So since my camera was working today, strange still. I decided to press my luck and take Madison's 4 year old pictures, I think we took about 30-40 pictures. I am not skilled in anyway maybe I feel if I take enough pics we will get a good one, and it is cheaper to take and print myself. But I do try to capture good ones and by trial and error i think I have learned some things about photography. Who knows?

And this time I let Madison pick her poses for the camera!

Now I must choose one and than decide if it should be left in color or turned to black and white.
I have my favorites, this is just a sample of the pictures.
And for those fellow bloggers, I am always looking for tips on taking better pictures!

So tonight as I was posting the previous post I was sitting here and playing with the old camera, and thought put the memory stick back in the camera and take a picture. I don't know why because for the past 2 weeks every time I tried it and it wouldn't work, and I tried multiple times a day. So i did it and it took a picture, than I told Madison to come in the room and it took her picture. I didn't chance anymore and turned it off, I will try again tomorrow and maybe by some small miracle(we can hope) the camera will continue to serve us well. Someone is watching out for us and knew just how expensive digital cameras are! But at any rate I did get a really cute picture of Madison actually smiling which is a rare occurrence she is into making the weird faces for the camera. Tonight is a happy moment!

Parade

Strange car, but did really neat tricks!

The city of Piqua is celebrating 200 years this year so they had a parade on Saturday. Dave had to work so the kids and I braved the crowds in sure of some fun excitement. Madison and Garrett did really well even if the parade was almost 2 HOURS in length! We got rained on which Garrett loved, he didn't care that he was being rained on the sweetest was when it started he was watching so intently the drops that fell on the sidewalk as they left their mark. He would gently touch the wet marks on the sidewalk. The picture of Garrett isn't the best but it just showed how intently he watched the parade in complete fascination by the cars, especially the little cars and semi's in the parade. Madison practically waved the whole parade, she has realized if you wave they throw candy. The strangest thing we saw was a car with two front ends. It was weird!!! The highlight was Madison and Garrett seeing their cousin Bryce, and getting a big hug from him.

Take Me Out to the Ballgame!

Dave and I took Madison to the Dayton Dragons, a minor league baseball team in Dayton Ohio. It was a blast! Garrett stayed home so we could have some extra one on one time with Madison! She loves when we do this!

Madison took her glove to catch a fly ball. One was hit right beside Dave's head but he said no way was he going to stick his hand out and catch the ball. Madison was a little cheerleader during the game jumping up and down and cheering for the players. Although she would watch the outfield and kept asking when they are going to start playing so we had to direct her eyes to the pitcher and home plate...silly girl!

And what ball park outing wouldn't be complete without hot dogs, ice cream(dipping dots, Madison wouldn't eat them she said they were ice cream it did come in a cool pink Dragons plastic baseball hat), pop corn and a couple of souvenirs(their colors are not really pick but what better way to get girls excited than with a pink hat!)

The highlight of the night....getting to the mascots, Heater and Gem.

Dentist = Success

Both kids had dentist appointments this last week and they were both a success. No cavities! Madison loves to go to the dentist and lets them do everything in her mouth. Garrett, a first timer this time, went right back with the hygienist and came about about 15 minutes later all smiles! The got a bag with a new toothbrush, toothpaste, floss, stickers and a toy and they were happy the whole drive home.

Laundry List

So we got some of the test results back for Garrett. The one that has come back is his blood test back for the allergy panel and to our surprise he is allergic to more than we thought.

Very allergic too: Corn, Egg, Milk, Peanuts and Walnuts
Mild Allergy too: Soy and Wheat

He is to have absolutely no foods with egg or nuts in them. And we have to take him off all obvious dairy products.

They called in a Epi Pen to the pharmacy for us to carry with us at all times because his numbers were showing so high.

We meet with the allergists on Tuesday morning. Until I wonder what to feed the kid! =)

At least we are getting answers and figuring him out.

Makes me want to Cry

My camera broke, so maybe no new pictures for awhile. It is hard to be without a digital camera, instant pictures oh so nice. I am not sure what happened I took pictures yesterday and than last night and this morning the camera will turn on you can do everything with all the other buttons but when you punch down on the shutter button it won't do a thing...so no pictures. I have went through the manual and the troubleshooting on the Internet and nothing works. It is really frustrating. So for now I will take pictures with my other camera get them developed and scan them in. It is just not the same, and to have to develop the whole roll and not just the ones I want too, what is up with that!

