Dress Obsessed

Cassandra has a new obsession. It's been going on for a few weeks now and it's quite funny!

She LOVES dresses.

She wears them 24/7. No joke.

She has one in particular that my in-laws bought her for Christmas that she just can't get enough of. It's torture when I have to actually wash it because it's all I hear about until it's clean.

Since it's still winter, we've been putting her dresses over her clothes. And sometimes if we're not going anywhere, she'll strip down naked underneath and run around like crazy!  But even when bedtime comes, she has to have a dress on. She has a nightgown and most nights that'll do. But again with the nightgown-if I have to wash it, I hear about it every night until it's clean. Some nights we can convince her to wear a dress over her PJs to bed. It's crazy!

Avery went through a dress phase too, but it was only during the daytime. At night, she never asked about dresses at all. And I don't remember her phase lasting very long.

But this one....she's all about the dresses. Oh, and her "glass shoes" which are her shoes we wear for parties, etc. I actually had to hide them on her because she was wearing them all of the time and they were getting scuffed up. We put an end to wearing those except for going to special events.

The other day she asked me to take a picture of her all dressed up! She's too funny!

Frozen Party-Take 3!

I was hoping we'd get lucky and Cassandra would pick a different birthday party theme for us. But, she didn't. When I asked her what she wanted, she screamed out "ELSA!"

So....here we are with Frozen party #3 in our house. (See party 1 and party 2).

I have to admit, I didn't go as crazy with the planning with this one as I did with Avery's. First, her birthday is not even a month after Christmas. I didn't have time or creative energy after the holidays to get very gung-ho on this party. And second, I was trying to make this party different than Avery's parties. Thirdly, she's 3....as sad as it sounds, she won't remember it. Avery probably won't remember hers either, but there's a slight chance she might.

Anyways, here are some shots of her birthday party from the weekend.

Cassandra's cake-made by moi. Bottom layer chocolate, top layer vanilla, oreo filling and buttercream frosting. Delicious!

Decorations...look familiar?!  Basically the same as Avery's party!

My Mom bought the girls each an Elsa dress to wear for the party. This is Avery's:

Cassandra napped through almost the first hour of her party-we went up several times to look in on her and she was out cold. We kept her door open hoping the noise would wake her. It did eventually, but she wasn't happy about being woken up at all! So unfortunately I didn't get a picture of her in her dress.

We had some appetizers then pizza, boneless wings, salad and fruit salad. While we digested our food, Cassandra opened her gifts.

My loves

Loves her dresses!

After presents, it was cake time! I also made chocolate covered Oreos and my Mother-in-Law found these frozen-esque cookies as well.

Singing "Happy Birthday!"

Make a wish!

We had a really fun time at her party! We didn't do any organized games or activities this time. We were going to, but never did. The kids just had fun running around and doing their own thing. 

I also forgot to take a picture of the goodie bags. They each got one of the frozen-esque cookies, some Frozen tattoos and some Frozen stickers! Nothing too big, but I don't think they mind!

Another successful party in the books!

3

I no longer have a baby...or a toddler. I'm not a Mom of a school-aged child and a preschooler. How on Earth did that happen?!

Friday was a special day-our baby turned 3.  THREE. It seems like yesterday she came into our lives, yet it also feels like she's always been with us. I can't remember life without her (or Avery being an only child).

Three is hard for me to swallow. It just sounds so old to me. Yeah I know you're thinking, "Wait until they're 20, yada, yada" but really three is like a first big age to me. No more babies or toddlers. She's a little girl now. A preschooler. It's crazy.

Let's see-Cassandra at age 3 has quite the personality. She's pretty laid back, very independent and can be stubborn at times. She also is the sweetest, kindest little girl. She can read people very well and will ask "why are you sad, etc". She definitely thinks of others first-she's great at sharing and is also my little cuddlebug. She eats pretty well-tries all kinds of foods. Her favorites these days: blueberries, raspberries, melon, yogurt, pasta, soup, waffles, pancakes. She loves reading books together and has really started to get interested in coloring lately. She's just starting to get into the pretend play too.  It's so fun watching her grow and change!

