Legos, Elbows & More

Just another day in a Lego blocks container, right?

I've taken a bunch of pictures with my real camera. But it's just SO easy to email myself something from my phone and post it. Not to mention that our terrible laptop jacks up pictures that have been downloaded from my camera when I try to add them to the blog. Sheesh. Just like right now, I'll be typing and it will freeze the words, then they disappear, and then they come back. Ridiculous.

So anyway. My day off this week was switched to today, so I'm finishing up a couple items from the office. And playing with Emersen. We did a little field tripping today. Discovered the treasure of the Leestown Road Dollar General (down by the Goodwill, which we also visited today). Love having some time in the morning to run errands and knock things out! Prescriptions. Gas. And some gift cards that are for a little lion chasing project that's been on my heart for like...years...I think? I will divulge more details at a later date, perhaps, depending on the path my plan takes.

What's up with Emersen? Her height. Her shoe size. Her clothing size. That's what. We just got her tennis shoes that are size 7 so she would have some room to grow. And same for pants - 4T - so she can grow a little and still wear them. WHAT? She's huge. For her age - 20 months old. Just dawned on me that she'll be 2 in four months. She'll tell you that's how old she's going to be as well.

Her speaking and vocabulary has been developing exponentially! She's starting to do phrases now, which simply amazes us. I may have already said this before, but I didn't realize how much a toddler could do. I didn't really think she would seem like a little person until like 3 years old. I didn't think we could take her to Orange Leaf where she sits in her own chair and feeds herself at under 2 years old. But that's what you do when you're a first time mom - you learn!

She's learning more and more words. She sees towels and says "Towel. Mommy towel. Bath." "Lawnmower. Grass. Daddy? Daddy grass?" Of course, we understand what she is saying. Now I can't say that every one would be able to carry on the same conversations with her. For some reason, she's developed a fear of bugs. She runs from them. I had always told her just to leave the bugs alone...because she would kill them in one squish.  She no longer wants oatmeal. She got to have juice when she was sick, and now loves her juice. All juice is apple juice though. That's what she calls it at least. And she loves "elbow". "More elbow" she says and usually says most things like a question. Em learned "elbow" and then would tell us about our elbows. "Mommy elbow" "Daddy elbow" and "Emmy elbow." Wes started tickling her with his elbow, and now it's a thing. We're glad she's finally started SAYING "more" when she signs it. Same for please. And most darling of all before I wrap things up is when she says "night night daddy" (or mommy) when she turns over to go to sleep at night. LOVE HER!

More updates to come. Next Friday is my very last day with a day job. More details to come on what I will be doing. I'm incredibly excited because it's a pretty big life change and a whole new direction. Stay tuned.

The Little Lady and Some Lovely Ladies

Bathing suit time! We bought a kiddie pool so Emersen (and mommy) can play outside this summer.

I rolled her up in a comforter. Sometimes we call this Emersen taco or burrito. And she likes it. Kids are so easy to entertain.

So Emersen was sick a week or two ago. Fever all week. Wouldn't eat much. One day, she hadn't really had very much food. I suggested to Wes to stop and get Orange Leaf for her. The doctor had said her throat looked yucky, so what better than something cold on it. Don't you know she was grabbing the spoon from me when I was feeding her bites. She LOVES that she can feed herself the froyo out of the cup with their weird orange scoop spoons. And down went some Pineapple froyo. I tweeted Orange Leaf to tell of their medicinal powers.In this picture, she's enjoying some banana flavored frozen yogurt - and I enjoyed the flavor too!

Finally, I'm following in the footsteps of my radio station, KLOVE, because they do Make A Difference Monday. They have people call in and tell of how they made a difference in someone's life, or how someone made a difference in their own life. I wanted to showcase these lovely ladies from TurningPoint Church. They're in a kitchen at Ronald McDonald House where they helped with dinner and clean up for the families there, specifically to make it a little easier on fathers having a (probably) less than ideal Father's Day. THIS is being Jesus to people. Simple as that. And these ladies are already crazy busy all the time - one has 5 children under the age of 14, others have toddlers and school age kiddos. And another is a mom of a mom in the picture! I, honestly, don't know how they do it and are still functioning in life. 

But, it's quite simple really:  I can do all things through Him who gives me strength (Philippians 4:13). 

Check out the Lexington Ronald McDonald House here

Kim is on the far right and has two little kiddos and works full time from home. 

