A Productive Couple of Days

We've had a productive, yet relaxing couple of days. R has been off from work for the holiday and it's been nice to have the extra set of hands around.

We had a great Thanksgiving Day--had dinner with my family and then just a couple of hours later, had dinner with R's family. My only complaint is the one that I have every year--I just wish that there was more time between the family dinners. It's hard to really enjoy both when they are just a couple of hours apart and we are usually miserable from overeating by the time we get home.


K and cousin J


K, cousin J and G


"Where's the turkey?"


I have this same expression when eating Grammy's sweet potato pie!


The girls with cousin CJ at Mimi's house

The two older girls stayed with Grammy and D-daddy on Thursday night so that R and I (and Baby M) could do some Black Friday shopping. I didn't want to seem to anxious and so R and I didn't even leave the house until 6:15am. Our first stop was Walmart and unbelievably we were able to park in the 2nd spot from the front--the parking lot was half empty. I guess the masses must have been there for the 10:00pm opening. Even so, we found almost everything that we had been looking for and what we didn't get at the first Walmart, we were able to get at the second one.

I spent a good portion of yesterday organizing and purging my office file drawers. My "adoption drawer" got special attention. Up until this point, I had held onto just about every scrap of paper that was or could be used for adoption. I think I've finally come to a "happy place" and realize that it's okay to let some of the paper go. Of course, I kept things that might have special significance to the girls but I realize that we are at the end of our adoption journey. I'm maybe a little sad but also feel very relaxed at the place I am at in my life now. I have a sense of peace now that Baby M has joined our family.

R put up the outside Christmas lights yesterday and the girls got a chance to play outside. Our friends M and A gave us a batting practice toy and yesterday was their first opportunity to play with it. K has got incredible hand/eye coordination to be as young as she is. It was amazing to watch her hit the ball off of the "t" almost every time that she swung. I can definitely see some sports activities in our future:-)


Our little slugger:-)

It's Time to Eat......

At Baby M's 4 month check-up the doctor had suggested we wait to start her on cereal until the allergy testing had come back. Thankfully, the skin test and the blood test came back negative for soy and milk. It did come back positive for cat and so we're readjusting a lot of things in our house to minimize the cat dander (is that even possible?) From the information that I've been able to gather we won't necessarily see the results of our efforts for 90-120 days. That is how long animal dander can linger after the pet has been removed from the area. It seems like pretty powerful stuff--it's a wonder someone hasn't come up with a way to harness it and make energy since it has such staying power :-)

This past weekend we started Baby M on rice cereal. You can see from the pics that the first couple of bites were questionable but once she got the hang of it, she was really gungho. If this is any indication of future appetite, she's going to be a good eater.


First bite.....


Not too sure.....


Still thinking about it.....


"I'm think I'm going to like this....."


"Can I have some more?"

One of my favorite days of the week is Sunday. My girls get to hang out in their pj's for a good part of the day and we get to spend time as a family. I love this pic of my two big girls reading and I really love the fact that K was the one who got out the book so that her big sis could read it to her.


K and G reading

Here my little girls are snuggling with their blankets. K and Baby M both have a preference for the blankets that are silky on one side and "minky" on the other. Of course this seems to be the season for fleece so I'm always on the lookout for the minky blankets. Anyone come across a source for these, please let me know :-)


Baby M and K snuggling

K had her preschool Thanksgiving feast at school and they were indians. Very cute costumes made out of t-shirts that had been dyed and stamped with shapes. And of course the outfit would not have been complete without the colored macaroni necklace.


Cutest indian in the class!

Somehow I managed to convince K that we needed to take a pic in this dress to show our friend Miss K. She's recently been going thru the "I'm avoiding the camera at all costs stage," and so I love the fact that she posed and actually smiled right at the camera. I love this dress and the many others that we have gotten from one of our friends. There is nothing cuter than a little girl in a smocked dress and the best part is that I will get to do a "replay" once Baby M gets a little bigger.

Apple Festival and Halloween

This post should catch me up for October--it's hard to believe that we squeezed so much into October considering all the health related things that were going on. The week before we went to Sesame Place, K had a respiratory virus. She just came down with a fever and so R took her to one of our local urgent care centers because I was worried it was strep, but it turned out to be a virus.

The week after we came back from Sesame Place, Baby M came down with what I suspected was the same virus. Into the doctor we went and she felt that it was indeed the same respiratory virus that K had been struggling with the week before. Later that same week, I had both little girls in to the doctor for scheduled check-ups and at that time, the doctor said the ongoing cough was nothing to worry about, it just needed to run it's course.

Just a couple of days after that, Baby M came back down with a fever and this time, something just didn't sound right with the cough. It was a Friday evening and so I took her to our local urgent care and they did blood work and a chest x-ray and sent us to the emergency room with pneumonia. That was an experience that I hope not to have a repeat of anytime soon. We arrived at the ER at 10:30pm on Friday night (and this was after the urgent care had called to let them know we were on our way), they didn't put us in a room until 3:00am Saturday morning, and we didn't make it home until 8:00am Saturday morning. Can I just say that the emergency room on a Friday evening is a very interesting place?

