Rylan's 9th Birthday (Part 2)

You can thank Rylan for these last two posts -- not because her birth 9 years ago is the subject matter, but because she's been so sick for the last 3 days that I've been forced to stay home. It came down to cleaning the house or blogging, so here I am.

Rylan started taking riding lessons shortly after we got here to Colorado and she LOVES it. She has read her Horse Care for Kids reference book about 5 times, and considers herself quite the expert after a short 6 months of instruction. Anyway, she asked for a horse riding party for her birthday this year and her fantastic teacher Margi (who is a regional dressage {English riding} champion and also our bishop's wife) said she'd be happy to do one for Rylan.

Here's the crew getting some instruction before the riding...


Everyone got a chance to do a regular ride and then do some vaulting, which is basically "trick riding", and Rylan was happy to provide a demonstration.





We had gorgeous 60 degree weather the day of the party, but right around cake and present time the winds really picked up, so we had to shield the cake in the back of the car. It still tasted good.


So there you have it, Future Rylan -- your parents really love you and went out of their way for your flowery, weird breakfasty, donuty, Olive Gardeny, Bliss Cupcakey, presenty, Galan-y, spa-package-y, Paradise Bakery lunch-y, horsey, school skipping-y 9th birthday.

Now what do you have to say for yourself, young lady?


Awwww...you're welcome:)



HUGE thanks to the Galans who made this birthday so much fun for our whole family. Thanks to Sarah for flying with 2 kids to be here, and thanks to Perry for holding up the fort at home with the other kids. We love you guys!

Halfway to Marryin' Age! (kidding -- I'll kill her if she's a day under 30)

You might think having a 9 year old child makes me feel old. And you'd sort of be right except for that part where I'm only 31 because I got married at 18 and gave birth when I was a wee lass of 22. Which means I am still young and full of vim and vigor! Huzzah!

Anyway...

Rylan turned 9 last week and I'm going to document the crap out of this birthday so she can't ever say I don't love her.

***Attention Future Rylan -- take a good hard look at everything we did for your birthday this year before you tell me how I ruined your life again. Sincerely, Mom***

Our baby girl has made some wonderful new friends here in Colorado, but with some regularity tells us how much she misses Abby, her best friend from Georgia. After talking to Sarah and realizing that Abby missed Rylan equally as much as Rylan missed her, The Two Best Moms EVER (who had nothing at all to gain from this totally selfless plan) planned a huge surprise for both girls and booked flights for Team Galan to come to Denver. We'll get to those details in a bit, but here's how the day went BEFORE the biggest surprise:

7:30 am -- Rylan wakes up all smiles to a bouquet of tulips from Daddy

7:35 -- When asked what she'd like for breakfast, replies, "Hard-boiled egg whites and fresh strawberries". Her awesome mother obliges (but thinks it's kind of weird).

8:00 -- Devours requested breakfast.

1:00 -- Has donuts with pink frosting and sprinkles delivered to her classroom by the same awesome mother.

1:30 -- Awesome mother is in Walgreens picking up photos of Rylan and Abby through the years for awesome "BFF Shadowbox" project when Branik tugs on leg and says, "My tummy hurts".

1:32 -- Leaving Walgreens

1:35 -- Branik is on the couch at home watching How to Train Your Dragon

3:45 -- Ry and Keaton need to be picked up from bus and immediately taken to Rylan's riding lesson. Movie and blanket moved to car with Branik.

4:10 -- Arrive at Rylan's lesson.

4:12, 4:13, 4:15, 4:17, 4:18 -- Branik throws up all over car.

4:25 -- Back at house to bathe Branik, clean off seatbelt, booster seat, carpet, start laundry.

4:50 -- Put Branik on other side of car to avoid wet seat belt. Drive back to get birthday girl.

4:55 -- Boone calls to make sure we're still on for Olive Garden dinner and Bliss Cupcakes for dessert, per Rylan's request. I tell him Branik threw up but seems fine now. Still on for dinner out.

4:57 -- Branik throws up on other side of car.

5:00-6:00 -- Pick Rylan up from riding, take puke-mobile home, send kids #1 and #2 with Dad for birthday dinner while Awesome Mom starts ANOTHER load of laundry, bathes Branik again, cleans other side of car. Eats cereal for dinner.

6:15 - 10:30 Branik throws up 3 more times, falls asleep on ottoman, poops pants in sleep 5 times. Take home message? Being an Awesome Mom is glamorous and exciting.

Anyway, the other family members returned home from OG with cupcakes in hand for a round of "Happy Birthday" and the opening of family gifts.







Here's what Branik did while we celebrated:



After all of the evening activities had worn down, I asked Rylan if she'd had a good day. She smiled and nodded, and I laughed maniacally in my head because she had no idea that the biggest surprise was flying towards her at that very minute.

Sarah, Abby, and Baby Harrison didn't get to our house until close to midnight, which felt like 2:00 am to them, so we decided to let the reunion take place the next morning:

http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=10150139215335380

So I let Rylan skip school Thursday and Friday so she could chill with Abbs and they didn't have any fun at all:




I totally lucked out with a Groupon for this little girls' salon near my house so the girls got mani-pedis, up-do's, and glitter lotion, hairspray, and glitter-heart-face-stamp (it sounds weird but was cute) for $18. Rylan chose princess hair and Abby chose pop-star hair. Cute place.




As you can see, the girls had no problems at all picking up right where they left off, and it was great to see them enjoying each other so much. And maybe their moms enjoyed seeing each other too. Maybe. It's possible that we ate at 4 different restaurants in 4 days and that I got 2 desserts for myself at one of those restaurants while Boone and Sarah hid their faces in embarrassment.

