Ada’s birthday weekend started with going to see Disney on Ice.  My parents went with us and bought everyone the tickets.

(They don’t allow professional cameras there, sad!  I utilized my trusty iPhone.)

My sister got cotton candy and it randomly came with stick on earrings.

The girls got $12 snow cones.  At least the cup and spoon straw are pretty cool.  (And dishwasher safe!)

The next day, Sunday the 21st, was Ada’s third birthday.  She was super excited.

We opened a few presents in the morning after everyone woke up.

(It was Princess Cadence, from My Little Pony. From Rosie!)

Tyler got her super heroes.  She loves Batman and Spider-Man.  A lot.

At first she said, “Hey I didn’t want these!”

So Tyler told her he could just return them and she was like, “Noooo!”

I guess she meant she didn’t specifically ask for these, not that she didn’t want them at all.

Rosie has Princess Celestia.

I got Ada sand for the turtle sandbox and a subscription to Starfall, neither of which have any pictures involved.

After brunch we told the girls we needed to run an errand, a really boring one.

No worries, we let them bring their ponies.

But alas, it was a trick!  Since we never go to the mall the girls had no idea where we were going.

When we walked up to Build-a-Bear Rosie was almost ready to cry–she’s been begging to make a

My Little Pony ever since she found out they have them there from one of her friends.

She thought only Ada was going to get to make one for her birthday.

What fun would that be?  Nothing is very fun when you don’t have someone else to play with you!

Ada insisted on carrying her box even though it was almost as big as she was.

And THEN, we met up with family at the park for some cake and a few last presents.

Except Ada only wanted to swing.

Until I swung her too high…

Ada wanted a bunny cake. She picked the pan from the clearance section at Kroger after Easter when we were grocery shopping one day.

She specifically requested it have blue ears.

(My sister made it.)

Ada also requested Batman cups and plates.

Cake!

Trying to get the candles to stay lit in the wind…

Then more swinging, before heading home!

We were all exhausted!

I can’t believe Ada is three.  Wow.

The allergy testing for Ada yesterday afternoon wasn’t nearly as bad as I thought it would be.

When Rosie had it done at age four she cried and sobbed through the pricks.

Ada on the other hand…laughed.  Why am I not surprised?  Typical Ada. (Ada also loves the finger prick for iron testing because she gets to see her “real blood!” and she gets a bandaid.)

We also go to weigh and measure her, which hasn’t been done in awhile.  She was 31 pounds and 38 inches tall.  She’s wearing 4t clothes.  By the end of summer I’m sure she’ll be in 5t.  She’s thinned out a lot recently, but she feels like her bones are filled with cement when you pick her up.  Rosie felt so delicate in comparison!

 

The allergy tests wouldn’t all fit on Ada’s back, so we have to go back in a month to test the rest of the things.

 

 

That one you see on the bottom left that looks really itchy is the histamine.  It’s the control that’s supposed to swell up for the maximum reaction.  This picture was taken right after we started the testing.  You have to wait 15 minutes to see what swells up.

I wasn’t surprised to find out Ada is allergic to milk protein.  That’s been the cause of her red rash and random projectile vomiting, and likely the cause of her constant belly aches. We’ve been eating mostly dairy free for awhile except for occasional chocolate and candy, and milk used in baking.  It’s not going to be that much of a leap to move to fully dairy free.  I also have to eat dairy free because allergens go through breastmilk and she’s still nursing, though I’m only making a few drops of milk at this point in pregnancy.  Since I’m lactose intolerant it’s not that heartbreaking to say goodbye to dairy, though I will miss Reece’s desperately.

 

Unfortunately Ada also reacted mildly to oats, strawberries, bananas, and pork.  Those are all her favorite foods!  Go figure.

The doctor said to eliminate all of those things for one month, then at our next appointment in March we can discuss adding them back in one by one to see if there is a reaction. It’s not that hard to avoid oats, bananas, or strawberries. Pork is the hardest because of gelatin.  Marshmallows, for example, contain gelatin derived from pork.  It’s hidden everywhere!  We accidentally ate marshmallows this morning before it occurred to me.  We were going to make rice crispy treats.  Dang it!  They sell pork-free marshmallows at the Arabic store nearby, it’s just a matter of going there and buying them.  I guess having a big Arabic community here pays off in this case.  I can shop at the Arabic grocery and know nothing there will have any hidden pork.  (Also, Arabic food is freaking delicious…)

I’m hoping we’ll be able to add back in some if not all of the mild allergens.  The reaction for those was only +1.  Milk products (including goat’s milk) we have to avoid for a year before retesting.

