New Home

No, we're not moving to another city or house but we do need to move this blog as I've met my free storage quota for pictures (between this blog and Isla's) and I'm not quite ready to pay a monthly fee.

Our new blog home:

http://mesplace.wordpress.com/

Isles the Baker

The girls have been sick for a while. M has been under the weather for more than 2 weeks now, but we're hopeful that everyone will be feeling much better for Thanksgiving now that the antibiotic regimen is in progress. Isla is still sick in these shots but after a long nap was able to enjoy some one on one baking time with mama.

These are Isla's I HEART SANTA pi's ... an early present from granny. Too cute!

The Monkey Dance

 Right now the girls are REALLY into watching the Wiggles on YouTube. Maryn in particular loves their version of The Monkey Dance and asks for it 1st thing when she wakes up or arrives home. Below you'll see a few shots of them dancing along with the Wiggles as we play the clip through our apple tv.

b a b y u p d a t e

baby Mae

This obviously isn't a picture of our little spud who will be making his/her appearance within the next month or so but I wanted to include a baby photo with this post and it's just so sweet.

When Mae was 32 weeks they guessed she was already between 5.5 and 6 pounds!!! When Isla was 32 weeks her estimated weight was between 5 and 5.5 pounds. They were both measuring big pretty early on. And in case you don't remember Maryn was born on her due date (12-23-08) weighing 9 pounds 4 ounces. Isla was born 01-19-11, 4 days shy of her due date weighing in at 10 pounds 2 ounces! 

So, imagine my surprise when I went in for my 32 week ultrasound a week late at 33 weeks to learn this one was measuring just over 4 pounds! 

"Is everything okay?" I asked.

"Everything looks great," the Dr. replied. "Four pounds is pretty average at this stage. Remember every baby is different."

So I was worried with my history this kid was bound to be 11 pounds, but maybe not. Is it possible I might actually have a full term baby that will be able to wear New Born sizes? As some in my office have said, "I wouldn't bet on it."

A friend brought over the infant baby car seat on Sunday which she's generously agreed to let us use. She's actually having her 3rd baby about a month after us, but her older kids are twins so she had an infant seat to spare. Mae and Isles spent a lot of Sunday night buckling their baby dolls into the carrier. I can't wait to see their little faces when they see a real live baby sitting in it. 

Amazingly Freaky Sponge Brains

Mike was out of town again for part of the week and most of the weekend. I had to leave work early on Thursday and Friday night to pick them up from Ms. Jo's. It was nice ... we got into an evening dinner routine. They watched an episode of Dora the Explorer on Netflix streaming while I got things ready. We sat down to a simple but yummy meal. They had avocado slices, some grapes, corn dish casserole, and soy nut butter and jelly sandwiches while I had lightly battered Trader Joe's chicken, sun dried tomato and goat cheese ravioli with tomato sauce. For ease we had the same meal both nights, but it was so good we didn't mind.

Thursday night while chomping down on her avocado Isla said, "Mama, where's dada?"
Mae chipped in with , "He's at work." which is my typical reply.
"Actually," I said, "He's not at work. He's on a trip."
Isla replied, "Oh! Mama, I go on a trip too!"

I sat the girls down for breakfast on Saturday morning bright and early. We were enjoying a nice breakfast and a lovely, although fairly one sided (on my part), conversation. Wondering if they would remember the discussion from 2 nights before I said, "Girls, where is dada?"
"He's at the airport," my 21 month old replied.

I smiled, said something about how he would be going to the airport the next day to catch a flight home from his trip and then I racked my brain trying to figure out if I had said ANYTHING about an airport in the last few days. Nope. Hmm. Someone else (maybe Jo or the big kids at daycare?) must have said something to her about going to the airport to go on a trip. Or did she remember it from our July trip to the Jersey Shore? Unbelievable.

Little kids really are sponges! It's easy to take for granted all the learning that is going on inside their brains especially before they are really verbal. Both of my girls have reminded me of this fact in their own ways.

