Rhett's 3rd Birthday!

We couldn't wait to celebrate our wild, crazy, sweet, tender hearted Rhett!

 

 

On one hand, we couldn't believe he was already three,

but on the other hand, that boy has been pretty successfully keeping up with his big brother since he was about 1 1/2, so sometimes he seems more like a 3 1/2 year old already!

I mean seriously, that boy doesn't have limits.

He can do just about anything he sets his mind too.

 

He can climb any structure you put in front of him.

He can dress and undress himself.

He can find just about anything he wants in the kitchen,

and if he can't reach it, you better believe he'll figure out a way to get it.

He can't quite reach the light switches yet, so he will go get a plastic dinosaur or elephant and use the tail or trunk to turn the light on or off.

He puts in movies, gets out puzzles, draws on tables cabinets and toys (OH MY!)

He can climb over or open all our baby gates.

He is a smart little stinker!

 

A stinker who was super excited about his birthday this year,

it is so precious to see how much they remember about birthdays as they get bigger!

 

We started out with chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast!

 

 

and, because I literally can't NOT put this on here,

here is our naked little crazy,

running around the morning of his party saying,

"I NAKED! I NAKED! HAPPY BIRFDAY I NAKED!"

 

 

He is insane.

...and I have to save this and remember to share this on his 18th birthday,

and at his wedding! Hee!

 

After naps, our family came over for Spinach dip, salad and pizza,

and to help us celebrate our big 3 year old!

 

 We had a dinosaur themed party,

complete with lots of "ROARING" from a little 3 year old!

 

 

He was so sweet after opening presents,

we told him to give everyone a hug, and say, "Thank you!"

and as he went around,

he started saying,

"Thank you for my party!" to every single person as he hugged them.

It was precious, and melted Mommy's heart.

 

 Happy happy 3rd birthday you sweet little crazy!

We love you so so much!

 

Things I Never Want To Forget

 

The fact that these boys are best friends.

They fight.

They play.

Case loves showing Rhett new things.

Rhett adores his big brother.

Every day when Rhett wakes up from nap, he says "Where Chase?"

(Rhett calls him Chase)

They play in their rooms every morning now before letting us know they are up.

They play together all day long.

They fight over something every day.

They drive each other crazy.

They would not know what to do without each other.

We have entered the "Case is not SHARING!"

"NO MOMMY! Rhett is NOT SHARING" stage.

Yay us! ;)

They wrestle.

They worry about each other.

They watch out for each other.

They are crazy.

They are fun.

They hold our hearts.

They are amazing boys.

 

 

CASE

 

 

5 years old.

How did that happen?

He is so silly, and cracks us up daily.

He is hilarious.

He loves making people laugh.

He loves his little brother.

He loves baseball.

He still loves puzzles.

He loves books.

He favorite colors are blue and brown.

He is a little artist.

He can work a brand new 100 pc puzzle by himself.

He loves playing computer games.

He loves reading books.

Boy is starting to sight read.

He amazes us all the time with what he can do.

He loves to dance the robot.

He loves country music.

He is sensitive.

He loves school.

He is testing.

He is learning so much.

He is getting so big.

He loves movies.

He has almost completely dropped his daily nap.

He can't wait for kindergarten, and to ride the bus.

He loves Gunner.

He loves playing at parks.

He is precious.

 

 

RHETT

 

 

Almost 3 years old.

He is SUCH a stinker.

He absolutely never ever stops.

He is crazy.

He loves being naked. All the time. I mean, ALL the time.

He is so affectionate.

He loves his big brother.

He loves dinosaurs.

He loves the color orange.

He loves movies.

He loves Nick Jr's Paw Patrol.

He loves school.

He loves waffles and fruit.

...and pretty much only waffles and fruit.

He is such a picky eater.

He always has some sort of battle wound from playing too hard.

He is always doing something he's not supposed to be doing.

He loves playing outside.

He loves cars.

He is starting to sing all the time.

He is starting to make his own decisions when it comes to what he wants to do.

Which drives his big brother crazy. :)

He loves babies.

He loves girls. Oh my word, he loves girls.

He has no fear.

He goes all in, in whatever he's doing.

He loves dressing himself.

He loves books.

He is precious.

 

 

Life is so busy right now with these two boys,

and I just don't want to forget anything.

I know I will miss these days like crazy when they are gone.

 

Love you precious, crazy, wild boys.

 



Slow Progress

Last night, we heard, "I neetogo pee pee!" 

He's Mr. Independent, so we usually check on him 

after he's been in there for a few seconds, you know 

to get himself situated. 

("I do it myself! I do it! I try it!)

Then I walked in to see this, such a silly little stinker! 

Hey, I don't care how he goes, as long as he's going! ;)

So here's the update. 

