Did my child really just do what I think he did?? OMG!

So after picking up Grayson up from school today, we had to run a few errands which required us to go inside a store.   We had been in the store maybe for two minutes and Grayson informs me that he has to go pee.  So we hunt down the bathroom and he takes care of business, everything's good.  We're back out in the store for maybe another 5 minutes and Grayson informs that he now needs to go poop.  Ugh.  I ask him, "can't you hold it until we get back home?"  I hate the idea of him touching the toilet seats in a public bathroom.  But no, he cannot wait.  So back we go into the bathroom.  I am trying to keep Conley from touching everything while kneeling so that Grayson can put his feet on my knee for leverage.  Grayson finishes up and I am in the process of wiping him when I look up and see Conley - (read as though in slow motion) "Conleeeeeey, NOOOOOOOOOOOO!"  My child has just reached his hand into the toilet to touch the poop that Grayson has just deposited!!!  Oh, the horror!  I am absolutely mortified and grossed out!!!  Needless to say, we did a lot of hand scrubbing with soap!

Our trip to Houston

This post is a little late (I am perpetually late, in case you haven't figure that out by now...that's what having kids does to you), but there was some good stuff that happened, so I have to post about it! Back in June the boys and I, without Jon, took the road trip down to Houston for Zack and Ana's graduation party. I was a little nervous about traveling alone with the boys and how to handle pit stops, but all went smoothly. We only made one stop for mommy to pee and change a diaper and the rest of the way we were golden! I think it might have had something to do with the dual-screen DVD player we put in the car...and maybe some new snacks we bought just for the car.

For the first part of the weekend we stayed with my brother-in-law and sister-in-law, Chris and Kelly. Grayson loved it there, especially their little patio/sunroom. He got to feed their little beta-fish, named simply enough, fish-fish. That evening we went to eat at Beck's Prime at the mall to celebrate my other brother-in-law, Kelley's, 40th birthday since we were all in town together. My sister-in-law, Kelly, is genius when it comes to planning activities/outings around little kids. So, the restaurant was loud and noisy - perfect - and it was attached to the mall that had a really cool kids' play area. Now, Grayson was also on his first week of hard core potty training, so most of his play time was spent trying to go to the bathroom. He would play and come running to me telling me he had to poop, so off we would run to the bathroom, but then he couldn't go. It was quite frustrating and he kept touching the toilet seat - gross! We used lots of antibacterial wipes and hand sanitizer that night. Once we got back to Chris and Kelly's condo Grayson ended up pooping on his little potty - magic! So far so good...no accidents!



The next day was Saturday, the day of the big shin-dig for Zack and Ana. Since we figured that all of the Langes would be running around like crazy trying to get ready for the party, Kelly suggested that we take the boys to the Children's Museum. So after a little breakfast, off we went. Grayson had a blast running around and checking everything out and Conley was such a trooper. He sat in the stroller the whole time without so much as a peep. Nice!




Grayson was rewarded with a big twisty lollipop for pooping on the potty. So far so good...still no accidents! And I even forgot to ask him if he needed to go while we were at the museum and we were there for a long time - woohoo!

After some much needed naps for the boys, we got ourselves ready and headed over to Rob's house. All the family was there as well as Ana's family and some close friends. The boys were ready to hang out in the pool, so I changed them into their trunks and handed them over. They had a blast. Grayson even came running to me a couple of times to tell me he needed to go pee/poop on the potty - how awesome is that? I think the fact that all the family was there and he got to be the center of attention and everyone was praising him for going potty like a big boy did wonders for our potty training. He loved telling everyone that he went poop on the potty and getting high-fives.



Poor little Conley got so tired...we cleaned him up, fixed up the pack n play, turned the noise machine up as loud as it would go, put a "baby sleeping" sign on the door, and he crashed out until 8:30 the next morning without a peep to be heard. Grayson, on the other hand, was a little party animal, hanging out with all of the girls in the hot tub. It was too funny and he loved every minute of it! He especially loved shooting the girls with the squirt gun and attacking Aunt Kelly with his "binoculars". It was almost midnight before I got him cleaned up and ready for bed.



The ride home on Sunday wasn't quite as pleasant. Conley was quite the grumpy-monster, I'm sure from being so worn out from all of the activities. Grayson was still pretty content with the movies on the DVD player. We had to stop a few more times along the way, mostly because Conley was crying and I wanted to make sure he was okay and wasn't stewing in a poopy diaper or something. Boy, was it nice to finally make it home! All in all, I would say it was a successful trip!

I'm not YOUR G!