Garrett's new stats

Well we found a new Pediatrician, and we absolutely loved this one. It was a 300 % turn around from the last one.

Garrett is 14 months old now.

23 Pounds (he lost a little from 2 months ago) and is barely more than he was at 9 months.
31 inches so he has grown 1/2 inch in 2 months.

They drew some blood (What a trooper) and are testing for food allergies, I mentioned the egg incident and he has had some issues with the eczema on his face getting worse after he eats and we are having a hard time narrowing it down. It is gross but, we had to get a stool sample and take it to children's hospital they think he may have what is called c-diff (in a nut shell the bad bacteria takes over in his intestines) . We had this right before we left and thought the medicine did its trick. Nasty stuff and can be found anywhere, shopping carts, you can bring it home on your shoes, hands, etc. This could explain the lack of real weight gain.

He got 3 vaccinations and still has one more to go.

And last, we were referred to an ENT (Ear, nose, and throat DR.) Garrett snores really loud and when the ped asked me how his sleeping habits are I told her he sleeps (or is in his crib) about 13-14 hours at night and than a 2 1/2 to 3 hour nap(I wasn't going to complain) but it seems lately he is up for about 2 hours in the morning and than he is tired and grumpy and irritable. She looked in his mouth and said his tonsils were huge for a little guy and she thinks that maybe he is waking up at night multiple times and not really getting a real good sleep. Makes sense.

So this next couple months will be interesting we couldn't get into the ENT til July 5th. We should start to hear about test results next week. And on top of all this the Dentist here likes to see kids when they first start getting teeth around 12 months so Thursday Garrett has his first Dentist appointment and Madison too although not her first she is really excited!

Fun in the Sun

Madison had a bunch of her friends from church over yesterday afternoon for a little get together. We had the sprinkler going and the pool full. We even had some water balloons and the bigger kids really enjoyed having a bowl to fill up and dump on each other. I am not really sure of the face Madison is making in her picture.....hmmmmm, but she wanted everyone know that she bought that swimsuit with some birthday money. What a girl buying clothes instead of toys, you would think she is 4 going on 16!

Ice Cream! Ice Cream!

Garrett experienced his first ice cream sandwich yesterday. I didn't intend for him to have the whole thing but he took it out of my hands barely out of the wrapper, I didn't think he would eat the whole thing but he did. If you tried to take it from him he would hold it tighter and walk to other way. So we just let him be a kid and EXPERIENCE!

Sweet Escape

On Saturday night I got to go with my sil, Buffy, to a Gwen Stefani concert at the Verizon Wireless Outdoor Theatre in Indianapolis, along with 23,000 other people.
It was a lot of fun to watch the concert, I think the last real concert I attended was maybe New Kids on the Block, that's right....I know many of you out there did the same thing so don't laugh! The concert was really good but we also got a kick out of watching insane people around us, very strange, making complete fools out of themselves. You see we had seats on the lawn, not too bad though. A nice night out but a very late one too, I think we got home around 3:30 the next morning!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MADISON!

Happy Birthday Madison you are finally 4!!!! This last year has been amazing and Madison has learned to do so many new things. She can count to 20 and say her ABC's and has even started to write her name. She is so sweet and so very helpful and her brother just adores her. Madison is all girl, always has been but this year was a turning point when it really started to show...dresses all day everyday, make-up, painting the fingernails, doing hair, glitter, rings, bracelets and necklaces, and of course...PINK! PINK! PINK! Everything girly. He favorite past times are dressing up, playing princess, having tea parties, and pretending to be the little mommy. She is so funny and full of energy and life, with a real love to learn. She keeps everyone on the right path in life and when tell people they are doing something wrong and will not hesitate to tell them. She is an amazing little girl destined to do amazing things (we all think that about our kids, I know). We couldn't possibly think about what our family would be like without her. This year so many new things were learned and discovered it will be fun to look back next year and see what she is doing, learning and what she has discovered. For now we are content to have the endless tea parties and make-up sessions, and yes, she is a the make-up artist