I’m not sure we’ll ever be able to add back in bananas, unfortunately. Ada is allergic to latex, which has food cross allergens and bananas are one of those foods.  We have to test her for the other foods related to latex next time.  (The foods break down in the body and mimic the same protein in latex that causes the allergic reaction in people.)

 

I really just want her body to stop hurting all the time!  After avoiding most dairy for awhile, eating gluten free in the past, and strictly avoiding rye and pistachio contamination for my own allergies it’s not that scary to eliminate foods from our diet now.  When I first started eating gluten free it was extremely overwhelming.  I’m like an ingredient list master at this point!  It’s almost like a fun challenge.

The hardest part is eating out because you don’t always get a clear answer about what’s in your food.  At least food allergies are more popular now, or that’s to say people are more aware of them these days.  Oats, bananas, and stawberries aren’t easily hidden or cross contaminated like rye or pistachio.  I can eat rye at Panera and not know it because they sliced my bagel in the same slicer they used for the rye bread.  I hate that!  I have to avoid all restaurants that serve rye for the most part, including places like Cracker Barrel because they put rye in their pancakes and it’s all cross contaminated with rye flour floating in the air and on gloves.  I’ve tried eating there three times and got sick each time despite not having rye in the ingredients of my food.  Not worth it!

Ada is lucky none of her allergens are that sneaky!  I hope nothing else turns up on the remaining test items next month.

She is also mildly allergic to cats, it was a +1 on the scale of reaction also.  She takes Zyrtec, and that seems to alleviate the allergy symptoms from cats, so it’s not too big of a deal.  She loves our kitties!

I’m happy she wasn’t allergic to any trees, grasses, or molds.  The only outdoor allergy she had was cocklebur/mugwort.  I suspect there is probably something else seasonal she is allergic to because she’s had bad allergy symptoms after playing outside in the spring and fall more than once, including sinus headaches behind her eyes.  The Zyrtec helps all of that except the sinus headaches.  Then I just give her ibuprofen.  Poor baby inherited all these things from me.  So sad!  (We took her to the eye doctor incase the pain behind her eyes was something else, but she thought it was just sinus pain.)

Mainly I’m THRILLED she isn’t allergic to wheat, corn, or soy.  Those are impossible to eliminate, especially wheat, without throwing away everything in the cabinets and scrubbing down the whole kitchen.  My pregnant self is just not up for a change that big right now!

She’s still complaining a little about her belly hurting today, but apparently it can take 2-4 weeks for all the allergens to totally leave your system.  Can’t wait for a belly ache free Ada!

I hope Baby Boy is lucky like Rosie and has absolutely no food allergies or intolerances.

 

Here are pictures from recently!  These are mainly of Ada because Rosie is always in her room playing, reading, or not interested inhaving her picture taken.  Ada is happy to pose and act silly as soon as she sees the camera.  I’m taking advantage of it while it lasts!

 

She was eating a powdered donut last week.  (Which has milk in it…sad times.)

This one is out of focus, but I saved it anyway…had to.

Rosie, doing a goofy half grin.

Her two front teeth were coming in really crooked, but now that they’re pushing the neighboring baby teeth loose the front adult teeth are straightening out.

I was getting a little worried! I hope they continue to straighten out!

Reality in my house…while mama sits on the couch and grows a baby…who is sucking out every ounce of life force from my body.

These are from last night–making bread dough.

Rosie wasn’t interested in helping, she was busy drawing and writing a story in a notebook as usual!

 

 

 

 

Devoting part of every day to reading and discussing school subjects with Rosie takes up a lot of time.  It’s very hard to keep Ada quiet and entertained while I work with Rosie.  I’d say that’s probably the most difficult thing about homeschooling.

The other difficult thing is finding a balance between what Rosie should be learning and what kind of subjects she enjoys.  For example we studied vikings for a week and they did not interest Rosie in the least.  Ada on the other hand LOVES vikings. Now we’re reading the next chapter and it’s about Columbus.  Also of no interest to Rosie.  Ada spent an hour reading the Columbus pop-up book to herself and exclaiming over the map.  At least someone is listening.  Hah.

