Brik on Allergies

“I have four allergies and Roxwell has four allergies.”

What are your four allergies?

“I have an allergy to mosquito bites, cats and dogs and wetting the bed.”

What is Roxwell allergic to?

“To mosquito bites, peeing in his diaper using his left hand and using his left foot.”

What about Layne?

"He is allergic to one thing, not being nice to me."

1 Project Down, 789, 341 To Go

I am so grateful to my parents for giving the boys this incredibly generous and equally useful gift for their fall birthday's and Christmas.  They love it.  Jarom has been building it in every free moment he has had for the past 2 months.  They were always excited to play on the newest part, even when it was just a platform to climb on.  Today it was officially completed and all the boxes and tools were cleared from the scene.  With our shed moved back to the side of you house, the lovely weather we are having, this play-set erected and my garden in full bloom, I find myself being drawn to our backyard continually.

Gone Fishin'

Little by little I am getting to this family record keeping business.  These pics are from our Iowa trip back in September.  The kids days were jam packed with activities.  Papa loves to take them out fishing.  He put Layne "in charge of the boat."  This is music to Layne's ears as he nuts about control.

Brik was pretty grossed out by the fish and the worms and the water, so pretty much everything fishing.  Layne felt okay about touching a fish, but not holding it in his hands. 

Layne was okay with touching the fish, but wouldn't hold one in his hands.  Papa was impressed with his increased patience waiting for a bite.

Baby Signing {Basics}

Happy Halloween

It's True, He's Two!

Roxwell is progressing so nicely.  He is gaining independence and communication skills like a typical two year olds.  On our recent visit to an (best in the field) orthotic specialist eased our worries in gait and no bracing will be necessary.  Besides being slightly flat footed on the left side, his gait is perfect.  He is still pretty unsteady on his feet, which she attributed to the higher concentration skills it takes him to coordinate his movements.  He officially received the CP diagnosis, which was not given upfront because the neurologist didn’t want to scare us.  We know now that with his laid back personality, he will cope well in his life.

We are working with a fantastic PT that values Roxwell as a developing toddler above all else.  She has great philosophies on development and building the missing skills. We have gotten a good referral for a orthopedic surgeon who is starting a CP clinic here in the valley next year.  We will have them do a baseline evaluation with him, so we have some connections built in case anything comes up as he grows.  His disability is so mild that his specialist appointments are only yearly check ups.

Roxwell loves to look at books, point to pictures and label things.  We are doing baby signs that he picks up on quickly and knows over 100 words.  His speech is picking up, suggesting that his disability is not hindering speech, he just has focused so much energy on motor function that has taken a backseat.  He speaks about 30 words plus animal and car sounds.  He is putting together a few two word phrases and is mimicking others.

We celebrated his second birthday with my mom at the Phoenix Science Center.  All the kids had a great time.  We ate apple cobbler for his birthday cake and he got some fun new toys.  Jarom is working on building an elaborate playset in the backyard that my parents got all three boys for their birthday’s.  Roxwell has been out some to dig in the dirt and slide down the slide, but the mosquitoes get him so bad that we mostly keep him inside until the bugs go away.

The Mission of The Church is to Invite All to Come Unto Christ

Want to learn more? http://www.mormon.org/

Dessert Pose

Nana is having a ball. 

Roxwell is digging in while he can.  

Layne can't take his eyes off the mountain of heaven.  

Brik is worried that he is getting left out.

Acupuncture

He liked it and is asking to go back :)

Horsin' Around

Another family trip back to Iowa under our belts.  We took advantage of our last opportunity for Roxwell to fly free.  Bever Park, shopping, Grandma Kunkel’s, fishing, golf cart rides, horseback riding and packing a lamb in our suitcase.

The kids had wanted to ride horses for ages.  Layne was sure he knew how to do it all by himself, which ended up being the case.  My dad has a friend who is super gracious about setting us up with riding opportunities.  He lives on a huge, gorgeous, well kept farm.  A couple times we were able to take them out riding through the pastures sans kids. 

His friend, Doug, has a family full of riders who do rodeo events.  He borrowed a couple of girl scout camp horses that were used to inexperienced riders for the kids.  They were nice, quiet, small animals that gave the kids a great first experience.  I got to ride a perfectly broke horse that Doug’s son uses for roping.

