Parenting lessons

Ah ha!!
I remembered one of the stories =) Now if I only had a picture it would be a thousand times better....

Parenting is one of those jobs that you always hope you are doing well at, but never really have a strong gauge to measure it by on a daily basis. You remind, coach, discipline and encourage. But then there are days when you just have to scratch your head. Aubrey gives me a fair number of these days!

The setting- it was a warm afternoon and the girls asked to play in the sprinkler
The extra details- Ella had asked for 2 cups so that her and Aubrey could play a sprinkler game she had read about in a magazine. In the game, each player was to stand in place holding the cup trying to fill it with water. If a player moved their feet, then that player had to dump the cup of water on their head and start again.
****Side note, Ella is up from her nap dictating to me as I blog to make sure I get all the details****
The moment- I took Ainsley inside to lay her down for her nap and informed Ella and Aubrey that when I came back down it was time for them to come in for nap.

As I come down the stairs from laying Ainsley down, Aubrey has already came in the house. She looks at me and said, "I have pee all over me."
"You what? How did that happen?"
"Ella threw it on me."
"What? Why did Ella do that?"
Ella had now joined the conversation.
"Because she peed in a cup."

I had to pause----which offender do I discipline first? I mean, technically I have never made a rule that says "No peeing in cups." Nor have I made a rule that says "Do not throw pee on anyone." Call it an oversight on my part. I guess these are important lessons for a child to have! How else will they learn these lessons if we as parents don't guide them in such matters?

These girls definitely keep me on my toes! Life is never dull around here =)

A.D.D. blogging

 So many thoughts, so much going on, so little sleep!!! Each night, while showering at the most inopportune times, my mind is filled with all the funny things the girls have said throughout the day and all the ideas I want to capture and remember on the ol' blog. But then reality hits, someone is crying, someone needs help in the bathroom, or someone wants desperately to go to sleep and alas the ol' blog has to wait another day. Seems like such a trivial dilemma, but its my dilemma nonetheless ;-) Today I have time to blog but cannot for the life of me remember the cute/funny things I wanted to blog about. Instead I will go to my old standby of using pictures to recap and jog my memory.

A birthday party for Peaches and Olle
Ella decided that her beloved Build-a-bear stuffed animals needed a birthday party. Sparkles the dog, who was created in between Peaches and Olle, was excluded and I'm not such what her reasoning was for that...but I'm sure it was good and logical!

Ella made a birthday card for Olle and wrapped presents for her.

She also wanted to create a festive atmosphere. She cut out streamers one by one to hang for decorations. Daddy kindly told her that no, he was not climbing on a ladder to hang decorations from the ceiling for her stuffed animals birthday party ;-) Instead he suggested the dining room table!

There was a very good attendance of friends, and from what I hear the party was a success!

 Miss Ainsley and her cuteness seem to be growing more and more each day!!

 This past week, we seem to have stumbled back a few paces with the tummy troubles. At the beginning of September/end of August I cut all dairy products in all forms from my diet. I had a few slips with food I didn't know had a dairy product in it, but overall she seemed to be feeling better. Poop wasn't so acidic (just what you were all dying to hear about!), crying fits were far less and the spitting up had returned to a normal baby level. But then last Thursday, while at Back to School night for Ella, she made a BIG splatter on the classroom floor. A pattern of larger spit-up and more crying screaming fits began. Today at the doctor, he decided that we needed to do some blood tests to check for allergens. Here is our smiley girl with her coban wrap! She really is a happy happy baby at heart!

Toes are so much fun to play with!!

I will end now, bummed that none of the pictures triggered the funny stories I have been waiting to share/remember. Maybe I'll just start blogging from the shower?!?!

1st Day of Kindergarten

Miss Ella...wow, your off to kindergarten! You could not have been more excited!! I was up at 6:30 to get myself and Ainsley ready, and at 6:50 I can hear Ella singing away in her room. She has to stay in her room until 7, but at 7:00 on the dot she came bounding out of her room fully dressed exclaiming "I"m ready!"

Sweet sisters!

Aubrey was so excited for Ella! Grandpa Rick had given the girls money for a new outfit and Ella was going to wear her's on the 1st day of school. Since all the girls had matching outfits, Ella and Aubrey insisted that they all wear their "1st day of school" outfits. I'll admit that it did make for cute pictures ;-)Thanks Grandpa!!

