Allergy Testing

Today was the big day. I took Emma in to see the allergist to discuss her possible milk allergy. Like I mentioned before, it has been a rough road cutting out dairy, then trying to reintroduce it, then taking it back out and then trying again to reintroduce it. Each time we reintroduced it, we were supposed to watch for symptoms but then you read into every little thing and second guess yourself if it in fact was due to the dairy or if it was just a coincidence or nothing at all! Although the pediatricians had suggested not having her tested, we prayed about it as a family and I talked with another friend who went through the same situation. We decided we had nothing to lose by having her tested so we went ahead with the appointment. 

I had to laugh as we walked into the office. You could tell most of their clients are adults because every nurse and receptionist stopped by our room to ooh and ahh over the baby. After talking with the doctor, he decided to test for a milk and nut allergies so she was going to have 4 little pricks on her back. They had me lay her down on her belly and I didn't realize they had started, but when the nurse did the first little prick Emma looked up at me with the biggest little eyes as if to say "what are they doing mommy?" and started to cry. It wasn't a bad cry like shots, and she calmed down after a minute or two but it still made my heart ache for my sweet little girl. The test confirmed that she does in fact have a milk allergy (so I wasn't a mad woman reading into non-existent symptoms!) but it looks very minor. She didn't have much of a reaction which is a GOOD thing! I am allowed to continue eating small amounts of dairy to try to help her build up a tolerance for it but not go over board and cause her to have an allergic reaction. Its a fine line but I'm happy to have an answer! They would like to have us come back when she's a year to have blood work done to see more indepth how she's doing. At this point I'm not sure I'll go ahead with that. It seems a little much to put a one year old through bloodwork when she's happy, thriving and not having weird symptoms. We'll cross that bridge when we come to it I suppose.

We are off to Lowe's for a little family trip. Have a great weekend everyone! :)

Slump

I have officially declared that I am in a blog slump! I was going great guns until my temporary inability to post pictures through me all out of sorts and I didn't recover well. I need morediaper stories or run ins with famous celebrities to liven up my blog life! Until I bounce back, you can refer back to those much more witty enjoyable posts to remember that this is a fun blog to read and you don't want to write me off! :)

Here's my "excuses" why I haven't been blogging much (aka what we've been up to):

- both my husband and my baby girl got sick over the last week so I've been busy caring for them by making lots and lots of homemade soups, creating soothing teas, and tending to their every whim (minus the soup and tea, but it sounded good and I really have been caring for them)

-we are preparing to have Em tested for a milk allergy this week but in the meantime I've been following the pediatrician's recommendation to try to reintroduce dairy into my diet and see how it goes. I'm not sure who wouldn't be able to easily decipher why a baby is throwing up: over eating, dairy allergy, too much tummy time, too much bouncing, etc etc. It's EASY to figure out, especially because she can talk and tell me. NOT I've been pulling my hair out feeling like I'm reading into every little thing and then second guessing everything. I'm so very much looking forward to hearing a definite yes or no. Pray for clarity!

-Jarred's preparing to have his wisdom teeth out and so we have a consultation this week about that. We don't have dental insurance so I reluctantly asked how much this 30min. consultation would cost. Would you believe me when I say $76???? Almost $100 for someone to look in his mouth and say, "yep those things need to come out. Let's schedule a surgery date." Goodness gracious! In all seriousness, we really are praying that they are impacted because then it will be considered a "medical procedure" and our medical insurance will cover costs, minus our deductible. If you could join us in praying over this, we would really appreciate it!

-and most importantly: I am getting baptized this Sunday! :) The journey leading up to this could be a whole blog post of its own, but needless to say, I'm very excited, nervous, and overjoyed to be doing this! 