So the other night I was telling (not asking) Grayson that is was time to go to bed. So I said, "C'mon, G! Time to go upstairs". He responded by saying, "I'm not YOUR G!" So I asked him who's G he was and he said, "I'm Hayden's G!". Hayden and Grayson's nicknames for each other are basically their first intials - creative, right? I was cracking up when he said that. So I asked him if he was my peanut and he said "Yeah!" Too cute!

Is there a baby in your tummy?

Wow - kids can do wonders for your self-esteem and body image, let me tell ya. I had just finished giving Grayson and bath and I was sitting on the top of the toilet lid as I was drying him off. Let me preface this next part by saying that despite losing all of my baby weight, the post-baby body is just not the same. So, when I sit down, the skin on my belly that was once stretched to unbelievable lengths now flaps over like a small beer belly of sorts. Grayson saw this monstrosity and said "is there a baby in your tummy?" Granted, this was probably prompted by the fact that we had just seen our very pregnant friend, Riki, when she came by to drop something off, but it doesn't make me feel any better! Smart Lipo here I come!

Ok, Seriously...Are you Kidding Me?

Today was not a good day in the potty training department...We had our playgroup at the park this morning and Grayson is still going commando down below, so I had him in just a pair of loose shorts and nothing else. He peed before we left and when we got to the park, I reminded him several times that if he needed to go potty, then he needed to let me know. Well, about a 1/2 hour into the playdate, I see Grayson come running towards me and his pants look all wet. Ugh. But no big deal. Mommy brought an extra pair of shorts just for this occasion. So, I get him cleaned up, we go back to play, we have some lunch, and then we play again. I am walking around with Conley when I hear our neighbor, Melanie, say "Bonita, we've got some poop". Are you KIDDING me? Arrrrrrrrgh! I looked up at Grayson who was up on this bridge and I asked him why he didn't tell me that he needed to go, and of course his answers never really make sense. He said, "Because I needed to go poop". Well, duh! And I know that they say you shouldn't get mad at kids when they're potty training, but it's so frustrating! So, I was yelling at him to come down the stairs so that we could get him cleaned up, while at the same time informing him that we would have to leave since we had no more clean pants. Queue the tears and the tantrum. He had skid-marks running down his legs from the poop and some inside his pants, and once I got him cleaned up I had to go back up on the play equipment and pick up the load that he had dropped. Gross!

On the bright-side of things today, Conley started saying "momma" and meaning it! Finally!!

Going Commando

OK, we're going hardcore with the potty training! We started yesterday and he has been going sans diaper around the house...so far so good. He even played outside on the fort with just a shirt and shoes on - should I have put sunscreen on his bottom and his bits? HA! We only had one small accident yesterday on the tile. He goes to the potty by himself when he feels the need to go instead of my setting the timer, as we were doing previously. We've even made a couple of trips to the store and he stayed dry! Woo-hoo! Now, the test will be our road trip to Houston this weekend...It's only me and the boys, so I am trying not to make many stops, so I MAY have to put him in a pull-up for the trip. But I am going to bring the potty with us so he can continue going without a diaper down there. Will keep you posted!

Cool, Not Cute

Grayson is so funny! He will tell me how cute Conley is and in response, I tell him that Conley's cute just like he is. Grayson's response - "I'm NOT cute, I'm COOL!"

ECI Visit and The Pediatric Opthamologist

Last week was a busy week for Conley. Long story short, Dr. Nail suggested two things at Conley’s 15-month checkup. The first was a consultation with Early Childhood Intervention (ECI) for his developmental delays (not saying enough words, wouldn’t walk by himself). The second was a visit to a pediatric ophthalmologist as part of the screening strategy for the Neurofibromatosis (NF) in order to check for things called Lisch nodules that can appear in the irises of the eye.

So the ECI consultation was on Wednesday of last week and there were different therapists present to observe different developmental areas. Based on their observations, Conley is delayed in three areas (and this is with a 3-month delay in their scale, since all children develop at their own pace). In these three areas, he as at a 12 month level and he is 16 months old now. So, we have decided to enroll him in the program , which means therapists will come out to the house to work with him in these areas and teach us how to work with him. The scary thing is that NF can cause developmental delays, so you don’t really know if he is delayed because that’s just his pace, or if it’s potentially caused by NF.
The visit to the ophthalmologist was not too fun, since they had to dilate Conley’s eyes. In order to do this, Jon had to restrain Conley while the nurse pried open his eyelids in order to put the dilating drops in. I think it traumatized him a little because now when I lean him back in the bathtub to rinse his hair he starts getting upset, which he never did before. Ultimately, we received good news. Nothing appears in his eyes at this point, but the doctor made a point of telling us that if he were in our position, he would probably get an MRI done. Just because he can’t see anything in the eye, doesn’t mean that there isn’t anything going on behind the scenes. He seemed pretty knowledgeable about NF; apparently he has treated patients with NF before.

