Blister Boy and the Apology

Doesn't that sound like a good name for a Vegetales video or something? It was the only thing I could come up with to relate the 2 stories from today.

The first is that Ryan has hand, foot, and mouth disease. This is a common virus in young children that results in blisters in and around the mouth, palms of the hands, feet, and sometimes other areas. After I noticed some blisters around his mouth and hands at lunch today, a quick search of the internet made me pretty certain he had hand, foot & mouth. I made an appointment at the clinic and the Dr. quickly confirmed that I was right. The good news is he doesn't have an accompanying fever, the bumps don't seem to bother him and the mouth sores aren't affecting his appetite at all. The bad news is there isn't a way to treat it and it's contagious among kids, so he has to stay home from daycare for 3-4 days or until the blisters clear up. So, dad and grandma are going to get to spend some more quality time with him this week and our weekend plans to see Saylor probably won't work out. Bummer!  The other kids at daycare don't have it, so we're wondering if he picked up something at the nursery he went to on Sunday. Hopefully we can control the spread of the disease, though, by keeping him away from other kids starting the first day we noticed the blisters.  The upside is that he did great at the doctor's office and loved seeing the birds and fish again! He asks about them whenever we walk by the clinic and sometimes fake coughs, then announces, "I better go to the doctor. The birds and fish miss me."

The second story was another one of my "time out fails".  Ryan had been whining in the kitchen and after firmly telling him to stop, he retaliated by hitting me. I immediately sent him to time-out in his room. When I came in to get him and asked him why he was in time-out, he once again not only told me but demonstrated why he had been sent to his room by hitting again. I asked him why he hit and he said, "Because you were angry with me" (he hates it if you raise your voice or even speak firmly to him--he cries immediately).  I explained that mommy might sound angry when he is not listening to me and I need to get his attention. I explained that I love him, but hitting is not acceptable and he needs to listen to mommy the first time.  He got a sad look on his face, walked in close, gave me a big hug and said,

"Mommy, I forgive you."

The Earl of Orange

The tulips bloomed early this year, so I'm afraid they'll be mostly finished before Tulip Festival starts. We haven't fully acclimated into the OC culture yet in that we don't have a Dutch costume for Ryan and won't be participating in any parades, but I did take a few pictures with my phone as Ryan explored Windmill park this week, just to get the required tulip pictures.

He liked the "black" tulips best and the orange ones were in the best shape. He really loves "Window" park and has fun looking in the water off the bridge, exploring the windmills and plants, walking the paths, and playing on the merry-go-round, BIG slide, horses, swings, and various play equipment.

We left the park just as it was starting to rain and it ended up turning into a big storm. Ryan had trouble going to sleep and did not like the sound of the rain or the "booming". One one of his ventures out of bed, though, he was excited to see that my cousin, Juliana, had stopped by with a Vikings pillow pet for him! He loves it--thanks, Juliana!

2 years & 7 months

 Ryan has become quite the story-teller. He can relate, down to the detail, things that happened 6 months to a year ago. For instance, he tells me about how one night he went to bed but then he heard a booming sound so then I came to get him and brought him outside and put him on a chair and he saw fireworks and they were flashing and so loud so I covered his ears so the booming wouldn't get in. This was last fall during the marching band field championships, but he talks about it all the time! He also asks to watch "the camels running" on TV which is a commercial we saw maybe 2 times for some reality show last summer. We also can't tell him any secrets as he proudly announced a few days before my birthday, "Mommy, Daddy and I got you a card! We went to Alco!" Yet, he answers many easy and direct questions with "I don't know." It's also getting harder to "fib" to him, like when I gave him a couple cereal options and he said, "No, I want Chocolate cereal (Cocoa Krispies)" and I told him we didn't have any. He pointed to the cereal cupboard and said, "Oh, I think you do, Mommy."  Dang.

In a long and rambling story, it is funny to pick up a few of his mispronunciations or rearrangement of words, especially when posing questions.  For instance, he pronounces "does" like "do's" and will ask "What he do's?" or "Where he is?" He also has trouble finding the correct "opposite" sometimes if there is more than one way the word is used. For example, I told him it was getting late so we could go for a short walk and he said, "No, let's go for a TALL walk."

