A Smattering...

Just a bunch of random pictures from over the last few months.  And some updates and whatever else I think of ;)

Well I am 22 weeks as of tomorrow and so far all is going well.  I had my 20 week ultrasound a few weeks ago and the baby looks great.  Measuring just right, all her parts where they should be, she is a little wiggly dancer.

what happens when you leave Anna alone for a minute next to an open package of cookies

Thankfully nothing too exciting to report about Anna!  She is plugging along in her usual Anna way.  She has a SERIOUS obsession with shoes...it is hysterical.  We received a pair of cowboy boots as hand me downs....and let's just say "She's gone country!".  She is not TOO picky about outfits I pick out for her but I had better pick the shoes she wants!

Mr. I don't need a nap!

After all of Ben's recent GI tests came back negative Claudio and I made a long discussed, but never implemented decision to take Ben off dairy.   He has struggled with chronic constipation and eczema since he was 2M old.  At the time the only thing he was eating was a regular dairy based formula.  Despite my instincts about dairy doctor after doctor told me there was likely no correlation.  He was tested for a dairy allergy via scratch test and it came up negative.

So, finally we just went with our instinct and eliminated dairy.  Things are definitely different.  He is pooping better (unmedicated), he is eating better (even without the 400 calorie Boost shakes twice a day he is maintaining his weight with REAL food), suddenly my very sedate little boy has a ridiculous amount of energy.  If I don't get him out of the house he is literally, and I mean LITERALLY, bouncing off the walls, he is even much more social: initiating play with other children, even children he doesn't know at the playground, talking to playmates (we were on a playdate yesterday with some friends who have  daughter a little younger than Ben.  I overheard Ben go up to her and say, "You want to hold me hand?  Come on let's hold hands!" LOL sadly, he was refused, but it was just so sweet and cute and not the sort of thing I have ever seen him try to initiate before.

During our last few meetings with the Feeding/Swallowing team at CHOP they have become a bit exacerbated at me for making this decision to cut dairy without some definitive diagnosis.  It is very difficult to boost calories without dairy.  And I understood that going into this experiment, but is a very slightly fatter child worth the poisoning effects that dairy seems to have on him?  Isn't it better to have a skinny kid who eats and is healthy and happy than a slightly fatter kid who is miserable, uncomfortable and surviving on medical foods alone??

They didn't see my point of view, but of course they can't force us to give him dairy.  I did, however, make an appointment with a new allergist.  One from CHOP who knows more about the difference between IgE (typical allergeric reactions) allergies an non IgE allergies (Ben's dairy issue is likely a dairy sensitivity caused by a different type of immune reaction called IgA or Igg and it is sort of new research and new tests and standards are being developed to detect these sorts of reactions.  I am convinced Ben has this sort of sensitivity, but I am finding in order to get him the care I think he deserves AND have things covered by our insurance that a diagnosis is almost essential....Doctor Mom won't cut it apparently.  So we will see what this Alllergist has to say). 

Their feeding therapy program is nearly upon us.  They start on the 20th.  I wonder daily what our days will look like.  The program is everyday, all day.  This leaves us taking the most notoriously trafficy roads during rushhour both ways.  The program is all day, but there is a LOT of downtime.  Basically they have their three meals a day with the therapists and otherwise we are basically on our own to find something to occupy ourselves.  And the other children's hospitals that have programs like this the program is usually done inpatient.  Not sure why CHOP does it this way.

We have had our first colds of the season already.  Poor Ben ended up with croup and on a three day round of antibiotics.  It was our first bout of croup.  Thankfully it wasn't too bad for Ben...as long as he was calm he was ok and once he was on the meds he didn't have another bout of those terrible gasping, barking coughs.

Yarn Along

Catching up again with Ginny's Yarn Along (btw if you have never checked out her blog I recommend it.  I wait anxiously for her posts each day).

I have finished my Stella Pixie Hat and I must say I am quite pleased with it.  It is delicious!  I love the yarn and I love how it turned out and I can't wait to put it on my new little sweetie when she is born.  I just hope it will fit her through the winter.  It is very stretchy so I am hopeful.

I found this adorable Peter Rabbit button at JoAnn's....a little Beatrix for my little Beatrice.

I have been working and making good progress on Anna's owl sweater.  I have gotten to the yoke where the cabled owls come in.  Cabling wasn't as scary as I thought!  So far this has been a fun pattern and interesting...in other words I look forward to working on it....which is a recent phenomena with me and knitting.

And since Anna was hanging around she insisted there be a picture of her in all her bed headed glory!  Actually her combed hair doesn't look much different LOL.....Let's be honest!  The girl has some wild hair!

Check out the link for more Yarn Along posts!

