Joshua is going underwater!

Joshua has seen some of his friends enjoy going underwater and swimming or standing on their hands, and I think that Clara going underwater yesterday in the pool encouraged him to do it. He started holding his breath and going underwater and today at the South Cobb Aquatic Center, he was going under water again, and he was so proud that he could do it! I am, too!

Taylor is excited about school!

I went to Taylor's parent orientation for her preschool at First Baptist of Mableton tonight. I've been worried that she wouldn't be able to go if she wasn't completely potty trained, but they are going to work with her. She is so close. She will go on the potty if she is naked, but if she has underwear on, she goes in her pants. Can't figure this girl out!!! How do I make the connection with her? When I got home, I told Taylor that I had been at her new school and I showed her her folder that I brought home and all of the papers. She was all excited and wanted to look at all of the papers in her folder and was mimicking reading the pages. It was so cute! I'm so glad that she is excited about school, yet, a little sad that my baby girl is growing up so fast!!

Potty training

Taylor has been doing great this week potty training. It has gone easier than expected for the most part. When Taylor is naked on the lower half, she uses the potty for both peeing and pooping. But the minute I put underwear or a pull up on her to go out of the house, she forgets and goes in her pants. Help!! I don't know how to transition her with pants on...to get her to understand that just because she has underwear on, it does not mean that she should go potty in her pants. I hope that we can get this figured out soon, for Mommy's sanity! It's been hard staying home this week and not doing anything fun, knowing that the summer weeks are slipping away and that they will both be in school soon. There were so many things that I wanted to do with them. It's a tough call...try hard to get her potty trained, or just go out and have fun and take it day by day and if she is able to go to preschool great...and if not, well...we'll keep her home this year.

No peanut allergy

I got a call from the doctor's office today and they had interesting news for us. Taylor does not have a peanut allergy...great news for Taylor considering that's all she wants to eat! The two things that showed up were mild and cat dander which her blood had a small reaction to. The nurse said that both were not enough of a reaction to be considered an allergy, but the milk reaction was slightly stronger than the cat dander reaction. She told me that it would be a good idea to keep the house vacuumed frequently and to give her less dairy and see if the hives stay away. She hasn't had hives since we first returned from VA, so hopefully, it was something that won't pop up again. Her skin is looking much better, too, likely due to the lack of chlorine pool use this week and last. She also had no reaction to soy, wheat, shrimp, walnuts, peanuts, corn, or dog dander. So if the hives return, I will start journaling what Taylor eats and is exposed to. So glad that we had her blood tested so that Taylor can eat peanut butter again, but wish we knew why she had gotten hives. It's a mystery!

Joshua lost his 1st tooth!

I had a dentist appointment at 8 am this morning and didn't see either of the kids before heading out. When I got back home, Joshua was all excited at the door and told me that he had lost his tooth that had been very loose. He's been wiggling it for days and it has been so loose that it made my stomach a little queasy! He said that he wiggled it when he first woke up and it came right out. He was sooooo excited about it! He told me that it didn't even hurt. So...the tooth fairy gets to visit Joshua tonight and he is totally thrilled about it! The innocence and excitement of childhood! It is his front right tooth on the bottom. I have looked all through both of their closets today, looking for the tooth fairy pillow that I bought a few years ago, and I cannot find it. It must be in the big closet in the large bedroom which is an adventure in itself to go through everything. Hopefully, I can find it before the next tooth becomes loose. We just put his tooth in a plastic bag and stuck it under his pillow as a substitute. Sleep tight, Joshua!!

Kisses

Daddy and I got lots of kisses tonight from Taylor. She has been holding out lately, and not wanting to give kisses, but tonight, she was doling them out to her parents in large quantities! First, she kissed Daddy about 5 times on the lips and made quite the spectacle of it and then I gave her a goodnight hug and she kissed me many times on the lips with much animation. She was definitely getting a kick out of it and thought that it was quite entertaining to keep up the action. Too cute!

Taylor ate almond butter

Well, after much trauma, tears, and pounding of the door, Taylor broke down and decided that she was hungry enough to try almond butter. After the hives, we are not giving her any more peanut butter until we find out the results of her blood work. We have been trying to get her to try almond butter instead, since peanut butter is one of the main sources of protein she gets in her diet other than dairy foods. When she finally realized, after a time out, that she was not going to get peanut butter and that throwing objects at me and her brother were going to get her nowhere, she resigned to trying the almond butter....and she liked it and ate about 6 or 7 cracker sandwiches with the almond butter on it. What a relief that she likes another form of protein. I was a little nervous that she could be allergic to almonds, too, if she was allergic to peanuts, so I gave her more Benadryl after lunch just in case. I will be so glad to get those test results and get some answers!

