All The Exciting Things We Did This Week.

Well, these posts seem far less exciting when they cover one week at a time rather than one season.  Surprise, surprise, I still got ramble-y and tangent-y.  Trevor is still plugging away one dental school applications, shadowing local dentists, school work, Army work, you get the idea. 

In addition to the usual excitement of grocery shopping, dishwasher unloading, dog walking, and the like, I/we kept fairly busy this week.

Myra randomly started doing this pose a while ago, and when she does we call it "yoga."  Here she is doing "yoga" with Daddy.

I work, as in actually go to work, one day per week.  I work as needed/sporadically from home the rest of the week, too.  I am a case manager for our local transitional housing program which is something I love.  We provide housing subsidies on a short term basis (up to two years) while meeting with the recipients regularly to help them get back on their feet (that's pretty vague because that can mean many things...whatever they need to accomplish, we do what we can to help).  Grandma Christy comes to watch Myra and they have all sorts of fun. 

Myra had a semi-rough night Tuesday night.  We're leaning towards blaming our barley trial, but she's got some teeth coming in so it's really hard to say for sure.  Barley has a fairly low pass rate among FPIES kids, but there's no knowing until we try.  She loves it and we need more grains, so we'll see how the rest of the trial goes.  Regardless of the cause, lack of sleep and/or interrupted sleep turn me into a slacker the next day.  Although I was a total monster, I got used to never, ever sleeping during Myra's first four months, but I'm out of practice and growing a human now.  Side note: some day I will post the email I wrote to Tosha in the middle of all that CRAZY about everything we had tried and how desperate I was.  I'm sure it's littered with profanity and "I don't like my baby" (it was a horrible, awful time, even though I loved Myra and I knew something was wrong and it wasn't her fault, it was all around ugly).  I digress.

Speaking of her FPIES, I recently learned many FPIES kids do just fine with Dum-Dums suckers.  Since we are a family of multi-generational dentists, I haven't really been on a search of candy she can have, but the girl deserves a treat sometimes!

Thursday was a busy day.  We had a WIC appointment right away in the morning.  I always schedule them right away to get it out of the way, so I don't have to plan my whole day around it...then I wish I hadn't.  I just have to say this: WIC is an amazing program.  They have single handedly saved us.  The cost of formula varies a lot based on how it's purchased (confusing, I know, click here to read the specifics).  Although Myra's formula intake has gone down a little as her food options have increased, WIC still pays out $491.20/month for Myra's formula.  Because of insurance contracts and other exciting stuff like that, we would still have to pay $207.79/month out of pocket after insurance if we would have to purchase it ourselves.  That's not including the cost of Myra's special foods (we have to get certain brands and some "novelty" food items because of all the hidden ingredients in other brands).  Bottom line: WIC has been a huge help.  They are now providing her Neocate Splash, essentially a hypoallergenic nutritional supplement/Boost type drink, in addition to her formula ($132/month).  ANYWAY...we had a WIC appointment Thursday morning.  Our little smarty pants has figured out that doctor's appointments go like this: nurse comes in, doctor comes in, nurse comes back=shots.  Apparently she's narrowed it down even more because she was totally fine with the WIC nurse until she put on gloves.  Then she got really nervous, wanted to sit on my lap, and eventually started crying-all before the nurse was even ready to do her finger poke (hemoglobin and lead test).  Myra was a pretty tough cookie and there was minimal drama after the fact, but the anticipation is not cool.  We had lunch with my boss at Applebee's and Myra spent her time jammin to the music and finding all the apples (in the logo) she could.  She had a view out the window, so she pointed out "truck," "car," "cycle (motorcycle)" the whole time, too. 

Myra isn't the only one with food allergies.  Rowdy is on a grain-free lamb food.  It was easy when Myra couldn't have any of the foods Rowdy can't have (he gets itchy, gnaws on his paws, flaps his ears all day).  Now that she can have corn, she loves to feed him her Kix and Chex.  We're working on it, but in the photo above she thought I couldn't see her feeding him if she didn't look at him while she did it...

