ByeBye Second Tooth!

Sunday February 24th Harrison lost another tooth! It's crazy how his teeth come out. I brushed his teeth that Saturday night before and it was kinda loose, but not a lot, certainly didn't look like it would be coming out the next day! He told me that morning that he had a big bump behind it and we looked and there was a HUGE bump there where the next tooth was about to pop in! And, his tooth was very loose and by that afternoon it was out!

 

When Harrison would get teeth, they would just show up all of the sudden and I guess that's how they are going to fall out! He celebrated with a bowl of ice cream for lunch and Matt gave him a StarWars toy from his stash. 

Valetine Parties

Our school actually celebrated Valentine's Day on the 15th this year which was a little strange, but the kids got 2 days of celebrating this way. Charlotte and I got up and at 'em that morning. We headed out early to pick up cupcakes and head to the school to set up for Madeleine's party. 

 Charlotte is right in the middle of the action at the parties. She is so comfortable up there (probably since her first party was when she was 3 weeks old!). All the kids know and like her and they include her in what they are doing. She loves every moment of being the center of attention. :) Madeleine is just amazing with her and lets her be a part of all of it.

 The kids decorated valentine bags and then exchanged valentines before digging into snacks. Instead of planning another activity, Mrs. H and I decided that they would really rather have time to talk since that's something they don't really get to do outside of lunch and recess.

 We let them fill their plates and then they all ended up on the carpet just sitting and laughing and talking. It was crazy and fun and I think they all had a great time.

 After cleaning up Charlotte and I joined Madeleine for lunch -- which she didn't even bother to bring her lunch down after all that party food. :) We stayed with her until it was time for Harrison's party.

 Harrison was so excited for us to join him in his classroom for his party!

 When I first got into the class, I started to help out with setting up. I looked over to see Harrison getting Charlotte settled into a chair next to him. {love}

 They did pretty much the same thing as Madeleine at her party -- decorated bags, exchanged valentines and then ate. Yum!

Poor Charlotte was waaaay past her naptime by the time Harrison's party ended, but she was hanging in there. I checked both kids out and we headed home to get packing for out big trip to Little Rock! Another post to come on that fun trip!

Valentine's Day 2013

We had a fun and busy Valentine's Day this year. The work began the week before -- getting Valentine's ready for the kids to take to school. The kids picked out some that they liked and we got them printed up and ready to go -- what did I do before pinterest? :)

 

I also did something for all the teachers from the PTO on V-Day. I had these bag toppers printed up and then filled them with candy and a heart saying it was from the PTO. I think they turned out pretty cute. 

 Madeleine picked out PopRocks valentines. I had the tops printed up and we added the candy. My kids had never had PopRocks before and they loved them. :) They were also quite the hit of her class too -- lots of kids had never had them and thought they were so fun!  

 Harrison is big-time into Star Wars right now and he chose these Star Wars Valentines that I had printed and we inserted glow sticks into. It worked out great since his class has several kids with allergies and it was nice to give something that wasn't food that they could enjoy.

 The actual day was so fun! Charlotte and I had to go get my oil changed at Walmart first thing that morning, so we did some last minute shopping while we waited. Then we headed home and got busy making cookies. It's a fun tradition that we always make cut out cookies at each holiday. Sometimes it's all the kids and sometimes just one or two of them. Today it was just me and Charlotte.

I found this picture of me making valentine cookies when I was 2....

 And here is Charlotte at just barely 3 doing the same thing. She loved getting to do all of the cutting and help with the rolling -- it was fun to have that time just the 2 of us.

 Then we made some cupcakes for dessert that night. Charlotte loved licking the beaters!

 While she took a well earned nap, I got to work setting up for dinner that night. It wasn't fancy, but I think it turned out cute.

 

 

 

 I wanted to do something easy for dinner, so we had a heart-shaped pizza and salad. We all went around during dinner and told what was loved about each other -- probably a little corny, but it was so sweet to hear what the kids had to say.

 The kids couldn't wait for Daddy to get home so they could check out their gifts! Harrison got a new Star Wars toy.

 Madeleine added to her Lego Friends collection.

 And Charlotte got her own little Lego set (so hopefully she'll leave Madeleine's alone now). She is obsessed with the Lego girls, especially Olivia so now she has her own.

 Harrison remembered that he had something for me in his backpack that night. I got 2 valentines that he made and I love them!

 

It was such a fun, simple evening and a great way to celebrate how much we all love each other!

January Catch-Up

January just flew by for us! We were busy getting back into the swing of school for the first few days. Then Matt had a mandatory "sick leave" for almost a week due to a chicken pox outbreak at his school -- he's never had them and had not been vaccinated either. Thankfully it all happened at the end of the incubation period and he only had 3 days at home. And, even more thankfully, the district worked with him and didn't make him actually use any of his sick days -- he'll just tack them on this summer. And, yes, he did quickly get that vaccination taken care of!

 

The next week, Harrison came down with the flu. He was one poor, miserable, sick kid that week. Somewhere in the middle of all that, I had a birthday. Matt came home that day and with flowers and a Sonic Diet Cherry Coke -- my favorite! It was a looong week of not getting out of the house at all! 

 That Friday, we'd planned to have a sitter, but Harrison was still not feeling good so we put it off a week. Matt had ordered me a cake for that Friday so we went ahead and celebrated after dinner -- they all spoiled me as usual!