Ryan's current favorites include:

Indoor games: Legos, farm tractors and animals, race cars
Outdoor games: bubbles, walking Nika, soccer, soft-toss baseball
Books: Farmer Brown Goes Round & Round, Little Cloud, Curious George Gets a Medal (have you ever read this rambling story about George filling a fountain pen, stealing a pump from a farmer, knocking over a dinosaur at the museum, and then being forgiven and given a medal because he agrees to go up in a spaceship and parachute out? The book was copyright 1957 and I find the meandering storyline and zero responsibility for actions fascinating)
Clothes: Thankfully he's not too picky about clothes but will want to pick out his jacket--either Twins, green jacket, blue jacket, or "red sweatshirt I got from Colin". If he doesn't want to wear something, he'll insist it's too big or too small.
Food: Cheese sticks still rule the roost but mini ice cream cones are the best negotiating tool used to make him finish the rest of his meal. He is also surprisingly good at eating tacos.
Discoveries: He loves finding moths, butterflies, and ants, but still hates flies and other large bugs. He loves getting ice and water out of the door of the fridge. He is still very aware of sounds and can pick up on whether there is a soccer game being played nearby, if a motorcycle, truck, or noisy car is going by, and will cover his ears at a loud noise such as the garage door going up.

As I wrote in an earlier post, he's doing okay on potty training and can manage the whole process himself, but still won't tell us every time or will go in his pull-up shortly after we had him go in the potty, so it's still a work-in-progress.

He is growing into all-boy way too fast but when he gets out of his bath, he lays on the towel and wants me to pick him up "pretend I'm a baby" and carry him to his room. It is getting harder and harder for me to lift this kid! He also wants to lay on his back while giving me a hug when we say prayers at night. This is also awkward for my 30-year-old self!

One final thing that's persisted this month is after getting dressed on the changing table, he'll count 1, 2, 3, then JUMP off into my arms and wants to fly out into the living room "like Buzz Lightyear" and tries to say "to infinity and beyond" as we go down the hallway.

Overall, we've got a little motor mouth who loves the nice weather and keeps us on our toes!

Minneapolis weekend

Adam and I had been looking forward to our trip to Minneapolis for a long time, so we got up bright and early on Saturday, handed Ryan over to Adam's parents, and were on the road by 6:30am. Unfortunately, it began to rain on our drive and was in a pretty good downpour by the time we neared the stadium. However, we could see people inside and the Jumbo-tron going strong, so we paid to park in the ramp, gathered our raingear, and entered the ballpark. Only then did the screen turn to say they were in an official rain delay and the first pitch would be delayed.  Great. The forecast was 39 degrees and 90% chance of rain for the next few hours, so we were pretty sure the game would not be happening, but after finding out that if you leave, you cannot re-enter the park, we stuck it out with the thousands of other (drunk and/or miserable) fans, ate some lunch sitting on the floor by a bathroom (key to rain delays=find a warm hallway and stake your claim), and after about 2 hours, found out the game was postponed until June 30.

It was a nightmare getting out of the ramp so we got stuck in the wrong ramp out and ended up on 394 in a traffic jam and pouring rain.  Between the stop-and-go traffic, the rain, and trying to figure out a map on my phone to see how we could get to Ikea, my car sickness took over.  Let's just say we arrived at Ikea with a full Twins souvenir cup, and it wasn't full of Sprite.

Our hour-long trip through Ikea resulted in a lamp, which doesn't sound too exciting until you know we've been meaning to buy a bedside lamp for oh, about 8 years. We currently use a floorlamp to read at night and when we're reading to turn it off, I just tip it over to reach the switch. As a result, it permanently stands at about a 20 degree tilt. Adam got me a Kindle light for my birthday so now I have a light, but he doesn't. It was time to just pick one out and get it over with.  We saw a desk we loved, but the price tag was too high, especially for something we'd have to put together ourselves.

We checked into our hotel--the Crowne Plaza Hotel & Suites--which is a good option if you want to stay by the mall. The parking ramp is a little sketchy and it's near the airport if planes bother you, but otherwise, it's a perfectly good option with nice rooms-ours included a microwave and mini fridge-, a pool, and you can usually get it on Hotwire for $55. (Pick the 3.5 star hotel in Bloomington East near the Mall of America/Airport).  Although, there's always the chance that you'll see this in the hotel lobby:

We were getting pretty hungry, since the pretzel I had eaten for lunch was now residing in a trashcan in the Ikea parking lot, so we headed to the Mall to eat. We ended up at Ruby Tuesdays and had some decent steaks, then randomly ran into our family doctor from Sibley right outside the restaurant. It's pretty funny that every time we go to Minneapolis, we end up running into someone we know.

The only shopping we did was for a few shirts for Ryan at Children's Place, then we decided to go watch The Hunger Games. I'm on the 3rd book right now, Adam hasn't read them at all, but we both enjoyed the movie. All the stores were closed when our movie got out, so we just headed back to the hotel.

