Family Time

We had a fabulous time together as a family today (mostly). The main reason for the outing was Pickle had to get blood drawn for the allergist. That was not so fun but thanks to making an appointment, went very quickly.

After the lab we all headed to Joann's for a few things. The boys had fun going around with dad looking at all sorts of stuff: wood toys, cake making supplies, puzzles and books. I am constantly amazed at how much they like Joann's.

Then we headed to lunch at Applebee's and had a nice time. The boys were super excited to be there and weren't too loud. Bacon played happily and quietly in his high-chair. Best of all no drinks were spilled, no one got covered in their lunch and no one got hurt. Tim and I had a nice lunch AND great conversation too!!! The boys were so good we didn't have to yell or be on damage control. It was really nice.

After a couple other stops our final destination was Cold Stone for ice cream. The boys loved that. Of course the first ice cream Pickle pointed at and said, "I want that green one mommy" was the pistachio flavored ice cream. However, due to his recent increase in "that will make me sick" knowledge he quickly chose another flavor: vanilla with chocolate sprinkles. And there wasn't really any screaming or crying about it either!!!

Now at home the older boys are happily playing board games on our bed. Bacon is alternating between roaming around the upstairs and creating chaos for Tim at the computer. He loves his dad and is "helping" him look stuff up on the Internet. It is quite cute to see him lunge at the computer screen, pointing and screaming with excitement over the pictures of trucks flashing by.  Happy little boys make a happy mommy!!

Family Outing Part 2

Grandma and Grandpa Dutson arrived Wednesday afternoon.  And boy, was excitement in the air!! Our first stop was lunch! Grandpa was hungry so we all headed to Cafe Rio except me. I needed some new jeans, so I went shopping ALONE!!!! Of course it was fabulous but one pit fall: I had no one to give me an opinion of the jeans. Luckily there was one very sweet lady who helped me out. She told me both pairs looked great on me but the second ones made me "look even better, more skinny. You are already skinny but they really make you look even better." That put a smile on my face because anyone who's had a child and had a hard time getting the weight off will know how a compliment like that can just brighten your day!!!!

After lunch we headed to the Bean Museum on BYU campus to spend a little time with Ryan, Rachel (his fiancee) and her mom, step-dad and siblings. The boys loved the museum though it did take them some time to get used to the stuffed creatures.

I am not entirely sure what Pach is doing
but this picture puts a smile on my face.

This one also cracks me up. He is growling like the alligator!

And of course, there's Bacon. Always willing to smile, especially when there is a camera around. We joke that he could be our child model because when the camera starts flashing, his smile gets bigger and bigger!

Then it was back to the Game Center on campus for more "bowling ball". We played with 2 lanes this time. Grandma and the older boys in one and Tim, myself and Grandpa in the other. No one broke 100 this time though Zach came close with 98. He won again. I just laughed. Tim wanted a re-match from yesterday and he got one!!! HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

This time he opted to push the ball from below the ramp. 

And they played in their socks again too!

The day ended with the girls: Claudia (grandma), Rachel, Tiffany (Rachel's mom), Ashley (Rachel's sister) and myself getting pedicures and/or manicures. The boys really liked my nails and kept saying, "I want to see your finger mom." Then they would touch each fingernail at a time and go, "awe!" and the same for each toe. Funny boys! They spent the evening driving around sleeping. They did end up getting ice cream but Tim drove around talking to Ryan while Grandpa and the boys took a cat nap. 

Family Outing Part 1

We arrived Sunday evening and were so excited to stretch our legs and get out of the car. We went for a walk and saw a "new" park down the road from Ryan's place. It has a pirate ship to play on and the boys absolutely loved it. 

We spent Monday working (Tim) and running errands getting stuff for the cake like sugar and shortening. Then Tuesday the fun began. We headed up to BYU to play "bowling ball" as the boys called it. We got bumpers and Pach and Pickle used the ramp. And boy did they have A LOT of fun!! Zach got a few strikes and everytime he would jump up and down and give high 5's. That game everyone got at least one strike and no one had any gutter balls!! Ha! Although they were supposed to bowl in their regular shoes because they feet are still too small for bowling shoes, Pach and Pickle opted for their socks. 