Since NF is caused by a mutated gene, Jon looked on our insurance plan and found an pediatric geneticist at Cook’s Childrens in Denton. We plan to make an appointment to discuss our options and see if it’s possible to have him tested for this particular gene mutation. It would just be so much better to know, if possible, than to play out this waiting game with the screening strategy, since some indicators won’t show up until they are 7-8 years old and some even into puberty. That way, if he does have it, at least we can prepare ourselves and know what to watch for.

BUT, good news - Conley did start walking all by himself over the weekend and he is EVERYWHERE! There's no stopping him now! And he is starting to say more words...so we're moving in the right direction.

Grayson's Den and His First 3-D movie

Yesterday the boys were playing upstairs in the gameroom while Jon assembled the new IKEA bookshelf and Grayson proceeded to pile up all of the pillows in there to make a little "den" for himself in the corner of the couch. When it was time to take a nap, he wanted to nap in his den instead of his bed. And he really did conk out! Too cute!






After his short nap (we had to wake him up in order to make the 3:00 movie time), we took Grayson to see the movie "Up" in 3-D. It was a great movie and Grayson was totally engaged the whole time. He had a bit of trouble with the glasses at first, but he did really well. And this was his first time in the big theatre, other than the two other times we took him to the Studio Movie Grill.





The only drawback was the cost of our outing...we had to pay a premium on the tickets since it was in 3-D, so that was $30...throw in a hot dog (Grayson didn't eat lunch before we left), a drink for Grayson, a large diet coke, and ginormous bucket of popcorn, and some sour patch candy and we're over $50! Geez, Louise!

Why does my house smell like bleach????

So, this event actually happened a couple of weekends ago, but I just now realized I forgot to include it in the last post...

Rob, Zack, Hailey, and Ana were still here on Sunday morning, but I had to make a quick run to IKEA because they had the bookcase I wanted for the play area upstairs on sale for almost 1/2 the price it ususally sells for. We had gone to IKEA the night before, but they had already sold of out their stock for the day, leaving me to have to return on this Sunday morning. It was a madhouse! This particular bookcase is so popular that they were giving out vouchers for them at the door, and once the vouchers were gone, that was it. Lucky for me I went a little early. So, once they unleashed the masses, I made my way to the cashier, paid, and wheeled the bookcase out to the car, all the while thinking, "this bookcase is a lot heavier than I thought it would be...how the heck am I going to lift it up into the car?" Right about the time I made it to the car, two guys were making their way through the parking lot to enter the store. I asked them if they could do me a huge favor and help me lift the box into the car, and they gladly obliged - thank you, two bulky guys in the IKEA parking lot!

So, I get back to the house and walk in through the back door...the house smells of bleach, like someone spilled it everywhere or something. I am thinking, "what the heck happened here?!" About that time, Jon comes running into the powder bathroom with a kid under his arm. I assume it's Grayson, but it turns out to be Grayson's buddy, Hayden, who we had invited over to play. Jon proceeds to tell me that Grayson was playing with the little rake in the gravel outside and Hayden wanted a little rake, too, and it was apparently a good idea to Jon to get the little rake we use to scoop dog poop and give it to Hayden to play with, but only after disinfecting it first with bleach. So, Jon went and got a bucket, filled it with water, and then started to pour some bleach into the water. About the same time, Hayden walks up towards Jon to see what is going on. As Jon pours the bleach, it splashes up (was he holding the bottle of bleach way up hig as he poured it?), gets all over his shirt, Hayden's shirt, and in Hayden's eye. Hayden tells Jon that his eye is burning - GREAT! Just blind our neigbor's child, why don't you? So Jon grabs Hayden and rushes him into the bathroom and proceeds to flush out his eye - for 15 minutes. Apparently this is what it says to do on the bottle if the bleach should somehow come in contact with your eyes. Jon then calls over to the Ruster's to let them know an "incident" had occurred, but that Hayden was okay. Erica was cracking up when she later relayed to me that Jon sounded like a little kid who was in trouble. She said, "I think he actually referred to me as 'Mrs. Ruster'". *LOL*

My response to Jon's genius idea - WHY, for the love of God, would you think it's okay to let the child play with a rake that we use to scoop the dog poo? I don't care if you freaking disinfect it, it's still used to scoop poo - it's a poo rake! This whole situation should have never even happened! Leave it to a guy...