Thanks for bearing with me during my "blog slump". Until next time, Emma and I will be thinking of exciting new posts! haha

First Family Trip

I started writing this blog post earlier, right before bed, but decided I was too tired to finish it. Now it's 2am and I'm downstairs on the couch which has now become my bed for the rest of the night due to a sick husband taking over ours upstairs. It's been a rough week for our family - first Emma came down with a cold and now Jarred seems to have gotten something. I'm praying healing, strength and protection over my family tonight!

We were able to get away this weekend for a little family trip to the cabin. It was our first time going away since Emma was born and I wasn't sure what to expect. Much to my delight, she turned out to be SUCH a great little traveler! We timed the trip right around her afternoon nap so she slept a good portion of the drive (it's only 2 hours anyway) and she had Daisy, our dog, to entertain her the rest of the way. I wasn't sure how she would sleep in her pack n play but she did great! 12 straight hours both nights! It rained Friday and half of Saturday so we popped in some movies and just relaxed! My hard working hubby doesn't relax easily so it was a breath of fresh air to do absolutely nothing for a few days. He even did most of the cooking and cleaning for us....I didn't complain once. :)

And now for the best news of all: right before we left, we stopped at Radio Shack and picked up the camera upload thing that we needed. I was so excited to be able to share pictures with ya'll again! Here's a few from our weekend. Enjoy! 

Laughter

In my last post I wrote about how Miss Emma's little personality is emerging more and more each day. This week she figured out how to giggle and it is so darn cute if I do say so myself! She has this raspy little laugh bubbles right up from her toes. She loves to laugh with her Wadi (Jarred's mom - lovingly named by Em's cousin) and the more Wadi laughs, the more Emma laughs back. The other night they went back and forth for probably 10 minutes, just cracking each other up! She loves to laugh and smile at the babies on her Praise Baby DVDs. She will sit quietly and watch the TV but as soon as a baby's face comes on the screen, she lights up with a big smile and giggles at it. I love to think about what she is thinking: what makes her laugh one time yet when you do the same thing later, she has a stone cold serious face. All the while, we as parents dance around, talk in funny voices, and act like goofballs just to see her smile and hear that sweet laughter. So tonight as I lay in bed trying to fall asleep (clearly unsuccessfully, hence the blog post) I got to thinking about the spiritual equivalent of all of this. If we only knew how much the Lord delights in our laughter and joy. I believe He loves to bless us just to see our faces light up and hear our laughter. I want clearer vision to see the silly, unique, special, personal ways He blesses my life just because He can and because He LOVES me! Sometimes I recognize a blessing, but I'm not so quick to "laugh" to let Him know how much joy it brought to me. What a bummer it would be if I did things that really did make Emma happy, but she never laughed or smiled so I knew how joyful I made her. I believe God longs to hear your voice, your laughter letting him know that you are blessed and happy and love Him for it! This morning during worship time we were reminded that God wants to hear our voice. He wants our honest, not-so-eloquent thoughts - happy or sad - telling Him what's on your heart. Sure He knows it, but He loves loves loves when we tell Him anyway. So I just encourage you (all of you lurkers out there who read but never comment) to spend some time letting Him know what's on your heart. If you are joyful, laugh with Him like Emma and her Wadi. If you are hurting, cry out and wait for His faithful peace to embrace you. 

On a lighter note - I have been tickled as one by one people admit to reading my little blog. Many more people than I imagined! 

And finally - I have to give a shout out to a college friend who designed my new background and header. I'm loving it! :) I am pretty clueless when it comes to most technical stuff, but she is a genius I'm pretty sure! After JUST starting a blog, she already starting designing her own stuff! If you're in the market for a fancy new look, check her out! 

You know you live on a dairy farm when....

.....you get 70 lbs of ground beef, signed sealed delivered to your front door!

 I'm still working on getting through all of last year's beef so today I decided to make a meatball recipe that I hadn't tried yet that calls for 3lbs of ground beef. It was perfect timing, my mother-in-law called to see if we wanted to come over for family night tonight but she wasn't sure what to make for dinner. I glanced to my mess of a kitchen filled with meatballs and said....I can help with that! :) We are so blessed to be able to get beef (ground, roasts, steaks) for free each year but I'm ALWAYS looking for more recipes to be able to use it up. If you know any good ones, I'm all ears!