Yes, those were the final scores.  Pach beat Tim by 20 pts. 

After the "bowling ball" game we wasted away money at the arcade games. The boys tried some driving game, which was horrible for their age. It was tough for Tim and myself! We played skewball, the moving basketball game and the boys played air hockey. They had a lot of fun with that. Bacon enjoyed himself as well. 

We were just glad he got a nap.

After we had happily wasted away plenty of money and collected our prizes from the tickets, we headed to the bookstore and happily spent more money. We all got new BYU shirts. Zach got a new hat and socks. The boys got piggy banks and cups. I don't even know what else but we enjoyed ourselves. Then we headed to Zupa's for lunch. That was both fun and exciting. Bacon kept throwing food all over and Pickle kept looking at the "pretty girls" sitting behind him he spilled his entire drink on the floor! It's always exciting going places with the kids.

The Hotel

 In my last post http://parkaysplace.blogspot.com/2012/04/aunt-ethel-here-we-come.html I mentioned the idea of driving to Vegas and staying the night was the worst idea ever. Well, this is why.

The hotel room itself was quite nice. It was a small, OK tiny 2 bedroom apartment. The boys LOVED IT!!! All of them. Pickle and Pach went from one room to the next turning on all the TV's and saying things like, "Pickle is watching TV in there, so I will watch it in here." Or, "You can watch in here dad and I will watch in there." All they wanted to do was use the remotes on the TV. I would say watch TV but really it was just the fact there were so many and they just really wanted to use the remotes and turn them all on. The small things in life.

Bacon also had a great time. He crawled around every room and every corner of every room. He went through the big one and then when he'd exhausted all the square footage in there, he headed out the door to the next room and then to the living room, kitchen and then paradise: THE BATHROOM!! He LOVES the bathroom. When he found the bathroom his smile was about 100 times bigger and he made a beeline for the tub, pulled himself up, pulled himself up and while screaming with sheer joy and delight, smacked his hand on the edge of the tub! When I escorted him out (OK, hauled him out) he was literally kicking and screaming, only they weren't screams of joy and delight anymore......

We put all the boys in one room. Pach and Pickle were in the king size bed surrounded by pillows so they wouldn't fall out. But as this was a whole new experience for them, sleep was somewhat elusive. There was a lot of giggling and laughter. Finally around 10:30 pm, I went in and sang to them. They finally fell asleep. Then it was time to get Bacon to sleep. That proved even more difficult. As this was the first big trip he could remember (the last one he was only 2 weeks old) he was WIRED beyond all belief. Or maybe it was just the ice cream....... Anyway, he did not sleep well at all, so neither did Tim or I. Lucky us. ha ha.

The breakfast was also quite exciting. The high chair disappeared, so we ate in shifts. Pachal was out of whack because there was no chocolate milk and therefore he didn't want anything. Pickle wanted everything. And there wasn't much of a selection. Tim and I did have a waffle and then grabbed some stuff and headed back to the room. In the elevator, the bottle fell and broke. Orange juice got all over the elevator and the boys thought it was so cool. T

As we were trying to get everything repacked, make sure we didn't miss anything, load the car and keep Bacon out of the bathroom and his hands out of the drawer he was so happily to play with, the bagel I grabbed to toast and eat got burnt in the toaster and the yogurt Tim grabbed was frozen. What a way to start the morning. We did stop and get chocolate milk and donuts, so the world was all good again for Pachal and manageable for us. It was then we (Tim and I) decided the idea to split the drive into 2 days and stay in a hotel was the worst idea possible.

Happy Bacon. He LOVES his picture being taken.

Surrounded by pillows.

Pach with his Transformer Plane from McD's.

Not at all sure what Pickle is doing.

Finally they are asleep!!! So cute too!

Bacon and the kitchen drawer he LOVED!

Watching TV and loving it. Sad they were leaving.

Aunt Ethel, Here We Come!!!