Here's the aftermath of what happened to the shirts that Jon and Hayden were wearing.

Helllllooooo, anyone there??

OK, so I have to be the WORST blogger in the history of all blogs! I just can't seem to keep up these days (okay, for the past 6 months or so), but in my list of priorities each day, it just doesn't seem to make the cut. By the time I get done with everything else AND get the boys to bed, the last thing I want to do is be on the computer. BUT, I am back and I am going to make a very valiant effort to keep this gosh-darned thing updated. Especially because if I don't, I'll truly regret not chronicling all of the funny things that the boys say and do.

So the last couple of weekends have been pretty busy. We had family in town for both of those weekends...throw in a soccer tournament, a cookout, and a pool party and that's just the tip of our busy iceberg. But, we LOVE having our family visit and the boys really enjoyed seeing their Aunt Kelly, Uncles Chris and Rob, and cousins Hailey and Zack (and Ana!) Here are some pics from all of the fun!

Good Times Cookout at Trey and Melissa's House

It was nice to finally get together with everyone. Now that we all have kids, it's so hard to find the time on everyone's calendar. Heather was going in for a scheduled c-section the next day - what a trooper!

Memorial Day Summer Kick-Off at the Perhala's

Our awesome neighbors, Scott and Tiffaney, host this annual summer kick-off and it's always a great time! Grayson and Hayden really had a blast now that are at an age that allows them to really play and interact with the other kids.

Still Catching up...December and Christmas 2008

December was a super busy and super fun month for us....here's the rundown.

We finally made it to Sheri and Shawn Garber's annual Holiday Party this year...we had been MIA for the past three years due to pregnancies and babies. It was so much fun catching up with everyone and meeting some new friends.

We went with Erin and Thatcher to get pictures of the boys with Santa. Conley did great! I think since he was watching Grayson and saw that Grayson was fine, he was fine. Although he did give Santa a once over, like "what the heck is this?"

We were supposed to go out t dinner with a bunch of old friends from EDS since Dwight was in town for a few days...it takes an act of God for all of us to come together now since we all have little ones. So what happens right as the babysitter shows up? Conley (under Jon's watch - suspect? Just kidding...or am I? hee hee) falls and smacks his forehead on the tile. A ginormous goose eggs erupts from his forehead. Needless to say, we missed out on the dinner that we had been looking forward to for a week....nevermind the fact that it took me 4 days to finally find a babysitter for the occassion. Oh well...that's life as a parent...rule #1 - always be flexible and plan to cancel at the last minute!

The Rusters hosted a Christmas Pajama Party for the kiddos that was super fun. We had a special surprise guest show up, much to the kids' delight. Justin, Hailey, and Michael came up to visit us that same weekend...we really enjoyed their visit. The boys love them! Conley was a little cranky (ok, a LOT cranky) that Sunday...little did we know that he had a double ear infection - his first one!

Grayson had his school Christmas program and he did SO much better than he did at his Spring program earlier in the year. He really got into it and he had the privelege of shaking the jingle bells center stage. He was such a ham! All the kids were so cute! Afterwards, his class had their little Christmas party together. Grayson really loves his teachers, Mrs. Tonya and Mrs. Betty.

We had Grandpa's (Great-Grandpa) birthday party and the ADR Inc. (family company) Christmas party. And somewhere along the way, Grayson decided to try on one of Mimi's high-heeled boots.

We had so much fun at Christmas this year! It was the first year that Grayson really, really anticipated Christmas and showed no fear of Santa. He told Santa exactly what he wanted for Christmas - a big, big truck and cars, of course! This was also Conley's first Christmas, which made it even more special for us. Grayson and I made cookies for Santa for the first time this year and Grayson was very excited to see that Santa had come and gobbled up almost all of the cookies and milk we left for him. The boys were on present overload - there were so many presents! (Good thing Grayson helped me pick out stuff he wanted to donate to the kids without any toys beforehand - what a sweet boy!) At one point, Grayson just stopped opening presents because he was too busy playing with the stuff he had already ripped into to care about the remaining unopened presents. And that was just at our house! We still had more to come at Mimi and Grandpa's house. Conley, on the other hand, had just as much fun with the paper and ribbons...good thing since Grayson ended up taking Conley's new toys as his own. When we told Grayson that the toys were Conley's, he responded by saying, "he's sharing them with me!", to which we had to laugh since we are always telling Grayson to share.