Mermaid Sighting

Your eyes are not playing tricks on you… that is indeed a mermaid tail.  You can imagine how crazy excited Savannah was when we gave her this mermaid tail as a summer surprise.  What little girl doesn't want to be a mermaid.  Especially a little girl like Savannah who loves swimming more than just about anything.  It takes some getting used to… having the tail on is forcing her to perfect her dolphin kick.  It is quite a workout.  After day one with the tail on she was exhausted.  By day three she had finally figured out what her legs needed to be doing in order to swim properly with the tail on.  It is by far one of the best purchases we have ever made.  Totally worth the money… I highly recommend you purchase a tail if you have an ariel loving swimmer on your hands.

You can tell by this video how tricky it is to swim in the tail.  This was right after we gave it to her.  You for sure have to be a strong swimmer to even try swimming with the tail on.  Thank goodness for my awesome underwater camera… perfect for catching a mermaid in action.

Can We Swim?

Since the weather has warmed up (finally), the kids want to do nothing else but swim in the pool.  All day everyday on the weekend and as soon as Savannah gets home from school they are begging to get in… "just for a little bit, mom".  A little bit then turns into several several hours.  Luckily, I love swimming just as much as they do, so this new obsession is totally okay with me.

Five More Days!!

The countdown to summer break is officially on.  Only five more days until school is over and we get to do this every single day.  I am so ready… one more week, I can make it.

Trifecta

Last week Ryder started to develop a nasty cough and a slight wheeze.  The weather has been crazy here lately, so I wasn't totally surprised that his breathing was starting to worsen.  I was a little more concerned than normal, because Eric and I had started to notice that his breathing was being affected by more than the weather changes.  When Ryder runs, or wrestles with Savannah, or jumps a lot… basically anything that requires some physical activity, his breathing gets wheezy and he coughs uncontrollably.  That is never a good sign.  So I was not totally shocked when I took Ryder to the doctor and after a quick exam I was told that they were officially diagnosing him as asthmatic.  Up until now they attributed most of his breathing issues with seasonal junk (that is all Savannah ever had to deal with), however, his breathing issues have become much more serious and not as easy to fix.  With the seasonal junk they do breathing treatments and that typically clears everything up.  We are at the point where breathing treatments help, but don't completely clear up the issue.  Soooo, we now have a preventative inhaler that we will use twice daily for the foreseeable future.  This will hopefully help his airways open up and stay open for the little guy.  We will also be given a rescue inhaler to use in emergency asthma attack situations.  I am trying to be as optimistic as possible about these results.  Ryder hates the inhaler and it is a struggle to get him to use it.  Once he is used to it, I am sure it will get easier.   Poor little guy, a member of the "trifecta club" his doctor called it… food allergies, eczema, and now asthma.  Boo.

Ryder's inhaler, spacer, and mask.  He is still too little to take an inhaler the normal way.  So we have this tube thing (a spacer) and a mask that he uses to make it easier and insure that he gets the medicine.

On a happier note… we had a pretty fun weekend despite having to deal with Ryder's new daily treatment schedule.  Savannah had friends over… lot's of swimming happened… and of course, dinner was grilled every night!

Eric got me this squirrel feeder for Mother's Day.  It is seriously the most entertaining thing.  The kids and I love watching the squirrels come eat.  I am hoping that now that they have their own food they will stay out of my bird feeders.

What We've Been Up To

Enjoying our last few weeks of summer has taken over things around here.  Lots of swimming, lots of outdoor playing, staying up late and sleeping in... heading back to school and getting back into a routine is going to be rough on all of us.  Let the countdown begin... back to school in one week.  Eek.

This kid is absolutely crazy about swimming.  He has no fear and never wants to get out.

Leftover birthday cupcakes were eaten for about a week around here.  

Back to school shopping was easy peasy this year.  She didn't want a new backpack (just a new Elvis patch for her old backpack), she doesn't need any new clothes at this time, and we snagged the only Teen Beach movie lunchbox on the shelf... totally made her day with that purchase.  Oh, and she requested "swoosh bangs" for the first grade.  How could I refuse.

Just about every night this is how I find Savannah.  Since learning to read, all she wants to do is read.  Especially at bedtime.  Some nights she will even agree to going to bed early so she can have more time to read.  I remember those days... makes me smile to see that she loves reading so much.

Ryder's fancy pirate ship boat that he got for his birthday.  This thing is awesome... kids are loving having a pool in the backyard. 

Ryder has a pretty awesome big sister... who else would push you all over the yard for as long as you want... not mommy, I said no to that gig.  Sissy said yes though.

Cuddle time on the couch with my babes.  It's rare that the both of them will sit still at the same time with me.

Poor bud had to get his blood drawn for his annual allergy screening.  As usual, it was awful... having to restrain your child with all your strength while someone sticks him with a needle and takes eight vials of blood is a heartbreaking task.  To make it worse, the results were not good.  His allergies have actually gotten worse.  The dairy and egg allergy only increased a bit, but the peanut allergy grew a lot. Hoping an praying for better results net year.  For now I guess we'll keep doing what we're doing.

What We've Been Up To

Besides the great lice outbreak of 2013, not much else has been going on around here.  Savannah and I have started working on all her back to school refresher work, Ryder is crazy running all over the house all the time, and when whenever we have the chance, we head over to Scott and Michelle's house to swim.  Them moving down the street from us into a house with a pool is pretty much the best thing to happen.  The kids have lived in their pool this summer.  Makes me a little sad that summer is starting to wind down... the countdown to back to school has officially begun... 4 weeks to go.

Swimming.

Taking a break to eat after swimming.

Watching CARS nonstop.

More swimming and snacking.

Some backyard popsicle eating.

Swinging.

Sandbox playing.

More swimming!

2 In One Week

It is hard to believe that in just one week from today our little mister will be turning 2!  He is one crazy wild, big truck loving, thrill seeking little boy.  He drives us all a little batty sometimes... especially Savannah.  He wants to be around his big sister constantly.  I can hardly remember what it was like around here before the constant yelling and running and big truck driving.  He sure has added a whole lot of fun to our days.

The LONG Drive Home

It's taken a week for me to get around to posting that we arrived safe and sound back in Texas.  We left SD early early on Monday morning and arrived home late afternoon on Tuesday.  We made great time and the kids were the image of perfection during the drive.  This was the absolute best that the kids have ever been on a road trip.  There was not one crying or fussy moment.  Even on a successful road trip with kids you can expect some fussing.  I was blown away with how well everything went... and since I made the drive back by myself it made it so much easier to not have the stress of crazy kids to deal with.  So we are back back, unpacked, and already hating the heat.  It sure didn't take long for us to miss the perfect weather back in SD.  

Four states in one day... now that's one heck of a drive.

Ryder's cars and the outside scenery kept him pretty occupied during the drive.  He drove them up and down his leg and talked on and on about I don't know what.  Kid was cracking me up.

Once we arrived in El Paso we headed to the local Denny's for some food.  These kids were starving.  At some point during the meal Savannah gave Ryder her syrup and he started dipping his chicken nuggets in it.  Oh yum.  He finished every single nugget and most the fries thanks to that syrup.

After dinner we headed back to the hotel and did a little swimming.  I was bound and determined to tire these kids out so that we would have no issues going to sleep once we got back to the room.