 Charlotte and I were both desperate to get out of the house the following week after being cooped up for 7 long days! We met up with AJ, Drew and Titus for a long lunch at CFA one day. When Charlotte woke up from her nap that afternoon I asked her (like usual) what she was dreaming about and she told me "I dreaming about Ty-Ty." ~swoon~

 We kept busy while at home that week by playing lots of play-doh!

 And, Charlotte made me some coffee one morning. Maybe I need to rethink my coffee habit. ;)

 Charlotte rode her new bike indoors that week too! Ha! Whatever it takes, right!

 The kids were off of school for MLK day. Madeleine and I spent some time together that day -- lunch just us at CFA and then a trip to the bookstore and Target. She is such her mama's daughter. We spent an hour just looking at books and picking out some new ones. I love that she loves to read. She's discovered Nancy Drew, Trixie Belden, Caddie Woodlawn, to name a few. And, they are reading Sarah, Plain & Tall and Little House in the Big Woods in her class/reading group. Both she's already read and is loving that she's ahead of the game there!

 Harrison is rocking out kindergarten these days! This is from a couple of weeks ago when he got a 112% on his test. Matt & I decided to try an experiment and not let him study except for the morning of the test last week and see how he did. Well, he got a 118%. Crazy!! He loves getting in the car on Mondays and making me guess what he got on his test. And, these are the exact same tests that Madeleine did in first grade!! Same spelling lists, everything!

 We stopped by Matt's office while waiting to get Madeleine from Art Club one afternoon. Charlotte discovered lots of fun things there. :)

 Sunday lunch at Steak n' Shake. So yummy, but a good reminder that Charlotte's not quite ready to keep sitting that long after sitting in church. Oyyyy.



Harrison dressed as Darth Vadar. He's discovered Star Wars and it's his newest obsession. It's even what he and his friends all play on the playground each day. And, Matt is loving it -- they talk Star Wars a lot.

 I was absolutely honored to get to fill out a recommendation/reference form for one of my best best friends that's family is in the process of adopting a little girl from China! This is going to be one blessed little girl to join this family! They have 3 boys and I think of her each day as I'm rocking my Charlotte for her nap -- one day soon she'll be rocking her girl!

 I think that just about wraps up our January! We have a full February coming up but it's going to be such fun!

NUTS!

Harrison had his semi-annual allergy check up a couple of weeks ago. He had his first test in December 2011 and we found out what we already suspected -- he is allergic to tree nuts, peanuts, dogs, cats and pretty much every living thing: trees, grass, etc. We had to go back last summer to get a food action plan together to give to the school, along with a second set of epi-pens to be kept up there too.

 

At his first appt, he had a major reaction to peanuts, and a minor one to milk, soy, rice, eggs and wheat. Yikes! Thankfully the follow up bloodwork showed that he is only allergic to peanuts. I somehow came away with the wrong understanding that he is not that allergic to peanuts. I guess that because his allergy doesn't manifest as a breathing issue, just a skin outbreak, I took it that it's not that bad. 

So, this January we had his annual visit/blood drawl. I have been the peanut nazi this year -- we were told that the more we eliminated them from his diet the greater the chance that he would outgrow the allergy. So, if it had treenuts/peanut, may have them, may contain traces of them, he stayed away. It meant that he had to have the nice, expensive granola bars and more organic foods, because generic food brands usually have traces of peanuts. Ugg. And, even with all of that work, there is only a 20% chance that he will outgrow it. But, I wanted to know that I had done the best we could do to give  him this chance.

At his appointment this year, I had more questions. First, I found out that his blood allergy level was a .995 last December. To be considered allergic, you must have above a .005, so yeah, he's just a tad allergic! Yikes! He is super careful too -- he always asks when he gets food if it has peanuts in it, even askes me. :)

When his blood work came back, we actually got some very good news. He still has an allergy, but it had dropped to .445. The nurse said that was amazing and good work! Being the peanut police paid off! Ha! We are on our way to hopefully outgrowing it. And, for the record, we do still have peanut products in our home -- Madeleine takes a PB&J most days for lunch I'm just very careful about cross contamination.

After doing an amazing job having his blood taken (and they took lots!) he got to get a milkshake to help him feel better. He's been such a trooper through all of this and never complains that he can't have certain foods. I am so proud of him!

Things to Remember

I'm so behind on blogging again! I guess I'm just realizing that I'm always going to be playing a game of catch up here! But, I have a few things that I want to remember from this week.

** Charlotte is such a hoot! I need to do an entire post on her adorable little personality. One day this week, I heard her yelling in the playroom. I thought she was laying down on  some pillows watching a TV show, but instead she'd stacked the pillows in a pile in the middle of the floor and was running at them from across the room, jumping on them and yelling " Fire in the Hole!" I have no idea  where she's heard that expression, but she did this over and over for almost an hour! Needless to say, she took a good ol' nap that day!

** One day a week, I take the kids to school because Matt has an early meeting. I ran them up the steps and across the black top, gave them hugs and kisses and sent them inside -- no parents inside. I always stand just outside the door to watch them walk in and up the stairs until they are out of my sight. This day, I looked away for a moment and when I turned back, I saw Madeleine take Harrison's hand and they held hands then entire rest of the way. How I wish I'd had my camera that day! I will never forget the sweet sight of them walking into school hand in hand.