Vacation 2012

Vacation!  Oh, how I love vacation.  :)

Last week we headed to the cottage we rented on Ford Lake.  Ford Lake is a small inland lake between Ludington and Manistee.  This was the first time we have rented a cottage on an inland lake so I was a little nervous.  Inland lakes freak me out!

We were pleasantly surprised by the cottage and the lake.  The cottage had a lot of room (the bedrooms were set up funny, but it worked out fine) and a great back deck, front porch, there weren't a lot of steps going down to the water, the fishing was great, a paddle boat, there was a porch swing...so many wonderful things.

My family joined us for the first few days of vacation.  We had fun fishing, watching the kids run around together, and just spending time together.  It's been years since we went on any sort of family vacation.  My parents and grandpa stayed at a hotel, Nate stayed with us and Joelee and Jason and kids were camping in Ludington.

 Gianna and Quin 

 Kirk and Nate did a lot of fishing at sunset.  

Ellery and Lincoln hanging out around the fire.  These two are together all the time!  I was looking at my pictures and I have so many of these two!  I didn't even realize it at the time.

Lincoln has a love of water.  He could spend every minute of every day at the beach.  He has inherited Kirk's love of the waves, which scares me half to death.  The days we did go to the beach we weren't able to spend more than a couple hours.  Isadora wasn't wanting to hang at the beach.  We did what we could to make the most of our time while we were there.

I love that we were able to spend time at the cottage, time at Lake Michigan, time together, time with my family.  It was a great vacation.  It only rained one day (awesome!).  We were able to take advantage of the day and drive to Frankfort.  It was so busy!  The rain was just ending when we got there.  I tried to get a couple good pics of the kids, but they weren't having it.  I think they were still mad about the car ride there.

When we got home, I put Isa in the living room to play with the toys she had missed while were gone for a week.  I was putting things away and next thing I knew, she surprised me by showing me how she could climb the one step up from the living room to the kitchen!  Time to break out the baby gates!

We're looking forward to next summer already!

Am I the only one who thinks we should stop telling kids to say "cheese" for pictures?!  Seriously makes for a horrible picture!

Can't believe summer is winding down...and that Lincoln will be starting preschool in the fall.  Crazy!

All Grown Up

Oh my gosh!  Crazy days here at our house.  Our little Isadora is quickly turning into our still little, but not quite as little, Isadora.  It's amazing the milestones babies reach at this age.

She is currently army crawling everywhere.  She puts her arm down in front of her and pushes off with her back feet.  She seems to get around fine doing this and hass yet to actually crawl more than a couple of crawls.

Isadora's newest thing is pulling herself up to a standing position in the bathtub, in her crib and on the one step that goes into the living room.  I don't think she's on the verge of walking or anything, but she sure does love to stand up and scare the heck out of us!

I feel like Isadora is a girl of many faces.  None of her pictures ever look the same!

The below is one of my personal faves.  I love the look on her face!

Her eye color remains a mystery.  Her hair, I think, will be sandy blonde and maybe get darker.  Her eyebrows are dark, so I think eventually her hair will be darker brown.  Who knows, though.  It's always a guessing game with this one!

We can see vacation on the horizon.  Can't wait!!

Isadora's 9 Month Visit

Last week Isadora had her 9 month well visit.  Can't believe she's almost 10 months!  The time flies, doesn't it?  Sarah and her girls visited yesterday.  She has a 7 week old and it is unbelievable how small she is!  Even holding her felt strange to me and it wasn't THAT long ago that Isadora was a newie.  Crazy.

Anyway, she had a great visit and she is doing well; hitting all her milestones.  I feel like she's a tank, but she is totally normal.

Her stats were:
Height: 26 and 3/4 inches (16th percentile)
Weight: 19 pounds 5.5 ounces (51st percentile)
Head: 44.2 centimeters (50th percentile)

We, of course, talked to the pediatrician about the dairy allergy.  Per him, if there is an allergy to have, a dairy allergy is it.  I've done some research myself, but he thinks probably 75%-80% of kids grow out of their dairy allergy.  That was great news.  I called the allergist to find out how bad Isadora's allergy is and they said it's a 3-4 on a scale of 1-4.  Boo.

Thanks to everyone who has given us dairy-free/vegan ideas (thanks Nicole for your comment on my last blog entry!).  I'm constantly on the lookout and search for blogs, websites, recipes, products, etc. that are dairy free/vegan.  So far we've made vegan pancakes, cookies (made out of chick peas) and today Lincoln and I are going to try our hand at dairy-free chocolate zucchini muffins.

Kirk and I took a trip last week to Whole Foods on a hunt for dairy free items.  We had some luck.  We've been told you get used to it and not eating dairy becomes a way of life.  I'm ready for that day because checking every package for dairy is getting old.

We are keeping busy hanging with friends and really enjoying summer.  When did it become almost August?!

