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.