She's Home!!!

My sister is amazing. She has been in Argentina for the last 3 months studying the Bible and learning Spanish at Word of Life's campus there. She loves God with all her heart and sets an example for me on how to live for Jesus. I've missed her more than there are words. BUT she's home!! For the next month we will be soaking up as much Sarah as possible. She goes back to Argentina in January and won't be home again until July.

Titus and Jack watching for Sarah.

She's been missed!

**Photo credit to Kate Anastas and Hilary Taylor**

Boy Play

Titus is a typical boy. He loves all things boy- balls, cars, towers. Not getting dirty, though, but that's for another day.

Now I have be the proud Momma braggin' about her boy. We didn't teach Titus to flip the cups to make them stack up higher instead of inside each other. He's quite the problem solver and I love watching him do it!!!

Hippy Healthcare

Titus has had some health issues lately. We've gone to a pediatric urgent care once and the emergency room as well for some breathing issues. That's something I'm not going to mess around with. Go ahead give him whatever he needs to make him be able to breathe!

However!

At our last follow up appointment I was told that Titus has an ear infection (mostly likely the beginning of one). So his dr wanted to prescribe an antibiotic. Titus is allergic to ammoxicillin so he always gets put on weird antibiotics (most of which cause diarrhea and therefore and insane diaper rash). Now Titus had just been on an antibiotic about 5ish weeks ago for a sinus and ear infection. I didn't want him to be on another one so soon.

So I asked, " Can we wait on the antibiotic and just see what happens?" Titus hasn't been complaining of ear pain. He hasn't had a fever. I wanted to make sure he *really needed* the antibiotic.

The doctor was surprised at my request but didn't seem perplexed. She wanted to schedule another follow up to check on Titus's breathing so we made that appointment a week later. We will know whether or not he needs something  for the ear infection by then.

Then I said my next thought. "I think I will try breast milk drops."

Haha! Her face!!! Now I'm too lazy to do a ton of research to provide link as to why this is a good option. However, it has been well proven that breast milk has a ton of amazing uses other than nourishment. It has a massive amount of antibodies and other good things in it.

Anyway the dr's face. She was shocked and didn't look like she agreed. At all. Thankfully she didn't say what she was thinking.

I've done it with Rya when she started messing with her ears. I put a couple drops in a few times a day for a few days and the ear grabbing stopped and hasn't come back.

So I'm trying it with Titus. His appointment was Wednesday and I still have yet to see him in any sort of discomfort from this infection. I will keep doing the breast milk drops until his follow up appointment on Tuesday. If he still has evidence of an ear infection but no discomfort, I will continue to wait and see what happens.

I may also try some warmed EVO drops as I've heard those are really good too.

Anyone else have some hippy, I mean alternative, health care things they do for ear infections or in general?

Puzzle Solution

Titus is the typical toddler and has the overwhelming urge to dump every. single. toy. we  have on the floor. I'm fine with some dumping but not constantly, especially when he wasn't playing with any of the toys once they were dumped. So, I copied my friend Jess and boxed up the majority of the toys we have and I out bring one box at a time unless I'm feeling crazy then I might do two. 

The other day Titus and I pulled out his puzzle box. the pieces were a mess! I had to dig around for each piece of whatever puzzle he wanted to work on. So I fixed that idea! Each puzzle's pieces are now in a baggie. I know at some point they will probably end up mixed up but that's okay. Even a mix up will be easier than a pile of chaotic wooden pieces. :o)

 

Rya's Favorite Activity

Rya is all over the place these days. She loves exploring and following chasing Titus around. She wants to do what he does and gets mad when either she can't or he won't let her. We are in the throws of sharing Rya and Titus how to share. It's so much fun! (Haha not really. Although when they do it well that is pretty cool to see!)

Anyway in all of Rya's exploring she has found a new favorite activity. It's one that can drive me crazy if I don't have the correct perspective but I'm working on it. :o)

Rya has found the book shelf. And she has discovered it's very easy and fun to take the books off of said shelf.

I don't know why- but I though this face was hilarious! Apparently my flash is too bright. :o)

Either talking on a cell phone or praising Jesus. 

"SO big!"

The resulting mess.

Now I just need to teach her how to put the books back....

Seriously...

I keep looking for keys to be in the same spot on my computer keyboard as my iPhone. Apparently I need to be on the computer more or my phone less. Probably the later but I digress.

Rya is everywhere! She is a cruising machine and makes a break for the stairs every chance she gets. I've only almost tripped over the gate once. NBD. She is ready to start learning some sign language :) When she hears "So big" she reaches up over her head. It's adorable!!!

Titus is a little negotiator. When he's told to do something he tries to modify it. "How 'bout I do this... or How 'bout I put it here..." Drives me crazy!!!! Those skills could come in handy with a career but right now I'd love it for him to just obey what I say the first time! ...someday...

That is all for now. Rya is whining at my feet :)

Fall Circles

I had a burst of energy today. Super surprising as with the time change my kiddos have been getting up at 5 and 6 instead of 6 and 7. None the less the energy was there and I knew the best thing to use it towards was Titus.

We are in a hard stage where he pushes the boundaries A LOT and gets told "No" A TON. I'm excited that he's strong willed and a leader (man that kid is bossy!) and I'm trying to learn how to nurture those characteristics and it's hard, dang it!

Titus enjoys a good craft here or there and usually I am lazy and just give him paper and crayons. But thanks to blogs like Intentional Homeschool (Intentional Toddler Time- this is the place to find the older blog posts but now LeighAnn and Nikki use Intentional Homeschool) I have gotten a lot of ideas on easy things that I could and should be doing with Titus.

So today I decided that I would branch out a little and go beyond just crayons and paper. I picked up construction paper from the store the other day and we busted that thing open! I gave Titus a piece of paper to color on first, because of course I'm flying by the seat of my pants and said something about a fun craft before having said craft supplies ready. So he colored while I traced and cut out circles. I was going to use more colors but I figured we would stick to fall colors today. I traced circles from both ends of a cup to give him different sizes. He noticed the size difference without me saying anything (GO TI!) because I forgot to mention that detail. I can't even remember if I talked about the shape itself. Oh well I'm learning here. He knew they were circles so it wasn't a fail.

Here's how it turned out!

NOTE: I need glue sticks so he can glue himself. Part way through there was a melt down because I'm a mean mommy and wouldn't let him have the glue. :o)

Rya update

Rya will be 8 months on the 17th. These pictures show what she's been up to lately.

("Hey Mom! The flash is a little bright!")

**Not photographed yet- Rya standing in her crib :o)**

Football

Titus loves to play football!

He empties a toy basket and uses that as his helmet.

Gotta go...it's my turn :o)

Hmm Applesauce

I love me some good homemade applesauce. And it's such a fall-ish thing to make so I grabbed the apples in my fridge (which were still good produce wise but they were pansy apples and bruised everywhere) and turned those suckers into some delicious applesauce! And I got my little man to help me out :o).

add water to just about cover apple slices

add cinnamon and sugar (sorry I do it by taste so I don't have amounts)

stir it up

cover and cook on low until apples are smushable. 

hmm hot applesauce.