ECFE (Early Childhood and Family Education) is back in session this week!  I'm on the Advisory Council, which is tons of fun, and we had our first meeting of the year.  We started planning the events we'll be doing this year, divvying up duties, and learning about some really cool new programs coming to our area (like the Dolly Parton Imagination Library).  On Friday, Myra got to start school.  She is in the toddler class for one year olds.  We go every Friday for an hour and fifteen minutes.  The first fifteen minutes is free play then circle time (welcome the kids, sing a few songs).  After that, the parents go to a different room (separated by a divider left open just a tad, so the kids can come find us if they want).  There is a topic/focus for both kids and adults every week (kids: physical motor skills, sensory activities, listening and understanding, exploration, etc. adults: what to expect at one, one year old play, food and nutrition, how to get stuff done with a toddler in the house, etc.).  Myra loves going, the kids get to play and explore while having a focus topic; I meet wonderful people and love learning new things.  In fact, we still get together regularly with the moms and kids from our very first ECFE class (0-3 month newborns).

First day of school 2014!

Saturday was babywearing meeting day!  (I will soon be putting together a post on our group's blog about what exactly happens at meetings--I will link it here)  We have learned so much and met some awesome people from our group, so when it works out to get to a meeting we love going.  Myra likes playing with the kids, we get to try other wraps and carriers, and I get to help other care givers learn about babywearing.  In a nutshell, we start with introductions, have a demo (this month we talked about soft structured carriers, the backpack style ones, then split up into small groups to help people learn what they came to learn).  The photo below shows about half of the people who were there.

 

 

And a couple extra photos from this week:

 

Our little book worm.  She's reading a book called "Birds Have Beaks" all by herself.  She turns the pages and says "beak," "beak," "beak."



Always a little bigger by the end of each day.  No surprise, but a bit bigger than I was at 18 weeks with Myra!

 

 





Causes: National Pet Month.

May is National Pet Month, and while any pet cab be a great addition to a family, of course I am biased towards dogs.  Chrisy is a good friend and was one of my roommates in college.  I asked her to write this post because I know how much she loves her dogs and I love that they were rescues.  Babe and Izzy are part of her family, just as Rowdy is part of ours.  We were so excited to get Rowdy and he was (still is!) so darn sweet and adorable, we fell for him right away.  He kept me company while Trevor was in Kuwait and snuggled up with me during some tough times.  He keeps me active when I'm feeling lazy.  I know what it's like to have a very special furry friend in your life, I'm so glad Babe and Izzy wound up with Chrisy and Craig.

Growing up my family always had a dog, so when I bought my house in 2009, I knew I wanted one of my own.  I waited a couple months so I could get used to the house then started researching different breeds. I knew I wanted a bigger sized dog, and that I also wanted to adopt/rescue it. After a few weeks of checking different rescue websites, I saw a dog that I wanted to go meet. She was a 1 year old brindle Boxer, and little did I know she would immediately steal my heart.  Upon arriving (very early) to the adoption event, the volunteers took all my information and prepared the adoption paperwork.  My Babe arrived about an hour or so later and was in pretty rough shape.  The dog that I meet had 6 pink stitches in each eye, was so skinny you could count every rib and you could see her spine. She belonged to someone that had her chained up outside, day in and day out, finally taken away and put up for adoption after a good Samaritan neighbor called about her.  We went outside and sat down to see if we “clicked”, she looked at me with her big sad brown eyes and it was all over, but to seal the deal she sat down right on my lap. The day I took her home, Babe weighed in at 40 lbs, today she is a very healthy happy 60 lbs. My life changed completely July 4^th 2009, Babe is the best dog I could have ever asked for. She is so funny, and just loves life, dogs really do teach their humans how to appreciate the little things, like a walk or a squirrel in the front yard. 

In January 2013 my Fiancé and I made the decision to rescue another pup, her name is Izzy, a fawn Boxer mix. Like her sister, Izzy was in very rough shape when we got her.  She came to MN from Kentucky and we believe she was a puppy mill dog.  She had Pancreatitis, worms, issues with certain foods, and was also so skinny you could see her ribs and spine. We spent a lot of time at the vet those first two months trying to figure out what her issues were and how to make her feel better. She is now on a specialized diet and is a happy healthy girl.  Izzy is full of spunk and just loves to run, she is very interested in the squirrels and playing with her sister, Babe.

The two dogs are inseparable, and it is so fun watching them play with each other.  It melts your heart when you walk into the living room to find them snuggling on the couch together.  Some people may find it strange but our two dogs are our kids.  I couldn’t imagine my life without them, they just bring so much joy, I really do laugh at them every single day. It is the best feeling in the world to walk in after a long day of work to two wiggling butts, they get so excited when you come home. I’ve read a quote before that I love and think of often “I hope to be the kind of person my dog thinks I am”. This couldn’t be a truer statement, no matter what’s going on in my world, my dogs think I am wonderful and show me that every day.

Click here to see a list of the other posts in this series.