Spending Time with Dendi and Bapa, Part II -- Chocolate!!!

One of the best things about Dendi's house is it's plethora of yummy food options. Dendi always has a healthy supply of Eli's favorite red chips (wavy Lays), Alpha Bits, oreos and chocolate. Of course, she has lots of healthy food too, but that's not what's important to Eli. As I've said many times before, his favorite thing in the world to eat is chocolate. He showed off his chocolate face for the camera.



Keira even got in on the chocolate fun, and ate (or smeared across her face) a few Oreos.





Speaking of Keira's food... we are struggling. She is having a doozy of a time learning to eat solid food. She has no interest, she just wants to nurse, thank you very much. Last week, I took her to the doctor for her 15 mos. checkup and the doctor is concerned. Her height has dropped down to the 50%, but most concerning her weight has dropped down into the 10%. Because she was concerned with the drastic drop, she wants me to come back in a month for a reweigh. Now, Scott and I have buckled down to the serious business of trying to get Keira to eat, anything. As of now, she nibbles on things, ...

I wrote this last bit almost a week ago, and the eating thing is slowly improving. Last week, I was about to write that she nibbles on things, tries to swallow, chokes, gasps, spits up and tries again. Also, as has been the case since she was six months old (same was true for Eli, too) she does not want to be fed. She want to feed herself. She is now trying to eat most of what we eat and I've been pureeing a lot of our meals since swallowing still seems to overwhelm her. The most successful meal yet was spaghetti, or I should say spaghetti sauce. She stayed so long in her high chair dipping her spoon and bread into the sauce that she outstayed most of us. It was amazing and a huge relief. Now, we have to continue working on food and most importantly drinking. She's not interested in drinking anything from a cup (or even bottle!). I've tried every sippy cup you can imagine, but, no luck, as of yet. Keep your fingers crossed.

Spending Time With Dendi and Bapa, Part I -- Grandbaby Love

While keeping an eye on our house's progress, we've spent a lot of time at Dendi and Bapa's house in the last month. Our time at their house was well documented, so this will be the first of several posts. Being at their house has allowed Eli and Keira to spend a lot of time with two of their grandparents. Here are my favorite pictures of Elijah and Keira with Dendi and Bapa over the last month or so.

Here are some of my favorites of Dendi with her Grandbabies.




Eli got in some quality time with Bapa and a giant mound of dirt on our lot.




While Eli is very comfortable with both Dendi and Bapa, Keira remains reticent at best of Bapa -- as she is of all men except for Daddy. Although, she is VERY SLOWLY warming up to him. He's discovered that if he offers his hand to her while she's walking, she may hold it and if he picks her up while she's turned away from him, she'll often sit in his lap for a few minutes. It's progress.


Keira's in love with Eli's crocs, which made this particular occasion more successful.

Wrapping, Roofing, Windows, and Doors

This weekend, the frenzied building pace continued. By the end of the weekend, the roof had been finished, the whole house wrapped and most of the windows and doors had been installed -- amazing! I've heard that this part of the process always seems to go fast, then in contrast, the rest of the house seems to go at a snail's pace. Here are some more pictures of the outside of the house...





Here are a few of the inside of the house, too. I'm sure it's hard to make out what most of this is, but I figured it would be interesting to look back on once the house is finished.

Here is the view looking out our front door.


Here is a peek at the kitchen and eating area.


And, finally the fireplace


Also, here's a copy of the Floor Plan. Although, keep in mind, our house is the mirror image of this one, and we've added on a covered rear porch instead of the small patio. (BREAKING NEWS...my incredibly awesome husband flipped the picture and drew in a covered back porch and labeled all the rooms because the labels had flipped with the picture...what would I possibly do without him? He is the best husband in the whole wide world. Have I mentioned what a wonderful person he is? Really. If you feel the need to acknowledge his computer prowess, he accepts payment in Pepsi and Double Bubble.) I realize it's a very small image. As always, you can click on the image to make it bigger, and once in the other program you can click on it once again to see even more detail.

All Framed Up

This past week brought any amazing amount of progress in the building of our new house. First, for the framing...

Here's a view of the left side of the house -- these windows will be Elijah's, Keira's, our master bathroom and one of our master bathroom's -- although it's a little hard to see all of them. In front, with the large header, is the garage.


Here's a view of the back of the house.


And, the front of the house



Then, the next few days, they completed the framing, making it look even more like a house.



Here are Keira and I standing on our soon to be front and back porches.

A Sunday in Atlanta

Last Sunday, over Labor Day Weekend, we spent a leisurely morning in Atlanta. It was a beautiful, breezy fall morning. Even though our afternoons are still frequenting the 90's range, the mornings have been mild and pleasant. We were long overdue for a Trader Joe's run and Eli mentioned that he was interested in visiting Piedmont Park. We decided to combine the two and make a morning out of it. We started in Piedmont Park and went to one of Eli's very favorite playgrounds. Scott and I were both impressed with the work that's been done on Piedmont Park since our last visit. The city pool next to the playground is nearly resort quality and cheaper to swim in than Peachtree City pools. It's definitely something to keep in mind for next summer. Although, next summer, we'll be a two minute walk from our community swimming pool. The subdivision amenity center is something I forgot to mention in my last house post. We will be living behind the community swimming pool, awesome playground, basketball courts, tennis courts, small workout center and giant play field. The community amenities are another huge plus to our new house.