Indian Hills Elementary School, September 7, 2012

Ella is loving every minute of this! She has found her name tag and is ready to go.

Kindergarten is extra special when you get to be in the same class as your cousin! Quin and Ella.

Also in Ella's class is Lucy, a friend from preschool last year. Two girls from our neighborhood are in Ella's class too! I was so happy that she was able to start school with some friends. She is super social so its not like she would have had a disadvantage had she not known anyone ;-)

Bye sister!!

When Ella was done with school, she was so excited about her 1st day. However, when I asked her what she did at school she told me, "Well....1st we did

Welcome

Flag Salute

Class rules

Choice time

Craft time

Bathroom break

Snack

Recess

Math

Get ready to go home"

(She recited the schedule that was written on the board in her classroom! She didn't say "I read a book for choice time," it was just choice time.)

Today was day 5 of school, she informs us every day as to how many days she has been going to school. She still loves it! This week she was OVER THE MOON to find out her school has a library where she can borrow books! Yesterday she had her 1st music class. And today was P.E. The best part about school, Ella gets to play on the playground on all the inside days of the week now! Once you look at a calendar that will make perfect sense ;-)

4 months old

Miss Ainsley is 4 months old already! Wow... so lets catch up--

Ainsley is our smiley smiley girl! She smiles with her whole face and I just can't get enough of it.

 These days we are back to seeing more of the smiles now that we seem to have a handle on her tummy troubles. I mentioned in the 3 month post that she was started on Prilosec to see if it would help with her spitting up and increased fussiness. After a few days on the medicine, we weren't seeing any improvement so the doctor upped her dose. We gave that a few more days and still weren't getting on top of this thing. Next the doctor decided to do some stool tests and that is when we got some answers. It turned out that she wasn't processing sugars well, her stool was very acidic and there was fat in the stool.

What does all this mean? Well in combination with the abdominal cramps, doctor concluded that she is allergic to milk protein (and the fat in the stool meant that she had actually had some intestinal damage done by her body's inability to process the protein.). Now the answer to this problem is simple and complex at the same time-- no more milk for mommy. But not just milk, no casein (milk protein) and no form of dairy whatsoever! Also out are any baked goods with milk/dairy in them, cookies/breads/cakes. We are 1 week into the diet change and we have a changed baby! She has only had 3 or 4 screaming fits of her belly hurting, the spitting up is much much less, poop is getting better.

Milk protein allergies in babies is actually fairly common and is more a digestive issue than a true life-long allergy. As long as mom completely cuts the milk protein from her diet, babies tend to outgrow this allergy by age 1-3. Dr. Deklotz said today that we will wait until she is 1 year old before we will attempt any foods with milk protein in it.

On a side note, month 4 was also the month for mommy to go back to work. I'd been saving up all summer to have milk ready for the transition but that was before the "no milk" diet. All 20+oz I'd worked so hard on have to be tossed which also meant that Ainsley had to have her first formula bottle. For most babies this wouldn't have been terrible, but because of her allergy, she has to have special formula that is less than tasty (and less than cheap! $25 for an 8oz can). Daddy very patiently tried until she finally took 1.5oz of formula!

Sleep is the only thing we have to work on now. Her belly typically hurt much worse at night which led to sleeping with mommy and nursing all night just to be more comfortable. Slowly we are easing her back into sleeping on her own, but we are taking it slow because it can take up to 2 more weeks for the milk protein to completely work itself out of her body and mine.

 She has quite the personality! She knows exactly what the camera is and will smile so big for you until you put the camera up....and then we get this expression ;-)

 Aubrey had to get in on the picture action....and Ainsley once again hid her smiles!

Today at the doctor, Ainsley weighed in at 14lbs 3.5oz. She is only in the 70th percentile, which is tiny compared to her sisters who were both off the charts. She still has cute little chubby cheeks and rolls on the thighs ;-)

Happy 4 months Ainsley Rae!

Our Instagram life

Up until recently, I have been pretty hesitant to take pictures on my phone. It always felt like they were just wasted memories because no one could see them and I couldn't print them. Someone else must have shared my feelings because insert Instagram! Now I can take pictures, share them with friends then export them to the computer...yay! So here are life's random moments....

