The Avengers Have Taken Over

My favorite conversation with Daphne recently, as we were playing with her Incredible Hulk guy:

Me: "I think Hulk smashes things, right?  That's what Daddy says."

Daphne: "Hulk smashes guys."

Me: "Well, I think he smashes just bad guys."

Daphne, pondering for a moment: "Hulk smashes Becca?"

Me: (A whole bunch of laughing) "BAD GUYS, Daphne, not Becca."

As in my sister, Daphne's aunt.  Poor Becca.   

Anyways, David has passed on his love of comic book characters to Daphne.  Her favorites are Incredible Hulk and Captain America. 

Netflix has the old cartoons so sometimes they watch them together.  Personally I think the Hulk (or is it The Hulk?  I know nothing about these characters) is kind of scary looking so I don't know why Daph loves him so much.  Captain America seems pretty nice.

Christian likes what everyone else is playing with and I don't think he has any Avenger preference.  Anything chewable, I would imagine.

She Made It

Daphne may wear me out on a daily basis, but there are times when I am grateful for her spunk and tough spirit.

She really doesn't mind going to the doctor and this morning was no exception to that.  Once we were there she just took it all in stride and never even gave a whimper.  It helps that a numbing lotion was on her hands for about an hour before she got her IV in, and that her sedation nurse was wonderful and gave her her own syringe so she could shoot water onto Daddy.  And of course her bed had a TV right next to it.

Hospitals these days; they make it almost too easy.

(Kidding.  I realize she wasn't having a heart transplant or anything.)

When the results of her MRI come back we'll get to decide what the next step is with her little feet.

Hopefully it's something amazing because I am ready to take the girl shoe shopping.  I am quite skilled in that arena and it's high time she benefit from my talent.  

Fun For Daddy, Boring For Us

David is off on a fun adventure for the day.
















The kids and I have no adventure planned, unless I get up my nerve to take them grocery shopping on a holiday.  We really need some chicken so I might just have to do it.

Tomorrow we have to be at the hospital at 7AM so Daphne can have an MRI on her feet.  The actual MRI isn't a scary thing, but she needs to be put to sleep for it and I hope that part goes smoothly.  Daphne is old enough now that she'll be aware of what's happening and will remember it, so you can say a little prayer for her if you think of it.  I don't want her to be scared. 

Famous People

This is such old news (I think this is from 5-6 weeks ago), but of course I had to post it because it is where one of my dreams came true:

Yes, it is my kids (and David) with Bob from Bob's Red Mill. 

David was so embarrassed by my tourist-like ways in making them pose together, but there was no way I was allowing this opportunity of a photo with a famous person to get away from me.

Poor David; seriously humiliated.

Daphne is very lucky that she now has a photo with The Pioneer Woman and Bob.  Her life is pretty much complete. (Contrary to what the photo may show, she liked Bob. I think that's because she thought he was Santa.)

Just Us Girls

Oh my dear Daphne, full of spunk and sass and a bit of sugar and spice.

It's hard sharing attention with a baby brother and she struggles with feeling left out. 

She needs to know that I love being her mama, even when we're having a hard day.  Especially when we're having a hard day, because no one could love her as much as I do.

We've started having hymn sings.  We sit at the piano and play and sing.  It's good for my sight-reading skills as she always manages to pick the few unfamiliar hymns that I don't know. 

"This is a good one!" she says.

We always do the regulars too: "Angels We Have Heard on High," "While Shepherds Watch Their Flocks," "It Is Well," and "How Great Thou Art."

She needs it and I need it.

Just us girls.

Sneak Peak

I know you've been DYING to know how our bathroom is coming along.

Yes, I thought so.

Finally, after what feels like months, we are done-ish.  Everything needs to be scrubbed clean so the cabinets can be filled and all the cute stuff needs to be hung on the walls.  I need to find some baskets and a new rug.  We lost a lot of cabinet space with the new way we set things up, but we're OK with it as it means we'll need to be creative with storage solutions plus implement one of my favorite words: purge.  If we don't have room for it, that might mean we just don't need it.  (So un-American of us.)

