Outside play

Grace and Max love to ride on the little 4 wheeler, to be honest Max is a better driver than Grace. We are so thankful for perfect evenings lately where we can just sit outside and let them play, they are both so much happier outside!

Here's our little swing set, Max always tries to climb out the slide, he gets about 1/2 way and then falls off or slides back down. He's tough though and doesn't cry for too long. They also love the little car Grace got for Easter. In my opinion, outside toys are worth every penny!

My little Walker boy

Max was taking 5-6 steps before his surgery. But this is the morning after - he's walking through the whole house now. I'm positive this is not a coincidence! It's like he has balance now! The look of pride on his face is priceless! Way to go Max!

I can't figure out how to turn it. Sorry.

Max's surgery

Max got tubes in his ears and had his adenoids out on Tuesday. We had to be to the hospital by 630 - and he couldn't have anything to eat after midnight. Max wakes up almost every night for a bottle around 4 - so I was a little worried about that, but he did really well. When we got to the hospital Max was so busy he couldn't stop for a picture, he wanted to explore and get into everything.

Mike and I watched the surgery, and I'm guessing that's not something I'll ever do again. I have never considered a job in the health care industry for good reason. I was so squeamish, even before they cut into his ear drum. He had quite a bit of fluid in his ear drum, and the doctor thinks he should hear much better now. The doctor also said his adenoids were completely closing off his nasal passage, so he should breathe much better after his recovery.

When the surgery was over they warned me he was not going to be happy and that he would cry for a little while. I was not prepared. He screamed and cried. He couldn't be consoled. He didn't want me, he didn't want Mike, he wanted on the floor, then he'd toss and try and hit his head. It broke my heart. After an hour they said we could go - Max was still screaming, I thought they were kidding - surely they wouldn't let him leave screaming. They weren't. He cried for another 1/2 hour and then fell asleep. 2 hours later he woke up much happier. You can tell he still doesn't feel 100% - but we are praying this solves all of Max's health problems! NO MORE DOCTORS!

The pictures are presurgery - the video is about 40 minutes after they brought him back... its fast, but breaks my heart.

Mini-Golf

Last Saturday we went for a little family outing to Cherry Hill. It was our first Mini-Golf of the season. Grace loved it - she thought the little castle was a little house just for her. She didn't want the golf club and instead preferred just throwing her ball towards the hole. She also "helped" mommy and daddy by picking up our balls and placing them in the hole. Max loved being outside. He was perfectly content the entire time.

I would love to find a stroller friendly golf course - anyone???

Mike won by 2 strokes - we will be having a rematch... Each month in the Hometown Value's coupon book Cherry Hill has a buy one get one free. Grace is free - so it's not a bad family outing for 6 bucks.

Bits of Grace

Grace is my little mimic. I posted on Facebook the day she said "Holy Crap." And I'll admit it took my by surprise. I know it could have been a lot worse, and one day it will be, but there is just something about hearing such grown up words come out of a little 2 year old.

She has started calling Max "My boy" or "My brother" which is so cute, and yesterday she said "I love to see your smile my boy." Which I had said a few hours earlier.

She is loving her swing set and started going down the slide head first, which I'm shocked that she dares do. She wants someone to push her endlessly - and just smiles and smiles the whole time.

Last night may have been one of my favorites, she wanted me to lift her on the couch, but Mike was in the living room and I was not. I told her to go ask her dad. She said "No, you do it." I said something to the effect of no, I'm busy, go ask your dad. Grace said "Dad can't do it. He doesn't know how." I guess I should be flattered that she almost always wants my help, but I really would be okay for a 50/50 split!

Everyday recently Grace touches my chest and says what's that mom. Before I can answer she always says boobs. Well she touched my stomach and said what's that mom? Boobs? I said no, that's my belly. She responded "Belly boobs?" (What am I suppose to say to her?)

She is also on this potty trained kick, I may have blogged about this before. Yesterday when we were at the doctor with Max she asked the doctor is she was potty trained. I'm sure they love us!

Grace still counts like the Count on Sesame Street - "One, Two, Three, Four ah ah ah..." That always brings a smile to my face.

(Just one question, why do so many cute shirts for little girls have to be sleeveless? I only have one white shirt to go underneath!"

Ears, ENT's & Endless Infections.

For the record I have not been toting around my sick little boy this week, possibly infecting hundreds with the swine flu virus. I was starting to wonder though.