Check out her blog about life, kids and being a pastor's wife here

Christina is third from the left and is a Thirty One Gifts consultant (among other talents such as mothering, baking, decorating and smiling), check out the super cute bags and organizational tools here

Cory is third from the right and the one with the 5 children, which includes one set of twins. She generously passed down some of their cute clothes to Emersen as well. She is amazing on a camera, check her out.

here or check it out on Facebook here.

And the other ladies so other fun things too - I just don't know about them yet! 

Father's Day

I am just so far behind on posting to the blog. And I really really love blogging. It's efficient journal-ing at it's best! 

To get ahead of schedule, I'm posting about Father's Day this Sunday. We'll be celebrating with a cookout, games, fun, etc after a shorter Sunday service at TurningPoint Church. I'm thankful for a church presenting the opportunity to hang out with family and hang out with other families. And for providing the opportunity to eat!

Childcare will cover nursery/toddler for the shorter service, while junior/elementary will be welcomed in with the adults - so fun for them!

This is my personal invitation to anyone who reads the blog. We would love to have you join us to celebrate our dad's! Much to my....dismay? despair? blah?...there will be bounce houses for kids. And burgers, corn hole, etc. If we don't see you, Happy Father's Day!

I'm allergic...

Last summer Emersen was referred to an allergist after a horrible bout of diaper rash. At the doctor for the rash, the pediatrician said given her eczema and this rash, we should see an allergist. So we did. She said to go back to the brand name diapers since that wasn't causing trouble before. And to switch back to the expensive formula. Problem solved. While there, we did allergy testing to "just check" to see what we were working with. Turns out she was allergic to eggs, tree nuts, bluegrass and dust mites. We scheduled an appointment for 6 months later for a check up (or that's what I thought). She was sick when her appointment came around. And we weren't having trouble with eczema or diaper rash any more. Instead, at some point in discussing another appointment, a blood test was the next step. We did that. And she was zero on egg yolk, and tested a low positive on egg whites. Next conversation was about coming back and testing her skin for the egg again, and if it was negative, doing a food challenge with eggs (or so I thought). Fast forward to our scheduled appointment this week, for what I thought would be a final determination for the egg allergy, I come to learn that it's been "so long" since testing and a visit. And they don't do a skin test and food challenge in one visit or talk about it on the phone, blah blah blah. All completely different than our last conversation. Now it's a skin test, that if it's negative she finally agreed we would do a food challenge for PANCAKE (different temps of cooking make it more towards eggs on the spectrum, with cake/cookies safest for an egg allergy). WHAT!? The testing is a bigger deal than having the allergy is!


So skin test still says highly allergic to egg, and we got a prescription for an EPI pen. Why didn't we get this last time if she's so allergic? And because she wasn't allergic to peanuts last time, but because I never gave her any peanuts or peanut butter, because of instruction by a WEIRDO pediatrician who said to wait until 2 years old, the allergist implies that she might NOW have a reaction because it's been so long without her having tried them. She gives her BABIES peanut butter by the time they're 5 months old. WHO DOES THAT!? Isn't it a choking hazard anyway? Therefore, we have to re-test the peanut on her skin and tested the individual tree nuts. She actually only showed a mild reaction to Hazlenut. 


Think it's over? NO. Next steps are another blood test. If the peanut shows negative, we do a food challenge. Then we give her peanuts/peanut butter over a month and if that's all okay, then we move on to a food challenge of the tree nuts that were least reactive. Seriously? 


Some facts according to our allergist: She has a 50% chance of outgrowing the egg allergy by the age of 4, 70% chance by the age of 12. Only 9% of kids out grow the tree nut allergy. 


OY VEY! This stuff wears me out. I want to know what she's allergic to and be able to prepare, avoid, warn, etc. This is helpful information. However, if it could change, at any moment - why not do larger intervals between testing? It costs money to do this stuff. 


Our trusted pediatrician would advise putting the little ones through as little testing as possible, within reason of knowing allergies and having the tools to manage them. She would continue to find out about the peanut allergy so we can do peanut butter (protein). But would put some time between the testing for the egg allergy or tree nut allergy. Of course, if I mentioned opinions of pediatricians to my allergist, she not so kindly informed me that they hadn't had the additional 3 years of schooling to make them an allergist. 


I'm pretty sure once we solve the peanut dilemma, we might be finding a new allergist. My guess is that she won't want us as a patient if we're not going to test according to her frequency recommendation. She made it quite clear that I had been bad by not coming every 6 months or so already. Never mind that she didn't explain her expectation at our first appointment.


Well, that's where we are right now. Will keep you updated on the blood test and food challenge. Right now, we're just enjoying Emersen's temporary tattoos on her back where they marked her up for skin tests. Emmy and Mommy now have back tattoos!