All that to say, the whole picture is not yet ready for the public eye, but I will satisfy your curiosity with a few little peaks.

ooh, pretty

so thankful for counters again

a few fine details are missing, and it's dusty

fresh

I am so thankful for a place to get ready again...I'm sure you all have noticed what a mess I've been lately with no place to plug in my curling iron.  (I know we have another bathroom but it is so far away and I guess I would rather be a mess than haul everything down there just to bring it back up again.)  And now the kids can take a bath without getting covered in drywall dust and we can use sinks and turn on lights!  So great.

Slices of Life, Vol VI

This afternoon Christian, Daphne and I were sharing a chair in the backyard, enjoying the perfect summer-like weather.  Daphne had me singing songs, and Christian especially enjoyed the songs with motions.

After singing "The Itsy Bitsy Spider," Daph asked me to insert Christian's name ("the itsy bitsy Christian climbed up the water spout..."), then her name ("the itsy bitsy Daphne...") and finally my name.

Once my song was over, she politely told me I needed to say that the mama is really big.  I had to sing "the really big mama climbed up the water spout..."

This moment did nothing for my ego.

Good thing I love them.

We Love Sunshine

For the past several days Daphne has been asking every 5 minutes if we can go outside and swim.

I told her we have to wait until it's warm, so then her question changed to "is it warm out yet?"  And since I had actually acknowledged her swim question she began asking about the warmth every 2.5 minutes.   I'm sure that I am not exaggerating. 

Sunday it will be warm, I told her.  Or maybe Saturday.

She was so happy when I put her in her swimsuit this morning.  We found a tiny pool that looked good for Christian to splash in so David got it blown it up for them. I tried and tried to blow it up and then David came and did it in like 2 seconds.  He's so handy to have around.

The pool directions said not to blow up the pool until you have it in the location where you will fill it with water, because once it's blown up you may have difficulty moving it.  Oops. 


















The pool is less like a pool and more like a puddle, but Daphne spent hours this afternoon sitting in the middle of it.  Maybe tomorrow we'll go real wild and get out the 'big' pool.

Christian seemed unimpressed with his first pool experience.  He may like it better when he gets to actually go in it.


















Maybe tomorrow.

A Dairy Dilemma

I'm not supposed to have dairy while we're working on getting Christian's gut nice and healthy, but let's discuss two certain items that make staying away from dairy very difficult:

1) Frappucino Happy Hour at Starbucks

and

2) Cheesesake from Claim Jumper.

Last Friday, when the Happy Hour started, the kids and I met David at Starbucks while he was working.  The nice Starbucks guy made me a frappucino using my rice milk that I brought from home.  Apparently this is a big no-no in Starbucks world, but I think it's helpful to have the person ordering for you wear a uniform and a badge. (In case you were considering trying it for yourself.)

Monday we went again.  This time to a different Starbucks where David doesn't know the employees as well, plus he wasn't wearing quite as impressive of an outfit.  It was a yummy trip.

Fun, too, because Christian noticed airplanes for the first time.

Don't you wonder what he's thinking?

Tuesday was a most wonderful of days, as you can see by that giant raspberry white chocolate cheesecake from Claim Jumper.  Probably one of the best foods on the entire planet, and as far as I know, not dairy free. 













Birthday twins:













Hopefully little Christian will be OK with the dairy (and if I'm going to admit it, a tiny bit of gluten) overload.  He seems fine so far and dairy flushes out of your system pretty quickly.  He should be good. 

I will feel bad if he breaks out and it's because I kind of chose cheesecake over him.

Day 3 and Maybe 4 & 5, Too

We've had to wait on the bathroom for a bit until the flooring came in, but now it's here and the hard part has begun. 

It's fun to remodel the bathroom; it's not fun to not be able to find your toothbrush as it's buried amongst all the other bathroom junk crammed into the guest bedroom.

David tore out the old cabinets and of course Daphne helped.  She really loves this project.

This week we'll do the floors, fix the walls, and paint.  Hopefully installing everything will be pretty quick after that.

