Lost pics from Thanksgiving

We hosted Turkey day and here are a few of the fun times the babies had with Grandpa and Nanny and Pop Pop.



Nothing like giving a 1 year old some root beer to rot his 2 teeth. He loves his Grandpa though...wanted to keep wiping his snotty face all over his pants, drove him nuts :)

Pop pop convinced Rhys that there are leprechauns under our couch. Every morning Rhys would come downstairs and head straight to the ground to search for the little creepy men that apparently live under our brown loveseat. We have since moved it in the hopes of confusing him that the leprechauns have moved and he can stop wiping his pjs all over the floor. Till next time pop pop...

We've been busy...

Besides the little scare on Friday we have been working really hard on the house. It's a blank canvas and the 2 most uncrafty people have to make it look like a home. Surprisingly, we're not doing too bad :) See mom all of that slave labor growing up is paying off...but won't be planting trees whose leaves fall b/c I HATE RAKING!!! (A little PTSD from raking courtesy of mom) So far, we've stained the inside of our fence, planted several trees (of the non leaf variety), started a raised flower bed in our front yard, painted our bedroom and finished our Vermont style mailbox. Our place is starting to shape up but we have a long way to go.

We're planting leyland cypresses along the back fence. These are the first 2...we're up to 14 now and 2 left.
Rhys is helping mommy. Note the remnants of the BIG horseshoe pit that the boys kept tripping over. Besides, they hurt themselves enough with out flying metal to add to the mix.

1 year, 8 months, 11 days of Hospital Free Incidents

Friday I get a call from Sarah...Rhys has fallen and Ayumi is on her way to the hospital. Nothing like that type of phone call to make your heart and stomach switch places. Had to call mom to get myself together (me in mom panic mode is NOT pretty) and she reminded me of all of the calls she's gotten to come to the hospital for Sarah and I...boy we sure kept her busy. I haul ass to BW Hospital and make it just as they're pulling in with him. He's got a gash on his chin from taking a spill out of the stroller. Rhys was signed in, triaged and back on a gurney getting stitched up with no wait, great hospital with awesome nurses! He's scared and fought like mad against the 4 nurses holding him down to stitch his little chin. When all is said and done...I'm just surprised this hasn't happened sooner. The only thing in life he's afraid of is bounce houses, no idea why. Skateboards, swinging from chandeliers, jumping on beds, walking on fire...etc...nothing stops this little boy. Anyways, he fought and fought and once it was over he had nothing left and just wanted to go home and snuggle. We watched some Sesame Street, had some milk and took a very long nap. He was a big off this weekend but nothing some good food and playing with Aidan couldn't cure :)
Show Mommy your chin...
BELLY!!!!!

Below is a short video of the little man...sorry it's sideways and Shannon was rearranging our utensils drawer.

quote of the night

I just got back from a 3 hour round trip excursion to Shirlington, only to be turned around b/c there was no class. I arrived home to the little man eating a very big apple and yelling "ahmee, ahmee" (side note: that's what he calls me, he can clearly say the letter M but chooses to call me something else...Aidan calls me that too now) so anyways we got upstairs to shower and wind down before bed. Rhys is running around nakid and jumps on my bed. Before I can stop him, he buries his face, which is COVERED with runny snot all over MY side of the bed. As he lifts his chin I start in saying "I am going to beat your little butt mister, you do not wipe boogies on mommy's side of the bed...only daddy's ok?" without skipping a beat, he says "boogies daddy" and then wipes his face on daddy's side of the bed.

How can I not laugh at him???

Also, he's sprouted 2 more teeth but they are very slow coming in and the night terrors have been kicking into high gear. Shannon and I haven't slept through the night in the past 2 weeks with one of us going in and laying with him for an hour or so around 1am. We're like the walking dead right now but when he acts all goofy during the day, it makes it all worth while.

