amusment parks

A couple weeks ago we had some friends invite us to 6 flags with them.  Their employer had the park for a work party and sold discounted tickets to friends.  We couldn't pass it up.

 

 We had a lot of fun, especially Rylee! There were quite a few rides she was tall enough for, as long as I rode with her. (and we were able to sneak her on one she wasn't :))

 The little swing was by far her favorite.  She giggled and smiled the whole ride saying things like "WEEE!" and " I like this!" Immediately after we'd get off she'd say "more more more (while signing) please more?! again?! please, please please!" Who could say no to such manners? We'd go back and forth across the 'road' and ride the little school bus.  She still occationally mentions her gratitude for 6 flags in her prayers and asks if we can go back often.  I wish!

 I did however get a pass to SeaWorld.  We literally live 10 minutes away and its a bit better for smaller kids.  I'm still working on convincing Michael to get a pass as well (the rest of this year is free when you purchase a pass for next year).  In the mean time the girls and I will just have to go during the day.  And because the kids outnumbered me, I didn't get many pictures.  I did get one of Rylee playing with the scubadiver feeding the fish.

Night Out

"National" Night Out was this past Tuesday.  Its purpose is for people to spend the evening outdoors getting to know your neighbors.  I heard the police department especially supports these evenings. The more we know and get involved in the community, the safer families can be sort of thing.  Anyway, our HOA sponsored an event at our park. They had dinner, several booths, and a talent show.  This was my favorite of the activities the HOA has put on - or maybe its because Rylee is older and can enjoy more things. not sure which.

 

A local petting zoo was there giving pony rides (I thought Rylee would be scared, but she LOVED it!!) and they had the CUTEST baby pigs.

 

 There was a face painting booth where the kids could choose from about a dozen designs. The football was 100% Rylee's idea. I pointed out all the cutesy girly things like a butterfly/ladybug/flower but NOPE. she wanted the football :)  Her Daddy was so proud.

 She kept asking to go back and give Elmo a hug.  She was much more hesitant around Buzz Lightyear, I guess I should introduce her to the wonder that is Toy Story.

The police put on a little dog show, explaining all the things they train their dogs to do.  We were able to get the kids finger (and in Kelsey's case foot) printed for our files, and Rylee and I sat/played in a police car pushing the sirens.

Pretty sure the only 'neighbors' we talked to were ward members, Michael had meetings so he wasn't able to stay the whole time but we had fun.

on a side note: Michael was interested (and therefore nominated) to be the landscape commitee chair for the HOA.  He's excited to get more involved.

a few videos + thoughts

Rylee is at such a fun stage. She really does make me laugh every day by what she says and does. When she does something fun that I want to remember, I just have to ask her if I can record it and she usually obliges (I'm sure its mostly because she loves watching the videos of herself).

My goal is to 'trick' my girls into liking football so that they will want to watch the games with their Daddy and I can get some serious crafting/reading done all football season. We've got a Green Bay Packers fan on our hands:

She's demanded we sing "twinkle twinkle little star" before bed for a while now. She's recently started singing to "dolly" when its time for her nap too.
I am amazed at the number of books/nursery rhymes she has memorized. seriously. Even books we haven't had long from the library. I love that after she wakes up from a nap she quietly flips through book after book. Often "reading" them out loud to herself.
Of course I had to throw in a video of Kelsey too. That little girl is growing too fast!! (obviously this video isn't exactly 'current' as she still had her glove on) She's started climbing up to stuff and even took a few wobbly steps along the couch. :( I may have cried a little (and contemplated pushing her over)


A few random things:
the other day in the car Kelsey was crying and Rylee screamed "Kelsey! Be Quiet!" The best part is Kelsey actually listened to her :)
Every Sunday Rylee cries during the intermediate hymn because its not time to go to nursery yet. Rylee picked up my phone asking if she could call Lily, I said sure and the 'conversation' went like this: "Hi Lily, what doing? playing? on stairs? OH, Good! bye!"
After a big lightning storm about 6 weeks ago (that woke up everyone but Rylee) Kelsey started having a hard time falling asleep at night. She was fine during the day, but at nights I'd have to spend a few extra minutes rocking her before she'd let me lay her down without screaming. She's just starting to get better at letting me just lay her down again.

