Great news!

Not much to post today except for the BEST news ever!! Lance got word today that he will be transferred BACK to Houston for work effective the first week of September!! If you could have only seen my face when I got this text! Not only is this a new job & opportunity for Lance (within the same company) it gives us our Daddy/husband back for at least 3 more hours a day, gives Lance MUCH more sleep and gives me more time with my hubby & more day to day help....sorry Lance! 

Thanking God for answering our prayers regarding Lance's job! I think we were both about done with the whole thing so this news couldn't have come any sooner! 

**And remember our one criteria to be fully ready to embrace the adoption? Yep, Lances job! Bring it on! I think I need a few more crumbs on my floor and another baby to snuggle all day!! 

Yippee!! :) 

Next ER trip....daddy will only be a blink away! But really, no more ER trips please! 

Nora (but it kinda turned into not about Nora)

I feel kind of bad because Zoe's post wasnt really about her being 15 months old....but about her being a little nut. So before I talk about Nora I will update a little on Zoe's current stats and such! At the 15 month check Zoe was in the 99% for height, 95% for weight and her head was the 85%. She is still large and in charge. But they said it was all good because she has been that way since she was born and is proportionate. 

Nora was 89% for height, 95% for weight, and 98% for head circumference. And if you look at Nora she really does look like she has a big head. Much like her dad and me and my whole family. We all are huge headed people! But again, they said it was great and she was healthy and a good weight for her height. 

Both girls are on a one nap schedule now. They both usually knock out a 2-3 hour nap in the middle of the day and it is a little slice of heaven for me! They both sleep well at night, and are both still big fans of rising at the CRACK OF DAWN. No joke, Zoe woke up at 6:07 on the dot every day last week. But some days they will sleep until 7 or 7:15 which is nice. They are in separate rooms, so I really enjoy the one on one time I usually get with one or the other for about 30 minutes each morning. It always seems like someone sleeps later and they tend to alternate these days which is great! I enjoy Nora rising early as opposed to Zoe because Zoe usually screams until I feed her and Nora is usually standing in her bed jumping for joy when I go in. It makes it much easier to leisurely make breakfast with a jolly girl as opposed to a drama girl! But Zoe is great once she is fed! 

The girls have become breakfast eaters. Nora loves sausage and cheese for breakfast. My kind of girl. Zoe prefers muffins or pancakes, which I also love so it's hard for me to stick with weight watchers as I ground up breakfast sausage and make pancakes in the morning. I cannot claim to have mastered allergy friendly cooking, but I have gotten pretty dang good at breakfast I must admit! 

The girls are all over the map with bedtime now. It all kind of depends on when they get up from their nap. But I'm loving this new toddler phase where they can roll with the punches a little better and we are more free to do stuff without 100% adhering to their schedule every day! Too bad that will all change once baby girl number three comes! At least for a season. 

On the topic of baby girl #3 (sorry Nora this is SO not turning into a post about you), we have our home study update on August 8th. Once this is done we are officially back active within our agency and could be getting "THE CALL" anytime. However, we went ahead and changed our criteria to a baby girl 0-6 months because we wanted to keep a natural birth order in the family. But still a baby girl, and we will still name her Jane unless God places something different on our hearts. In the international adoption world it's truly anyone's guess as to when we will get this child. We could get the call next month or in 6 months. It's that crazy! Once we are matched we could have a wait as long as 8-9 months until we get her in our home. I have become very aware lately of how HARD HARD HARD it is going to be for me to know my child is sitting in an orphanage while we are all here living life. I am already praying for God to help me with this because I don't think I truly realized the magnitude of this until I had the girls. I haven't left my current children for longer than a day and when I have left they are with their dad. I think if I don't really get on praying diligently about this it has the potential to completely unravel my every nerve! 

I had a dream just last night that we were in Ethiopia meeting our little girl. It was one of the most vivid dreams I have ever had and in my dream her birthday was October 1. I never remember details from dreams, and thought it was really interesting to have such a detailed dream about our future daughter. I told Lance I was excited to go to sleep tonight because I am hoping to have another dream about Jane! My love for this child I have never met is still so strong, even though my heart is now loving two other little munchkins. I really feel like God is "re"preparing my heart for this journey. 