Back to the doctor the Monday after that for a follow-up on the pneumonia, followed by a trip later in the week to the pediatric dermatologist to look at Baby M's ongoing rash. The rash should probably be a post all by itself because it seems like it has been present for a very long time.

Lots of thoughts thrown around by the pediatrician, the pediatric dermatologist and the allergy doctor but the initial consensus was that she was allergic to milk based formula. We successfully switched her to the gold-label Enfamil (and there's a reason it has a gold label on it), started following the skin care regiment given by the dermatologist, and have seen a marked improvement in her skin.

This past week we go for allergy testing and what does Baby M test positive for---cat dander. No milk or soy allergy detected--now go figure that out. The doctor said it may be a false positive reading on the cat allergy and so tomorrow we are doing blood work to confirm the results. I'll keep you posted on the results. I am of course hoping that the cat allergy is negative because if it isn't we are in for some lifestyle changes here at Chez Jones. The negative result could mean that we need to some remodeling (remove carpet, etc.) and the positive result could mean that we need to some remodeling :-)

Enjoy the following pics of our trip to Graves Mountain Apple Festival, a brief stop at the pumpkin patch (on our way home from a doctor's visit), and the girls in their Halloween costumes.


The Girls--G with friends A and M


K trying to "avoid" the camera


"Serious K" on the pony ride


G on the pony ride


Cutest Giraffe at the Apple Festival!


Petting the K sized pony


"Can I have one of these?"


Picking apples



G with friends on the hay mountain


K at the Pumpkin Patch with Grammy. It was naptime and I was really fortunate to catch this shot without a scowl.


G at the Pumpkin Patch. I remember when she was younger and we would do this same shot of her sitting on a pumpkin and the pumpkin looked as big as she did!


K was a princess for her preschool Halloween party


G and K getting ready to go trick-or-treating. Baby M was still recuperating and so she and I stayed home while the big girls went out with R, Grammy and D-daddy.


The "loot"

Happy Birthday Baby M!

Happy 5 Month Birthday Little One! Time sure is flying by--I can't believe how much you've grown! You are the icing on this cake we call family. Your sweet, easy going personality makes me want you to stay this size forever even though I rejoice in each new skill you learn. You are a constant source of joy to all of us and we treasure each day that we have with you!


All tired out from playing

Grammy and D-daddy brought an early Christmas present and we are loving it! It's a combination activity center and exer-saucer all in one. When G and K were babies we had the big exer-saucer and then we had a separate activity table. With this piece, the seat rotates around the activity table and when Baby M outgrows the seat, it can be removed and she will still have the activity table to play with. It's a great idea and I don't know why someone didn't come up with it years ago.


"Oh, I think I'm going to like this!"


"Hey, this makes music!"


Feet just barely touch the ground----lots of room to grow....

More October

Still playing catch-up and now the heat is really on because Thanksgiving is right around the corner.

We had a great weekend trip to Sesame Place in October. Aunt M and cousin J came with us and the kids had a great time, and I think the grown-ups did, too. If you've never been to Sesame Place, it's a great place to experience all things Sesame Street. I would say it is primarily geared towards the 2-8 age range. There are rides, Sesame Street shows, water rides and water play areas, and plenty of opportunities to interact with the characters.


G and the Count


Cousin J and Cookie Monster


Aunt M and Baby M


Family pic with Elmo

On our way home from Sesame Place we stopped at the Adventure Aquarium-another great hands-on, kid friendly place. K loved touching the sharks and starfish. G has reached the "ooohh, I can't touch that" stage so she and cousin J just watched :-)


K and Grammy at the shark tank


K and R touching starfish

"Uuuuhhhhh......No"

Intrigued by that headline? Those 2 year-old quotes always get me too!

So K asks if I would like something to drink from her kitchen and I ask "do you have any coffee?" to which she responds, "Uuuuuhhhh.....no" and so I ask, "do you have any tea?" and she responds, "Uuuuhhhhhh.....no". This banter continued until I had exhausted the list of beverage choices and finally had to ask, "what do you have?" and she responded, "water". Too funny!

Sometimes in the day-to-day, often challenging moments I forget how much fun having a two year-old really is:-)

These pics are from K's preschool field trip to the pumpkin patch.

So far behind for October

I am so far behind for blog posts for the month of October. So many things have transpired in the last 3 weeks-Baby M had her 4 month pics taken (by our favorite photographer of course :-), we took a weekend trip to Sesame Place, we went to the Apple Festival with our friends, made a trip to the pumpkin patch, K had her preschool field trip to the pumpkin patch, Halloween has come and gone and then throw into the mix that the girls have been sick and we had our first visit to the emergency room....and I know I've left a few other things out.

The following pics are from Baby M's photo session. I hadn't anticipated K getting into the action or I would have dressed her a bit differently :-)









I'm going to try and catch up on my posts over the next couple of weeks because before you know it, Thanksgiving will be upon us and then the holidays, and I've got so many great pics to share from October!