3 Year Pediatrician Check-up

The boys had their 3 Year check-up with the pediatrician this morning. They both did well overall during the appointment. First I want to give you their new stats and compare to see how much they have grown.

Zak

3 years-old: 28.5 pounds (25%), 36.25 inches (25%)

2 years-old: 24 pounds (10%), 33.5 inches (25%)

1 year-old: 19 pounds 1oz (6%), 28.6 inches (18%)

Birth: 4 pounds 2oz, 17 inches

Ryder

3 years-old: 28 pounds (25%), 33.75 inches (30%)

2 years-old: 23 pounds (3%), 33.25 inches (25%)

1 year-old: 18 pounds 4oz (5%), 28.6 inches (18%)

Birth: 3 pounds 1oz, 15 inches

The pediatrician examined Zak first. While doing his physical exam the pediatrician asked Zak a few questions...

P: What is your name?

Z: I Zak

P: How old are you?

Z: Three. I had birthday.

P: Are you a boy or a girl?

Z: I boy. Mommy girl, Ryder boy, you boy.

This conversation continued on with asking some colors and then anything else Zak could think to talk about. The pediatrician said Zak looks to be in great health and development. We then talked about my concerns of possible reflux. In the last month or so Zak has been burping ALL the time. We can tell when they are real burps or if he is making himself burp. He has also had a few random episodes of vomit for no apparent reason. So the pediatrician decided to put him on Zantac again (he was on it as a baby) to see if the symptoms get better. I will take him back in 1 month to see how he is doing with the medication.

Then it was Ryder's turn to sit on the table for his physical exam and questions. This is how his conversation with the pediatrician went...

P: What is your name?

R: Me

P: How old are you?

R: Ry Ry

P: Are you a boy or a girl?

R: Girl

I have to say that I am impressed with the fact that Ryder even responded to the questions since we don't see the pediatrician all that often so he is really a stranger and not being in the home setting. The pediatrician agreed that he is happy to see Ryder talking so much more than before, but that there are still delays in comprehension. He said that Ryder's ear infection was cleared up, but he still had some fluid in the left ear which could take up to 6 weeks to completely go away after having an infection. So he will finish up his antibiotics on Wednesday. We talked about Ryder's various delays, but also talked about how much great progress he has been making. We are both looking forward to see how well he does once school starts in September. The pediatrician wants to see Ryder in about 3-4 months to do his yearly developmental appointment so we can see how much school is helping him along. We then talked about the results from the Immunologist's blood work. After the pediatrician was done he sent the nurse back in with two shots for Ryder, the boosters that the Immunologist requested to be done. As the nurse walked in and I sat Ryder on my lap he said "No hurt Ry Ry". It was so sad and the nurse felt horrible! They did one shot in each arm which was new since every other time they have gotten shots in their legs. Poor Ryder was a mess during the shots screaming, crying, holding his breath, and turning purple. Once both shots were done I held him for a minute and then when we walked out to the car he held his arms up, shaking his hands saying "owww, hurt". By the time we got home he didn't say a word about it anymore. I will watch for a fever or any side effects because last time he got the MMR he did end up with a fever and not feeling 100% for a few days.

Diaper Free Day 1

This morning the boys woke up around 7:15am. Once Ben and I got up and got them out of their bedroom I decided to go cold turkey on diapers for Zak today. I knew we didn't really have plans to leave the house since it was raining so I figured it was a good day to try and see what would happen. So at 7:30am Zak put on his big boy underwear. After breakfast Ben set up their new hockey goal in the kitchen since it was pouring outside. The boys had a blast playing with it. Zak really perfected his victory dance each time he made a goal. He was also a good coach to Ryder as well as a great cheerleader for Ryder. Ryder was pretty rough with the hockey stick and tended to use it more like a baseball bat or golf club, but as he practiced he got much better.

Throughout the morning we asked/reminded Zak about using the potty and he did pee on it a few times. There was one time that he said he needed to go potty so I took him in the bathroom and quickly discovered he had pooped in the underwear. So he put on a new pair and off he went. I made a trip to the grocery store by myself to buy all of our food for the week. Ben and I have been getting good about planning out our meals on Sundays, looking through the ads and coupons then making one trip to the store.