And then hopefully I will stop tripping over the door frame that is currently in our hallway. 

Isn't it so pretty?

Christian: 8 Months

Some Christian updates, now that he is 8 months old:

*Sits really well,  has a teeny little tooth coming in (at the exact same age that Daphne got her first tooth), and can do a pretty mean army crawl.











*Is finally starting to outgrow 3 month clothing!  It's so exciting to get new sizes out.  My kids appear to be the same in this regard: they stay in one size of clothing so long that I get tired of the same outfits and get very happy when they get to wear new things.

*The happiest of all: he's only waking once, sometimes twice at night!  And sometimes he will take a daytime nap!  Glorious.

*C and I have been seeing a naturopathic doctor for the past couple of months.  Her philosophy of practicing medicine fits our family better than going to a medical doctor so we'll probably stick with her from here on out instead of visiting our old pediatrician.  It costs more money in the short term (especially since our ped. is free), but an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, right?  Since March I've been eating basically rabbit food to see if Christian has some food sensitivities.  Combining my elimination diet, some homeopathic remedies for him and I, and lots of probiotics and fish oil for the both of us, Christian has gained 2 pounds in the last 5 weeks (after not gaining any weight for almost 4 months) and his eczema has cleared from his body with only a little bit left on his face.  Amazing!  We're so thankful for the healing going on in our house. 

I like how our new doctor explained it:  our bodies are like a cup with a small hole at the bottom where toxins are eliminated.  If the cup has too many toxins trying to get out at once, the hole gets plugged and the cup overflows, giving us symptoms.  In Christian's case it was low weight gain and eczema, as well as over all unhappiness and poor sleep.  For some it's headaches, heartburn, high blood pressure, allergies, acne...you name it.  What I like about seeing a naturopathic doctor over a medical doctor is that the ND typically tries to find what's causing the symptoms and fix that problem so that the cup (body) can eliminate toxins properly and the symptoms can subside.  In my experience, most MDs treat only the symptoms, meaning the reason the symptoms are there isn't fixed and the symptoms can become lifelong, recurring problems.  Allergies, high blood pressure, headaches, etc., aren't usually the problem.  They are caused by something, and that's what needs to be fixed.  Amazingly enough, sometimes (often) those things can be fixed without drugs. Thankfully Christian is one of those cases.

*Months 6 and 7 were just hard for our dear Christian, so it is amazing to see some of the spark come back into his face.  He's back to smiling more, laughing, and will sometimes even hang out on the floor without me.  It's such a gift to get 5 or 10 minutes here and there to wash a dish or two.  I love seeing Christian's energy back up, and of course love that he is finally sleeping better at night. 

*He's taken to solid food like I have never seen before.  He seems to love that we skipped purees and went straight to finger foods   and loves hanging out in his Bumbo with a tray full of food.  I can barely even do any food preparation while he is in my arms because he will grunt and reach for everything food related.  Be especially aware if you're eating a banana around him as he will do his best to swipe it from you.  He also likes gnawing on hunks of meat.

guarding his precious banana

*When you give him high 5s he cracks up, because apparently high 5s are hysterical.

*He makes me laugh every day.

 

 

month 6 - an angry month

month 7 - also pretty angry

I tried to get a smile - but at least he's not crying this month!

Real

You know how you see photos people have taken of their kids/pets/gardens/etc and they are so beautiful/peaceful/perfect/etc and you wonder why your life isn't like that as well?

(Maybe it's just me.  That's OK.)

The other day I posted a photo of Daphne and Christian peacefully reading a book on the chair.  It looked so sweet and like they must sit there so nicely everyday while I sing songs and bake cookies all day long.  And rainbows and unicorns and butterflies are always at our house.

So to be fair, they sat in that position for maybe 1/2 a second.  Otherwise it was like this:

The entire scene lasted maybe 2 minutes and I never saw any unicorns or rainbows and then Christian wanted to be held and I couldn't put him down for another hour so there were no cookies either. 

But the 1/2 second they sat there was really nice.