Growing Up and Milk

My Genni is surely growing up - the other day she said "I'm not a young lady I'm Genni Griffin!" and this morning she was talking about us all going downstairs "and daddy and mommy and me!" I don't recall her saying me much before - mostly she refers to herself as Genni.

So we think Genni is allergic to milk - I had eliminated apple juice from her diet for a while cause she was just having so much of it and so she started drinking a lot more milk. Then we noticed her getting dark circles under her eyes and her eczema started spreading to her face (both signs of a milk allergy - not lactose, the milk protiens). So I stopped giving her milk for a day and her face showed immediate improvement. Now last night she didn't sleep throught the night, but the night before she slept from 9 to 6:30 and I had to wake her up! I'm being hopeful (and I did find some research agreeing with me) that some of her waking during the night was due to the milk allergy too. I called the pediatrician and they agreed with me that the dark circles and worsening eczema was probably milk and that I should take it off her diet for at least 3 weeks - now they suggested slowly reintroducing it after that - but that doesn't really make any sense to me. If she's allergic to it she's not going to magically get better in 3 weeks. Also they said maybe it was not really the milk so much as the amount of milk increasing - but I think it's more likely that she has always been allergic and the symptoms weren't severe enough for us to notice before. If her eczema clears up and she starts sleeping through the night then I'm not reintroducing it for quite a while. Now this is of course going to make life more interesting. Luckily she loves the rice milk and doesn't seem to care about not having the other stuff, it's cooking that'll be the problem. Eric and I are big fans of cheesy creamy stuff - so that means we have to think a lot more seriously about what we eat and whether we can adapt part of it for her to eat or not. She doesn't really know there are things she can't eat for awhile yet. It just occured to me that she is going to be extremely upset if she can't eat chocolate! I better go look for a substitute for that!

Anyway - it's still a busy week with the musical and all, but since we had Monday off it's not so bad. We start on the stage tonight blocking Act 1 scene 1 - so I'm excited to see it all come together:)

See I did it:)

I'm writing again! Yeah! Eric and I are both super tired - two long days and today is the third. Tonight we have a meeting with musical parents at 5:30, I have rehearsal 6-8:30 and Eric has a band parents meeting - so Genni will be at school with us, floating back and forth and we will be eating dinner at West too. Fun.

Tomorrow will be a bit easier as I get to go home at 5:30, we decided to have choir Sunday morning instead due to Cathy having a dinner and the extreme cold. I'm totally Ok with having at least part of an evening at home.

I was reading some of my entries from last month where I talked about what Genni was saying and it just put into perspective how much she has changed! She talks non-stop now, it's actually quite unnerving in the morning when I'm not yet awake and trying to think. I can't believe how big she is getting! Pretty soon we'll have to pay a lot more attention to what we talk about when she is listening. Not that we say anything bad, but we still tend to talk about her instead of to her sometimes when I'm telling him a story or discussing the schedule for the next day. Pretty soon she'll start getting offended by that if I know my daughter. Wow life flies by. Time for me to fly to the next thing!

Yeah for a long weekend coming!

Catching up again....

OK, I promise this is the last lapse in blogging - now that I'm back into the routine I should be better at this again:).

Anyway, since the last time I wrote a few things have happened:

Trip to CT to see my Grandma - Genni is so great with her Great Grandmas. While some kids would be shy and afraid of someone they don't see too often, Genni goes right up to both of her Great Grandmas and gives them hugs and kisses and talks to them. It's so cute, and both of them love it so much when she is around. We had a great although short visit with my Grandmother in CT - presents, dinner, hotel, breakfast, home again. Eric fixed a few more things around her house so he is of course her favorite grandson-in-law. She was telling us this story about how she fell off a stool she was standing on (the stool was INSIDE the bathtub) and fell across the room and broke all this glass (she's 83!) and then just got up and cleaned it up and never went to the dr. I can't believe how resilient she is! On the way home from dinner she took us by the hospital cause she wanted to show Eric where she eats dinner most nights. My smart-aleck of a husband says "so this is right around the corner from your house - maybe you should come here and get checked out next time you fall off a stool!"

On the way home from CT we stopped to see Eric's Grandma - unfortunately she's been in the hospital and is now in a nursing home permenantly. Things aren't looking too hopeful, but she's 93 so the family is as prepared as anyone can be for the inevitable. Prayers all around...

So the rest of our vacation consisted of finishing the moulding in the bathroom downstairs (it looks awesome!) and visiting with Tim, Sandi and Emily for the weekend. It was nice for the girls to be able to play together again:)

Well now we are on to January - play rehearsal has started again so our days don't really end till 8:30 at night most days. It was nice to have a snow day on the 7th so I could see a little more of Genni and the weekend was nice and relaxing too. We switched the furniture around in the living room for something new, so that has been fun too.

