Picture Day

Meadow had picture day for her dance class and they wore their adorable recital costumes so we had to take some pictures at home too. :)

Allergy testing update

Well, the results came back from Parker's blood test and it was as I suspected, not as good as the skin test showed. Not good. Drat. Although I tried my best to not get my hopes up, hopes have a way of sneaking up so I was disappointed a little. I just want him to be able to enjoy more foods, but in the scheme of things I know that it will be ok. We will just keep on keeping on and work at keeping everyone healthy and happy.

With the blood test, they did a panel of his other allergies as well. Peanut/tree nut numbers have gone up, as has egg (they are a bit worse) which can happen even though you are not ingesting them and is frustrating. Wheat was actually a little higher as well.

We have had a time with eczema through the spring, but we usually see an improvement with that as well as asthma through the summer. So that will be nice. We will go down to one preventative breathing treatment a day as opposed to the two we were doing through the fall and spring with both kids.

As a mom you just wish you could wave a magic wand and make everything better but they are happy and otherwise healthy which is a blessing and they are learning life lessons and becoming strong through challenges as are we as their parents, as are we all.

I feel it in my fingers, I feel it in my toes

Greg filmed "Sleeping Beauty" for the Carolina Ballet and so we got free tickets to take the kids, Aunt Karissa and Cousin Laney. They enjoyed it! Well, most of it! After the dragon came out and Sleeping Beauty had been kissed they were finished so we skipped the last 30 minutes of the 2 hour ballet and that is when the true fun began. We had no choice, it was in our fingers and in our toes. :D

Before the Ballet:



Introducing their royal highnesses....





















After the Ballet:

Track-out adventures

Parker just recently tracked back into school, but here are some pictures of some of the track-out fun.

Meadow's pick - The Zoo!

One highlight of this trip was watching the zoo keeper feed the Gorillas. The large male gorilla sat under the wall that she was throwing food from and caught every piece of carrot that she threw in. He never went for the lettuce or anything else. Then she threw some pieces of carrot over by the window where we were watching from and he came and got those too. The kids thought it was funny and called him "the carrot thief" because he ate every single one and none of the female gorillas got any that we saw.
Another highlight was the cougar. We got to watch him climb a tree, catch a mouse, bring it down and eat it all within about 25 seconds. I'm surprised I didn't throw up, my gag reflex is so awesome right now. lol.
The third highlight to the kids were the giant slushies. They only sold one size where we bought them and they thought it was so cool to have the giant size.































































































Parker's pick - The beach! The kids and I managed a day trip while Greg was working. We always like to go to the last public parking section on Wrightsville beach because they have outdoor hoses and showers to get the kids cleaned up before the drive home. The weather was about 85 - perfect! It wasn't too windy and there just happened to be an awesome tide pool for the kids to play in that was warm! It my haste to load up the car in the morning I left the bag with our swimsuits and towels in it and so we had to do a shopping trip to Wings for swimsuits and towels for the kids - uggh! (but aren't they cute? hehehe)

What's been goin' on

Dishwasher fixed - Check
Car out of the shop - Check
Driver's license renewed - Check
Painters out of the house - Check
Greg back in town - Check
(of course all of the above had to happen while he was gone)
Ordered tickets for Meadow's first dance recital - Check
Yearly food allergy retesting done- Check

Parker's wheat allergy was so much better this year than last that they decided to do labs to see how the results showed up on the blood test. So we went and drew blood today and I am anxiously awaiting the results. Man, wouldn't that be amazing if he could eat wheat in the next year or two? What a tremendous blessing that would be. I refuse to let myself get too excited yet. I feel the excitement bubbling up inside and I squelch it back down just to spare the disappointment later if the results aren't as great as we thought. We should get those results back within a week! We'll probably start immunotherapy for his outdoor allergies sometime in the next year. This will include a weekly shot the first year and then they get spaced farther apart the second and third years and it can really make a big difference. He has a lot of tree allergies, ragweed, one kind of grass, and of course dust and mold, cats and dogs.

Greg flew to Salt Lake for a friend's wedding and also got to visit some friends that moved not far from there and meet their little baby. I was a little jealous that he got to hold her and I didn't. ;) He had a great time and wished he could have stayed longer to make the drive to Idaho to see some family there. Next time! (when he bring us with him! ;)




He got home just in time on Mother's Day to send me upstairs for a nap. Which I gladly took. I woke up to a cake and sweet smiles and cards. I loved how excited they were to show me the surprises. I love being a mom.







Parker was amazing while Greg was out of town. I could tell he was trying extra hard to be good and one morning he said that he was the man of the house while daddy was away. He was helpful to his sister and even helped me bring in groceries from the car on his own accord. :) He has one more week of track out and then back to school. We ran into his teacher in the grocery store and he really like that. He came home and painted her a picture of the beach and we mailed it to her.



Meadow is such a funny girl. She cracks me up lately! She has an imaginary horse named "Parpie" and she gallops around the house with her arms held out straight in front of her like she is holding reins and she says things like "ride like the wind Parpie!" She also will break into this gallop in the grocery store and anywhere we happen to be around town. It's pretty cute. Right now she also likes to sing along with the Disney Princess songs and she will close her eyes and shake her head back and forth for full dramatic effect.

Seriously...

Our dishwasher that we have had for a little over a year is not working and has a flashing error message that means not enough water pressure. Repair man coming Friday. Tried the circuit breaker, didn't make a difference. No other appliances running or using water at the same time. Could there be anyone more unlucky with dishwashers than me? Seriously? Click here if you need me to jog your memory. After I was done crying about it, I cried a little bit more and now I am resigned to unloading the still un-clean dishes from the dishwasher and washing them by hand. I could blame it on the pregnancy hormones (Surprise!! :) But I think I would have cried about it anyway. I am still not over my three month stint of handwashing dishes from last time. I need a bigger sink. And a magic wand. And a magic carpet to fly away from my kitchen on. lol.

Ah well, this too will pass I suppose. I will just think about the pioneers and be grateful for running water...