Backyard Camping Trip

I am SOOO behind in blogging, but a few weekends ago I was out in the morning and came home to find Claudio had set up a tent in our yard.  And he and the kids quickly made plans to sleep there that night despite the forecast of rain.

I was doubtful about Anna sleeping in the tent.  She is a good sleeper as long as she is in her crib...otherwise she just thinks it is a game.  My kids were not born with the genes to make them capable of co-sleeping LOL.

So they gathered their lovies and waited for daddy.

Claudio, the much more tolerant and patient parent, thought Anna would be no big deal.

The kids settled in for the night all nice and cozy in their sleeping bags

Anna played along at first, but 8pm came and went and Ben fell asleep....9pm came and went and Anna was still awake and playing.  Claudio reported that she kept yelling, "GRAMPY!!!"  no idea why LOL...so at 9 even he had met his limit and brought her inside and promptly deposited her in her crib for the night (where she quickly and quietly fell to sleep)

Ben made it through the night with no problem and had a great time.

Then and Now: My Dancing Fool..

Natural Disasters...

Sorry once again for the absence.  Just been busy busy busy......mostly with natural disasters!!

Let's just say a transformer exploded on our block about two weeks ago leaving us without power.  Then we left to visit my dad and stepmom in MINERAL, Virginia.  That town sound familiar?  It was the epicenter of the recent 6.0 earthquake in VA.....so broken glass, messes, no power, aftershocks.  We come home to be struck by Hurricane Irene including tornado warnings, major flooding in our town, and once again no power for a few days.

The poor kids have barely slept in their own beds in the last week and a half.....we are wondering what next: plague of locusts or will the small mountain we live on erupt into a volcano???  We could definitely use some quiet peaceful times!

Below are just the pics from our Hurricane experience.  We let the kids play outside when it first started raining and getting a little windy.  You have to love Anna's self chosen get up!

On Sunday when the sun came out and things had mostly calmed down we decided to go for a walk downtown.  I wanted to see the Rancocas Creek....thinking it would be pretty high after all that rain.  LOL....uhhh let's just say it was far worse than a little high.  As we approached what used to be a small creek I saw glimmering water everywhere as if we were coming up to a large lake.  The pictures don't do it justice and this was before the creek crested.  Now major roads around town are closed as well.  We were shocked.  I have never seen anything like this in person.

here the water is coming right up to the footbridge.

just passed that black truck is all water..

this cracked me up.   A picnic bench poking out of the water.  This is around the municipal buildings and police station/municipal court.

You can hear how windy it still was and the creek that now looks like a lake.  This is the parking lot for the county offices and court and downtown shopping area. 

Ben's Update

I have been waiting for the results of Ben's tests before I wrote an update.

Ben did great on the day of the procedure.  He was definitely brave!!  He got scared and cried at the things that were legitimately scary and otherwise he was wary but very brave.  My shy boy even chatted and joked with the nurses.  We were so proud of him.  He earned himself a new Thomas train.  He chose Gordon.

I can never resist taking a picture of them before they wake.

The only snaffoo was getting an IV in him.  He was very dehydrated and they told us that they were about to cancel the procedure because they had tried several times and just couldn't get a good IV going.  Just from counting the bruises left from the IVs the next day I counted at least 10 tries!!  Thank God he was already asleep at this point and had no idea what was going on.

 

the first thing he said when he woke was, "can you take my bandaid off?"

What got the results yesterday and all of his biopsies came back normal.  Some of his bloodwork came back off.  Specifically his liver function.  Our GI is on vacation so we will talk to him about this later this week or next week.

That last bit of news we got today was that Ben and Anna will be able to start the feeding therapy program at CHOP on Sept. 20th instead of having to wait til November to start.  This is a huge relief for me. I had visions of an 8M pregnant me lugging through littles through CHOP everyday and then by the time we were done with the therapy program it would be Christmas and then the baby is due.  So when would we have been able to instill no eating routines and systems at home.  This way we will have plenty of adjustment time etc. 

Wordless Wednesday - The "What You Talkin About Willis" Edition

I Love This!

So thought I would share!

I found this cute iron on decal at Joann's for a few dollars.  And I had this plain white turtle neck from some handmedowns.  And voila...a boring shirt is now adorable and perfect for my owl loving Anna!!  For just a couple of dollars.

My fear, of course, is that the decal will come right off either from washing or by the picking by Anna herself!

You Think........

It's time to start potty training????

Yarn Along

 Ben counting the buttons while I snapped my pictures....

