Phone pics

When Kim takes the kids out, she sends me pictures from her phone so I can see what they are up to while I'm working.  Here are some random photos of the kids out and about.

At the park one day:

Aaron decides to put his hat on Audrey

Brotherly love

She loves to eat tags, especially on her bib during lunch

Enjoying some home grown oranges on the patio

Watering his friendship garden

Playing in the sandbox for the first time in ages

Audrey's first time in the park swing

Allergy testing

We've suspected Aaron had a nut allergy for awhile.  We were pretty sure after he threw up at my sister's house while eating peanut butter pancakes, but we waited until his 3 year checkup to get a referral to an allergist.  Our appointment was just this month.  We had the option to do a scratch test on his back or a blood test.  Since he's never had his blood drawn and the allergist felt that a skin test was safe, we opted for what we thought was the less traumatic option.  

After talking to us, she decided to test for peanuts and cashews (the first time he threw up where we thought it was possibly from food was after he had cashews) and some other environmental allergens.  I have allergies and he's had eczema, so he's very likely to have allergies.

First, the nurse drew some dots on his back:

Then she did the scratch test.  As soon as she did the first one, he started to cry, but he was a brave boy and she was able to quickly finish the test without a problem.  I've had this kind of testing done and I know it's a little painful and then itches like crazy.  The next picture is immediately after the allergens were applied.

Afterwards, we had to wait 20 minutes to see if he reacted.  We played our word game where we take turns saying a word that starts with the letter that the previous word ended with.  He was hopping up and down the whole time in excitement.  He did try to scratch his back a few times, but we stopped him and kept him distracted.  Here's what his back looked like after 20 minutes.

Peanut and cashew are on the far right.  He's pretty allergic to both.  Which is consistent with what we've seen, but everything I read online sounded like peanut and cashew allergies don't typically go together.

He's also allergic to dust mites, some kind of outdoor mold, and he's mildly allergic to dogs and cats.

The good news about the peanut/cashew allergy is that it makes him vomit.  The allergist said when kids throw up the food, it gets it out of their system and that's typically the end of it.  But at least one time he didn't throw up the small amount of peanut butter until hours later.  So it is possible that he could have an anaphalactic reaction, it's just unlikely.  We now have an epi-pen on hand just in case.

She wants to test him again in a year.  She says tree and pollen allergies tend to develop later, and given my history with allergies, she seems to expect he will develop more allergies as he gets older.

9 month update

At Audrey's 9 month checkup, she weighed 16 lbs 12 oz and was 27" long.  She is still pretty low in the percentiles (in the teens), but is inching up from where she was at birth (around 5th percentile, I think).

I tried a new pediatrician after losing my patience with the office we've been with since Aaron was born.  The doctors at the old place were good, but I was always waiting for the appointment and then waiting afterwards up to 20+ minutes for shots.  Plus I had to schedule well child visits months in advance.  I like the new place and plan to switch the kids over for good.

Filling in the gap Part II

More pictures from the blog's black hole.

Thom puts Audrey to sleep (beginning of May)

Audrey outgrows her infant tub and starts bathing with Aaron (mid-May)

Audrey loves to chew on wet washcloths.  She is teething like crazy.  We can see the outlines of about 6 teeth now, but none have broken through the gums yet.  We take the washcloth away once we start to soap them up.

Late May, both kids had colds.  Audrey wouldn't sleep.  A little TV and chocolate helped.

Audrey wants Thom's Trader Joe's Vintage Cola

Aaron wanted to try on Audrey's sleep sack instead of his pajamas.  I managed to zip it up, but his legs were folded up.

Filling in the gap

Well aware of the 3 month black hole on the blog, I'm posting some photos from the missing time period.  For friends on Facebook, some of these might be familiar.  (Posting photos on Facebook is so much easier than putting together a blog entry sometimes.)

Audrey hanging out on the floor circa late March:

Aaron hamming it up for the camera.  Can you guess who picked out his outfit?

Audrey helps with the laundry (I needed to set her down while emptying the washer)

Easter egg hunt and Grandma and Grandpa's house

Audrey enjoying a good book early April.  She had just recently started to pull her knees under her.

The next day, I found her trying to push up onto hands and knees when she should have been napping.

More to come...

Aaron singing

I took this video of Aaron singing and playing the guitar back in May.  He had been camera shy, so when I saw him singing for Kim one day, I snuck in with the camera and tried not to draw attention to the fact that I was filming him.

