Eczema Strikes Again

OK, so Avery hasn't been officially diagnosed with eczema but the writing is on the wall.  We were so hoping to avoid eczema because it affects so much more than skin.  We have seen what it does to a kid's ability to sleep.  And Avery likes to take five or six 30-minute naps a day.  And she still wakes up every 2 1/2 -3 hours at night to eat.  Her night schedule is almost the same as when she was four weeks old (without so many diaper changes).   Those tiny little naps don't allow her to get the restful REM sleep she needs so I dusted off my copy of "Healthy Sleep Habits Happy Child" and buckled down this past weekend to try to get her to lengthen out those naps.  We made a little progress.  She took a couple of longer naps during the day but then made up the difference at night.   And yesterday she was back to the 30-minute nap.  I have adjusted to the broken sleep somewhat but I get all mixed up when I am sleep-deprived.  I forget things.  I can't find the right words when having a conversation.  I burn things while cooking.  Bad news.

But I knew there might be more to it by the looks of her skin.  We just returned from Avery's 4-month well-baby appointment.  Here is our little 12-pounder in her designer Missoni outfit:

I am not surprised by her skin but the pediatrician sure was. Her scalp looks terrible, her little ankles and wrists are rough and red, and her sweet little cheeks look like she has been out skiing they are so chapped.  The doc wants me to eliminate dairy, egg, soy, nuts, and wheat from my diet for two weeks to see if her skin improves.  Then I can add back one item at a time.  Obviously I don't have to do this, I can switch from nursing to a hypo-allergenic formula but that just seems silly.  Especially since there is a chance that even an elimination diet won't improve her skin then I might as well keep nursing.  The doc thinks she is overall itchy which keeps her from sleeping well.  So we need to get to the source of the problem first, then our pediatrician suggested a possible antihistamine to help her out.  I definitely want to keep nursing so I will give it a try.  Eliminating wheat would be the hardest for me since I love it and the boys never had to cut that from their diet (thank goodness) so I will have to do some research on that.  And we already have the rice milk.  Geoff pointed out the other day how much milk we have because we have rice milk, almond milk, regular milk, and lactose-free milk.  Pretty much everything but coconut and soy milk!
   I am traveling this weekend so I will wait until I get home to start.  But the sooner I do it the better we may all feel.  This will make my new-recipe-resolution a little more challenging.
On another note, this is my first post from our new mac!  I am trying to adjust to it but so far I can't believe I have been doing any of my blog posts the old way.  It took me forever to get the pictures moved around and this is so easy!  Speaking of pictures, I will sign off with another one of little miss in a cute combo skirt/tights that my cousin Amy sent.  

Resolutions

Did you make any resolutions for 2012? I did this year. Quite a lengthy list in fact. One of my resolutions is to try one new recipe a week. Or four recipes in a month. Very do-able and will keep me from the oh-it-is-5:30-already-what-should-we-have-for-dinner? routine every night. We eat a lot of quesadillas. Or I should say the boys eat a lot of quesadillas or oatmeal. And who doesn't love breakfast for dinner?
We have tried four new recipes already this month and except for one burnt soup situation it has been a success.

January recipes (so far):
Barefoot Contessa Turkey Meatloaf - very good...makes a lot so I halved the recipe
Barefoot Contessa Chicken with 40 cloves of garlic - amazing! Company-worthy (I used breasts instead of the whole chickens)
Butternut Squash Soup - http://www.cookingafterfive.com/cookingafterfive/2010/11/24/roasted-butternut-squash-soup-with-sage-croutons.html Loved this. Creamy and a little sweet and spicy. I was surprised at how easy roasting the butternut squash was.
Chicken Posole Soup - Sunset magazine recipe... http://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/speedy-chicken-posole-with-avocado-lime-10000001947682/
Very good...very similar to a chicken tortilla soup. I had to modify the recipe to take out the spiciness and will use less hominy next time.

I love the Barefoot Contessa (Ina Garten). Most of her recipes have minimal ingredients but taste gourmet.

Christmas was here...

...and Santa came, ate the cookies, and drank the rice milk. No, Santa does not discriminate on what he drinks with his cookies. We celebrated Jesus. And tried to emphasize that although Santa is cool and brings great things, Jesus is why we have anything at all.
We went to church Christmas Eve and Avery wore her very first dress. But I couldn't get a really great picture of it though.

We ate paninis for Christmas Eve dinner and the boys opened new pajamas. Geoff read "Twas the Night before Christmas" finishing a month of reading Christmas books before bed. Our favorite book was a Christmas book from the library "Olivia Helps With Christmas" by Ian Falconer. We all laughed out loud a lot reading that book. The boys caught all the funny moments. And then they went to sleep.And woke up bright and early on Christmas morning. Geoff some how got them to wait a little before coming upstairs so I wouldn't miss anything. A pic during the gift opening. It just all happens so fast! Here they are with wooden name trains Grammy and Grandpa sent and a pic with their stockings.Avery holding her gift from her brothers.And here they are with their "surprise" gift for each other. We try to take them every year to pick out a gift for each other. This year we went together and Geoff and I figured we could avoid each other in the store and check out separately. So we loaded up in the van to go to Walmart and when we arrived at the store and looked behind us, all three kids asleep. Geoff said "should we just go home?" I went in and shopped while Geoff stayed in the van with all the nappers. They eventually woke up and were able to get their gifts. And they didn't realize that they got each other the same thing.They also fell asleep around 6 p.m. one evening when we drove around to look at Christmas lights. I think all of the holiday excitement wore them out in December. They got a camera/video attachment for their Leapsters from Papap and Grandma. Here is a pic of Avery watching them waiting to get her diaper changed.Speaking of Avery, these pics seem old to me already. I started this Christmas post a couple of weeks ago and am just getting around to finishing it. Look at her little legs stretching to the bottom of the activity center! She likes to stand so much that Geoff brought it out of the crawl space for something new to do.