My fears about the addition of Jane are likely similar to anyone who adds another child to the family adoption or not, like the lack of sleep and change in my routine. Then there are the adoption related fears like her adjustment, and fears. How will that look in our family? Will we be able to calm her fears after being sent home with a stranger to a strange place and family of strangers? Will Zoe and Nora be able to adjust to the sharing of their mommy for this season of life? I don't know the answers to these questions but do know that God will step in where we lack and that she is meant to be with us. 

So I am pretty much ecstatic about meeting this little girl that will become a much anticipated daughter, sister, granddaughter, and niece once she joins our crazy group!! 

Well, this post took an A.D.D turn and it looks like I will have to post about my sweet Nora another day! But she deserves a post of her own anyway. My little sweet pea! :)  

Until then, our family would much appreciate prayers as we embark back on this wild journey! 

Thoughts on food allergies....

(Before you read I would like to say that this "challenge" is minor in the scheme of life. I use this blog as an outlet for my thoughts on life and parenting & by no means am trying to complain or vent. Just writing because I like to and am very mindful & thankful for my healthy little babes.) 

So food allergies have just become part of our new normal. Honestly, when we found out about all of Nora's allergies I was kind of already on edge about her general state of well being to begin with so the laundry list of scary foods kind of freaked me out. However, once we removed all the "bad stuff" from her diet and saw her amazing transformation, it really was ok. SO totally worth it! 

But as the girls get older the reality of the effort behind always keeping up this lifestyle is kind of sinking in. We can't eat bread, cake, cookies, waffles, pancakes, muffins, hamburgers, hotdogs, no fried food, nothing breaded, nothing with oats, nothing with nuts, no rice at most places because of the veggies mixed in, no flour tortillas, no meat with the marinade at most restraunts, no strawberries, blueberries, no margerine, no peas, NO NUTS, NO EGGS, pretty much no fast food, no Cheerios, no goldfish, no wheat thins, no cheese itz, Just a lot of "no's". 

(Discovered we could eat original lays potato chips...they were digging this little treat and we didn't feel bad about giving it to them one bit!!) 

Being allergic to wheat and soy is a huge limiter of food. Throw on top of it an allergy to eggs and you are pretty much shut out of the carb world all together. 

I really didn't think it was that big of a deal. I substitute applesauce for eggs in pancakes and desserts. I make little quesadillas out of corn tortillas and just make it work. But for the most part we just don't do bread or baked goods. Nora so far could care less. The child would eat a rat if I put it on her tray. She truly will eat anything. However, lately Zoe is refusing our regular food and I can't give them separate food. The fighting and crying over wanting what the other has is just impossible. So there's that. But the main thing that I am realizing I have to adjust to is the PUBLIC. I can control this little world we live in here, but what if we want to be social? Here are my struggles right now:

(The girls had already finished their gluten free pizza....now time for hovercraft mommy!) 

PLAY DATES: We love seeing our friends and the girls are at an age where socialization is fun! However, when we get asked to come play I have to start a mental checklist. Will it fall over a lunch time? Is this family familiar with our situation? Will we be at a house or in public? If we are in public, will there be a separate place for us to sit? Is it the kind if place where food gets left in the play area? Are we going to a restraunt? We can't go to any Asian places! Will the mom think I am annoying when I have to ask that they wipe their tables down and make sure to sweep the floor before we come? Will I be able to keep tabs on two 15 month olds amidst a sea of snack crackers being left behind as toddlers run around the park? Is it worth it? Yes, they need friends, but how can we safely go to a public park at lunch time!? Kayla, you are their mom and can't be lazy and make them miss out! This is what goes through my mind, when most moms only have to plan play dates around naptime! 

(But for the record, I've never wanted to punch any friends in the eye yet!) 

CHILDCARE: I have been so blessed to pretty much be a SAHM with my girls. However, I have the ideal job for working 2 or so days a week and it being very worth it. However, I don't feel like I can leave Nora at even a home daycare for a couple days a week because WHEAT is like the staple of all kid snacks and I am just not ready to send her off, not having her mommies watchful eye keeping tabs on everyone's snacks. Peanut and tree nut allergies get a lot of publicity, which is great, she is allergic to both, but not a lot of people know kids allergic to wheat and soy! This is a tough allergy and one that is not easy for parents to avoid, even if it's just for when they are around you. Avoiding these things in a kids lunch or snack "on the go" is near impossible if you aren't a mom prepared to prepare these kind of meals. And why would you be? So this leaves us with the option of getting a nanny, which I now know is hard to find if you only need them 8 hours a week. So all these allergies are starting to seep into the plans I had for working as well. 