We put Layne on with me first; it was tight in the saddle.  Layne wanted full control of the reigns and confused the heck out of the horse, but didn’t run us into any walls.  He wanted to go faster, of course, but after mere seconds at a gallop he changed his mind.  After this he got on his own horse while Doug walked him around with a lead.  Once Layne was tired of this he got off and lead the horse around on his own, tied it to the fence, then came back to walk him around some more.  When he got back on again, he went all on his own.

Brik was a bit more timid.  He rode with Jarom for a short while.  When the horse started walking faster than him on the lead, he dropped the rope and ran.  We got him to sit with Layne just long enough for a picture.  Brik really shined when it came to feeding the horses grass.  There was also a cat and newborn dogs that they brought out fof the kids to see, but with Brik’s reactions he has been having with cats and dogs, he could only look.

Roxwell was crazy about the animals, screaming and making animal sounds.  He didn’t want to sit on a horse, but he picked up real fast on feeding them grass.  He wanted to crawl under the fence to get closer.  He loved on the cat a little too much and was fascinated by the tiny heads of the dogs.

Nobody got kicked or bucked, so I’d say it was a day better than most.

In Hope of Better Days

All the parenting books say 6 is a hard age.  I would know, I have read them all.  I really can’t say ages 2-5 were that easy, but 6 was definitely hard!  Thank goodness for Nana’s who take care of kids while we cruise and Grandma’s who invite kids to stay with her at her cabin in the mountains and school…hallelujah for school.

To mark his 7^th birthday, here are 7 of Layne’s favorite things:

Favorite toy: Legos

Favorite food: Sushi

Favorite color: Orange

Favorite friend:  Brandon

Favorite number: Infinity

Favorite book:  Dinosaur Roar

Favorite word: Toot

We had small birthday plans to have a special celebration.  Layne ended up being invited last minute to Grandma’s Cabin.  He loves the cabin and we love the break, so it was win, win.  Before he left, Katie made her all-fave Oreo Balls with the boys for Layne to hand out at school.  We talked to him briefly on his birthday, but he was much to busy to sit around and chat.

When he came home Monday night we asked him how he felt to be older and told him all the fun things we had planned for him at home; presents, sushi, Chuck E. Cheese’s, Toy Story 3 – 3D.  Of course it was not enough and he had a fit that he wanted a party with a billion friends and another cake because the cake and party with his cousins at the cabin didn’t count…Maybe technically his is still only 6 years and 366 days?

We still had a fun day with all that Mom had promised, but still waiting for the magic.

Shhh

We snuck out last night.

You know way back when you lived under your parent’s reign, feeling a little feisty and just HAD to get out?  Some how, the role is reversed now, but I still get those feelings.  Only now it is lying to the children instead of parents, doing something edifying instead of naughty, feeling satisfaction instead of guilt and speaking Spanish instead of Pig Latin.

We made plans to see the music production “The Lamb of God” at Gammage.  We invited Katie to join us and had cued her in on the sneakiness of the evening’s events.  It took some extra thought when plans were being made in the present of little ears.  Sometimes we had to spell out words that would cause questions or reference things in a round about way.  The conversation at dinner the dinner table was most interesting with Jarom’s fluent Spanish, Katie’s broken Spanish, My limited Spanish, the kid’s pretend Spanish and Roxwell’s jabbering.

It all went off without a hitch (except for the moment of panic when Jarom noticed our tickets were for Friday night instead of Saturday, but they still let us in).  The house was as we left it, kids fast asleep, the babysitter had a peaceful evening and there were no bad reports to apologize and stress over.

A Day at the Beach

Last week we went to San Deigo for the Marcus and Ashley Neilson’s wedding.  It was crazy and fancy and romantic and whimsical.  I took zero pictures because I was too timid around the paparazzi who’s clicking was in surround sound minute by minute.  Why bother with my cheap point and shoot when there are 20 fancy camera’s all taking the exact same shot?  Here is one I stole of facebook because we are smoking’ hot.

And one of the newly wed because they were pretty cute too.

