A family car night

For some reason the boys (and mostly Reid) have been VERY difficult lately. Reid has been back talking, not listening, etc. Russ and I can barely finish a sentence before he is adding his own two cents about whatever it is. We're giving warning after warning that he better start listening, etc. Well, 'warnings' ran out this weekend! We decided that we were going to have to really crack down for a while before this gets too out of hand. So, on Sunday there was no tv or DS all day and no scooter for the first half of the day. Reid is a HUGE tv fan so we knew this was difficult for him.

Honestly, we ended up having a pretty good day. Did some playing outside in a water slide with the neighbors, turned our sprinklers on, rode our bikes, etc. We made the kids pack it up at 7:00 and head inside for showers as we were going to stick to bedtime.

Once showers were done, instead of watching some cartoons we took the rug with roads on it out of Ryan's bedroom into our living room along with a collection of matchbox cars. We had a lot of fun playing cars, etc. Whatever car I had, the boys ended up wanting and whichever house I said I was living in - Ryan said he was living with me. There was no escaping! Daddy was not too good at sharing the cop car and pulled all of our cars over for silly items too. :) We had a lot of fun and I don't think the boys really missed the tv at all... Hmm... this was supposed to be punishment, right? Actually, we weren't trying to 'punish' them so much as get their behavior back on track - and not being glued to the tv always seems to help that.

In the same sense, we made the decision that DisneyXD is banned from our house - at least for now. I think it's tailored to a much older child, younger teenager and Russ and I neither one like how the kids (Zach and Cody, Zeke and Luther) on some of those shows act, etc. Reid has been copping quite an attitude lately and we think that is some of the influence. I figured out how to use the parental controls on the cable box and blocked that channel. I told Reid this morning and he was a bit bummed but quickly got over it and went to Disney Kids... and The Magic School Bus is much more comforting to me! I don't need an 11/12 year old acting kid any too early!

Here are pics from our "Car" night...

Some great father/son time...

Russ had an orienteering event with our Possom Trot club this past Saturday. It was a "sprint" course (i.e. short) and very close to our house so I took the boys to watch. We walked around and found three of the checkpoints near the end and sat there and watched as people came by, etc. We spotted Russ and got to watch him get the final 3 checkpoints and then head to the finish. We missed him actually finishing as he got there much quicker than we could get back over that way. After the race Russ took Ryan off to find another checkpoint with the map, etc. Reid was pouting (more on that in a later post) because he wanted to find all of the checkpoints and not just one so he stayed behind with me. Ryan seemed to really enjoy holding and looking at the map and walking around with dad.

On Sunday, Russ took Reid to a drop-in Stick and Puck session at an ice rink in almost FULL GEAR! The local Play it Again Sports had their hockey sale on Saturday and we got some great deals on more of Reid's equipment that he'll need if he actually joins a team and plays hockey. Reid was pretty excited about the new equipment. Once Russ and Reid got all of their gear on they skated around one end of the rink and each took some shots at the other. Reid was having a really good time with it but tuckered out pretty early. He probably got a good 20 - 25 minutes of playing and skating in but that about wore him out. I'm not sure he could last the full hour in all that equipment without some more practice or training (we're putting together a rough training schedule - JOKE). He said that it hurt his legs and he started deciding he needed lots of water breaks :) so we called it a day and headed home.

Ryan and I were just hanging out around the rink while Russ and Reid were playing so one of the employees let him sit on the zamboni. He loves watching the zamboni clean the ice but he wasn't too sure about driving it - the nilla wafers he was eating were distracting him ;)

Another bump in the road...