SCHOOL: I know, they aren't close to school age, but they are close to preschool age. I am hoping to put them in preschool 2 days a week next fall when we have baby girl #3, and it's kind of the same situation as above. I had actually decided I wanted to do that this fall and work the two days that I took them to Mother's Day out and the only place that still had availability isn't a nut free campus and told me they would just put Zoe and Nora at their own table for lunch. I wanted to say "lady, I'm not putting them in school so they can be isolated to their own little table, furthering their already antisocial tendencies of only wanting to play with each other. Plus, how will you handle birthday parties? My child can't have ANY store bought baked goods because she is allergies to eggs, wheat,  soy, and most of all the almond extract in pretty much every store bought cake!" Of course I didn't say this....but I don't think any school is going to smile when they see us coming down the hall!! 

So yes, we have a handle on the allergies, but I am starting to see that as they get older, controlling these situations will be tough. She will get to an age where she knows she can only eat her food, this phase of kiddos leaving a trail of food that they then eat off the floor is short lived, I know! But for now, now that we want to be out and social and part of the world, I am seeing how truly all encompassing the food allergies can be. 

To date we know that Nora is allergic to:

Wheat, soy, eggs, peanuts, almonds, lentils, peas, corn (mild), coconut (mild) 

And based on reactions we think she is allergic to:

Strawberries, blueberries, and milk (but just milk alone...she eats milk products). 

We are praying that she will get to a point where she can eat eggs baked into things, we thought we were in the clear and by about the 5th time we tried the gluten free bread with eggs she started getting hives. Zoe is allergic to eggs and can eat them baked in just fine, so we are hoping for the same reaction soon with Nora! 

I still feel baffled about how on earth all these allergies came about. I have been told a number of things ranging from it being because she was a c-section to me being to "clean" during pregnancy. Well, I spent most of my pregnancy with my hands in peoples mouths working on their swallow post CVA so I didn't have much of a choice but to wash my hands at work ha! And the c-section was out of my control as well....so I suppose there isn't much I can or could have done about this! They also say it's genetic. That does seem likely since Max (Betho's son) has allergies too and Bethany and I are identical twins. But we don't have ANY allergies, so it's just strange! 

But we will figure it out & friends don't freak out about us hanging around! We are so glad to be a part of the fun but may have to ask you to do a few strange things before we arrive!! :) 

Continue to pray that my little Nora grows out of ALL these allergies. We know that nuts and wheat usually stick for life, but we also know we have a God way bigger than a measly little food allergy so we will still pray, expecting healing for our little Nor Nor! 

Happy Sunday!! Here we go on another week! I should probably go to bed! And not that anyone wants a tour of my pantry but here are a few of our allergy friendly staples! 

Our life saver! Both girls had horrid eczema on whole milk & although Nora is technically mildly allergic to coconut she does way better on this than milk. 

Finally discovered a brand of soup mixes that are soy and wheat free. Sure they are 4x the price, but now if we have to I can whip up a casserole for a party or event that Nora can eat! 

Old man Bob has become an Agan staple

So has Annie! Who knew there was such a thing as "rice pasta"!? 

We love us some sun butter. However, we aren't sure what kind of bread we can eat anymore. :( 

These are the BEST and a life saver! Freeze dried apples! Our bag is always full!! 

And then our beloved, not really, epipen. Praying it always stays in it's little plastic home where it belongs!! 

My controlling child and her copy cat

My little Zoe girl has been really giving us a run for our money lately. She has started exerting her little will in a big way, and as sweet as she is, our days together lately have been a challenge! I love her inquisitive nature and "I wanna be a big girl" attitude. But the thing is she is 15 months old and just isn't a big kid yet! Her latest shenanigans include:

*Only eating grapes that are plucked directly from the vine....and no, she cannot eat a whole grape. So to avoid fit city I cut them up and pretend I am plucking them from the vine so she will happily eat them.

*Wanting to use a fork and only a fork to eat. Don't mind if she doesn't get one bite in her mouth, it's a risk she is willing to take.