A few weeks ago after giving Isadora cottage cheese, she threw up.  And I don't mean just a little spit up.  We tried yogurt twice and both times, Isadora got a rash.  After talking to Kirk, I called the pediatrician's office and they recommended soy, but they also felt she should see an allergist.

Kirk and I thought this was ridiculous.  No lie.  I had initially called the pediatrician's office just to see if it was ok to give Isa soy until she was a year at which point I figured we'd try dairy again.  I cannot tell you how many times Kirk and I both commented on how we were certain we Isadora did not have a dairy allergy and how crazy it was we were headed to the allergist's office with our 9 month old.  I think Kirk even threatened to cancel the appointment.

So glad we didn't cancel the appointment since it turns out Isadora does, in fact, have a dairy allergy.

Sad, sad day.

Thankfully, they did not have to give her shots.  I had been apologizing to the poor girl for weeks fearing the shots she may receive.  They gave her a scratch test.  Side A on her back was the control side (Kirk said he was thinking it was probably sugar water) and Side B was the allergy test side.In addition to milk, Isadora was tested for eggs, beef, chicken, wheat, nuts, cats, and dust mites.  She didn't even flinch when they put the things on her back to test her.  We could tell they started itching her after a little bit because she kept looking back and moving her arms trying to reach her back.

It was pretty obvious right away the milk spot was turning into a giant welt.  Thankfully, Isadora isn't allergic to anything else, but the allergist did recommend we avoid eggs, also, even though she didn't have a reaction.

This is Isa's back after about 20 minutes.

I feel so bad for Isadora.  I know this is an allergy she may outgrow, but all I can think about is her future without dairy.  No milk in her cereal, no cream cheese for her bagel.  No parmasean cheese for her pasta, no fettucini alfredo.  No chip dip.  No ricotta.  No ice cream.  No milk chocolate.  No whipped cream.  A lifetime of bringing her own dairy free ice cream to birthday parties.  Forever explaining to people she has a dairy allergy and she isn't lactose intolerant.

I know it is entirely possible she  may grow out of this, but I'm so worried about her future.  The thought of her never trying real ice cream brought tears to my eyes.  No, I'm not kidding.  Yes, I love ice cream that much.

With Isadora in mind, I headed to the grocery store tonight to take a look at the dairy free products.  I found dairy free ice cream, cream cheese, chocolate chips and almond milk.

I tried the dairy free ice cream and both kinds were pretty good.  The cream cheese was disgusting and I haven't tired the chocolate chips or the almond milk yet.  I did see some other dairy free items.  I wanted to get some sort of cheese but the shredded cheese looked like it was plastic shaved off a wiffle bat.  I was reading the ingredients and even though a lot of things didn't say they had milk in them, I'm so worried one of the ingredients is milk masquerading under another name.

We go for a blood test in 6  months and a follow up appointment in about 8 or 9 months.  They will retest Isadora at that time to see if she is still allergic to dairy products.  Until then, we will be sure she doesn't eat or drink anything dairy and have our Epipen Jr. near us at all times.

So, this is the news in our life.  It could be so, so much worse; we know this.  I think it will force us all to eat better and watch what we're eating and read labels.  If this is our new life, we'll adjust and maybe, just maybe, I'll start a new dairy free cooking blog or something fun like that.  :)

Balloonfest 2012

We love Balloonfest.  It's our nerdy side coming out sitting out on our deck waiting for the balloons to fly overhead.  Or walking to the main street near us and sitting on the sidewalk waiting on the balloons to fly in. My brother-in-law pegged me as a balloonologist because I was seriously giving everyone updates last night and telling them when/if the balloons were going to go up.

Lincoln and I were up bright and early checking out the balloons.  We took a short walk and were able to see all of the balloons flying in.  I've never seen so many balloons flying in!  It was awesome!

All those little dots are the balloons flying in.

We were also able to see parachuters flying overhead and B25s from our backyard.  Lincoln loved seeing them "in the clouds"!

Joelee and Jason brought the kids over yesterday for a fun day at the Balloonfest.  We ate and rode a ride or two.  Isadora enjoyed the day from the comfort of the stroller.

A lady stopped Joelee and Jason on their way to see the unicyclists and went on and on and on about how she had never seen triplets in person and then took their picture!  After Joelee told her no three times, the lady wouldn't take no for an answer and snapped a photo!  Jo and Ja tell us this is normal for them, but it still is crazy to me.  By the looks and people talking, you'd think they were the Gosselins.

After spending a few hours at the fest, we headed home.  The kids played outside until the balloons flew out for the night.  The balloons were great last night!  We watched the balloons from picnic tables at the church near us.  The kids, as tired as they were, were so good and loved it.  Except Ellery, who I'm pretty sure has the motto "if you've seen one, you've seen them all".  Little cutie.

The weather doesn't look like it will allow for anymore balloons to go up today.  Boo!  We had a great weekend and enjoyed it so much!  Looking forward to next year!