Sweet sweet baby (How time flies! This was taken at the beginning of July and Ainsley looks so tiny)

Happy 4th of July!

Aubrey holding the phone up to Ainsley so she can make her first of many princess phone calls

Playground time

Soon Ella will be playing on these toys every day in Kindergarten.

Farmers market face and arm paint. Aubrey got a caterpillar, Ella became a fairy.

Ainsley is the snugglest little girl. I cherish these moments.

Outtake from family photo shoot!!

Ainsley at the fair. Love the cheeks!

What's a fair without giant balloons?!?!

Ainsley having a serious talk with Uncle Jason (photo courtesy of Auntie Allie)

We found the starfish!

Sweet baby enjoying a nap on the beach.

Luau night with the Incredibear at John's Incredible pizza

Ainsley sleeps holding her little rice pack these days to ease the tummy pains.

Aubrey had a hard time being the littlest at Oaks Park because she was brave enough for all the rides, just not tall enough.

Cotton candy and sno cones round out the end of the day at Oaks Park

Sleepy baby hanging out with mom while sisters play

 

 

 

 

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August---bits and pieces

 Man oh man....August was super busy, sleep was super rare and the ol' blog was once again neglected! I have so many posts/stories/pictures I want to share to capture all these moments and memories, I just hope that during these rare uninterrupted moments I have to type that I can remember them all ;-)

First, I need to explain the 1st picture. Aubrey is holding up an "old school" spell checker. She found it in the Scrabble box and wanted to play with it. The batteries are dead so we couldn't see the reason she was so interested in it....until we turned around to see this. "Look, I'm using my 'eye-pad'!" Oh my poor children!! Their parents are so behind the times that to them a dead-spell checker is the closest thing they get to an iPad =) The funniest part is that she holds it up over her eye when she uses it!

 Creative. That feels like too basic of a word to describe Ella these days. With her fervent reading and constant observation of the world around her, I never know what to find her doing. One morning her and Aubrey decided to go mountain climbing. No detail was overlooked, right down to the safety harnesses which also double as jump ropes ;-)

 Ainsley. She has had quite the month of tummy troubles (more on that in her 4 month post). But fortunately, she still managed to fill the moments between crying in pain with these heart-melting smiles.

 Is there anything sweeter than a sleeping baby??!

 Mommy and Ainsley. This picture doesn't do justice to the tired/redness that filled her eyes so many days this month.

Neal's company had a family fun night down at Bullwinkles Family Fun center this month. Unfortunately for the girls, most of the attractions weren't age appropriate for them. But the most important part was that they has fun doing the few things they could ;-)

 Ella conquered her fears and did the high ropes course all by herself!! She was confident doing the rope ladder on the first leg, but once it got to the tight rope section she took a little reassurance. In the end she finished strong and never even slipped off =)

 The fun center was PACKED with people! Neal and Aubrey went to go ride the bumper boats and the line was so long that Ella was able to join up with them after her ropes course. The girls had lots of fun, Daddy got super wet and Ainsley hung out with me while we watched the fun.

 The frog hopper was a definite hit with the girls =)

 As part of the summer reading program, the girls got a discounted ride bracelet for Oaks Park. Allie and I decided to take all the kids for a fun end-of-summer day....unfortunately for us, we headed out on the last 2 for 1 Tuesday and ever other person in Portland had the same idea as us! So these 4 excited faces had to wait until Thursday to actually get to ride the rides. Then I forgot the camera on the day we went back.... its always something ;-)

 Aubrey is Miss Personality these days! We never know what we are going hear come out of her mouth. She loves her role as big sister. One day I had forgotten to buckle Ainsley into her bouncy chair and Aubrey wanted to help out, but Ainsley didn't get the memo. I hear Aubrey telling Ainsley, "Ainsley, hold still. I'm trying to be the best big sister I can be!"

Our sweet sweet beautiful girls! Its so hard to believe that on Friday Ella heads off for her 1st day of Kindergarten.

I still have camping, a trip to Riddle and our visit with Uncle Jason and Auntie Sarah to catch up on......stay tuned!!