Emma and I have been busy little beavers this week! My grandmother and aunt came to visit for the long weekend (Canadian Thanksgiving weekend...did ya'll know I'm Canadian?) and my grandmother is going to make all of our window treatments as a Christmas gift. I was beyond blessed but definitely a little stressed. She leaves tomorrow so our week has been filled with trying to pick out patterns and fabric so she can take it all back with her to finish. I'm not a quick decision maker when it comes to pretty permanent fixtures in my home so I was stressing a little to think fast on what we'd like! 

I feel like everyday this week Emma is learning something new. Recently when I put on Praise Baby for her, she giggles and smiles so big when a face comes on the screen. Uncle Dan (who is studying to be an eye doctor) would be proud to know her eyes must be developing nicely! And she has turned into a total Daddy's girl (he is eating up every second!) I crack up everyday when he comes home for lunch and I'm trying to feed her some baby food. The girl cranes her neck around so she can stare and smile at her daddy! Who needs to eat when I've got my daddy to smile with! It's such a fun age (ok every age is I think) but we are loving it as her little personality emerges more and more!

Well I'm off to finish up my meatballs! Enjoy the weekend! 

Relaxing

Sunday afternoon we had a few friends over to watch the Eagles game and they brought their (VERY nice) camera along. Not that I'm jealous or anything. I like having to take 14 pictures to get one good one. I like the fact that I can't take pictures in the evening because the lighting screws up my camera. Who wants nighttime pictures anyway!?!? Anyway, Ellie took some cute pictures of Emma and their little lady who is about 2 months younger than Em. Here's a cute one of us. I think Emma's in the beginning stages of teething. There's no sign of teeth in the near future but she's drooling all the time and everything goes into her mouth to get chomped on. 

Speaking of everything going into her mouth, I've reintroduced pacifiers! She still won't take them but she's not quite as dramatic as she used to be (picture gagging, choking, and crying). She chews on them. These next 2 pictures crack me up. We never really used her boppy pillow, but she's not a big fan of laying flat on her back so it worked perfect to kick back and watch Praise Baby while Mommy cooked dinner. I was laughing so hard!

I still don't have a new camera uploader, these were the last 2 pictures I had uploaded before it broke. I've been saving them for a slow blog day. :) Hope everyone had a relaxing weekend! 

4 Months

Out of all of the posts to be bummed about not having pictures to go with it, this one is a big bummer! I'd love to show you Emma in all of her 4 month old cuteness next to Bear Bear. Although the pictures I tried to take yesterday didn't turn out so well so it's okay...we'll try to get better ones another day!

The Stats:

Height: 23.5in

Weight: 13lb 5oz

Eats: about every 3 hours during the day

Sleeps: about 10-12 hours straight at night (don't hate me) and just settled into a morning and afternoon nap routine AND she puts herself to sleep now which is GREAT!

What is Emma up to these days....

*watching Praise Baby DVDs

*having her belly tickled (I love hearing those first little laughs)

*flying like an airplane with Daddy

*sitting up with a little help still

*putting EVERYTHING in her mouth and drooling like a faucet - teething perhaps?

*becoming a momma's girl and making her preferences known to others that may try to hold her

*playing in her exersaucer

*rolling around all of the time - it's much harder to change her diaper these days!

*wearing a size 1 diaper and size 0-3m clothes

*getting cuter and cuter! :)

I've been trying to figure out what I want to do about starting solid foods. Typically you start between 4-6 months and she was showing some of the physical signs of being ready to try. I gave her some rice cereal and sweet potatoes a few days ago and she did great! Her pediatrician recommended waiting a little while longer because she's growing great and doing well with just my milk. I think I'm going to continue nursing pretty exclusively but have the baby food as back up in case I want to leave her with anyone. She won't take a bottle so this way they can feed her if she gets hungry and I can be away for longer. Case in point: tomorrow I am getting my hair cut so we'll see how it goes! 

