Annie's First Day of Second Grade

My little girl is growing up so quick -- here she is starting Second Grade, and her second year of the Dual Immersion program.  She's so excited to be back in school -- even if summer was only 23 days for her this year :-)

And just a couple cute pictures of Isaac from this month . . . 

The first in my sunglasses after a wagon ride (with all his hair)

 And one a week or so later, after a hair cut . . .

And the facebook updates from the last month:
July 25th, 2013
The kids are adjusting to Annie being gone to school, and they're happily planning her return. Ellie said, "When Annie gets home, we'll be all, "Hola Annie! Como estas?" and Isaac added, "Yeah, and then we'll be all, "Agua, por favor." Such genius Spanish speakers :-)

My Mom's post after having Ellie & Isaac sleep over (Annie had stayed over 'til late to watch fireworks, but came home to sleep 'cause she had school today):
O.K. so I am not very well prepared this morning. We had the 3 oldest grandkids over last night to watch the fire works. They came after their dinner, They stayed up way past their bedtime and needed snacks. I had two pounds of strawberries, a container of blueberries and bowl of watermelon plus three cucumbers and a small bowl of cherry tomatoes. They wanted more tomatoes but it was dark and we could not see to pick them. Hilary, you are a rock star keeping these kids feed.

July 23rd, 2013
It's been a memorable anniversary -- spent two hours meeting with a new G.I. for the kids, 45 minutes on the phone with the old G.I.'s office going over the newest scopes, 10 minutes on the phone with the pharmacy, a combined 1+ hours talking to THREE different allergists offices (before settling on the one that can get us in before September!), 20 minutes on the phone with the insurance company, another 20 minutes with the insurance advocates, a call to the pediatrician -- AND, I think we might take Annie to InstaCare tonight (Ellie poked her in the eye with a stick -- it's getting worse, not better). Good times :-)
(Greg also came home sick from work the next day.  We had a red banner week!)

Ellie at the Expo Center tonight when we went to see floats, "Why does this place smell like all the things I can't eat?!" It was sad and really funny at the same time . . . and if I hadn't had my kids with me I SO would have bought the almonds . . . mmmm . . .

Isaac decided to try on an outfit of Annie's. He looks exactly like a little girl who cut off all her hair (it's his super amazing black eyelashes that reach his eyebrows, he's like a tiny bald Elizabeth Taylor!) I'd never seen any resemblance between Isaac and his sisters, but put him in ruffles and all the sudden I can kinda see it! 

Talked to two different gastro docs today, both repeatedly used the words, "We just don't really understand this disease very well . . . " (Repeatedly, repeatedly, repeatedly.) Very reassuring, guys :-)   

 Annie and Ellie are playing a game with toy dinosaurs. Ellie's dinosaur just said it wanted tootsie rolls to eat, but her other dinosaur informed its friend that he couldn't eat tootsie rolls because they are dairy free dinosaurs. Um, how much is this restricted diet stuff screwing up my kids!? :-)

 July 22nd, 2013
Going over medical bills and checking that all the money was spent from our flex spending account. Yep, we ran out of flex money before we ever paid for a single one of our 8 endoscopies so far this year, or went to a single specialist . . . ouch!

Well crap. While Ellie improved DRAMATICALLY over the last 12 weeks, as confirmed by her latest biopsies, all three of the other kids got worse. All three had the eosinophils move from the esophagus into the stomach and duodenum, and the numbers all increased. We meet with the new G.I. doctor at Primary's in the next couple weeks. Wish us luck, prayers please!

July 20th, 2013
Ellie's REALLY working hard to stay awake. She just called from bed, "DAD? How do they get apple juice into the apple juice box at Chick Fil A?"
The best part -- I can now hear Greg in there, with an apple juice box, demonstrating how the manufacturing works . . . sucker :-)

"DAD? What does poison ivy look like? I CAN'T sleep until I know! I'm itching just thinking about it? How many leaves does it have . . . " If he answers this, I'm sending him back to his bedroom and they're both grounded from talking to each other until morning  :-)

"MOM? Why are there fireworks outside? What is up with that? It's WAY TOO loud, I can never sleep again!"

"MOM! I can find my silkie, and my polar bear, and my baby, but I can't find bunny. Bunny? Bunny, where are you? Mom, I can't sleep without bunny, I only have my silkie, my polar bear and my baby doll, but I can't find bunny!"

July 20, 2013

My girls are water sliding rock stars -- they went nonstop from 9:40AM-4:30PM at Seven Peaks. The boys and I only made it 'til about 12:45, but Annie, Ellie and Greg stayed for almost four more hours. Best Daddy Daughter Day ever :-)

Isaac picking up a dried rice noodle and popping it in his mouth, "Mmmmmmm, scrumptious!"

July 19, 2013

Well, that went worse than my worst case scenarios in my head :-(  Not only was Isaac's endoscopy looking worse than he was before, it's visually significantly worse, and they're guessing his numbers of eosinophils are in the range of 7-8x higher than they were before we started all these diet changes. He now has massive amounts of eosinophils and furrowing of the esophagus -- it's like everything got so much worse in the last three months and I can't think of a single reason why. I feel like I've been kicked in the gut . . .

