Family Dinner

As I just mentioned in my other post, Jason hasn't been around much lately. So, he decided to take the family out to dinner, to spend some stress free time as a family, and we let Brayden choose where to go. He chose Mexican (not that it matters much, or has anything to do with anything), and was very excited when I got home from a relaxing day scrapbooking and shopping with some friends. To add to the excitement, I had brought home some new clothes for the boys- including two sets of matching shirts. Brayden absolutely had to go out with he and "Bubbers" (aka; Rhylan) as a matched set. Proudest big brother in a 200 mile radius, I am pretty sure. Now, he is already asking/planning what matching outfit they can where to church tomorrow. What have I started?!?!

Tech Saavy Tike

Jason has been working a lot lately - getting a huge project out by deadline (I mean A LOT- as in being at the office until 2 a.m. most nights, and 5:30 a.m. Thursday night. He came home long enough for a shower and back in to the office by 7:30 a.m.) . The drawings all made it out the door yesterday afternoon, but he had to work from home some today to finish up on some of the odds and ends. Tonight Brayden looks at Jason's computer and says:

"Daddy, why are you looking at your blog all day?"
Jason: "It isn't my blog, buddy"
Brayden: "Oh? What is it then? Your website?"
Jason: "No buddy, it's just my work."
Brayden: "Oh, your dot com?"
Jason: "Just work"
Brayden: "www.work.com, Daddy?"

Obligatory Nakey Baby Pictures

I am really slacking as a second time mom. Seven months of life, and few, if any, naked baby pictures of Rhylan. I had tons of Brayden. (Hopefully he isn't permanently scarred by my apparent "Second Baby Syndrome"......)

In an effort to redeem myself:

Before his throat hurt too much to talk....

Ok, that never really happend- he just was *a little* more quiet than usual.

As the icky sickies continue to circulate our area, and our home- Brayden fell as the latest victim on Monday. One would have never known he was ill that morning. He went to a playdate at the open gym with friends, played, talked, and talked, and talked like normal, ate his lunch, and went down for his nap. See my friend Alyssa's blog entry here for a brief synopsis of what I am referring to with the talking- don't forget to read the comment left by her husband, Brett, who was privy to the conversation for all of 5 minutes!!

After nap, he had a fever, which continued to rise, even on Ibuprfen and Tylenol. When Jason came home it had reached 103.7, so off to the Convenient Care we went- Strep Throat. Two days of being on antibiotics, things are back to normal here- and he is back to talking just as much!!

I know I sound like a broken record, but I am ready for this winter to end.

More Pictures of the Boys Photo Shoot

I had put the collage of the boys up, but I forgot to put up the rest of the pictures from that day. Lots of pictures, I know- you can tell which blog entries are specifically with Grandparents, Great Grandparents, Aunts, etc in mind!! (Because I am sure the rest of you could care less about picture over load!!) I had a hard time choosing, but I am having the first one printed in various sizes if anyone does want a copy.

Those Big BLUE Eyes!

After 4 and a half years of gazing into the deep brown eyes Brayden has, it is still hard to believe that our little one seems to have inherited blue eyes. Somehow we have ended up with each of our kiddos taking on coloring more like one of us. Brayden is definitely all Jason, with the dark brown hair and eyes. Rhylan has a lighter complexion, even what little bit of hair he has seems to be more of a light brown, with some blond-ish to it. Guess we will just have to wait and see for sure on that one though- when he actually grows enough hair to judge!


And now for just a couple of shots from lounging around the house:
This morning before getting dressed

Big Brother getting some good night kisses last night

Big Baby

We were just giving the boys their bath. Brayden was singing to his brother while they bathed, and telling him how much he loves him.

I said: "Brayden, do you think other big brothers love thier baby so much?"
Brayden: "Yes"
Me: "What friends at school have babies?"
He then lists a few, one of which is a child who's mom worked at the Doctor's Office at my work- and I didn't know that she had another baby.
So I asked: "Really, _____ has a baby brother? How big is he?"
He looks at us, and frankly replies: "Four feet!"