Taylor's doctor visit

Taylor had broken out in a small amount of hives yesterday morning after eating peanut butter and crackers at breakfast time. I wanted to figure out what was going on with her skin/allergies so I made an appointment today. She saw Dr Kohn today and I showed her pictures of the hives she had a little over a week ago and the sores that she has on her skin. One of Taylor's tonsils was a little inflamed and her temp was 99.1, so she went ahead and did a strep test on her to rule it out first. Strep can cause hives, but her test came back negative. She told me that the sores on her skin where eczema that she was scratching and the bacteria on the skin get into the skin and cause it to become irritated. She recommended putting 1/4 cup of bleach in the bath water during their bath to reduce the bacteria on the skin and therefore help cut down on the inflamed sores. She told me that there was definitely an allergic process going on and that it would be good to go ahead and do an Immunocap blood test to determine what the cause was. She also prescribed an EpiPen for Taylor because if she does have a peanut allergy, even a mild case can all of a sudden become severe and cause anaphalactic shock. She told me that she can also have 1 tsp of Benadryl at the same time as an EpiPen is used if she does have a severe reaction (facial swelling and difficulty breathing) and then to take her to the hospital. We had her blood taken at the urgent care in the same building and Taylor screamed and cried before the needle was even in her. It took a little longer that I had imagined to get the blood, but they got it on the first try (thank the Lord) and then she calmed down. Joshua's face was a bit in shock while Taylor was getting blood drawn and looked a little horrified at the whole experience. We will find out in a few days what the results are and go from there. I hope that I never had to use that EpiPen!!

Peanut allergy?

Taylor has been going through a lot of skin problems in the past few weeks and we are trying to pinpoint the cause and what exactly she does have on her skin. I took her to the nurse practitioner a few weeks ago, and she said that Taylor had eczema, and said that if she had a peanut allergy, it is more common to get hives and swelling in the face. She prescribed a steroid cream to put on her skin for two weeks in hopes that it would clear up. A week later, Doug gave Taylor a bath and just put lotion on her and no steroid cream and put her to bed. The next morning, she woke up with 5 or 6 nickel size sores on her skin that were red and itchy. She had eaten peanut butter at every meal the day before and then for breakfast when she got up, she had more peanut butter. Within a couple of hours of breakfast, she broke out in hives all over her back. We gave her benadryl and the hives took most of the day to clear up. We have been in VA all week, so I have not been able to get her back to the doctor, and she has broken out with another couple of sores on her hip and bottom. She has not had peanut butter in over a week and still new sores have shown up. Tonight, she was insisting on peanut butter and crackers, so we tested the waters one more time. She had four peanut butter and crackers and within the past hour, no hives. She's now in bed, and I'm praying that she will not have a reaction to the peanut butter. We gave her benadryl before bedtime, just in case. It just seems that her skin gets worse when she does eat peanut butter, and the sores she has on her skin now are different in appearance than the eczema on her skin when she saw the nurse practitioner. At that time, it was more of a rash type appearance on her skin at that point. I hope that we can find out once and for all if she is or is not allergic to peanut butter when I get her an appointment this week with the doctor and have her tested. Then we can move forward from there. She eats so few things these days that it's hard when you remove the main source of protein from her diet other than the Danimals yogurt drinks...

Richmond Children's Museum

We took the kids to the Children's Museum in Richmond today and they had a blast. It was a one story building that was much smaller than the Indianapolis Children's Museum, but it was all hands on and had plenty for the kids to do for the day. Joshua wanted to come back again the next day when we left. Joshua LOVED the car that he could play mechanic on and spent a great deal of time in this area of the museum. He could change a tire on a model car and pull on and off the muffler. He could "add" fluids to the radiator and change the filter. Taylor came over and got in on the fun as well. He was in seventh Heaven! They also had a real ambulance that the kids could walk inside and play in. He and Taylor both loved the air pump area where they could play with the valves and watch the handkerchiefs fly through the pipes from the air pressure being pushed through...that was at least 30 minutes of fun right there. Taylor enjoyed the outside in which they had instruments to play with and a sandy beach with toys. There was also a water play area outside, but we didn't bring a bathing suit and Taylor was disappointed about not being able to get all wet. They had an indoor river and canal that toy boats could flow through and both kids had a great time playing with. Taylor's favorite activity seemed to be the art workshop. This was by far the highlight of the museum. They had every texture of fabric, wall paper, ribbon and paper imaginable as well as all kinds of recycled plastics and egg cartons for the kids to use to create all kinds of things...let their imagination be the limit. Taylor had fun making a stained glass picture from tissue paper and glue on cardboard. She also made a bookmark with cloth and paper and had fun gluing different fabrics and papers onto a larger piece of paper. Joshua and Daddy created planes from paper and toilet paper cardboard. Quite creative those boys are!! We all had fun creating in the art workshop...and I got some fun ideas for the kids with our own Harding workshop that I'd like to create back home.