I can't explain how much I enjoyed sleeping until 8am...I really can't. It was kind of the highlight of the trip. We packed up and took a meandering way home, since I missed the 169 exit off 494 (it's currently a disaster area) and ended up in Plymouth before we realized it. Yikes...guess we were talking too much!  But, we eventually got back on track and stopped at Emma Krumbees for breakfast which was decent, but slow, and most of the patrons were at least double our age.  After a DQ fix, we picked up Nika, then went home to unpack since Ryan was still taking a nap at Grandpa and Grandma's, then I eventually went to get him. He didn't seem that excited to see me, but had a great time at Grandpa & Grandma's and we are so thankful they were willing to have him for the weekend.

So, although it was nice to get away for the weekend, it felt like a lot of driving just to go out to eat and see a movie. Hopefully we'll be able to come back up for the June 30 game.

I'd like to actually see the Twins play instead of just puke up their pretzels.

McDonald's

On Friday night, Ryan and I ran to my parent's house to bring Nika to stay for the weekend. Since my mom was out of town, we went out for supper with my dad and also brought my grandpa. So, four generations ate a meal at McDonald's together. Ryan ate every single bit of his Happy Meal: chicken nuggets, apple slices, fries, and chocolate milk. He was thrilled with toy, too, a "Spy Watch" that shoots little disks out. Definitely higher immediate play value than the last two Kid's Meal "toys" he got which was a computer game CD from Taco Bell and a stencil of an eagle from Subway. Say what you want about McDonald's, but they know what kid's want. 

It was a very rainy night, but it was good to see my grandpa again and Ryan loved going to "Old McDonald's"!

C'mon Baby...

...do the Locomotion.

Adam was searching for the "locomotion" song since that was one of his class's vocab words this week. Ryan started busting some moves that would make Vanesa Huxtable and her Soul-Train sneaking-in friends jealous. We only got "take 2" on video and it tamed down a bit, but I still wanted to save it to remember his dance skills and enthusiasm at this age. Watch for his signature moves:  toe-tapping, twirling, kicking, marching, and what can only be described as "windmilling."

Random Ryno-isms

 Understanding Ryan sometimes required a guide. He's picked up a few "miscues" along the way

"Dee-bee-dee-bee-dees" = DVDs
"Cee-bee-dee-bee-dee" = CD's
"lemma-lade" = lemonade
"lemma-lems" = M&Ms
"Arfur" = Arthur

Here's a few more fun facts from the past few weeks.

• Ryan no longer uses a pacifier. He's been off it for a few weeks now and we seem to have gotten past asking for it. Adam made the change when I was in Chicago and decided it was time when his daycare provider returned some clothing items to us and returned his "my's" too, since he never used them at her house. (I didn't know he wasn't using them for naps at her house.) So, there really wasn't a reason to continue at home either.
• Ryan has made great strides in potty-training. Although we're not quite into wearing underwear full-time, he is into the routine of using the potty right after he wakes up and will ask throughout the day, or will usually go when reminded. He just doesn't understand going before he "has to go", like before we leave to go somewhere in the car, so we're still in Pull-ups.  He has decided to be Mr. Independent though, and does not want ANY help undressing, lifting lids, wiping, flushing, hauling out the stool, turning on/off water, or pumping soap. He can pretty well manage it on his own, too! Maybe this is TMI, but I find it funny that he just starting going standing up last week without any prompting. I had told him he wasn't tall enough yet, so he showed me how he can do it standing on his tip toes.
• Ryan's is very keyed in to whether it's light or dark outside. He doesn't think he has to go bed if it's not dark out, but if he wakes up during the night or in the morning, he checks his window and announces, "Mommy, it's not dark out anymore. Can I wake up now?"
• Going to bed can be a major struggle some nights with crying, whaling,
• Ryan can also be very polite. Tonight at supper he asked, "Mommy, did you make this supper for me?" I said, "yes" and he replied, "Thank-you, mommy for making supper!" He also tackled me in the backyard while playing football, threw his arms around my neck and said, "I love you, mommy." Moments like these help balance out the night before when he threw an hour-long tantrum with screaming and drooling before bed.
• He has started to make up songs. He went to a different baby-sitter one day this week and she told me all the songs he sang her (ABC's, Twinkle Twinkle, Jesus Loves Me, B-I-B-L-E) then asked what the song was about an airplane to the tune of Itsy Bitsy Spider. We determined he was just making stuff up.
• After Adam spent all last Saturday working on prepping the ground for his swingset, we've made little actual progress on the structure. When a neighbor stopped by this week, Ryan informed her, "It's going to be a LONG time until I can play on it."