 

Heard a quote on a Ted talk today . . . "Those who are certain of the outcome can afford to wait, and wait without anxiety."  I'm trying to focus on that -- that I know that Isaac will be OK, that we will figure out what we need to to get him well ('cause I'm too stubborn not to), so it's okay for me to wait, and I can wait without anxiety . . .   

July 18th, 2013 -- the great crayon candle experiment

I'm attempting this on my own -- I have a crayon burning on my counter (well, on a plate, I'm not a complete idiot) and a stopwatch timer going to see how long it lasts . . . 

It's an impressive little candle -- it really puts off far more flame than I was expecting . . .
It took four matches to get going -- it seems like we pretty much had to melt off the whole tip of the crayon before the paper would really catch and start to burn. So a.) yes, it has to have paper, but b.) it does not need to be a full crayon, as the tip pretty much just wasted matches 'til it was gone and the thing would light.

(My kids are loving the experiment -- if nothing else, it's kept them in one place for 5 minutes -- I could just start lighting crayons to mesmerize them while I get cleaning done!)

Third of the way gone, six minutes in :-)

  

   11 minutes and it's burned down quite a ways, isn't as impressive a flame, but still pretty big . . . starting to smell a little more like burning :-)

Isaac watching the candle, "So, are we pretending it's your birthday? Or Ellie's? Ellie, is it your pretend birthday?"

(I'm curious if we knocked away all the burned stuff if it would burn brighter?)

  Experiment over at 16:30  :-)It tipped over, off the plate (well, upside down bowl) I had it on, onto my counter, which I think isn't permanently scarred :-). My son yelled, "MOM! You blew it out! You messed up our experiment!" I tried to explain that I blew it out 'cause we don't like fires burning on top of our counter top, but he may never forgive me. It smells funny now. Now I better go scrub melted wax off the counter.
In case of emergency, melt crayons on a cookie sheet.

 

July 17, 2013

My kids have set up shop on our front lawn trying to sell stuff. Paper airplanes, to be exact. Annie's resemble regular paper airplanes (though they don't fly well) and Ellie's resemble crumpled up paper. Basically, it's a good reminder that I shouldn't plan on early retirement based on my childrens' business acumen. 

Isaac at breakfast, "OK, you guys! Here's the deal! First you chew the pancakes. Then, when you are done chewing the pancake, then you swallow the pancake. OK?"
His sisters would be lost without him . . .  :-)

July 15, 2013

Getting the kids in the van today and the radio came on when I turned on the vehicle. "Oh MAN," Isaac sighed loudly, "Adult music, ugh!"

July 13, 2013

Best family ever! Greg and I took off for a night away for our anniversary, and not only did my family take the kids to the zoo, then watch them over night, they also cleaned my kitchen (including under the stove), dusted all the frontroom shelves, cleaned under couches, scrubbed bathrooms, mowed our lawn, power washed all our outside patio furniture and toys, cleaned out my vacuum (taking it completely apart and scrubbing it all out), and more! 

July 10, 2013

That moment when you realize you've been listening to 'Safety Kids' in the car for 10 minutes . . . with no kids in the car . . .

July 6, 2013

Today is Isaac's third birthday. The downside, after several late nights this week, he's so freaking grumpy that he's in timeout (and hopefully napping!) mere minutes before his birthday party starts . . .

July 5, 2013

I should probably not be as amused as I was watching Ellie turn loopy as the Versed kicked in. . . and her not crying as they took her back to the O.R. like last time makes me want to write sonnets or haiku's or something in the drugs honor. . .

We're home from the hospital -- trying not to be bitter that the other three kids were all just waking up and hadn't even had breakfast yet when I was walking in the door :-) 

Ellie's doing well, feeling a bit dizzy but happy about her new lip gloss and lotion the nurses gave her, and almost as importantly, her esophagus looked significantly better than last time, and we'll anxiously wait to hear about the biopsy results . . . 

July 4, 2013

Ellie, psyching herself up to go down a twisty slide, "I believe in myself! I believe in myself!"

July 3, 2013

I am pretty sure the phrase, "Don't start something you can't finish," was first uttered by someone who'd started cleaning crayon marks off their childrens' bedroom wall with a Magic Eraser . . .

June 28, 2013

I was brushing Annie's hair this morning and discussing the possibility of getting her a 'summer hair cut' . . . Isaac, standing across the kitchen, suddenly starts to chant, "Bald as a bowling ball Mom! Shave her bald as a bowling ball! Do it! Do it!"

    

June 26, 2013

My father in law took a bunch of pictures of the family, then the 6 oldest grandkids, in an impromptu family photo shoot. I could never decide which one I loved the most -- BUT, flipping through them was funny, especially as the kids lost more and more patience with the photo shoot So, here they all are, 1.5 seconds each, set to music, just to entertain me :-)

June 25, 2013