This kid knows how to go on the potty. 

It's totally up to him now. 

If you have met the Rhetter man, 

you know he marches to the beat of his own drum. 

He'd rather be exploring the rock wall of escape, 

than playing with the 12 kids on the playground. 

He'd rather be running around full speed, 

hands in fists, and sprinting than sitting down. Ever. 

He'd rather climb the kitchen drawers...

or completely disassemble the childproof door covers...

or figure out how to unlock every single lock in the house...

or explore every corner of the ball park than watch Case play t-ball...

or wake up in the middle of the night, put on his baseball hat, 

put every toy he can fit into his Halloween bucket 

(don't ask, we don't know) and wake us up to say "Hi!" 

That's our Rhetter man. 

I'm going to have SO many stories for his future wife. 

So here's the thing, 

he goes when he wants to go. 

The first couple of days, he had lots of accidents, 

but slowly through the week started to have a few more 

successful trips.  

Just this past week, he has been telling me, 

even when we are out. 

I haven't changed a pull up, or cleaned up an accident 

in the mornings in a while now! 

Little man usually gives up after nap time,

but we are getting there. 

We have good days and bad days, 

some days he just doesn't ever tell me, all day long. Nothing. 

Then the next day, he uses it 5-7 times! 

 He's getting there though, 

it's funny how different our boys have learned how to use the potty. 

Rhett is muuuch more relaxed about this whole thing. ;) 

Proud of our cute little crazie. 

He's getting so big. 

Sometimes Parenthood is Really Really Hard

...like when you are potty training. 

After a few failing trial runs, 

and talking to my big sister, 

I decided to take the plunge.

I was going to start full on potty training Rhett,

right after Case was out of preschool. 

That way we would have minimal distractions, 

and we could get down to business. 

Day 1: 

We tried the naked route. 

(It worked really well with Case)

Equal parts of accidents and successes.

& several pull up mishaps, he's still very comfortable in them. 

Day 2: 

Rhett went successfully that morning, 

then played at a friends house for a few hours, 

and went in his pull up. 

That evening, he had a few accidents, 

then on to bed. 

Day 3: 

That morning, while washing dishes 

(our dishwasher is broken, ugggh) 

I heard a little voice say, "Uh oh! Mommy!!!" 

I searched for him, 

and found him in the bathroom, 

standing in a puddle of pee...

Hey he was in the right room right?? 

Then about 10 minutes later he went #2 in the potty! 

I was SUPER excited, except that the rest of the day went WAY DOWN HILL from there.

We went to the library and the park after that

(I should have known this was a bad idea, it took us off course)

Rhett took a teeny cat nap on the way to the park from the library, 

and apparently that was enough sleep to completely refuse his usual 2-3 hour nap.

So, a few pull up mishaps happened in that nap time window

while wearing a pull up. 

While Case was napping away, Rhett was getting into everything. 

(He has been super duper clingy, and whiny, 

and downright destructive lately)

Not to mention he has been waking up several times a night, 

I'm talking 5-10 times a night, it's exhausting, he hasn't done that since he was a month old)

SO...

add all of that together, 

then enter 4 accidents in the living room 

while I was sitting right next to him playing leggos, 

I was just down right mad. 

Frustrated. 

Exhausted. 

Matt came home, right after another accident happened, 

and I just felt like crying. 

I couldn't understand why he didn't even seem to care, 

he had been doing pretty well the days before...

then I remembered, 

"Oh yeah, he hasn't had a nap today, and we are both exhausted"

So, I calmed down, put a pull up and pajamas on him, 

popped in a movie and sat down on the couch with him. 

& 2 minutes later...

 Bless his heart. 

We kept pull ups on the rest of the night, tomorrow is a new day. 

Potty training ain't easy.

Rhett: 1, Potty Training: 0

Rhett definitely won the first battle of potty training.

Thankfully, I wasn't ready to full out train him, it was more of a little trial run. 

He asks every now and then to go "Pee pee on the potty." 

He'll strip all of his clothes off and point the bathroom door. 

He always sits for about 0.3 seconds (without accomplishing anything) and yelling, "ALL DONE!" 

At his recent 2 year old check up, our Doctor encouraged us to really use that at our advantage. 

So I decided I'd give it a try one weekend, when I knew we didn't have any plans. 

We brought out the potty chair we used for Case, and gave it a try. 

I stripped Rhett down, and explained what we were trying. 

(By the way, it never gets funnier seeing a little teeny tiny tush running around all day!) 

About 15 minutes after taking the diaper off he had a little accident, 

so I sat him on the potty and went over again, that we were going to pee pee in the potty.

"Okaaaaaay." 

Yeah, you aren't convincing me yet, kid. 

