Gone

Well hello there! I hope your holidays have been just as fabulous as ours have been.

First of all, I would like to congratulate this little guy for completely getting rid of his binky:

He threw me completely off guard. I thought we were in for at least a week with no sleep and lots of crying, but that is not what happened at all! I tied his binky to the leg of his crib with a short ribbon. He walked into his room, touched it, and said "uh oh. kuck! " (stuck).  That night he cried for less than 5 minutes, and then gave up and fell asleep. "That's it?!" I asked my husband, "He doesn't even really care?" and then I started bawling on Jared's shoulder because...well...I'm a mom and I get sad about my baby growing up. bahaha. Yep, I cried more than my son.  

The next day I caught Kyler kneeling awkwardly by his crib sucking on his binky, but he gave up after about 10 seconds.

A few days later I threw the binky away. Kyler said "All gone!" when I put him to bed that night and that was the end of binky.

I feel like Christmas came and went so quickly this year. We kept it simple for Kyler, and got him a balloon for Christmas (he is obsessed with them) along with a few other things that were given to him from family and friends. He was a happy boy!

A few days after Christmas we went to the Lucky Leaf (our fam beach house) which is always an adventure. Saturday morning there was a storm that made the waves huge! You can't tell from the picture how big they were, but Jared and I had fun surfing/ boogie boarding in the waves later that afternoon. (with wet suites on of course).

 Kyler kept trying to get in the ocean when we went on walks on the beach. He loved being able to run wild and free! He handed me this seashell and said "rock"...close enough.

Happy (almost) New Year!!

Bye Bye Binky!

Pacifier. Binky. Paci. Bink. Plug. -They're all the same thing. Kyler calls it his "Keenkey"- but whatever you want to call it, it's time for ours to go "bye bye".

I loved using the binky to soothe Kyler when he was an infant. Once he started to walk I tried taking it away, but then he started sticking his thumb in his mouth...and I thought it would be easier to break the habit with a binky rather than a thumb (and less germs too!) Kyler is still OBSESSED with his binky. It is his most treasured item. So I am anticipating that this "getting rid of the binky" process is going to be very difficult.

Since Kyler was 18 months old, we have only been letting him have it in his bed (and occasionally in the car or when he's not feeling good).  Now he relies on his binky to fall asleep. How in the world am I supposed to take away his most favorite item in the world? Our pediatrician recommended tying it with a short ribbon onto the leg of his toddler bed by the floor. That way he can have it whenever he wants but he will have to lay on the floor in a weird position to suck on it. He said they get tired of the "inconvenience" and stop sucking on it all together. I think we are going to try this method first and see how it goes... Here's day one:

How did you (readers who have done this before) get rid of your baby's binky?

Laundry Hatred

Let's talk laundry.  I hate it. Last week I never got around to getting the clothes out of the dryer, and into the closet. So my clothes have been in there this entire week. Even lazier part? I ran out of clean shirts, so every morning I walked to the drier and got a clean shirt out to wear, and left all of the rest sitting in there. Now I have two more loads to do. Laundry is seriously never ending, and it takes forever to do, but I can't complain too much because at least I wasn't born in the old days back when you had to hand wash and hang dry everything. :}

Enter awesome laundry hatred quotes:

(thank pinterest for not giving me people to cite)

"I believe you should live each day as if it's your last. Which is why I don't have any clean laundry, because, come on, who wants to do laundry on the last day of their life?"

"As I do more laundry, nudist seem less crazy."

"I didn't see anyone important today, so I'll just wear the same clothes tomorrow!"

"I don't feel like folding laundry right now...so I'll just restart the dryer."

"You know you are a mom when you have been washing the same load of laundry for 3 days because you keep forgetting to switch to the dryer."

I'm thinking about hanging this in my laundry room- It's so fitting!

The Results

As I left the doctors office on Friday, I was told that we would recieve Kyler's X-ray results of his hips by the end of the day. However, the computer systems went down after we left. Just our luck right?

Later on Friday, we got a call from our pediatrician saying that he looked at the X-rays and couldn't tell so he would have to have the Radiologist read them and let us know tomorrow. Saturday came and went, and we still hadn't heard back.  By this point I was freaking out thinking that there was something terribly wrong. I had so many thoughts running through my head the entire weekend like {What if Kyler walks funny as he gets older, and all of the kids make fun of him?...Will he ever be able to play sports like football without fear of his hips getting dislocated?...How in the world would he survive being in a cast not being able to walk for 4-6 months if he has to have surgery?...He is two years old, I cant even get him to sit still for 10 minutes!...etc)

However, all of my worries and concerns came to a halting stop early Monday morning when I got the call...

Kyler's X-rays are completely normal, and he won't need surgery!

What a relief! I am so glad that everything is good with our little boy! It was scary, as a mother, worrying about something being wrong, and the possibility of Kyler needing surgery to fix it.  I have SO much more respect for other mothers whose kids have had surgery, and more serious/life-threatening health problems.

This experience has made me realize that life can be changed in an instant. Sometimes I find myself complaining about things that I don't have, and I forget to be thankful for all of the things that are good in my life.