Ok, so the name of this movie might give a clue into how I'm feeling these days. We're guessing that this little boy (#3) is either going to be one tough cookie (Chris) or one needy little boy (Vern) that wants lots of attention :) And I'm not sure which would be better. We recieved my blood test results back yesterday and I am in fact carrying the human parvovirus B19 (Fifth Disease). The boys have had 5th disease over the last couple of weeks and when I told my dr he wasn't very excited about it. He sent me to the lab that night (last Thursday). We were hoping that I had it as a kid because if you have there is a greater than 50% chance that you carry an immunity to it. NO SUCH LUCK! The blood work shows that I have the virus at this time. Basically this puts the baby at risk for anemia (or fetal hydrops). Russ and I will go tomorrow for another ultrasound with the specialist at Midwest Perinatal - the same group we've been seeing for the other "issues." Through this ultrasound and most likely weekly ultrasounds for a while, they will monitor the baby's cerebral artery for any signs of anemia. If that occurs then we could be looking at needing an intrauterine blood transfusion or having this little guy early. Chances are slim so we're playing the odds again. (I'm thinking a trip to Vegas next year should be what we do!) The link above has the best information and seems to be exactly what the doctor said last night when he called to check in on us and see if we had any questions (previous conversations yesterday were only with his nurse).

Stay tuned for more McDowell drama... I mean ummm... news ;)

100 day countdown!

Well, we finally told the boys on Saturday that they were going to be big brothers! They took a few minutes to understand what we were telling them but once they warmed up and understood they got pretty excited. According to our weekly progress e-mails we have somewhere between 105 and 112 days to go in the pregnancy but we just told the boys that it would be in 100 days for simplicity sake. We sat in the nursery that has been emptied out and painted and told them that it was the baby's room. We talked a bit about names. Reid wanted to name him Meatball Noodle McDowell and Ryan eventually settled on the name Notre Dame. I'm guessing mom and dad will keep control of the name!

Both boys lifted my shirt and talked to my belly and played around a bit. It was about time we tell them that their little brother was in there as some days I feel more like a trampoline than a mom :) Now at least we can tell them why they need to calm down and be more careful on me - not that I'm just lazy and getting fat for no reason :) We hauled the new nursery bedding upstairs and Ryan had some fun laying around on it and "breaking it in" for #3. Both have had glimpses of being excited and not caring a whole lot but we've got lots of days ahead to build the excitement.

The boys will take a sibling preparation class (Big Brother class we'll call it) on October 10th where they will learn how to act around a baby, etc. Hopefully around that time we'll get them real excited to be the great big brothers that we know they will be.

For now we're just focusing on enjoying the few short weeks of summer that we have left, discussing getting ready for school for Reid, transition back to daycare for Ryan, fall sports for Reid (soccer and a hockey team), and whatever family fun we can build in the remaining 4 weeks of summer.

** Next major McDowell news - Russ will be competing in the Dusk 2 Dawn 12 hour adventure race on 7/25 and 7/26. He's been working hard to get in shape and we're super excited to see how it goes for him.

A great vacation!

We returned home mid-week last week from a fabulous vacation. We had a couple of days at home beforehand and a day at home after as well. It was very relaxing and a lot of fun. We went to Mark Twain Landing - the same resort that we stayed at last year for the Fourth of July. We had so much fun last year that my family decided to join us this year. My mother gave our family (and my three sister's) three nights stay at the cabins for Christmas in 2008. Russ and I added on a night and we spent four nights in the cabins (that's the way I do camping - full bathrooms, air conditioning, cable TV). The resort has so many activities for the kids (including a good size water park with hardly any lines) and it's just a great family time. We've already began discussions on going back next year.

The vacation was twice as nice for us as we are only 16 miles from Russ' parents as well. His brother came down from St Louis so the boys had both sides of their extended family together for several days. We had a 3rd birthday party for Ryan at their house one night and then a large cookout and fireworks with both sides of the family the next night. It was really special for us. We didn't spend a ton of money or pack in much sight-seeing but we really just enjoyed hanging out, being together, sitting by the bonfire, etc.

We had rented golf carts to get around the resort and they proved to be a lot of fun for everyone as well. I could just go on and on with all of the fun that we had but I'll just add all the great pictures that we got instead!

