The Greek Festival

We went to the Greek festival yesterday. Hope slept through the whole thing. Isaiah loved watching the dancing and then...they let everyone dance. We couldn't get him off the dance floor. Click here to see him! Doug said he looked like he belonged at a gun show instead because of his camo...haha!

Our Weekend

Saturday we celebrated Makenzie's 1st birthday at our house.

Sunday we went down to Santa Monica. We shopped on Third Street and then went to the youth mass at 1:15. We saw our friends Karen and Dr. Brian. She is due in August with a little girl...how exciting...Hope will have a little girlfriend to play with. Then we went to lunch with them and got home about 6pm.

Isaiah and Hope were so good all day so...we should have expected a long night. Isaiah is cutting his 3 molars...finally....but he is in so much pain. D ended up sleeping with him last night and Hope was up every couple hours to eat. So needless to say we are a little tired. They are both actually napping right now....but will be up soon.

My brother-in-law Doug is in town until tomorrow. We are going to go to the Greek Festival today (i think) and then cook out here!

Here are some pictures from this weekend. Enjoy!

Some updates

I guess I have blogged in awhile. So here are some updates!

Mrs. Socha is doing great! She is such a strong person. She does have to do chemo but they got everything. Thank God!!

I decided not to wean Hope to formula right now. She is doing sooo much better! She is so smiley and happy. It was too hard to do. It took her 20 minutes to drink two ounces and then she would get an upset tummy and Isaiah was into everything. So right now she is still being breastfed. Her face looks great too...but she has some cradle cap now. Any advice on how to get rid of it?

Isaiah is doing great! He is so funny. He loves to entertain people. His new place to play is under the TV set where he takes out all the videos....Well it was driving me crazy because he was wrecking some of them...so I cleaned it out. Now he opens it and just stares at it like where did all my toys go. Sorry Isaiah =)

Dani, Gary and Makenzie are down here and we are going to celebrate Maks one year birthday!! Isaiah and Makenzie are so cute together....except that he likes to sit on her...which he was taught by Dani...good thing she is a tough little girl!!

My Mom is coming out in the beginning of June and then she is going to fly back with us to Buffalo. So we will be in Buffalo June 13th through the 25th....so hopefully we can see a lot of people this time. We are going for Dave's high school reunion too! I am sure that will be fun! Then we are off to Florida to see Doug, Carrie, Cade, Camryn, Ana, and Baby #4 (which we will not be able to see to our next visit....Carrie is due July 17th). We are so excited to go and travel and see everyone!!!

Our Little Soccer Star

Soccer started today for Isaiah...it was so cute to watch him run. He didn't like all the activites...he just wanted a ball at all times....Presley was in the class with him too. They are too cute.

Presley's mom Jill took all these pictures...she should be a photographer...they are great.






How cute!!













Run Isaiah Run!












Aren't they cute?
















Daddy rescuing Isaiah and taking him back to the group.

A smile that will make your heart melt

Here are some recent pictures of Isaiah and Hope.


She loves her swing...well sometimes!



Hope after a bath....she loves to have her hair washed. She is such a girl!



Isn't that the cutest smile!!



Or how about that one!



Uncle Randy stopped by and asked to hold his goddaughter!! What a huge step for the daddy-to-be!



And who could forget Isaiah!!

FYI

In case any of you ever have to go on the diet I am on...no milk, soy, eggs, fish, shellfish, nuts, or peanuts...OR if you have any kids that are allergic to these products...

Here is a great website with foods that are allergen free. My friend Maria told me about the cookies that I purchased at whole foods. I wanted the snickerdoodle ones but she must have bought them all...Ha Ha...So I tried the chocolate chip ones and they were actually pretty good. I am going to order some of the foods for Isaiah to try.

Also...my sister-in-law Carrie was talking to one of her friends about allergies. And their son was deathly allergic to some of those things. They are into alternative medicine as Dave is and they did this thing called NAET. And now their son can eat all of those things he was allergic to. I just ordered the book to find out more but...have any of you heard about this?? I am kind of excited if it would work because I am already crazy about his allergies since he still is at the age where he eats things off the ground!

Starting Formula

Well I decided to put Hope on formula. She still has green, gooey poops and every time she toots it smells like rotten eggs. So I think she is still allergic to something I am eating. So instead of driving everyone crazy and not eating anything...we decided to start formula.

I gave her her first bottle this morning. She only drank one ounce and then was hungry again in an hour...but she has never had a bottle before or formula before so it is all new to her.

Here is the advice I have gotten so far about weaning (keep in mind that I am weaning from 10 feedings a day not 3 like with Isaiah...so I am going to be sore and in pain):

1. Give one bottle one day, two the next, three the next...and so on until she is completely on bottles.

2. Wear a sports bra so that the milk doesn't come in as much.

3. Take cold showers (yuck!) so that I don't increase my milk flow.

4. Wear ice packs before and after feedings.

5. Wear cabbage to decrease the swelling and pain.

Any other suggestions or advise would be helpful! I am going to miss feeding her though. But I feel this is what she needs. =)

Mother's Day

We went up to San Jose on Sunday to spend Mother's Day with Mrs. Socha since that is where she was for her surgery. She is doing great but of course cannot wait to come home and be in her own house. And Gary and Dani are so great taking care of her! Our family is so wonderful!