Wow, I hope she had some good drugs delivering that one!!!

Old Man Winter- Go Away!!

This has been the ickiest, sickiest, never ending winter that I can recall! UGH!! In my own, non-scientific, opinion, I think it is the crazy weather that is playing the major roll in this. It has been a roller coaster of temperatures all winter long- upper 40's one day, and then in the negatives (with windchill factors) just days later, and then back again. It is like it isn't quite getting cold enough, long enough, to kill of the nasties floating around, and then warms up enough that they think it is time to play- breed, and spread. YUCK!

I can't tell you how many kiddos in our playgroups have been sick. First it was the tummy bug that spread to just about everyone that had been together that week. Then we have had so many colds and other respiratory things among the kids - latest victim was Rhylan's little buddy, Evan, spending 3 days in the hospital this week. (Glad you are home Ev! Rhylan said to tell you that being in the hospital stinks, and he can't wait until you guys can tug on each other's shirts again soon!). So far we have dodged the most recent bullet- pink eye.

We may be safe from the pink eye that is circulating since we aren't able to go to playgroup tomorrow- because, you guessed it, we are dealing with another bout of icky sickies at our house! BLAH. Rhylan was goopey, gunky, snotty, snorty, coughing, and cranky yesterday and today- with a fever. Turns out that he has a double ear infection. So just days after being off of antibiotics from the pneumonia, he is on a different one now, and back on nebulizers for the cough. This is nothing compared to what we were going through 2 weeks ago, but come on, enough already!!

I also got to spend a good portion of my day at the clinic. I had gone to convenient care last night for what was, obviously, a sinus infection that wasn't going to clear without an antibiotic. (Don't you love taking the time, and spending the copay on something you already know is the issue?! I mean it isn't like you can second guess yourself on a sinus infection- it is what it is!) But on top of the sinus-y stuff I have felt like I have a knife jabbed into my right rib cage for the past 3 days- extremely painful, short of breath, but no cough to speak of (and when I do cough, it is very deep, dry, and painful). The convenient care doctor instructed me to go to the ER last night for xrays, but I opted not to. I didn't figure that it was acute/urgent enough to warrant me sitting in a hospital until 3 a.m., so I waited to go to the doctor today. At this point the doctor is waiting for blood work and xrays to come back, but is leaning toward thinking that I have Pleurisy or possibly partial pnuemothorax (fancy term for slightly collapsed portion of the lung)- both of which are not all that serious, just very painful. She is looking into a couple of other things too, just to be safe, but I am not thinking it is any of the other stuff she mentioned.

24+ hours of being on the antibiotic, my sinuses are draining (YAY!), now if I could just get someone to dis-lodge this knife that has been apparently stapped into my ribcage!!!

Can I just say "UGH" one more time?!?!?! I am sure that there are plenty of you reading this that will chime in with me on that one!

Results from Which one is Which

***Edited 2/15*** Someone must not have read that I had posted these results and voted between last night and just now. We now officially have a tie!!!

**************************************************************
It has been a week since I posted the pictures of the boys at the same age, in the same sleeper, both holding a remote (still think that is so weird that even happened completely by chance! Especially since we didn't keep any of Brayden's clothes- so it is pure coincidence that we have that sleeper again for Rhylan, in the same size!).

And for the results......

52% of votes were correct, 48% had the same problem as Jason when it came to knowing which was which! Pretty close I would say!

Brayden was the one on top, Rhylan on the bottom.

Thanks for playing- Maybe I will do this from time to time if I end up with other similar poses of the boys. It would be a fun way to track how they change/stay similar as they grow.

Our Boys

Posing for a few pictures....

Which one is Which?

I was to taking some snap shot pictures of Rhylan yesterday. When I came to the computer to download them and, I happend to run across one of Brayden on the computer- in the same exact sleeper, at the exact same age, and holding a remote control too. When I showed them to Jason, he had a hard time deciphering who was who. Let's see if you can!! (I love getting people "involved" on here- so what better way than another poll, right?!?!)