But, I digress, back to our last Sunday in Atlanta... As I said, we started our morning with some play time at the playground in Piedmont Park. It's always been one of Eli's favorites, and it didn't disappoint. The last time we visited the playground was over a year and half ago, and in terms of Eli's physical skills, that eighteen months made a huge difference. His favorite playground element this time was something that he couldn't even play on solo our last visit. It's these swinging stepping stone/pole things. He spent a lot of time navigating his way across.




Keira also enjoyed the park. She was in awe of all the big kids running around and spent a lot of time just watching the mayhem.


Her favorite element was the swings.



After spending a few hours at the park, we headed to Trader Joe's. It had been about two years since we'd been and we remembered why we love it so much. Too bad they won't open one locally. :( Although, it does make a good excuse for heading to the big city from time to time. Now that Keira doesn't detest the car maybe we'll start going regularly again. After a healthy shopping run, we drove home and within minutes both kids were sound asleep in the back seat. All in all, it was an enjoyable and productive Sunday morning in Atlanta.

Medical Drama and Cuddle Bunnies

I almost hate to say it, lest I jinx it, but my children's amazing relationship continues. Even when Eli's grumpy and defiant to Scott and I, he's still loving, affectionate and protective of his little sister. Like any transition, Eli starting school, has been a little rocky. And, like any transition, his behavior has suffered. I'm sure his medical drama hasn't helped the situation.

First, he missed his third day of school because of his asthma. I took him to the doctor because he had been wheezing, coughing and not sleeping well, two nights in a row. He had a virus that complicated his asthma, which we were disappointed to find out he hadn't outgrown, as we'd previously thought. All told, on that Thursday, I gave him eight puffs of Albuterol and he had a breathing treatment. When his breathing didn't improve by the evening we decided to take him to Chidren's Hospital in Atlanta. Fortunately, they didn't have to admit him. They gave him another breathing treatment. The higher dose and added decongestant seemed to do the trick. But, the emergency room doctor was worried that it had taken him that much Albuterol to turn the corner. So, along with his steroid inhaler and rescue inhaler that the pediatrician had prescribed, the E.R. doctor prescribed oral steroids, too. I was glad he did, it took Eli about four days before I really heard his lungs clear. But, oral steroids are famous for being mood altering. For those five days, Eli seemed to enter an extremely early adolescence. He was wired and crazy one minute and weepy and sad the next. Crazy! I'm sure the two puffs of albuterol every four hours only increased his wild mood.

Then, to add insult to injury, on the evening of his fifth day of school, we found out that Eli is definitely allergic to pecans. He's now had a reaction to almonds and cherries (which are in the same family) and pecans. On that Thursday evening, we went to a little classic Southern restaurant for Scott's school's Spirit Night. Spirit Nights is when a restaurant agrees to give a part of their proceeds to the school for the evening. They are usually quite popular. While we can't afford eating out much, we do try to attend a few Spirit Nights a year, usually at the beginning of the year. Scott felt especially obligated to go to The Fork in the Road's Spirit Night as one of his student's parents' own the restaurant. We had a delicious meal, then for dessert, Scott and Eli decided to share a slice of Coca Cola cake for dessert. Coca Cola Cake is a Southern classic where they use Coke to make a chocolate cake even more sweet and rich. Unfortunately, the frosting was filled with pecans. Within minutes of eating the dessert and possibly ingesting two whole pecans at most (he tried to pick out most of them.) Eli looked pale as a ghost and said he didn't feel well, like he was going to throw up. Again, unfortunately, the restaurant ran out of credit card paper and we had to wait around with a sick kid for another fifteen minutes. The delay meant that Eli threw up in the car on the way home. Poor kid, poor carseat, poor car. He threw up again at home, then fell asleep, woke up crying an hour later and was covered in a rash. The rash sealed it -- it was definitely an allergic reaction.

All told, his steroids, inhalers and throwing up have complicated his start of school. Finally, now, I feel like he's settling into it. But, those first two weeks were hairy at best. But, as I said, no matter how wild or naughty Eli is one thing remains the same -- he's always wonderful and cuddly with his sister. His name is the first thing she says when she wakes up and she likes nothing more than to crawl all over him. The other night, in fact, it was when we were at the Fork in the Road's Spirit Night, Eli told me that he loves Keira a little more than me, because she can lay on him.

Catching Up on Lot 2 -- Sold Sign and Forms

The building of our house is getting exciting! Last week they started framing it. Visiting the lot and looking through our windows (holes) made it feel so real. It was the single most exciting house moment in a long time. I don't have any pictures of the framing to post right now, but I do have to catch up on other pictures.

Before last week, the exciting news was a sold sign on the property and forms. If you are anything like me, you may not know that forms are the wooden parts that they lay down before they pour the foundation. They are not paperwork. ;) Hee hee...




I realized after receiving emailed questions from friends reading the blog that I haven't supplied much information about our new house. So here goes... It's a four bedroom, two and a half bath, ranch that is a little over 2,600 square feet. The square footage is extremely exciting, considering that right now our house isn't even 1,100 square feet. Our new house will be more than double the room! Some of the features that I'm most excited about are the covered porches -- front and back, less mosquitoes in the back yard, an island in the kitchen, marble countertops, a giant master closet, a laundry room (that's not in the garage), a powder room, a giant play room for the kids (we'll be using the combined formal living and dining room) and maybe most importantly, having enough room so that everything will have a place. I'm enjoying the process of watching it go up, but in some ways, December can't come quick enough.

A surprising highlight for the kids so far in this building process, has been visiting our dirt. In many ways, I think they were both a little sad when all the dirt got covered with a foundation and hay. Here are some of my favorite pictures of my Red Georgia Clay Kidlets.