Absolutely Floored

When Aaron and I were living in our first house, we dreamed of one day putting down hardwood floors.  Both for aesthetics and resale value.  One pre-kid day while browsing Home Depot, we discovered hardwood tile.  So it offered the ease of tile-floor cleaning (if something spills, wipe it up-- which cannot always occur with hardwoods due to potential warping of the wood), with the look of hardwood that we liked.  It was also much cheaper per square foot than hardwoods.

A while later, my parents switched from carpet to hardwoods in their dining room (yes, their dining room was carpet!), living room, and hallway.  They chose a laminate hardwood due to its durability from dog toe-nail scratches.  The installer told them that since they had a concrete slab foundation, real hardwoods wouldn't have worked based on the type of foundation and our level of humidity down here.

So Aaron and I wouldn't have been able to get pure hardwoods anyway, due to our home being on a concrete slab.

We pushed the idea of flooring out of our heads for a while (read: years) and did other fixer-upper things around the house like painting, installing cabinet and draw handles, a new kitchen sink faucet, and contracting out a screened porch for our patio space.  We loved all of these changes but knew we wanted to sell the house so that we could get in the school district we loved prior to our children starting school.

Our house sold despite having carpet in the living room and hallway.  :)  We purchased a home that had very plush carpet in the living room (no need for a yoga mat when doing workouts!), 12"x12" ceramic tiles in the kitchen (white tile with black grout-- who does that?!?), floating hardwood floors in the dining room and hallway (which are not rooms that connect, so there's a combination of ceramic tile (foyer) and plush carpet (living room) in between the two bouts of laminate floating floors), and a very short-hair carpet in all four bedrooms, with the same white ceramic kitchen tile in the bathrooms.  The backdoor to the deck is in the living room, but I'm sure the previous owners didn't want their dog getting wet paws all over the carpet during storms, so they extended the dining room's floating hardwoods into the living room to create a hardwood space by the door.  I see the reasoning, but it made the living room's flooring choppy to the eye and detracted from the available floor space.

Shortly after moving in, we made a "dream list" of projects to do around this house knowing that we're going to live here a while.  We lived with the flooring for two years before deciding this spring to leap and go ahead and change out all the floating hardwoods and the living room plush carpet (which I loved, but knew the plushness wouldn't last).  We priced out the flooring and chose our preferred color & texture of tile (it feels like real hardwood-- it isn't slick like kitchen tile), and matching grout.  We were excited about the price point and scheduled the flooring to take place over a weekend in April.

We stayed with my parents during the weekend while the flooring was finished, and we got to come home on Sunday evening.  We are so impressed with how it looks and absolutely love our choice!  Our living room isn't as dusty as it was, which is good for Noah with his allergies.  We bought a walker for Avery the day after the floors were complete, and she loves zipping around the loop from the kitchen, through the dining room, and back through the living room.  (Well, she enjoys it when she actually lets me put her in her walker!)

The boys like the perpetual race track feel of the floors and love playing with their toy cars and trucks in the living room and hallway.

Since we eliminated the choppy break-up between the living room and dining room, we have a clear line of sight now and it makes our space seem so much bigger!  We're really happy with our choice and hopefully this will motivate us to save up for future projects (like Master bath reno, or a screened porch on part of our deck!).

Here's a view from the living room into the dining room pre-floor change.  You can see the hardwood area by the backdoor.

Here's the living room view from the kitchen on the day the carpet was removed.

Hallway view from foyer on the day when the floating hardwoods were removed.

View of dining room when floating hardwoods were removed. 

A view from living room into dining room to show that there's no choppy flooring distracting from clean sight lines between the two rooms.

From kitchen looking into living room.

Looking towards backdoor to show the removal of the choppy space.

View down the hallway.

View from foyer into living room/dining room.

What do you think?!?



Until Next Time,
Much love, Reba

Avery: 9 Months

Avery turned 9 months old on May 20th!

At her 4 month check up she weighed 13.1 pounds and was 24 inches tall.  She had her 6 month check-up in February where she weighed 15 pounds 10 ounces, and was 26 inches tall.  She is in the 50th percentile for height, weight, and head circumference.  She had her 9 month check up on May 21st and weighed 16 pounds 14 ounces and was 27 inches tall.  (A few days later, I had to take her back to the doctor for a separate issue and she weighed 17 lbs, 3 oz.)

