3/21/2014

Spring Adventures

Ryder is a NUT if I ever met one.  When he's in action, he's full blown sweat attack.  Recently said: I'm so sweaty I could boil an egg!

I love Rhodes' organizational skills when it comes to puzzle playing.  Ryder truly had to leave the room so he wouldn't lose his religion over the mess.

I am not a morning person.  Rhodes isn't particularly a morning person either, but clearly he doesn't consider the hours of 3-5 a.m. morning.  He must consider those late night.... or party time.  Whatever they may be.  I've been enjoying the sunrise with this guy though.  He's had 2 ear infections back to back (don't get excited, we are up to seven total).   And we've enjoyed lots of mid-night time together.  And by mid-night, I do mean middle of the night.  Me and John Michael do take turns with this situation, which I am ever so grateful for.

Rhodes isn't what you would describe as a man of many words, but he knows exactly what to do in a situation, no speaking necessary.  We took a solo trip to the grocery and as soon as I pulled up to the checkout counter he started unloading for me.

And then when we got home and watched TV for a bit, my angels both grabbed ahold of my hand and held on for dear life.  I am loved.  I am BLESSED!

I helped chaperone Ryder's field trip to the Natural Science Museum.  This was hog heaven for Ryder.  I believe he was the only child who really gave a mess about what the speaker had to say, what with the hand raising, question asking, and fact interjecting every other minute.  Sometimes I ask myself, why can't he just be a kid!!!???

Rhodes was not as thrilled with "nature" as Ryder liked to call the event.  I overheard him yell to his classmates, "Come on guys, let's go learn about NATURE!!!"

Mrs. Dana's 3K class


Things really got exciting when the diver came in to catch fish.  The kiddos were enthralled!

Ryder has been on me about planting some flowers in the backyard.  Mainly so he can plant them just to pick them for me (which is very sweet by the way).  So we finally went to buy some plants for Ryder to plant in pots.  He is sure to water them each and every day.  He even wanted me to take his picture by his masterpiece to send to his Nanni because they have a mutual love for planting :)

A little brother rivalry is good for siblings so I hear.  Except when it comes to who will try to suffocate who under the blanket.  Then mom must intervene.

Boy do we live in a fun neighborhood.  Never a boring weekend.  This particular one we got to go over and jump jump and drink kool aid squeeze-its at Mrs. Crystal and Mr. Matthew's house!

Things only got better that afternoon.  Down the street Mr. Dan and Mrs. Bethany had a dirt dumper with a remote control.  Ryder had a huge time controlling the situation.

And 2014 T-Ball has started.

Ryder was very concerned with drinking out of his thermos so his tee tee wouldn't be yellow!!!  (we tell him if his tee tee is ever yellow he is dehydrated and this is very dangerous).  So now he reports on the situation each time he goes.  Backfired on us.

Rhodes was really not having much of this "Ryder in the spotlight" junk.  So as soon as he could break free to the field, it was on.  Didn't take long for him to eye Ryder's thermos.

I tell you what.  What Rhodes wants, Rhodes gets.  No exceptions.  He's so spoiled it's not even funny.  And I would say Ryder gives in to him more than any of us!

And here's how it all went down.  
Rhodes:  Dooooooooooece (juice).
Ryder: no Rhodes! My tee tee was yellow!  I need to drink it all!

Ryder: (hands it over - big surprise)
Rhodes: "I win... Again!"

Our Lamar buddies were in town for their annual spring break travels.  Which also meant it was time to renew the ole museum membership.

Ryder and Ford reuniting

Rhodes is doing his best to reunite with John Brantley but he's ticked the whole time because the darn ear infection came back.  He was a miserable child to be around.

So I made an appointment while I was at the museum.  I was right.  Not only had his right ear not cleared up from 10 days before, but it had gotten worse, and we added a good ole infection on the left side too.  We love double ear infections over here at the Wilson home!

I can't handle this sadness anymore so I called the tube doc, and we are in for a consult April 2.  HURRY UP!  The Wilson family loves some tubes now!

Well Rhodes got a Rocephin shot and was good as gold once he woke up from his nap.  And the Lamar's came back over for round two of fun!  I have never met two four year olds who were more alike than Ryder and Ford.  Their most common interest is Wild Kratts (a show on PBS).  Martin and Chris Kratt are the hosts of the show and prior to their visit, Ryder and Ford were sending each other video texts acting out the parts as though Ford was Martin and Ryder was Chris.  It was hysterical, really.

When Ford arrived he was in full Martin attire, being he was in a green shirt and khakis.  Therefore, Chris (Ryder) needed to wear his navy shirt and khakis.  The Kratt's uniform for each episode.  We weren't expecting rain, but that didn't interfere with the creature adventures.  That is until Ford sloshed Ryder with mud!!!

He got over it real quick. Thumbs up!