	Which one is Which?
	This one is Brayden
	This one is Rhylan

	Which one is Which? 2
	This one is Brayden
		This one is Rhylan

Little Bugger

Rhylan loves, loves, loves his "bugs" that hang from his car seat. His face lights up as soon as he sees them. In fact, when we were leaving the hospital last week and I pulled his carseat out, he started squealing, panting, flailing his arms and legs, and showing other outward signs of excitement to see it-- all because of the bugs! When he outgrows the car seat (soon), I am going to have to figure out some place to attach the bugs for him to play with.

I was able to capture a few candid shots of him playing with, and eating, his bugs:

Water Babies

The boys both started swimming lessons tonight. This was Rhylan's first time swimming, and he LOVED it! He was so happy and content in the water, and even seemed to know to kick and paddle. (Maybe that is an instinct, I don't know- but it was too cute!) He also had quite the cheering section from the sidelines with his brother praising him and clapping for him. Here are some pictures and a video:

And one of the little guy drying off afterward

Brayden was extremely excited to start back to swimming lessons. He hasn't been enrolled since last spring, and has really missed it. We had all intentions of putting him in summer lessons last year, but due to the issues at the end of my pregnancy, it didn't happen. He had taken lessons at an indoor facility in town for the past 2 and a half years, but it had a fire last year, and upon re-opening the staff and program had changed, and the quality went downhill. It was very disappointing, and we didn't re-enroll him. We decided to give the campus recreation center a try, but they were full this past fall. So, that brings us to just getting him back in the water now!

Here are a couple of pictures of his lesson. You can just see the excitement on his face, as he comes up from being under water, in the first picture! Sorry about the quality on the second one. I was feeding Rhylan, and Brayden was way at the other end of the pool- but he was swimming very well all by himself and I wanted to snap a shot!

Good Fortune

Today the boys and I went out for lunch with a friend to a quaint, little, Chinese Restaurant that has more recently opened in town. After Brayden plowed through an entire order of 6, huge, crab rangoons, and whatever he could scavenge off of my friend's plate (my food was too spicy for his palate- and she ordered shirmp; not a safe food w/ my 4 year old in arms reach of your plate!), our fortune cookies were brought to the table. Brayden always has to crack his open and ask "what's it say for me Momma?"


Well here you go:

I am just waiting for our next phone bill- apparently our child has been in touch with, and gotten to know, some people in China lately!!

Lovin' on Evan

Rhylan had his follow up appointment this morning, and my friend Tina said that she would watch Brayden at a open gym playdate that our mother's group holds a couple of times a month. Before heading out to the appointment, Rhylan had a little time to hang out with his friend Evan. We captured a few pictures of the boys together (and Rhylan didn't try to eat Evan's arm even once!! See previous posts of the two of them together- you will recall why I say that!)

When I got back to pick Brayden up, he was also loving all over Evan! When we got in the car he told me "Mommy, Evan is a cute baby. I had to give him lots of snuggles because you took Bubers (Rhylan's nickname) away from me". You would think that most 4 year old boys would be more concerned about running around a gym and being a maniac, than missing their little brother! Crazy kid!!

Oh, and speaking of Rhylan's follow up appointment today, we officially have a healthy baby with a clean bill of health. We knew that already, but the doctor was very happy with his recovery today. She did have another round of chest x-rays done to be sure, and she personally called us tonight to let us know that everything was clear. Yay!

What is that thing?

Brayden: "What is that thing back here (pointing inside his mouth)?"
Jason: "What thing"
Brayden: "The thing that hangs in front of your throat"
Jason: "Your tonsils"
Me: "No, your tonsils are behind there on the sides of your throat. I think that is the uvula."
Brayden: "No, I know what it is! It is a pinata for you food to knock around when you are swallowing it"

..... Okay, food pinata it is!