Mae was delayed with speaking and pointing. We'd read books over and over and over (which she loved) and she would never point to or name anything in them. But often out of the blue, just when you felt like the repetition wasn't helping, she'd do or say something that made me realize she was making connections. Like for months and the better part of her 2nd year when she'd hardly ever say a word while we were reading a book to her. Then, almost overnight she was reciting most of Madeline right along with us. Similarly she had an evaluation by a new speech therapist (when she was 2 & 1/2) who was trying to determine if she was a candidate for a springboard device, which helps kids with limited verbal skills communicate. They got out their I-PAD and put on a program asking her to identify specific objects when listed with 1 or 2 other options. It would list 3 pictures and a voice would say, "can you find the bicycle?" She got most of the objects right! I remember being floored by all the things she knew that I didn't realize she could identify-- some of which I knew she had limited (if any) exposure to. I'm so glad we never gave up reading books and explaining things to her just because she wasn't talking much and pointing and naming stuff when we thought she should.

Geez, we adults can be so impatient and needy. Like, come on 2 year old, I need you to validate that all this time I'm spending reading books to you is paying off ... come on, give me something. Point to a bird and say tweet tweet for crying out loud! I'm so embarrassed that I felt like I needed that from her. Sorry baby.

Little Isla reminds me of the freaky sponge learning thing almost daily largely because she is so verbal at such a young age. She'll often point toand  name an object in a book we're reading. Often times it's something I had no idea she even knew. Once, she picked up a book from a big pile of books in my bedroom. It had the word CATS written across the front with no pictures and no design. I had never read it to her and to my knowledge, she hadn't seen it before. She smiled and said, "Oh, Cats!" Mike and I looked at each other like, did you read that to her? No, did you? No. Weird. So, either she had seen the inside of the book before somehow which did have some cat pictures, or, she's seen a picture of a cat somewhere with the word CAT written under it and remembered how the word looked. Either way, she remembered. Crazy.

My little baby nooshes will teach me so much more than I will ever teach them.

Halloween Bust!

Yep, it didn't really happen this year. Halloween 2012 .. trick or treating - for Mae, sort of, for Isles, nope. Wearing her costume to pre-school... well, she wouldn't put on this year's but last years sort of fit, so she went with that, but without the hood. Annual photo shoot at the Children's Garden ... we tried but the pictures weren't the best and the costumes didn't make an appearance.

I could bore you with some of the details. M was given the opportunity to trick or treat at one of her therapy appts. but wasn't really in to it. Her ice cream cone costume was a bit too stiff for her sensitive sensory system and I saw no reason to push it.

At the children's garden crabby Isla was running on no nap and neither was really interested.

I had hurt my back the day before (shuffling them from appt to appt) and after an entire 2nd day of shuffling them from pre-school to therapy appts. and back again the thought of heading out to trick or treat was less than appealing. We were all tired so we went to dinner instead. I never realized just how quiet restaurants are on Halloween.

After retuning home we decided to keep the lights out on the porch, get the girls in bed and rest up. So, no trick or treaters, minimal trick or treating, no photos in costumes and only a couple of pieces of candy. Hopefully next year we will be up for more... but with 3 kids ages 4 and under I can't promise it. 2014 will be our year -- I can feel it!

M trying to give Isla a hug

isla starting to loose it here

* 2 1 m o n t h s *

Isla is growing up so fast.

She speaks in simple complete sentences more often than not.

She wants to do EVERYTHING herself .. going up and down the stairs, eating her yogurt, putting on her shoes, brushing her teeth, peeling her banana, putting food back in the fridge, getting stuff out of the pantry, climbing into her Stokke chair, buckling herself in, taking off her pi's etc.

Tonight at dinner she ate a LOT of cucumber, some pasta Bolognese, cut up oranges, oatmeal, a few scrambled eggs, some chocolate soy milk and a tiny glass of apple juice. She also insisted on having a kalamata olive from my salad even thought I kept telling her it wasn't a grape. I handed a small piece over. She popped it into her mouth and made a sour face. Mike and I laughed a bit. Then she said, "I like it" as she chewed and swallowed with the sour look present throughout. Not surprisingly, she did not ask for more.