Blogger won't let me upload any more photos to this post for some reason so I guess I'll call this Part 1 and post her actual party in another post. Probably sometime in September:)

Sunday Anatomy Lesson

"That was hilarious last week -- you know, that thing Keaton said to the bishop!"

This was said to Boone as he was in the hall today, and he responded with a confused look and the words, "What are you talking about?"

"What am I talking about? You mean you didn't hear what he said?"

Boone, still confused, assured him that he'd heard nothing about Keaton and asked what had happened. Our friend was all too happy to tell him...

Apparently last week Keaton was sitting in Primary (Sunday School for kids ages 3-12) listening closely to every word coming out of the bishop's mouth as he was presenting Sharing Time. In his remarks, he mentioned Sister So-and-So -- "the pianist" -- at which point Keaton yelled out,

"Bishop! She's a girl and girls don't have PENISES! They have VAGINAS!"

And our poor, poor bishop said, "No no Keaton, I said PIANIST -- a pianist is someone who plays the piano."

Keaton: "Oh. Okay. Sorry Bishop."

When Boone mentioned this to a few other ward members today, they replied, "Oh yeah. That's a good one! My wife told me all about it last week."

And just like that, I found myself even more grateful that I was on the other side of the country last Sunday:) Love that kid's face off.

Question

Do you think it's abnormal that when I am speaking to or quoting my friends from England I am totally incapable of refraining from doing so in an English accent? Because I can't not do it. It makes Boone crazy, which is sort of the best part.

Also too, it takes me all of about 3 minutes around them to start saying things are "lovely", "wonky", "brilliant", "dodgy", etc. And maybe I also say "bullox", which I think might be atrociously profane. Don't tell me if it is, because I like how it sounds and I don't want to stop saying it.

In His Own Words (UPDATED)

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Help Us Get a Free 8x10!

Okay so most of you who read this are also Facebook friends with me so you've probably done this already, but if you haven't...

We got family pictures taken last week and if I can get 25 people to leave a comment on the photographer's blog we'll get a free 8x10. I think we have 18 comments so far, so if you have nothing better to do than stare at our family hop over to Melissa's blog and leave a comment!

Thanks!

http://blueprintsphotography.blogspot.com/

With Two Hands, Baby! (for JustMe)

(This picture has absolutely nothing to do with the post, I just think it's cute)


So one of the earliest signs of a developmental delay like Asperger's is an absence of pointing, or pointing with something other than your index finger. At Keaton's 2 year checkup the doctor asked if he pointed and when I said, "No. Does that matter?" she stopped writing and told me it was a marker for a variety of problems, and then proceeded to run down another list of behaviors I should be watching for. We all know how that turned out.

Anyway.

Keaton did eventually start pointing.......with his middle fingers. For a couple of years, every time he would point with his "tall man" I would just acknowledge whatever he was showing me by saying, "Oh yes! I see _____!" and use my index finger to show him the appropriate way to point.

Do you think he caught on? No. No he didn't. And as he got older and was hanging around with older kids it started to concern me a little more that he might be taken the wrong way if we didn't teach him the right finger to point with. So I started saying, "Keaton, when we point, we use THIS finger. It's even CALLED your pointer! Isn't that cool?" And he would fumble around awkwardly, trying to command his middles down and his pointers up.

Still, no dice. No spontaneous, un-coached dice anyway. Again and again his middle fingers were pointed: at people, at books, at signs. Did I mention at people?

So this summer after he had pointed again using his middle finger I finally sat him down and had the following conversation:

Me: "Keaton, when you point, you really need to use a different finger. This one is your pointer, and it's the best one for pointing."

Keaton: "Why?"

Me: "It just has the right name."

Keaton: "Why can't I use THIS one? (flipping me off)"

Me: (sigh) "Because that one means something very rude, Keaton. And if you point with that finger, people think you are saying something very mean."

Keaton: "What do they think I'm saying when I do this? (flips me off again)

Me: "They think you are very angry at them. And you don't want people to think you are angry, right? You don't want to hurt feelings."

Keaton (looking confused and staring at his outstretched middle finger again): "This means I'm angry?"

Me: "Yep. So let's try to remember to use the POINTER finger to point so we don't hurt feelings, okay?"

Keaton: "Okay Mom!"

He ran off and I kept my own fingers crossed that my explanation would help him remember why I was always talking to him about his.

Fast forward to that very same evening after dinner when Boone decided to watch a basketball game:

(**side note -- Boone loves sports. I mean LOVES sports. But he almost never watches games because he is too busy being productive. So when he DOES decide that something is worth watching I always encourage it and usually watch with him. I just wanted to clarify that it is rare for him to commandeer the remote and pick what he wants. Moving on... **)

Keaton: "Daaaaddd! I want to watch Spiderman!"

Boone: "Sorry bud, I'm going to watch basketball tonight."

Keaton: "DAAADD! I said I want Spiderman! Let me watch Spiderman!"

Me: "Keaton, you've watched Spiderman already. It's Dad's turn and he's watching basketball. Why don't you watch with Daddy?"

Keaton was fuming at this point -- probably dancing around like he does when he gets really agitated and starts to melt down -- when suddenly he stopped what he was doing, gained total control of himself, marched right up to the tv, and threw up both middle fingers in front of the screen.

Keaton: "I do this at you Dad, because I AM ANGRY AT YOU! I'M SHOWING YOU MY MIDDLE FINGERS!"

Hysterical laughing from both parents ensued and Keaton, satisfied with his result, went into the other room to color.

Keaton: 3,217 Parents: 0