Rashes galore

Poor little Siena's butt. I started the week out by giving her soy milk. Things went well on Monday and Tuesday. I stopped the soy Tuesday night. All seemed good. She had been getting whole wheat bagels and pita bread as well, but that started last week. On Wednesday afternoon I gave her a piece of organic bread whose last ingredient is Whey which is a milk protein. Starting that night she had a slight rash but nothing of concern. By Thursday night she had a screaming red rash and was pretty upset. She did not sleep well last night. She was up constantly, gassy, etc... She was not her self 100% today. Rash is still here, she is still gassy.

I am frustrated because the rash resembles what I am assuming is diaper rash however when she was on her hypo allergenic diet for 10 weeks which was basically no soy, no dairy, all hypoallergenic formula and her normal jarred baby food she didn't have one rash. Before we discovered her "allergies" she had the rash's on and off, a head tilt, gassy, never sleeping consistently,etc... Now that we are introducing new items in her diet she is getting the rash again. But the rash is isolated only to the diaper area. Also, the rash can occur when there is no poop in the diaper, like it did with the last round of antibiotics. It makes no sense to me that this is classic diaper rash because she would have had the rash during those 10 weeks as well. I am going to take wheat, soy and dairy back out of her diet and wait two weeks and see how she does.

I am wishing I could take her in to see her Doc, but she just had a baby and wont be back until August. I might ask for a referral to an allergist or dermatologist so they can see the rash (I will have to take a picture of it for them to see).

Finger's crossed the rash goes away soon. Poor girl freaks out over it and I would really like to get her back in cloth diapers to save money.

Siena and popcorn

Popcorn is one of my all time favorite foods. This was Siena's first day eating it, however when I took the video it was her 5th time back to the bowl. She is obsessed with it. I had to hide the rest of it. Also it is taking me so long to give it to her because I was biting off the sharp kernel parts. It's long but she does some "talking" at the end of the video.

What the?

Two days ago we were doing this -

and this -

Pretty much enjoying the amazing spring weather, spending every minute we could outside.

And then today this -

I have never seen so much hail in my life. I was driving home from work and I made a last minute decision to skip the mailbox (which would have had me exit one exit before ours) and that was the worst decision I could have made. At Clipper Gap there was so sign of what was about to come. I noticed on the west bound side a ton of traffic, all whom had what appeared to be snow on their windshields. I though to myself that maybe the freeway had been closed and this was the traffic once they reopend. Less than a minute later, I was cruising along in the fast lane at about 65 when all of a sudden I feel my SUV start to slide. I pressed the brakes slowly so I wouldn't spin and flip the car. I had hit about 1 1/2 - 2 inches of hail. It covered the freeway completely. I made my way into the slow lane and waited until I could make it to the exit. It took about 15 minutes for all the vehicles in the slow lane to exit. The big rigs were taking up space and going very slow. Luckily we can bypass them on the exit once you get to the open part. As I made it across the overpass I snapped a shot of the freeway (above photo).

I stupidly stopped at the bottom of the hill to take this photos and got stuck and had to go into 4WD to get up the hill.

Cole however was thrilled with the newest weather change and wanted to stay outside and play. I was told that this hail storm lasted 20 minutes. That is totally insane. I had been at work so I missed the actual down pour and thunder storm. :-( But the aftermath of shredded plants and decapitated tulips reminded me all to well of the storm a year ago in May that was totally insane. I thought for sure our windows were going to be blowing in by the hail that time.

Siena begged the res of the afternoon for me to get her hail to eat. She would wait at the slider door with a tupperware and say "anh anh" until I got her some.

Birth Control

two 3 year olds, one 14 month old and one 4 month old

I have no idea how women who have children this close in age do it. I think they must be insane or require no personal time.

Chico Weekend

This past weekend we spent in Chico. Our good friends Lauren and Mazi were married last August and had their wedding reception in Chico this past weekend. I photographed it (are we surprised?). We got to Chico at 7:30 am Saturday morning. It was a beautiful drive from my parents house at sunrise. I love early mornings!

We take a short cut to Chico that takes about 20 minutes off the drive. Beware of potholes galore though. I got a pretty bad flat tire from one years ago. This is also where the strawberry stand from the last post is.

While I was shooting wedding pics that morning, Mike and the kids visited with Kelli and Scott and then after I was done we all went to Kelli's brother's house to celebrate his 35 birthday. Siena was in love with their swing.

At 3pm the reception started. We stayed until about 10pm enjoying the festivities and music. There was a band and dj. Mazi even got on stage and free styled which was really good! We had great mexican food from the taco truck (such a great idea to feed a lot of people!) and of course good company!

Cole makes new friends where ever he goes. Later in the night he asked us "Where's my new kid at?"
Mike did a great job of keeping the kids together (for the most part, Cole was determined to be with the big kids the entire time). Siena kept him super busy!

Siena also discovered a new game and conned everyone into playing it.

On Sunday we spent the morning with Kelli and Scott on the ranch.
Cole got to feed her miniature horse "minnie". He was a little scared of her.

Cole's other favorite friend this weekend was "Stee-wer" (Steeler). Cole chased him around for hours and played fetch for quite awhile.

In the afternoon we visited my other good friend Johnna and her son Wyatt. I think Siena liked having some one her size to play with. She kept trying to kiss him.

To see more of the wedding you can go to the blog for a preview. White Daisy Blog