A Very Special Ba-Yay (Ballet) Show

PS: Sorry about the entirely different kind of show there at the end... :)

Counting

Simon's just chattering away all the time now. He's heavy into his "why" phase, unfortunately, but has also started using phrases and sentences ("'nodder guck odder side" = Another truck on other the other side of the road.) But by far, my very favorite word he says is "sunshine". He's got a little toddler lisp thing going on and always says it with a smile. He's also been counting to three for a bit now, so I wanted to try to capture that cuteness as well.

"Botanical Gardens": One Year Later

I'm in the "do all my favorite things before we leave San Diego" mode, so we revisited the Botanical Gardens last week. This time the kids were old enough to go exploring into the 'big kids' area with the magical tree house and fun gardens.

"Fishing" in a giant tub filled with water and plastic sharks. Here's where it all started to go wrong. Everyone is soaked. Dirt is quickly turning to mud. Hot, tired, hungry. We got outta there FAST!

Allergic

UGH. It's true. Millie's allergic to peanuts. I finally got myself organized and made an appointment for an allergy test. I wasn't completely organized though: I didn't read the two pages of instructions until the night before the appointment...the instructions which told me that the whole appointment would take about 90 minutes. WHAT?!? Oh no. Simon. I have no childcare plans. He's wild. He's totally freaked out by people in scrubs and lab coats. I'm dead. OK...I'll pretend this is a long plane ride. Pack the entire snack drawer into tiny zip lock bags and charge up the portable DVD.

In the end, both kids were perfectly behaved but the news was not great: she has a fairly severe allergy to peanut butter. Here's a photo of the test in progress:

The top two skin pricks are the control pricks (a histamine and a saline solution); the third mark is a peanut-based essential oil; the bottom is actual peanut butter smeared on her skin. This is the one that reacted quickly and severely.

Thankfully I know how to manage such an allergy so I'm not so much afraid as disappointed. We'll test her again in a year to see if the reaction has diminished at all. And if I get my courage up, we might even start exposing her to small doses to try to help her build a tolerance to it so that she will be less likely to react to minor exposures like peanut dust or peanut oil (This is the type of allergy that I have, and it's what makes it so difficult to manage: I don't always know when there's peanut oil in something and well, I can rarely control what's in the air I breathe).

And a bit of allergy trivia for others out there who may have similar concerns about peanuts: If your child is exposed to peanuts (either accidentally or otherwise), it's recommended that you continue to feed it to them in small doses. Don't hold out on them because you think you need to then wait until they reach a certain age. This makes it more likely that they will build up the antibodies that will later cause the allergy. Just keep on going until and unless you see signs of an adverse reaction. I made this mistake and I'm kicking myself over it now.

Hello Summertime!

We hit the DC area just as winter turned to spring. It hit 90 degrees while we were there. Here are a few photos from our first taste of summer in the country.

Warm enough for a dip in the pool!

Mils and Si got busy watering plants in the front yard. Here he is filling the bird bath.

Helping knead the bread for dinner.

More plant watering.

We even got to sneak away to Danny & Liz's wedding down in Alexandria!

Charlottesville

The "to do" list for our upcoming move is long. I'm happy to report that we have checked off the top two boxes: 1. Find a home. 2. Find a preschool.

We are just home from a whirlwind and completely successful trip back east. We toured a bunch of potential schools for Mils and had the happy dilemma of choosing between two really great ones. She's going to love her new preschool. We also drove our little tails off looking for a place to live, and wouldn't you know it...the very last place we looked at turned out to be the one! Good news: it's less than 2 miles from the heart of UVA's campus (and Christopher's school) and about a mile from the downtown pedestrian mall & lots of parks & walking trails. Bad news: it's a three level townhouse. Entry, garage and laundry on the bottom, bedrooms on the top. My knees hurt just thinking about it. But you know what? It's new, it's fancy & upgraded, and FINALLY...I won't be sharing a bathroom with my kids. YIPPEE!

Just being there made me feel much more at peace about our move. As we drove into town I felt a big knot in my throat. As we drove away, I felt excited and hopeful. We're going to have a great year together.

Of course, we neglected to take any photos of the house or preschool, so these were pulled off a website. You get the idea.

We Like To Move It

We have another dancer on our hands. Simon's less ballet and more hip hop, I'd say.

And how about that slightly hilarious wipe out by Millie?

Here's more of the same movie night dance party...

Barefoot So They Don't Have To

Last Thursday, April 8 we gathered some friends to celebrate One Day Without Shoes. TOMS (the amazing company my sister works for) asked people to go barefoot for the day so they could experience what life is like for kids all over the world who can't afford a pair of shoes. In some countries, if you don't have shoes, you can't go to school. And in Ethiopia, a painful and disfiguring disease called Podoconiosis is transmitted through cuts on feet. Obviously, it's 100% preventable with just a pair of shoes.

So on Thursday we invited some of Millie's friends and their moms to join us for a barefoot walk around the block. I figured it would be a good way to teach Millie about compassion and to help her recognize just how fortunate we are to have so much 'stuff'. It turned out to be such a fun afternoon. It was a beautiful day with LOTS of cute kids and pizza and cupcakes and, I think, a realization that life without shoes would be hard.

Atticus, Millie and Anna join forces for the walk.

Cute kids...I think this belongs on the TOMS website for sure!

Showing me their bare feet. Way to participate, Casey!

Easter

Well well well. Lovely, aren't we?

Despite this crazed photo, we really had a great day. First Christopher and I had to get our stories straight on the business of the Easter Bunny. Does he visit our house? Who hides the eggs...him or us? Now about the baskets, are they hidden for the kids to find them? Are they from the bunny or from us? It was all very confusing and a bit stressful for Christopher and I to keep our stories straight throughout the day. Of course we have been having age-appropriate discussions about the significance of the Resurrection story. Seems like something is wrong when Jesus rising from the dead is easier to explain than rest of the hoopla.

Sorting through her basket

Sweetly playing together while waiting for dinner.

Millie helped me cook!

Greers Visit!

We had a nice long visit from Christopher's parents this past week. We managed to fit in a little bit of all of our favorite adventures: preschool, ballet, fish tacos at the beach, a bus & trolley ride to the mall and lots of playtime. It was also Easter weekend so we colored eggs, made some special cupcakes, had an egg hunt in the backyard and enjoyed a great church service together. A few photos from our time together: