4th of July 2011

It was one party after the next this past weekend... we barely had any time to breathe.  We adore our new neighbors and have been spending every day together <3  We all went to the Bothell Parade and had so much fun afterwards at our neighborhood potluck.  The kids are still too young to stay up for fireworks.  Maybe in a few years.

Living Outdoors...

The weather has been so perfect that we have been spending most hours outside, playing and eating.  Luke and Ava pretty much bring every toy they own outside to play with.  I love the summers in Seattle!

Sydney's 1st Birthday!

My baby is no longer a baby anymore!  We celebrated the big #1 last Thursday with our wonderful neighbors... The Cornwell's and the Shearer's.  I made a big 3 layer cake for everyone and Sydney had her own big cupcake to dive her fingers into.  She barely ate anything or even made a big mess.  Unfortunately, I did not have my camera on the setting so my pictures are not the best.  Sydney's BIG birthday bash will be on this Saturday at the beach with lots of friends and Grammy and Pop Pop.

Take 1...

 Take 2...

My big girl...

I took this picture of Ava today and she looks so grown up in it! We are getting ready to turn her bed into a big girl bed.  It is definitely time and she deserves it.  She has been really into reading her "Olivia" books at night. She points to all of the pictures of Olivia in there and says it is her and that Ian (Olivia's brother) is Lukey and I am Olivia's Mom.  Some of her favorite things at the moment are... ballerinas, fairy's, babies, mermaids, her friends, her binky, her bunny lovey, picking out a dress to wear everyday, helping Mommy water the flowers, cuddling with Mommy and Daddy, riding her scooter and going to Country Village.

Someone's birthday is in a week!!!

Baby's New Ride

We gave Sydney an early Birthday gift.  She loves it!

Sissy's playing

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My Baby, the Ham!

I don't think she could smile any bigger!  Everybody is also commenting on how smiley she is!  Looking back at this blog, I guess she has always been this way. 
 

  

Finally, a nice day!

We had such a nice day yesterday that we decided to go to Country Village... Luke and Ava's favorite place! The kids got a hot dog and then a HUGE ice cream cone.  I think there was more that went on their faces than in their tummies.  Baby Sydney even had a good time!  We met up with our buddy Nicolas and walked through the farmers market and then went on the train!  Afterwards the kids exhausted themselves playing on the slide in the playground.  We hung out, outside the rest of the day and played with our neighborhood buddies!  I can't wait for the nice weather to be here permanently this summer!

Dress up with Baby Sydney

Everyday when we wake up, Ava wants to pick out and put on a "pretty dress." It is rare that you will ever see her in normal pants.  Well this morning she decided that she wanted Baby Sydney to wear a pretty dress also.  She went into her closet and picked one out and we played dress up with Baby Sydney.  Ava could not keep her hands off of her.  These girls are going to have so much fun together as Baby Sydney gets older.

Potty Time

Someone went pee pee for the first time on the potty this week!!!  Of course I had to take a picture because it is so dang cute!

More appointments...

So finally some good news. First off, my stomach is starting to feel better. It could take a month for it to be completely better but at least I have some relief. I met with the urologist and found that my kidney issues are most likely congenital so there is no need to do anything. It is something we will just monitor. Things are looking up :)

Ava-isms

I have been meaning to blog about this for a week now.  My little character Ava woke up last Saturday and told me she felt sick.  She proceeded to throw up on the kitchen floor before I could get her to the bathroom.  I opened up the toilet and she stayed in there for about 10 minutes.  When Steve went in there to check on her she was kind of gagging over the toilet, flushing it.  He said, "What are you doing?"  She said she was "practicing throwing up." The things she is saying these are hilarious.

She is also claiming ownership over people lately.  She adores our neighbor, Evelyn.  They play Styrawberry shortcake, princesses, etc together.  Every morning and pretty much all day she asks, "Where's my Evelyn?"  "I want my Missy (Evelyn's Mom.)"  She doesn't call Daddy "Daddy," she calls him "My Daddy."  I just love it!  She does this to me and Luke too and she calls Sydney, "her baby."

She has been so impressionable lately.  When she watches a show like Caillou for instance, she needs to eat an apple when he is.  On the episode last night, someone on Caillou was losing a tooth and she was trying to convince me that she too was going to lose a tooth.  Slow down my little girl, you are still only 2 and a half. I am usually not watching the show with her so some of her comments and claims take me a while to figure out. 

NO more nightime diapers

The Lass house is only buying 2 different types of diapers for Sydney and Ava.  Luke is officially done :)  He has been sleeping through the night in his undies with no accidents this far.  Yay Luke!

Health Update...bye bye breastmilk :(

I found out that I don't have Crohn's disease or any major condition.  I am being treated for an ulcer so hopefully my stomach will get some relief in the week or two.  If you take a lot of anti inflammatories like I have been taking for my neck, compounded with stress, it could cause an ulcer. Other than that pain, I have been feeling better.  My neck has not been throbbing.  I head to the urologist on Wednesday to see the results of renogram. 

