We're getting old....

We're getting old......I'm not sure when we crossed the great divide but I'm pretty sure it has taken place!

We had the pleasure of free tickets, courtesy of friends, to see Toby Keith in concert this past weekend.  It was a great show but it came in second to the exceptional amount of "people watching" that we were able to experience.  We must have stuck out like sore thumbs in our khaki pants and polo shirts.  The norm for dress was short shorts (with the pockets hanging out of the front) and halter tops for the women, jeans for the men, and cowboy boots and hats for everyone.

When we arrived at 7:00pm it was obvious that the majority of the crowd had been there for awhile.  There were grills fired up, cornhole games taking place, and full-on picnics complete with tables and chairs setup truck-side.  I thought that tail-gating only took place at football games. Boy, was I wrong!

There was also no shortage of red solo cups! or alcoholic beverages to fill those cups!  By the time Toby Keith came on stage there were quite a few passed out fans.  It left me wondering how they were going to get home!

Thanks friends for an interesting and enjoyable date night with the hubs but I think I better keep my older self home with the younger crowd :-)

Best Mom Eveerrrr!

Yep, that's me!  Best Mom Ever! and all it took was a $.50 ice cream cone from Burger King and a new Palace Pet.  I'm trying to enjoy these small moments because all too soon they will be replaced with bigger expectations :-)

We've joined the crowd

Yep, we're officially "in".  The Jones family is now an epi-pen carrying member of the peanut allergy crowd.

I'm trying to make light of the situation because honestly, I am completely overwhelmed by it.  Peanuts and nuts are everywhere!  I went to buy a prepared roaster from our local grocery yesterday and it had an allergy warning on it because of a shared preparation space.  I've fed these same roasters to my kids several times over the past year and have unknowingly put my youngest at risk.

We were at a playdate earlier in the week and I brought some potato chips and guess what?  They were cooked in peanut oil.  AAAAHHHHH!

And to complicate my induction into this new society, sometimes peanuts can masquerade as other things.  If the food has hydrolyzed plant or vegetable protein, and has been imported, it may really be peanuts/nuts.

So much to learn, so much to learn........

A busy couple of weeks

We've been trying to "catch up" or maybe I should say "get ahead" with all the girl's checkups, dental visits, etc.

It seems like everytime we go for one appointment, it generates another appointment.  In the past two weeks we've seen: the pediatrician a couple of times, the asthma/allergy doc on two separate visits, the eye doctor, the dentist, and had blood drawn at the lab.

Little Miss M's visit to the pediatrician generated a visit to the asthma/allergy doc for further allergy testing.  I have been hesitant to do further testing because the pediatric dermatologist who treats her skin rashes advised that allergy testing is not very accurate until a child reaches age 4 because their immune system is immature.  The pediatrician felt that even though we would need to test again at age 4, it would be helpful to find out what the results were right now.

We had done some minor allergy testing when M was just about 4 or 5 months old because of the skin rashes to rule out a milk allergy.  At that time, the only thing she tested positive for was "cat".  We've tried really hard to minimize the cat exposure over the past 18 months but there have been several instances where she has not been around cats and has had a flare.  I was beginning to think that she was allergic to grass/trees, the chemicals in the swimming pools, sunscreen/different lotions, and maybe even new carpet fibers--there have just been some weird times that she has flared up.

Soooooo, we go this past week for the skin allergy tests and what comes up positive,  the only thing that comes up positive??????  Peanuts.  My child who had previously tested positive for cat on a skin test and a blood test did not have a positive reaction to cat.  There was no reaction to grass/trees/pollen but she tested positive for peanuts.  This is my child who doesn't like peanut butter.  I know that peanuts and nut products are found in a lot of foods nowadays, but I'm just finding it hard to believe that she has tested positive for peanuts.  I think the doc was also a bit surprised about the cat findings and so we just made a trip to the lab for bloodwork to confirm/deny the recent findings.

UUUGGGHHH! So frustrating!

So on to my beautiful K.  We went for her 4 year checkup which is considered the kindergarten screening and she didn't do so well on the eye test.  This morning we went to the eye doctor and she has a astigmatism in both eyes.  Her vision is approximately 20/30 in each eye but because a astigmatism makes everything a little blurry, the doc recommended she wear glasses all the time because at this age all learning is done visually.  It's possible that the astigmatism may get better as she grows or it may get worse.  If it does get worse, it is something that can be corrected surgically when she she is older.