Genni started going to Laurelyn during the day now instead of Sara, so my whole morning routine is different. Eric takes her to Laurelyn's so I have some extra time in the morning and actually get to make coffee and fix breakfast before I leave. Having the car to myself on the way too and from school is different too. I like it, but it took me all week last week to get into the new routine. Unfortunately with the musical going on I'm spending a lot more on gas going to Corning to get Genni while Eric does tech and then back to Corning for rehearsal - but it's only for like another 8 weeks anyway. Genni loves going to see Graham every morning - he's still the first person she says good night to every night - Laurelyn has moved into #2, with Uncle Mike a close #3. Then it's usually Grandma and Grandpa, and if she remembers maybe mommy and daddy. She's been singing a lot lately, and it's so stinkin cute! Sometimes she does it at night once I put her to bed and I don't have the heart to yell to her to go to bed. It's so funny the words she leaves out of the song. "Jingle bells..all da way..oh what fun etc.". I love it. She's catching on to the "May I have...please" unfortunately when she is asking to do something that means she says "May I have get down please?" - how do I explain the difference to her? Hmmm.

Anyway - Monday through Thursday we go go go now, and Friday - Sunday we try to relax as much as possible. Luckily we have Monday off next week and February break isn't too far away either. The months keep flying by.....I promise to write tomorrow!

Catching up

Oh my it's been awhile! SO much has happened since December 10th, let me catch up on it all:

Dec 13th - Eric goes to Syracuse to take the last of his teaching tests (neccesary for tenure) and due to a clerical error one of his tests are not there! He was so angry! Now he has to take another one later...hhhhh

Dec 15th - my husbands excellent concert - except that the percussionists missed the whipcrack in Sleigh Ride...on purpose

Dec 16th - 3 lessons and 2 1/2 hours of musical rehearsal, followed by snow...boy was I worried. If we had a snow day the day of the concert it would have messed up the whole week.

Dec 17th - only a 2 hour delay, dress rehearsals all day and then my concert, it was a good time, the kids did well (my Sleigh Ride whip crack wasn't all that much better - though it wasn't on purpose!!)

Dec 18th - choir practice, and I got to go to the basketball game for a little while and see the pep band. It was nice to see my husband for once:).

Dec 19th - SNOW DAY EARLY START ON VACATION!!! We got SOOO much done on the house, cleaning and such and started on the bathroom downstairs so we can paint. So nice to have 17 days in a row to spend with my family.

Dec 20th - Choir practice, getting ready to sing the Hallelujah chorus at the Christmas Eve service, we had pizza and lots of fun:)

Dec 21 - church, Eric painted the bathroom!! So nice to have time to work on our house!

Dec 22 - Eric and Mike went shopping, and Genni and I went shopping. That night I started to wrap presents. We must have been really broke last year because I don't remember wrapping that many presents!!!

Dec 23 - The last of the Christmas shopping is done. Eric's mom came over in the morning so Eric and I got to go shopping by ourselves, had lunch with Gary and Cathy and Debbie, and we got so much done! More wrapping tonight!

Dec 24 - Happy Birthday Eric! My husband is 30 now, I'll be the last one to get out of my 20's, not till September. I cooked and cleaned all morning while Eric went to get my brother from the airport in Rochester, than Christmas Eve service and dinner party for Eric's Birthday. Didn't really expect that to be as stressful as it was, but it was also a good time. The choir did a great job, and we used every single robe! My parents where at my house when we got home, so it was Eric and I, my parents and brother, his parents and our friends Mike and Laurelyn with Graham and Dean. Genni fell asleep on the way back from church and slept through the whole party. I feel guilty that she missed the party, but it was nice to not have to worry about her for a little bit.

Dec 25 - Christmas! It was soooo much fun to watch Genni open presents this year. She was really into Christmas and Santa Claus. She was excited that the milk and cookies where gone and that she got what she asked for. She loves all the pretend food and dishes she got and is constantly making us tea, coffee, and sandwiches and soup (she's actually drinking out of the teapot as I type!). After we got ready it was to Eric's parents house for more presents and dinner. She especially loved her new baby doll and the shopping cart, and I had to reorganize the living room so everything would fit!

Dec 26 - my parents leave for home and we go to Syracuse to see Eric's grandmother and Aunt Joan and Uncle Rick. Lunch was nice, and the Birthday cake for his grandmother (93) - she's been in and out of the hospital lately though so keep her in your prayers.

Dec 27 - another dinner party - Eric's dad, Ken and Marcy, Brett and Chelsea, and Gary and Marie and Ethan - we did a turkey with the fixings and pumkin mousse parfaits. We love cooking and having friends over to visit. Genni and Ethan had a great time, I believe there is a picture of them rolling all over Ken.

Dec 28th - today! Eric went to a Bills vs Patriots game with Mike, Genni and I went to church and then hung out all day. Except for naptime (took and hour and a half to get her to sleep again) everything has been great. She'll go to sleep for Sarah and Grandma fine, it's just for me she has issues.

