Apple Orchard with Grandma

We had such a fun time at the orchard, we took Mike's mom, Windy, when she came out to visit us. There were only a few days left of apple picking, but we still made a haul. In fact, we still have a ton of apples. Any good apple recipes??

Bailey and Avery were apple picking pros. Avery could hardly see an apple and not pick it. She was in apple picking heaven.

Instead of a sand box, they had a corn box. I guess it's a good thing Avery doesn't like food when it comes to playing in a corn box...

We got a few cute shots of the girls in the miniature hay maze. They both loved this little "peek a boo" hole.

Afterwards, Windy made a delicious and giant apple pie with the girls. What could be better then an apple pie made with just picked apples?

Pumpkin FHE

A few weeks before Halloween, we had a pumpkin FHE. We read "The Pumpkin Experiment" from the Friend, ate pumpkin soup for dinner, and made pumpkin cookies for dessert.

We also had to carve our pumpkins on pumpkin night. Bailey was a little squeamish at first when it came to pulling out the pumpkin guts, but ended up having a great time.

We also tried to make roasted pumpkin seeds. The seasonings on them were great, but they never got crunchy. I had forgotten that at low temperatures, our oven needs at least twice as long. Oh well.

I think we have started a tradition. You can never have too much pumpkin in the fall.

Things I should have blogged...

Well, it's been too long since I've updated. Here are a few things I should have posted forever ago:

Our garden this year was okay. I'm not quite sure we got the $100 of produce that we spent, but it was still delicious. The best thing we grew was brandywine tomatoes. We had one plant, and the first harvest was a disaster. They never turn really red like other tomatoes, so we let them rot on the plant. Luckily we got a few others, and they were phenomenal. I highly recommend them. All was well until the end of the season when something decided ruin the rest of our tomatoes. Oh well.

Our zucchini and squash plants also met an early death- aphids. Gross.

Bailey got her ears pierced over Labor Day. She had been asking about it for months and months. When she saw a little baby at church with her ears pierced, she was convinced. When they showed her the selection of earrings, of course she picked the super plain gold balls. With a little persuasion, she picked the pink "princess" earrings. I was expecting her to cry after the first one, but I was not expecting her to scream bloody murder like she did. Mike and I had to hold her down for the second earring because she decided that she didn't want the second one. All is well now, and she is glad she did it.

Mike has had a great couple of months. He did radiology and anesthesiology, and was often done really early. On one of those days, we went to Cooper's Apple Cider Mill in Bucyrus.

The name was a little deceiving. They don't actually make apple cider. However, they do make over 50 different types of jams and butters. And they use a wood burning stove to do it. The tour probably wasn't worth the drive- it was only two rooms. It was still fun to see and try the wide variety of jellies, including dandelion.

We also went to Lawrence apple orchards in Marion. There we picked 23 lbs. of apples for $8. Avery had the time of her life. Bailey got bored after a while, but Avery could have picked them forever. It was adorable. We picked red delicious, idared, and melrose apples. We weren't sure if we could use that many apples, but we did, quickly. We made apple crisp, apple cookies, caramel apples and ate a lot of apples.

We love fall in Ohio.

Bailey Ballerina

At the rec center close to our house, Bailey is taking preschool ballet. She had her first class this week, and it was pretty much the cutest thing I have even seen. Her teacher, Miss Brittney, asked the parents to leave so she could see how they would do. I can understand why she did it, but I was sad not see my little ballerina dance for the first time. Mike and I peeked in when they were stretching. It was adorable. The girls, including Bailey, were mostly looking around at their classmates instead of actually stretching. And when she did stretch, it was too cute. She is growing up too fast. What a beautiful ballerina!

Avery is one!!

At long last, here are pictures of Avery's first birthday. I can't believe that she is one already!

Bailey, being a sweetheart, was sad that Avery didn't get as many presents and she did for her birthday. However, as you can see, Avery got a big present instead.

Once she opened the baby, which also happened to be the first present, she didn't want to open any of the others. She only wanted that baby! Hopefully, now that Avery has her own "special" baby, she will leave Bailey's alone.

Like I said, she loves that baby!

I amazed even myself by making and decorating this cake. It came with great directions. (:

Notice the baby again.

My complaining post

I am really discouraged. Yesterday, Avery was officially diagnosed with a milk allergy. The doctor said he's not sure if it is a lactose intolerance, or a milk protein allergy, but it looks like an actually allergy. She gets hives every time she eats cottage cheese, has had diarrhea for the last two months and has had a horrific diaper rash complete with blisters and open sores. Poor baby!

I'm mostly frustrated because we have worked so hard to get her to like eating. Because of her severe reflux and long memory, she did not want to eat because it caused pain. Months on Prevacid had made her happy to eat again, but now she flat out refuses anything because her stomach has been bothering her for so long.

I feel like I'm back at square one with her. I guess I wouldn't worry so much if she wasn't so tiny. At her last appointment she was 1st percentile for weight. She used to be in the 80th. She has crossed so many growth lines that she meets the criteria for failure to thrive. How am I supposed to not worry?

I am really overwheled by this right now. Even that makes me feel guilty. My Avery-won't-eat-just-like-Bailey trial is so small compared to what it could be. She is relatively heathy. My life really is great. I just feel so frustrated that I have to keep doing this over and over again. First Bailey. Now Avery. Do I have to do this with a third child too?

I hope she eats something soon...

August in review

This month, I have obviously not kept up with the blog. Here are the highlights of this last month:

• Avery took her very first steps! She really wants to walk, and practices standing all day long. I'm sure she will be everywhere soon.
  
  
• My toothless baby is toothless no more. (Maybe she'll start looking like her age). Poor thing had six teeth coming in all the same time.
  
  
• Avery finally slept the entire night long- from 8:00pm to 7:00am. Yeah! And we didn't have to let her cry it out! She has yet to repeat the performance, but we are getting close.
• Avery has also found a new favorite game:
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• Bailey got her second ever haircut- from her two-year friend, Bailee. Luckily, even though the trash can was full of her beautiful curls, her hair is so thick you can hardly tell. One side is noticeably thinner. Oh well. I think it's time for another haircut.
• Mike and I had our first full day sans kids at King's Island, an amusement park in Cincinnati. We had a great time.
• Mike thought he had decided on general surgery, but is having a hard time letting go the great hours and equally great pay of orthopaedic surgery. He's doing radiology next month, and that specialty is still on the table. He's seriously thinking about interventional radiology because of the lifestyle and pay. Applications can be submitted Sept. 1st, only a few days away. Hopefully a brain wave will come his way ASAP. Maybe I'll set up a poll and take everyone's opinion...