The Evil Kiwi

About a week after we brought our new little daughter home, as we were all eating quesadillas and guacamole for dinner, Zackary started to develop hives on his face, right were some avocado was. Within minutes they had traveled all over his body in clusters of 20-30. After Benadryl and a bath they were better but it took about 2 weeks for the last hive to go away. At that point I was not convinced that it was a try avocado allergy. I thought that the rough adjustment he was having to Emeline was the cause-anxiety. But one week ago as he was eating a Kiwi he started itching his ears and eyes...and sure enough his lip was swelling. Of course I freaked, ran got the Benadryl, which in that amount of time he had hives all over his face, and called the doctor. After a bath again, and a nap he was fine. No troubles breathing at all. Yesterday was the trip to the pediatric allergist which I didn't care for much and probably will look for a second opinion...but he prescribed a epi-pen. Great...I never thought I would have to use an epi-pen...and hope I don't ever have to. Needless to say I'm freaked about it and hope that some allergy testing helps determine in that food group if he's allergic to mango, papaya, avocado and hazelnut. That is all the allergist will test him for...which is confusing to me. Update to come...

I Can Jump

Priceless: Watching your son realize that he just learned how to jump...and jump...and jump!

Emme's Two Week Stat's!

Today was Emeline's two week appointment. She has actually gained almost a pound...weighing in at 9.4 pounds...born at 8.6 pounds. She's at the 80% for weight, 93% for height at 21.5 inches...born at 20 inches and 38% for head. Doctor said she's doing great and looks really healthy. Emme's been sleeping well at night, giving me a total of around 7-8 hours a night...broken of course. She breastfeeds about every 3-4 hours at night and 2-3 during the day. She hiccups a lot...and likes to stare at us and track us already. Just started the soothie pacifier today and for some reason I was apprehensive about it, but she likes it. She's a big time soother by sucking. We are having so much fun watching her grow each day.

Zackary is still struggling a bit with Emeline's arrival but he loves her and just hates to see her cry. He's developed a rash that comes and goes all over his body from one bump to several. We are trying to figure it out...allergy or anxiety. It's fun to watch him explore Emme's toes, fingers, face, hair. I can't wait for the point where she will be able to interact with him more. That will help!

Constantly Changing

How you doing? He has learned thumbs up along with much more slang terms and it's so funny. He is changing and growing up so fast and so much. Just in the last week of me being busy with the baby stuff he has started talking so much more, developed a whole new burst of energy and grown I swear another couple inches.

Dad and Zackary have been spending a lot of time together. "Beach" or "Park" are two of his favorites. They have so much fun playing in the sand or looking for dandelions.

His personality is bursting with joy, comedy and more of a two year old frustration on occasion. He screams, whines, runs all around and just has endless energy.

We have to look for pine cones (this is only a quarter of his collection that he lines up!), snails, worms, dandelions, flowers or any bug for that matter. I love his nature side...nurturing that side of him is important to me as my stepfather taught me about animals and nature to a point of it being a huge part of who I am. Wonder what his next fixation will be...trucks probably!!!

It's a GIRL

January 28, 2011...5:30am exactly...8pound 6 ounce baby girl, Emeline Carolena is born. She is such a gem. The labor and delivery went beautifully. My recovery is going well. She eats, poops, sleeps, burps and cries! All as a baby should do. Zackary is such a sweetheart with her. He gets very upset when she cries not understanding what is wrong with her. I feel bad for him but he is getting a lot of attention and loving sister Emme. He says Emme all the time, it's too cute! I had been practicing her name with him though before the birth and Emerson if it was a boy. So he had the names down! We are so excited we have a girl and feel like our family is complete!

Car ride home from the hospital. 5 minutes flat and she was asleep! We had to go buy some girl clothes because we didn't have any...and I have a feeling that having a girl is going to be dangerous for my wallet!

Fish, Otters and Lions

In the midst of our stagnation (waiting for baby number 2) Ben and I decided to get out and take Zackary to the Long Beach Aquarium for a morning. He loved the fish, sea otters, and sea lions. He did not love the shows and demonstrations that were inside the Aquarium. I think it was to loud for him and he was confused what was going on. The sea lion show outside he was okay with and enjoyed them performing. He was clapping with excitement when they jumped up! He had fun walking around checking everything out and wasn't shy with trying to touch the sting rays and sharks (he just couldn't reach them very well!!!). He could have cared less about the bird exhibit they have! I wish they had Penguins. Two hours was a perfect amount of time to be there and a fun outing for us all.

Wrapping up 2010

We bought Zackary a Imaginarium Train set for Christmas. The first one we bought was defective. Ben had to box the whole thing back up and go exchange it for another. What a pain. The second one fit together perfectly and Zackary was so happy Christmas morning to see it next to the tree! He didn't quite know how to take all the presents and commotion going on, but towards the end of the day at my sister's house he finally realized how fun it is to open gifts and would clap his hands and say "yaaaa" real loudly each time he opened a gift! I thought, I should start doing that too!

Here we were explaining how we leave food for Santa and the Reindeer. Zackary calls Santa "HO HO HO" and our Elf on a Shelf is named Elf. He keeps looking for him every morning. I tell him he is back living with Santa now at his house and secretly watching him when he doesn't know it! We don't feed Zackary a lot of sugar so Santa and the Reindeer got a carrot, some crackers, milk and one chocolate covered raisin!

The week of Christmas we took Zackary to our local garden center that goes all out for the holiday. He of course didn't care about the surrounding huge trees covered in Christmas lights, all he wanted to see were all the fountains they had going throughout the place. He had fun though.

Family pick...Zackary kept doing a devil look in each shot...little comedian.

Thanksgiving.