Next we did The Mormon Battalion Center with the whole Bagley lot.  It was amazing, and excellent for kids.  It was very well done, interactive and informative.  Of course the missionaries were super friendly and it was all free.  I would call it a trip highlight.

We followed that up with a day at Legoland, where the kids had a blast.  Layne couldn’t fathom how they made the logos so big.  I couldn’t fathom the time it took for people to construct so many life size, intricate and detailed replicas of cities and buildings and people.  All in all, if all it were was the Dragon Roller Coaster, the Race Track and Duplo Land, we would have been better off.  It kept the kids busy and entertained though.  They never complained about being tired of walking or hungry or even asked for us to buy them something while we were there.

Finally, a day at the beach.  Mission Beach.  It was covered in sea weed, cloudy and cold, which didn’t put a damper on things at all.

Layne worked on digging a hole to China.

Brik can have fun doing anything, at this particular moment it was running from a wave while holding up his elastic bare hand-me-down swim suit.

Roxwell is obsessed with birds (eww). 

 There were plenty of those around.  

He tried his darnedest to catch one, but they just liked to tease.

Jarom found clams.  Roxwell gave us the idea to eat them.

So we did.

The were really sandy, there must be a way to clean them.

Evidence

He’s here, he’s there, he’s loud, he’s obnoxious, he’s missing, he is talking and talking and talking… Basically, he has been in every corner of the house inside and out before I have breakfast ready. Then there’s the chatter; it goes on and on “Mom, what does this spell…” “Mom, I know what 20 and 20 is. Am I right?” “Mom, when are we going to go to the dollar store?” “Mom, guess if I have to poop right now or not.” Seriously. Sometimes I just shut down from the chaos that is Layne’s life. You know, tune him out, ignore him, hide, it’s a built in defense mechanism.

Yesterday morning Layne was rambling about some “bad guys.” I was in my defensive “half-listening mode,” that must have seemed to Layne like my “I don’t believe you mode.” That’s when he brought in “the evidence,” which is just how he presented it to me; An empty carton of ice cream and two large QT soda cups by our front door. Layne pointed out that this evidence could only mean one thing; two bad guys were eating ice cream and drinking soda on our porch last night. Now THAT was worth listening to.

Wiggly

I thought I would cry the day Layne lost his first tooth. A milestone that says "I am growing up and leaving babyhood behind --worse-- in the trash." I like babies. However, I didn't realize that teeth could be wiggly for 3 months before coming out. That is a lot of time for a mom to prepare herself.

At first the wiggly tooth was exciting, of coarse. We would wiggle it every couple days and talk about if it was more wiggly than the last time, Layne was always sure it was. Then, he got a surprise, the new tooth began growing in behind his old one, shark style.

Once the pictures started, we had to include everybody. So here are Brik's darling teeth, which he better not ever lose.

And then the true baby who is still getting his first set, 13 and counting.

So that was freaky, right? His tooth is coming in in the wrong place. On top of that, he is complaining about it hurting every time he eats and uses it as an excuse to not eat celery or cucumbers. I wanted to pull it when I never thought I would. The best tooth-loosing experience was the one tooth that just fell out with no Dad pulling involved.

We played around with it. "How far can you move it this way, that way, how about pushing it with your tongue, let me tie a string around it and you can wiggle it." We got him excited about the tooth fairy. "She leaves twice as much if you loose it on a Saturday since she doesn't like to work on Sunday's." Then came threats. "You are going to swallow it in your sleep and it will hurt your throat or you will lose it in the swimming pool and never be able to find it."

Lastly, bribes. "If I pull it and it doesn't come out, I will give you $5. Let me put this pliers in your mouth and I promise I won't pull it, if I do I will give you $100. If you let me pull your tooth you can stay up for 20 more minutes, otherwise it is bedtime right now."

I gave him a popsicle and told him how cold makes things numb so that it won't hurt him. Jarom got the pliers and he ran away. Jarom looked in his mouth while he hid the pliers. Jarom found the pliers and Layne cried. Enter; Bribes. Layne decided to have it pulled and pop, it was done. Layne laughed, "it didn't even hurt." I took a picture and told him I would send it to Nana and Papa. He wanted to look at it first to make sure they couldn't see his tears. I guess he didn't care so much about the popsicle on his face.