While a lot of toddlers we know seem to be
developing friendships, Lex has remained a bit of a loner. We
had an odd experience at the playground last week that I’ve
been meaning to blog about. We went to a kid show in the park
at lunch time with Michelle and kids, then stopped at the
playground for a few minutes. It was nap time, but I thought
we’d be ok. When we got to the playground there was a very friendly 3yr
old girl there. She gave Eve a big hug, and gave Dylan a big
hug, almost climbed into the stroller to give Caitlin a big
hug, then she got to Lex, who was sitting in our stroller. She
said hello and started to hug him, but he dropped his head down
and started crying! It was sad. I pulled him out and cuddled
him and chalked the whole thing up to a nap time situation.
Dylan, this girl, and another little girl then walked around
holding hands (Dylan is smooth!) and playing
ring-around-the-rosey. Lex kept his distance, but watched them
carefully. At one point he settled himself into the base of a
tree and just watched them. I went over to talk to him and I
offered to help him play with them or something, but he said he
just wanted to watch. It was a little weird and I felt a little
bad for him, but I know he’s an introvert and I expect more of
the same as he grows up.

Anyway, all this to tell you a story
about today :) We went outside this afternoon to fill up the
pool and do some swimming in icy cold hose water. On the way
out Lex asked if Parrish could swim with him. I was surprised
by the question and told him we could definitely go ask. When
we are outside Parrish often runs over to play but Lex always
seems a bit indifferent, so I was surprised to hear him
requesting it. So we went over to Parrish’s house and Lex
walked right up on the porch, but refused the knock, instead
deciding to crawl up on their ledge and peek in the window.
Hm… we’ll have to work on that. Anyway, the dog made our
presence known and Parrish’s dad came to the door. Lex wouldn’t
talk to him, so I asked. They were heading out and couldn’t
swim, but said maybe a little later. So we ended up staying
outside for two hours, playing in the pool and waiting for
Parrish. Lex kept saying, “will Parrish come play with me now?”
It was so cute. They came home after awhile but Parrish was
sleeping and Lex could see him napping in the car and was
confused as to why he wouldn’t just wake up and come play. We
went in a few times (diaper changes, etc.) and each time Lex
insisted we go back out quickly because Parrish is going to
come play. I felt so bad for him because Parrish never came out
to play. I think it’s the first time he’s requested a play date
and it didn’t work out. It was sad, but there will be plenty
more days and lots of time to play.

As the pool drained into the lawn
Lex helped me scoop water out with buckets to water the
gardens. I initially gave him a watering can to use, but he
wanted my 3 gallon bucket (which he couldn’t even begin to
move!) so we compromised on the little purple bucket. After
about three trips he said “Mommy, this bucket is very heavy!”
and switched back to the watering can. He was a very good
helper though!

Hope everyone had a fun, festive day. We
had a pretty average day and another year with no fireworks.
Our town apparently has a very nice little 4th of July
celebration with music, food, fireworks, etc., but we’ve yet to
make it. I wanted to go this year, but both of the kids are a
little off today and it just felt like too much to try and push
them and keep them up late. Lex is scared of loud noises too,
so he probably would hate the fireworks. Oh well. I may go sit
on my porch and watch the highest ones over the tree
tops.

I just did a quick search for the
previous year’s 4th of July posts and found two funny things
from last year. First, I was excited that Lex was showing
positive signs towards potty training. This is fun, in a ironic
sort of way, because I could post the same comment again this
year and it would still be accurate. Apparently we haven’t come
very far in the potty department this year. The other thing is
that there is a video of
Eve in her little stars and stripes dress and her
laugh is adorable. It’s the same laugh she has now, only
smaller :)

And now for some rambling…
Sometimes I feel like a party-pooper with the holidays. I can
really get into Christmas and birthdays, but that’s about it.
We do Halloween and Thanksgiving, but we don’t seem to
celebrate anything else. All the neighbors
(Keeping-up-with-the-Jones-itis) are having parties and music
and decorations and whatever, and at our house it’s just
another day. I put on a red shirt, but that was purely
coincidence. Sigh. I assume that as the kids get older we’ll do
more. Or not. I guess we’ll see. For now I have a quiet house
and hear the fireworks in town starting, so I’ll say goodnight.
Happy 4th of July! (or Happy Birthday, as Alan’s been saying
all day)

UPDATE: Alan and I sat in lawn chairs in the front
yard and saw about 50% of the fireworks over the trees. Nice
way to end the day.

