adorable.

Miss A was the very first baby other than my own that I took photos of. She was a week old the first time and just a tiny little thing with a mess of fuzzy dark hair. Taking photos of her that very first time was much easier than the workout her and her little brother gave me the other day. :)

I think the efforts of the baby wranglers were well worth it though! Look at those sparkly eyes and spiky baby hair.

for b, a little peek

ruffle pants

More photos of the ruffle pants I made the other day. My friend Misty had given me the idea after she made some monkey pants for her little monkey ;) They really are very easy to make even for the novice sewer. I will definitely be whipping up some more for Ella Bella, although, next time I hope to put the ruffles on so the seams can't be seen. Sigh. I'll post the pattern if anyone wants it.

As you may have noticed, bear bear as had a very rough couple of months since Ella Bella claimed him as her BFF. I am completely dumb about stuffed animals, anyone have any tips on washing a beloved stuffed animal?

friend or foe

Moo and Ella Bella are starting to interact with each other more and more. Mostly it consists of Moo telling Ella Bella what she can and can not do and trying to take away things he deems are his or not for babies. Like baby toys and cheerios, those are clearly not safe for babies. Duh mom.

But there are those sweet and glorious moments few and far between when they actually enjoy each other. Like sharing a papa's old rocker while putting retro rubbermaid play kitchen toys on various parts of your head. Let the good times roll.

fluid

Overall, I like being a mom. However, there is one little thing that I could totally forgo in this whole parenting business. Fluid. All the various moistness that comes from having children. Yuck. Today was a particularly fluid filled day, so here is my day by the fluids.

wake-up
1 wet little boy in one very wet little bed
1 wet and poopy little girl in one wet and poopy sleepsack on a wet bed.
son spills milk out of spill proof cup
daughter laughs and spills milk out nose.
cat vomits
Moo talks about the cat vomiting for a good 2 hours
another yucky diaper
4 trips to the potty for the 3 year old
1st pair of poopy underwear AGHHHHH*
1st bath to clean up said poop incident
3 times blowing nose of son
countless times washing my hands and moo's hands
yet another gross diaper
1 40 oz smoothie spilled all over the backseat of the car (so sad........)***
another diaper to be changed
2nd pair of poopy underwear GRRRRR
2nd bath to clean up encore poop incident

enough with the fluids, time for kids to be in bed.

Yeah, I could so do with out the fluids.

* pooping in your pants is a skill we picked up in the land o' corn. ;)
** that smoothie was going to be my sweet release from a long couple days flying virtually solo with the kiddos. Oops. I nooooooooooooo I don't drink 40 oz of smoothie myself, I drink a third of it and use the rest to make popsicles. At least that was the plan.

some people will do anything for a gummi bear...

Some people will do anything for one little gummi bear including wearing girl's clothes. Ahem, I am not naming names. I made some little pants for Ella Bella. I was going for carpi pants but they go down to her feet. Oops. But, they are great size 3 capri pants. I also made her a skirt but it's too long on her for now, maybe it will fit right next year. Oh well, I'll just have to sew so more. Darn.

The pants were SO easy and made from the sleeves of one of my old t-shirts. Here is a good tutorial. Happy crafting!

In addition to being bribed with gummi bears, the little guy has being saying some crazy stuff lately.

Electricity is for Monkeys.

We DON'T put our heads in the toilet?

and the doctor says....

He is more allergic to peanuts than we all originally thought. His blood test indicates that 95% of the time he comes into contact he will exhibit a severe reaction. Moo's skin and wheezing indicated that he is constantly reacting. So....

1. Start a daily allergy medication to minimize reactions from peanut particles in the air.
2. Teach Moo to be his own advocate, ie: reading PEANUT on labels, not eating foods from others.
3. Research school allergy policies and educate caregivers.
4. Epipen, Epipen, Epipen. Give it, call 911, give another after 10 minutes if needed.

It was a pretty frustrating visit. There isn't really any treatment we can do to lessen severity at this time and the allergist expects Moo's overall food allergies to get worse rather than better.

the peanut saga continues

We are back from a week long romp to the land o' corn. 1792 miles of driving over 7 days with 2 tots in tow. They did great, definitely better than we would have ever dared wish for. We all really enjoyed the trip and seeing all of Hubs family. I have oodles of photos to share and random land o' corn observations. But alas, you have to read about peanuts first.