Snowpalooza 2010

It is 9pm, Wednesday night and we have endured more freaking snow in MD than I can ever remember getting growing up in the frozen tundra. My tiny little scion hasn't left the garage in a week. Since Goddard is closed as is all other Fed buildings and we can't get our cars out b/c our road doesn't get plowed, Rhys and I have had a TON of bonding time this week. It is weeks like this that reinforce why I couldn't never be a stay at home mom...I CAN'T STAND ANYMORE ELMO!!! Shannon still has to work as his main office is in sunny CA. Rhys and Aidan have gotten together a few times when Vannah and I actually get up the motivation to dress out little ones for the long hike down one driveway and up the other. Thank God for the awesome gymboree bubbles we have...can entertain the little ones for at least 20 minutes. We hosted superbowl on sunday for a few of our neighbors, since no one was going anywhere. 7 adults and 7 kids...mostly toddlers...needless to say i think there was a game on sunday but i couldn't tell you who won as the little ones were all cracked up on cookies and cake.

This is his normal attire...long sleeve t-shirt, pull ups and some fancy shoes.


Still only 4 teeth...doesn't stop him from eating everything in site...except for peanuts.
This is his new trick!!! Mommy is so happy that he's figured out that if something is out of his reach, he can just pull up a dining room chair and get whatever his heart desires.
These are one of his favorite pairs of shoes...soft soled and neon green and orange...who could ask for more?

Aidan and Rhys are really into hugging each other but Vannah and I are on to their little game. They spend much of their time killing each other over the same toy so now we've relaxed a bit when we see them try to make up. 2 seconds later, Rhys is trying to swing a tennis racket at Aidan's head while Aidan is trying to crash tackle Rhys to the floor.
Vannah dressed them...note the firefighter boots and adult gloves on my child :)

This is our front yard before the second storm. Our mailbox is virtually gone and the hydrant right next to it, well we haven't seen it since Monday.
The stupid county doesn't think that we're high on the priority list to be plowed...even with almost all of us working at Ft Meade or it's neighbor. We shoveled our entire road in december during the last storm but this time our neighbor, Luke hitched a blower to his lawn mower and did our road...for 10 freaking hours!!!
Bubbles, bubbles, bubbles. They're made of sugar instead of chemicals so i don't care if the boys lick them off of the floor...which my son does all of the time.



Ahhh, peace for now...until one of them spots the basketball in the foreground and then it's every toddler for himself.

fun stats on Rhys

So here are his 18 month stats:
Weight: 26lbs, 15oz = 70th %tile
Length: 36 inches = 99th %tile

Words to date:
Nana
Mommy (mama depending on how much trouble he thinks he's in)
Dadda
Go
Up
Kitty
Doggy
Door
Downstairs
Elmo (prnc elmoh)
Ernie
Oskar (prnc OhKar)
Nose
Eyes
Ears
More
No
Apple
This
Uh Oh
Nice
Mine Mine Mine
Ball
Down
Bye Bye
Phone (prnc hone)
shoes
teeth
cheese
Oma
pee pee
poo poo
potty
tomato (prnc mato)

I know...I know

We lost our camera somewhere and it's got a TON of photos so we're frantic looking for it. Boogie has lent us hers in the meantime so we'll be back up and running! I miss blogging and I want to keep it up as someday he'll be able to read all of the funny things he's done and since my memory is shockingly horrible, it's like our public diary. :)

In the meantime, Rhys had his 18 month check up last week and to say he embarrassed his mommy would be an understatement. We're trying pull-ups (I'll post another funny story tonight about being in Borders and his pull-ups) and so the doctor is checking out Rhys from head to toe. He's keeps grabbing her stethescope and whispering into it "minnneee" which is cracking her up. He also won't sit still and must jump up and down on the chair saying "OhKar, Elmoh, Ernie, Ert" The doc keeps commenting on how socialble he is and all of his other amazingness when she goes to check out his bits. She's poking and proding when all of a sudden Rhys smacks her hand away and grabs himself and yells at the top of his lungs "NOOOOOOOO, MINEEEEEEE". I have now melted into the floor and the doc is practically peeing her pants. All I could say was "look, it's like you were trying to take his stuffed bunny and he's not into sharing right now"

He's lost weight since his last check up and has no more baby phat...his height though is going to be an issue as in it's OFF THE CHART. She charted him to peak at 6'2" - 6'3" so we'll see when he gets older. Still only has 4 teeth and apparently that's all he needs to function in life b/c he eats everything we do.

I'd like to give a shout out to my man Elmo...if it wasn't for you, I wouldn't be able to prepare dinner in peace. You keep my little monster occupied with your annoyingly irritating voice and fancy footwork. Thank you thank you.