The New House!

So we're not quite all put together, but it's getting close enough to share some photos.

So we'll start in the living room:
I am in love with the windows but the entire neighborhood can currently watch our every move. Wood blinds are on order & should be here in a week or two.
Not sure what to do yet with the book shelf. All of our decor is still packed in boxes so I have to decide what to do with it all.

This is another view of the living room from the top of the stairs... you can see one of the two trapezoid windows... the other is in the kitchen. I am anticipating moving our dark brown reclining furniture into the living room once we get it out of Anna's basement because it will go with the dark wood really well & give this furniture a rest until the basement is finished.

Apparently I only caught the bottom of the window in this picture, but if you put this one and the previous one side by side, that would be the whole green wall.
The cabinets are birch, the flooring is wood laminant (Bill & his dad did a beautiful job installing it!) and the sink is black! Yes, Black Swanstone to go with the black appliances. The diswasher is in the island next to the sink. I'm loving it!

Take a quarter turn in the room and you see the dining room with a sliding glass door to the deck and back yard. The blinds are also on order with the rest of the house's window coverings. Our table fits very nicely in the space! Not near as crowded as the previous house!!! Now I can't wait to have people over to eat! The design on the table top also goes very well with the front door. Didn't even plan it!

This is a look at the beautiful staircase. The spindles are oil-rubbed bronze and the wood is poplar, as it is throughout the house. Upstairs you'll find three bedrooms and two bathrooms... but we'll leave those photos for another post. Go downstairs and there's an unfinished family room, bathroom, laundry room and closet. Do down another 1/2 level and there will be a game room, fourth bedroom and the utility room.

And complete the tour around the room and you see the closet and font door. The white door, which you see a bit, takes you out to the three-stall garage. Something else you can't see are the speakers in the ceiling. We'll at some point have them throughout the house & hooked up to different audio components, but for now, the ones in the living room & kitchen are hooked up to the receiver for radio. I forgot just how much I missed not having a radio upstairs at the old house!

More photos to come as we continue to make ourselves at home!

She Said It: #1 & #2

With the little girl becoming such a chatterbox, I thought I'd start sharing her quotes. They'll be numbered as we go & I'll tag them all the same so you can read all at once if you wish.

#1 She knows her ABC's very well so I'll start with that. In the car today she belted them out all by herself!!!

"ABCD, FGHIJKLMNOPQRS, double XYZ"

Missing a few letters, but a proud mom & dad, nonetheless!

#2 Alexis woke up from her nap crying after Noah started screaming in his room.

Dad: "Why are you crying?"
Alexis: "Cuz' Noah crying."

She's got the sympathy cry down, that's for sure!

Allergy Consult Results

Noah’s allergy situation has changed a little bit... okay, a lot.

After finding out his RAST test came back positive for a peanut allergy, I made an appointment with the PA-C at Alexis’ allergist’s office for a consultation. I just wanted to know what that meant and what we should avoid.

We got there at 11:30 on Tuesday and she took one look at him and asked if we could do a skin test. I was surprised because I had been told in the past that they wouldn’t do a skin test before a child is one. But she wasn’t convinced a peanut allergy was giving him such bad skin problems (he has a rash/eczema all over his chest, back, arms & face… very similar to what Alexis had at this age but the cradle cap isn’t as bad). I wasn’t expecting any testing, but was all for it. If we could get answers like this at 4 months old, I’m all for it!

They tested him for peanut, milk, soy & egg. They didn’t tell me which dot was what on his leg, but I watched one welt up nearly as bad as Alexis’ milk reacion. 14 minutes later they measured & revealed the peanut test was negative, as was milk and soy.

Noah is allergic to eggs.

My first thought: Thank goodness! I can’t tell you how relieved I was that he’s not allergic to peanuts. Mainly because from what I know of food allergies, that’s one that many don’t grow out of or it takes a really long time. I was also relieved it wasn’t milk. While I’m more educated on that one, I know what it’s done for Alexis’ growth. And after four months of fearing there was an allergy and we didn’t know about it, my fears were now put to rest!

So now I’m taking eggs out of my diet. That means not only no eggs, but nothing with egg in it. I’m collecting information, doing my best to avoid it and anticipating results.

Something else that was interesting though, was that the allergist had me change how we’re dealing with the eczema. When Alexis had problems, we saw a dermatologist (long before we saw the allergist). The dermatologist put her on a whole lot of medications and said to bathe her only twice a week & not use any soap because even the most mild or moisturizing will rob her of the moisture she needs. The allergist said to bathe Noah every day and use a gentle, moisturizing soap. That’s because his skin is basically allergic to the bacteria we all have on our skin and do just fine with. His body is attacking it, so it will help him if we wash it off every day and keep the bacteria levels low. I’m up for any option that avoids the numerous topical steroids we used on Alexis so we’ll see how it goes, but I have a feeling it’s going to take some time!

But after everything was done, our half-hour consult lasted an extra hour... well worth the time!

More Patience, Please!

Okay, so I've missed several big milestones AGAIN:

Noah: 4 Months
We Moved!
Valentine's Day

Noah is getting super big! He's gained lots of weight and was 13 lbs 11 oz! We also got some mixed news. He has been having some problems with his skin, just like his sister did, and the doctor decided to do some allergy testing, just to make sure he wasn't reacting to something.

It turns out he is not allergic to milk or soy! Thank goodness!!! However, the tests did show he has a peanut allergy. My gut reaction was that I'd rather have the milk & soy allergy because I believe he has a better chance of growing out of it, but we'll find out whether that's true tomorrow when we have a consultation with an expert. So, I'll let you know how that goes.

I didn't realize until later that I've been eating peanut M&M's like crazy lately, so we had to cut that out and drop all peanuts in my diet so he doesn't get the protein & see if his skin gets better. Here's hoping!

We also closed on the new house Friday the 12th & moved in on Saturday. Got to wake up in the new house for Valentine's Day and spent the weekend unpacking boxes. The house isn't clean enough yet for a new round of pictures so we'll get them up asap! Along with lots of more kiddie photos! Just have to get organized around here so I can get them on the computer.