Like we usually do, we spent the day with her. Gabe took off from work (which we do for both of their birthdays) and I had the day off.  Avery had school so it was just a Mommy, Daddy, and Cassandra day which was cool-I don't think that's ever happened!  We always let the girls pick what to do on their special day. She chose the Strong Museum.  We got there right when it opened and had a blast! Unfortunately I didn't bring my camera so I have no pictures from there, but we all had a good time. I packed her a lunch and she ate there and had some ice cream after of course! And as part of her present, we let her pick out something from the gift shop....and she chose a book about Jacks and a set of jacks-kid cracks me up!

We got home and put her down for a nap, which she ended up not taking (girl must be too excited for her special day!). Then Avery came home and they played a bit. We made dinner and had some yummy cupcakes to celebrate!

Courtesy of The Upper Crust

Happy Birthday to you!!

After cupcakes, she opened her present from us.

We got her a shirt, a Frozen coloring book and Frozen  hair ties. She'll also get a big girl bed eventually-I'm holding out as long as I can!! 

After we played some more, it was off to bed.  It was a really fun day spending it with our little peanut.  She's just such a joy!

Happy 3rd Birthday, Cassandra! We love you so very much!!

Potty Training the Little One

Two weeks ago I decided it was time to get Cassandra on the potty train.

Avery was just over the age of 2 when we started training her. I wanted to do it over the summer with Cassandra, but we never had a few days in a row at home with nothing planned. So it just kept getting pushed back.

Two weeks ago, we had a relatively free weekend and nothing to do on Friday so I decided to go for it.

She was all excited to wear undies Friday morning. I was trying to pump her with fluids, but she wasn't really into drinking much. We were using the same method we did with Avery-put them right in undies and anytime they have an accident, you rush them to the bathroom immediately. If they get anything in the toilet, it's all about praising them.

Friday and Saturday pretty much panned out the same-she had 2 accidents both days. She peed in a diaper at naptime and then the 2 accidents and that was it. I was getting nervous because at this point she hadn't gotten anything in the toilet yet.  Not a drop! 

Sunday morning she was acting like she had to go and while I was getting ready for the day, she ran in and told me she went on the potty! YAY!! She had a treat, we were so happy for her, etc.

After nap on Sunday, we went to Gabe's parents' house for dinner and she wanted to wear her undies there. Around 6pm, she looked like she had to go. Every 2mins she said she had to pee and we took her to the bathroom and nothing. We left their house around 7:30 and she still hadn't gone. We got home and by this point she wanted to be carried everywhere and was crying about having to pee. I took her up to get ready for bed and again she was in the bathroom every 2min with nothing happening. I got her diaper and PJs on and again she had to go-stripped everything off and nothing. This happened at least 10 times over the course of the next hour!  Keep in mind, she's still crying because she had to go but just wouldn't go anywhere! We even dragged out the kid potty for her and she wouldn't go on that either. Finally around 9:15 or so she was running to the bathroom screaming "I GOTTA GO!" and she got half in the diaper and half on the toilet. 

Unfortunately, this became the norm from Mon-Thurs. She would hold it all morning, pee in her diaper at nap, then hold it all evening and would go through this crazy production at bedtime. I've heard of kids holding their poop, but not their pee. And I was really worried she would end up with a UTI and then we'd be really screwed because then it would hurt for her to go. 

So....we had to give in. Diapers went back on for good on Friday. She asked a few times that day to wear underwear so we did put them on her. As soon as she had to pee, she asked for a diaper on. I have no idea what is going on with her. Avery was so much easier-by day 3 she was on the potty most of the time. Cassandra is just holding it and holding it!  I don't know if it's a control thing for her (like since we're telling her to do it, she won't?) or if she's scared for some reason (she sits on the potty just fine though). So I'm sort of putting this back into her hands-when she's ready, I guess she'll be ready to do it on her own. I'm just out of ideas and don't know how to get her to release and let it out!  Crazy child! And they say the second one is usually easier to train! Not for us!