We stayed with Gary, Dani, and Makenzie. There was a lot of people in one house but we had a great time! Isaiah and Makenzie are so cute together. He doesnt really have to do anything but look at her and she cracks up laughing. And then of course he loves the attention so he tries to get her to laugh more. It is so cute. I can't wait until he can make Hope laugh like that!

Isaiah's Allergies

We heard back from Isaiah's allergist yesterday and...he is allergic to nuts.

There are two scales that they use. The allergy level is supposed to be a 50 and his is 68 out of 100. He is allergic to: Coconut, Almond, Peanuts, Pistachio, and Sesame.

The other scale he said Isaiah is a category 2 and 3. The highest category is a 6.

So he is on the lower end to the middle with his nut allergy. He will get tested again in 9 months and then they can tell if they are getting better or worse.

So we are now a nut free house. And we will have to be very careful when we go out to eat and when we are at other people's houses.

Hopefully he will outgrow them quickly!!

While they are both sleeping...

Here are a couple new pictures...






Hope waking up after a nap.

Isaiah's new toy. He loves this new house. He plays there for a long time. He also likes when we ring the doorbell and ask to come in. He lets us....you should see us squeeze through the door...it is pretty funny! But as long as he is having a good time. This house of course is educational...it teaches colors, shapes, numbers, and the alphabet!

Lots of Updates

Sorry we have been busy and I haven't been able to keep my blog up to date...(Kerri!)...but here are some updates on what has been going on here.

Hope does have an intolerance or allergy to something that I am eating. We went to the doctor and she no longer has blood in her stool....meaning that I did a good job not eating any of those foods for 2 weeks and also that her intolerance is mild...If it was severe...the diet would not have helped that much. So I can start to add back in foods like eggs, fish, shellfish, nuts and peanuts...slowly and one at a time to see how she reacts to them. But I cant add milk or soy yet. We have to see the doctor again in 2 months. She is really starting to get better. She is smiling a lot and more happy...we just have to get over her colicky time from 5-8:30 at night....Hopefully that will be gone soon!! =) She also has a bad case of baby acne....so I will not post any pictures until after so that she will not be mad at me one day! Ha ha!

Isaiah...we still have not heard about his test but do not expect to until next week. He did however get a horrible rash on his bottom. I called on Friday night and they said it could be a yeast infection and to try some cream on it and...if it isn't gone by Monday come in. So of course it wasn't gone and we went in (I feel like I live at the doctor's offices right now!). Good news was it wasn't a yeast infection. Bad news was...something he is eating is making his bowels acidic and actually burning his skin...Ouch! So we think it is apples. Dave started to give him apples last week every morning and that is when the rash started. So we are going to stop feeding him that and see if that is the cause.

Isaiah also finally cut one of his molars and the others are coming very soon. He does still cry out at night but only for a couple minutes and goes back to sleep. He is getting used to his sister crying and it doesn't bother him that much.

We are also going to try and start using the potty with Isaiah....since his new thing is to pee on you every time you change his diaper. I am not necessarily potty training yet....I just don't want to get peed on...so I will just sit him on there when I change his diaper!

Mrs. Socha is going in tomorrow morning for her surgery. Please pray for her and healing for her.

I can tell I am a Mom....

Last night I went to Target to get a new CD player....and I saw myself...

Well...I saw myself a few years ago...all dressed up with high heel shoes on and my hair and makeup done perfectly...tThen I saw myself with no makeup (or what was left after a long day) my hair not combed since the morning and probably spit up somewhere on me...I almost missed looking perfect....

UNTIL I came home to my husband and my two kids....Why would I want to change anything....I love where we are today even though it can be crazy...but I wouldnt change it for the world! And who would want to when you have moments like these....

Daddy to the rescue

I had a very rough morning yesterday....

First I thought our friend Brent...who is going to be staying with us for 3 months...was coming in at 10:30am...well i miss read the times and it was 10:30pm.

Then I went to put Isaiah down for a nap....and his CD player started to smell like it was burning.

Hope would wake up everytime I put her down....

So I was going crazy.....Then Daddy came home for lunch...

I drove Isaiah around to get him to sleep....Hope went to sleep and so did I....It was so quiet here and we all needed a nap! Thanks D! We love you!

Getting Used to 2 Kids

I don't know if many of you know that my mom went home on Sunday. We are now starting to realize what two kids are like. We definitely miss her a lot! And were so grateful for her to stay as long as she did.

I haven't had a complete full day by myself.....on Monday I was alone from 11-3 and Tuesday I was home from 9:30-3. The days went pretty well. However, I always rocked Isaiah to sleep for nap time. Yesterday was the first day that I tried to lay him in the crib. He was OK at first but....I forgot to hit repeat on his CD player....so when the CD finished he lost it. I had to leave him for a little while since I was feeding Hope downstairs....Let's just say it was a long day without a nap. We meant to try it while my mom was here but something always came up. At least he is finally sleeping through the night.

The days are definitely a challenge sometimes. When Hope is sleeping Isaiah would rather play by himself. And when she is awake....he wants me to play. Hopefully he will understand to play when she is sleeping soon. But he is learning to be more patient and wait. Although sometimes during the day are hard....there are some great moments....like when I put Hope down on her mat and Isaiah laid next to her and put his arm around her. (I will try and post the picture later.) Right now I have to go since I have two crying babies!!