After I got home we started to go through all of our movies and re-organize them. I have a bad habit of taking a DVD out of the case, watching it, and then just putting it on a shelf some place without the case. A long time ago we had started putting our DVD's in a binder and get rid of the cases so we decided to go through and do this again. We then realized we would need another DVD binder so we decided to take a family trip to Target. Zak had been doing so good all day with only the one poop accident so we let him keep his underwear on for our trip. He did very good and had no accidents. My three guys got all dressed up in their Orioles clothing for our trip to Target...

When we got home Ben went back to organizing the movies. He put all of the kid's movies in one binder and the adult movies in the other. Zak and Ryder were helpful with throwing away all of the cases. While going through the movies we discovered a few movies that we are going to keep our eyes open for on sale. This afternoon we all fell asleep and took a nap. Around 6pm I woke up because I heard Zak calling my name. He had peed in his underwear and was very upset about it. I realize it was really our fault and we should have put him in a Pull-Up for nap. We then had dinner which was Stuffed Peppers in the crock pot. After dinner the boys played for a bit and then it was shower time and bedtime.

I am so pleased with how well Zak did today without diapers. It went much better than I had prepared for. We did ask/remind him about every hour to use the potty, but you have to start some where. I am looking forward to the time when he starts telling us that he needs to go, but I know we will get there! Ryder did sit on the potty once or twice today when he saw Zak do it and he did pee once. It is definitely a work in progress.

Tomorrow I am taking the boys to their 3 year pediatrician check-up. I am excited to see how much they weigh and what their heights are. I do know Ryder will get two shots that the Immunologist has requested be done, but I am not sure if there are any other shots either of them will get.

Growing Up is Hard to Do

This morning Ben and I went through the bedrooms, basement, and playroom looking for things we could get rid of. We have way too much stuff in this house which has led to unorganized chaos and things just piling up everywhere. Most things don't have an actual place since there is no room so we decided it was time to get rid of things we could do without.

We now have a bunch of bags of clothes to donate. I still need to go through clothes that the boys have outgrown and decide what needs to be donated, thrown away, kept or given to friends. We found a few "baby" toys to give to Madelyn along with a bunch of things to give to Kyle. The boys were helpful in deciding what things from the playroom we should get rid of. But once Zak saw the pile of "baby" toys going to Madelyn and Kyle he started to show concern. We were very clear that they were all "BABY" toys, but at one point Zak told me "Mommy, I baby. Need baby toys for me!". He is learning that it is hard to grow up, but tomorrow he won't even remember since he has a playroom filled with new "big boy" toys. Finally, he decided he could share his toys with Madelyn and Kyle.

We had borrowed Rich's white truck the other day so we took advantage of that and filled it up with stuff for Ben to take to the dump. We got rid of the old fencing we still had in the backyard. When Ben started to take it to the truck we discovered that many bugs, insects and other animals had started to make a home for themselves under the wood....

We also got rid of all of the wood and other trash Ben had accumulated from taking the bar apart which was in the basement. Then we had a few bags of random broken or outgrown toys along with some other odds and ends to go to the dump. While Ben loaded the truck I put all of the "baby" toys in our car that we were taking to Madelyn and Kyle which caused Zak to have another meltdown, but we once again reminded him he was now a big boy. Once everything was loaded in the vehicles we all left the house. Ben went to the dump and then his mother's house while the boys and I ran a few errands.

First, we went to downtown Annapolis to pick up the pottery that my mom & I painted on Ladies' Night at Clay Bakers last week. They both turned out so good and the boys love them! While I am talking about them I wanted to add in that we may have made a slight breakthrough with potty training. Recently, we have discovered that the boys enjoy collecting money (aka change) and putting it in our big bank. So today once we got home we told the boys if they peed or pooped on the potty they would get to put 1 coin in their new banks. All afternoon Zak did so good with peeing on the potty and putting him coin in the bank. He did poop in his underwear once, but any progress is good progress! Ryder even peed on the potty once in order to get a coin.

After picking up the pottery we stopped by Chelley's apartment to drop off a few things for Madelyn. Once again Zak got upset because he wanted to "share" the toys with Maddie and play with her, but I didn't take them out of the car which made him mad. We then picked Ben up from his mom's house and went to Arundel Mills to have lunch at Chevy's. The boys behaved so good during the meal that we let them have their free ice cream cone....

