Christmas Fun

Christmas is my favorite time of the year even though it also is usually the busiest time of the year!  We always try to get our Christmas tree right after Thanksgiving and we go to the same tree lot every year.  This year I think we picked one of the coldest nights to go - the kids and I froze and Cody hated the noise of the chainsaw, but we got the tree picked out and home.  It stayed in the garage for several days before we finally had time to bring it inside and get it decorated; we finally got it done and the kids loved seeing and helping with the ornaments.

Of course, we made time to visit Santa.  All Cody wanted was a "big, ladder fire truck" and Graecyn had a list a mile long of all of the things she wanted including, a gymnastics bar, beam, and mailbox mat, JoJo bows, JoJo karaoke, a drawing book, and the Greedy Granny game (I made her limit her list to Santa).

We waited in line for about 20 minutes to see Santa; Graecyn was a little shy and simply handed him her list and had him read it instead of telling him what she wanted.  Cody climbed right up into his lap and asked for a "big, ladder fire truck."

Graecyn and I took in a princess tea party, which was so cute.  Graecyn got invited to go with a friend and decorate a gingerbread house at a local tea house; the girls had so much fun and definitely got filled up with sugar in the process!  I got to participate in her school Christmas party and it was fun watching her with her friends.

The weekend before Christmas, we took time to bake and decorate sugar cookies and on Christmas Eve, we gave the kids early baths and put jammies on and drove around looking at Christmas lights.  The kids both sprinkled "Reindeer Food" in the grass (raw oatmeal and sprinkles) and giggled the whole time.  They put out cookies and milk for Santa and headed to bed, anxiously awaiting Santa.

Santa definitely delivered for both kids.  Graecyn got her gymnastics bar, JoJo karaoke, a stand-up snow board and a few other things.  Cody got his big, ladder fire truck, a tool set, and a giant Mack truck race track.

We spent the rest of the day watching "A Christmas Story" (on repeat), playing with toys, and eating food.  It was such a great Christmas!

Graecyn Star of the Week

The week before Christmas, Graecyn got to be "Star of the Week" at school.  She was so excited and enjoyed every minute of it, especially getting to be line leader everyday at school.  As part of Star of the Week, she had to fill out a book about her.

When I grow up, I want to be...a dress designer.

A little story about my family...my family has four people in it.  I have a brother; his name is Cody.  It is me, my mama and daddy and Cody.

All About Me! My favorite food is pancakes, my favorite books are Junie B. Jones and Fairy books.  My favorite color is rainbow.  My favorite thing to do is play on my playground.

My Favorite Pet & Animal...my favorite pet is a puppy.  My favorite animal is a bunny.

Just for Fun...ballet...gymnastics...swimming.

She got to take the class "pet" home for the week, "Pete the Cat".  She took him to see Santa, pick out a Christmas tree, gymnastics, and to pick Cody up from daycare.

As part of being "Star of the Week" all of her classmates wrote why they think she is special; all of the pages were put into a spiral bound book for Graecyn to keep.  Every page said something about Graecyn being kind, nice, helpful, and a good friend.  Definitely a proud mama moment!

Fall Happenings

Fall flew by.  Graecyn joined Daisies and has enjoyed her Daisy meetings and group outings where they earn their Daisy petals - so far they've earned the following petals:

• Blue Center: "I will do my best to be"
• Yellow: "Friendly and Helpful"
• Dark Pink: "Respect and Authority" (they made care packages and delivered them to the local police department and earned a police badge)
• Light Green: "Considerate and Caring"
• Light Blue: "Honest and Fair"

We traveled to North Carolina for Thanksgiving.  The kids traveled great!  Cody was so excited to ride the escalators, moving walk ways, and train at the Detroit airport.  We road them all multiple times while waiting to board (we arrived at the airport extra early expecting long lines and it only took about 20 minutes to get through security, so we had lots of time to kill).

Graecyn is really loving gymnastics and her skills are really developing.  She participated in her team "Fall Showcase" in October as well as a skills competition in November and did great!

Halloween

Months before Halloween we started discussing costumes and Graecyn was set on being a bride.  I ordered a cute play wedding dress online and we bought some fake roses from Michael's to make a bouquet. It was going to be so cute...and then a few weeks before Halloween, she changed her mind (because she thought people would think she really wanted to get married by being a bride [the mind of a 6 year old!]).  Despite a lot of talking and explaining that it's just pretend and no one would think she's really getting married, I couldn't talk her back into being a bride.  So the search was on for a new costume.  She decided on a unicorn and I found a cute unicorn dress online that was 1) inexpensive, and 2) would arrive in enough time to get several wears out of it.

Cody really had no idea what Halloween was all about, so I only gave him 3 costume choices...all 3 were costumes he already had in his closet that were bought last year on clearance: Spiderman, Superman, or Chase from Paw Patrol.  He decided to be Spiderman, which was perfect because we could easily fit warm clothes underneath the costume (a must in Michigan).