Tough Decisions

Having a baby forces you to make some serious decisions about where you stand on certain issues. After a lot of thought, research, and prayer, we've decided not to celebrate Halloween as a family, but then you have to decide what exactly that means. Our obvious decision was not to engage in Trick or Treating, but there are other things that are related to the "Halloween" season like carving pumpkins. I'm not sure I've totally made my decision...do you know the history of the Jack O'Lantern? It's an old Irish legend about a mean old drunk named Jack who played a trick on the devil and made him promise to not take his soul when he died. Jack wasn't allowed into Heaven, but as promised, he wasn't allowed into Hell either. He had to wander in the darkness between the two so the devil threw him an ember to help him see. Jack put the ember in an old turnip and hence...we have the first jack o'lantern! Not such a nice story is it? Like I said, I haven't totally made up my mind, but I did find this analogy that I really like - it puts a different spin on the whole jack o'lantern thing.

Being a Christian is like being a pumpkin. God lifts you up, takes you in, and washes all the dirt off of you. He opens you up, touches you deep inside and scoops out all the yucky stuff-- including the seeds of doubt, hate, greed, etc. Then He carves you a new smiling face and puts His light inside you to shine for all the world to see. 

What are your thoughts on Halloween, jack o'lanterns, trick or treating? I know it can be a controversial topic. Here's some food for thought that really convicted me...

If we tell our kids that it's okay to go trick or treating because it's just for fun then we are teaching them that as long as we are "just having fun" things are okay to do. What do we say to them then when they get a little older and go to a party where they are playing with a Ouiji Board...just for fun. The truth of the matter is, scripture tells us that there is a spiritual realm and that includes the heavenlies but it also includes a dark evil realm. When we start messing with things that tap into or call out the dark spiritual realm, even if we are just doing it "just for fun," we are engaging in a spiritual battle and now we've sided with the Enemy. I know I may come across as a wack-o, over protective, closed minded mom on this, but I love my daughter with all of my heart and I want God's best for her. If she misses out on a little "fun" one night a year but gains an eternal perspective, that's a price I'm willing to pay. She may question me on it someday and may even get angry about it, but I'm making these choices with a pure heart desiring her to learn to take a stand for what she believes in and be in the world but not of it. Why waste time making sure they don't miss out on one silly thing a year when it has no value in Kingdom reality! I believe God will bless our pure heart motive in big ways and will give our children things WAY more valuable than a bag of candy. I heard someone say sometime that they want the highest levels we can reach be the floor that our children stand on. So true! We CAN and WILL raise up a powerful generation! Thanks for getting deep with me....what are your thoughts? (that means....leave comments! haha)

p.s. I have no idea why my font went all crazy in my last post. The craziness of the 3 Redneck Tenors just got everything all out of sorts I guess! :) 

Celebrity Sightings!

Today has been a pretty uneventful day which doesn't make it easy to spice up these picture-less posts but I'll try my best. I got some cleaning...er, I mean I watched Law and Order episodes online this morning while Emma took a short nap and then we headed to Target after lunch. I don't know about you, but I can be very oblivious to things around me unless I consciously focus on it. For example, if you were to ask me how much a loaf of bread costs or whether the store brand item is cheaper than the name brand...clueless. I guess part of it is that I was raised not having to worry about money or question whether we had enough for something so I don't pay attention to it. I've been working on that lately...trying to pay attention to how much things cost and look for bargains. It's actually pretty enjoyable! I've been trying out the Target brand things (diapers, detergents, paper towels, etc) they are WAY cheaper and I'm finding them to be just as good in most cases! 

