I'm back!

Okay it has been forever and I am sorry about that. Let me just say in my defense that I had pneumonia and it took two full rounds of antibiotics and a rescue inhaler to get me back on to my feet. I am better now though I still cough every now and then, but I didn't get sick over night and I won't get rid of it over night. As a matter of fact I started with sick in Dec and here it is Feb and I am just getting back into the swing of things. For all of January adding on the end of Dec and the beginning of Feb... I have just been surviving and taking care of the kids. ( as can be proven by a quick tour through my house. IT IS A DISASTER)
I don't even know where to start. We have hit a few milestones while I have been away. T has a tooth and she says Mamamamamamam endlessly now. She is also sitting by herself and has gotten into the crawl position a few times though nothing has become of it yet. She has surprised everyone by becoming the most smiley baby on the face of the earth. Yes you read that right. Dave described her the other day as our "happy go lucky baby"! Yeah it surprised us too. I don't know why but something in her attitude changed. My mother a few weeks ago said it is like she flipped a switch, and indeed it is! She has a 10000 megawatt smile and she knows how to use it. She also has started reaching to be picked up and she has started handing out baby hugs. That is truly a wonderful couple of seconds! She leans in and rests her head on your shoulder and all you want to do is snuggle her for the rest of the day. Sometimes I do... maybe that has something to do with the attitude adjustment. Now DON'T get me wrong she still has a temper and pulls it out when she needs it.... I think she has simply found that you get more flies with honey than you do with vinegar.
A scared the pants off of us the other night. She is apparently allergic to cashews... a fact that became clear as we headed to the hospital for the SEVERE allergic reaction that she had. We were able to control the breathing problems that she had with a dose of benedryl and a couple of shots with the rescue inhaler that she has. It was the only reason that we weren't going to the hospital in an ambulance. The kid was audibly wheezing and coughing as the back of her throat closed up. The only two things that she had eaten were tomatoes and cashews as her afternoon treat. We know that she has a reaction to tomatoes. But it has never been that bad and is usually controllable by wiping hands and face every couple of minutes when she is eating the tomatoes and putting her steroid cream on her face and hands afterward. I know that we should just stop her from eating them all together but lets look at this for a moment: she is allergic to milk and tomatoes .... yeah that takes a TON of food off of her plate. Still her tomato allergy has NEVER been like this.. and all of the medical professionals that we saw on Tuesday night agreed that it was probably the nuts. SO we came home on Tuesday with the hospital having given her a REALLY big dose of Benedryl and a dose of Predinisone with prescriptions for a cream and more of the oral predinisone in hand. We are a little bit hesitant now as that particular allergic reaction scared the living daylights out of us. But she is safe and sound and two days later you can't even tell that she had a problem.
A is turning into a little kid before our eyes. She is growing up so much. There is hardly anything baby about her anymore. I have to admit that I do miss the baby A a little bit. I can't even really tell you why... because I ADORE my little girl A. She is as sweet as she was as a baby. She just is able to communicate better and she can run and jump and she is a fistful of dynamite. I love it. I can watch her for hours. She asks now what each word is when you read to her... pointing and saying " what it says mommy ?" She points out each letter in the word and gets it right... she has most of her favorite books memorized and will "read" them to T or to her baby bear. She has also started playing pretend. She loves to be a mommy and is the most nurturing mommy I have ever seen. She nurses her babies the way that I nurse T. I haven't gotten a pic of it yet... because I am usually nursing T at the time. " We gonna take a boobie break mommy?" she says. Somehow that has become the word for it. It cracks me up. She picks up every little thing now and the other day when I was telling her to sit down and finish her lunch the punk looked at me and said " blah blah blah blah " How the hell can you correct a kid when you are trying REALLY hard not to laugh your fool head off. Yes it was disrespectful but it was also HYSTERICAL! I don't know where she got it from... I wish I did. That is the problem with allowing kids to watch TV and videos. She told me " It's MY life mommy" the other day... something that she got directly from Nemo the disney fish. Even the seemingly harmless things teach her not so great stuff.... she learned " Get Lost " from Sesame Street. She has started throwing temper tantrums... ( the one that Dave has witnessed truly intimidated him) not wimpy little fits but serious out of control emotion tantrums. They were bound to start. You add a headstrong little girl with mommy and daddy having to lay down boundaries...and ka-blewie. Dave and I have talked and agreed that we will not spank. It seems counterproductive to us.... but Dave told me that seeing A in that kind of state his first reaction would be to spank her. Like I told him when she is already in a state where she has more emotion than she can deal with... spanking her is the worst thing you can do. She needs us more than ever to help her to understand that emotion. Two isn't an easy age... for her or for us. But I can tell you this she is one of the sweetest children to ever draw breath in... and that is a fact that I hold to and try to remember when we are having our struggles. So while we have our explosions we also have our snuggles, because as big as the anger can be... the loves and the hugs and kisses are just as big. She is expansive and remarkably sharing in her love. We play argue now " I love you!" " I love you more" "NO I love you more" She is a mischievous little elf with a big heart and I love every minute with her... yes even when she is blowing her stack. I love that she feels safe enough to blow that steam off... I love that she has a temper that will some day keep her from being stepped all over. My job is not to get RID of that temper ( even if it were I wouldn't do it) my job is instead to help her to put all of that emotion to work in a manner that is effective. I hope that I can do the job justice, for the sake of my incredible daughters.
So off I go... but first I will show you all just what little cuties I have. Enjoy the photos... and I will make an honest effort to write to you all more often.