They couldn't stand the mud much longer and got all showered by themselves and cleaned up.  Until next time buds!

Wild Kratts - please turn this show on for your child - I promise.  They will learn more than you could believe.

Ryder is still nowhere near that stage where he cares what I dress him in.  I could put him in a purple long sleeve button up and orange sweat pants and I promise you, he would never notice.  So I love the days we are running late and I ask him to go dress hijmself.  This particular afternoon he's looking swell in his St. Louis Cardinals tee shirt, black and white MisTeeVus pants, and Vans.

Rhodes doesn't much care either - Camo jacket, Striped PJs and Rain boots on this sunny day!

Let's just talk about how thankful I am for my Keurig Coffee mug.  Especially since I walked out of the room and returned to find Rhodes turning it up.  What's so great about these mugs?  Their safety seal.

Not once, but twice.

Every mother faces this dilemma.  While pulling into the neighborhood, no less.

Ryder loves dessert like no other.  He normally takes one bite of his meal before deeming it necessary to ask what's for dessert.  It's truly rare for him to act out, but this night his mouth must've been watering for some girl scout cookies!  I came back to the kitchen to find him chowing down on these lemon cookies with a plate full of pizza!  No sireeee!!!  Not in my kitchen!

Our backyard looks like the junkyard version of ToysRus. - NOT the catalogue version.  A bunch of tractors, shovels, balls, riding toys, just JUNK scattered everywhere.  I finally had enough of it and instead of chunking it all out of frustration, we got a rather large toy box.  Now can you guess what gets put in the toy box?  Noooo, not the junk!  Just another place for the kids to play!

Little Wilson and his nightly tug of milk.

Rhodes' spirits have changed for the better since we improved his dining arrangements.  Later high chair!!!  Hellooooo mini table and chairs!  Waffles have never tasted so good - or so it appears!

Spring break came to an end and although we are not in real school, we are still out for the break.  Therefore, we've got to keep busy.  Weather was beautiful so a trip to the zoo was had.

Ryder and Gaines were the only two zoo attendees to grace the merri-go-round.

Kristen, Tate, Emerson, Rhodes and I just oversaw.

The cute babies lunching and sunning.

During lunch we spotted the perfect backdrop for a photo shoot.

Bryant's

Little boogers Tate and Rhodes trying their best to avoid the command of "cheeeese!"

Train time!  I knew Rhodes would love this.  He loves his "toooo tooooo!" (choo choo)

Ryder: "Is there a bird's nest on my head?"

Rhodes wishes he could play big boy stuff so bad!  There is something to say about little brothers watching everything - the statement is true!

Perfect example.  Ryder puts up a big fight about dressing himself every morning.  Here you see him whining on the floor because he can't get his socks on.  Not only did Rhodes bring me a pair of underwear to put on (like Ryder's), he brought me a sock too, and laid down right beside Ryder.  He wanted to do exactly what his big brother was doing.

These rents got out of the house for a date last weekend!

Sunday afternoon crawfish grab.

There is a first time for everything.  Ryder fell asleep on the way home and stayed asleep when we got home.  Outside nonetheless!

I told Ryder that his dad called from work to say as soon as he got home we would all load up for the golf course.  Ryder immediately wanted to do some golf practice.  He asked a million times if we were going to the "golf field."

Sunny day selfies are all good and well until you look closer at the picture and notice your hair looks strikingly similar to Carol from the Brady Bunch.  What's with this?


I didn't let the hair malfunction keep me from snapping away on that beautiful day.


Ryder and Rhodes loved being on the golf course.  We've got to do a putt putt trip soon.

The family was in full support cheering dad on.

You can believe that Ryder's discovery made his golf outing much more exciting.  A map of the course!  Oh, he had a good time with this map alright.

3/01/2014

Hello, we are still around.

Ryder has more facts up his sleeve than an encyclopedia.

Today's fact:

Did you know that black thing in the center of your eye is called your people?

It's called your pupil.

No, it's called your people.  And when you are in the light, it is small.  But when it gets dark, it gets large.

Our Rhodes at 19 months:
Weighs 24 lb
Takes one long nap a day, usually around 10-1 or so.
Has finally started to say a few things that he sees such as socks, boots, hot (for food or fire), ahhhda (Ryder), cheese, miiiiink (milk), apple, uuhhhhncce (juice), bye, woof (dog).  Slowly but surely we are speaking!!! About time!
When we say bath time he runs to the bathtub and starts tugging on his clothes and diaper.
When we say lets go outside he hauls it to the back door.
Sometimes when he's pooping in his diaper and he's all squatted over he'll look up with a grin and say pooooooh!

Ryder's favorite game around the house is chase or hide and seek.  I usually opt for hide and seek because I don't particularly like to run around the house for 20 minutes straight.  Too tired for all that.

Ryder is a great hider...