Here she's taking all the diapers out of the bag. 

I fully understand that these moments where she falls asleep on me are precious, so I soak them in when I can get them!

Noah let her have a turn with his toy recycling can!

I brought out a full-length mirror and laid it on its side in the living room for some simple fun!  Noah might have enjoyed this more than Avery!

One day, I got to take her to Target and she got to sit in the cart like a big girl!

She loves seeing that pretty baby in the phone!

My mom gave her a baby-doll (her first one!) the other day and Avery was pretty impressed with the bottle!  (She LOVES the baby doll, and her face lights up EVERY single time she sees it!)

This one is blurry, but too cute not to share.  This is literally how she looks at her brothers every time they say "Hi baby!" when she's in her carseat.

At the beach cottage, studying the intricacies of a baby wipe.

She loves being around her brothers and is content to sit as near to them as she can.

Diapers: She is still comfortably in size 2.

Clothing: Avery is in 9 month and 12 month clothing but can still comfortably fit into 6-9 month clothing if I want her to wear a special outfit (like a star-patterned dress for Memorial Day!).  She does not have any clothing that is sized as 9-12 month, so I just choose the pieces that fit her most comfortably out of her selection of 9 month and 12 month things.  Some clothing brands run small, so she's comfortably in the 12 month sizes of those things.  Some of her 9-month clothing includes pants and our weather down here is a tad hot for wearing pants, so I typically only put the 9-month pants on her if we're going to be somewhere super air conditioned.  

Sleeping:  She's doing pretty well sleeping overnight.  She'll go down for the night around 7pm, and I'll wake her around 9 or 10pm to feed.  Sometimes, she'll go 8 hours at this point!  But that usually means she doesn't want to go back to sleep after that!  She is doing okay in the nap department.  She'll take a 30-45 minute nap in the morning, and a longer nap in the early afternoon (usually 1.5 -2 hours).  Sometimes if she's super fussy, she'll go down for a 30 minute nap before dinner.  

Feeding: She still eats baby food and fruit pieces at lunchtime.  She eats more baby food, or super soft vegetable pieces, with yogurt melts for dinner.  She loves to feed herself (not neatly, mind you!).  I usually give her a spoon and I feed her with another spoon.  Sometimes I'll spread some food out on her tray (like the baby food with food chunks), and let her touch it and play with it and possibly get some of it into her mouth.  :)  She takes 3 bottles during the daytime when she's with my mother-in-law.  The bottles are between 4 and 5 ounces.  I'm guessing she takes that much when she nurses also. 

Mobility:  She's a super fast crawler and can easily get to a sitting position in order to clap for herself. :)  She's hit-or-miss in the walker these days.  Sometimes she likes it and will chase her brothers or Akuna (our dog) until she remembers that I'm not in the walker with her-- at which point she will find me and cry until I pick her up.  Other times, she won't even let me put her in the walker.  She has her tactic down for refusing to get her legs and feet into the walker seat.  She prefers crawling and also trying to stand up.  She attempt to climb into her bouncy seat (which we still have in the living room), but she doesn't want to be in it once she crawls onto it, so she immediately fusses until we get her out of it and back on the floor.   

Habit:  She hates diaper changes and will arch her back and push backwards on the floor with her head and scoot away.  Super fun.  Not.  Her favorite activity is to pull out the DVDs from the shelf.  She always goes for the same ones-- The Good Dinosaur, Zootopia, Home Alone 1 & 2, the box set of Charlie Brown (Great Pumpkin, Thanksgiving, Christmas), How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, and Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Storybook Surprise.  I can put some of these in different locations and she'll pick this grouping each time.  She also enjoys picking up dog hair and dust from the floor and sticking it in her mouth with rapid speed, then pursing her lips so I can't stick a finger in to get the fur/dust out.  Real fun.  Again, not.  But this is the life of being a baby!

I got a few okay-quality pictures.  My phone had a very odd update where it turns some pictures very fuzzy or completely blacks them out when I attempt to view them, so I'm uploading these from my computer in hopes of getting some to come out with clarity.  