Max is usually a pretty happy baby - but the last few months have been rough. We saw the ENT on Tuesday and he determined Max ears were still infected, that he did need tubes and that he needed to have his adenoids removed. He also said Max's tonsils were twice as large as they should be, but they can't be removed until he's two. But they only do surgery once a month at the facility on our insurance and we'd have to wait until June 3rd. At first I thought, well he's averaging one ear infection per month, he has one right now, so maybe we'll get lucky and he won't have another one before his surgery. (That's me ever the optimist.)

Thursday he still had a high fever, still not sleeping, cries anytime we are in the house and now has a really bad cough and runny nose. So I called the doctor and they wanted to see him again. Of course. I honestly think two weeks haven't went by this year that one of us hasn't been to the doctor. His ears have not improved, and probably had gotten worse. He'd been on antibiotics for 6 days, so that meant he has built up a resistance to Cedafil/Omnicef. (I'm sure I didn't spell those right.) Last month we found out he was allergic to Amoxicillian/Augmenten, and he just finished up Zithromax two weeks ago. They ended up giving him the maximum does of Zithromax, but told us that he needed tubes ASAP because then next thing would be shots/IV's and where it's a resistant infection now they may not even work.

As you can tell June 3rd was no longer an option, so next week I'm taking him up to Logan to see Dr. Wood. Sure he almost killed me- but that was years ago, and now he's operated on most of my nieces and nephews and they all came out just fine! Plus they can get him in for surgery on May 19th. A week and half. I can do anything for a week and a half.

Max woke up today with a smile on his face, after sleeping almost the whole night. Just maybe the drugs might be working!

Disgusting. Spicy. Sour. Thanks!

Where did the Tyler's go?

What a fun week we had... After the stress, and the anxiety attacks.... Grace was suppose to have some testing this week up at PC to check her kidney function because of a couple UTI's she's had. To keep it simple - I just didn't feel right about it. I knew about the appointment for a month, I talked with radiology up at the hospital twice, they even scheduled a life child specialist to be there because I was nervous. I did some research and the test is not pleasant, some mothers reported there children screaming while they had to hold them down, others said that their perfectly potty trained child resorted back to diapers. I know few people ever post the good stories - I prayed and prayed and finally decided the night before not to go through with the tests. I'm sure the hospital loves people who cancel the night before!

Mike had already taken 1/2 day off work so we went to Dinosaur Park up Ogden Canyon. It was such a nice day. Grace and Max loved it - the weather was perfect and there were hardly any other people there. Grace and Max could have swung in the swings all day.














We also went up to Hyrum a few times.... Grace and Max got to play with Adi and Tytan one day, Grace and Adi took a tubby together, and Max had as much fun as one little boy can have with an Oreo..... How it got inside his diaper I'm not sure I want to know!










I love how we spend money on toys for the kids when they would be perfectly content emptying my drawers and cupboards in the kitchen... over...and over.... and over...

Grace is still up to her creative self. One day last week she was perfectly dressed and had a nervous breakdown because she wanted to be Minnie. Not just the dress, she had to have the ears too.... Then she needed her jacket and her sandals... MY GIRL HAS STYLE! I'll also post the picture of Grace vs. Ink Pen... Guess who won. (You need to click on the picture to get the full effect.)

And finally, my little escape artist man. He wants to be outside so badly, his favorite things right now are to eat rocks, grass and dirt. I'm glad I walked in the kitchen when I did or he may be 1/2 way to somewhere by now. (Don't pay attention to the un-clean floor.)

We've also been to a graduation, Congrats Aunt Caya, been to the hospital in the middle of the night for Max's ears (AGAIN), been to a reception where Grace got to where the cutest outfit that I didn't get a picture of, and she matched the wedding party perfectly, which everything was beautiful, done yard work, started planting our first garden and welcomed some nice spring weather!

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Oh, I almost forgot... after church Mike and I made dinner. Grace had a bite of spaghetti squash, gagged and spit it out. "Disgusting." Well Grace will eat almost anything so I knew she truly didn't like it. I scraped it off her plate and gave it back to her. She had a bite of chicken. "It's spicy." I told her it was terriaki, sweet but not spicy. Then she had a bite of fruit and spit it out. "It's sour!" (By this time I'm wondering why I bothered cooking...) Then she had her corn on the cob. "It's so yummy, thanks for dinner mom!" (She might just be a bit McBride after all!) I'm thankful Grace is learning so many descriptive words....I just have to keep repeating this over and over!