Tuesday, February 19, 2013

All about Luca


Luca is about 1.5 months from turning 2 and we are well on our way to her being potty trained.  I would love to have her completely trained by the time she turns 2 but I’m not sure if it’s realistic.  We didn’t initiate this in the first place so we are encouraging her but not being overly annoying about it.  She has been going on the toilet since 18 months and she keeps her diaper dry a lot, even after nap and overnight.  One problem is that she is still in her crib, so she can’t get out and go if she needs to.  She will sometimes wake up before we do and play quietly in her crib (so quietly we can’t hear her on the monitor) and since she can’t get out she has to go in her diaper.  I’m just not sure I’m ready to let her be ‘free’ in the house yet at night, and I would even have to leave her door open since she can’t open a door yet!   But I might have to if she keeps this up...It’s just hard to gauge because Lola wasn’t at this point until she was 2.5. 

Last week Luca had a reaction to Pistachios.  She was trying to open the nuts in the shell, and less than an hour later her hands were swollen up.  She didn’t seem to have a reaction in her throat but it’s difficult to tell…she might have had a little reaction and we just didn’t know it.  I am taking her to my allergy doctor in the morning for tree nut and peanut testing.  It should be an interesting appointment because they have to do the prick test on her back for the 7 tree nuts plus peanuts.  They did say that she can sit up after (adults have to lay on their stomach’s and stay still for 15 minutes) and they will just monitor her.  I am seriously crossing my fingers and hoping that it was just a random isolated incident! 

Not the best picture, but you can kind of see how swollen her hand is.
It was really shiny and red which you can't see very well in the picture.  

Luca is really starting to talk and her (stubborn) personality is starting to show!  She says “no” more than any other word and she wants to do everything herself.  If you try to help her she yells “no” and gets really angry.  But when she can’t do something herself she gets really frustrated and has a meltdown.  She is pretty active and very coordinated…both girls are!  She can walk down the stairs really well, without holding on, which scares me!  We have never had a gate at the top of the stairs, so both girls got really good on the stairs really quickly!  She sleeps with her lovey, ‘Bunny’, which is a little bunny attached to a little blanket.  It is disgusting, even though we wash it once per week!  I think the problem is that we waited too long to wash it initially so it seems to be permanently stained and smelly.  She chews on it just like it is a binky which is why it is so gross.  She leaves it at home when she goes to school and she is really good about it.  She just puts Bunny “night night” on the way out the door!    

Tuesday, February 5, 2013

Travel and such


Not a lot new lately on our end.  The kids aren’t really sick right now, thankfully, just a few sniffles.  I keep reading about the flu and this norovirus (or something like that) and it makes me nervous…I know it’s just a matter of time that someone gets really sick and then we all catch it.  I just hope we all get sick at a convenient time for everyone.  Right.  Cause it always happens that way! 

I had to say “no” to a work travel trip this week.  I had known about this potential project interview for a few weeks, but the guys in our Denver office told me that this client had pushed back all other selections and it was assumed they would do the same with the contractor interviews.  Well, Monday came and I get a phone call saying the interview was to be this Friday morning!  And it’s in Snowmass, CO which is like 3 hours outside of Denver so they are going to travel to Snowmass on Thursday and stay the night.  This means I would have to travel Wednesday.  And it was Monday.  Problem is that I am supposed to be off Friday which means my kids aren’t going to school.  Ryan is working, my parents are out of town, and once again it’s MONDAY and I need to travel WEDNESDAY.  Ugh.  This kind of thing happens every few months and it’s frustrating.  To rearrange schedules at the last minute in our family is hard when Ryan owns his own business.  Normally my parents could help out but they are out of town until Saturday.  So I had to say no.  I have never said no to this kind of thing before.  Normally I just shuffle things around and make it work, but I also typically get more than 2 days’ notice! 

We’ve got some cool fundraising coming up for CureCMD (www.curecmd.org).  I’m trying to do a jeans day at my office on Feb 28th which is rare diseases day.  Ryan plans on raising money for his Ironman in September, and there are a bunch of us that are going to run the KC Marathon in October.  Hopefully we can get some money flowing in to Cure CMD!   Megan Malone from KNOTS is making adorable beanies and bow ties and donating $10 from each item to Cure CMD (http://www.etsy.com/shop/KNOTSLLC).  

No, it's not lipstick...it's from fresh juice!  And it wasn't staged, this is what she looked like after drinking from my glass.  The juice mix: beets, carrots, spinach, ginger, lemon, and apple!