Let's give this a try...

This is where I can ramble on and on about what is going on in our little family unit. This way if family and friends are curious about Mia, Gary or even me they can come to one spot instead of having their inbox spammed with boring accounts of the latest poopy diaper or my inablity to purl my way out of a wet paper bag. Some people don't want to read about poo, and I can respect that!

Mia is taking her job as a two year old very seriously. I hear "no" and "whats that" a lot. She enjoys playing with her dress up clothes and can ring around the rosies all day. Her health situation has improved greatly since our visit to Georgia and the hospitalization for staph sepsis/eczema herpeticum. The IVIG infusions have been the golden ticket. She still has contact reactions every day, but we haven't seen a single skin infection since that awful month this summer. This is the longest stretch of time without antibiotics! At our last appointment with the allergist on Wednesday, we came up with a plan for the IVIG; after six more months of infusions we will re-evaluate where she is with her skin and overall health, then go from there. Yesterday we had an EGD and Colonoscopy procedure to look at her GI tract and take some biopsies for an eosinophil count. This is very important since she is eating a couple of foods (kamut, carrots, broccoli, quinoa) because she is still having some mucousy diapers and some MAJOR gas and bloating. Every day is a lottery for my nose! As one mom said on my favorite allergy support board (kidswithfoodallergies.org) "Russian poo-lette!" If her eosinophils count is still too high, that means that one or more of those foods are causing a reaction and we will probably have to do an elimination diet again. Regardless, she is doing very well and is now in the 5th percentile for each weight and height, and in the 25th for those two combined. We are officially back on the charts! She weighs 23lbs but hasn't really grown. Monday is another IVIG infusion at Childrens of Providence. They are really great with her, and ask before using ANYTHING. They are also latex free! We have our first endocrinology consult next week to make sure the growth hormone levels are where they need to be. We don't want to miss anything. She is making leaps and bounds and we don't want it to stop!

Gary is learning to deal with a new driveway dynamic. We have been on an intensive debt paydown mission these past few months and finally hit our goal. We bought a new car! At first we were looking at the Jeep Patriot. We like Jeeps, they are reliable and Gary knows how to do the majority of upkeep. I wasn't feeling it. I could definately live with it, happily too. But I have been lusting after an Outback wagon for a while now, and the Subaru reputation for being a good reliable vehicle without a punch in the gastank is very attractive. I scoured Craigslist until we found an 05 Outback at our price. It's one sexy suby. The only con is that it is an automatic where we wanted a manual. For the price, room and heated seats, I can get over the stick thing. I know Gary loves me because there is definately a certain personality group that gravitates towards the Subaru family, and he is willing to have one in the driveway next to the Man Jeep!

I just finished my first round of knitting classes. I still suck, but less than before. I can now sort-of-purl. My partial scarf isn't as sloppy as my first attempts (which I can NOT believe I gave to people!) I actually made a successful start at a hat, which will promptly be frogged the second I mess up. I've also been sewing like madwoman for our little bird who just keeps growing! She didn't stay in 24 month size very long at all. That is good overall, but not good because that is the size we mostly had! I have found a few european patterns that actually look like they grow with the child, so that should help! I even made two shirts for myself, one of which may not be public worthy. I'm not very good with knits yet :(

We are trying to solve Christmas dilemmas at the moment. We finally figured out what we will be doing for Thanksgiving (NOT dishes!) and now we need to figure out the tree thing. We won't be getting a live one because it's a bad idea with Mia's allergies and our fake tree that Gary's mom gave us is beyond it's last legs! It will still work, but I think it's dropping more needles than a live tree. It had a good run and a long life. Maybe I could turn it into a wreath... We just have to look at a faux tree as an investment, one that will pay for itself in two Christmases since a decent live tree is at least $70 up here. We have her gifts mostly covered. There is a store called Classic Toys in Anchorage that has the best toys and they send out a catalog every October. We made a budget, went throught the catalog and then I went to the store where we came in five dollars under our limit! They were super helpful and went out of their way to find out if certain "rubber" items were latex free. The only thing I wanted to get her and haven't yet is a storyboard. I remember a felt story board from sunday school and thought it was the coolest idea. She loves stickers, but the tack sometimes makes her break out. I figured this would be close enough to stickers. I'm concerned about the felt, but our friend (who runs a daycare) showed me how to make one and gave me some ideas that didn't involve a lot of wool felt but interfacing in place of it. As soon as I finish the projects I have going, I'll start on that.

I've rambled enough for a first post.