Feeling a Little Artistic

Today, Emma did a little bit of coloring.....

Then she decided it was time to get out the piano and sing!

Grandma

It is with a sad heart that I write Grandma passed away late Saturday night.  We were all able to spend her last two days with her, and she was able to see everyone, including Emma, before she fell into a deep sleep.
Grandma didn't want to have a funeral, or have a big fuss made over her, so we are doing our best to honor her wishes, but also honor what a great and loving person she was.  We will have a simple grave side service on Friday, followed by one of  her favorite activities of eating at a restaurant.
Thanks to everyone that has sent text messages, phone calls, and emails.  We all appreciate it.

Grandma only kept two pictures in her wallet, one of Grandpa and one of Emma.  It took awhile, but she finally got her brown eyed baby, and boy did she love her.  Emma still asks for her when I say we are going to see Grandma.  And as hard as it is when Emma asks,  it makes me more sad to know that Emma will eventually stop.

Tuesday Girl's Night

Last night's Girl's Night was a little different for two reasons.  First - Jenni's soon to be Sister-in-Law, Thea recently opened her own jewelery store, Big Country Designs.  She was sweet enough to name two of her headbands after Emma and Sophia, and she wanted to get some photos of the girls wearing them.  Jessica and I attempted to have a mini photo shoot in the 112 degree weather!  We didn't last too long outside, but did manage to get a couple of photos.  Second - We celebrated Jenni's birthday.  Unfortunately, I didn't get any photos of the birthday girl, but we had a fun night celebrating. 
Here are the photos featuring Thea's Miss Headbands:

 This one isn't for the shop, but I thought it was cute.

Eli is such a big boy now, we are going to have to stop calling him Baby Eli!  It was the first girl's night that he has been sitting up.  It was pretty cute!

A Day at the Museum

My Mom, Emma, and I, all headed out to the Children's Museum in Mesa.  Emma was able to do a little bit of everything from blocks, to puppets, playing kitchen, to art.  There are a lot of photos, but I wanted to get pictures in each area!

Putting on a puppet show

And playing a little music

Picking corn

Placing the birds back in the tree (they were velcro)

 

And putting the skunk in the hole

I knew the museum had a pretty big art area, so I made sure to pack this cute smock that Sophia and Jessica got Emma for her birthday.  It was perfect and she wore it the entire time we were in the art area.

She loved the stamps!  I think they have been added to the Christmas List!

This was a really cool giant Light Bright.  My mom is trying to figure out how she can make one for her house!

They even had Ipads!  Of course, she wanted the bubbles that she plays on Sophia's, but she was content with the "painting".

After the museum, we checked out a couple of cute boutiques near by and then went and had lunch.  By the time we were finished with lunch it was close to 2.  I knew with how hot the car was, there was no way Emma would stay awake on the drive home, plus Robert has been working late, so my Mom and I decided to make an impromptu trip to the mall.  We figured Emma could sleep in her stroller and we could walk where it was cool.  At the mall, I did manage to find a couple pairs of shorts for Emma and pants for me, but still no luck finding a purse.  I need something that is big enough to still carry a couple of diapers, water, and meds for Emma, but I don't want it to be huge.  If anyone has any ideas, I am all ears!

It was a great day!  We all had lots of fun!

The Results are In....

Can you tell we aren't jumping up and down with excitement over here?!  Before I get to that, let me first tell you the good results.  We went back on Monday to Emma's Pediatrician to follow up about her ears.  They looked PERFECT.  Yea!  So for now, no ENT. 
Now for that not so fun stuff....
I decided to take Emma back to the allergist at 6 months instead of a year.  I wanted to know what her levels were doing, and I also had some questions.  When we first found out about her peanut allergy, we were told to strictly avoid all peanuts plus anything that may contain peanuts, or was made in a facility with peanuts.  I have been reading about a lot of studies that talked about peanut allergies going away after being exposed to very controlled amounts of peanuts/peanut dust/peanut flour.  I was wondering if I took all of these warning foods away from her, was I also taking away her chances of out growing her allergy since she had no chance of having an exposure.  So off we went this morning to get the results and ask my questions.  I was already prepared to hear that she hadn't out grown her peanut allergy yet, but I wasn't prepared to hear that her levels had gone up.  Her levels have more then tripled, but as bad as that sounds, she is still on the lower end of the high risk category.  I of course started crying, but Dr. Jain assured me that this really didn't mean anything different and I can't read too much into these levels.  He said a person's level can change during the day, be affected by a cold (Emma had an Ear Infection at the time), or even if people have seasonal allergies and they are acting up at the time the test was done.  He said they really only pay attention to the blood test when a patient has levels in the 30's or 40's. 
So as disappointing as it was, it really doesn't change anything.  Emma still has just as much chance of out growing it as she did in December.  We will go back in 18 months - 1 year for another test.  I may just do the skin test next time, since the blood work has so many variables that can affect it.
I was able to ask my questions, and the recommendation is still to avoid food that have the warning.  Dr. Jain is still not 100% comfortable with these studies that are making news right now, and he needs to see a lot more data.  He said that he is comfortable with the Diary tests, but not so much the peanut ones.  The articles that I have been reading have been promoting the study, so they don't paint a clear picture.  I guess there are seeing some pretty sever side effects in some patients.  In the study where patients are eating the food that they are allergic to, some are developing Esophageal diseases. 
So for now, we will continue doing what we have been doing, and keep a close eye on studies.  Obvious more research is needed to hopefully find a safe cure for food allergies, but also develop some better tests that can give a more clear picture.  There is a walk benefiting food allergies in December at Tempe Town Lake.  We are already working on getting t-shirts made and forming "Team Emma".  As it gets closer, I will be sending out emails and posting on here and Facebook.  We would love to have you all be apart of our team!

Emma's 2 year Photos

A couple of weekends ago, Emma and I met my Mom, Jessica and Sophia to take the girl's two year photos.  My mom was nice enough to haul out her antique love seat and then help me to drag it into the middle of the field.  You can see some of the photos on my photography blog HERE.  I also had Jessica take a couple photos of Emma and me.  Since I didn't take them, I couldn't include them on the photography blog, but can share here!  Thanks Jessica for taking them!  I love them!