Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Monkey Joe's

Monkey Joe's is an Indoor Jump House in Ocean Springs that we go to at least once a month. I love it because they can both run wild and there is plenty of staff available to help me keep an eye out when they run separate ways :)

Today we decided to make an afternoon of it, and in the middle of our fun appeared out of nowhere...MONKEY JOE!!

Kaylon turned around to find this big furry fella right behind him, it startled him but only for a split second. He was ecstatic to give him hugs and talk his ear off. He walked around the facility holding his hand. My sweetie boy!

Kolbie was amazed. She looked and looooked at the over sized monkey and just could not figure him out...until he played peek a boo with her! She knew what that was! And then it was time for Hi fives!

I followed them around as they made there way to see all the other kids. Kaylon kept calling his name "Monk Joe, Monk Joe...Mommy...he not hear me!" I had to explain that Monkey Joe was friends with everybody and need to play with them too :) That did not fill his need for Mr. Joe to have to stop and watch him jump and slide! But sufficed as a fill in. He gave him one last hug and posed for a picture.

This was a big test for them because Kaylon and Kolbie have both met Santa and the Easter Bunny, but they were always sitting and being still. Monkey Joe was as animated as they come, hoping around and dancing and giving hi fives. I am SOOOO glad they didn't get scarred. This makes me even MORE excited about the CIRCUS THIS WEEKEND!!!

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Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Mommy and Me TUMBLE- Ocean Springs Playgroup

Today we decided we would try out our playgroups Mommy and Me Tumble class at Creative Dance studio. I was shocked at how much fun it was. The ladies there did a good job letting the kids feel out the place while still getting lessons in.

Kaylon tumbled...

(Check out my action shot :)

and did the low bar

and showed his muscles on the rings!

Kolbie had to much fun just working her way around the trampoline. And waving of course. She has perfected her "Princess Wave!"

I am so glad I found the Ocean Springs Playgroup when we got out here! Its a great group of ladies and awesome kids. They keep our calendar full with different options to choose from every week. Thank goodness :)
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Monday, June 20, 2011

Kolbie

My angel baby girl, super cute sweetness had morphed into a Wild child, Little Devil, fit throwing sassy britches!

If I didn't know better I would say she is Bi-polar, but truthfully, this girl just knows how to work the crowd. She can smile a sweet sweet smile that can melt your heart and the next second be screaming bloody murder. She still waves to every...single...stranger...that walks by. Of course winning them over in an instant, so when Mommy or Daddy has to spank her hand in public WE look like the bad guys :)

She has gone from a Daddy's girl, where he is the end all knows all twinkle in her eye...to scream my head off for as long as it takes until Mommy picks me up girl. This is a battle all on it own, because she obviously gets her stubbornness from me, so we pretty much come to a stand off most of the time until she gets side tracked (rare) or I just give in and pick her up (usually). The sweet sound of "Ma Ma" has turned into the scary cry of a goat "Maaaaaaaa Maaaaaaa" and forget Da Da...He's Mama too most of the time.

She loves her Big brother, but really she just tolerates his presence. He is way to busy for her laid back lifestyle. She soaks up everything he does, getting in a laugh or 2 at him, and once he has calmed down she will sneak his sword and "get you!" She makes the sweetest little sword fighting sound your ears have ever heard. She especially loves to "fly to the moon" on one of our shoulders while we run around the house and the screams come out when her turn is over!

An animal lover is understatement of the year when it comes to Kolbie. The presence of any kind of animal excites her to the core. She cant help herself but to get all the puppy kisses she can when she sees one. Big or small, she's not scared of anything. It melts my heart to see the pure innocents of her and an animal.

She is also book worm. Love love LOVES to sit and study ever single thing on every page of a book. It doesn't even have to be a book. A card, a mail flyer, the cheez-it box. Its all very interesting to her.

