Sickie Day

Henry had a long sick day today. He started the day early, he told me his back hurt. Uh-oh.

We got up, had breakfast, got dressed and took daddy to work. Tears. He told me his legs hurt. Grrr.

See, about 4 weeks ago he had some severe leg and hip pain. He couldn't bear weight and was in tears for hours. We finally decided to head to the ER. Several hours, x-rays, and dollars later we had a diagnosis- toxic synovitis. Basically toddler arthritis of the hip. It had a 50% chance of returning in the next 6 months.

Back to today. We went to have bagels and juice. He told me his mouth hurt. His teeth hurt. Ok. This is totally a new area of the body, maybe he was just tired? Either way, home we went where H took a bath and watched Handy Manny with mom. He was still crying nearly 6 hours later we went to get daddy at work, I thought that it might be worth it to get out of the house and see how he did. He was asleep before I even got him strapped in the chair.

The crying continued... we came home for another bath and nap. About 30 minutes after we got home, he seemed to be feeling better. Hum... interesting. As of now he is asleep. We think maybe just a tummy ache, or indigestion.

In the mean time, Liz was doing this. She is a happy girl.

Ready for a fun weekend at the zoo then a 6 am trip to Denver on Sunday!

Change of Plans

Living in an apartment, in a new city, with only one car, and NONE of our stuff has proved to be difficult on most days.

We make plans, and for one reason or another, things seem to change. It's ok. We can be flexible. Sometimes.

Today is a good example of one of those days. Bryan is in San Antonio (or Austin, I can't remember where he went) so I wanted to take the kids to do something fun. Being that the heat index has been in the high 100s, I wanted to do something inside. Bouncy house play yard to the rescue. Right? Wrong.

The kids woke up at 6am this morning. Both. Of. Them. (another fun addition to living in a two bedroom place, the kids share a room so as soon as one is up, both are up! Fantastic) We got up, had breakfast and milks and watched some Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. By 8am Liz was falling asleep on my lap. So she had to go down for a nap (NOT IN THE PLANS, grrr). By the time she was back up it was nearly 10:30, a full half hour after I wanted to be at this place. And Henry was ready for lunch. Liz agreed. They sat on the kitchen floor and waited.

And now, here we are, 1:30 in the afternoon. We still haven't left the house and my kids have decided to take a joint "nap" in Lizzie's crib. They are in there with Parker and Woof Woof, watching Little Einsteins*, in Lizzie's pack and play. Together.

Let's hope they don't hurt each other.

*I realize this post makes it seem like my children watch a million hours of tv a day, but they don't. Promise.

A milestone

When Hen Pen turned 18 months old (when I was newly preggers with sister) we thought that potty training MIGHT be on the horizon. The pediatrician told us it was possible to train an 18 month old boy, and we believed her (she lied).

We tried at 18 months, he didn't get it. We tried at 20 months, he cried, screamed and kicked. We tried at 24 months- more of that screaming (he had a serious fear by this time). So we let it go, we knew he would be ready someday.... and that someday came in October of 2010. He pooped in the potty for the first time. He knew that if he did it he would get the toy he had been lusting over. We thought it meant he might continue the trend. He was right, we were wrong. He got the garbage truck, I got more poopy diapers.

In November of 2010 we decided to go for the gold. We set out on a three day (yes 3 day!) plan to get him in big boy underwear. We knew others who had tried the same with success, and we were in. So we started on a Friday. By Sunday he was potty trained. No joke. Monday morning he went to school in big boy underwear and we haven't looked back.

So the next big milestone was sleeping through the night in underwear. We were sure that he wasn't ready in November, we tried in January (with night terrors) and then, one night about a week ago we decided, let's try the underwear. He doesn't pee most nights anyway, and shock of all shocks, he made it through a night. And then two, and then a week. He wakes up in the middle of the night if he has to go. He comes to us crying, but he is awake. No more night diapers. No more diapers for our first born.

It is a milestone. It is a good one. It is a sad one. I know it means he is growing up, that everyday he needs me less and less. And then I remember, one day he will need me again. So I look forward to the remaining days and look forward even more to the days he needs me again,.

That butt is too cute.....

Kisses baby boy, here is to a job well done!

Nana came to visit!

A couple weekends ago my mom came down from Denver for a visit. This is the first time that she had the chance to get down here, and boy are we glad! Henry has been missing Nana, so this was the perfect time for a visit.

A train ride, does it get much better?

 Hen always has something to tell nana....

Because we live in this tiny little apartment, and our kids already share a room, we knew that it was going to feel... tight. Kind of like all 5 of us in Bryan's Honda. But, we knew we could make it work. Nana bunked in with Henry and Liz. I am sure she was thrilled. Ha!

