Summer Synopsis

What a busy summer we have had!  And our vacations are only just getting started.  I am gearing up for my first half marathon.  Kevin and I get to go to Disneyland BY OURSELVES to run it.  It will be a quick trip, but it has been years since we've gone by ourselves, and I am really looking forward to it.  And I can't wait to run my first big race! Next on the vacation list will be a trip to Maui with Nana and both uncles (and all significant others, too), and a few weeks following that we are vacationing at the Olympic National Forest.  Woohoo!

So, what have we been up to this summer....lots of park playdates, playing in the kiddy pool and water table, going for a lot of runs, berry picking, drinking our share of smoothies, and staying cool at the mall.

Mud Mountain Dam Park with Paige

We take our Jamba Juice very seriously!

Berry picking with "my boys" as Grace calls them :)

Sisters on the swings

Les Gove Park with Keza

One of my favorite recent mall excursions still has me laughing.  A couple weeks back when we were reaching hellish temps of 93 degrees and up, I took the girls to the Supermall to get some Orange Julius and ride the carousel..and stay cool! Well, we took a little detour through Nordstrom Rack and suddenly Grace started screaming at the top of her lungs.  I calmed her down and she shakily pointed to a faux fur vest hanging at her eye level.  "What happened to that dog and why is it on a hanger?" she asked.  Oh my! I was not prepared to deal with such serious matters, but luckily one rack over displayed some lovely sparkly pink sweaters that quickly caught her princess eyes, and she was over the pup.  This, followed shortly by her first (and dreadfully unsuccessful) honey bucket experience have been the most traumatic events all summer, so I guess we're doing all right. Grace starts preschool next week, and she is so excited (so am I!!).  She also just graduated to a twin size bed...isn't she just all grown up?! Oh, and her favorite new food is "chicken on the bone" aka drumsticks...with hot sauce of course!

Can't get enough of that adorable little face

Chicken on the bone

New bed complete with princess sheets

Emma is growing leaps and bounds, too.  It won't be long before the girls are sharing clothes for a bit, before Emma outgrows her sister (I think!).  She is much less prissy or particular about her clothes, but maybe that's because she just can't articulate her feelings on the matter as well as Grace.  Emma loves to be naked, and insists on wearing shoes (you may remember my past blog on her insistence on no socks or shoes, in the dead of winter...complete 180 in the summer!).  Her hair is growing into adorable little curls and falls straight into her face, so she is forced to wear cutie patootie bows or pixie pony tails.  Her vocabulary is booming, and she is the most polite tike you'll ever meet, never forgetting her please and thank yous.  This morning, in fact, as we were leaving the gym, Emma threw a little tantrum because she didn't want to go (I may have forgotten to mention how strong-willed and stubborn she is, too.).  As she lay on the floor kicking and screaming yelling "no thanks, no thanks," I asked if she wanted to go home and have a smoothie.  "Yes please, yes please" she replied as she continued to scream and cry. And if she is around when you cough or sneeze, you can expect her to immediately ask if you are ok.  And she will keep asking until you answer!  "I do" means "I want" and we hear it a lot.  It's cute, but I will be glad when she has a new phrase :)

Naked baby!

I do shoes!

Loves corn on the cob!

So big!

I love that the girls are at an age now where they play together, and actually enjoy each other for the most part.  One of their favorite things to do is ring-around-the-rosie.  Neither one of them gets the words completely right, and they are almost always off beat from each other, but it always comes together when they "all fall down." And what better place to practice than in the middle of the aisle at Target?!

Grace is three...going on 16!

Where does the time go?  Wasn't it just yesterday we were driving 30mph on the freeway as we brought our brand new baby home from the hospital?  Didn't she just learn how to toddle and babble?  Weren't we just snapping onesies and changing diapers?  I guess time has flown by.  My little Grace is three years old now.  No more toddling, it's walking and running for this girl (in sparkly pink shoes, of course).  Talking a mile a minute, unless she's singing (a princess song, no doubt).  Now Grace puts onesies on her dolls and helps change Emma's diapers (and wears only princess underwear herself).  We live and breathe princesses at our house.  Grace is typically dressed up in Cinderella clothes (or one of her fashionable friends), and pretty much always wears a crown.  She loves to have her fingers and toes painted, and had her first official mani and pedi with Nana and Gigi this past weekend.  Definitely a girly girl! 

What a fun time we had celebrating her 3rd birthday!  First we had a fun dinner party at Nana Carol's house. Both Gigis were there, as well as Uncle Bups, Uncle Danny and Mel.  

