Junkyard Dogs

I didn't mention any of Rhodes' two year old stats in his birthday post, but I want to remember them, so I will do so now.  Weighs 25 lbs.  I just upped him to size 5 diapers.  He wearing pretty much 2T everything.  Size 6-7 shoe depending on the shoe. Nowhere chose to needing a haircut.  Mouth full of teeth.  Eats pretty good, drinks mainly just diluted juice and milk everyday.  Every now and then he gets a few sips of sprite and sometimes he even asks for "wata!"

After many spankings and time-outs, he's finally starting to get it.  He understands how that when we say he will get a spanking if he does xxxx again, that we mean it. He has to be rocked.  Not rocked to sleep, but just a song or two and then he bucks his head back, meaning put me in bed!  Many times he'll say bed when he's ready to be done rocking.

And now for some RJW #1 entertainment:

"When's the last time you brushed Rhodes' teeth?  He's breath is STANKY!" (please know, it was not stanky).

"Mom, when I have diarrhea I want you to wipe me.  But when I have those fat ones, I'll wipe myself.  You know, like those logs." (apologies for the TMI)

Tonight he was looking for his favorite pjs.  I told him I knew I had seen them but couldn't remember where.  He replies, "Well where did you last put them when you first had them?  Just retrace your steps."

The other day I asked him how his day was.  He replied, "It was great!  But not the bad kind of great like ohhhhh great."

God made dirt... Dirt don't hurt.

I admit it.  I make bribes at Target.

They didn't nap together, but.... About two hours into naptime Rhodes woke up and I thought he was up for good so I went in to wake Ryder on up too.  Rhodes laid right down on his bed and fell back to sleep for about 30 more minutes.  It was pure sweetness.

Since it's summer and the boys don't have school and we're joined at the hip 24/7, there are just some times I HAVE to go to the store.  No matter how dreadful it is to Ryder, it must be done.  A household does require food, toilet paper, diapers, toiletries, cleaning supplies and so on.  Contrary to what some believe, these things don't just appear on your doorstep.  So anyway, I've gotten real bad about telling Ryder if he'll just go in without complaining, I'll buy him something fun.  Of course it's never over a dollar or two, but I'd say this was a dollar well spent!  Cheesin on some Ninja Turtles!

I let Ryder apply his own sunscreen on the way to the pool.

Ryder is hit or miss with his post nap moods.  This particular day he was feeling moody.  And all that means to me is he wants mama to comfort him!  I like!

Since it's still July, but barely, I will include 4th of July festivities.

The gym had a dress up contest on the 4th so we went as a family.  And got all dressed up.

And won!

Straight afterwards we went to buy swing set supplies.  We could've made "the people of home depot" website.  If there was such.

 We are fans of the USA.

And we raise 'em right.

Sister is true red right and blue too.

Some friends came over for the holiday!

There goes Ryder again with his stellar matching skills.  Red and red... it matches mom.

John Michael giving Tate big throws.

 Holiday swimming

Annual Henry Fourth of July lunch and swim

Flashback to 10 days before Rhodes' party.  We had grass.  On top of that grass was to be the boys' fort/swingset before Rhodes' party.  When we got home that Saturday from 4th gatherings, John Michael got to work right away.

This machine was the devil.  I even tried to help.  He did better throwing the thing down and just digging with a shovel.  Took 10x longer, but he got the job done.

Birthday boy Todd!

When the 4th of July falls on a Friday, there's a full weekend of celebration.

Sunday it was back to work.  Oh Ryder would've helped every last bit if he could've.

Granddaddy came to help do the first and hardest part.  The posts.

Does. Not. Happen.

Rhodes luuuuuuvs him some pajamas.  He's so funny how he tries to put him on.  He does just as the picture shows.  Wraps them around his neck and says on, on, on, on.

He also loves to brush his teeth.  Contrary to Ryder's belief.

During one of Ryder's cleaning sprees, he got all over me because I forgot to put up my shoes the first time he told me.

Rhodes' skin went from sandpaper to soft and sweet in a matter of two days.  Thanks to Cetaphil Restoraderm  Get your baby some if they have bad dry skin or excema!!!

Ryder came rolling right out of naptime...

 Progress, progress.

 He's going to be ready when I say let's go.

John Michael's good friend from college, Deuce, got married in Gonzales, LA a couple weeks ago.  Road trip!!!

 Pool at the hotel, score!

The boys didn't miss us at all...

My handsome date.

The groom.

 Sweet new friends.

MC football circa 1999 and the beautiful bride, Elizabeth.