Back to the important, exciting news....on our way home, I found myself driving behind celebrities!!!! Our Trailblazer was right behind none other than....The 3 Redneck Tenors! For a split second (or 15) I debated the hazards of getting out my camera and taking a picture while driving 65mph on the highway. It was risky but come on...The 3 Redneck Tenors! And then I remembered the sad demise of my picture uploading thinger (I can NEVER remember the name of that thing!) And after all of that mental processing, I remembered that I had left my camera at home. So, I checked out the world wide web once I got home to find out more about these certain celebrities and I could not stop laughing at their homepage. 

"Join Billy Bob, Billy Joe, and Billy Billee as they mix NASCAR with Beethoven, lite beer with Puccini and even kick up a little dust with Ave Maria Dixie! You'll travel with our 3 redneck cousins from their modest beginnings in Paris, Texas, where they discover that belting out a high C causes pigs to move faster and bar brawlers to scatter; all the way to their triumphant debut at New York's famous Carnegie Hall."

I'm still debating whether I really believe those are their real names....3 cousins named Billy? I remember trying to think of names for Emma and we checked lots off of the list because we knew other people who had already used that name. But this family....no, they don't mind sharing names. They just throw in a second name behind it to make it unique. Poor Billy Billee's mom! I wonder if she just couldn't think of any other name that sounded right....how about we just do 2 Billy's but spell the second one a little different! PERFECT! hahaha 

Well Emma is taking what I hope will be a nice long afternoon nap so I should get a few things done around here (and by "get things done" I really mean watch another episode of Law and Order online.....or 4)

oh and in case you were wondering, we missed the 3 Redneck Tenors concert. They performed on the 4th at the American Music Theater. bummer....

Sad blog day....

Last post I said something crazy like I would try to post something non-baby related in the near future but to be clear I wasn't really into the idea. Posts are way more fun when they include cute pictures of babies or pictures of ridiculously stuffed cars full of junk. So actually the pictures do it for me. I like a thought provoking post every so often but too many in a row get a little much. Well prepare yourselves for "a little much" coming from this here blog. My little device that I put my memory card in and plug into the computer to upload the images broke. Right on the very day when hubby and I had a serious talk about trying harder to be frugal. I wasn't sure if "I need a new one asap so I can write fun posts on my blog" sounded very frugal so I refrained from saying that to him. Needless to say, I can't upload pictures. :( I'm working on a few other ideas to spice up the picture-less blog life. Bear with me in the meantime. :)

A Girl and Her Shoes

Seriously - What girl doesn't love a good pair of shoes? If you would have known me around the age of 4, you would have known about my obsession with Jellies. Despite bloody, blistered feet from awful plastic shoes, I wore my Jellies with pride, refusing to take them off because I loved them so much. Following that trend, I started a love affair with Keds. I'm not sure why I loved them so, but those little white shoes were all I wanted. My mother on the other hand would refuse to buy them with flagrant claims like "poor arch support"...clearly she didn't understand the sacrifices that need to be made in the name of fashion.  

So while doing a little shopping at Old Navy the other day for my hubby, I came across a cute pair of shoes for my girl. The bumbo was the perfect seat for her to check her cute self out in!

It also got chilly enough this week (hello Fall!) for bundling up! I probably overdressed her a little bit because I not only put a fluffy warm jacket on her but I also draped a big blanket over her legs. Oh well - rather be safe than sorry! Anyway, I'm not sure she could get much cuter! She must have been nice and cozy because she fell asleep both times we took trips to the store. 

I have to share this funny story from bible study this week and yes it's about Emma and for those of you who are thinking "does this girl talk about anything other than her daughter?" I'll try to post something different next time! So my girls group started a Beth Moore study (The Patriarchs) 2 weeks ago. This week as we gathered to watch the video together, there were more girls there than ever before. Seriously there were people on the floor and the room was packed! So everyone is quietly listening to Beth's teaching as she says, "and He caused the winds to blow!" And immediately, right as she finished that sentence, Emma lets out a nice big stinker. She couldn't have timed it any better! Her winds were certainly blowing very well! :) Have a great weekend everyone!