A few weeks before Halloween, we went with Graecyn's BFF, Callie, to "Halloween Hoot" at Dinosaur Hill, a local nature preserve.  The kids had a lot of fun despite the cold temperatures and light rain.

Graecyn's school had a "Family Festival" on a Friday night where the kids got to wear their costumes (costumes aren't allowed at her Elementary school on Halloween, so this was their chance to show them off to their friends).  She had a blast with her friends.  Graecyn and Callie also participated in a gymnastics Halloween party at Graecyn's gymnastics gym; they played games (including trying to eat a donut hanging from a string) and had a blast!

Graecyn and I painted pumpkins and she and Eric spent one night carving a pumpkin; it was the first time we let her do the carving and she did great (even though it made me nervous at times).

Both Graecyn and Cody had Halloween parties at their schools.  Luckily, it worked out that Cody's party was in the morning and Graecyn's party was in the afternoon, so I got to be at both of them. 

Finally, it was Halloween night.  The weather was PERFECT...warm (for Michigan)...no coats needed, which was amazing!  Typically, we have friends over to our house for trick-or-treating, but our friends had recently moved to downtown Rochester and wanted to try trick-or-treating in their neighborhood, so we headed there for the night.  It was a lot of fun and their neighborhood really gets into Halloween, which made it fun for both kids and adults.  The guys decided to stay back at the house to hand out candy, so the girls headed out with the kids.  Graecyn and Callie were great, but Cody was such a handful.  He was so excited and hyper that he was out of control.  Such a change from last year where he sat in his stroller the entire time.  This year, he was running into the street, barking like a dog (he would get up in people's faces and pant like a dog), running around singing "yo, yo, yo".  It was more than I could handle, so we only went around the block and back home (enough for the kids to get a lot of candy).  Next year, the guys get kid duty, and the girls will hang back and drink wine while handing out the candy! :-)

Graecyn's Eagle Dash

Graecyn's school had it's annual PTA fundraiser, the Eagle Dash, where they solicit donations in exchange for running laps around the bus loop (they are the University Hills Eagles).  Each class runs for 20 minutes total and the kids have a lot of fun.

Last year, it was warm and rainy on Eagle Dash day.  This year it was cold and rainy on Eagle Dash day.  Graecyn did great despite the weather and ran 15 laps (and raised $70)!  She had to walk a few times and even took a quick break to sit on the curb (I think the cold was hard on her), but had a fun time.  With each new lap, she had a renewed skip in her step (see video at the end). :-)

Cody's Allergies

A month before Cody turned 2, we spent a week in North Carolina visiting family.  May in North Carolina = TONS of pollen.  Poor guy was so affected by it (red, itchy eyes, runny nose), we had to call our doctor's office while we were there to see what we could do for him (since he wasn't 2 yet, we weren't sure if we could give him allergy medicine).

Fast forward to this spring and poor Cody was miserable again - lots of snorting, red eyes, etc.  We tried all of the over-the-counter medicines to no avail and finally ended up getting him a prescription allergy medicine that also didn't seem to help.  I finally gave in and made an appointment for him to see a pediatric allergist.  Unfortunately, there are not many pediatric allergists around and the one I chose is very popular, so we had to wait 2 months to get an appointment.  During this wait, Cody improved greatly and I almost cancelled the appointment thinking it must have just been a bad cold.  I am so glad I didn't cancel!

At the appointment, I explained all of his symptoms and described how no medicines seem to give him any relief; the doctor decided to do a skin test to see what might be affecting him most.  The skin test consisted of drops of different liquids that were put onto little plastic tips.  The doctor and nurse then touched each of the tips to his back to put the liquid on his skin.  There were 32 tips of liquid total, but the tips were attached to trays (8 tips per tray), so it was a quick application process (the doctor and nurse each applied 2 trays in about 2 seconds).  And then we had to wait...for 15 minutes...with Cody unable to touch his back that was getting itchier and itchier by the minute.  It was the longest 15 minutes ever and he just didn't understand why 1. he couldn't put his shirt back on, 2. his back was so itchy, and 3. why his mama was pinning his arms down to keep him from wiping the itchy liquid off.

When the doctor finally came back into the room, she took one look at his back and said, "whoa...I knew he was going to react, but I didn't expect him to react this badly."  She quickly measured the hives that had formed on his back (the larger the welt = the more allergic), wiped off the liquid, and applied hydrocortisone cream.  Soon after, the itching stopped, the welts went down, and Cody was a happy boy with a sucker in his hand.

And then the discussion with Dr. Marks began, starting off with, "we'll be seeing a lot of you" and "he might just be the most allergic 3 year old patient I have right now".  My heart sank.  Apparently, Cody is highly allergic to several tree, grass, and weed pollens, specifically red oak, white ash, and cottonwood (he measured at 15+) as well as black walnut, english plantain (weed), and ragweed (measuring at 11).  Several other trees, grasses, and weeds he measured at 8 or 9 ---- I should state that anything 4 and under is considered normal!