Lex has started a new heartbreaking habit
at nap and bed time. For some reason he recently wants someone
to stay with him (I think this started with the new, bigger
bed). Sometimes Alan or I will lay down with him until he falls
asleep, or at least until he’s really mellow, but this isn’t
always possible. I’m not sure it’s really ideal to get in this
habit anyway. So, anyway, the times when someone doesn’t lay
down with him he frequently ends up sobbing and wailing very
pitifully and saying, “no, don’t leave me mommy. don’t leave.
i’m all alone, please don’t leave me.” It breaks my heart. I
try to explain that Eve is there and I’m just downstairs, but
he doesn’t seem to care. It’s sad, but I know it’s just because
he’s tired. As a parent you can only hope that the decision you
make aren’t traumatizing your kid. :/

We had a beautiful day today! Let me start
by saying it ended with a nice, calm bedtime and both kids
asleep by 7:00pm. Can’t beat that!

I
took them to the lake today. I’m pretty sure it’s Lex’s first
time at the beach and it’s definitely Eve’s first time. I
think!! Anyway, they both loved it! I was a little worried
because swimming the past two summers has involved me standing
right behind Lex and hauling him up every time he lost his
footing and went under. Today only involved one rescue mission
and it was at the end of our stay, when he was very tired. On
the way over I made up the “belly button” and “stop, return”
rules. The first says he can only go as deep as his belly
button and the second says if mommy yells “stop” he must stop
immediately and come back to me. Surprisingly he did very well
with both rules, although a few times he “confused” his belly
button with his nipples. :)

Eve was
very excited when she saw the beach and water. Here she’s
standing by the shore squealing as Lex is running around in the
water.

A
typical conversation went like this. Me: Can you see your belly
button? Lex: (looks down) No! Me: C’mon back in then! And he
did :)

Eve spent most of the time at the waters edge playing with
the sand and splashing in the water. She seemed to love it
though, and when we went up to the picnic tables for lunch she
kept trying to run back to the beach. She learned to say
“bucket” today. You can hear it pretty well in the video.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b9Vj1lWEWsg]

This is
a cool picture, I think. He was freezing and his teeth were
chattering, but he looks beautiful in the
picture.

Sitting
on a bridge at the playground. The lake has a great beach area,
a playground, and lots of picnic tables. It’s a really nice set
up. Eve was laughing as Lex and Nate ran across the bridge, but
I couldn’t let go of her long enough to get a good picture.
This one is silly, but cute.

Lunch
time. This morning Lex asked me to cut up a pear so he could
bring it to the lake. He was excited when lunch time came
around and he could finally eat his pear.

We were there from about
10:30am-2:00pm. I was convinced they would both pass out in the
car, but not so. Eve fell asleep pretty quickly, but Lex chose
to eat biscuits instead. When we got home I put her in bed and
he said he wanted to “watch the singing penguin movie and read
some books,” so I put on Happy Feet (I love our library!) and
he sat on the floor reading to himself. Not sure why he wanted
both, but he insisted and I wanted to eat lunch and unload the
car, so his plan made us both happy :) She woke up after about
an hour and they played happily while I cleaned (much overdue)
the kitchen/dining room area. I often feel bad about cleaning a
lot while they play because I don’t want to be ignoring them,
but after the busy morning I think a quiet afternoon was just
what we needed.

Dinner involved a fun
game of “Eve, can you say…” fill in the blank, she repeats it
as best she can, and Lex rolls around in hysterics. The game
was much funnier today because they were both so tired. Then
showers, stories and bed. Love it when it’s easy. Lex is now
sleeping with doggie stuffed up his PJs shirt. I guess that was
easier than the blanket belly pack he normally constructs for
doggie.