Rosie’s favorite school book is this one book I hesitated over called Wisdom and the Millers.  It was on the reading list as part of the religious bit.  It’s about a Mennonite family and the evening devotions their dad reads to them.  We’re supposed to read a chapter every day.  Rosie thinks it’s the greatest story book in the world.  I have no idea why.  It’s about what the Bible says about being a tattle tale, for example, and then the dad tells a story about one time when he was a tattle tale as a kid and what happened as a result.  It’s a chapter book with one picture per chapter.  Today’s story was about how a good man cares for his animals while a wicked man leaves them to suffer.  The story the dad told his kids was about a time when he a little boy and he got angry with the goat for kicking over the milking pail then didn’t give the goats any water for a day.  Rosie is totally riveted by this book. It’s kind of funny to see her begging me to read a book about morals, of all things.

The good thing about homeschooling is that you have time to follow your interests.  However I also think it’s important to learn a little about a wide variety of subjects because you never know when you’ll need to be informed about something later in life.  You also never know when you’ll be surprised by your interest in something you didn’t expect you’d like!

Another good thing about homeschooling…we can walk around in our pajamas until we feel like getting dressed!  Ada and I like to wear our pj’s all morning.  Rosie loves to get dressed as soon as possible.

We usually eat breakfast and watch a tv show, then the girls play around for a little while before we start school work.

As part of Rosie’s school work we do a composer study where we learn about a different composer each month.  We “study” the composer one day a week.

This month we’re learning about Beethoven.  Today we read a little of a children’s book about his life.  We learned about his childhood and listened to the first song he composed and performed at age 10.

Then we listened to Moonlight Sonata while painting what the music sounded like.  Rosie said it sounded like a person pining away in love.

(I didn’t tell her why Beethoven wrote that song!)  She painted herself because she loves her best friend Cade and he lives several hours away.

Ada painted too.  They just kept painting and painting, as if we’d never painted before…?

We ran out of paint.

Once we ran out of paint Rosie washed her hands and ran off to play.

Ada had to be swiftly relocated to the tub.

Things got a little wild in there.

I informed Ada she had paint on her bum.

Shocking.

But pleasing too…

Nope, none on the tongue.

I didn’t photograph the next place she checked for paint.

Then we were very silly.

Ada *loves* looking at these pictures later.  Our computer screen saver is a huge slide show of pictures from the last six years.  The girls watch it for hours sometimes.

While Rosie went to dance class this evening Ada wanted to get out her new violin.

Rosie is going to start learning violin soon with me as part of school.  Ada kept asking, “Where is my own bah-oh-lee-ann?” (Kentucky accent ftw!)

Well her own bah-oh-lee-ann came in the mail a couple days ago.  It has been a source of MUCH pride.  Ada very delicately removes it from the case, practices holding it correctly, plays emphatically, then carefully places it back in the case.

Super bonus: The case is also a back pack!

When Rosie goes to dance class on Thursdays with Tyler’s parents Ada immediately takes advantage of the one-on-one time.

She wanted to play the violin for me tonight.

She warmed up her rhythm abilities with the drum.

Then, it was time to remove the beloved bah-oh-lee-ann from its case.

She has to do it all by herself.

Sunflare to the max.

She was in the process of yelling.  I think she’s calling out square dance moves or something.

She kept yelling, “Macaroni pizza!”

She wanted me to get out the banjo.  Alas my banjo skills are still a work in progress…a major work in progress. I can play a G lick! That’s about it.

Yes, I know, how many pictures can there be of Ada playing the violin?

The violin is just so teeny tiny and freaking adorable!

MACARONI PIZZA!

Now for some things that are good.

Mainly my kids!  (I mean, you know, they aren’t always good, but they are pretty much awesome 99% of the time.  Or when they aren’t trying to make me crazy…)

Rosie had her spring dance recital last night.  For the recital she has to wear make-up.  The outfits and the make-up kind of make me want to run in circles screaming and then bury my head in the sand, but Rosie absolutely *loves* every tiny detail.

So she had to wear red lipstick…and this was a source of major, major excitement in our household.  I let Rosie put some on the morning before the recital so she could practice not smearing it all over herself by accident.  Oh, she nearly exploded with joy.  She kept asking me if I thought she looked more like a queen or a princess, or a maybe a fashionista?