She picked out her own glasses.  Is this kid cute or what?

"Is this mud" and other questions from the Jones house

Some recent conversations from the Jones' house:

K-"Is this mud?" (referring to the gravy on her porkchop)
Me-"No it isn't mud. Have you ever eaten mud?"
K-"It looks like mud."
Me-"I wouldn't feed you mud.  Please, eat your dinner."

Miss M holding a plastic fried egg from her kitchen set:
M-"This icecream?"
Me-"No, it's a fried egg."
Several more attempts by Miss M to confirm that she was holding icecream.  Thinking I needed to clarify my answer since she didn't know what a fried egg was.
Me-"It's an egg that has been cracked open and cooked."
M-"This icecream?"
Feeling like this conversation could go on indefinitely.....while I'm trying to watch something on the TV.
Me-"It's a fried egg but you can use it for anything that you like."
M-"Fine. I'm leaving!"  as she slides off the couch and goes back in the playroom.
Leaving me with a WTH just happened expression!

"Mom, almost there?"

The little voice from the backseat that uttered that statement is my two year-old, and this my friends is why all car trips are limited to a max. drive of four hours.  If this is what the two year-old is saying, you can imagine how many times that statement is uttered by the older girls.

I still can't believe that Little Miss M is speaking in sentences.  How did that happen?  It is like somebody flipped a switch, but then again, with two older siblings around, she has to make her communiques pretty clear to get heard. 

I took her for her 24 month checkup last week and she is 33" tall and weighs 25.2 lbs.  We're still having problems with very sensitive skin which may be related to allergies but at this age the immune system is still so immature that allergy testing may give inaccurate results.  The pediatric dermatologist has said that she would treat the skin irritation the same regardless of whether the allergy was known or unknown, but it is still hard to not know what may be causing the flare-ups.  It puts a real damper on summertime activities:  very limited time outside and only after the sun is going down so I can limit sunscreen use and very limited time in the swimming pool because of the possible reaction to the chemicals in the water. 

Here are a few pics from some happenings over the last couple of weeks.

Little Miss M just beamed in every picture that she took with the characters.

Little Miss Drama is what I am now calling K.  I've noticed in almost all recent pictures, she has to "strike a pose".

Always the Big Sis--my G helping her little sis with the birthday crowing.

The girls with cousin C.J. at Mimi's church.

Monkey see, monkey do.  The "strike a pose" is rubbing off on her little sister!

Alica Keys has nothing on this girl singing "This Girl Is On Fire", except maybe a real microphone :-)

Just a pretty smile!

My G is getting so grown-up!

Twenty-five pictures taken and this is the only one that has them all looking forward.

Trying to catch up....

This was the post that I started for Mother's Day: 

"This is always such a hectic day as we schedule visits with family and still try to squeeze in a little relaxation time as well--I think that is an oxymoron--but I'm definitely not complaining!  So many of my peers have lost a parent this past year and so I'm concentrating on being thankful and not complaining because of the hectic schedule."

And now here it is the end of June.  I would like to say I've been on vacation since my last post at the end of March but in reality I've just been living life with my girls.  I always forget that from the time their birthdays start until we get cross the finish line into summer, it's just crazy.  This year has been no exception.  The girls had birthdays in March, April, and June and we celebrate each birthday for a week.  In our house we have a "birthday bucket" and each day of their birthday week there is a small treat/gift in the bucket.  There is also a family birthday party and a party with their friends.  This year G opted out of the party with friends and instead went to the American Girl store.   In addition to birthdays, the girls had school field trips, and end of year activities.  Why do school officials schedule all the trips/parties, picnics, teacher appreciation activities at the end of year??????  Then you throw in some holidays- Easter, Mother's Day, Memorial Day, Father's Day, a couple of weekend getaways, a family member's wedding, another heart scare for my Dad, and here we are at the end of June.  Everyone is now sleeping in until 7:00am and so I can say we've successfully made the transition into summer :-)

In all that craziness, there is also all the time spent getting the girls ready for summer.  Researching summer activities/camps/bible schools.  Trying to line up just the right amount of activities to keep them busy and having fun and not so many that I make myself crazy trying to get it all done.  It's a very fine line my friends!

Here's a few pics from the girl's birthdays just so you can see how they've grown.  I've taken tons of pics over the past couple of months-I may have been slack on my blogging but I've got plenty of pictures :-)