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Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Doctor's and Ducklings

We took Ashlyn in Monday for her 18 month appointment. We talked about her constipation and the celiacs and getting rid of the soothie. She promised me that Ashlyn will not go off to college still needing a soothie at night. :o) First time mom here!! I'm going to stop worrying about her giving up the soothie now.

Her doctor told us to get this laxative type stuff that's not really a laxative because her body won't get addicted to it for her constipation. Its called Miralax. We're to give her that once a day at least until after she's potty trained which seems like a long time but since its more of a stool softener than a laxative its ok. Her doctor said the worst thing to do to a kid when trying potty train them is to let them be constipated. So we're on board with the laxative. Poor kid strains so hard to go, her face gets beet red, its sad.

We'll be testing for celiac's, thyroid disorders and anemia as soon as I can get her to the lab. Celiac's and thyroid usually go hand in hand (they do with me), they're both auto-immune diseases. Anemia is another one sometimes associated with celiacs as well so might as well get them all out of the way with one poke. I'm not looking forward to it, she freaked out when she her vaccines on Monday so I can just imagine how a blood draw is going to go. I don't want to go by myself so I'm waiting until Jered and I can go together. Maybe this weekend we'll see.

She officially became a Duckling on Monday and boy is she happy about it! She barely gives me a kiss goodbye in the mornings, just turns and waves and says "bye bye Mama, bye bye".  She's still ecstatic to see me in the afternoons though :o)

I've got a four day weekend this weekend....aaahhhhhh! I've been looking forward to this for a while. I switched a day off with one of my co-workers so that we'd both get a four day weekend. Jered and I had planned to maybe go camping but I think we've decided to just stay home. Our house is a disaster!  Jered's been working and we've been so busy on the weekends, we haven't had time to really clean. We're thinking about taking Ashlyn to the zoo again, maybe driving over to the coast for a day, whatever we feel like doing. Sounds so good to me!

I know this is the second post without pictures so hopefully I'll get time to post a few pics this weekend too!

Saturday, July 17, 2010

Enjoying the summer....

Well camping was a ton of fun! As you could see from the pictures below, Ashlyn had a great time. She ran all over the place with all of her cousins. She rode in the wagon (and fought over the wagon), she went to the playground, she went to the lake, she played in the sand. Jered and I relaxed! Ahhhhh......so nice! We're hoping to go again at least one more time this summer. We'll see if it we can fit in with all of the other stuff we have planned.

Our trip to Canada to see Patsy and Steve is fast approaching! When we first started planning to go it seemed like it was such a long ways off. Now its only a few short weeks until we leave. We're leaving super early the morning of Aug. 5, hoping to arrive the evening of Aug 6. Its a pretty long drive so we'll see what happens. Keeping our fingers (and toes) crossed that Ashlyn does ok in the car. We'll be bringing lots of books and toys she can play with. We're going with Mom and Eddie and taking their suburban. It has a dvd player in it so as a last resort to save everyone's sanity we may let her watch a movie. We don't really let her watch tv, which means Jered and I are also watching a lot less tv. When we finally get there we're looking forward to seeing Steve and Patsy, exploring Kitimat :o) and doing lots of fishing. I hope we get to bring back a lot of fish. I miss having access to all the fresh fish we used to get when they lived at the coast.

Then we have to be back in Monroe the 14th for a 40th wedding anniversary party for my Aunt Jean and Uncle Hugh. Congrats to them, 40 years is awesome!! I also have a cousin getting married on the 15th, at the same place Jered and I got married 5 years ago. Yep, August 20th will be FIVE years for us! Pretty awesome, time flies. It's been almost 10 years since we met, which is even crazier!

We haven't been up to much, just working. Jered has started working part-time for a guy in Beaverton. He's not too thrilled about it, its not exactly his dream job.. He's doing a lot of field work as well as office work. He hasn't done much field work since he started working in LA eight years ago so its good for him to have a refresher. Working outside in the 90 degree weather is no fun though. This pays more than unemployment so that's also really nice! Work for me is more of the same, people are always going to need ultrasounds as long as they keep getting sick and or pregnant! We've been a little slow this month but that's pretty typical for the summer. Most of us have been using it to our advantage and leaving early when the schedule allows.