Ada grabbed the tube of lipstick, whipped the lid off, and ran down the hall laughing at the top of her lungs while rapidly applying it to her lips.

She was very upset when I took it away.  She stayed angry at me for quite a long time actually.  She felt that she didn’t get to put on quite enough of it.

“Mom, send this photo to Cade.  It will make him want to marry me.”

Someone help.  Where does she even get these ideas?

Ada saw her reflection and was very pleased wif her wipstick.

 Miraculously she has not a single speck on her teeth.

Rosie has no stage fright.  At all.  She doesn’t get that from me.

She loved every second of her recital.  Her group tap danced to Yankee Doodle.

Before the recital:

 

Dancing!

Every girl got a medal after the show.

Here are a few more pictures from the performance, just for the heck of it…I took them from my seat with Ada squirming in my lap.

Ada wanted to run up on the stage and dance too.  She ran and I had to tackle her several times, but luckily she never made it onto the stage!

And after…

I have a bunch of pictures from today to share too.  Will have to post them tomorrow because it’s already 1:15 in the morning.

 

 

Dear Ada,

Two hours after you were born your father and I debated over which middle name we should give you.

Louise or Lucille.

Louise was just a name we liked.  Lucille was chosen after my favorite TV role model of all time, Lucille Ball.

Somehow we just knew that Lucille would be the right name for you.  Unfortunately I didn’t anticipate exactly how intricate your hijinks would be.  I’m almost afraid to say you’re going to surpass Lucille Ball’s ridiculousness if we keep going at this rate.

 

Every day it’s some new disaster.

Today it was paint.

Now before I tell you this you have to understand that you’re fast.  So quick as a matter of fact that if I so much as pee for one minute in the bathroom with the door open I can guarantee you’ll be creating havoc when I come rushing out.

I used to hear stories like these and think to myself, “Oh clearly their parents just weren’t watching close enough.  I watch my kids well, they’ll never do something like that.”

Oh how fate laughed in my face.  As a matter of fact forget laughter, fate might have spit in my face and rubbed it in a little.

 

Ada…you bring the humble pie to my parenting ego, that’s for sure.

 

This afternoon I was painting the chicken coops dark red.  When I came to a stopping point I hammered the lid on the paint can extra tight.  I didn’t want an animal to knock the gallon of paint over, or God forbid a kid to get the lid off.

Hah.

Ahahahahahahaha.

I put the paint can on the picnic table outside with the flat head screw driver and hammer next to it.  I left the new paint brush out there too, still in the package.

After supper I was cleaning up food that a certain baby flung across the kitchen.  Rosie wanted to go outside and play, so I sent you two out into the backyard.  I kept glancing out the window every thirty seconds to be sure nothing bad was happening.

While I was decrusting dishes in the sink, not three minutes after you’d gone outside, I suddenly heard Rosie shrieking.  She came flying in the back door, panting and red faced.

“Ada is taking the lid off of the paint can!”

There’s no way she would be able to actually get it off, I thought to myself.

I calmly walked outside and happened upon carnage.

Red paint smeared EVERYWHERE.

A red baby running across the yard flinging a red coated paint brush wildly, dancing and laughing with absolute glee.

Red baby shoes.  Red splattered little dress.  Red chickens.  Red grass.

Red drops quickly drying all over my meticulously painted chicken coops.

 

In these sorts of situations my brain just sort of goes blank.  I imagine I look like a cartoon character with red exclamation marks and question marks flashing above my head.

 

Ada.  Sometimes I yell at you.  I’m sorry.  It’s either yell or lay down on the ground curled up in a fetal position and cry.

Usually I yell, “Why Ada, why?”

You repeat me now, but in your happy sing song voice, marching around flinging paint with a grin on your face singing, “Why Ada, WHY?”

 

I don’t know why, baby.  Why can you climb up on top of the picnic table in a flash then use tools to pry open a paint can?  Sweetheart, THAT’S NOT NORMAL.  Your sister never did things like that.  Ever.

 

I recently found a solid gray hair in my pony tail.

I’m just hazarding a guess here, but I’m thinking I could gray at an early age.

 

Remember baby, you’ll get your payback when you’re a parent…and this gray haired grandma will be laughing her rear end off.

 

With love,

Your exhausted Momma.