Oh what a week!

We have had quite a week of transitions for the kids. Allie got up Tuesday morning and announced that she wanted to wear panties instead of putting on a diaper. I was shocked because I have been trying to get her to do this for months with no luck. She loves her diapers. If Jack wasn't still in diapers (the same size as her), I probably would have thrown them away by now. Amazingly, Allie stayed dry all day. Even at nap time I let her stay in her panties rather than put a diaper on her. On her own she went into the bathroom and went potty during nap time. She did wait until bed time when she got her diaper put on to go poopy. The next day she stayed dry all morning and asked if she could wear panties to her preschool open house in the afternoon. I let her and she had no accidents. Dry all day. On Thursday Allie stayed dry again all day and this time went poopy in the toilet.
Adam and Allie decided months ago that if she stayed dry for 3 days in a row and used the toilet all day on those days (instead of just holding it in), he would by her rainbow ice cream with sprinkles. So, Adam dropped by the store on the way home from campus and picked up some rainbow sherbet. Luckily we already had the sprinkles at home. Allie was in heaven. That was Thursday and she has been dry and using the toilet ever since. I'm not sure what the sudden change of heart was for her. The only thing I can think is that since she is starting school this week, she wanted to be able to use the toilet like some of the other kids or maybe it was timing and she was just ready. I hope this is it and we don't have any backsliding.
I think we have finally had a breakthrough with Jack also. After four months of being in nursery at church, he is finally OK with being left there alone while Adam and I go to our Sunday School classes. So it looks like I have almost a 5 month break before I have another baby to be walking the halls with for 18month-2years. I'm just grateful for a break at all.

Baby, Jack, and Allie update

I can't believe it myself, but I'm almost 17 weeks into this pregnancy. I think it has gone by so fast because I'm not obsessed with finding out the gender of the baby. I figure I have a boy and a girl and either way with the next one I will be excited and a little disappointed.That's probably good because I was devastated when I found out that Jack was a boy. What was I thinking!
All is still going well with this pregnancy. I had my last appointment with my OB/GYN this past week. We have decided to deliver at the Austin Area Birthing Center if everything goes as planned. So from here on out I will be seeing a midwife there. Surprisingly, my doctor was very supportive of our plan. I was a little nervous to tell her that I didn't plan on delivering in the hospital. But as usual she was great.

We have scheduled the BIG ultrasound where we hopefully find out the gender of the baby if it cooperates. We'll be going to that 3 weeks from tomorrow. Stay tuned to find out more.

Baby #3 at 16 weeks

So, on to Jack. I'm sure by now all 3 of our readers know about Jack's nut allergies. Several months back we gave him a trail mix that included cashews in it and he broke out in huge hives and went into anaphylactic shock. His mouth started swelling up and he was having major trouble breathing. So, I had to call 911. Luckily before I called 911 I was able to give him some Benadryl and by the time the paramedics (and about 15 firemen) got here he was just wheezing a little. It was so scary. We now keep an Epi Pen Jr on hand just in case. Recently we had another scare with Peanut Butter. Again he broke out in hives but this time I was able to get the medicine to him sooner and he was fine. We had some more allergy testing done on him about two weeks ago because I suspected that he had more than just nut allergies(the last Dr. would only test him for nuts for some crazy reason). We found out that he is allergic to peanuts, cashews, eggs, wheat, and soy. So, my latest dilemma is figuring out what the heck to feed him.
We also found out a couple of months ago that Jack will need eye surgery in the next two months or so. He is having problems focusing his right eye with his left eye when he looks at things at a distance. I had been noticing that when he was in his high chair and would stare off at things his right eye looked a little lazy and sure enough it is. Oh, Jack what a mess you are. But you sure are cute.

Jack with a patch over his eye before his last visit to the opthalmologist

Jack kept pulling the patch off so I had to put band aids all around it. It worked. The Dr. had a hard time getting it off.

In Allie news, she will be starting the University of Texas Lab School (preschool) in about 2 weeks. her teacher is coming to visit on Tuesday and Allie is excited to meet her. Adam and I are hoping that going to school will help her desire to get potty trained once and for all. As she says "Mommy I know how to use the potty. I just choose not to. I choose to wear my diaper." I'm about to throw the diapers out if this doesn't work. Then of course I'll be left to clean up the mess since she also chooses to go in her panties. I don't know which is worse, having 3 kids in diapers or "helping" her clean up her messes and just having 2 in diapers.



Oh, one last thing, I promise. We put Allie and Jack in the same room to sleep (Allie's room) for the first time tonight. We'll see how that goes. Jack was very upset when he first realized that we were leaving him in there. But by the time we closed the door they were having a grand time. Allie has been being a little mother in there. It is hilarious to hear the things she tells him. She's been reading to him to help Jack to feel better abut things. It's 8:15 and they are still playing. Maybe they'll sleep in tomorrow. Not likely. We'll let you know how this goes on our next blog posting sometime next month.