Lucy

The first Lucy was a small doll with blond yarn hair and a Santa dress. When Grace "opened" the gift bag from John's aunt and uncle, we had never seen such excitement. She loved that doll from the moment she laid eyes on her. It was amazing. If Grace had Lucy, she was as happy as could be. She slept well, she calmed easily, she was attached to that doll. Then one day, Grace dropped her out of the stroller, and we never found her, in spite of retracing steps and making phone calls to all the places we had been.

A couple of months later, John's dad found another "Lucy." This one was in a pink, springtime dress. Same hair, same size, identical to the first Lucy except for the dress.. All was right with Grace's world again. Everyone who saw Grace knew who Lucy was. She was a part of Grace. Eventually, after we moved back to Texas, Grace drifted towards other dolls, and Lucy was relegated to the toy bin.

Now Annabelle is at an age where we would like to introduce a "lovey" so she can have the calming influence that Lucy gave. Grace decided that Annabelle shouldn't just have a doll like Lucy; Annabelle needs LUCY. After a few nights, Annabelle is now attached. It is so sweet to see Annabelle snuggling the same baby Grace had.

One food down, too many to go

Finally! Annabelle is able to eat something other than breastmilk! We have been trying pears for a couple of weeks, and she hasn't had a reaction! I'm so glad. It has been a long process. She spit up twice, and I was so worried it was a reaction. But luckily, it wasn't. It was just normal baby spit-up.

I was going to try peas or another vegetable this week, but Annabelle has had a cold, so I'm waiting until it clears up to try something else. I don't want to wonder if a reaction was from food or from illness. Hopefully she'll get well quickly, and we can start a new food every 2 weeks. I'm really hoping and praying she has a short list of reaction-inducing foods.

I love us

There's a Valetine's commercial out that says, "Valentine's Day isn't about saying I love you. It's about saying I love US." That perfectly describes what I want today to be about. I read in a parenting magazine that one family had turned Valentine's into a family thing instead of a couple thing, focusing on loving each other. I decided I wanted to try that. So today, we're celebrating US, all 4 of us. I'm not quite sure what we'll do, but Grace will be a part of it. She's excited about Valentine's already. She knows it's about love and hearts and red and pink. We'll try to focus those thoughts a little more. :)

I still remember when the "US" part started, 7 years ago. John asked me out on my first real date. I had never had a boyfriend, never been on a real date, and he knew that. (Of course, by that point, we had already had our "big talk" and knew we were going to get married, but we hadn't been on a date yet.) When he picked me up, he handed me a single long-stemmed red rose. We went out to the bay of Naples for a long walk, so he could show me more of the city, since I had just moved there. Then we went to a restaurant up on a cliff. The food was incredible! I never got tired of true Italian food! After dinner, we went back to his apartment. He sat me on the couch and brought out a vase FILLED with roses. (Not sure the exact number, but over a dozen!) As he handed me each rose, he told me what each rose meant and how it would be significant in our relationship (red for love, yellow for friendship, white for purity, etc.) Some were in pairs, some were single roses. It was so romantic! After he gave me all the roses, he sang me a song he had written. (It wasn't a romantic song, but it was still beautiful!) What a great night! I knew that God was going to bless me with an incredible guy that would be worth the wait, but He blew me out of the water when He gave John to me! I'm so thankful for my husband.

Now the story of "us" includes 2 beautiful daughters that fill our lives with joy (and struggles, but mostly joy!) I love our life together! I love us!

Allergies

It's official- Annabelle has food allergies. She has a very rare one called Food Protein Induced Enterocolitis Syndrome. Here's a summary (copied from http://community.babycenter.com/post/a23131809/fpies_faq-_start_here?cpg=1&csi=2242518307&pd=-1)

FPIES is a severe delayed food allergy of the gut, it is understood to be a T-cell mediated response in which food is considered a foreign invader and the body “fights” it until it can violently expel it; although the exact mechanisms are still not well understood.
Symptoms include: profound vomiting (often to bile), diarrhea and/or constipation. These can lead to: lethargy, low body temp or fever, hypotension, and in severe cases, sepsis and shock. And still yet, many children also experience many discomforting symptoms while the body "fights" this reaction and these can include: extreme stomach pains, gas, runny stools with or without mucous or blood, persistant hiccups, acid reflux, rashes, sleep disturbance, and agitation.
FPIES is a clinical diagnosis (based on symptoms), there is currently no test for it.

FPIES common trigger foods include, but are not limited to: Dairy, Soy, Rice, Oats, Barley, Green Beans, Sweet Potatoes, Squash, Chicken, Turkey, Corn, Eggs.

Annabelle has reacted so far to rice cereal, oatmeal and sweet potatoes. Her first reaction was extremely severe. She vomited and dry-heaved for an hour and was very lethargic. (This was after 2 weeks of having rice cereal almost daily, mixed with breastmilk.) We tried oatmeal a month later and she vomited that day. It took about 2 weeks for sweet potatoes to have a reaction as well. We have been trying pears for about a week. Today was the 6th time she's had it, so we're waiting to see if she handles it.