Alan is playing poker tonight so
I have sooo much time to myself tonight, and the kitchen is
already clean!! I’m going to savor the moment by watching lame
TV and eating fat-free, sugar-free pudding. Wild woman, huh?!?
:)

I know you all are dying for a cloth
diaper update, so here goes! I’m kind of struggling with them
these days. Don’t get me wrong, I love them, but we can’t seem
to get past the diaper rashes. I think I solved the issue with
the liners (hemp absorbs a lot, but doesn’t wick away from the
skin, microfiber is much better at wicking) but Lex keeps
getting rashes and now Eve has another pretty bad one. She also
has diarrhea (tmi, sorry) a small fever and is pretty sleepy
and fussy, so I’m hoping maybe more teeth?? I don’t see any in
there, but the other option is a stomach bug or something, so
I’m hoping for teeth! Once again she’s back in Huggies and Lex
may be back there tomorrow if his rash doesn’t clear up. The
problem is that diaper cream is complicated with cloth diapers,
but with these rashes we are going through the diaper cream
like mad! I have to say though, that these kids are amazingly
happy and well behaved considering what their butts must feel
like most days.

On another note, Lex has entered an
interesing (and often annoying) new phase of questioning.
Whenever you say anything, or grunt, or breath loudly, or
(heaven forbid) swear, Lex is right there asking, “why did you
say that mommy?” I think he’s learning what words, sounds, etc
a person makes in different situations, but when Eve drops a
toy on my toe and I yell “ow!!” it doesn’t help to have Lex
right there saying, “what are you saying mommy? what did you
hurt mommy?” He often knows what you said, but asks anyway.
Alan and I keep reminding ourselves that this is a good and
normal phase and, though annoying at times, still cute and.
Kids are funny.

PS. Happy July and happy 15
months to Eve!

We went strawberry picking this morning.
It was fun, kind of. The people weren’t as friendly as the
people at other berry farms, but the kids had fun. I only had
$5 so we didn’t get a giant load of them, but it didn’t really
matter since no one lasted that long anyway. We met Michelle
and co. and while we picked the kids ate. I ended up with just
under a pound of strawberries and I’m pretty sure the kids ate
at least another pound. We left just as the sun was breaking
through the fog and headed to Panera Bread. That was nice
:)

This afternoon I packed
the kids up for another WW meeting. I’ve been struggling with
motivation for the past few days and another meeting was just
what I needed. I think WW is really going to help me because
the support network is what I need most. I know all about
exercise and healthy eating, but what I need is someone to
understand why I make bad choices when I feel guilty about
yelling at Lex, for example. So we went today and it was my
favorite one so far! The leader was great, the group was small
and everyone really liked the kids. I’m going to try a lunch
time meeting next week, with the same leader. I was thinking
that well rested kids at an afternoon meeting would be best,
but instead I have two very energetic, active kids. Maybe at a
lunch meeting Lex will be tired and happy to sit quietly and
read or something. We’ll see. I did an unofficial weigh in and
was very happy with the results. That helped a lot with the
motivation :)

So it’s official. We have allergies. Eve
tested positive for peanut allergies and the doctor recommended
avoiding nuts in general and we are now the proud owners of two
epi-pens. Bummer!!

The plan was for Alan
to stay home with Lex while I took Eve to the doctor. I tried
to get Lex in bed for a nap, but he wanted no part of it. When
the time came for us to leave, Lex was crying, “no mommy, don’t
leave me. I want to go too.” I was feeling a bit anxious about
the appointment and I think he may have been picking up on
that. So Alan decided to come along and the family went to the
doctor. Lex and Alan hung out at the hospital and ran some
errands while Eve and I were in the office.

Fun with
the camera and mirror.

Pretty
girls.

Eve was
a model patient, playing happily and letting the nurse and
doctor examine her. She didn’t even fuss when they wrote on her
back with marker and then pricked her back three times. I was
amazed. I was all prepared for screaming, but she took her plug
and cuddled into me and barely flinched at each prick. Then we
played for awhile (time has no meaning in doctor’s offices)
with the nurse coming in off and on to check on her progress
and measure her reaction (with a ruler). There was a big mirror
in the room and I entertained her for awhile with the mirror
and the camera. Then the blood pressure cuff hanging on the
wall became the object of desire and that killed some more
time. I hardly needed the bag of toys and books I brought for
her. The test itself consisted of three needle pricks, two
control pricks “to make sure the test is working” she said, and
the third actually contained the allergen. After awhile it was
determined that she had enough reaction from the allergen to be
considered allergic and the doctor came back with some
pamphlets and a prescription for the Epi-pen. For those of you
who haven’t seen one, it’s basically a big pen-shaped shot and
if she has a reaction from peanut exposure we have to take the
top off and jab the needle into her thigh, then rush her to the
hospital. Yuck!

