Rylan, can you hear me???

Rylan has been sick for awhile, like the other boys.  But he's the only one that's had a consistently runny nose of thick gunk.  Also, for about 2 weeks, we had to almost yell for him to hear us.  And it was not a case of selective hearing - he really couldn't hear us.

After trying Flonase and saline drops (in his nose) to try to clear some of the congestion in his ears, we were about ready to take Rylan in to get his ears checked.  But then on Friday morning, yellow goo starting pouring out of his left ear.  Yay - another ruptured ear drum!  Luckily, unlike Carter, the pressure didn't build up in the same painful way before rupturing.  However, Carter's fluid was clear and thin (more like water) while Rylan's is more like snot.  Here is a totally disgusting picture in case you're curious - haha!

Carter's ear drum ruptured on Christmas Eve and luckily our pediatrician's office was open.  Unfortunately they were closed on New Year's Day (as were most urgent cares).  We made a judgement call and since Rylan wasn't in much pain (Motrin relieved any pain quickly) and he wasn't running a fever, we waiting until yesterday morning when our pediatrician's office was open for a few hours in the morning.

Rylan was diagnosed with a ruptured ear drum (obviously) and put on Augmentin (the same antibiotic that cleared up Carter).  I asked the pediatrician to also take a glance in Grayson's ears because he'd been pulling on them and acting a little more cranky.  He has another double ear infection.  She decided to also put him on Augmentin.  She believes they've all been fighting the same bacteria and since Grayson got another ear infection after being on amoxicillan and a Z-Pak, he needed to try what worked on Carter.  And all of this probably stems from them all having RSV.  Please, please let this finally make everyone healthy!!!

And by the way, Rylan's ear is still leaking 30 hours after first rupturing - I just took the picture above!

Rylan's Christmas Program & Party

Both Carter and Rylan had their Christmas parties on the morning of Friday, December 18th and both were expected to leave for the day after them.  Luckily Brian was able to take a few hours and attend Carter's party so I could go to Rylan's Christmas program and party.

Rylan's program was the two kindergarten classes singing about a dozen Christmas songs (some of which were new to me!).  They did a great job!

This is mostly Rylan's class.  Both classes have 20 kids.

There were movements even to go along with most of the songs.

I love Mason's santa hat that sticks straight up!!!

Here are a few videos of the kids performing:

At the end of the performance, there were a pair of special visitors who came to say hello!

Then it was back to the classroom for the Christmas party.  The party was simple - yummy snacks and giving Ms. Melissa her gift.

The only kid in Rylan's class I knew before he started school is Keegan.  Keegan's mom was Rylan's speech teacher the last two years.  The boys didn't know each other but they've become good friends.

Rylan got to visit with Mr. and Mrs. Claus and tell them what he wanted for Christmas.

The entire class contributed money and we did  Disney-themed set of gifts for Ms. Melissa.  She is going to Disney with her grandkids in 2016 so we gave her a monogrammed Mickey shirt, a Disney photo album, a Mickey Christmas ornament with her grandkids names on it, and a mini Disney suitcase with $400 in it.  She was very surprised and may have shed a few tears :)

We love Ms. Melissa!!!

Door Decorating

Carter's teacher asked if a few moms would volunteer to decorate the classroom door this year.  It was still covered in Minions from the start of school so I volunteered to do a winter-themed door for her.  I assembled it all at home since I had to bring Grayson with me and had to decorate the door during the time the kids were at music.  Luckily all my measurements were right and it fit (I did forget about the door handle but luckily I could easily move one of the snowflakes!!!).

According to Carter it was still holding up after 2 weeks when winter break began!

Carter decided he needed to decorate his bedroom door as well ...

Mini Me

Lots of people tell me that Grayson looks a lot like me.  No one has ever said that about the older boys!  I have to agree though.  I have a few pictures from when I was about his age.  What do you think?

3 Boys in a Wagon

I cleaned out the garage last week while all the boys played in the driveway.  Carter decided he wanted to pull Grayson in the wagon and I somehow got roped into pulling all three around for a bit - they are HEAVY!!!

Kangaroo

Brian and I took the boys to the zoo on Christmas Eve.  We were still in the middle of our absurdly warm December and the zoo was not crowded at all.  Perfect!

There was even a kangaroo on the path that we could pet (they usually stay off the path now which you cannot leave).

Grayson got to pet his first kangaroo!  Luckily he was a little more gentle with it than he is with Charlotte!

New Bike

Carter's big Christmas present this year was a new bike.  He'd been riding a 16" which was way too small for him.  We got him a Diamondback Cobra 20" Mountain Bike.  It'll still be good for his triathlons but also fun for gravel roads, etc.  It has hand brakes and some basic gears.  He LOVES it and wants to ride it all day!

Christmas Cookies

We made Christmas cookies last week.  These basic sugar cookies are the boys favorite.  They are the ones we also left out for Santa!

I found a cute stamping set to add a little character to the cookies this year.

Our Reindeer

A little blurry, but getting Grayson to keep these on is quite the challenge!!!

Elf on the Shelf Finale

I missed a few Fridays but here are the rest of the antics of our elf this year.

On Saturday, December 12th, we found him being attacked by dinosaurs!!!

The next day he apparently defeated the dinosaurs and decided to play with the photo booth props for our Christmas playdate.

I think Mr. Elf knew a lot of little kids were coming to our house on Monday so he decided to camouflage himself in our Christmas tree.

I think Mr. Elf was jealous that he didn't get to help build our gingerbread houses.

On Wednesday we found Mr. Elf playing Tic-Tac-Toe with a snowman.

Mr. Elf was shooting baskets on Thursday

On Friday Mr. Elf raided my gift stash and gave the big boys Lego keychain flashlights. (Mr. Elf may have forgotten to move and had to do something really quick when the boys woke up and before they started to look for him - he may have forgotten about Grayson - oops!)

Mr. Elf was riding a reindeer on Saturday.

On Sunday Mr. Elf got a little crazy!  The boys did a lot of crafts on Saturday and Mr. Elf borrowed the glue and googly eyes.

On Monday Mr. Elf left the boys a project to make.

The boys discovered perler beads on Monday and made tons of designs.  Mr. Elf made his own creation for the boys to find on Tuesday.

On Wednesday Mr. Elf was playing a set of homemade drums.

The boys played a bunch of games Wednesday night and Mr. Elf made them a matching game to play on Thursday morning.

And then he went back to the North Pole!  I can't say I will miss him :)