*ONLY wanting to eat food from the source (e.g, eat the cereal from the box or tuna from the can and she must hold her water and have it in a regular cup with a straw like the big people). The other day I baked a whole chicken and was cutting pieces for them and she was screaming because she wanted the whole chicken on her tray!!! Can you imagine!? It was her size! 

*Wanting to push the stroller. People, the child really thinks she is capable of pushing the double stroller. We have had to literally hold her down in target because she was trying to push us away and take off with Nora like she was 16 years old! 

*Forcing visitors out of our house if she deems it's time for them to go or is afraid I am going to leave her with them. Her most recent was picking up a visitors shoes, handing them to them and waving and saying "bye bye". Actually quite embarrassing! (And they are unfortunately both good at this one)

*Wanting to open the dishwasher herself, turn on the stove when it's time to cook and unload the dishwasher. For a while I let her pretend she was helping me light the stove and it thrilled her to death and then we realized she was capable of turning on the gas and have had to child proof the stove with lovely black knobs! 

*Wanting to dictate when and how Nora can sit on my lap. Often if Zoe is playing happily alone and hears me call for Nora she sprints over and sprawls across my lap frantically looking behind her to make sure she has claimed her mommy territory. She also likes to sit in the middle of my lap when I read to them and pushes Nora until Nora is barely sitting on my leg. Heaven help me!

*Sprinting up to the tip top of any slide at any playground and NOT letting us get her down without an ugly scene. Again, she's 15 months old and although she can get to the top of the chic fil a playground in about 3 seconds flat, she is 15 months old and should not be up there being trampled by 7 year olds. She does not agree!

*Refusing high chairs in restaraunts. She wants to sit in a chair and eat with her fork even though her head doesn't clear the table. She is the loudest person I have ever known. For real. Anyone who knows her would agree, and trying to manage her yelling at us in public because she wants to sit in a chair that she keeps falling out of in between stabbing herself with the gigantic utensils and screaming is quite the experience! 

Crawling, climbing, and jumping off any chair she can see. We had to move all the kitchen chairs away from our table because no matter how much I tired and how consistent I was with redirection, I could not get her to stop using the chairs to crawl on top of the kitchen table and jump up and down. So I have managed to control that little sitch, but have no idea what to do about her newest game of standing on the window sills and jumping off! 

The list truly could go on and on and on but I'll stop here. I just adore that controlling little toot of mine and hope she doesn't take it too hard when she realizes she holds very little power in her current position in life. Sorry Zoester. Some lessons are hard and may be even harder for you sweet girl! 

Oh and Nora, she doesn't ever seem to think up this stuff until she sees it and spends the day copying Zoe. And then Nora doesn't forget it either. 

But I love the crazy twin dynamic, even if one seems to be a bit of a bad influence on the other. However, in Zoe's defense, Nora has started consistently biting the heck out of her when she annoys her. Super NOT ok and I'm currently working on a plan to end the biting. It happened today in the grocery store and a lady witnessed the whole thing and said, "bless her little heart her sister got her good!" I felt so bad and a bit embarrassed but what can ya do!? I guess no one, even babies, are perfect! 

Any advice on dealing with a very strong willed child are more than welcome!! :) 

And about Nora, she is a super quirky sweet, unique little soul that deserves a post all her own too! Coming soon... 

Wearing mommies shirt, refusing to sit in her highchair, and eating her snack from the bag. This sums up Zoe up perfectly! 

Happy 4th of July!

We have had a great long holiday weekend! This Friday Lance was home so I went into a nursing home to fill in for a few hours and did a little speech therapy"ing" while Daddy got to bond with his girlies at home. I was told I was needed to cover for THREE hours so I though "No Biggie" and slept in (which is a relative term at our house), went through Starbucks, sat and drank my coffee while catching up on some instagram pics of my friends cuties in their festive clothes, and THEN around about 9:15 decided to look up where the heck this place was and headed all the way down to Meyerland.