Disclaimer: I really, really like peanuts. So does Hubs. All of our dates revolve around the pesky little legume now. We eat Chinese and Thai food with peanut sauce chased down with reese's cups and butterfinger shakes. Although after the last 7 days, I may swear them off all together.

I HATE what PEANUTS do to my baby boy. And peanut dust. And peanut oil. And any product containing any atom of peanut particles.

My in-laws, God bless each one of them, went way beyond what we could have ever asked them to do in regards to keeping Moo safe. Grandpa and Grandma did everything short of ripping out the carpet and dismantling their HVAC system to get peanuts out of where Moo would be. My sister in laws scoured labels and threatened to beat up a man eating peanuts at the zoo. My nieces and nephews suffered through an egg hunt without their favorite candies. One niece even fasted in protest of her suffering. If she couldn't have pb&J she just wasn't eating.

But, it didn't stop Moo from reacting. Every night from about 7pm on we were battling to keep him from wheezing and from such intense coughing he was throwing up mucous. His entire chest was just rock hard as every muscle he had was being used to get him to breathe.

I hate it.

He is sensitive enough that if we even walk in a store or restaurant that serves peanuts he starts coughing instantly signaling it's time for us to leave. He will be so excited to go somewhere and he breathes in the air with peanut dust in it and you can tell he starts to feel bad instantly. At this point, I don't think it's reasonable to think we will be able to send him to school in 2 years.

I hate it.

I hate that Hubs and I have to be so hyper aware as parents when we really want to give our kids space to be kids. Ack. I AM the helicopter mom. I am so frustrated. I want to be able to send my kid to preschool without feeling like I am sending him into war unarmed.

We go tomorrow to get him reevaluated and hopefully some better options for treatment. Poor kid is so tired he won't even wake up for treatments or when he throws up. He put himself down for a nap today, now that's exhausted.

That was cathartic. Thanks.

wish list

this poor neglected blog. I'll return soon, I promise.

I have some fun crafts to share but I seemed to have packed up my motivation with my craft supplies during operation stage this house. Yes, the market sucks and we are going to try and sell our house and move on up. So, please be praying we sell our house for a fair (ok, great) price and God will provide a home for our family to grow into. Cause let me say, having one teeny tiny (5' by 7') bathroom with a newly potty trained kiddo is LOADS of fun.

I found the coolest old rambler ranch yesterday but sigh, it's already under contract. It may have been at the limits of our renovation skills, but man it was cool and we would have had a blast fixing it up. The hunt continues.

This little house has served us well. We bought it a couple weeks before we married and expected to live here while we finished college and then move away and buy a house to start a family somewhere colder and more, umm, scenic. Living here has helped to clarify what would be really nice to have and what is just fluff in our next house.

So far our list of we MUST have that includes:
- 4 bedrooms, or 3 bedrooms and an office space. We want bigger bedrooms so we are mostly looking at older homes. None of this 10' by 10' business.
- 2 toilets. Enough said.
- a garage connected to the house.
- more than 4 closets.
- closer to people we know. Hubs is either entirely present or completely not available and it would be so nice to have some emergency contacts just a few minutes away.

And on the "Oh it would be so cool if" list:
- 4 bedrooms and an office space.
- A large open living/ dining/ kitchen area
- 2 bathrooms
- A laundry room as I am pretty sick of hearing the dryer balls and smelling cloth diapers washing. Eww.
- Close to good schools. And close enough to walk or ride bikes to a grocery store. A good grocery store.
- Lots of windows. I love sunlight and so many homes here are like caves.
- character and unique style. I love clean and modern 60's styling. Too bad I live in the land o traditional brick.
-some eco-friendly features, whether it's solar orientation, shading, xeroscaping, ect.
- wood floors. Our kids allergies have been so much better since we axed the carpet.
- ugly is great. we like ugly.

Too bad this little number isn't here or for sale. Photo from kontagmag.