Swimming Lesson Success

The boys had their final swimming lessons today (and parents get to go watch). I was so proud of both boys - they did a fabulous job. Both of them have a few skills to work on in their respective classes but for the most part they passed all of the skills. Reid is swimming on his own and getting much more comfortable in the water. He needs to work on being comfortable floating on his back and gain some confidence with his crawl stroke. Ryan tried all the skills and even went underwater several times. He sat on the edge of the pool playing with a bucket when it was not his turn and never fussed or whined to come sit with Alyssa and I even though we were in there. I've attached several pictures from their lesson.

Tid Bits of Crazy!

It's just been one of those weeks at the McDowell house... MOM feels like she's spinning out of control :) Courtney keeps telling me to take photos, Russ keeps telling me to blog all this crazy sh*t the boys are coming up with and I just can't seem to get any of it done. Honestly, I don't have a lot going on at all... just in my head. And only 17 weeks left until we add to this craziness too (that's by my self created due date).

So, in no great story telling fashion, here's a bulleted list of some of the rather "odd" or funny things the boys have done this week.

* Swimming lessons started on Monday. While Ryan has never taken an activity or sport that wasn't one where the parent participate with the child - we thought he'd do just fine. I went in to work late Monday to help our summer babysitter get the boys checked in. Good call as Ryan completed melted down. I believe he cried during the whole lesson. Every day has gotten a bit better though and today (Thursday) the report from Alyssa was "no tears at all today."

* In a shortened summary form, let's just say the other night in the bathtub the boys had some fun with their special boy parts. Reid was trying to get his to float on the water and teaching his brother how to dump water on it. At one time he yelled "don't dump water on my head, only on my wee wee"... I ended baths quickly that night!

* Because Ryan actually participated in swimming lessons on Wed and I had things to get anyway, I took them to Wal-Mart where Ryan knew I was going to get some chocolate milk (which I don't buy much of anymore). Ryan said on the way that I was the "best mom ever." Reid often uses this classic suck up phrase but this was a first for Ryan. Then, Reid, to top his brother said... "If I were 53 and you were 44, I would marry you!" This was brought on because I've told him a couple times lately that he can't marry me because I'm his mom and I married his dad and he can't marry Courtney because she's his family and he can't really marry Morgan because she's too old for him. I told him he'd eventually marry someone that was about his age. He's really into wanting to "marry" people he loves a lot... especially Morgan - 4 times out of 5 that's who he will say is his girlfriend (and his 16 year old cousin... so probably won't work).

* Last night Ryan was playing out back in the little blow up pool and sprinkler when Reid decided that he wanted to play as well. He had been riding scooters out front with his friend, Jack. He sent Jack home after swim trunks and he went in to change clothes. Jack comes back changed from his house and Reid was still inside. After another good 3 minutes or so I thought maybe he needed some help. I hollered in the back door of the house "Reid, do you need help"... the reply comes from right inside the front living room -not where I was expecting him to be. He was fully clothed, sitting in the living room watching cartoons! I asked him if he was putting on his swimming trunks and he said "Oh, I forgot." The boy is ENAMORED with the tv. He had went inside and got stuck on cartoons and totally forgot what he was doing.

* Last night before I went to bed I sent our babysitter a note and asked her to come 30 minutes later and sent my boss a note telling her I was going to sleep a little longer. I didn't feel very good and just felt like I needed to get some extra sleep. At around 3:15 I heard Ryan hollering for me (something about the boys voices I can always hear). I go into his room and he's sitting up in his bed and tells me there are spiders in his bed. No clue where that came from but I took him potty, rocked him a bit, and put him back to bed. Then around 4:30 I hear him hollering again. I can't remember what he said this time - either worms or snakes were in his bed. I assured him there was nothing in his bed (and I swear we washed his sheets two days earlier) and tried to get him to lay back down. He wanted a drink so I went down and got one for him and he drank almost a whole glass of water (yeah, I figured he'd be up at 5 having to go potty too... but he didn't). I have no clue what brought on all that craziness but I think I'm banning any more Indiana Jones movies for him :) LOL.