More V

The other day, I found V under the table with something in her mouth. She typically will throw her Kix cereal on the floor so she can eat them when she pleases. I figured she was just scrounging for some of her stash. When I reached for her, she started screaming at me (telling me to leave her alone). I knew at that moment that she had something other than Kix in her mouth. When I finally got her out, she was halfway finished with a strawberry that Aimee had dropped. She was obviously enjoying her new find, so I let her eat the rest of it. When she was finished, she was covered in strawberry. It was smeared all over her face, clothes, and highchair. And she loved it.

In other news, her test results came back. Bloodwork showed no signs of allergy. Her endoscopy showed no signs of allergy in her esophagus and stomach. I do wonder how accurate the endoscopy and biopsies were, since I had not fed her any of the offending foods for a while before procedure. Anyway... Her intestines did show elevated levels of something, I can't remember what the doctor called it. The doctor said that sometimes this elevated level is a sign that she could be developing celiac disease, but that I should not worry about that until further down the road.

We have tried a few new foods recently. She did not have any reaction the first time she had strawberries, but has not eaten any since. She has eaten pears 2 times without any reaction. She has had squash once, though she didn't like the flavor. Slowly, slowly, we are adding foods to her diet.

So, as for foods that she can eat: sweet potatoes, corn, squash, pears, and probably strawberries. (and lots and lots of breastmilk!)

Foods that I'm pretty sure she has issues with: rice and/or oats, milk and/or soy, maybe wheat.

She is still growing and just plain cute, so I'm sure she will be just fine once we work through all these feeding issues.

A visit to the farm

A couple weeks back, my friend told me that a local farm had free admission for kids if they wore their Halloween costume. It was a farm that I had driven by in the past and wondered what it was like. Naturally, I jumped at the chance to get the kids in free. My only problem was finding costumes for all the kids so early in the month. I typically wait until the last week (or day) to figure out what to put my kids in. We threw a bunch of stuff together and came up with a Ritz box, a flamingo, a doctor, a lion, and a fairy. (yes, her skirt is a curtain.)

Being so early in the month, it was still hot. Those poor little kids in all the fuzzy costumes were dying in the heat. Halloween costumes definitely were not designed with AZ in mind! There was a dry storm blowing through that day, so it was slightly cooler than the previous week but mostly it was just dusty and windy!

We started out petting looking at the animals. The kids were not quite thrilled to be touching animal fur covered in dark colored mud. (I'm sure it was mud, right?)

After that, we went to a little play area and took a few pictures. Jayke was really trying to play the part of a cow, which is why he is scowling.

Next came the hay maze. Jayke and Ethan rushed through it because they could see exactly where they needed to go. Obviously it was designed with younger children in mind.

We went on a "hayride" around the farm, but half of the people got to see the surrounding businesses and parking lots and the other half got to look at empty, dry fields of dirt. :-( And everyone got straw all in their clothes. It was so itchy! Ryan even got a rash from just touching the straw. (I think I know where Ethan gets all his allergies from.)

The kids got to take some more pictures...

 (Definitely a windy day!)

They had just the right amount of animals for all of the kids.

 (My cute little lion.)

At the end, all the kids got to take home a free pumpkin and stickers to decorate it with.

  (Aimee went on sticker overload.)

 (Jayke made a witch.)

(Kate's)

The trip was pretty quick and the farm was definitely designed for preschool aged kids. I am definitely glad all the kids got in free.

Aimee did it!

I am so impressed with Aimee. We have been casually working on letter sounds together this year (mostly just watching Super WHY! and a little bit of one-on-one when the other kids are at school). I had also spent a day or two working with her on blending sounds to make simple words like at, cat, bat, rat, fat, etc. I stuck with simple word families and just tried teaching her that letters make sounds and when you say them together, they can make words. I didn't want to do too much, since I am not technically required to start teaching her until next year when she is in kinder.

I had checked out easy reader books from the library a couple weeks ago and went through them, having her read all the articles (a, an, the, etc.) and I read all the other words. It really helped her to quickly recognize those words by sight when we were reading books together. She was SO excited that she was actually reading! She wanted to read those books over and over again just to show that she could "read" those words.

This past week, I decided to check out an early phonics book for her. I showed them to her and told her that they were for her and then I forgot about it. A few days later, I see her and Kate sitting on the couch together with one of the books. She is asking Kate questions and Kate is leading her through it. Excitedly, she tells me she can read. I sit down next to her and she actually reads the entire book. I am so thrilled that she actually did it! That means that the hardest part of teaching her to read is behind me and I hardly had to do anything! I am so glad that she is so self-motivated! I just love her to pieces.

We took a little video so all the grandmas could see her reading and she is just so excited to share her new talent with you!

Life...and V

I am so behind on documenting our lives and it is only getting worse each day. Ever since school started again my life has been CRAZY! Sadly, I don't think it will get better any time soon. I was hoping that second year dental school would give us a little break, but it might actually have become a little more busy. I think it is due to the fact that they started night classes in addition to the daytime 8-5 classes. Now on the nights when Ryan might actually be home and not studying for a test he has to do the work for his public health classes. :-( Add to that the new feeding issues with V and I am drowning in my responsibilities each day. Someday it will get better...and then it will get even worse during 4th year rotations... I look forward to the day that Ryan is finished with school and we can decide where we are going to live and where he will practice. And then we will actually settle down and start our real adult lives.

Here is a little something to entertain you while I try to find the time to play catch-up with our lives.

And another...V loves bathtime and especially loves splashing in the water! Yes, those are squeals of delight. She can scream better than any of the other kids.

10 months

Utter cuteness. Brought to you by V, who thinks she is bigger than she really is, trying to act like she is ready to walk, but is really a wobbly mischievous little 10 month old love who succeeds at getting into everything and stealing everyone's hearts. (How is that for a run-on sentence.)