Tim's younger brother got married on St. Patrick's Day in the Provo Temple. In honor of that occasion and the fact Tim was making the wedding cake, we went on a road trip to Provo, UT.

Originally the plan was to leave Tuesday the 13th for Provo. Then Tim was going to have to fly somewhere for work, then he wasn't, then maybe he was, etc., so I threw out this suggestion, "Why don't we leave on Saturday? (the 10th). We can stop over in Vegas and see Aunt Ethel and finish the drive on Sunday? It'll be shorter drives and we'll see family. And we already planned on leaving then anyway." Tim agreed and around lunchtime on the 10th we finally left for Vegas! Little did I know my little suggestion would be the worst suggestion ever!

After 20 minutes in the car, Pickle says, "We at Ryan's house?"
"No, not yet."

The first stop we made was about 3+ hours later at A GAS STATION and Pickle, "We at Ryan's house?"
I asked, "Does this look like Ryan's house?"
"No." I wanted to scream "THEN WHY DID YOU ASK?????"
We had a potty break as well and that was awful. Pachal decided he needed to take everything off his lower extremities in the very gross, public restroom. Pickle felt like he needed to touch everything. And I was totally grossed out by it all.

At various points on the drive to Vegas, we have to get off the freeway and go through towns. Sometimes we go through towns to switch highways. At those points we often have to stop at stop lights. At nearly every stop light, "We at Ryan's house yet?"

Aside from the "We at Ryan's house yet?" being asked WAY TO OFTEN, the drive to Vegas was mostly uneventful. I called Aunt Ethel (Tim's Great Aunt, if you want to get technical) about an hour outside Henderson and told her we were coming. She was so excited and we, Tim and I, were as well. The boys, not so much. We had to pull them out of the play area in Burger King, so thrilled they were not.

After a quick stop at the hotel where Tim checked-in and Pickle goes, "We at Ryan's house now?" (deep breath followed that question), we picked Aunt Ethel up and headed to McDonald's for their ice cream sundae's. I had tried explaining to the older boys this was "Aunt Ethel" but they just kept calling her Grandma. She took it all in stride and they like her, even Bacon. He had been giving everyone the stink eye for awhile but he liked her. Tim says it was the head butt she gave him. That might quite possibly be true. Tim and I ate our sundae's or rather, I ate mine and Tim had half of his, Bacon had the other half. But half wasn't filling enough, so Bacon started in on Pickle's. We had a very nice visit with Grandma Ethel. The boys were especially excited because she managed to get them a transformer toy.

Sunday morning we stopped her house by for a short visit on our way out of town. She pulled out all sorts of toys and became the boys favorite friend. Of course the pockets full of candy she gave them didn't hurt either. We had a fabulous time and a great visit.

Pachal, Bacon, Aunt Ethel and Pickle

Pachal, Bacon, Aunt Ethel, Pickle and Tim.

More Allergies (sigh)

Last month, Nick ate a walnut and we ended up in the emergency room. Here is the link to that post: http://parkaysplace.blogspot.com/2012/02/er-trip-with-pickleagain.html

Tim and I were sure it was just a case of cross-contamination as the walnuts were processed in a plant that processes all tree nuts. To make sure of this, we set an appointment with his allergist to do a food challenge. A food challenge is where the patient goes to the allergist's office and under controlled and monitored conditions, eats the food in question, starting with a very small amount and continuing until a large amount of the food is consumed. After each portion the allergist or the assistant watches for a minute and then waits for awhile before giving another portion. A food challenge takes between 2 to 3 hours to be completed.

We had to provide walnuts that we knew were not contaminated at all. Thanks to Grandpa Dutson, we had 5 that were broken up. Around 9 am Nick was given a very small piece of walnut, about the size of his pinky nail or something. The doctor said it was a 1/32nd of a whole walnut, so pretty small. She left the room and not even 2 minutes later Nick said to me, "Mommy, my tongue hurts. My throw-up hurts." (FYI throw-up means throat). I told him to take a drink and he goes, "Mommy, I feel better." Then 10 seconds after that, "My throat hurts." I let the correct people know and in they came. The doctor, Dr. Cassall (who is phenomenal) checked his mouth and throat. It looked a little red. The assistant noticed his cheeks were red. Then he said his belly hurt. Nick got some medicine to help counter the reaction. Before it kicked in we noticed hived around his mouth. He was also making a weird swallowing motion with his head. Finally everything cleared up, he wasn't red anymore, nothing hurt and he was running and jumping all over again.