The boys have moved into the Lego phase. They were so excited about a Lego helicopter, a Lego passenger plane and a Lego barge that they worked out spending some of their Christmas money on those items and sharing them (we are still working on the sharing part). But they were so excited to receive them in the mail that the day they arrived they couldn't fall asleep until 10 p.m. And at 3 a.m. I heard the boys in the kitchen pouring cereal and talking loudly. Since it is still dark when they get up they thought the day had started. I came out of the bedroom and Jack was standing on his chair pouring his cereal while having an animated conversation with Wyatt about the Legos. It took a little bit of convincing to get them to go back to bed. So the excitement continues with new toys around. But we are getting back to our routine and hoping for snow. And thankful for such a nice Christmas and wrap-up for 2011.

A LOTTA Christmas Part 3

Part 3 and final part in this series. :) I almost forgot to mention that Jack learned to swing on his own a couple of weeks ago. He earned a certificate and lots of excitement from his preschool teacher. I can see why-that is one less kid she has to push on the swings! She said she could tell the moment he "got it" with his body leaning forward as he swung back and he was able to keep going on his own and get higher and higher. So he wanted to show me after school one day. I have the funniest video of it. But here is a classic picture. Jack swinging away and Wyatt showing me how he feels about it. My friend from high school sent a cute outfit and this sweet little furry bomber hat. It keeps Avery warm on our drive to and from school.

That's all for now folks! Enjoy these last few days before Christmas...we are just enjoying some time at home savoring the Christmas music, lights, the surprise packages arriving at the door, the Christmas cards, and just getting ready for the big day. Here is a final picture we took at school yesterday. The kids sang a bunch of Christmas carols and as they were finishing "Santa Claus is coming to town" Santa busted through the door behind them and surprised the kids. I will try to get the video posted too.

A LOTTA Christmas Part 2

...We found time to make some cute reindeer cookies (egg and nut-free of course) for the boys' school Christmas program.

Gordon (our Elf on the Shelf) arrived surprisingly late this year. He has also made more of an effort to be active and mischievous than in previous years. Last year he was especially content to sit around in the same spot night after night.

The boys came home from their last day of school before Christmas break with lots of goodies they have been busy making at school. Here is Wyatt's loot:

A close-up of his super cute stocking he made and stored his ornaments in.

Wyatt with his photo ornament.

And holding his stocking. I am trying to take pictures of all of their art work and crafts to put in a photo book one day because there is no way we can keep everything.

Here is Jack with his reindeer ornament:

And his photo ornament:

And his stocking.
They had some sweet little gifts from their teacher and classmates. It is a small group this year (only six kids) but it is a great group of kids and families.

I mentioned Avery's big smile moments in the last post. Here we go...

Oh. Me.

Oh my.Oh my heart:

Merry Merry.

A LOTTA Christmas Part 1

December has brought us lots of smiles from Avery. She started to smile when she looks at us and recognizes our voices. SO fun. I will post some of those smiles in part 2....or 3. She had her 8- week appointment at the beginning of the month and was in the 25th percentile for everything. We thought she would be 90th percentile from the look of her cheeks sometimes:
She loves to sleep in a ball and on her belly:

But when she is awake, she is pretty roly poly:The boys still run to Avery for kisses and hugs. They even skip us most of the time when it is time for goodbye and goodnight kisses. And they take frequent breaks from playing to run to her and snuggle. We also braved the cold and joined the squadron to cut down a Christmas tree. And Geoff found a good one (certified by our good friend Heather who confirmed it was a good tree before Geoff cut it down). Here is J with his "umbrella" the top of the tree Geoff had to trim off. Gorgeous!

Those trees always look misleadingly small in the forest. Geoff had to do some more trimming to get it to fit. The next day we went to a "Wonderland of Trees" before ice skating. Before I had the stroller parked and the camera primed, the boys were on Santa's lap (there wasn't even a line...just Santa sitting by his lonesome) and they were telling him what they wanted for Christmas. "A remote control helicopter!" "A remote control plane!" "A tree!" "A ladder!"

Mr. Claus looks as surprised as us. We knew about the helicopter and plane...they have been asking for that for about a year and a half. Geoff informed them that Santa probably doesn't bring remote control planes and helicopters to kiddos under the age of seven. As for the tree and ladder, just take a look back at a couple of pictures to see where that request came from...they want their OWN tree and their OWN ladder. We guess so they can decorate and play with it and climb on it as they choose. WITHOUT mommy and daddy's guidance. The boys have changed dramatically over the past year. We are shocked at the differences between the age of four and five for them. More outgoing and willing to try new things. Like ice-skating. We went back and they still wanted to skate and did great. After they warmed up they were even willing to skate with our friends Melody and Joe (Joe not pictured):
We also made time for some gingerbread decorating... Serious business. I think they are learning some things from "Cake Boss".

December is quickly getting away from us...more to come.