Spring Day . . . and talk of milk

First, pictures of the beautiful spring day!



Everyone comments on the child's curly hair, but his big, blue eyes are a close second!



I have recently become a dairy free cook once again, boo!  I am so glad, though, at 20 months old, all the pieces of the puzzle are finally coming together.  First, there was the horrible issue of him not being able to tolerate my milk - he would constantly puke it up, and have his horrible episodes where he would stop breathing.  Then he did okay on a certain formula, but when the doctor wanted him switched to a "regular" formula at 5 months old, he started violently vomiting, stopped breathing several times, and ended up spending a weekend in the hospital!  A very gradual switch to whole milk was okay, but he has still had pretty loose stools his entire life.  Now recently, the vomiting has started in again, along with scary, raspy breathing.  The second time it happened, I noticed it was after he had eaten cottage cheese.  Doing a little research on-line, I found that cottage cheese is high in lactose.  And what else is high in lactose?  Human milk.  Even though, I had tried giving up dairy there was still lactose in my milk.  And the switch to a regular, full lactose formula produced the same reaction.  So as of right now, he's on a completely lactose free (while not totally dairy free) diet.  We're also waiting on some blood tests to come back later this week.  I'm pretty confident this is what's going on with him, he's otherwise healthy, yet on the small side, but so was Isabella for the first few years.  He's 23 pounds, and his clothes in the photos above are size 12 months, but he's growing well, and I'm guessing his growth will really take off now that we have made these diet changes.

Happy Easter!

The best toy she's ever had!

With Isabella's birthday and Christmas in back to back months, she usually goes a long time without getting anything new, and Jaymes' birthday is at the very end of summer. So we decided to get the kids a new outdoor toy they could use all summer long. I think it's going to end up being a good decision! She did actually tell me that it really is the best toy she's ever had, and she spent the entire day playing with it, and it didn't even have any water in it! I can't imagine how exciting it will be to actually have water in it! Jaymes thinks it's pretty neat, too. Now we just need the weather to warm back up, so we can put it out on the porch.

I love how excited Jaymes is in the next couple pictures.

Oh, and thank you for the tips on the Ergo, they were very helpful!!

Spring Getaway!

This past Sunday through Tuesday we went on a mini vacation with Monte's parents. The temp on Sunday was 94! I could not believe how many people came up to us, upset with us that our kids were getting sun burned! But in reality, they were not sun burned, just hot! We had plenty of water, and tried to keep them in the shade as much as possible, and were only outside at the waterfalls for about an hour. My kids just get really rosy cheeked! Despite the rude comments and stares, we still had a great time. :) Oh, and is Jaymes in proper "form" in the Ergo here, does anyone know? This is the first time I've had him on my back, and he seemed uncomfortable. Maybe he just prefers to be in front, or maybe it was just the heat.

Rosy cheeked boy.


The highlight of the trip for Isabella, they went down this slide SO much!

Our little hand holder, he always has to hold one of our hands when we are outside now, or someplace different. That makes this mama happy (and relieved, and much less nervous about him darting off!). :)