I am convinced that 2.5 year olds are the epitome of 'opposition in all things'. While often what she says and does brings so much joy, she also can throw a fit like its no body's business, and certainly knows how to drive her Momma CRAZY! I try to focus on the positive :)

Mini Town

At the beginning of the summer I bought a Groupon for a punch card to a place called "mini town".  Its basically a miniature 'town' for little kids.  There are several themed rooms full of kid sized stuff to play with. They have a grocery store, house, school, bank, dance room, theatre, park, play room (what used to be a zoo??), they also have a playground outside with a sandbox and on Fridays a train.

 

I thought it would be something fun to take the girls and do indoors during the blistering heat. We'd bring Rylee's friend Lily when we could.  Its always fun to watch them play together. They both loved the little see-saw, and of course the candy shop.

 

Here are the little Momma's lined up with their babies in their strollers.

 Rylee especially loved the 'house'.  This was the first time she played with a doll that opens and closes its eyes when it sits up/down.  She looked at it for a minute and then said "smart!" :) Here she is putting the doll in the carrier. Holding it up on her arm -exactly like I do. Such a copier :)

 

 

 bustin a move - most likely to "Tearin' up my Heart", One Direction or Hanna Montana

 

 

Its always nice to have a buddy.

(on a side note, I didn't think I'd be one to buy licensed/cartoon items (aside from pj's) but seeing Rylee's face light up when at the sight of pictured Dora shirt on clearance, I lamented.  She prefers to wear it several days in a row, I'm not as big of a push-over on the later. Speaking of Dora. . . . . . .

 if you're even remotely familiar with the explorer you should see this fake movie trailor, its pretty funny:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/28/dora-the-explorer-fake-movie-trailer-college-humor_n_1635756.html?utm_hp_ref=mostpopular&fb_source=message )

 

I'm not sure I'd pay full price to go more but we had fun and it was nice to mix things up a bit.

lil' Momma

Rylee really is such a sweet big sister.

 

I was a little nervous for the girls to start sharing a room (you know, like 6 months ago).  After one night, Rylee cried because Kelsey wasn't ready for bed yet at her bedtime. Thankfully that didn't last long as we moved Kelsey's bed time up and now its the same time. While they usually nap about the same time during the day I separate them because Kelsey doesn't usually sleep as long and I don't want to risk her waking up Rylee.  Rylee STILL asks which bed Kelsey will be sleeping in.

 

A couple months ago I fed Kelsey in Rylee's bed and didn't feel like moving her (pre-rolling and Rylee's bed is currently 4 inches off the ground).  I thought I heard Rylee in the room but found her in the living room so I didn't think too much of it. Later on, I snuck in to check on Kelsey to discover Rylee had taken her blanket to cover up Kelsey and quietly left.  That's a pretty big deal because Rylee is rather possessive of her blankies!

 

 

 For a long time a pre-requisite to giving Kelsey a hug was she had to be on her back. It was pretty comical watching her try to roll Kelsey over to "assume the position".  She always kisses her on her head.

 Another morning I was getting some work done on the computer and heard Kelsey get up. Rylee immediately went in to "get her".  When someone first enters the room Kelsey quiets down and then if you don't pick her up right away gets upset.  Well, this particular day she didn't fuss again.  I was working on the computer and didn't run in right away. After about 15 minutes I thought I'd better investigate:

Rylee had climbed into the crib and was bouncing Kelsey around like it was a trampoline! Kels thought it was hilarious!  I love to hear them laughing together - no one can get Kelsey going quite like Rylee can :)

Rylee loves blowing Kelsey kisses when put down for a nap, and now commandeers the spoons when its feeding time.  She's even recently agreed to read books to Kelsey, pointing out the toys/numbers/colors. She's very good about making sure Kelsey has a toy and her bink.

I've always said they'll either be best friends or best enemies - probably both.  And its true, the older and more mobile Kelsey gets, the more annoyed Rylee gets - taking her toys or destroying her "castle" laying on her book/blanket/bed/lap. Kelsey' (like most little sisters) just idolizes her.  It is rather sweet.