Hi

Aaron's 3rd Birthday

This year we decided to throw Aaron a birthday party.  We celebrate Aaron's birthday at my family's spring birthday celebration and he gets plenty of gifts from both my family and Thom's so I've been reluctant to have a birthday party for him when I'm already trying to reduce the amount of "stuff" he (and now Audrey) have.  But we have a group of friends with kids all around the same age whose birthday parties we love attending, and I know it's awkward to have a party and ask guests NOT to bring presents, so I tried something a little different.

Aaron loves to help Papa in the yard.  He has his own watering can and they make their rounds watering various saplings, berry bushes and other plants that are not on the irrigation system.  So I decided to have a garden party for Aaron where his friends could bring gifts of plants for his garden.  We (meaning Thom) cleared out a spot next to his sandbox which is adjacent to the back patio.

The party was a huge success. His friends and (mostly) their parents planted a variety of plants in his garden and we had metal plant tags for them to decorate.   Aaron loves his garden and waters it several times a week.  He has a lasting gift from his friends, and it did not add more toys to our overcrowded play area.

Part of my goal for the party was to make it eco-friendly, too.  I served finger foods to avoid utensils, and used silverware for the cake, not plastic utensils.  And I made Thom track down paper cups for drinks instead of plastic cups, which is apparently no easy feat.  I made decorations myself out things I already had on hand.  And for favors, I chose reusable fabric bags (from Handmade by SAM Etsy, my new favorite place to shop).

The seller was so great to work with and also came up with these adorable pads of paper that she customized to my theme and made out of recycled paper. She also included extra stickers for the kids to use.  The favor bags included these notepads and stickers, ladybug shaped crayons (made from recycled crayons, also from Etsy), Annie's Cheddar Bunnies snack bags and sunflower seeds (for planting).

For the cake, I made a trifle which was super easy and super yummy.  I used store bought angel food cake, Trader Joe's instant vanilla pudding, fresh strawberries and homemade whip cream to top it off.  So much easier than baking and icing.

To complete our ladybug theme, we released ladybugs in the yard.

I'm grateful to my Dad for taking pictures during the party.  I managed to take some before guests arrived and a few during, but most of the photos I have from the party are from my Dad's camera. And all of the videos.

Playpen

We have the playpen set up in the living room for Audrey.  She often cries when we first put her in, but she will go on to spend 20 minutes or so playing in there with her toys.  This is great in the morning when we are trying to eat breakfast.  She can see through the mesh sides and is happiest when Aaron is playing with his cars on the floor in front of the playpen.

Although we have a gate up in the dining room and can close the pocket door to the kitchen to create a giant playpen in the dining room, we cannot trust Aaron to play with Audrey unattended (meaning one of us sitting right next to them to keep him from crushing his sister or pulling her arm off).  So the playpen is one of the safer places we can stick her when we can't be watching her closely.  She's not completely safe in there I've caught Aaron poking her face through the mesh and dropping toys into the playpen, but as long as he's playing with something else, we can let our guard down for a bit.

Reading

Aaron starting reading just shy of turning 3.  He already knew all his letters and their sounds.  In fact, he could tell you what letter a word started with.  So Kim, who takes him and Audrey to the library at least once a month, picked up the Bob Books, Set 1: Beginning Readers.

He didn't get a chance to look at the books with Kim, so after his nap that day, I pulled out the first one.  He sat with me and sounded out the words!  I was so excited.  He read the whole thing on his own.  Granted, it is very simple: Mat sat.  Sam sat. Etc..  But it was his first attempt and I was thrilled.

He read the second book in the series too, then needed some help with the third.  Each book is progressively harder.  As with most of his library books, he lost interest within a week or two.  And he didn't really try to read other books.  We didn't push it.  He's only 3 and doesn't need to read, but since we are always reading newspapers, magazines and books, and he seemed ready to start reading, we were happy to encourage him.

Last night, when we were reading the board book version of Ten Apples Up On Top (which is abridged), Aaron asked Thom to stop reading at one point so he could try reading that page.  He did that for two pages and that was enough for him.  Then tonight, he pulled out the hardcover, full version of Ten Apples Up On Top.  This time, about 5 pages in, he repeatedly asked Thom "Stop reading please" so that he could try to read about every other page.  After sounding out the words, he'd ask Thom to read the words, so each page he read was being read twice.  This was taking a long time and Audrey was on my lap and getting fussy, but we didn't want to discourage him.  I can picture him reading to Audrey within a year.  I ended up taking Audrey to bed before the end of story time.  If he wants to start reading his own bedtime stories, we may have to start our bedtime routine a lot earlier.

Photo shoot for Father's Day gift

My friend Biriz came over late May and took some photos of the kids for me. I wanted to frame some nice photos for Thom for Father's Day and I always love the photos Biriz takes of her girls. She has a better camera and a much better eye than I do. Here are some of the photos she took.