Her new found love in the toy box has been the discovery of Mardi Gras beads. She loves to walk around in them. When we are in any store she can zone in on the jewelry section. Daddy is very nervous about this :)

She is still my petite little sweet thing...just now with retractable horns!
- She is still wearing 6-12 months clothes, sometimes 12-18 months, and sometime 3-6 months...
-She loves to dance to the music, even if its just a commercial... when the music is on, her hips are swaying.
-She loves to carry lovies. Her favorite one is her Piggy Scentsy Pal. She sleeps with it every night.
- She is my garbage disposal. This girl will eat anything, so long as its not green!
- I can not keep her sippy cup full, Her fluid intake is immense.
-She can say "I love you"...well "Eye Youuuuuu" while pointing. We are still working on the love part.
-She loves to show you her belly button, and when she is wearing a romper, she raises her hands in the cutest way to say "i don't know" because she cant find it
-she is super ticklish all over, and turns into a giggle monster in anticipation of being tickled.
-If you can't find her just look in her covers. If she hasn't put herself to bed, then she is probably playing in the toilet!
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Kaylon

He is my Super Hero, My Knight in Shinning Armour, and the designated Dragon Slayer!
His imagination keeps our house on it toes! He has more dress up clothes in the toy box than Kolbie does :) He LOVES his sister, and forces her to play with him by tackling her from the back side. Its more of a WWF arms around the neck and body slam, than a tackle per say...but regardless it gets a scream out of her.

My Kaylon is as sweet as he can be on most days, but lately has been testing his boundaries with ignoring even the simplest of tasks that are requested of him. I explain to him after he spends countless minutes in the corner or time out and finally completes the task, that...Mommy ALWAYS wins! Although it has been getting pretty though to handle sometimes, I know my persistence is what will make the difference in molding him into a person he can be proud of.

Just in the last week he has decided to tackle the potty chair, and he is doing SO well! I bought it 6 months ago, and introduced it to him, but never pushed it. 7 days ago today he decided his diaper is what was causing his hiney to hurt (...not the endless amounts of diarrhea he was having.) I told him he didn't have to wear the diaper anymore if he made sure to put his pee pee's in the potty chair, because "I do not want to be cleaning up any pee pee mess!" And that was it! He is so proud every time he goes that he will carry the potty chair all around the house to find one of us so he can show off his accomplishments. We still put a diaper on at night and sometimes during nap time. He rarely has a mess, and when he does...its one of those moments where he is mad and does it deliberately. My sweet boy you ask? Oh yes...he has the spite in him...he must get that from his Daddy :)

We are used to playing outside every day for at least an hour but usually more. Now that it is June I have noticed his intolerance to handle the heat become a lot more prevalent. When we arrive to the park, he doesn't even want to get out of the car a lot of the time. Even when we are playing in the front "yard" after about 30 min outside, he will take himself inside to cool off. I try to make "water play" available in everything we do, but sometimes its hard to convince him to do even that. He has become completely content with staying inside out of the heat. I can't blame him for that. At 100 degrees it feels like a sauna to me, I cant imagine what it feels like to him, when your body doesn't have the ability to cool its self off. He seems to be old enough to know when he's getting to hot. Thankfully we have not had any fainting episodes so far this year.
Plans for his 3rd birthday Cookie Monster party are in full swing. Ryan will not be able to get back to Houston with us for his party, so we will be here to celebrate with Daddy and have him a party back home in October.

My sweet boy is getting so tall, and so grown up.
- We just had to restock his summer wardrobe with size 3T because the 2T just isn't long enough.
-His favorite songs to sing are "Oh, Happy Day" and "I Love You" from Barney.
-His favorite toy right now is his sword (accompanied by any one of his many masks/helmets.)
-He can count to 10 with out any help (Usually)
-He can find every dragon in the house! Watch out, there is ALWAYS one hiding under the bed!


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Sunday, June 12, 2011

Texas for a week!

We decided it would be best to separate the kids for a while when we got home, thinking that they may be passing this virus back and forth to each other. Pop was off for a few days so he and Noni picked up Kaylon when we made it back to Texas. I got a few texts messages from Pop letting me know he was doing fine and filing me in on how much fun they were having. Kolbie and I stayed at Grammys house a couple of nights and had quality girl time. We weren't very busy and didn't get out much because I was still weary of them getting sick.

I took Kolbie for her 1 year check up (I know, only 4 months late!) I would love to update her stats but for the life of me I can't find that paper anywhere...
Anyway...The doctor said she looked great and was growing right on target. She was a little concerned she might be underweight, but I filled her in on the last months episodes and Kaylon's hospital ordeal. She thought they both needed to start a probiotic and if it didn't solve any
problems it definitely wouldn't hurt them to have it. She said after a few days of that she didn't see any problem bringing them back into the public.

