Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Tumbling Queen

A few weeks ago, Addison had her tumbling recital. I have to admit that I was hesitant at what she had learned. I thought it was a waste of time for her...and for me! I really want to get her into gymnastics. I think she would be FANTASTIC at gymnastics. She has such good form and is so lithe and lean.

But I am so glad that she had the opportunity to take this tumbling class. I don't remember the last time I have laughed this hard. :)








This is my favorite video. You can totally hear me laughing in the background. I love it!


One of these days, I will figure out how to splice videos together. In the meantime, I apologize for the lenght and the amount of videos we have. (Addison wants me to take videos of EVERYTHING we do anymore. I think she likes watching herself and I am glad to have the opportunities to video her. She will enjoy them when she is older too, I hope!)

Friday, March 25, 2011

Allergic Reaction Pt. 2

This past Sunday evening (March 20,2011) ended up being a fairly crazy evening. The girls and I were just relaxing at home having a pajama day when around three o'clock in the afternoon, Addison started whining to go play with her friends. She is only 3 and still doesn't quite comprehend that we can't play on Sunday. That we need to be as a family as much as possible on that day. After I told her that she couldn't play with friends, she then asked to go to Papa's house. I told her no again. I told her that we just needed to stay home and be as a family. Immediately, she ran to the phone and said "I want to call Papa, but I don't know what numbers to push to talk to him." I laughed. As soon as she said that, the phone rang. Guess who it was? Papa. He was calling to invite Addison to come to his house to play with him, Grandma and her cousins Brooklyn & Sierra. I had to think about it. I really just wanted to stay home and not do much of anything. But Papa said that he would come and pick up the little stinker and take her to his house. I finally relented.

After being at Papa's house for about 30 minutes, I get this phone call from my dad saying that Addison ate half a cashew and now her lips were swollen like she had a bad lip injection and that she was having a hard time breathing. (Remember this reaction?) I told him to calm down. I said if you guys relax a little, she will relax and be able to breathe. I told him to give her some ice to suck on and that should help her swelling. But I also said that I would wake the baby up from her nap and come over to his house.

When I got to their house, I gave Addison some Benadryl and it seemed that the swelling in her lips were going down and that her hives that she had developed weren't worsening. I left my kids to run to the store and get some Benadryl for my own house and to find out from the pharmacist exactly what dosage to give her. (The box says not to give to children under 6 unless directed by a physician - so I kind of guessed at how much to give her.)

As I was heading to the check out line, I got another phone call from my dad saying that she is starting to throw up. I immediately shove my items to be purchased on a random shelf and RUN out the door. I run into my parents house, swoop my poor, sweet little Chica up and run right back out the door to the emergency room.

It seems that emergency rooms take nut allergies quite seriously since we were only in the waiting room, after I had registered, for about a minute and a half. Once we were back in the room, the nurse checked Addison's breathing. Gave her some Zantac - They said that even though Zantac is an Antacid, it was a histamine blocker and works well in conjunction with the Benadryl that I had already given Addison. At this point, I really wished I had some paper to write this whole ordeal down, because I was trying to pay attention to what was going on and also pay attention to my screaming, crying, scratching, coughing child.

About 5 to 10 minutes later, Addison started coughing a lot more and I noticed that the hives on her body were worsening and more were coming on. I thought this might have something to do with the Zantac that they had just given her, but the doctor assured me that it wasn't. He said that even though she had thrown up, the oils from the nut can still be in her body. (I hope I am remembering correctly.)

After her coughing worsened, they put Addison on oxygen. At one point, there were FIVE people in line to listen to Addison's breathing. The oxygen wasn't working like they had hoped so they had Addi do a breathing treatment with some sort of medication in it, because she was having bronchial spasms in her lungs.

Somewhere after taking the Zantac and getting her breathing treatment, they had to administer an epinephrine shot to Addison to get her hives and breathing under control. This absolutely broke my heart because as I was heading to the hospital with Addi she asked me if she had to get a shot and I told her no. I thought that since she had taken the Benadryl, they wouldn't have to or be able to. So as they were giving Addison the shot, she was looking at me, crying and saying "You promised me I wouldn't have to get a shot! You promised me!" I felt like the absolute worst mother in the whole wide world!

After the breathing treatment, Addison's oxygen levels started to look better, but her hives weren't. She was stable, but they had us stay for another hour and half or so just to keep an eye on her. About 9:30-10:00, Addison was begging them to let her go home. Every time someone new came into the room, she would just look at them and plead to go home. Broke my heart.