Right now, we just have to try new foods and see how she reacts. If she doesn't have a reaction after 2 weeks of a new food, we can introduce another one. There is not a very accurate test to see what she will react to; it is just trial and error. Fortunately, most kids outgrow it around age 3.

I've done some research online, and it gets scary, but I'm not going to look at that stuff anymore. We're going to take it one day at a time and see what happens. She's healthy and gaining weight on breastmilk, so I'll continue to nurse her as long as possible while we search for foods she can eat. The allergist said this is the easy time of the diagnosis, when she's still nursing, but once she is weaned, it may get difficult to keep her thriving.

We've been referred to a GI specialist. I hope it doesn't get so bad that we have to do invasive testing, but at least we have a good doctor in case it does. We would appreciate your prayers as we start this journey with Annabelle.

A new year

Happy New Year! I've been writing this post in my head for a few days, but I just now have a chance to sit down to write it! It's been a crazy year already, and we're only 10 days in!!

As the new year approached, I did what I always do... I asked myself, "Should I make resolutions?" I never do them officially. This year, I'm not necessarily making resolutions, but they are more like goals. I have 3 main areas this year I'd like to work on, all "fitness" related. Spiritual fitness, physical fitness, and financial fitness.

1. At the risk of sounding like a "Sunday school answer", I want to be more spiritually fit. I want to stay more focused on God. I don't want to wait until the night before Bible study to work on my lesson. I want to pray more, read more scripture, and LISTEN to God.

2. One of my friends once said, "It takes 9 months to gain pregnancy weight, and it may take 9 months to lose it." Well, I'm a few months behind. I have about 12-15 lbs still hanging on that I'd like to get rid of. I worked hard in Germany to lose weight, and I'd love to be back to that size. My goal is to lose the weight before Annabelle turns 1. I think it is doable because I've done it before. Actually, I lost about 25 lbs in 3-4 months. So 12 should be nothing! I've done 2 days of working out, and I try to think about everything I put in my mouth. I should start a food diary, but I just haven't yet. I need the accountablity, though, so I'll start that soon.

3. Tomorrow night is our final class for Financial Peace University. This class has been eye opening!! Everyone needs to take this class! We are doing pretty good with following the program. We're working on baby-step 2 of paying off debt. We are down to only John's student loans. It'll still take us a while to get those paid off, until I have some income coming in. But we're slowing chipping away at it! But we are staying focused, talking about all of our spending and watching where every penny goes. Actually, we are spending everything on paper before we spend it. Some months are easier than others, but overall, it is getting easier.

So there it is, in writing! My goals for the year! I'm excited to see where this year takes us!

Finally, an Annabelle story

Lately, I've been playing a game with Annabelle. (She's 6 months now! Where did the time go?!) If she has her pacifier in her mouth, I'll pull her close to my face and grab the ring end of the pacifier with my mouth and pull it out. She laughs and I put it back in. Last night, I was playing with her. I grabbed her pacifier and dropped it on my chest. (I was reclining on the couch, and she was sitting on me.) She picked up the pacifier and laughed, and then she started reaching towards my mouth. She actually put the ring end into my mouth! She just laughed and laughed. Then she pulled it out and put it in her mouth the correct way. It was so funny. I wondered if she meant to do it (I was pretty sure she did), so I tried it again. I dropped the pacifier so she could pick it up, and she grabbed it and put it into my mouth so she could pull it out again! It was so cute! I'm pretty sure this is the first game she's actually played, where she initiated something and wasn't just responding to us. We played it over and over, and she laughed and laughed. It was adorable! It's so fun to see her personality starting to develop.

The little things...

It's the little things that make me really like this apartment. All the fixtures have been replaced, so instead of the normal brass that most apartment complexes have, they are brushed silver. It makes things look more modern and new. Even the ceiling fans are new! It all looks so nice. The walls aren't white, either. They are an off-white/cream color. So much better than solid white like our old place. Even though the bedrooms are smaller, I like them. I like that we've had to pare down our stuff. I like having to be more organized, because if I'm not, I don't have room.

Grace really loves this apartment. She thinks it is so cool to share a room with Annabelle. She also loves having her own bathroom. It's really funny when John uses it and Grace asks him why he uses hers. It's cute. She's also always asking if Annabelle can play with her in their room. I'll put Annabelle in the exersaucer and let them "play". So adorable!! The girls are growing and changing constantly. Right now, as I type this, Grace is giving Annabelle kisses and making her laugh. Annabelle loves her big sister! The other day, she was cracking up laughing at Grace. Annabelle is now rolling over both ways. She's very close to sitting up too. She can sit for a few seconds unassisted before she starts to fall over. I can't believe she's almost 5 months old!!!

I'm excited for this week. Grace starts ballet classes tomorrow morning, and we'll start our Community Bible Study on Thursday morning. I'm looking forward to getting to know some women through both of these places. I'm choosing to be very optimistic about friendships here. The last 2 years were very rough for me, so I'm going to try very hard to make sure that this season of life is different. We went to a church Sunday that was very big on being intentional about relationships. It really spoke to me, because that's what I want. I want a church that encourages its members to connect on deeper levels and provides multiple opportunities to do so.

Life is good!!