July

Daddy is home!

Sierra was not very fond of the sparkler!

She loved to watch but was afraid they were going to be loud.....

And did not enjoy the smell!

Rodeos are boring after about 10 minutes....

But then you get some ice cream!

Happiness.

Deliciousness.

A wild Philomath Frolic Parade!  :)

Jaxon woke up mid way through the parade and did not likey!

Silly, fun, beautiful, and mine.  Sure do love them.

Ballet!

Bounce slide at our churches block party

Sierra sang "Chocolate Ice Cream Cone" in front of about 100 people!

Guess who this is from?  It lights up when it reels too!

Four years old.  Holy smokes.

Grandma Shelly made some adorable cupcakes!

Sierra telling Jess how to fix the master cylinder.  We'd be lost without her!

Jaxon lends a hand as well.

Isn't it beautiful!!

Smoothie lips!

Sierra turned 4 this month against her will.  She cried and said she wanted to be 3 forever.  This was not something I was expecting.  She was glad to celebrate with cake and presents, but the age changing thing upset her.  I remember always wanting to be older as a little girl, but not my Sierra.  I guess I should be happy that she had a great year as a 3 year old and is a happy girl?

Something else happens when you turn four, you get all sassy and smart and kinda mean.  I'm not kidding, it was like overnight Sierra turned into a back-talking, hands on hips, whatevering little tween.  I'm starting to really worry about her teenage years.  Everything is so drama-filled right now and she is very emotional.  Jaxon seems easy lately!

Jaxon is at the age where all of a sudden fears set in.  He's afraid of Zoey the dog, the phone ringing (although he does usually shout out hello), and he is rarely left anywhere without mommy, so he has some separation anxiety too.  The funny thing is that even though he is afraid of more things all of a sudden, he is also more social.  He waves to people in the store, and will walk up to men and start in with his baby talk.  He's still not saying a whole lot.  He continues to prefer pointing and grunting.  Some days I really worry about it because when I look back at Sierra's vocabulary at this point, it was WAY different.  But I realize boys and girls are different as well as the fact that all babies develop speech at different rates.  Towards the end of the month he did start using his words more often. 

The great thing about July is that we were healthy all month long!  We enjoyed time outside, had some play days with friends, Sierra started her second season of Ballet and it has gone great so far!  She is much less distracted by the other kids this year and listens very well!  She loves going!  Sierra and Jaxon spent a lot of time playing together.  Their favorites are hide n seek (Sierra is always the hider), chase, and tag.  Jaxon sure looks up to Sierra and loves to play with her.  She can also make him laugh so easily!  Any silly little thing and he is almost hyperventilating!  The kids really love to be outside and have really used the play structure that Jesse put up for Sierra's birthday last year.  Jaxon loves to slide and will swing for 20 minutes.  Sierra has never enjoyed swinging much, but loves to slide and climb up her rock wall.  She also loves to spend time in the garden with me!  We pick flowers, pull weeds, look for bugs and worms, and enjoy the fruits of our labor.  Jaxon loves to eat peas while running around stepping on all the plants.  Ha!

With all of the outside time, Sierra's allergies got worse and worse.  I tried local honey (REALLY local - harvested just a few miles from our house) and some natural allergy children's melts.  I even tried putting some stuff around her nostrils before we went outside to hopefully keep the pollen from getting in her nose but none of the natural things seemed to be working.  She would sneeze over and over, itch her nose, and if we went outside on certain days her nose would run like a faucet.  It started affecting her left eye too, so we put her on Claritin.  After a month on that we switched to Zyrtec and while she did get some relief with the nose running, it still was giving her grief so I decided to take her to an allergy specialist.  They did an allergy "scratch" test which should really be called a poke a million times test.  The poor girl got 11 pokes on her back with different allergens (indoor and outdoor) and we had to wait to see if she got hives in each of the areas that she was poked.  She screamed bloody murder.  I felt so bad!  Then came the hives and she screamed some more because she itched so bad.  This was not long after the whole mono blood test and it was fresh in her memory.  I had no idea what this "scratch" test would involve so I didn't warn her.  Warning her may have made it worse, but it's hard to imagine it being much worse!

After 15 minutes, the Dr came in and looked at her back.  He said she tested positive for allergies to tree, grass (which was by far the worst and she still had marks from the giant hive for almost a week!), and weed pollen.  Awesome.  He said that she will suffer every year from March through August.  He said she is very young to be showing such strong allergies and that usually children that have that severe of allergies also have parents with severe allergies.  Neither Jesse or I have more than mild allergies, so I'm not sure where they came from.  Poor girl.  The good news was that she did not show any reaction to any of the indoor allergens.  We have to try to keep our windows shut (this is our main way of cooling the house because we don't have air conditioning), wash her hair every night to get the pollen off before bed, keep the windows up while driving, etc.  Unfortunately we live in the forest and have grass fields where there are not trees.  I asked if living in town would change anything and the Dr said probably not.  When she gets older allergy shots will be an option, but there are a lot of shots involved and the kids have to be old enough to cooperate.  I hate the thought of giving her allergy meds for months out of every year, but she definitely needs some sort of relief.