After we walked around the mall for a bit we headed to Tracy & Dave's house to drop off all of the clothes and toys for Kyle. Zak was very excited to show Kyle all of the toys he brought for him. The boys had fun running around their house and playing with all of the baby stuff Kyle has. It is hard to tell the boys they don't play with baby stuff because they still fit into most of the baby toys! They had fun sitting in the Bumbo chair and lounging in the "baby" chairs. While at their house we got to watch Kyle roll over which was fun. After being there for a while the boys started to get cranky and crazy so we headed home.

As we were pulling out of their community Zak got very upset and told us that we forgot his toys. We once again had to explain he was now a big boy and baby Kyle was going to use his "baby" toys. That poor kid has such a rough day watching most of his baby toys leave the house and go to other babies.

The boys have started to enjoy playing pretend/make-believe which is fun to watch. Zak has really gotten creative and gets very involved with his pretend play by pretending he is actually somebody else. Ryder is just starting with pretend play and will make characters do things, but not really pretend he is somebody else yet. Yesterday morning they played with all of their new Toy Story stuff for a while.

Zak felt Woody needed to tackle Rex

Ryder loves Rex

Pretending Rex is biting the airplane

(with sound effects as well)

Ryder with his Silly Bandz and Buzz

The dogs were also playing

After they played for a while we had our last session with Ryder's speech therapist. It was so sad saying good-bye to her because we have all really enjoyed the sessions with her. Every time the boys would see her coming to the house they would run to the door and start calling "Rachel. Rachel come play!". She told me to keep in touch with her throughout the year to let her know how Ryder is doing in school. It was very sad to see her go, but I know Ryder is moving on to bigger and better things. Once the therapist was gone the boys took a break for lunch.

VZ

Last night just as I was getting ready to take a shower and lay down we ran into some issues. I noticed Robin was wet, but she had not been outside (it was pouring rain). We looked around the house and found the kitchen ceiling was leaking. So Ben had to pull down more of the drywall which made the hole in the ceiling even bigger than it already was (Ben made a hole the 1st night in the house when we discovered the shower with leaking into the kitchen). Zak was very upset and crying "Daddy broke my house!". Then Ben went into the attic and discovered the pipe was not leaking, but there was water coming in through the roof around the pipe. So good news that there is not an actual pipe leaking. But then he also discovered 2 other small leaks from the roof into the attic. We have had some crazy amounts of heavy rain yesterday so he is hoping it won't happen again anytime soon.

This morning we have had a slow morning. I just can't seem to wake up and get moving because I just feel so run down and exhausted. The boys have also been moving slow this morning.

Once we do get moving I need to get to the bank to deposit a check and then go to Kohls. When we get back home I need to start going through the house and figure out what we can get rid of and take to the dump. The house has gotten so cluttered recently so we need to get rid of some stuff.

Comparison Pictures

I love looking at pictures of the boys at various ages and seeing how much they have grown up and changed. It is sad to look at their baby pictures and remember how tiny they were. But look how far they have come....

Together at 1

Together at 2

Together at 3

Zak at 1

Zak at 2

Zak at 3

Ryder at 1

Ryder at 2

Ryder at 3

Last Day in Annapolis

I wanted to post some more pictures from our last night in Annapolis. The kids were having fun playing in the yard...

Yesterday morning we had breakfast with the family at Dennys. Then my mom & Chelley went to MVA so the boys and I went back to the hotel and packed our stuff up. They helped me take it all out to the car...

Then we all went to Once Upon A Child where I found about 10-12 shirts for the boys and 2 pairs of pants. I love that store! We then went with Chelley to pick up Madelyn from daycare because her daycare person used to work at Dogwood Acres with Ben & I so she has not seen the boys since they were babies. Then we went to Colleen's house to have one last family dinner. It was really hot out so we turned on the sprinkler for the kids which then turned into playing in the mud, but they had fun...

After Ben and the boys were done eating their Chinese food (I didn't eat because Chinese gives me headaches so I pick and choose when I want to have it) we said good-bye to my mom & Piper then headed to the car. We got home around 7:45pm and let the boys watch some baseball on TV before putting them to bed.

I wanted to post this picture to show everyone the cute Buzz & Woody Mr.Potato Heads they got from my mom while in Annapolis.