Finally the doctor came in and said that they would like to keep Addi longer for observation, but that she should also be alright to go home. Addison heard "go home" and was already getting off of the table. I had to pull her back up with me and sit a bit longer while the doctor wrote up discharge papers.

I was really impressed with how well the hospital/emergency room handled the situation. They tried not to scare my daughter all the while taking the situation very seriously. They also brought in a TV and DVD player with movies for Addison to watch and kept bringing her Popsicles.

I am not sure how bad Addison's allergies to nuts are, but you can believe me when I say that we are making an appointment with an allergist to find out. I feel bad that she is going to have to be the weird kid with the epi pen (or as she likes to say "yucky pen") in her backpack for the rest of her life. Although, we have been doing a little studying on Immunotherapy and think that might be something worth looking into.

Addison had to take a few days worth of medicines but is doing great now. She knows not to eat nuts anymore. I am a little afraid that this incident will keep her from trying new things again. She has been doing really good at that lately and in fact, was trying something new at Grandma's house.

Sorry for the long post but I figured that if I didn't write this down somewhere, I was going to forget what happened. I will try and post pictures later when I get them from Grandma. In all the panic and commotion, I forgot to pull my camera out. But I am glad that my mom was there to capture Addison's little sausage lips! :)

Thursday, March 17, 2011

Olive, Jade, Emerald, Lime...


... In other words, Green

(Just ignore this picture. It should be at the bottom by the videos.)
For Breakfast this morning, Addison's Mom made her green milk
Green Yogurt
(Key Lime - Her favorite)
She was beyond thrilled at all of the green. Even the straw for her milk was green.
Okay, truth be told, I think she was really just excited that I let her use our "real" dishes and not the kids dishes.
Green Bell Pepper Wrapped Egg
(I know it is more like a 5 leaf clover, but the husband didn't seem to care)
Randy's Breakfast.
Pepper wrapped eggs and fresh kiwi fruit.
For dinner, I was trying to keep the green theme going, but didn't quite succeed.
Garlic Biscuits with GREEN parsley on top.
Steamed potatoes with GREEN rosemary, and parsley
And then there is this. Just your plain ole' rotisserie chicken from your local grocer.
(I was getting lazy!)
But the cutest green things of the day were these two.

Love her!!!
She's trying to smile at the camera.
I love her too!
Paige was BEYOND tired and ready for bed.
Note to self: Do pictures with the girls together earlier in the day when they are both a little less ornery!
Addison and Paige got their first experiences with pickles today. (Okay, Addi would go to town on them when she was younger. But as she has gotten older, she has gotten more and more scared of food.)


Happy St. Patrick's Day



HAPPY ST. PATRICK'S DAY!!!

Sunday, March 6, 2011

Chicken Pot Pie

Homemade chicken pot pie is one of Randy's favorite meals that I make. It is so incredibly easy and so much healthier than buying store bought. (Have you ever checked out the sodium on those things? It's a wonder someone hasn't had a heart attack while eating one of those.)

Chicken Pot Pie
Courtesy Betty Crocker (with minor changes)

1 box (10 oz.) frozen peas and carrots - I use frozen peas and canned diced carrots. I can't seem to find frozen peas and carrots without corn.  I don't care for frozen corn.
1/3 cup butter
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup chopped onion
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. pepper
1 3/4 cup low sodium chicken broth
2/3 cup milk
2 1/2 -3 cups cubed, cooked chicken
2 pie shells - You can make your own, but I really like the pre-made Pillsbury pie crusts that you can find in the refrigerated section of the grocery store.

1. Rinse frozen peas and carrots in cold water to separate; drain.

2. In a 2-quart saucepan, melt butter over medium heat. Stir in flour, onion, salt and pepper. Cook, stirring constantly until mixture is bubbly; remove from heat. Stir in broth and milk. Heat to boiling, stirring constantly. Boil and stir 1 minute or until mixture thickens. Stir in chicken, peas and carrots; remove from heat.

3.Pre-heat oven to 425 F.

4. Make pastry. Roll two-thirds of the pastry (or if you are using bought pie shells, use only 1 shell) into a 9 1/2 inch round pie pan. Pour chicken mixture into pastry-lined pan.

5. Roll remaining pastry onto chicken mixture. Turn edges of pastry under and flute. Make sure to cut slits into your top pie shell so that you don't have chicken mixture pouring out the sides while baking.

6. Bake 35 minutes or until golden brown.



The best part of this meal for me is the left over chicken mixture. DO NOT overfill your pie shells or you just might have a major mess in the bottom of your oven. I like to reheat this and eat it the next day. Since there doesn't ever seem to be left over pot pie!