Oh, Avery, you bring such joy to everyone around you!  We love you so!

Until Next Time, 

Much love, Reba

Noah's Allergy Diagnosis

When Noah was about 18 months old, we had already found out that he was allergic to dairy milk (an allergy he’s since grown out of), so I had been giving him soy milk or almond milk.  One morning, I only had a little bit of either, so I combined them in a cup.  I had this weird feeling that something bad would come of this.  Later that afternoon, he laid down in the grass at my mother in law’s house and started throwing an old pile of leaves into the air with Michael.  The boys let the leaves fall down on their faces.  Aaron picked them up that day.  When they got home, I picked up Noah who was screaming (this was semi-normal) and I knew something was wrong.

His eyelids were swelling.  I checked his ears—they were swelling too.  I lifted up his shirt and he had a rash on his back.  I frantically called my mom as I put Noah in a cool bath.  She said she was on her way and to go ahead and call the pediatrician line.  Did I mention this was on a Friday at 4:30pm?  The receptionist was super helpful and said they’d be ready for us.

By the time we got to the pediatrician’s office, Noah’s lips were the slightest blue.  They raced us to a room and administered the “rescue” dose of Benadryl.  We were told to wait in the room until they could see an improvement.  We waited about 20 minutes.  During this time, the doctor asked us if anything odd had happened that day.  I told her about the combined soy & almond milk.  And I told her about the pile of leaves.  She said to avoid all soy, all almonds, and that he might be allergic to dirt spores under the leaves—so to avoid throwing leaves in the air. 

When the doctor could see that the Benadryl was working, we were released and told that I’d have to give the rescue dose for a full 24 hours (yes, waking him up in the night to make sure he got it).  I was given breathing sounds to listen for if his body was in distress.  I was scared out of my mind.  But at least I knew the rescue dose of Benadryl.

We avoided all almond products and soy milk.  We didn’t think about avoiding food with soy—I guess we had never paid attention to how far permeating the presence of soy is in so many common foods (Ritz crackers, Slim Jims, chocolate chips for example). 

We avoided letting Noah throw leaves into the air, or stand downwind of anyone raking a pile of leaves.  He got in the way once, and again came home with his eyes rolling back in his head.  A rescue dose of Benadryl was given and we met my mom at the hospital where she works, but he was fine when we got there, so we were able to head back home.

He had briefly tried a cashew when he was about two and a half years old.  He just put it in his mouth and spit it out, saying he didn’t like the taste.  He had some sort of reaction that day—a rash or a red mark by his lip or something—which led me to believe he was allergic to cashew.

Last summer, my mom brought me a veggie and nut tray shortly after I was diagnosed with gestational diabetes when pregnant with Avery.  Noah picked up a cashew, touched it to his lip, then put it down because he didn't like it.  His lip instantly swelled.  I gave him the rescue dose of Benadryl and watched him carefully for the rest of the day and overnight.  I'm so so glad he didn't swallow it!  This confirmed to me that he was allergic to cashews.  

At his four-year-old check up at the beginning of this year, I told the doctor that I would like him to be checked by an allergist and have an epi-pen.  Since Michael was in school, I had seen his class make little projects like trail mix which included cashews, etc.  And I knew that the "peanut butter and jelly sandwiches" in the cafeteria were not actually peanut butter due to the prevalence of peanut allergies these days.  I knew that the "peanut butter" was actually nut butter-- but was that almond butter?  Cashew butter?  Sunflower butter?  Who knew, and would I take their word as gold anyway?  Probably not.  All I knew was that I wanted Noah to be allergy tested before he begins kindergarten in August of 2019.  The pediatrician agreed with me 100%.  Their office referred me to the local allergist that my husband uses.  

In April, I took Noah to his appointment.  I had to pay out of pocket for the skin prick test, but I wasn't leaving without it-- so, it didn't really matter what it cost me.  I got to look at a sheet of allergens with the doctor and select cashew and almond specifically, and we selected the grids showing dust mites, grass, tree, mold, dirt spores, etc and the grid showing peanuts, tree nuts (to also include cashew and almond), soy, eggs, milk, wheat, shellfish, etc.  Noah had to lay still on his belly for 15 minutes while the allergens did their work.  We stayed entertained by watching garbage truck videos on YouTube on my phone.  I took a picture right after the pokes, and then halfway through the test.  