When we got home, we went straight upstairs to the playroom.  Maybe junkyard seems more appropriate.  Please know, this is only a small portion of the room and we can actually walk through the rest of the room.  But Ryder thinks it's just amazingly fun to build a booby trap using everything in sight.  So as long as he can keep it contained over in the corner, I can live with it.  Plus, it's the only room upstairs and I don't have to look at it if I don't want to.  This would not fly if it was in my sight.  Would literally give me nightmares.

Where's Rhodes?

Party at Rhodes' Digs

Today is Rhodes' second birthday.  I love that sweet thing to pieces.  We had his party Thursday night because John Michael has a golf tournament this weekend.  Since that baby is like a magnet to sand and shovels, I thought a digging theme would be quite appropriate, so we had a party at Rhodes' "digs."

He had a fun time at his party and the weather was unheard of for July.  We were even going to blow up the water slide but I think it would've been too chilly for the kids to get wet.  It felt that good outside!

 Favors were shovels... what else?

And a sand cake.  Which I didn't make enough of.  But people really liked it so I will share the recipe.

John Michael's sweet self worked tirelessly to finish this fort and sandbox so it would be ready for Rhodes' party.  How could we have a diggin' party without sand?  So, the "non-handyman" handyman knocked it out in a week. By himself for the most part.  I'll never let him fool me again into thinking he can't do something!  But he did have some really wonderful help to speed up the process.

I filled the sandbox up with tons of little toys and shovels for the kids to dig and collect.

I also set up a golf toss for the adults.  Well it didn't get much use from the adults because all the kids wanted to do was play on it like it was a ladder.

After enough cake and watermelon, Rhodes was ready to ditch the party and play in Papa's car for a bit.

Ryder did dress himself.  Just thought I should throw that out there.

Whew.  Mama and daddy finally got to sit down.  Throwing a birthday party will wear you out.  I don't care how big or small it is!

Later that night after everyone left, Rhodes (or should I say Ryder), opened presents.  He got lots of awesome things and believe me, he needed some new stuff!

Sand Cake

8 oz cream cheese
3/4 stick butter, softened
1 1/3 c powdered sugar
2 bags golden oreo cookies (I threw in a couple regular oreos in too to give it a few black specks)
2 small boxes INSTANT vanilla pudding - very important - I learned
4 c milk
8 oz cool whip

Grind up oreos and set aside to dry out.  I used a food processor.  Mix butter, cream cheese and powdered sugar together and set aside.  Mix vanilla pudding mix with milk, set aside.  Mix cream cheese mixture with pudding mixture and stir in cool whip.  With a sand bucket of your choice, start with a layer of the crushed oreos and then the pudding mixture.  Repeat until you end with the cookie crumbs.  Refrigerate until time to eat.  Cute to serve with a shovel.

This morning Rhodes woke up a two year old!  He was so excited as we sang happy birthday to him.  Glad I caught it on video:

Let me share some cute stuff about Rhodes.

When it's bedtime (and he can always sense it), as we are headed to his room he'll lay his head on our shoulder and say in his little raspy voice, "wah wah" which means rock rock.  Me oh my he's sweet.

While we are rocking I always sing Jesus Loves Me and Rhodes has started to chime in.  It's a whole lotta crazy sounding but I can tell he's sounding out the words and staying on tune with me.

He can count to thirteen!  Certainly not on command, and it's only happened a handful of times, and it's usually very much out of order, and it sounds a little weird - kind of like I'll start by saying ONE, and he'll say (sound these out yourselves) tuoooo, fwee, fouh, five, sits, senen, fwee, fouh, senen, aint, nine, tan, lenen, twelf, tirteen.

He sings parts of the theme songs to Dora (he calls it Dowa Boots), Mickey Mouse (he says Mee Mowh), Octonauts (ahhnots) -- I DIE it's so cute.

He would brush his teeth twelve times a day.  I've found him many a time standing on the bathroom stool taking matters into his own hands.

I love the way he sounds when he says things and how they don't sound anything like what the actual word is, but John Michael, Ryder and I always know what he's saying.  Like beberries for strawberries. Dooce for juice.  Buhhh Buhhh when he sees a bug.  Puhl when we get to the pool.  Huuuuuuh with outstretched arms when he wants a hug.  Err for ear.  Sher for share.  Her for hair.  Mirk for milk - he's got something going on with the "er" sound and it's pretty hilarious.  Nack for snack.  And he's got a full blown lisp just like his brother.

I'm so glad Rhodes joined our family two years ago.  He makes us laugh, but makes us crazy sometimes too!  He's so cute to me and I have started to figure out all of his quirks.  I can't wait to see what kind of little guy he turns out to be.  Thank you God for our healthy, handsome, sweet and silly boy.  We have been given more than we could ever deserve.