Well I finally got around to sewing on some buttons and weaving in my ends on my Baby Surprise sweater.  I made this for Anna, but it is ridiculously too small on her....so looks like Beatrice has a first birthday present awaiting her before she is even born.  (plan to make Anna and Beatrice matching sweaters with cabled owls on the yoke, but it is a huge endeavor for me....perhaps I should just make a bigger BSJ for Anna to match this one?? LOL...  ahhhh *sigh*)

As for my Stella Pixie hat....I would have finished the body of it by now except I had a major, "*gasp* I lost stitches off the end of my needle and I have no idea how to fix this" fiasco on Monday and had to wait until my Tuesday night knitting class to get help fixing it.  But just a few more rows of the body then just the neck strap and buttonhole and whatever finishing odds and ends.

Still working through the Narnia series.  I am on Voyage of the Dawntreader now...at Claudio's suggestion I am reading them in the British order (which is the order they were written) as opposed to the American order (which is chronological order).

For more yarn along posts check out Ginny's lovely blog: here

Wordless Wednesday

Bouncing Over Our Fears

A week or so ago Claudio's company held a picnic for everyone and they had a BIG bouncy castle.  Anyone who knows Ben knows nothing pleased him more than bouncing and jumping and tumbling, but they also know nothing DISpleases him more than new things he has never encountered before.

So I wondered what his reaction would be to this big castle of bouncing delight!  Well at first he refused to go in, but Anna was interested and wanted to go.  When he saw she didn't immediately fall apart he was willing to go in.  But as you can see above they literally just sat side by side along the edge watching.  In their defense there were a bunch of older kids in there at this time rough housing.  Kids that were way too old for bouncy castles if you ask me.

Ben, loosens up ever so slightly by LOUNGING as opposed to sitting up LOL...

Then I had the bright idea to move to one of the windows across the castle to watch from the other side.  I knew he would want to be as close to me as possible and so would toss his fear aside in order to accomplish this.  And I was right.  I peeked in the far window and he got up and scurried over to me....so I ran to the next window and he scurried there and so on and so on.  Quickly he realized, "Hey.....this is fun and bouncy and just my sort of thing!!"  And that was it.  He was a boy in love!!



I was so happy for him because I knew that if he could just conquer his fear that he would absolutely LOVE to bounce.  And it took just moments before he was literally bouncing from one side to the other laughing hysterically and chatting with the other young kids (the older kids were kicked out).



And of course Anna must do whatever Ben is doing so she rejoined him and they both had a blast.  Nothing is cuter to me than Anna's little proto-jumps.  She is just just learning how to jump and it is more of a gallop sort of thing right now.





And Ben will be facing another of he greatest fears on Wednesday.  He is scheduled for an endoscopy/sigmoidoscopy with biopsy at CHOP.  Ben is very fearful of doctors...even just a stethoscope leaves him trembling.  So IVs, and sedation, and *gulp* an enema will definitely leave him quite shaken.  I truly understand his fear as I suffered many many years with a doctor phobia (which I have by and large gotten over after a little therapy and a lot of hand holding by Claudio).  So please pray for this little, sweet soul that he can be brave.  He is such a sensitive little guy which is what has ME worried more about this little procedure for him than I think I ever worried about Anna's bigger procedures...she is just such a tough trooper and she would just go with the flow even if not enjoying it.  Pray that we can just bounce through this one as well!

Anna's Birthday Party

Sorry for the delay in posting!  I will be honest and say I have just not been in the mood!!  Sometimes it takes quite sometime to get the pictures down/uploaded, videos downloaded, links found, writing, etc etc...I don't know if I am just doing things the hard way, but it can be a cumbersome task....so sometimes I avoid it.

Anyway this is the way beyond awesome cake my friend Mary decorated for me!!!!  Anna has a thing for owls and this cake came out so adorable!!  THANK YOU MARY!!!

The party was at my mom's house with just my side of the family since Claudio's family had a sudden death and the funeral was scheduled for the same day (we were able to go to the visitation before Anna's party).

The Three Muskateers...Ben, Anna, and their cousin Kyleigh.  All with read hair!   Kyleigh is 6 months younger than Ben (and almost exactly a year older than Anna).  She is very tall for her age...and Ben is very short for his LOL!

These kids crack me up!

Is he screaming???  Nope...that is Ben's camera smile  :)

We made the silly mistake of leaving Anna's gifts downstairs...unsupervised....with the kids..
So, they tore into them and Anna found this owl pillow from Grandpa Bob and Grandma Judi....and she was QUITE pleased with it!!

And the kids had some fun in the pool.  It was SOOO hot and sunny that day...it was hard to stay out there though.

And at the end of the day little Anna was exhausted and passed out asleep before we even got in the car to go home....slept the whole way home and all night.  Happy Birthday my little pixie!!