We manged to get some play time in at Pirates Bay, which was a real treat. We started going there last summer and made plans to go once a week before we found out we were moving to MS. Mema, GG, Aunt Meag, Aunt B, Kinzie, and Cameron made it to the water park with us this trip and it was so much fun!

You would not believe that I started having car trouble while we were home. My car battery kept dying on me and Saturday when we were supposed to be at Jenna and TJ's wedding, we were stranded in Crosby waiting for Mema to come rescue us while my car was in the shop. Thankfully it was just the battery that needed replacing and we made it to the wedding right on time, which was kind of important seeing as how I was taking the pictures.

The wedding was really sweet.

Welcome to this crazy family TJ and Congratulations to you both!

We originally had plans to stay until tuesday, but I was having major husband withdraws so I decided we would leave early Sunday morning. I loaded the kids up at 3 am and made it back to MS in record time...5 1/2 hours! I told you I wanted to get back, and don't worry...I was driving at the posted speed limits, I promise.

We really hated not being able to see everyone like we planned, but I have come to the realization the "home" is where my husband is. I'm glad to be back in his company :) Adios Texas, see you October!
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Monday, June 6, 2011

Kaylon in the Hospital

As you know my babies have been very very sick with a tummy bug that just wont go away. After seeing the doctor about a week ago to no avail, we decided to take him back in for a 2nd opinion. At this point he had been having nasty poops for 20+ days and vomiting nearly every night for 14 days. We met with Dr. Dupont and she decided it was pretty urgent to admit him to the hospital to try and figure out what was going on.

I was pretty upset that I let it get this far. I felt like I had been giving them both plenty of fluids to try and keep them hydrated. I had taken milk and dairy foods out of their diet completely. Kolbie's tummy wasn't half as bad as Kaylon's. She was having nasty diapers just as long, but only threw up once the entire time, and I could not keep her sippy cup full. Kaylon on the other hand, I offered and offered drinks to him, and he would take some every now and again, but it obviously wasn't enough.

When we got to the hospital, the orders were already there waiting on us to start his fluids. The IV i had anticipated was going to be a bad deal for both of us. The doctor suggested that we not even be in the room when they put it in. YEAH RIGHT! Ryan and I were both there. It took us both plus 4 other nurses to hold him down to get it in. He was fatigued already so that fight just wore him right out and he slept pretty much the rest of the night. They had to wake him up again to draw blood out of the other arm which made me PRETTY UPSET! I thought they should have drawn the blood out of the IV port before they started running the fluids. But I'm not a nurse, I guess they had there reasons. We made sure they understood they had one shot to get it and draw all they needed because it wasn't happening again. Daddy stayed with us and got a little sleep on the couch bench in the room and I tried to rest in the bed with Kaylon.


After the 1st bag of fluid he still had not wet his diaper, so they started another bag of fluid. By morning (5AM) he had perked up quite a bit. He thought he was being spoiled by getting all the popsicles he wanted for breakfast.

He was became very interested in his IV and I think he started to realize that is what was making him feel better. He wanted to walk around, so we ventured out of the room a few times to let him stretch his legs. We had waited all night to hear the results of his blood work and the x-rays. The doctor came in for just a minute that morning to say she was being pulled into a delivery and would wait to discuss all the result with us in the afternoon. So Ryan went home to spend some time with Kolbie and Grammy came up to the hospital. We hated that the kids had to be sick when Grammy was out to visit, but we were sure happy to have her here with Kolbie so we both could be with Kaylon.

After the 2nd bag of fluid he finally started to wet his diaper. That was very good news.

When the doctor finally made it in she informed us that ALL the test she had run were negative and didn't show any infections or virus in his blood. His x-ray showed he had no fluid built up in his lungs which was a concern since he had been vomiting so much. Ironically he had not thrown up or had a dirty diaper the entire time we were there. She came to the conclusion that he must have gotten a bad virus (like Rotovirus) that put his body of balance and he couldn't get back on track. She still wanted to test a stool sample, but said that he could eat and if he didn't throw anything up, he could go home. Thankfully Ryan had brought Kolbie up to the hospital by that time and Dr. Dupont agreed that the stool sample could come from Kolbie since she had been having the same symptoms.