We were there a total of 1hr and 40 minutes. The diagnosis is: he can eat peanut butter (peanuts) and nutella since he has been eating those and been fine. He cannot eat any other types of nuts. He has to get some blood work done (the fun just never ends here) and then we'll know more. Now more than ever, we have to be so diligent in what he eats. He has already started understanding he can't eat certain things. When I was shelling the walnuts this morning he said to me, "I can't eat those. They make me sick." He didn't want to eat them at the doctor's either but I said, "It's OK, you'll be fine." Boy was I wrong! He wouldn't even eat the peanut M&M he found the other day because it had a peanut inside. However, so many things are processed in plants that also process tree nuts.

So now he is allergic to: walnuts, pecans, pistachios and cashews. He will not be trying pine nuts, macadamia nuts or brazil nuts. He will not eat almonds or coconut again either until after the blood work is back. What does he get to eat? Peanuts and hazelnuts. It could be worse though. It appears he has to actually ingest the nut for a reaction. So just being around it won't do anything. But we won't tempt fate, only peanut butter and nutella in our house from now on.

Potty Training

Monday was prep day. Tim ran errands with Pickle and at one stop Pickle got to pick his reward/treat for going potty in the toilet. I had called Tim to tell him this. He called me back a minute later saying, "I don't think it's going to be easy to train him" and told me this story:

"I told Pickle when we stopped at Target he was going to pick his treat as a reward for every time you go potty in the toilet. I told him he could pick whatever treat he wanted. He looked at me, pointed his finger and said, "I only want the treat!" 

When they got home I asked Pickle, "We're back from Uncle Ryan's house. Are you excited to learn to go potty in the toilet?"
"NO!" was his reply.

We had been telling him for a couple weeks that after we got back from Uncle Ryan's house, he would learn to go to potty in the toilet. I had been prepping him for awhile hoping that would help him get used to the idea. So after that exchange and story I went into potty training child #2 with the mindset it was going to be difficult and probably a battle of wills. I set myself up for having to clean up lots of accidents and that my patience would be tried. And once again I thought I was going to be eating a lot of my treats to reward my patience when accidents happen.

Tuesday morning came and I was somewhat dreading the idea of potty training him. I didn't have the energy to fight a 3 year old over the toilet and had thought about waiting for awhile. However, when I said, "Ok, let's get some underwear and take off your diaper" his response shocked me. He said, "Ok" and ran off to get his underwear. I was a bit stunned and figured I better get on his "potty chart". It's a piece of paper with a lot of little squares that he gets to put a sticker in every time he is successful in the bathroom. I was making that up and he was standing next me, underwear in hand, saying "Mommy, take my diaper off." I sat there thinking, "Who is this child? Where did he come from?"

So everything got set, he got in his underwear and now, he is potty trained! At least tinkle trained for sure. He's had 1 tinkle accident and nothing ever made it to the carpet. He woke up dry from naps and at night. Since he had done so well, we went out Wednesday to Pach's soccer camp to watch. Pickle was excited because he got to use the bathroom with the red towel. Hahahaha! Whatever works! We have been out a few times and he has done mostly well. We are still working on pooping but for someone who was so adamant about not learning how to use the toilet, he sure has done well. And I only got a couple rewards for myself. I did decide though, I'm pretty calm and good about accidents of any kind during potty training. I decided I needed rewards for everyday life instead. I might actually get to eat some of them!

On a side note: If you ever use a treat for a reward for going in the toilet, red vines are not a good idea. One or two a day is fine but 20 will definitely do things to them you don't want to deal with, especially when potty training! Go with chocolate!