Love my little ladies!

freedom. . . . .

A couple days ago it looked like Kelsey's bandage/glove had shifted a bit and sure enough while eating lunch today it just sortof fell off! She's FREE! She kept inspecting her hand and rolling her wrist. We each took our turns inspecting it half a million times (including Rylee and Dad as he was home for lunch).  She didn't really touch it much but she kept rubbing it agaist my shirt.  She avoided putting pressure on it, not sure if she's just used to crawling oddly or if its still tender.

 

It looks MUCH better than it did 2 weeks ago.  Its still pretty swollen, which could take several months to go down - along with the coloring from the grafts/scars from stitching.  There's a few stitches you can see, but they'll desolve. 

 

And now, we wait.  The surgeon wants to see it again in a few weeks to comfirm all is healing as it should.  Her fingers should straighten out some with time (there was quite a bit of gauze between them for 4 weeks).  Growth centers (the begining of growth plates) won't even show on an x-ray until closer to 18 months, and if another surgery is needed to straighten (there may not be, like we originally thought), that will be closer to when she's 3.

I'm so amazed at what this wonderful Dr has done! {We thanked him with cookies, though aside from paying our bill I don't think that's enough} While in Houston the last time I discovered he is literally re-writing the book on syndactyly's (webbed fingers)! Pretty impressive.  All jokes about being an excellent swimmer aside, we're just so grateful she won't have to deal with this her whole life. I don't think I've kissed fingers so much in one day before. Who's to say she won't win swim meets anyway? We'll be working on that as soon as possible as its been a long hot August without pool breaks! Several times a day Rylee says "Kelsey cast off, then swimming!" To top it off, our inflatable pool had one too many run-ins with the rose bush and since school started the pools are only open Saturday/Sunday :(

Sorry if I've been a bit repetative . . . . but she's kindof a big deal around here.

The Reveal!

Thursday was the day of the big reveal!!

Unfortunately Michael wasn't able to come to this appointment so I braved the task of taking both children on a road trip.

 

It might have gone a bit smoother had I remembered the receptionist telling me (6 months ago) that the Dr at times is long in a surgery during the day, making him late to the clinic.  Yea, we waited nearly 2 hours. . . . .  All things considered the girls did very well during the wait and made 'friends' with the other patients quickly.

 

Once we got into a room, he got straight to work cutting off the cast.  He saved my "drawing" on the bandage for me.  He had an employee (or understudy, or random stranger I don't really know who he was) throw the cast away and he commented "wow, that's heavy!"  I know, right?

 

A few people tried inform me on what to expect when a cast comes off. It still not sure it helped, or that I listened.  Seeing her long middle finger made my eyes swell with tears. It seems so silly at times yet I'm so grateful this will be but our memory (not so much hers).  He said, it looks just like it was supposed to (it wasn't exactly pretty). The fingers were pretty swollen, and due to the amount of gauze between them, very much separated.  When I mentioned it wasn't quite what I expected he asked me what I did expect?. . . . I said "not so purple" (which was the markings where he was to make the cuts) or I guess more healed than it was, like her hip where they took the grafts.  She kept rotating her wrist and the Dr said "I bet that feels really good".  He quickly pointed out which parts were grafted, but I didn't really inspect too closely (and failed to get a picture). 

 

Then it was time to bandage her back up. 

 

 

He put a piece of what looked like wet netting against the stitches then a small roll of gauze wrapped in between her fingers and around her hand with extra batting on the tip of her fingers and secured with tape.  Her little thumb sticks out a bit. Very manageable, not as stinky and soft. Since the Dr will be on vacation he said we could have her regular pediatrician take this one off - YAY! Then no more restrictions and we be allowed back in the pool/water just as they close for the season :(

 

He wants to see her in about 6 weeks just to keep a loose eye on things then we'll just watch the growth of her fingers over the next year or two to see if they straighten out by being separated, and where the growth centers truly are positioned before we really talk about a future surgery, as there may not be a need.

 

Thank you again for all your thoughts, prayers, concern, and well wishes - not to mention the phone calls/text messages to help keep me awake on the drive :) We truly appreciate it, and hope you feel of our love as well.