Kaylon was hungry but was not the least bit interested in the cafeteria food that was sent in. After only eating a couple of crackers and toast one of the nurses went on a special run just fir him to get him some chicken nuggets and french fries! I'm not sure if they wanted to see him go home or just me, but either way...he ate them up. After an hour, there was no throw up and we Kolbie Michelle came through with a nasty diaper! So we were on our way home!

Kolbie had no problem eating hospital food!

Of course the 1st hour we were home Kaylon made 2 super nasty diapers, so I called the doctor and she said she was happy with just testing Kolbie's and that we would hear from her Sunday morning before we headed back to Texas.

Kaylon ended up sleeping the entire afternoon from 5pm until 4:20 the next morning but woke up my bright and shinny boy and being extra generous with all his hugs and kisses!

Saturday night was a different story, he started throwing up again at 4am Sunday morning, so I went ahead and put a call in to the doctor. Said the stool sample didnt show any signs of the 5 virus' she checked for and she was comfortable with us headed back to Texas and recommended we follow up with our Pediatrician back home.

It was a pretty stressful situation, but I am thankful that he was there. I really had no idea he was as dehydrated as he was. So even though we didn't get a definitive diagnosis, they did resolve the dehydration so we are headed back to Texas for a week!
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Sunday, June 5, 2011

Grammy Comes to visit- Part 2

Fort Maurpeas Play Ground and Splash Park
Probably our favorite park here in Ocean Springs. We go to this park at least once a week if not more. The plan for today was just a quick visit so we could get the kids out for a bit.

I don't know why I thought I could keep them off the splash pad! Oh well... spontaneous fun!


Thurdsay and Friday
Since we have been battling sick babies for quite a while, the doctor decided to admit Kaylon to the hospital. More details to follow....


Red, White, and Blueberry Festival
For Grammy's last day in MS we decided to go our for a cozy breakfast on the courtyard. Yummy Yummy french toast, if I do say so myself!


More water! My kids are just drawn to it!!

Ocean Springs is surrounded by several small blueberry farms, so they had a local festival to celebrate. Tons of Blueberry goodies all around. We didn't stay long though because we had to get my poor babies out of that heat!

Grammy, Thank You so much for coming to visit us for a WHOLE week! We can't wait for you to come back! (we will do our best to stay out of the hospital next time :)

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Grammy Comes to visit- Part 1

We have been in Mississippi for 2 full months now, so Grammy decided she needed to get some Kaylon and Kolbie love. We did our best staying busy...

The kids LOVE to play out side with the neighborhood "friends." It is lots of fun for us to just sit out and watch them run around having fun.

Daddy brought a special surprise home from work and they have had as much fun with this box as they have with real toys!

St. Andrew Park and Splash Pad
During our outdoor activities I always try to incorporate some kind of water play. We have an awesome park that has 2 covered playground areas and a LARGE splash pad. I was excited to show this find off to Ryan so he can see for himself what we do during the days he is at work. It was Sunday before Memorial Day but decided to go any way despite the crowd were were expecting. We hit the drive thru to supply our "picnic" and spent the afternoon splashing
around. We were the ONLY people there for most of the time, and only a handful of people
ventured in and out. Another reason why I love this place!


Pensacola, Florida
So beautiful. It was interesting because Kaylon and Kolbie have both been battling a stomach bug and Kaylon woke up a little grumpy from his nap, but we were determined to have fun! The beaches are so beautiful there its hard not too! After a few hours in the sun, we of course had to visit the Souvenir Shop and ate some delicious food on the Boardwalk.


Indoor Day- FREE Puppy Kisses!
This was a great find! My kids are animal lovers...ESPECIALLY Kolbie! We have a local pet shop that will let you come in and play with their animals. It helps get them out of the cages and have a little extra play time too.


They were both so excited to play with the puppies. Kaylon loved to throw them the toy and play tug. Kolbie was just happy as she could be getting tons of puppy kisses.

Definitely going to have to go back there soon! An awesome way to wear out a couple of toddlers!

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