See the
treasure map on her back? The top two are the positive and
negative control pricks, and the bottom is the allergen. I
think they put it off to the side because there was a chance
we’d have to do another one. We lucked out, I guess, not having
to do a second round. Her reaction was fast enough and clear
enough that no additional testing was necessary.

The
final verdict. They washed off the allergen after that. Not the
marker though. At bath time Lex said “what is on Eve’s
back?!?”

We
have a follow-up appointment scheduled in October to discuss
any issues or concerns we’ve had. The doc said we can cancel it
if we’re feeling super confident, but most people are full of
questions by that point and appreciate the follow-up visit. I
suspect I’ll fall into that category. Then we have to go back
again when she’s 3 (or 4?) and they run blood tests to start
tracking her peanut allergen levels and to try and narrow down
other nut allergies. After that we may be able to give her tree
nuts (walnuts, cashews, etc.) The doctor said that some people
do outgrow peanut allergies and that the milder the initial
reaction was the more likely the kid is to outgrow the allergy.
That sounds positive, but maybe he was just trying to soften
the news. Who knows.

So for now we have
some instruction books and “how to read the label” cards to
study, and the interesting task of creating a nut-free world
for awhile.

The good news is that my
concerns about her eczema and diary issues were unnecessary. He
said that if she can eat yogurt, cottage cheese, cheese and
other dairy products then she definitely doesn’t have a milk
allergy. Apparently cows milk changes the chemical content of
urine in a way that can cause rashes on sensitive skin. About a
minute into her appointment he mentioned that she has very
sensitive skin, hence the blotchiness and redness she gets
sometimes. So the diaper rashes she was getting after drinking
milk were probably a combination of the new urine content and
the general cloth diaper issues we’ve been having. She has been
rash free for a week or two now, so I gave her some milk
tonight and we’ll see how she does. The doctor also said that
although eczema can be allergy related, if it’s mild and not
itchy (which describes her’s perfectly) then it generally isn’t
allergy related. He said to treat it with lotion if I want, but
stop trying to link it to food or allergens :) One less thing
to think about anyway.

So that was our
day. Tomorrow we are off to pick some strawberries (weather
permitting, of course). I made a funky strawberry pie earlier
in the week and Lex is very excited to make another one. I’m
excited to make strawberry jam. If I make it sugar free I might
even be able to eat it and still follow my WW plan. I fell off
the wagon a bit with the stress from this afternoon. I’m going
to stop rambling now and add a few pictures. Then I have a
house to clean and two kids still awake! Lex fell asleep in the
car on the way home from the hospital (around 4:30) and Eve and
I took naps when we got home. I think we were all exhausted
from the day. So now it’s 9:20 and they are both still going.
Oh well. Maybe they’ll sleep in a bit in the morning
:)

Have I said this lately? I love my house.
The inside is comfortable and roomy enough for my little family
and the outside is just right. The lawn is a bit of a jungle
(it’s hard to find time for mowing, especially when the boy is
afraid of the loud noise), but that’s ok. It’s soft and good to
run around in. My garden is growing like mad and my pea plants
are out of control. Lex eats peas on a daily basis and is
eagerly awaiting the green beans and tomatoes. We have lots of
toys and the kids are easily entertained outdoors, and lunch
always tastes better on the picnic table. Today we took a walk
to the post office, and the playground to meet some friends,
then walked up to Alan’s office to pick him up after work. Now
the kids are sleeping in their comfortably air conditioned room
and Alan and I are enjoying all the comforts of home. Life is
good and I love my house! :)

My out
of control peas! I’m not sure if they are supposed to grow this
tall, but they have way exceeded my trellis and they don’t seem
to care!

Our new
clothes line. Before you laugh, let me explain. It’s a
retractable line and has a little hook thing to keep it tight.
About 3/4 of the way done I put a pair of jeans on there and
the hook came undone and the line dropped. Ahhh! So I had to
hold it up with one hand and reattach/adjust the hook with the
other, which resulted in a very low line :) We put it up mostly
for diapers, but I couldn’t resist hanging out this load on the
first sunny day in weeks. It was mid-80s and sunny with a
slight breeze. The clothes dried in no time!! Lex loved it and
happily handed me clothes pins. I, of course, had to stop him
from running back and forth under the (low hanging) wet
clothes. A good time was had by all :)

Cool
dude decided to wear shades instead of a hat today so “my eyes
don’t get sunburned.”

