Tuesday, December 23, 2014

Facing a Big Decision

Maternity leave has been nice in so many ways. I’ve lived in my yoga pants. I’ve hardly fixed my hair. And, I get to watch my favorite daytime shows – “Kelly and Michael,” “The Chew” and “Ellen” almost every day. I also try to nap as much as possible. Yep, I’ll miss these days.

But it hasn’t been all peace and quiet. Parker cries and screams. A lot. At first we thought it was reflux, so we made several trips to the pediatrician and started him on zantac first, followed by previcid. He was taking each medication twice a day, which seemed like a lot for a baby not even a month old. We waited a couple of weeks for the right dosage of the reflux medications to sink in and kept holding out hope that he would get better. He still screamed at night (nope, wasn’t colic), seemed constantly gassy and his stomach was always so tight like he was really struggling. There’s not a feeling as helpless as when your baby is in pain and you have no idea how to care for him. I have never felt so lost.

Then last Monday (Parker was 5 weeks old) I was taking Connor to the doctor for a fever virus and I happened to show the pediatrician this rash Parker was developing (see below). It was red and bumpy and started on his face and then spread to his neck, abdomen and eventually to his legs. Our doctor said to treat it with some cream and if it’s not better in four days, bring him back. Sure enough it was not better, in fact it was worse, so I brought him back in. The doctor said that he thinks it is a dairy and soy allergy, so I need to eliminate all of those proteins from my diet for a week and see if he is any better.




Tomorrow I will call and tell the doctor that Parker is better. Actually, his rash is almost all cleared up. He is starting to do less screaming (my ears are so thankful) and we have even seen a couple of little smiles.

And now I’m faced with a big decision. Eliminate all dairy and soy from my diet completely (not even a cheat day here and there) or switch him to an allergy free formula.


This is a big decision.

Monday, December 8, 2014

Chopped Beef Sandwiches

This is a great week to pull out the crock pot and let it work its magic. The crock pot is probably the most under utilized gadget in my kitchen, which I hate to admit. Nevertheless, it's perfect for this easy weeknight meal. This recipe is based on my mother in law's recipe she uses at Ford Family Tailgating parties, just modified to work for our family (and my MSPI diet).

Ingredients

  • 2 cups of pre-chopped creole mix veggies (in the produce section at the grocery store)
  • 1/2 cup ketchup
  • 1/2 cup BBQ sauce (your choice of sauce; I use Stubb's or homemade)
  • 1/2 cup water
  • 1 tablespoon vinegar
  • 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce (I use A1 so that it's MSPI friendly)
  • 1 tablespoon + 1 teaspoon brown sugar
  • 1 teaspoon of creole seasoning (I use Slap Ya Mama)
  • 1-2 pounds of boneless chuck roast
  • Burger/sandwich buns

Mix the first eight ingredients together in the crock pot, and then add the meat. Turn the crock pot on high and cook for 6-7 hours, until the meat is tender. When you are ready to serve, shred the meat and serve on a burger bun of your choice. It goes great alongside grilled veggies!





Sunday, February 16, 2014

Valentine's Dinner Party

We celebrated Valentine's Day at home this year, and had two of our favorite couples over for dinner! My husband is a fabulous chef and prepared an amazing meal for us. It was a great evening with friends, and allowed us to have meaningful conversations without the chaos that comes with dining out on the "most romantic night of the year."

Since we were just at home, I wanted to give the dinner an extra touch with a simple, but elegant tablescape. I pulled my grey chevron table runner I had made out of the drawer to start with. I knew I had to use red as my corresponding color versus pink, since red would pop more on the grey runner. Added in some votives, and we have the table ready to go!





For the silverware, I wrapped it up in red dinner napkins and then twisted a red and silver heart wire strand to keep it together. Very simple!




On the menu: homemade hush puppies with a side of creole butter, grilled veggies, salad, garlic mashed potatoes and flat iron steak topped with New Orleans style BBQ shrimp. It was as delicious as it looks!

Hope you all had a great Valentine's Day!
B

Sunday, February 9, 2014

15 months!

Little man is 15 months old. At his checkup this week, he weighed 30.5 pounds and was 33 1/2 inches long. He wears 24 months/2T clothes and he still only has 6 teeth. He's growing so quickly, and time is passing by too fast! Since I'm not updating the baby book monthly anymore (and I'm a little thankful for that, let's be honest) I need to still keep up with documenting what Connor is up to these days! His favorite thing to do is walk around, no matter where we are (parking lot, restaurant, etc.)! He is so busy! He walks and shrieks and screams happy sounds. So fun!

His favorite toys:
Balls
The Fisher Price dog that he can pull
Wooden knob puzzles (really just so he can bang the pieces together)
Toilet paper
Wooden spoons
The sprinkle shakers from Connor's own shelf in the pantry

His words:
Dada (first word)
Mama (my favorite word!)
Ball
Dog
Bye-Bye (with a wave toward himself)
Up (he usually says this while he's laying on the ground and he puts his legs up in the air!)
Nana (as in banana)
Out-ide (outside...his favorite place to be)
No (he usually says it when we are reading the Find Spot books)
All done (and he puts his arms out to the side like he's motioning "I don't know"
Hello (and pretends he's talking on the phone by putting whatever object he's holding up to his ear)


Connor is a busy little man, and he keeps us on our toes! Not many quiet moments around our house anymore. But, we wouldn't have it any other way. I'm amazed at how smart he is and how much he understands. What a blessing to watch him grow up and discover his world!

Here are a few recent pics from the past couple of months!

Sliding at the park...I think we did this 20 times that day!

Celebrating our friend Preston's birthday! Blurry picture because he was SO busy walking all over the place!

During the first Houston "snow" day we went to Wonderwild to get some energy out!

Think he has enough bath toys?

First trip to the Zoo in January. He loved the petting zoo!
What a fun age! We are having a blast!
B




Monday, January 6, 2014

Our Merry Christmas!

Whew - I need a vacation to recover from our Christmas. Or a spa day. Hubs, are you listening? Our little man is wild, let me tell you! But these are some pretty fun times, I must admit. Connor starting walking just after Thanksgiving and he hasn't slowed down. When he walks, he still kind of waddles like a penguin. He also squeals and screams and shrieks as he walks, and it's so cute. And so loud - we're going to be deaf here pretty soon! I need to get a video of this, but I swear he's camera shy. Every time I press record, he freezes up. We're going to have to work on that.

I digress. Christmas was fun and filled with lots of family and friends. We headed to North Louisiana to see my dad's side of the family, and then back home, and then off to BR to see the Fords'. Connor got more than we could have ever asked for or imagined. This is one spoiled rotten boy. The third carload of gifts are coming back to Houston from BR this weekend. And I'm not kidding.

So, here is an overload of pictures from Christmas.

A picture from his Christmas card.
Throwing his annual Christmas tantrum after the Christmas Eve service at church.  
Adams cousins in matching shirts! Beck (1), Elizabeth (1.5) and Connor.
Checking out his new chair from Santa on Christmas morning!

Look at all of his presents from Grammy and Paw Paw. Like I said - spoiled rotten. He was mildly interested in tearing the paper off of the gifts, and VERY interested in putting the paper in his mouth. 

The theme of Christmas for my family was tacky sweater!

The Ford cousins. Look at C's expression! So funny!

My favorite picture! Big boy is riding on his new Buzz Lightyear car! Thank you Nana & Pops!



Hope you all had a blessed Christmas!
Brittney




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