I guess we'll see where this goes over the next few months. Stay tuned!

Dairy Free

Remember that cough I told you about months ago?

Well...it's still around.

Cassandra responded great to the 2 meds (Singulair and Nasonex) at first. Then we tried weaning her off and it's been a nightmare since. We cut out the Singulair and the coughing started right back up. So we put her back on it....but she didn't respond to it.  Back to the allergist we went (in April) and she was kept on those 2 and they also added in 2 inhalers for her as well. One to do twice daily and once as a "rescue" inhaler for her coughing "fits".  

She responded well to those so we were told to keep her on them for a month. We stopped in mid-May and she was ok for about 2-3 weeks.  Then the cough returned. We went to the allergist again in June and he told us to keep her as she is for about 6mos. Basically 3-4 meds a day for the poor girl.

I've also been talking to my chiropractor a lot about it (she has a degree in nutrition as well) and she strongly feels that the inflammation causing her asthma is tied to food and an unbalanced "gut". She suggested trying going dairy free for awhile because I guess dairy is a big trigger for inflammation in a lot of kids. That along with adding in some probiotics and Vitamin D should help clean her gut out.

Well...about 2 weeks ago or so we had another really bad night of her coughing so we decided to bite the bullet and give it a shot. So on Friday 7/11 we started her on a dairy free diet. 

I'm not going to lie....it's hard.

Some days have been easy and some have been challenging. I've had moments in Wegman's where I want to cry because everything I normally buy has dairy in it. I've also had moments in Wegman's where I'm thanking God that something doesn't have dairy in it.

The hardest part has been milk (to drink) and yogurt and mac-n-cheese. Thankfully most of the other stuff we feed the kids doesn't have dairy in it. I've tried a few different yogurts for her and she's not really thrilled with them. I found one mac-n-cheese that she ate-if she will again who knows! But the drinking milk is very hard. I tried almond milk first since it seems a lot of people like it. Nope-she knew right away it was different and drank a few gulps and that was it. Every meal I gave it to her and every meal it sat there. This week I bought rice milk and she's not thrilled with that either. She'll take 1-2 sips at a meal and that's it. And it's only because I sort of make her drink a sip. She doesn't do it on her own. I might try coconut milk this weekend and see how that goes. Beyond that, I'm stumped.

We haven't had the challenge of going out to dinner yet or going to a party, etc. I know those will be hard. I found a bakery that makes dairy free cupcakes so I think I'm going to stock up on those for when we have a party to go to. At least she won't feel left out!

And it's really hard telling her she can't have something, especially if she sees someone else eating it. We always will say "no" and she'll ask why. Our answer? "It has milk in it." Lately she'll just say "ok."  At first, many tears were shed when we said no, but I think she's starting to catch on. And it's funny because now Avery will ask "does that have milk in it?" before we give something to Cassandra. So she's looking out for her too.

I could see this being easier if your child had a life threatening allergy to something and you had to cut it out of their diet. But doing it by choice is hard for some reason. And like Gabe said, I never imagined we'd be one of those families that has to read every label before feeding it to our child. I'm not sure how long we'll do this for. Ideally 3-6months, but really we're just taking it one day at a time.

If any of you have any suggestions for us, we'll take all of the help we can get!

Cough

We've had an annoyance in this house for the past few months....a cough.

A cough that happens overnight and keeps most of us awake.

It hasn't been fun.

This goes back all the way to November. Cassandra started with this cough overnight that went on for weeks. During the day she was pretty well-would maybe cough sporadically here and there, but nothing major. Overnight? Different story. She'd be up anywhere from a half hour to over 2 hours just straight coughing.  Nothing helped her-Vicks baby rub, humidifier, baby cough syrup, steamy bathrooms, cold air. After about 2 weeks of this, we took her to the docs.  They had us try allergy meds with her for a week...no improvement. Back to the docs she went and they (a different doctor) gave us Amoxicillin. It seemed to work, but a few days after she stopped taking it, the cough slowly came back.