Eve was
fascinated with these flowers in the neighbors garden. She
“smelled” them and played with them and touch them and felt
them for a very long time. They are very nice flowers with
interesting buds (you can see one between the two pink flowers)
and she loved them.

This is
a silly picture to post, but I just love how cute they are in
the stroller. He was holding a snack and she was cuddled in to
him (to reach the snack) and they were just so sweet.

Tomorrow we go in for Eve’s allergy testing.
Wish us luck! Fingers crossed we can celebrate with
PB&J; and a big glass of milk!!

Not much. I haven’t been in a blogging
mood lately, as I’m sure you’ve noticed. Nothing terribly
exciting has been going on, just life. I’ve spent a lot of
mental cycles trying to figure out why first Eve, then Lex, got
really horrible diaper rashes. I think I’ve got the cause
figured out (bad inserts in the cloth dipes) but the poor boy
has been in disposables and slathered in diaper cream for
several days now. If only he’d learn to love the potty :) Once
the rash is gone (and it’s a really bad one!) I’ll try him in
cloth again with the new inserts I just bought. Fingers crossed
we can keep all the little bottoms happy and healthy going
forward :)

We’ve had sunshine and
thunderstorms every day for about two weeks now, and the 10-day
forecast looks about the same. Blah! At the moment it’s sunny
and thundering. Crazy times!

We had a
nice weekend, rain aside. In a brief moment of sunshine we had
dinner with my grandparents by the lake. It was the one day in
forever that Lex chose to wear his sneakers instead of his
crocs and, of course, he walked straight into the lake! So he
spent the rest of the evening in soaked pants, sock, and shoes.
Eve got mad because I wouldn’t let her walk into the lake too.
She’s getting a real personality lately. Alan’s parents braved
the weather and came up to visit on Sunday. We were hoping for
a nice BBQ dinner, but the thunderstorms prevailed and we got
pizza instead. Maybe next month or the following we’ll get some
sunny, dry weather. (though my plants are LOVING this weather!)

Actually, there is some big news that I
just remembered I wanted to blog about. Eve can talk!! She’s
got a whole bunch of words now, including “happy,” “walk,” and
“Lex.” Well, “Lex” is more like “yeck!” but she’s trying. She
also says a somewhat passable “thank you” and even uses it
appropriately sometimes. The other day Lex gave her a spoon
(another favorite word of hers) and she said “dah do yeck!!”
With gusto! She’s funny and silly and becoming more and more
strong willed by the day. Always a pleasure though. She walks
around at my WW meetings saying hi to everyone :)

I’ve been kind of meandering though life these
days. We don’t have much of a routine, so some days we’re just
hanging out at home, but other days are jam packed with
playdates and playgrounds and all that stuff. The WW thing is
going, slower than I’d like, but going. I struggle most with
motivation… and my desires to drink Coke! Ahhh… yummy
delicious toxins… :) Since I’m the only one who seems to have
a problem with my weight (several docs have said not to worry
about it :/ ) some days I find myself really motivated and
other days not so much. I’ve started feeling a little sciatica
pain again too, which worries me. Perhaps from the increase in
exercise?

I went for a walk this
morning with Lex in the backpack. That’s a good workout! I
liked it though because we could talk. When he’s in the
stroller I can’t hear him. I let him choose which direction to
go each time we came to a decision point. As we turned down one
road he said “This road has a drain. A blue and brown drain.”
Sure enough, when we got to the sewer drain it was brown (of
course) with blue spray paint. I said, “you have a funny
memory” and he said “we were looking for wolves at the zoo, but
we couldn’t find any.” A true story from our trip to the Ross
Park Zoo. Alan teases me for verbalizing my streams of
consciousness and I think Lex has inherited that from me. Or
perhaps it’s a toddler thing that I never outgrew.

We had a terrible WW meeting this morning.
I’ve been taking them to afternoon meetings and they do ok, but
I thought I’d try a morning meeting instead. Lex didn’t sleep
much last night (perhaps diaper rash related) and Eve slept
right up until the meeting, so she was hungry and he was tired
and they both just walked around and made noise. He was cute
though because he walked around reading all of the posters on
the wall. Full volume voice, but reading really well. We ended
up leaving a few minutes before the end.

I think this post just proved my stream of consciousness
point…. so here’s a picture to close. What’s a blog post
without a picture? :)