It was a fun weekend, but we can't wait for Papa to join nana on the next trip.....

Wordless Wednesday

This was too good to not post.

Tomball Nights

Last Friday night we drove about 20 minutes to a little town just outside the city for their annual city celebration. Bryan has a co-worker who lives in town and he said that it was a great family event and even suggested a restaurant to try. So Friday at 5:00 we were off!

We parked the car and played on the local train tracks for a bit (Henry liked it, but was fairly scared!)

 We sat down for a little dinner at a new Mexican restaurant in town. We decided to sit outside and listen to the live music....

 Henry had his first "virgin" drink. He liked it!

It was hot y'all! Don't believe me? This is what Liz's head looked like after about 20 minutes!

After dinner, Henry wanted to dance. I am pretty sure he is break dancing here. He is rad.

Henry sat still long enough for his face to be painted (yes, it was 30 seconds. That is a LONG time)

He demanded a ride on this kiddie ferris wheel (which shocked us) but, he loved it!

The parade was a parade of lights, really pretty fun. The start of the parade had all of the city emergency vehicles with their lights and sirens. He thought it was too loud. But he thought it was "awesomes". We told him that he would have to ask Papa about his daddy, a police chief for the city of Pittsburgh. He thought that was pretty cool too!

Liz was pretty tired at parade time... but she still made it though a sucker :)

It was totally worth the drive and the cranky Saturday. We danced, had snow cones, laughed lots and made such a fun family memory!

Uh-oh

So for the case of documenting things that are going on for our friends and family in Colorado (and really, for ourselves) I feel that this post it totally needed.

A couple weeks ago when Nana came to visit we were in the car, driving who knows where, when all of a sudden Henry pointed out the window and says to me, "What the fuck is going on there?". I'm sorry. Say what? I seriously couldn't keep a straight face, but had to tell him quite sternly that we didn't get to say words like that, that it was a BAD word, that if I heard it come out of his mouth again.... blah blah blah.

Mommy fail. I might use this word a little too often. Ask my friends from growing up, I come by it honest.

Fast forward to this week. Henry and Liz were in the bath. I have no idea what happened but I came around the corner to him trying to clean up water outside of the tub. He looks at me and says. "Aw. Shit."

Um, Daddy fail. Bryan says this every other sentence. Seriously.

So, again with the lecture. We don't say that word, it is a bar word, if we EVER hear it come out of your mouth again..... I just know that preschool is going to call to tell me that Henry told some kid to, "Fuck off and give me my shit back!"

And so this post isn't total profanity... here is a cute picture

Fourth of July Weekend!

We started our long holiday weekend with a little time in the pool. The weather was amazing on Friday, so we hoped in when Daddy came home early from work. Liz really loves swimming with Bryan!

After a nice swim we headed upstairs to have some popsicles- Lizzie's first popsicle ever! It was a hit..

 I just had to include this one, look at that tummy! We had to upgrade to a bigger suit!

 We went back to the pool the next day. We drove the kids all the way to the Woodlands to look at houses in the morning, so we thought that they deserved another round of swimming that afternoon too!

 More popsicles- this time bomb pops to celebrate the fourth!

 On the morning of the fourth we headed to a couple of parks to play. The kids were really liking being outside! This is the second park of the day- it had a splash pad for the kids, but Liz was too small to play (it had LOTS of water) so instead she and I ran around and played. She wasn't sure about this big hippo.....

 But the "wings" (as she calls them) were super fun. I think she was in this swing almost 30 minutes, and she cried when I took her out to go home!

 Henry requested Old Mcdonalds for lunch, and being that it was a holiday, he got it! Yum!

 After some much needed naps we took the kids up to Cinco Ranch in Katy. They were having a big holiday festival. We got there nice and early and we were able to wander around, eat and play before the fireworks.

 Henry went into the bouncy house and did the big slide. I was a little surprised he wanted to do either, but it was fun! (all except getting attacked by fire ants while waiting in line- me, not henry! Ouch!)

They were playing some music in the center of the shopping area, and Henry was really getting down!

 It was HOT, so we let Henry play a little in the splash fountains.... he thought that this was pretty cool!

 Then we got some ice cream, which Liz thought was cool! Ha.

 After a couple hours of wandering around playing, looking at the firetrucks, dancing and eating treats we found ourselves a place to sit to and watch the fireworks. We thought that they might both freak out with the noise of the fireworks- but surprisingly both did very well!

We had a great weekend, we were sad that our families couldn't be here to hang out with us though! We both remarked at the end of the night that going to an event like this one is something we normally stay away from- with two kids it seems hard, but we broke out of our comfort zone, and boy are we glad we did!