The doctor explained that starting March 15 (regardless of whether there is a foot of snow on the ground or not), we will be giving Cody both Claritin and Singulair daily through October.  If we don't start the meds before the pollen starts, he will have no chance of relief.  He has to have the meds built up in his system to attack the histamines in his body once pollen starts to release.  He'll also have eye drops he can use and nose spray that can give him extra relief (if we can get him to let us use them on him).  When he's around 6 years old, he will be old enough to have allergy shots, which will likely be weekly shots.

This spring in Michigan was a bit different then normal; we had such a late winter that the normal early spring pollen didn't release until later, so we had double pollen from trees, weeds and grasses.  The reason no medicines were helping Cody was because they were started too late, and given how allergic he is, there was no way his body could fight off the histamines by that time.  The little bit of relief he got later in the summer was the brief break in pollen.

I'm so glad I kept the appointment and as much as I hate knowing how allergic he is, I am so thankful we now know so that we can give him relief this spring when the pollen starts all over again.  I am very hopeful that he will eventually grow out of it.

Diaper Free!

It is official, we are completely diaper free...Cody is finally 100% potty trained!  It was my goal to have him potty trained by his 3rd birthday and started working on it a month before his birthday, but he made it very clear he was not interested.  About a week after his 3rd birthday, we had a completely free weekend where we had no where we had to go, so I decided to take advantage of it.  It also happened to be a hot weekend, so I took advantage of that and made sure we were outside as much as possible.  I decided the kids would have a water day with the slip-n-slide and pool and when I put Cody's swim suit on that morning, I decided not to put on a water diaper.  After some time outside, Cody needed to use the potty and forgot he had no diaper on and ended up peeing...he didn't like how it felt on his leg and so for the rest of the time outside, he decided it would be better to go potty inside on the big potty.  Success!  He did really well with minimal accidents for that long weekend and I was beginning to think, "man, this was so easy!"

Within a few days, we were traveling to North Carolina, so we decided it would be best to use diapers and pull ups some on the trip and he surprised us by staying dry.  We had some challenges and discovered he had a serious fear of public toilets, especially the ones that have the auto flush.  So, I ended up having to carry a diaper/pull-up with me and put it on him to go potty when we were out and about.  Ugh, two steps back!  Another challenge during this time was that he switched classrooms at school - new teachers, new rules, new friends to make.  The change was hard for him and we saw some regression with his potty training, having accidents at school and at home.  We decided bribery would help motivate him to start using the potty consistently and be accident free.  For him, mini marshmallows were his reward of choice (one for pee, two for poop) and we also and promised him that when he was completely potty trained (no more accidents, no more pull ups during the day and at night) that we would by him any toy truck he wanted (we were so ready to be done with diapers!).

It was a great motivator for him and after a few weeks, he finally got to pick out his toy truck.  We went to Wal-Mart and it was so fun to watch him shop.  We typically stay far away from the toy aisles at stores, so this was his first time really getting to walk through the toys, touching and holding them.  He was so excited.  He finally decided he wanted a big garbage truck...this kid is obsessed with garbage trucks...and left the store a very happy boy!

We are so proud of you Cody!

Back to School

The summer fun is over and it's back to school time!  Graecyn was excited for school to start back up again - she loves seeing her friends, riding the bus, and learning new things!

Graecyn is now is 1st grade and her teacher is Ms. Buller!  She is in a 1st/2nd grade split class (one of the 1st grade teachers didn't return from maternity leave, so a split class was the solution).  I was a little nervous about this at first, but we're a few weeks in and it seems to be going really well.  The first graders still learn from the first grade curriculum and still get to do activities with the other first grade classes, but she gets to make friends with second graders and participate in some second grade learning too.

Cody transitioned into 3 year old preschool.  The transition has been a little hard for him (too much change all at once with potty training, new school room, new teachers, different rules), but he's doing well.  He says he doesn't like school, but seems to have a good time once there.  All of the teachers love him!

Looking forward to a great school year!

Summer Fun

We had a busy and fun summer!

Graecyn finished Mighty Mites level of gymnastics and is now in Developmental 1 level.  We went to a Kids Bop concert with her best friend, Callie.  It was sooo hot, but the girls had a blast!  She played T-ball, went to a week long day camp with Callie, went to the zoo, did some fishing with Daddy and Mr. Bob, took a ballet/jazz dance class, went to summer Bible school, and spent lots of time outside.

Cody turned 3, got potty trained (yay!), and moved into the next level of swimming lessons.  He says he doesn't like swimming, but once he gets there, he has fun.  Cody also had his first dentist visit - he did so well, especially with his big sister right there to hold his hand.

Summer Day Camp with Callie

Kids Bop concert

Cody's first dentist appointment

Summer Bible School