Jaxon is also dealing with a food allergy of some sort.  My breastfed babies are not supposed to have allergies!  He started getting a terrible diaper rash randomly that makes him cry.  I call it baboon butt.  It's raised, hot, and hurts as soon as he goes potty.  I'm trying to figure out what's causing it but so far haven't been able to. It takes several days to heal.  Hopefully it's something he will outgrow?  I'm new to all this allergy stuff!  If anyone has any advice, let me know!!

June

Sierra has her own raised bed this year.  She planted it full of potatoes!

A beautiful end to an evening!

Happy birthday Papa!

Story time

Beautiful brown curls!

Reading in the baby doll's bed.

Sand box fun!

Sierra helping daddy "chase a gopher out of his hole with water".  I was at the grocery store.....

Sure do love these two!!

A trip for some photos out to the refuge.

I got some sweet shots but then we noticed there was poison oak EVERYWHERE so we ran home and all took a tecnu shower!

Karaoke bright and early in the morning

One of the cutest cashiers around.

Just.like.daddy.

PEAS!

No nap today, so we had a mani/pedi instead.

Loving garden time.

Heavy late rains ruined our cherry crop:(

This is why our children sleep in their own beds!  Yes, that is Jaxon's bum on Jesse's head. ;)

June was a month of recuperation in our house.  Sierra and Jaxon both were sick well into the month.  I have never seen a fever last so long and I hope I never do again!  When the kids started feeling better we worked on the garden, cried when our cherries all split, and started to get back into a regular "non-virus" routine.  This meant less TV, normal naps/bed, eating food, and playing outside as much as possible.

I'm not sure if it was so much time feeling crummy, but Jaxon really has enjoyed sitting at the table to play this month.  If I set him up with some cars, small toys, or play dough, he will sit and stay in one place and play for up to 30 minutes!  This means sometimes I can get the dishwasher loaded in one fell swoop!  I have learned though, that three dishes in the dishwasher at a time, or two pieces of folded laundry, or one washed window will at least make a dent in the large household to do list.  When I had Sierra, I would get frustrated if I couldn't finish a project and so I just wouldn't start.  If I couldn't load all the dishes at once, or sweep the whole floor, etc.  Now I know that you MUST take advantage of spare moments even if it is one dish at a time.

Sierra remains in her princess phase and wears dresses and tiaras all the time.  Trying to get her to put on shorts or pants underneath her dress to go outside or to town is one heck of a fight.  Why you ask?  Why do I care?  You should see her legs!!!  She is one solid bruise/scrape.  She's a busy girl outside and we live on a gravel road.  When she doesn't wear pants she ends up with rocks in her knees.  And when we are in town, she is only 3 and doesn't understand what it means to be ladylike (nor do I really, which is why I prefer pants) and strangers get to see her underpants.  I really do worry what getting ready for school is going to be like as a teenager!  She tries on at least 3 or 4 outfits before she decides on one, it must match, not give her wedgies, not be too tight, too loose, too long, too short, too ruffly, too plain, the right color, and all accessories must match.  Did I really give birth to this child?!  It drives me crazy!  I had no idea that this would be so important to an almost four year old.  NO IDEA!

Both of the kids ate horribly for what has seemed like forever because they were sick, but Jaxon has been super picky since he turned one.  If he doesn't like the look of a food he won't try it and no matter how hard we try to coax, bribe, trick, or shove it in, it comes right out or the meal ends in a screaming fit (him screaming, me trying really hard not to).  All of the things he ate before his 1st birthday he won't have a thing to do with.  He also doesn't really like to touch certain foods.  This doesn't seem very abnormal to me but it is very frustrating.  At his 15 month well baby checkup the Dr asked about his eating habits and I shared my frustrations with her.  She said that it is possible that Jaxon has some texture aversions and that there are specialists that help children get over these aversions.  Since our out of pocket for our insurance is met, I decided to give it a try.  Jaxon's first appointment was at the end of June.  It's mostly teaching me different things to do over and over at home to get him used to different textures - not just in his mouth, but on his arms, legs, hands and feet as well.  There's a lot of massage involved using a little brush, food play, and getting him used to having dirty hands.  I have no idea if it will work but if he will eat more than yogurt and cheese it will be a success! Hopefully I'll be able to report next month that it's helping!