Well tomorrow we go to CT, then back on Tuesday and I guess that Tim and Sandi and Emily are coming on Thursday now, so hopefully we'll still have some time to relax and work on the house before we go back to school.

Genni has been so much fun, I mean we still have temper tantrums and moments of purposeful disobediance while smirking, but her language skills are great and she comes out with the most interesting thoughts. When we were Christmas shopping she wanted to know how the got stuff down that was on the really tall shelves, so I told her they would need a ladder, then the other night she told Eric she needed a ladder to get somewhere up high in our house. She woke up yesterday and said to Eric, "Daddy, it's so good to see you!" Seriously, we weren't dreaming. I have gotten some of her "I want...." to be May I have....please - and it's so nice to hear her being so polite. We did find out this week just how much TV she used to watch at the babysitters - all these shows we've never heard of that she wants to watch. I'm happy she is going to Larelyn now and we don't have to worry about her watching TV all the time.

Well, I'll write again soon - I promise not to let it go for so long again!!

The Christmas Season

The house is decorated,the shopping is at least started, and there are only 7 more days of school left till our two week vacation! The only thing we have planned is going to CT, but that is up one day and back the next. Still plenty of time for stuff around the house!
Genni is getting better - We had a talk in the car yesterday about her "attitude" and I've been sending her to her room when she starts, so that has taken the tantrums down a bit. She is still always asking for chocolate and cookies (at like 6AM!) and getting mad when I won't give them to her, but maybe sometime she'll realize she never gets them when she whines and stop doing it. (yeah right, I know)
Musical rehearsals have begun and we had almost 60 people at rehearsal Monday night. I'm looking forward to tonights rehearsal! I've been practicing and my pian skills are improving. Maybe by January I'll be able to play everything.
Well rehearsal tonight, choir tomorrow but from Friday night till Sunday morning I'm free! I also plan on sleeping downstairs Saturday night in an effort to sleep more than 3 hours in a row. Excited!

Getting Better!

Well - I feel better health-wise, though eating is still an issue. I am now so far behind in everything though that I shouldn't even be writing this post. Eric is in Rochester for the rest of the week for NYSSMA, and so it's just Genni and I at home. Of course as usual she woke up in the middle of the night thinking it was morning (1:21AM) and didn't want to go back to sleep, then she woke up again at 5:45 and the dog started barking in his crate two floors down because somehow he heard me cough. Then my two year old daughter refused to get dressed, didn't want to have her hair done, would not put her coat on, the dog would not come to go into his crate and then she lost it when I didn't have any granola bars for her (how on earth am I supposed to have granola bars for her if we don't have any!). My goodness what a morning. Yesterday she literally laid down on the floor in the hallway at West and was kicking and screaming when my mother-in-law was trying to watch her so we could cast the play. Luckily all of the other people in my life have much more patience than I do - Cathy had her in a wonderful mood before we left choir. Unfortunately the fact that she had to go to bed (though I prepared her many times in the car) when we got home made bedtime sound like I was severly harming my child. So I held her blankets down while she screamed at the top of her lungs, and when I couldn't take it anymore and left the room without a word she was silent and 10 seconds later I look in and she is asleep! I do NOT understand two year olds!!!
Before I get back to the wonderful things in my life, I want to complain for a second about my lack of sleep. Yes I know I shouldn't, other moms out there are laughing at me for thinking it should be any different, but I still can't stand it. My daughter used to sleep through the night just fine. Now it's been MONTHS since I've had more than two or three hours of sleep in a row. I think basically it's been since we moved her out of her crib. What am I supposed to do now? I can't move her back into the crib and this phase does not seem to be ending. How can she survive with such broken sleep? It's driving me crazy!
Deep breath, I'm better now:)
Well, I'm looking forward to Christmas and Christmas vacation, these next two weeks are always stressful as we prepare for concerts and stuff. My first musical rehearsal is Monday night, so here's hoping it goes well and everyone can sing. Since these aren't kids I know very well it's going to be kind of like the first day of school for me, so I'll probably be really nervous till I get there, and then I'll be in my element.
This weekend is pretty light, Genni and I are going over to the Simon's new house to help move things (well I'll move things, Genni will probably play with Graham and maybe be in a good mood for the rest of the day! *side note, it's been awhile since she's seen Graham but the first person she says good night to every night is Graham) and then Sunday we have church and Eric should be home in the afternoon. My big goal for the weekend is laundry. I'm actually tempted to put it all in the car and spend two hours at a laundrymat just so it'll all be DONE.

Back to completing all the things I should have been doing!

New Hampshire for Thanksgiving and the Flu

Well - lots of things have happened since last post, I just haven't had time or energy to get on the computer. Last Tuesday we left for New Hampshire, got there about 1AM I think, and had a nice time with Eric's brother and sister-in-law and family. Got a head start on our Christmas shopping. We got back Sunday early evening and School was fine on Monday. Then Monday night the flu descended on me (that's really what it felt like) at about 9PM and I've been trying to function since then. I'll write more about it later...don't have much energy now.