When I got there I was greeted and handed my schedule. I had SIX hours worth of patients to see. I kindly told them I was scheduled for three hours and they just smiled and said "Oh, no there must have been some confusion, we have you down for 6 hours" and pointed me towards a file cabinet to sift through and locate my patients charts. I am hoping to help a lot more on Friday's so I just smiled and said "Ok, no problem!". Oh my, Lance just got a whole lot more than he had planned for his day off. Me, I didn't mind so much. I really like working in skilled nursing. Being able to make a few extra bucks and turn back on a part of my brain that has been pretty much dormant since last April is nice for a change!

We spent much of the afternoon exchanging texts like:

 ME: The girls patriotic clothes are hanging in Zoe's closet &  the bloomers in a bin underneath

LANCE: Oh NO, I can only find one pair of "patriotic bloomers"!

ME: I need you to make a casserole too (insert about 15 texts with instructions and things that need to be added and omitted to keep it allergy friendly)

LANCE: I'm on it!

ME: Ok, swim suits are in Zoe's room, swim bag is on green chair in living room, sunscreen is in bag, pack snacks, bring swim diapers....

You get the idea!

But their AWESOME dad KILLED it. Everyone napped, everyone ate, everyone was dressed to perfection with chilled snacks in hand when I arrived at the Girod's house for our little party. I really was so proud of Lance and the thing is, it really was no biggie for him. He is SUCH a great daddy!

The day was great. Bethany is truly such a good, fun, thoughtful mommy and had made chocolate dipped frozen bananas, and frozen star shaped watermelon Pops for the kids. She went to great length to make sure no gluten or soy was in anything and that all of the treats were totally safe for everyone in our little allergy clan. The girls LOVED all of it and probably consumed more sugar that day than in their lives combined. It was so fun!! We swam and grilled and just had a wonderful family day. We were disappointed at first because we were going to have a few other friends over who ended up going out of town, but it ended up being the perfect, low key afternoon that I think we all needed!

We are loving that tomorrow is only Sunday and we have a whole extra day left to spend with Lance!

 Nora that morning. She is an interesting little person. SO quirky and funny. Like really, such a goof! 

 Nora scoping the scene

 Daddy & Nora with their sparklers ( I promise I love Zoe too, but she was too busy running around like a wild woman to get a picture or stop for such things as this!)

 All the sweet cousins

 This was today at chic fil a. Zoe LOVES her Aunt and Uncle. And she is much to big (in her opinion) for a high chair. She will sit at the table like a big girl thank you very much!

 Patriotic cutie #1

 Patriotic cutie #2

 

Lance's casserole

Typical potato casserole 

 Lance's casserole was absolutely DELISH, but Betho texted me this picture and I had to chuckle! He forgot to crush up the chex on the top and just dumped them on. She said he came in with what looked like a very billowy casserole and when she opened it, it took some self control not to laugh. But Lance, it was SO yummy and maybe even better that way!!

Sisters....so thankful that we all get to share these holidays (and most every day) together and help each other raise our kiddos. It is such a blessing & if it weren't for Betho my kids for sure wouldn't have had such a fun filled day! (I think she tried to instagram the tired out of our faces here!)

 Lance & his girls! Don't worry mom, I treated the clothes ASAP....no stains! :) 

That about sums it up, I hope everyone had as great of a weekend as we did! :)

Adoption mommy has returned!

I'm putting this out there in blog land! Please pray that Lance gets moved back closer to home soon for work. This is what we are waiting on to go back active with our adoption. I need my third baby girl in my life!! I woke up a few days ago and morphed back into adoption mommy. At breakfast yesterday I read a book about Ethiopia to the girls that a friend gave me. They were very excited to hear that they will have a sibling one day from Ethiopia. I was happy they were down for the journey! ;) 

But really, prayers for our family would be appreciated. We are currently weathering a bit of a storm with jobs and long commutes and uncertainty. However, God seems to swoop in and make all things right just when you think it's all wrong! I'm ready for the swoop God!

Proof that I am now adoption Mommy again. I'm drinking coffee at 1:15am and working on adoption paperwork. Feeling excited and hopeful & possibly a little too much of the effects of the double shot espresso! 

But I mean....I'm going to be a mommy of three. It will really happen. It got WAY put on hold but, hello, look what caused the "hold"!? Two other precious angel babes! Somebody pinch me....for real and possibly hook me up with a sedative to counteract all this caffeine! :/

And because what's a blog post without a picture of these two. In their car seats, just helping themselves to snacks and bopping along to the music. 14 months going on 14!!