We bought Ashlyn a little $5 blow up swimming pool. Her and Arie played in it last weekend when my Mom, Mel and Kourtney were here. They liked it best when Kourtney and I got in the pool with them. HA, wouldn't you all like to see that picture....me, Kourt, Ashlyn and Arie in the world's tiniest swimming pool.....not likely!!! She's been loving it though on these really hot days.

Ashlyn's last day as a Dragonfly was yesterday. She will officially be a Duckling on Monday. She LOVES the Duckling class. She has been visiting a lot the last few weeks and she cries when she has to leave the Ducks to go back to the Dragonflies. Paula is one of the admin ladies and she's usually the one that will take Ashlyn from her class down to the Ducks. If Paula stops in just to visit and doesn't take her to the Ducks, she cries. So I'm pretty sure she's ready to join the big kids. She'll be the youngest instead of the oldest in her new class. Most of the kids are between 18-24 months. I don't think there are any kids older than 2 in the ducks. Either way though she loves it! They do a lot more group time and spend a lot more time outside. They also eat all at the same time, nap at the same time, etc.

Ashlyn has her 18 month appt with her pediatrician on Monday too. We plan to ask Dr. Oller about testing for celiac's and her constipation issues. This girl has such irregular bm's. We feed her so much fruit and still she has hard poops. She eats most fruit and veggies. Loves grapes, peaches, blueberries, raisins, peas, green beans, soy beans. She's not too adventurous and it takes her a while too try something new. She doesn't really like pasta or any sort of casserole. She loves potatoes of course. She ate two of Grandma Glady's twice baked potatoes the other night. She turned her nose up at ice cream until we forced her to try it, then she loved it of course!

She's talking up a storm and says a lot of words quite clearly or at least clear enough that Jered and I understand her! She loves her puppies, especially Sinder. Tori has started letting her give her hugs sometimes but mostly still runs away from her. When I pick her up in the afternoons from wee care she says "Mummyyyy" and runs over to me, such a good feeling! If I ask her if she's ready to go home though, she usually says "No" and shakes her head but when I ask her if she wants to see Daddy and the puppies her answer is always "yeah, yeah, yeah". She's doing really well saying please when she asks for something, but thank you is still a work in progress. She's using her fork and spoon pretty well. Makes quite a mess but gets the concept at least. She loves to "help" me load the dishwasher, fold (unfold) the laundry, swiffer the floors, etc. Her kind of help is not exactly help but its a good start!

We've been loving this nice weather and spending lots of time outside, which Ashlyn loves. I'm not loving all the mosquitoes though. They are really bad this year and I'm getting bit like never before. Ashlyn likes to help us water the flowers and she gets to run around in the yard and driveway. She loves the neighbor's driveway too. She also checks the mail with me every night and gets to carry it inside the house. Our little helper! She likes to do most things without any help. She can do it herself! Since she's so small this means we do things pretty slow. its a good reminder though for Jered and I though to slow down and enjoy the moment.

We have a busy weekend planned....of course! We're going up to Battleground to bbq and stay with our friends Justin and Steph this afternoon. Ashlyn will get to play with McKenzie and Brady. McKenzie has a pool too but her's is 3ft deep so one of us will have to get in with her. Then tomorrow is a birthday party for Grandpa Floyd in Woodburn. We have family in from Pennsylvania visiting so it'll be great to see everyone tomorrow.

Stay cool!!

Sunday, July 11, 2010

4th of July camping 2010

We had a great 4th of July camping trip! It only rained one day, which was awesome. It was all dried out by the next afternoon. Ashlyn had a great time playing with all the kids. Jered and I had a great time just relaxing! Here are a ton of pictures from the camping trip:

Ashlyn and Malia sitting on the step to the trailer
Macy and Ashlyn going down the big slide
I'm a big girl!!!
I'm so cool, I wear my hat backwards
Eating my breakfast at the table
I did not like sitting in this truck
Arie, Malia and me sitting in the wagon
Trying to fit all three of us in the two seater
I'm mad because I lost my seat
pretty mad
winner!!!!!
the best gluten free smore Mommy has ever eaten
at the lake, playing in the sand
fun in the sun!!
sand is hard to walk in
lounging
Grammy and Grandpa
yep, I'm pretty cool: sagging pants, sideways hat, little belly hanging out
I loved this wagon, so much fun!
you can't see me when I lay down
peek-a-boo
fun, fun, fun!!!