Because every princess loves a good carbo load, we had spaghetti!  Then we sat around and visited before digging in to the cake.  The cake....

When a certain three year old cutie patootie requests a princess castle, a certain mommy delivers!  I had soooooo much fun making this cake.  I'm pretty sure Grace loved it, too.  And it tasted pretty darn good, as well (thanks goes to Mrs. Betty Crocker!).  

And then there were the presents.  When in doubt, go for the girly stuff with this kid.  Tea sets, princess costumes, carriages and Cinderella dolls, princess backpack, princess blanket, frilly dresses, a magic mirror, princess "chopstick" for her beautiful lips, princess bubble bath, and princess books.  Did I mention princess stuff?  She was in heaven!

 Then came the real birthday.  We decided to forego a formal party for friends, but we wanted a low key, fun celebration.  A playdate at the park was perfect!  Cupcakes for a snack, lots of room to run around and play, and a chance for mommies to chat and have some grown up time.  Everybody was happy!

At the end of the day, Grace was a happy camper, and that's what matters most.  We are so blessed to have such a healthy, bright, and spunky little girl.  It's hard to believe in the fall she will be starting preschool, it seems like she should still be my little baby!

A light at the end of the tunnel?

Emma Joy-less.  That's what she has been for far too long.  Perhaps we finally have a solution?


It all started back in February.  No wait, I guess if I want to be really accurate, I should say it started back in October.  Yes, October.  We all got a cold.  Emma and Grace each had their first set of ear infections.  Then Emma developed this awful cough.  It.would.not.go.away.  By January, after countless doctor visits and nurse phone consultations, she finally saw a children's pulmonologist.  (These guys are not very easy to get in to see!)  The verdict - Asthma and some funky condition called Bronchomalacia, which I am more than likely spelling wrong.  On with the inhalers and nebulizer, and within a couple of weeks she was much better.  We thought.  But, wait.  Next came the second ear infections (both ears) in February.  More antibiotics.  But they didn't work.  So, more antibiotics.  And they worked this time!  For exactly two weeks.  And then she had another ear infection.  I failed to mention that this entire time her eczema has been driving her crazy, and her scalp has been scaly and itchy, too.  Back to the ears - a new antibiotic and she was set.  For a couple weeks, when the problem of course returned.  Or never went away.  Who knows which.  All I can tell you is at this point we were losing our minds with not getting any sleep, repeatedly visiting a doctor of some sort, and trying to entertain a busy, chatty three year old while keeping an irritated one year old comfortable.  (Not having much luck)  Ear surgery and tubes were finally done on June 5th.  We were excited at the prospect of sleep and a happy baby.  Only, that didn't happen.


Turns out there is this thing called "atopic triad" which I can't pretend to know enough about to describe, but I found some helpful info here and of course from our doctors.  To sum it up, a combination of symptoms (such as chronic ear infections, asthma, and eczema) are often attributed to severe allergies, likely food.  Had an allergy test done last week (blood draw for babies = heart palpitations for momma, a mild cry from baby).  Here we are on June 22nd and we finally have some answers (or so we hope).  It seems that Emma has several food allergies.  Mostly things that she eats on a daily basis.  Lovely, I now feel like I have been poisoning my kid.  No more eggs, bananas, wheat, dairy, chocolate (poor thing!), or tomatoes.  Or beef, but I don't believe she's ever even eaten it, so she won't miss that.  What on earth am I to feed this kid?!  She's already been off dairy for a couple weeks, drinking coconut milk in her bottle which makes her smell insanely delicious.  But I was really hoping to get her back on cheese and yogurt since she loves it beyond belief.  Guess we'll hold off on that.  (And of course you probably know we are already a nut-free family due to Grace's allergy, sheesh!)


All in all, as overwhelmed and frustrated as I am and have been by all of this, I am grateful to at least have some direction that doesn't include pumping more drugs into my baby's little body.  There are so many helpful blogs and sources out there by moms who are pros at this.  In all of my free time (ha!) I have been exploring them a little, now I am ready to research the heck out of them.  Thinking about cooking and baking for my family in the long term feels daunting, even dreadful (which is crummy because that is one area of mommyhood that I have always enjoyed!), and it certainly is an art.  Those that have it figured out, hats off to you!  Anyone that has some helpful suggestions or resources, they are graciously welcomed.  In the meantime, I am hoping *fingers and toes crossed* that by eliminating these known problem foods she (we) can get some quick relief and a good night's sleep.