The antiacid medicine I am taking is not safe for breastfeeding so my poor baby has been breastmilk free for about a day.  I feel bad cutting her off so quickly but it is definitely better for everyone that Mama get better. She did ok drinking out of a nuby sippy yesterday.  She was up for a couple hours last night but was soothed while I rocked her and sang to her.  <3

Somebody discovered the Kitchen

Sydney has really turned a corner lately and discovered the kitchen this morning.  She loves to bang the pots and pans on the floor.  She has been getting up on her knees, trying to pull up on things... yay!

Out with the old, in with the new....

Winter 2010-2011 Picture

A Great Day at the Beach

It finally felt like summer this weekend!  We spent so much time otside it was great!  On Sunday, we went to our favorite beach in Edmonds.  It was Sydney's first time there.  The kids had so much fun at the playground, digging on the sand and playing in the water.

Fun outside

We have been spending more and more time outside.  Luke and Ava are having so much fun with our neighbors.  They have been playing with the water table, hunting nasty slugs and worms, and painting rocks with watercolors.

My baby is growing up!

It's official... Sydney is crawling!  She has been inching a long the past month slowly but now she is really crawling.  I can tell she is more content and not as frustrated since she can venture pretty much wherever she wants to go. She also got in 3 more teeth last week and she has decided that she is sick of purees and wants some cut up food.  It only get easier from here... hopefully :)

She has always had the tendency to bang her head on the high chair when she wants but lately she has been banging i her head on the floor when she wants to be picked.  I am not talking about about a light bang, it really looks like it hurts.  I hope this doesn't last very long.

Baby Sydney's first ponytail :)

A couple more Dr visits...

On wednesday, I visited an Infectious disease specialist.  He sat there and listened to my story for about 30 minutes and took tons of notes and then he asked me every question and then some about my history, where I have traveled, about my cat, etc.  He did a physical examination and listened to my lungs... everything sounded and felt normal. He suspects my 4 miscarriages could be a sign of problem so they are doing a thrombophilia panel for me and testing me for other things including Crohn's Disease since I have a familial history of that.  Yesterday, I sa the urologist who said that I very well could of been born with a kidney that was distended.  I have a test next tuesday when there are going to inject some radioactive material in my kidney to see if their is blockage.  I get the results the following Tuesday, the 14th.  Today I see the General Surgeon regarding my gall stones and then an ENT regarding my neck problems.

Some Answers....

I have some answers from the doctor but I am still dreadfully scared.  This kind of stuff isn't suppose to happen to me.  I have always considered myself to be a healthy person.  I work out, eat healthy, I am not overweight, I am happy and I love my life.  I guess my big lessons to the kids and the reason I am blogging about this is because I want them to be healthy.  Down the road when they are actually taking care of themselves, I want them to make wise choices because no one is invincible, even though we may feel like we are sometimes.... especially as teenagers.

So here is what is going on with me.  They identified I have a couple big food allergies to Pork and Corn.  Corn is in everything.  My milder allergies are soybean and bakers yeast.  These of course are all of my favorite foods.  But who cares, it is just food so there are plenty other good things I can eat.  For a week now, I have eliminated these foods from my diet.  They say it takes several weeks for it to get out of your system.  My lymph nodes in my neck have stopped throbbing since last friday, the 27th.  I have pain in the right side of my chest and back which may or may not be anxiety.  My throat has a tickle. I go to an Infectious Specialist today and hopefully he can put together some of the pieces.

I found out yesterday that the CT scan I had last week revealed a distended right kidney, an enlarged ureter and multiple gall stones in my gall bladder.  I am meeting with a a urologist tomorrow to find out if I was born with a kidney like that or if there is something causing it to be like that.  I need to meet with a general surgeon for the gall bladder stuff.

I will update the blog as soon as I have news.

Disney world

We were at Disney a week ago today. Nana had Sydney and was she a handful! I remember Ava was the same way at 10 and a 1/2 months. So Steve, Luke, Ava and I went to Disney. The kids were tired to start the day because they had a short night sleep. Miss Ava and Luke shared a room in our condo so Ava liked to chat and keep Luke up. We rode the monorail into the park and immediately walked to the castle in the Magic Kingdom. Luke and Ava have been dying to see it as they see it in the beginning of all of the Disney movies they watch. There was a show going on as we walked up with the princesses and Mickey and Minnie. Everything is so well done there...Ava couldn't take her eyes off the show. There were fireworks and everything. Luke was more interested in the butterfly fluttering around us. We only had time to do 3 rides before the kids expired. they loved it's a small world! We also went on the Buzz ride and Winnie the Poo. They bought lots of toys and we left the park. It truly was a magical day.... a magical day we may wait about 4 more years to do again when the kids are older and appreciate it more.