May

Ugg. This month is going too fast. Our yard/garden needs some serious attention and that won't happen until there is a Saturday with both parents in town and available... hmm. July maybe? Sorry neighbors. The month began with a half-marathon. No action pictures 'cause I kicked butt and beat the paparazzi to the finish line. I beat my 2010 time by 4:00 minutes! This is how we celebrated:

I know what you are saying, if you don't have photographic evidence, it didn't happen. So here is the proof: if you look closely you can see the salt deposits in my eyebrows.

The circus elephants marched through our neighborhood again. This year there were even protesters to make things interesting. 

Vet day at OSU - way cool. One of Cadie's career goals is to be a "muskrat doctor" and she was in heaven. Loads of animals that she could pet/hold, face-painting, food, freebies, and a tour of the vet hospital complete with dress-ups that she got to take home. 

Don't worry little chick, she loves pork.

The biggest smile of the day goes to the kittens. 

Asher didn't seem to care too much about the animals (llamas in background), he was more worried about the grass touching his bare legs.

And then he spent an hour like this:

Is there a doctor in the house?

Teddy bear surgery:

The list continues

Even with daily baths, serious moisturizing, and 2 prescription ointments, Asher has continued to have flare-ups with his skin - bad patches of eczema that he finds and scratches sometimes until bleeding. The pediatric dermatologist recommended we visit the allergist. We already see a great allergist for Cadie so we introduced Dr. Phil to Asher. There are a lot of things about allergies that I don't understand but this is the basics of what we learned from Dr. Phil:

• Asher's reaction to milk and soy is one type of allergic response where the digestive system is so irritated that it starts bleeding.
• The other type of allergic reaction is the response that we usually think of for allergies: hives, rashes, swelling, itchy mouth/throat, or congestion. This type of response can be tested for with a scratch test or a blood test. Asher's eczema could be an allergic response.

We had Asher's blood drawn and got the results back last week. Asher's blood tests show that he is allergic to... drum roll... milk, soy, eggs, wheat, peanuts, tree nuts, and dogs. This poor kid. It is likely that he will outgrow many of these but in the meantime we have some adjustments to make. I've been on a "allergen-free" diet for a week and I'm not sure if it has made a difference yet. We will continue the experiment. 

Despite all of his discomfort, he is still a really happy boy and LOVES solid food. So far, any mushed up mess will do. 

Feed me! (Just not anything with milk, soy, eggs, wheat, peanuts or tree nuts)

Cadie speak

I sit in an observation room with a monitor while Cadie meets with her speech therapist. Occasionally I wish I had an intercom so that I could do some yelling, I mean discipline. But this week I had a few reasons to chuckle. Overheard on the spy cam:
"At our house we have different rules, no smoking and no making messes!"
"My baby brother likes to hide his neck."

Easter

I've started this post a few times but can't seem to find the time to finish it so here are the pictures (most important) for the grandparents.

Miss Cadie in her Easter dress:

Decorating eggs didn't happen until Easter day but it happened.

Unfortunately, this is how little dude spent the day, sick again.

 My monster awesome eggs including a flying purple people eater.

Cadie's angel monster egg.

Asher sits! 

6 months old

Little dude is 6 months old!
Stats:
27.5 inches (80th percentile - same length as C at this age)
16 lbs. 8 oz (30th percentile - 1 lb lighter than C at this age)
Rolls over to sleep - doesn't find it important enough to do at any other time.

The nickname "Rasher" doesn't fit anymore (thankfully) and so we are trying out "Basher" as his favorite way of playing with toys requires hitting with them over and over again Bamm-Bamm Rubble style.

Other goings on: nice weather - trying to garden, science experiments including exploding volcano, and a visit to the OSU dinosaur museum (the term "museum" used generously here). Asher eats and eats and eats - not sure where it is all going.

 And there there was the pinewood Derby - for Eric and his VW van.

Little Miracles

I don't mean this to be a health update blog, but I needed to document two little miracles in our family that have made my heart lighter.
#1 Asher's improved skin. After 2 months of trying different things, our pediatrician had no more ideas to help Asher's skin - eczema all over and severe cradle cap. She referred us to an awesome pediatric dermatologist and 4 prescriptions and 48 hours later the little man looks 100 times better. Here he is about 2 weeks ago, eating rice cereal for the first time with his crusty, oozing head:

And then, yesterday. Clear head, no red itchy patches all over:

The best part is that he feels so much better. Huge relief. He still is not mobile (that is fine with me) but he used to wiggle his way to the corner of his crib at night so that he could rub his head on the side. So sad. He also doesn't have to wear socks on his hands anymore to keep him from scratching.
#2: K-K-K-Cadie. Little miss started speech therapy this month and has made huge strides. During her second session she pronounced her name correctly for the first time ever. And this week she found her "g." It is awesome to see her excited as she figures out her sounds and I hope it will give her more confidence in communicating with her friends at school.

My little miracles.

The view from almost four feet up

The update: we are all happy and seem to have a good routine going on. We haven't done anything blog worthy for a little bit as most of our down time has been spent being down or recuperating. The new day-care germs have had their way with the Toman household to to the tune of 8 Dr.'s visits in the month of January. Despite our sickness, we are all happy and things are working out well with the new job. Cadie loves her new "school" and the first thing out of her mouth when anyone asks how she likes it is "I sleep there!" Which is partly untrue as she would rather keep playing than rest during nap time and thus she doesn't often actually sleep. But that is the part of school that is most fascinating to her.
Cadie got a camera hand-me-down for Christmas and I recently downloaded the pictures. The majority are blurry or of the ground (and there is a series of lip/inside mouth shots) but I thought I'd share a few of the gems. It is fun to see life from her point of view.