Pretty much right after the holidays, it came back in full force. Up every night with these coughing fits/attacks. She went to her 2 year appointment at the end of January and at that point had been coughing every night for a good 3 weeks. I was hoping her pediatrician would do something for us...and he did! We were sent home with a nebulizer and an Rx for Albuterol to try during her attacks.  I was so thankful that we had something else to try with her!

Of course the first few nights we have the nebulizer, Cassandra didn't cough (go figure)! But a few days later, it started up again. So, overnight I went in and gave her a treatment. It seemed to help-she fell back asleep and was good the rest of the night. The next few nights she coughed again and these times the treatments did nothing for her. She still continued to cough.

I called her doctor after about a week of trying it and told him it wasn't helping. He referred us to an allergist at this point.  So I call the allergist (on a Tuesday) and can't get her in for a MONTH! The thought of being awake every night for a month was torturous to me.

Well, things got really bad for her. Tuesday night (the day we called the allergist) she was up for almost 6 hours overnight coughing! Which means so were we! Wednesday and Thursday nights were really bad too-she was up way longer than her usual 30min-2hr time frame. So, Friday I called the allergist and told them what was going on. And?  They got me in THAT day! I was so relieved!!

 I take her to the appointment and tell the doctor what's been happening. He said the 3 main reasons for coughing at her age is allergies, asthma, and reflux. They decided that she should have a skin test done for allergies (cue my panic!). And they were doing it right then and there!  Cassandra did SO well though-they got the first 2 strips done before she realized what was happening and only cried for less than a minute. She was a trooper. And....everything came out negative. No allergies. And you'd think if it was asthma, the nebulizer would have helped. And if it's reflux, why doesn't it happen at naptime when she's lying flat? Hmmmm.

So, the allergist decided that he wants to treat her for both allergies and asthma. So she got put on Singulair and Nasonex for the next month to see what happens. If it helps, she might stay on them awhile. If it doesn't, then we either try upping the dose or we try treating reflux and see what happens. At least we have a game plan at this point.

I'm happy to say that the allergist appointment was 2 weeks ago now. Cassandra is a champ at taking her Singulair-it's a chewable tablet and she actually asks for it most days! The Nasonex is a different story. The first few days it was a struggle-Gabe holding her down, me spraying up her nose. But after a few days, she just stood there and would let me do it. So, it's getting better! 

And the coughing?! It's improving. She has had a night here and there where she coughs for maybe 20 minutes, but that's it!  The strange thing is that in November 2012, she had something similar happen but it only lasted a few weeks-not a few months. So I don't know if the cough is going away just because it's going away, or if the medicine is truly helping her. I'm hoping this isn't a "thing" we go through every year that's for sure. However, I'm happy that currently we are all back to getting some sleep and the coughing has subsided for now.

Yoga

At the girls' daycare, they do yoga with the kids every day.

Well...this little one has been showing off her moves lately.

And?

It's freakin' adorable!

Down Dog

No idea what this is called but she does it constantly!

Mountain

Don't you agree?!

Polka Dot Party!

We had Cassandra's birthday party on Saturday at our house. The theme this year? Polka dots! I picked it mainly because I love how she says it "poky lots"! And she's young enough not to care what her theme is!

A first for me-I tried a 2 tiered cake for the party! I was really nervous about it, but it came out great! I tried a new frosting recipe and a new filling and was so happy with both of them!

Here is the finished product-sorry the pics are turned-I have no idea why they turn when I upload them!

Polka dot favors for the kids....filled with stickers, skittles, swedish fish, and lollipops! Yum!

