A little bit of everything

We had a fantastic weekend.

Saturday morning Lily had her 2nd gymnastics class. Randy participated with her this time. I was quite impressed with her ability to walk side by side on the balance beam. The class is very laid back in terms of actual gymnastics moves. Most of the time the kids go from station to station, doing differnt activities like the trampoline, climbing a little ladder, going through tunnels, etc. Lily always avoids the tunnels. The last few minutes is free time. Lily spends it playing with plastic balls and a hula hoop. Harrison and I watched from the stands. All the action and sounds kept him content the entire time.

During the class it hit me and I had to laugh. Randy playing with our daughter, doing gymnastics, early on a Saturday morning. We've come a long way from 3 story beer bongs, quarter you call it Wednesday nights at the Airliner, and 3 floor parties that were advertised in chalk around campus. Yes, the 3 floor beer bong went from Randy's apartment down to his buddies on the bottom floor. Lots of stories, laughs, and puking. :) Not by me of course.

I used to imagine what our family would be. I would day dream about how many kids we would have. Would we have boys/girls/mix of both. What their names would be, etc. Now it's happening. Our family is here and I love it. I'm living what I always dreamt about. I couldn't be happier with our family. Randy is the man of my dreams and we created 2 beautiful kids together. I am very lucky. And thankful.

Back to our weekend...
After gymnastics we hosted a play date with my co workers. There were 8 females and 8 babies and one male...Randy. Poor guy. He was such a help I don't know what I would have done without him. He waited on everyone getting them drinks and pizza. He played with the kids and took pictures. Lily did well sharing her toys, although I removed the ones I felt she might have the most issue with sharing. Lily and a 5 year old boy made Christmas ornaments while the babies crawled around or just sat there (4 are currently immobile). We all had a great time.

Saturday night the rock band got together. Rock band includes our friends, Ted, Kristy and Money (i.e. Eric). We warmed up with a couple board games and then got down to business. Someone plays drums, someone sings, someone plays guitar and another plays bass. We jammed hard, that's about all I can say.

Sunday morning Lily treated us to 45 extra minutes of sleep. After a big breakfast Joy and Payton babysat while Randy and I went holiday shopping. For the 2nd year in a row Randy and I are not buying for each other but we "adopted" a foster child. We also picked 2 names off a Christmas tree so Lily and Harrison could buy gifts for other kids. Our Christmas shopping is done with the exception of one gift certificate and one present we have to order. That feels good! I wish I could say my Christmas cards were finished.

Sunday evening we returned the favor to Joy and Bobby and watched their kids. They are old enough to be alone but they enjoy our company and we enjoy theirs. The evening was filled with more rock band, homework and Lily and Harrison baths. After Joy and Bobby picked up the kids Randy and I played rock band together. :)

Bath time is now fun. Before it was hard to find the energy to bath Lily and later bath Harrison. Now we bath them together and they both love it. Lily helps by pouring water on Harrison (thankfully not in his face) and will also help soap him up. Harrison has the so cold-so cold-so cold look on his face when he first touches the water but when he sees Lily he lights up. He smiles the whole time they are in the bath. I love it because it's quick and relatively easy.

The dairy issue...
Lily was re-tested for her milk allergy. Quick recap--developed hive on lip, twice, after having cheese. Diagnosed at one year old for having a milk allergy. Doc said give soy milk but occasionally try something with dairy baked in it. We tried, twice, but Lily threw up both times. We avoided dairy completely for almost a whole year. A year later her blood test was negative for a milk allergy. Yay!!! But...her skin still reacted to milk so we are planning a milk challenge test. The allergist feels she has a 10-20% chance of reacting so we will see how much dairy she can handle before reacting and what kind of reaction it might be. The appointment, unfortunately, isn't until Feb. so we remain dairy free until then. Still very exciting!!!!

Just in time for Lily to become allergy free (fingers crossed) Harrison might be reacting to my dairy intake. When I asked a couple posts ago for suggestions about Harrison's stuffy nose, Emily, a friend of Staci's, had the same issue with her son. She stopped drinking dairy and soy and her son's stuffiness cleared up. I have to admit I was a little bummed to think my dairy intake was affecting Harrison. Especially because I breast fed Lily for 13 months and she never reacted to my dairy intake. I have reduced my dairy intake over the past 4 days and his stuffiness is improved. Still there but not as bad. It's not hard to limit dairy because our house is filled with Lactaid and soy products but I never had to watch every little thing I ate before. If it's to blame for Harrison's stuffiness than it's worth it.

Well this post was long and filled with random things. But at least I posted.