She is so into pretend play right now. She loves to play with the little people and the little people house. She loves little cars and will drive them all over the place. Tea party is another favorite activity .. I even got out the ceramic kid set but she's still a little rough with it. Baby Ellie (one of the baby dolls) is her favorite baby right now. She enjoys looking at books but loves to read them together. She'll hand me a book and back up to plop in my lap -- even though there isn't much room these days.

Last week during one of our little walks outside. She had her rain coat and boots on and splashed in puddles for 20 minutes. She didn't even mind that it started raining again while we were out there.

Whenever she gets hurt she wants a band aide and her mama but not much phases her for too long.

Last week Mike was taking both girls upstairs to put them to bed and Isla said, "Wait!" Mike asked what she needed and she said, "I need to give mama a hug!" She then raced over to where I was gave me this huge hug and said, "goodnight mama, love you ... see you in the morning."

When Mike leaves in the morning she'll often waive from the breakfast table, "Bye bye dada. I love you. Have a good day. See you later"

Oh how I love my little isles!

Ahh Nuts!

We are in the process of making the rounds to M's specialists. Hopefully we'll be able to get most of these in before the baby arrives in early December. Today I took both girls with me to M's 1st appointment with an allergist. I've suspected that M has various allergies. We became aware of a probable tree nut allergy after she had a mild reaction to Pistachio and Hazelnut ice cream/gelato a while back. She has a clear runny nose more often than not, tends to breathe through her mouth, has the tell tale coloring under her eyes and appeared to break out in mini hives once after climbing on the couch and rubbing her eyes.

First the Dr. asked about our family history. There are no allergies that I'm aware of on my side of the family. I had no allergies as a child and adolescent but did develop seasonal allergies in my mid to late 20's. There are allergies (including food) on Mike's side of the family. He himself had allergies to animals when he was younger but they seem to have become much more mild into adulthood.

After learning more of M's medical history seeing the coloring under her eyes, her mouth breathing and her clear runny nose she agreed that allergies were at play. She explained the need for a scratch test where they scratch her skin lightly and place a drop of fluid containing a specific allergen into this area and within minutes the nurse was in drawing a grid on her back. M was NOT in to this. The dr scratched my skin to show me that it didn't hurt, but explained that Maryn would not be happy during the process. She didn't need to tell me that. M is not a fan of doctor offices period. Even if what is being done to her doesn't hurt she still doesn't want them near her. With all the girl has been through in her short life I don't blame her one bit.

Once the scraping was complete a timer was set for 20 minutes. She wasn't to touch her back and had to leave her shirt off until the results were read.  The nurse left the room. Isla also wanted to take off her shirt and considering M wanted hers back on I thought it might help to have Isla in the same state of undress. So, off her shirt went and both girls were happy.

It became clear in just a few short minutes that virtually all of the 20 or so allergens they were testing for were causing a reaction on her skin. The nurse came in at the 10 minute mark to make sure everything was okay. "Yep, but I think she's allergic to all of it," I said. The nurse took a peak and said, "Wow, well the dr. will be in to read the results in 10 minutes."

I have to admit it made me more worried when 10 minutes later the dr. walked in and seem quite surprised to see the results. She did have a reaction to every single allergen for which they tested. The most severe reactions were to cashews and cats. I remember number 15-cashews, had a hive over another hive in that small space. This is when the dr. first said EpiPen. "From now on your daughter is not to go anywhere unless it's with her. And everyone who cares for her needs to be instructed on how to administer it."

M is allergic to tree nuts. We'll need to be much more cautious about reading labels. Not nuts, no nut oils. She can't have anything unless we know exactly what's in it, and nothing made in a plant that processes tree nuts. And while a peanut is not a nut, it's a legume, she recommended staying away from that as well as 50% of kids with tree nut allergies develop one to peanuts. She also said that plants that process peanuts also typically process tree nuts and cross contamination can occur. Well, it's too bad one of her favorite foods is PBJ. We'll have to try some new things to take its place.

She also has a number of environmental allergies.

Thankfully we've been doing a lot right already (we have a high quality vacuum cleaner that also has a HEPA filter, we keep her bedroom door closed all the time, she doesn't use a pillow, we don't allow the animals in her room, we have no carpeting, no nick-nacks in her bedroom that collect dust, she doesn't like stuffed animals so she doesn't really have many of those).