Chalk Paint and Kyler's X-Rays

 This week in preschool  we learned that the word "paint" starts with the letter "P" and then the kids practiced writing the letter "p" with paint outside! I've seen  posts all over Pinterest of homemade chalk paint, but I thought it looked like too much work and too messy to ever motivate me enough to want to do this activity in the past. However, we were overdue for a messy craft in preschool- so I decided to do it anyways.  Turns out, the kids (and I) LOVED it!

It was definitely messy, and may have been sampled at one point or another by my own son (can you blame him? It looks delish) but that's okay because it is completely safe, and super easy to make:

       -1 cup cornstarch

-1 cup water

   -food coloring 

Isn't it pretty?

Chalk paint was definitely a success over here. You should try it!

On a completely different subject: Kyler went to the doctor for his 2 year check-up today. While doing the physical exam of his hips, we heard a loud grinding noise (not normal) when he moved his legs around in different positions. I had never heard that before!  He asked if Kyler was breech when I was pregnant with him (I said yes, that's why he was a C-section) and the doctor then asked me if his X-Rays turned out normal when he was 4 months old.
Wait.
"Wha?"
Apparently, (I had no clue and I guess my Idaho doctors over looked this) but it is standard procedure for breech babies to have an x-ray and or ultrasound of their hips done at 4 months to check and make sure they are growing in the proper place. Hip dysplasia is always a risk with breech babies. Why didn't anyone tell me this before? Anyways, the doctor was shocked when I told him that Kyler never had those x-rays done, and he sent us over to the hospital to have them taken right away (because of the abnormal grinding and because Kyler started walking a little later {around 14 months})

The doctor said that even though Kyler is walking normally now, if the hips aren't growing in the correct place (see image), it can cause him to limp when he grows and then he could have other hip problems down the road. So IF that is the case they would do a surgery now to prevent that from happening later.

Now we are just waiting to get the results back from the x-rays. I really hope everything looks okay with our little guy! It was kinda traumatic going in to the doctors expecting nothing to be wrong, and then walking out thinking that your child might need surgery. So I am doing my best to keep my cool and stay positive. We will most likely get the results tomorrow!

NOTE TO READERS: If your baby/child ever has to have an x-ray done, make sure you bring another adult with you! I went by myself today, and it was very difficult. I swear every mom should grow 2 extra arms for every child that she has. Kyler was scared of the huge x-ray machine. It made him cry, and he kept trying to get off the table--I had a really difficult time trying to hold him down in the position that he needed to be in for the x-ray while trying to comfort him AND  trying to keep the little lead apron from falling off. I thought there would be a nurse or someone to help me, buuut there wasn't. So yeah, just a little tip in case you ever find yourself in the situation I was in today!

What's In My Diaper Bag?

Today I saw this youtube video. Her diaper bag is COMPLETELY organized. There is a special place for every object, and separate pockets for just about everything. I laughed out loud just thinking about what I would look like up on youtube going through my own diaper bag. Everything is just kind of dumped in there. It drives me NUTS not being organized and not being able to find things when I need them. I'm constantly having to clean it out... and lucky YOU today is one of those days...so let's take a look at my own diaper bag!

It looks pretty cute on the outside, right? That's all that seemed to matter when I bought it at the time. pfff who needs functionality, I thought.  Well apparently I do, because I regret buying this bag, just like I regret buying my 6inch black heals for church (tall pointy heals and a heaaavy toddler combined with the fact that I am extremely clumsy-doesn't mix so well) but they are cute. So, I will keep wearing them :)

Alright, now for a picture of the inside of my dumping zone diaper bag:

 Yikes.

See what I mean? Nothing has a place. It's all just kinda thrown in there. The bag does have a few pockets, but nothing ever stays in them. If per chance something does stay in the pocket it is supposed to be in, I spend 5 minutes fishing around for it at the bottom of the bag, and then the next day I will finally find it in the pocket where it was supposed to be. LOL

Alright let's list what's in there...shall we? (I'm nervous. There is bound to be something completely embarrassing (or rotten) in here.)

-Baby wipes (I always seem to run out with such a small case)
-Wallet
-2 of Kyler's favorite books and 1 book that is not mine and I have no idea where it came from. (It looks girly and has a bumble bee on it... if it's yours let me know!)
-My headphones
-2 candy wrappers
-Empty gum container
-A tape measure (Huh?)
-1 (clean of course) diaper
-Perfume
-Goldfish (LOTS OF THEM, I think the whole bag spilt in here. woops)
-3 toys
-One crayon (I use it as my pen bahah)
-2 lip glosses 
-A spoon (handy right?)
-A granola bar wrapper
-Fruit snacks
-2 binky's (I've been looking for these! They were in a pocket. Go figure.)
-3 old receipts
-Oh here is the gum that fell out of the above empty container! All of the pieces of gum are mushed in with the goldfish crumbs...yum.
-Chick-fil-A sauce (I'm addicted to this stuff)
-Mascara
-Last thing, my keys (clipped to outside)

That's it!
I'm thinking I need to invest in a new diaper bag that has magical pockets and zippers, to keep my bag more organized. What's the weirdest thing in YOUR diaper bag?