I didn't take a picture at the end, but the results were way worse than they even were just halfway through.  They gave him Zyrtec right away upon completion of the test. 

By the test, Noah is allergic to grass (very much) and trees (not mold or dirt spores), dust mites, eggs, soy, peanuts, tree nuts, and almonds and very much allergic to cashews.   Upon further investigation of my own (since I was shocked at being told he was allergic to eggs and peanuts), I found that if something shows up as negative on a skin prick test, then it's most likely an accurate "negative."  However, if something shows up as positive on a skin prick test, then it's not entirely accurate.  

Therefore, since we have been feeding eggs and peanut butter (not together-- gross) to Noah for years now, we're not super set on eliminating those foods.  We are careful with them though.  He doesn't like plain peanuts, so we aren't purposely introducing them, but we let him have peanut butter if he wants (which is rare for him to want it).  The doctor said that the further something is removed from it's natural source, the fewer allergens are left.  So, it's not a good idea to let him lick cookie dough because of raw eggs, but eating eggs that are baked into cookies, etc, and even eating scrambled eggs is fine. 

We do read labels even more now.  We used to focus solely on nutrition facts, for Michael's sake in determining the carb count.  But now we look at labels for that, and for the bold words underneath the ingredients that say "Contains"  or "May Contain."  The FDA requires companies to state ingredients that are common allergens (milk, soy, wheat, peanuts, tree nuts, etc) if the item contains it.  It is optional for companies to state that a product "might contain" an item, but we are finding many companies put this information on there-- probably to legally cover themselves in case an allergen really is present.  My least favorite is stating that something was processed in a plant that processes tree nuts, or processed on equipment that processes tree nuts.  

We have found that our favorite pancake mix "may contain" tree nuts, so it's out.  Some brands of muffin mix "may contain" tree nuts, so they're out.  We're finding that it's safer to make things on our own.  

For soy products, he's okay if he has a tiny bit of soy-- like from a Ritz cracker.  But if he had Ritz crackers, then three little SlimJims (which have soy listed three times in the ingredients list), and some chocolate chips (which also have soy), then he'll get a rash on his neck or back of his knees which is very itchy to him.  We give him Benadryl when this happens, and we try to limit his consumption of multiple soy products close together. 

A different form of the epi-pen was ordered.  It's called the Auvi-q and it's kind of shaped like a cigarette box (I don't smoke and never have, but this is a shape very recognizable to most people, so it's easier than describing it as a 3-D rectangle or a squashed cube).  This will be for when he has an allergic reaction to any food item and is having difficulty breathing.  For rashes, etc, we can just give Benadryl or Zytrec.  

The auvi-q comes with a trainer pen in each box so we can practice just so we're better prepared in case we ever need to use the real pen. 

If he's outside playing in grass and begins to get a rash or sneeze or get watery eyes, etc, we will bring him inside immediately and give him the rescue dose of Benadryl.  

We give him a daily dose of Zyrtec to help him combat things before they start (mainly relating to grass and soy since we avoid tree nuts at all costs).  

I carry around Zyrtec in my purse and we have the Auvi-q pens stashed in varying locations so that one is always around us if needed.  

Our transition from carpet to hardwood tiles in the main living areas of our home (which also happened on the same weekend as the allergist appointment) will also help keep down the present of dust and exposure to grass remnants getting trapped in the carpet fibers. 

He'll go see the allergist again in a year.  We're told he'll probably outgrow most of these allergies by the time he's 8, but tree nuts are the last allergy to leave the body, and he might be allergic to them forever.  

This new diagnosis is hard to wrap our heads around sometimes.  We already have a lot on our plates in dealing with Type One for Michael, and now we add in this for Noah.  After I nurse Avery in the middle of the night, I go into the boys' room to check on both of them and make sure they're doing okay overnight.  

I pray that Avery will remain healthy.  I'm supposing that Noah will have his own medical plan at school when he starts in the 2019-2020 school year.  I'm trying not to already be nervous.  

Gosh,  I love my kiddos so much! Thank you, Lord, for blessing me with taking care of them despite the physical fears.  

Until Next Time, 

Much love, Reba