Polka dot table cloth, plates, napkins and cups courtesy of Party City:

With some polka dot signs to go along with them, also Party City:

To go along with the cake, I did some chocolate covered marshmallows with polka dots (sprinkles) on them:

and chocolate covered pretzels too!

Of course the birthday girl had to be wearing polka dots too!

Avery and Cassandra

Once again (just like our holiday party), the weather was really crappy the day of the party-lots of wind and lots of snow. Unfortunately a few people couldn't make it to the party because of it, so that was a bummer.

Cassandra, my Mom, Dylan

The yummy treat table:

We had some appetizers followed by dinner (subs, green salad, fruit, chips/pretzels, baked pasta). After dinner, we decided to open gifts to let our food digest a bit. Cassandra got a lot of nice gifts...

Cleaning set

Clothes

Warm PJs

And a new car!!

After gifts, we did cake. I didn't get any photos of cake since Gabe video taped instead. Cassandra wouldn't blow out the candles, that little stinker! But she did eat her cake! And it was very, very good! After cake, the kids played some more and then people started heading out. It was a great celebration of our baby girl's birth!

My Girl's Birthday

Thursday was Cassandra's special day, so of course we wanted to try and make it special for her!  I had the day off of work and Gabe also took the day off so that we could all be together for the day.

We asked Cassandra what she wanted to do for her birthday. We suggested a few places for her to choose from-the play museum and 2 indoor play places in the area. She picked one of the play places so we went there shortly after getting them up and ready to go. We had a lot of fun-stayed about 2.5 hours or so. We got them home for lunch and for Cassandra's nap.

After nap, we let her open up presents!

A new game!

And basketball hoop!

We stayed in for dinner-we decided to order take out and just eat at home. Gabe ran out during nap time and picked up some delish cupcakes for the birthday girl! After dinner, it was time to sing!

Blow out the candles!

YUM!

We ended  the day with a birthday bath and then to bed.  I'd say she had a pretty fun day!  I still can't believe my baby is 2 years old-it's just flying by!

Twenty-Four Months (2 Years) Old!

Our baby girl is now a 2 year old! How (and why) does time go by so fast?!

I will say I love the stage she is in-I love hearing her learn to talk and she is seriously so cute! I could just eat her up! Yes she's a challenge at times (hello stubborn!) but I'm really going to miss this age-it's just so fun!

Peanut is still wearing 18 month clothes. She's still in a size 4 diaper for both day and night. She's still in a size 5 shoe.

She is still sleeping pretty well these days. She sleeps through the night and still takes an afternoon nap without a fight. Although at daycare I learned she isn't really napping anymore for whatever reason. Hey, as long as she sleeps for me at home, it's all good! Haha! She's really good about amusing herself in her crib though-even if she's awake, she very rarely cries about it. So I'm not complaining!

Cassandra is still a pretty good eater. Some days are better than others of course. Some of her favorites? Bagels with cream cheese, fruit, yogurt, pasta, dino nuggets, cereal.

Some new things she's saying now...."scissors", "big girl chair", "I want the Fox Song!", "I found it!", "I don't know", "on the edge", "Happy New Year", "cause I said so!", "not good manners", "my eyes are brown", "Aruba", "ragamuffin", "you OK Mommy?", "you blow nose?", "come on", "collar bone", "leave it open".

Cassandra also had her first haircut this month and did a great job! She was so well behaved! 

We also took her and Avery sledding for the first time and she wasn't thrilled with it at all! She went down the hill twice, but whined most of the time we were there. Maybe next time will be better?

Cassandra also started swimming lessons this month and is doing really well at them!  She was a little hesitant at the first class, but as of now she's had 4 classes and it's going really well. She loves getting in the water and splashing around and putting her face in...the total opposite of her sister!!

Here are the big girl's photos!

Hugging the giraffe

My faves:

Smile!

She was saying "little tiny" for some reason

Daddy's favorite face!

No idea what this was, but it's hilarious!

Flashback to Avery at 24 months!