headed home. Skylar kept crying out that her leg hurt and she needed ice on it, but again, I was just thinking she was over-tired.

We get home and Ken has a conniption fit over her leg (and my letting her jump on a full-size trampoline) and after another hour or so of Skylar saying her leg hurts and refusing to stand on it at all, we decided it was time to take her to see a doctor.

But, where to go?? This is where it is great to live in the same city as my mom… I can call her anytime and say, "hey, Skylar's leg is still hurting, so I'm gonna go ahead and take her in. Where should I go?" and she gives me a list of places to check hours for and sure enough, we find an Urgent Care still open. We are on our way.

In the car, Skylar is much more animated and happy than she was at home and I keep asking her, Skylar does your leg still hurt? and she replies, "Umm, it's a lotta, lotta, lotta, lotta better. But it still hurts a little, little, little bit." Complete with finger cues. I'm trying to get her to tell me that she is fine and we don't need to go see a doctor so that I don't have to shell out $75 for an Urgent Care visit for an overly-tired and hot child with a possibly bruised shin. She hates going to the doctor (unless we are going for Grey) and so I thought, "surely, she will start walking on her leg now, so she won't have to go to the doctor." I even stooped so low as to tell her they would probably give her a shot.

Yes, I know. I'm not a good mom. It's a good thing its Father's day tomorrow instead of Mother's day. Oh, the guilt!

So, we are in with the doctor and she hates it- she refuses to let them take her temperature, refuses to wear the mandatory ID bracelet, absolutely refuses to get x-rays. There was a small, slimmer of hope when they brought out the princess stickers, but that only went so far. And then she balled them up and threw them back at the nurse when she suggested she open her mouth to take her temperature.

What can I say? She has her daddy's temperament and my bones.

Overall though she was happy. When the doctor was in talking to me, she was very cooperative. Even played "itsy-bitsy spider" on my face one time and laughed when I looked down at her. In the doctor's words, "sick kids don't act like that!" He had pretty much decided to send us home with the promise to call her doctor on Monday or even try the Hospital's pediatric ER if things weren't better by Sunday.

Yet, she still refused to even stand on that leg. He had poked, twisted and prodded her leg all over and she only barely flinched when he touched the shin. She would point to a place on her shin and the corresponding calf area and say that is where it hurts (we put band-aids over the booboos to help them). The doctor was worried since kids just don't refuse to bear weight without a problem. So we did x-rays. Or, the picture machine of death as I like to refer to it now.

And he came back in our room later and said, "you won't believe this, but… she has two fractures just below her knee."

Jaw drops to the floor.

Pick said jaw back up- you never know what's on the floor of the Urgent Care…

So, we got a hard splint that night, which Skylar was very cooperative and talkative for, and headed home. On Monday, we went to the Orthopedist and got a blue cast put on. Skylar was so, so excited about the blue cast and even asked if we were going back to the new doctor (meaning the Urgent Care) because they were good doctors.

Really, after all that drama?

She was great at the Orthos until they had to remove her bandaids that we had put on at home, that were still on under her hard splint. It was like ripping a security blanket away. Literally. From a three-year-old with a broken leg, about to get a full-leg cast for 6-8 weeks at the beginning of summer. Who hates taking pain medicine.

Oh, the guilt.

She was carried out of there with multiple bandaids on her fingertips, and huge puffy cheeks and red eyes from crying over those bandaids. She still talked about them days later.

The next night we were laying bed and she asked me why we had to take those two bandaids off and I explained, for the hundredth time, why, and she looks at me funny and says, "but you left the other one" on and points to the spot that I had indeed put on a third bandaid, on the bottom of her calf. Are you sure its still on there? "yea, its right there mama!"

Whoops. I guess we will see you in four weeks little bandaid. Please don't hurt my babies skin too bad in the meantime.

Here is Skylar in sleep mode. She has taken over Ken's spot in our bed and sleeps with Grey's monkey pet pillow and the snowman pillow under her leg.

We had a short-notice cast signing party this morning at the house and here is Skylar showing Granny her cast (at least that is my interpretation of this photo?)

Aftynne and I are singing for Mackenzy and Grey while Skylar is getting Granny to put a blue star on her other leg to match the black one Papa put on last night.

She is much more excited about her stars than what is written all over her cast!

Here's Mackenzy giving her mom, Aftynne, the "what are you doing holding another baby" look while she is holding Grey! Love her! And seriously, Mackenzy talks more than both of my kids combined. She is sooo cute!

My friendly neighbors...

… the kind that live in this bush.

I was trimming up the bushes/forest in the yard this evening and got reacquainted with my old friend, Mr. Red Wasp, from last year. As you can see, I made it a little less than halfway across the bush before he made his haughty little appearance.

We had a battle of the wills…

but he won.

Don't worry though, I am planning a sneak attack to best him once and for all!

My sneak attack is named Ken.

I mean, I can't leave my bush looking like this! It is the very first thing you see when you look at my house. And, since we are at the very end of a cul-de-sac and situated up high on the mountain (very steep hill), it is the first thing most people see when they look down my street.

And my neighbors a few houses down are moving and need to sell their house.

This is not a selling point… a bush with a half mohawk. Really?

Pool Time!

So, we bought our season passes to Wet'nWild just a few weeks ago and have been once, with plans to go many more times over this summer! We also hit up the in-laws community pool a couple of times as well…. and I'm so thankful we did!

Hopefully, I can find a swimming cast cover at a medical supply store tomorrow, or else our days of swimming this summer are not only limited- they are over. :(

Here are a few pics that Ken took while we were at the in-laws pool…

Skylar and her friend-for-the-day were amazed by the frog we found swimming in the pool.

She was so much braver this year- already sticking her head under water and loving it!

Grey was not so sure about all that water. Or sunlight. Yes, if you give him sunglasses, he will wear them constantly while outside.

Ken was busy, busy pulling Skylar and her friend around the pool.

This is what happens when Grey trips and tries to catch himself with his hands… doesn't quite work. He's done this twice now!

Duck Park

Skylar likes to name the different places in our community based on what she likes or does at that place. The grocery store is either the cookie store (Harris Teeter) because they have the free cookies for kids, or the car store (Lowe's) because they have the car cart that her and Grey get to drive around the store. Chick-fil-a is the cow nuggets, because, well, I'm sure you can figure that one out. Target is the icee store because she likes to get a blue icee there. And so on and so forth. Although she knows most of the real names of places, she still thinks about them from in these ways and so do we. Instead of teaching her the correct way to name things, we usually end up modeling after her…

One of her favorite parks to go to is the duck park, because of all the ducks and geese running around. We tried to picnic there one night and almost lost a baby hand due to our foolishness.

We went there a few weeks ago, in the good ol' days of mobility, (before the "incident") and realized our mistake when we were sweating profusely just walking from our car to the playground. Even the kids were too hot to play too much!

My little princess, watching another little girl playing a little ways away. Anytime we go somewhere Skylar looks for all of the little girls her age to play with and volleys between being too shy to go up to them or just jumping right on in!

He's such a big boy now!! Something about this picture makes me think he looks so much bigger these days.