If all goes as planned this will be our new home.
Coopers Pumpkin Farm
Hay ride
petting zoo
horsey carriage rides!
woohoo!
waiting for the horseys
Well, things have been pretty good here at the Anthony residence. Ciara is weighing in at 16lbs 12 oz. You read right-she is loosing weight. She has not been feeling well lately with back to back colds and I felt she needed an antibiotic. For a while now her weight has been on a plateau at about 17 lbs. Well now slowly she is loosing. I asked Sharon if maybe it could be possible she had a tape worm. Sharon said tape worms are very rare, but she tested Ciara along with some basic blood work. All of the testing came back normal so she referred us to the GI specialists at Children's Hospital in Pittsburgh. Our first visit was last Monday and it was very overwhelming. Dr. Goyal believes Ciara is allergic to milk and soy proteins. Because she is allergic to the proteins, and I have been feeding them to her, her digestive system is unable to absorb the nutrients. When the PA listened to her bowel sounds they didn't sound well and her bowels need time to heal. So we have her on a no milk no soy diet. This has been very trying for me and I have to completely change the way I feed my family. Before I gave Ciara whatever she wanted and I didn't mind that she wanted a cookie. Now I have to stand and stare at the label and make sure there are no ingredients that could make her belly hurt. I will eventually get it right, but right now I do get frustrated!
I went grocery shopping on Tuesday while Aaliyah was at preschool and it was very overwhelming. Pretty much everything I fed her before either has milk or soy in it. I have been checking out website after website finding recipes and advice from other mommies who have MSPI (milk soy protein intolerance) babies. After I got home from County Market, I asked Corey if he wanted steak or salmon for dinner. He looked at me weird and said "I don't even like salmon." I started to cry and said "I'm just trying to feed my baby-What do you mean you don't like salmon!" So needless to say I am a bit stressed out about this. As a mother I feel like such a failure that I have been pretty much poisoning my baby!!! She is so skinny and you can see her ribs. Please pray for Ciara. I want her to gain weight and feel healthy so bad.
Aaliyah is doing well and absolutely loves preschool. She has made friends and is always excited when I tell her it is time for school. She has been coming home with lots of germs and the girls have had 2 really bad colds since the beginning of September. Aaliyah does really well at fighting off the virus, but Ciara has a rough time. Aaliyah is learning a lot at school and is always eager to tell me all the new things! On Thursday they had a fire truck come to the school and learn about fire safety. She really enjoyed it even though she said she didn't want to go into the truck, but she did because her friends did. She is 3 going on 14 and cracks me up with some of the things she says! And her hand gestures and the faces she makes are so hilarious.
Corey is doing well and working like crazy. He has not had a week with less than 80 hours for a while. They have changed his schedule to 6 days on call and 3 days off so that has really helped to catch up on his rest and spend some time with us. The girls miss him so much and are always thrilled when he is home. Aaliyah cries for her daddy sometimes and my heart just breaks.
The big news is that we are buying a new home. Corey and I had been checking out real estate websites and trying to decide if we wanted to buy a different home or build. It was so much money to build so we decided we would keep our eyes open for a good home. Our friend Jodi's parents are selling their house and they told friends and family about it before they put it on the market. Corey and I fell in love. The house is on 3 acres and is very secluded. It is a ranch style home and is about 600 square feet less than our house, but it wouldn't take anything at all to finish the basement. Bill and Patti have accepted our offer and now we just need to get our house sold. We have been slowly chipping away at the list of things that need done before we want to put it on the market. It is so hard when Corey is never here and there is only so much I can do. Hopefully we will make some progress this week and will be ready to list it soon. Bill and Patti will hold the house until January 1st and if we don't have it sold by then they can decide to list their house or maybe we will be able to work out a deal for them to hold it a bit longer. We are really excited to live out in the country. We are not town people.
I can't believe it, but in 2 weeks we will be in Florida!!! It really snuck up on me and I can't believe it is time already! We will be flying in on October 26 and flying home on November 3. We are taking Aaliyah to Disney on that Friday and having lunch with the princesses. She is so excited and talks about Disney all the time. We have been talking with Nana on skype and she is excited to see Nana and Poppa Coach. We haven't seen Pat for almost a year and Corey and I have not been to Florida since we were dating. That was 5 years ago!
I have been doing well and am still selling Pampered Chef. I really enjoy it and it is such a wonderful way to get out of the house for the day and socialize with great people. On Tuesdays and Thursdays I pretty much just feel like a taxi driver! Aaliyah has school from 8:30-11 so it is not worth coming home and then turning around and coming back into town. So Ciara and I find something to do for a couple of hours. Then we head home and go back into town on Tuesday afternoons for soccer shots at school. I decided to sign her up because her friend Alyssa is also playing and I knew she would enjoy being with her. After a couple of sessions I feel like she is too immature for it. She pretty much just stands there and watches the other kids play. She won't stretch and she won't run..she just stands there. I feel so bad for coach Eric!! He is always trying to get her into the game and she is really not interested! Oh well. I ask her after every session if she had fun and she always says yes and looks forward to it every week. On Thursdays I drop Aaliyah off at school and then come home and meet Kathi for Ciara's therapy. Ciara attends much better and does very well at therapy when she doesn't have Aaliyah taking her attention. So after therapy we head back into town and pick up Lee. So like I said Tuesdays and Thursdays are not very productive for me!!!
I continue to praise God for my beautiful baby girl and pray that we have found the answer to her weight loss and she will begin to be a healthy little girl.