And he likes to rock his baby to sleep sometimes.  Nothing sweeter than hearing him sing lullabies.

This little incident broke my heart.  Ryder has about given up on napping but I still insist on "rest time" so I can have my own mama time.  This day I let him lay on the couch and watch something on the iPad while I painted furniture in the garage.  I came in for something and the door wouldn't budge.  I pushed harder and saw Ryder had made himself a little pallet outside the garage door.  I asked him why he was laying there and he said that he wanted to be close to me :(((  I scooped him right up and put my painting on hold until he was asleep that night.  Such a sweet boy.

Little chickfila ice cream for the WIN!

Bird watching is on our daily agenda.  Ryder is like a bird encyclopedia.  All credit goes to Wild Kratts.  If you have a boy and you haven't watched this show on PBS, you must.  Ryder has seriously learned the most interesting things from this show.  He is absolutely, positively, certified obsessed.


Me and OCD decided to clean up the play room.  But before OCD would put the blocks in the basket, he first had to organize them by color.  And notice how he found something that matched each group of blocks to set the blocks on.

Well five months after Ryder's fourth birthday, we made a four year old check up appointment.  I didn't know we were supposed to go at 4 years old.  Three shots and a flu shot happened at this appointment and it was one of the top 3 saddest things to watch.  He was having a conniption fit.

All I could do to avoid the shot questions as we waited on the nurse was take selfies.


Tball is right around the corner.  Hoping for a more successful season now that he is four.  Three was a little too young... now we know.

Post bath lounging before bedtime.

Whoville

Cinnamon roll anyone? The thing was near the size of Ryder's head.  And that's big.  

Looks like I wasn't the only one who needed some hair therapy.

Ryder sending me off for a date night.

We celebrated Swayze's 4th birthday with a fun paint party!

Ryder and Swayze on a date, apparently.

Ryder likes to join me in the kitchen.  We made french toast and he was on top of it.

He was pleased with the turnout.

Rhodes is a little indecisive sometimes.  Milk, juice, milk, juice... both.

Valentine's Day party at school.



There is no denying that I completely failed at keeping my blog up lately.  I have two things to blame it on though.  It's called Scandal.  And 24.  I recently got Netflix and wanted to get in the loop with these TV series I keep hearing about.  So I started Scandal.  And finished in about 9 days.  Next I started 24, and it took me about a week to get to season 2.  So now when I am on my computer, I'm watching 24.  I can't force myself to blog because I can't peel my eyes away from the show.  It's a problem.

But I was able to peel myself away to upload these pictures.  This is my babies' "baby book" after all.  I can do this!!!
Nicer weather calls for a little fishing. 

Ryder and John Michael have been out fishing several times and Ryder caught his first bream!

Proud papa (who needs to burn this awful MBraves tshirt that he wears way too much.  Everytime I wash it and it is folded up in his drawer, along with 30 other tshirts, he picks this one).  It's got to go.

Ryder doesn't bother pausing his show when he's gotta go.  Just brings it along.  Can't miss anything.

Ryder got creative with his breakfast and said he made his dad's face out of grapes and raisin bread :/

Rhodes only charges five bucks to mow lawns!  He's for hire!


Love my cutie.  His sweet smile...

Ryder is trying to get the hang of skipping rocks.

Boys are trouble I tell you.  Ryder was dedicated to his workout and when no one bothered to take him to do his pull ups, he decided to take matters in his own hands.  And then tried to pin the crime on Rhodes!!!

Wish this picture was zoomed in.  Trouble 1 and Trouble 2 got into the markers again!

 I do love being this boy's mama.  He always wants to make me look "pretty" he says.  This day he wanted to bring me flowers for my hair.  He always asks me to wear dresses and heels.  He said he likes it when I dress up.  He tells me I am the prettiest mama he could ever have.  I will never turn down a compliment from his sweet little heart.  And in the same breath he brought me crickets.  Gotta love it!

When Rhodes wakes up in the night, I know it's an ear infection.  He doesn't get fever with ear infections.  He doesn't have trouble drinking or eating.  But he will wake up around 2 a.m.  And I always know.  Thursday morning he woke up around 3 a.m. and never went back to sleep.  So when I went to pick him up from school he had conked out during lunch.  I knew it was time to make a doctor's appointment and of course I was right.  Ear infection!

Puzzles pass the time.

Fun at Rivers' birthday party!

Early morning dirt digging.  John Michael and his projects.  This time he wanted to fill in holes in the backyard.  The boys love a project too, so what can I say.

Ryder constantly talks about getting strong and working out.  Seriously don't know where he gets this workout ethic because it's not from us.  On this afternoon he was "marathoning" around the backyard while I counted his laps.  Rhodes is never far behind.

 Loading up the boat for some more fishing!

Here's to hoping I blog again sometime in 2014.  For my family's sake at least!