Early Spring

Unseasonably warm weather has coaxed out blossoms on the trees around here.  This week, these beauties popped up unexpectedly in my front yard:

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day!  Thanks for the cute shirts, Grandma!

This is what Zachary did when I said, "Pose for a picture so Grandma can see you in your shirts."

Cracks me up!

Charlotte cracks Zachary up!

<3 How can you look at this cute happy girl and not smile? <3

The kids both loved it when Beppe stopped by for a special visit and story time.

School Picture Retake

I don't know if I shared Charlotte's first kindergarten picture with all of you who may be reading this or not.

I asked Charlotte why she made that face and she said that she was trying to smile.  Also, the picture was taken later in the day and she ended up with marker on her face.  

We decided to have it retaken.  I told her I wanted a picture of her real happy smile.

In the weeks leading up to the retake date, Charlotte and I practiced laughing and smiling in the mirror so she could get the muscle memory of what her real smile feels like.  

We finally got the new pictures this week, and I'm much happier with the result.

She's such a cutie pie either way!

Decorating for Christmas

I found Santa hats in one of the first bins we opened: 

Charlotte kept saying, "Ho ho ho! Merry Christmas!"  Zachary wasn't really into the whole picture thing.

Zachary had fun setting decorations various places and then moving them again.  

Bought these stockings and hangers two years ago on clearance at Target when I was pregnant with Zachary.  Glad we went with five..

Our tree is a little more sparsely decorated this year than last.  We couldn't decorate the lower third of the tree because Zachary just pulled them back off again.  And we only used our non-breakable ornaments in case the tree topples.  Still it looks festive and Charlotte had fun hanging things up!

I think Zachary's wondering what he can grab next...

Baby Boy Sierdsma in Utero

I kept these pictures from last week's ultrasound to myself until we could announce the gender yesterday.

Enjoy!

Growing Boy With a Mystery Rash

I had to take Zachary to the doctor today for a stubborn painful blistering diaper rash.  The doctor cultured it and we're waiting on results but in the meantime she prescribed some anti-viral medicine in case it's herpes related (which he would have caught from a nursery worker with a cold sore I guess?).  I sure hope that's not it!!

On the other hand, I noticed after we got home that the doctor's notes say "dermatitis herpetiformis" which is a type of rash associated with celiac disease... in other words, those who are gluten sensitive sometimes get a blistering rash like that after exposure ... and it's more common to have it located in the diaper area for babies and toddlers.

It could make sense because although he's normally limited on gluten just because our whole house is for my sake, he did eat a fair amount over Halloween weekend, and then had graham crackers and/or goldfish crackers in the nursery at Bible study the following Wednesday, which is when the rash started.

A third possibility I thought about after doing some research with "Dr. Google" this afternoon: it could be a yeast rash with a secondary bacterial infection (based on similarity to pictures in the image search results).

At any rate, Dr. McNinch is supposed to call me with the culture results as soon as she has them, and I've given him his first doses of the anti-viral drug in the meantime.


In more cheerful news, let's move on to the growing boy part of the story!

You may remember at his 15 month appointment that Zachary weighed 20 pounds and was 30 inches tall.

At today's appointment, almost exactly two months later, he was an ounce shy of gaining 2 pounds, and he had grown a full inch!  

That also means that he only has one inch left before he outgrows his infant car seat and has to graduate to a bigger convertible seat (which we'll still keep rear facing) even though he has 8 pounds to go before he exceeds the weight limit!

We were going to switch him when the new baby came anyway, but I'm guessing it might happen before then. What do you think?

Charlotte the Storyteller

Yesterday Charlotte told me that lions came from hair that blew into a dark forest, so dark that grass never grew.  I asked her today to tell me about it again, and she took it in a different direction.  I decided to type out what she said, verbatim including grammar errors.  All caps represent where she got very DRAMATIC!!!  

Far away in the dark where no one came near, the lions blew theirselves there.  They walked and walked and walked a long way.  Suddenly, they saw something very white.  They knew it was a house.  So they took it.  So they ran and went to the house, and they STAYED there forever!  

But far away in the forest where nobody had been there, in the deep darkness, there was a big dark hole that everybody stepped whenever somebody was there.  And when there was a hole, the hole went its way to the darkness!  It was a far away CASTLE!  

And one day when nobody seen them, there was a little BIRD flying in the SKY!  I mean it was a BAT, flying in the night by the big princess castle where Rapunzel and all the princesses laid down and went to sleep.  And when they wented they moved away from the flying bat in the night who wanted to be in the castle.  But when they moved, the bat FOLLOWED them, anywhere they went.  So they sold the bat.  It was theirs.  Somebody bought it and chained him all up. And then, the bat tried to get out, but he couldn't.  And so he DIED!  And nobody saw him DEAD in the nice warm grass.  

But when in the forest, the lolly trees went away and have never been sawn again.  Those lolly trees were taken away by the beauty of the BEAST!  I mean, Beauty and the BEAST! and they scared them all away.  But Belle heard a roar and she knew it was the Beast, but when the trees were scared, they didn't make a noise.  So once they hided, the fines went AWAY!  And the five little bats got sold all away to many people who all wanted them, but no one said.  But one time when the fine, there was one little bat, but he didn't get selled.  

All the other bats got sold, but when there were 100 little bats,  they all got sold away.  But the one bat that was named One-Hundred didn't know what to do.  And it was one little bat hanging by itself.  No one knew where he was.  The one little bat who was just a tiny baby didn't know where he was.  The mama bat said< "Baby, where are you?"  And then the wind blew the baby bat far away to the Beast's castle stands, and when the people blew all the wind, the five little "X"es ran out of sight.  And then when the wind blew once again, all the people ran away.  And once the people ran away, five little purple grapes were left all alone.  

And one day, when the wind blew in the fire, the fire catched the smoke, and everything was on fire forever and no one got it off.  But where the lions laid, the five little bats ran all away.  The five little bats were all sad that they didn't have a mom or a dad.  They really wanted one but no one could find one so they just DIED all hanging upside down on the tree.  

And when the fire blew, the five little people ran away FOREVER and ever, and when the fire didn't come off everything, then it all got burned down, and nothing looked different.  All of it was fired.  And everything had smoke.  No one ever went out there ever again.  

But one little kid that had fire clothes on went outside and ran into the woods that was caught on FIRE!  

THE END!