Some of the things we'll need to start doing:
try to get visitors to remove shoes when entering the house (certainly the dog brings in environmental allergens but it helps to limit it as much as possible)
mopping once a week
wiping down her room with a wet cloth every 1-2 weeks
purchasing mattress covers to discourage dust mites
laundering linens more often and in hot water
put a HEPA filter in her room
giving her a bath and changing her clothes after she's been outside for a period of time
avoiding the outdoors on days when pollen (etc.) counts are high
traveling with an EpiPen and getting her one for school/daycare
keeping windows closed in her room always
limit visitors going into her room (and depositing environmental allergens into the space)
don't allow the girls to play in the bedroom unless they have changed into pj's
keeping the windows up in the car and the air on re-circulate esp. in the morning and evening
she will need daily medication

The pup
It appears that she is allergic to dogs but it's fairly mild at this point. The Dr explained that it could get worse especially if we're not good about vacuuming/mopping etc. What is a greater issue with the dog at this point is that she will track environmental allergens into the house from outside.

The cat.
So the cat tries to avoid the girls as much as possible, which helps. We are looking into the possibility of finding her another good home but if it doesn't pan out we'll do the best we can to further limit the exposure. She will not go to a shelter. We've made a commitment to care for our animals and we don't take that responsibility lightly.

We're to try to implement as much of the above list as possible and schedule a follow up appt. 2 months out. That's about the time we'll be having a baby. Geez ... lots on our plate right now.

Hopefully all of the specialists we see in the next 2 months don't require follow up visits.

: )

Girls Day Out & In

 The girls and I spent the entire day together - just the 3 of us. After breakfast around 8ish we headed over to, you guessed it, the arboretum. We stayed for a few hours and everything went so well ...

until just before we left. Of course, they didn't want to leave. Imagine a very pregnant mama trying to corral 2 cranky, tired, defiant toddlers toward the exit ... when it didn't work I had to put isla in the stroller (which made her so mad she protested with loud crying for the entire 15 minute walk back to the car) so I could pick up Maryn. I would have put her in the stroller too, but she was a bit out of control so I thought it might be better to carry her until she calmed down a bit. The last thing I needed was a kick to the stomach. So there I am carrying M with one arm while trying to maneuver the stroller around the entering crowds with the other arm. After a few minutes I was able to get M in the stroller and double time it back to the car. Needless to say, by the time we got there I was one out of breath mama. Those last 15-20 minutes we'll leave as a mental picture. The lovely 2 and 1/2 hours before are documented with some pictures.

 After we left the arboretum we stopped by P's to pick up lunch for home.

 We had a quick lunch at home with dada who arrived briefly after a long budget meeting, took a drive (they both snoozed for  30 minutes or so) and headed to the park.

We finally arrived home at 2:45 expecting to see Granny in the driveway (opps we were late), but after returning to an empty house we learned she was a little under the weather. Feel better soon G. So the rest of the day we just took it easy. Later, they watched an episode of Blue's Clues and an episode of Dora while I got dinner ready. They both helped clean up the dishes. Then Isla had the idea to buckle her baby doll in the stokke chair for dinner. M followed her lead and I watched them find cups, spoons and baby bottles to feed their babies. This went on for 20 minutes or so. We got ready for bed early tonight and after the usual routine they looked at books in their room before falling asleep.

Now that I have a little time to myself I realize that I may have over done it a bit today. In addition to my seasonal allergies I've just realized that I'm sore, my back is tight and I could go to sleep right now. Hmm .... I just might.
Goodnight!

Mama & Isla Time at the Rainy Arboretum

a little snack before exploring 

It was a light, misty rain until right before we left.  She was happy to wear her rain coat, but didn't want the boots

this time of year you find miniature gourds and pumpkins scattered all over the children's garden

the rain started to pick up here. If you have a large monitor you may be able to see the rain drops at the top

Grandpa's Pumpkin Patch

We picked our own pumpkins from Grandpa's pumpkin patch this weekend.