Strawberries

It's hard to be a parent on a good day but when there is a health concern the difficulty amps up about a million notches. Well, a little over a year ago Ryan started developing eczema. It gets worse and better but since it showed up it has never fully gone away. It is caused by a yet to be determined allergy. Ryan is only 3 so it is all but impossible to get a vile of blood from him in order to test for a lot of the allergies- getting an immunization is a nightmare I can't imagine trying to take blood. So we are flying blind. We have all organic bedding, healthy detergents, healthy food, cleaned carpets etc.

Ryan has always been a picky eater so we have tried hard not to take food groups away from him, it would limit him too much. About 2 months ago we took out dairy, it was really hard but the doctor thought that it was the likely culprit. The only reason we were able to pull it off was that Ryan decided he liked almond milk. At first the results were dramatic but slowly it came back with random flare ups. It seemed a little better but it should have gone away.

So the other day one of my friends was babysitting and mentioned that she was allergic to strawberries. I had never thought of strawberries because he doesn’t EAT strawberries. However he does have strawberry jam and he used to eat strawberry yogurt and we sometimes add strawberries to his smoothie. The day after she mentioned it we noticed that Ryan’s rash got really bad right after strawberry jam- in fact if you listened he started talking funny like his mouth was swollen and he started complaining that he wasn’t feeling well. Then it occurred to us that right when we were switching away from dairy milk we had also run out of strawberry jelly and switched to blackberry.

Fingers crossed we have found the problem- I suppose only time will tell but I’m holding out hope that this is it, that we have found the enemy. We also switched to a non-down pillow and since then his coughing has all but gone away. I think we are finally getting somewhere, now I just have to work on the guilt I feel for not seeing it earlier. It’s hard to find what causes an allergy when it could be ANYTHING in the environment. Sometimes you get so focused on finding the problem that you miss the things right in front of your face.

Summer Snowball Fight

During dinner one night the conversation went to Christmas. Ryan got really excited when we started to talk about snow and he got down from the table and ran to the closet. He came out with a hat and gloves and told me to pick out mine. He then started a snowball fight with me! Here are some pictures of our 30 minute "snowball fight" We even had an outfit change halfway through.

Besties Visit Day 1

Audrey's First Kiss

Besties Visit Day 2

Hanging out with the Ripp family is just about the most fun my kids have ever done- okay it was one of my favorite days also. This was actually day two of the hangout- I'll get to the first day soon. Nicki and I met in 2nd grade, these pictures were taken at her mom's house which is where she and I used to play when we were little- ah full circle moment. I wish she lived closer so we could do this EVERY DAY :)

Soccer!

Ryan started soccer today! He has never played besides in the park but he was super excited. I thought he would be intimidated by all the kids and new teachers but he apparently is way beyond that. In fact after going through today's class we decided to move him up to the more advanced class with no parent involvement. At one point in the class he told me I could go sit in the stands and watch instead of help him! The season lasts until about November so I will probably post more pictures from other practices later. Before I hear any comments about the jersey- I know wrong sport... but this is what we had and he wanted to match dad.

Company Picnic

Don had his Company Picnic today and we all had a great time. You can see what sort of kids you have more clearly when they are around lots and lots of people they don't know. Apparently my kids are now social butterflies. Ryan immediately left the family to go play with some boys who were probably ages 5-13. Audrey went around and said "Hi" to everyone and would give everyone whatever she had in her hand (food, water bottle, toys etc). When she wasn't talking to people she was eating... I swear she ate for about 2 hours straight.

Cookies!

Making cookies is one of my kids favorite activities. Now Audrey is old enough to get involved and she loves it, her favorite part (and Ryan's) is of course the eating of the cookies after they are finished.

Popsicle Playdate

We went to a super fun Popsicle playdate today! Audrey is finally old enough to really enjoy this type of activity especially when surrounded by such good friends (and Ryan was certainly in his element). We played in the sprinkler and sand table, ate lots of popsicles and spread sand all over Amy's house (oops). All the kids seemed to have a really good time (as did the adults). Good times!






In this picture Audrey stole G's bag of goldfish and then offered them back one at a time. G was obviously not pleased with this game.

A good time cleaning this one up.

The Lucky Ones

I think that sometimes when you are a stay at home mom you lose perspective of the outside world. Especially when your children are small your world revolves around these little people who are depending on you for their survival. I feel like when I am reminded of all that is going on in the outside world I remember just how lucky I am. So when the kids are fighting, not sleeping, destroying things, when school costs a lot of money and I don’t have enough down time I need to remember all that I have:

• In 2010 there were about 925 million hungry people in the world. So when you don’t feel like making dinner that the kids are going to complain about anyway… remember you are lucky to have food to feed your children. Imagine looking your hungry children in the eye and telling them you have nothing for them to eat.

• It’s been hot here lately, about 100 degrees most days, but in Iraq this last week they had to actually shut down the government because it was over 120 degrees. Imagine being a US soldier in all that army gear, always having to watch your back and trudging around in 120 degree weather. Yeah I guess I can put up with my 100 degree days in my nice safe air conditioned house.

• 40% of the homeless population in the United States is made up of families with children. I not only have a nice clean, safe house to give my children where they have their own rooms, I am afforded the chance to stay at home with them. I never wake up in the morning wondering where I am going to sleep that night. My kids know that they always have somewhere safe to go.

Parenting is hard no matter where you are or what you have, but if you have a home and food and time to spend with your children you are luckier than a huge amount of people in this world. So when I start to feel overwhelmed I am going to try to have some perspective and realize just how lucky we are.