Virginia Beach

Gran and Grandaddy stayed in Emporia for the day as we trekked to Virginia Beach to get some sun and play time in the sand. I had never been to VA beach, but Daddy had been there quite a bit growing up. The beach was packed, as it was again another very hot 105 degree day. We found a spot close to the water so that we wouldn't have to run through the hot sand to get to the waves which was a really smart choice. Joshua jumped right in playing in the sand, making a small lake with tunnelling towards the ocean to pull in water when the waves would come crashing to the shore. Taylor, on the other hand, was terrified of the crashing waves, and wanted nothing to do with the ocean. We had to pour water over her to keep her cool because she would go nowhere near the water. We did take her out in the water a couple of times, and she put up with it shortly, but then would pretty quickly ask to get out of the water. The waves were really powerful. Daddy was the only one who didn't get knocked over by them at all...Joshua and I had several times where we were pushed down by the force of them smacking against the shoreline. Daddy and Joshua made it a game for quite awhile to jump the waves when they would come crashing in, or to try to escape the waves by running towards the shore as they approached. The water was so refreshing in the heat and we stayed at the beach for a couple of hours before heading to the car to change. We ended up coming back to the boardwalk and eating at a pizza place called Bella's and then wandering around a bit, shopping and then letting the kids ride a couple of the carnival rides that were interspersed amongst the boardwalk. Joshua got to ride a fast spinning ride (it was called the Materhorn when I was growing up) which went forwards and backwards and then they both rode a helicopter that flew around in circles and could fly up and down. Taylor lastly rode the train which she had no problem boarding all by herself. We had a great time at the beach overall, and Taylor was a happy little girl again once we left the waves for shopping and carnival rides!

Boating on the river

Today we got out on the river in Grandaddy's boats. Gran and Grandaddy rode in the canoe, and we rode in the row boat that Grandaddy had attached a small motor to. So...no paddling needed for us, which was really convenient considering it was another sweltering 100 degree day in the middle of a month long drought in the area. It was nice to get out on the water, and Joshua was having the time of his life getting to the steer the boat with the motor in the back...with help from Daddy from time to time. Taylor and I sat in the front of the boat, and she made it clear several times that she was ready to go home...as we were both quite warm with her on my lap and very little shade to be had. But, it was still fun and had it been slightly cooler, she would have enjoyed the trip much more. Joshua didn't seem to mind the heat at all!

4th of July in VA again this year

We made our (what seems to be) annual trip to Emporia, VA, where Gran and Grandaddy live for a visit. We visited on the 4th of July week last year as well and the kids got a kick out of riding on the fire truck. We got to do that again this year at Bobby Wrenn's house. This time, Joshua wanted to ride on top of the truck, so we all climbed up to the top for a spin around the block. I have never been on top of a fire truck, so it was a first for me as well! The kids enjoyed it and then the kids played on the swingset during the singing of patriotic songs and afterwards, we ate hot dogs and chatted with people that Gran and Grandaddy knew. We headed out after lunch and changed clothes to go to the Emporia Country Club for dinner and swimming. We ate hamburgers there and then took a dip in the pool which felt extremely refreshing on this 100 degree day. The water was a bit chilly at first, but we got used to it and the kids enjoyed splashing around in the water in the pool that Daddy grew up swimming and diving in.

Joshua is promoted in swim class!

Joshua finished his second round of swim lessons today at the YMCA. He was in the Youth beginner class with Miss Seah, and he seemed to really enjoy them because he rarely made the comment that he didn't want to go swim. He learned to dive, yes dive, into the pool from the platform at the end of the pool. He also swam the length of the pool!!! He is learning to swim freestyle and does not like to put his face in the water, but he does it when the instructor asks him to. He is willing to go underwater and hold his breath and he jumps into the water from the edge. We are so proud of you, Joshua! Great job! I asked him if he wanted to take more lessons this Summer, and he said "No"...I think that the novelty of diving from the platform was a bit scary and he's wondering what the next level would ask of him. He told me that he was really scared diving from the platform, but he did it over and over and didn't seem that scared to me. Go, Joshua! Hopefully, you'll change your mind and want to take more lessons soon:)