Let's just say, a couple days and a few EPIC accidents later. 

(One including a #2, leggos, and lots of bleach) 

we chalked it all up to an exhausting weekend of chasing Rhett around with anti bacterial cleaner, 

and one 2 year old who could give two...well, just could care less. ;) 

Mommy's new plan is to wait until the weather is a little warmer, 

and he's a few months older. 

Wish us luck!

Sick Little Boys Break My Heart

After all of the Christmas festivities, Rhett developed a little cough. 

A little cough turned into a bigger cough, along with a runny nose. 

Runny nose turned into a fever, and an awful cough. 

Yesterday, Rhett was absolutely miserable. 

Burning up, cheeks flushed, napped all day. 

Gunner and Case were so worried about him, 

which as you can imagine just melted Momma's heart. 

Today we took Rhett into the Doctor, 

he was acting and playing like normal, 

I almost hesitated on taking him in at all!

Thankful we did though, as it turns out he has a small case of pneumonia! 

Daddy's picking up his medicine on his way home tonight, 

he seems to be feeling much better, thank goodness. 

However, I am more than ready to let this antibiotic kick it out of his system.

Love his little heart.

A 4 Year Olds Christmas List

 This year Case kept it simple once again, 

 

1) A BIG race car

2) Candy

3) An airplane because his was broken. 

 

I asked him what he though Rhett wanted, and he said, 

Hmmm, maybe a new choo choo train or a dinosaur. 

 

Sweet boys.    

Rhett's 2 Year Old Wellness Check Up

Thinking back to his previous wellness check ups, 

I was anxious to hear how our little man was doing. 

Especially since the last couple involved weight checks. 

If you remember, he didn't gain much between his last routine check ups. 

Giving his Mama lots of anxiety, which led to lots of peanut butter milk shakes

to help fatten him up a little.

Half of me knew our wonderful Doctor was just being cautious, 

but on the other hand it was constantly in the back of my mind. 

Thankfully, the appointment was perfect! 

Our little guy's weight has gone back into the normal scale. 

His little ears, reflexes, and measurements were all on track. 

Rhett is a whopping 26 pounds. Ha! Teeny little thing.

He told us that he was very advanced in his large and fine motor skills, 

as he watched him play with the provided leggos and books. 

The funniest part about the appointment though, 

was that Rhett was chatting up a storm before the Doctor came in. 

I even caught myself shushing him and laughing to myself. 

He was just a taaaalking, and a talking. 

When our Doctor walked in, he even commented, 

"Who's the happy boy making all that noise?"

Well, Rhett. 

Proving to be shyer and shyer, 

took one look at him and shut his trap. 

He grabbed a book, keeping one eye on Doctor Latham. 

Then came and sat on the empty chair next to me. 

Stuck out his bottom lip, and turned the pages. 

We both laughed a little over his sudden change in behavior, 

and Rhett continued to pretend to read as he asked me the routine questions about my boy. 

 He warmed up a little after Dr. L let him play with his otoscope...and after the stickers. :)

Sooo thankful for our happy healthy little boys. 

 

Rhett is TWO!

Happy Second Birthday Little Man! 

After celebrating Mamaw the weekend before, (Happy birthday Mamaw!)

we turned right around to celebrate our little man turning the big two. 

Big thanks to Nanny for letting me use her camera, as always! 

 

CHOO CHOO, LOOK WHO'S 2! 

Since there was a UK game on Saturday, we celebrated Sunday afternoon with our family. 

Mommy drew and cut out several choo choo trains, Daddy make chilli, 

and we had a very simple, fun little party.   

 Pretty girl!

 

Rhett was napping when our family showed up, we put him down early 

so he would get a nap in before the party. 

However, when he was still snoozing past 2:00, Matt went to check on him. 

He's been known to wake up on the wrong side of the crib if woken up too fast. 

We usually wait until he calls for us, otherwise he will be so grumpy. 

Well, with a party waiting for him...we took our chances...

We should not have taken our chances. 

Rhett was so cranky for the first 45 minutes or so. 

He was a little overwhelmed by seeing everyone all at once while coming down the stairs.

He clung to Momma like white on rice. 

 Finally...he got distracted by Toy Story 3, and I was able to give me hip a break. 

Then he remembered that he needed me. ;)

  (I made his little choo choo train shirt with the freezer paper method) 

As soon as we broke out the presents, his mood changed pretty quickly! 

Case was pretty excited about presents too! 

  

      How stinkin' cute are you Rhetter?!

Then as always, we spent the rest of the party putting toys together, 

eating cake, and hanging out.  

After the sugar!

Happy birthday to our wild, crazy, tough, rough, train lovining, dinosaur loving, silly, sweet, cuddly little boy. 

We love you so much Rhetter man!