Happy Birthday Lila!

Lila turned 3 yesterday!! She was so excited to tell everyone she talked to that she was THREE! To celebrate we went out to lunch with some friends and then tried out the new cupcake shop in town. Her friends were very sweet and brought her some presents which she loved.


We had sloppy joes and fries for dinner last night by Lila's request and then she got to open her present from us, Erin, and Gary and Sue. She was very excited about all of them and stopped to play with each new thing.


Here are some pictures from yesterday. She also got a tricycle from Gary and Sue that didn't make it into the pictures. But, I'm sure there will be lots of trike pictures this spring and summer, so stay tuned.




Click here to view photos


We're having Lila's official birthday party on Saturday and then a surprise for her on Sunday, so it's going to be Birthday Week here on the blog.

Paintball

Jim's 30th Birthday is tomorrow and he celebrated today by playing paint ball. Ian and Chris went and had a great time!

Cara's Test Results

I got Cara's test results yesterday. Her allergy tests came back clean, but like I said before, it doesn't necessarily mean that she isn't allergic to anything. I added soy back into my diet last night though and so far so good. I will continue to monitor her for suspected allergies and sensitivies, but hopefully dairy remains the only one.

While I still have some concerns, the blessing in all of this has been the reflux medicine that the doctor prescribed on Tuesday. She has been sleeping much better and hasn't had any crying spells since she started the medicine. Let's keep our fingers crossed that this continues!

Way to go Ian!

Ian was Student of the Month at school last month! In typical Ian fashion, he was unfazed by it and said it was just "random" and "no big deal". In fact, he didn't even tell me, I found out by reading the school's monthly newsletter. But, better late than never... Congrats Ian!

Check out...

Jaline's new blog at http://cutestofthebunch.blogspot.com to find out what's happening with Cara's BFF. I'm going to add a link to it on the sidebar too so you can check in whenever you want.

Funnies

Lila: I want to watch something.
Me: No, we're not going to watch TV right now.
Lila: STOP YELLING AT ME!
Me: I wasn't yelling at you. Just because I say something you don't like doesn't mean I'm yelling at you.
Lila: [long pause] Oh. Huh. That makes sense.



Last night Ian was eating a muffin that looked like this:


Ian: I wonder why they call it a poppyseed muffin.
Me: Um, because of all the poppyseeds.
Ian: Oh! Is that what those are?

Twinkle Toes

Lila and I have been taking Me and My Shadow, a parent/child dance class which she loved, but now that she'll be 3 on Tuesday (!!!!) she is ready for "big girl dance". She has to wear a leotard, tights and ballet shoes and gets to go to class without me. She has been very excited about it and today was the big day!

She got bored with having her picture taken though and wanted to move on to self-portraits.

An Update on Cara

Cara had rice cereal for the first time yesterday! She was so excited to eat real food, she kept smiling and laughing while I was feeding her. Apparently when she was sitting in the highchair watching the rest of us eat while gnawing on a teether she was really saying, "Put me in coach! I'm ready!"

And a longer update if you're interested...
Due to ongoing and new concerns, I took Cara to the pediatrician yesterday morning. We saw a different doctor than we normally do and he felt it was time to take some more steps to figure out what exactly is going on with Cara.

We had a full blood work up done on her yesterday as well as a blood test for allergies. Let me say it is NOT fun to hold your baby down while they poke her with needles! We should find out the results of the test on Friday, although because she is so young a negative allergy test doesn't necessarily mean she isn't allergic to anything. Regardless of the test results, the doctor said I should continue to avoid dairy because, at the very least, she is intolerant/sensitive to it. However, I eliminated soy from my diet starting last week and the doctor said that unless the test shows an allergy to soy it should be safe for me to start eating it again.

The doctor also told me to start rice cereal with her to help with the spitting up and he also prescribed medicine for acid reflux.

So, I don't really know any more than I did before, but let's hope one of these things starts to make a difference or the test results give us some answers!

It's a bird! It's a plane!

It's a giant duck! Yes, it is now Cara's turn to use the giant inflatable duck bath. She had been fussy in the bath the last few nights so we thought it was time to change things up and give her some more space. She was much happier!

Five Months Old

Hard to believe that Cara is five months old already! She is doing much better now that we've figured out her milk allergy and is really starting to develop quite the personality. She does not like to be left out and she's starting to learn that if you want to be heard you have to be loud.

She is starting to experiment with her voice and is very chatty. I am also pretty sure she will have her first tooth very soon. She is still working on rolling from back to front but she has gotten very good with her hands and picking up and grabbing toys.

Let's hope that next up is sleeping through the night!

Easter Twins

Jaline just called me and it turn's out that Cara and her BFF Lola have something else in common...

Cara on Easter

Lola on Easter

Notice anything? Yep, they have the same Easter dress AND the same headband! Jaline and I had no idea we had picked out the same dress for them. She saw the pictures of Cara on here and then called me, so I had to share!

Easter, Part 2

I got some more Easter pictures from Mom...

The whole family minus Chris--someone had to take the picture!

Happy Easter!

Here are a few pictures from Easter. Mom took a lot more (and I'm sure better) pictures so I'll have more to add when I get those from her, but for now...

Hunting Easter eggs and baskets

Lila didn't care much about her baskets but she LOVED finding eggs!

Cara with her Easter baskets.

Family picture

Nana and Pa with the grandkids

Getting So Big

I got out the exersaucer for Cara this week and she is a big fan! Her little feet don't quite touch and she needs a blanket to help her fill up the seat, but she likes being able to play with the toys and check out all of the action going on around her.

Mom sent me a video about taking better pictures of babies and I was experimenting a bit with settings and no flash when I took these. Clearly, I need more practice, but Cara is cute and it's been awhile since I posted so I decided to go ahead and put them up.