Another Doctor's visit for Siena

I took Siena back to the doctors today because since last monday and up until this tuesday morning she has had diarrhea. And I mean CRAZY DIARRHEA. Like the kind that drips down her legs and gets everywhere. Anyways, after 9 days I called the advice Nurse to ask when they like to see a kid if they have consistent diarrhea. So I made an appointment for her and of course the diarrhea stops 24 hours before the appointment. But I did want to see if she had lost any weight because she was not eating much of anything and she was not sleeping at all. So luckily she had not lost any weight but she has not gained any either which I didn't expect because of the lack of eating. He said her stomach and intestines still sounded "whooshy" and so she wasn't quite over it yet but that more than likely it was a virus and for little ones they can get ones that last anywhere from 10-14 days. If the diarrhea comes back then we will need to test her for giardia.

Little things about Siena

She feels it is her job to put the lens cap back on the camera.

If you ask her where her belly button is, she lifts up her arms (sometime the shirt too) and pushes her little pot belly out and yells "AHHHHHHH"

When she is in a good mood she poses for the camera.

She loves her blanket and takes it everywhere. If she wants a bottle she will bring you the blanket and then go look for a bottle.

She gets the best bed head!

She adores her Grandpa Glenn. She calls him "baba" and yells it when she sees him.

Another weekend gone by

The kids decided they needed to help Mike with the "yard" work.

A little sneak peek from the wedding on Saturday.

Cole found my new props and requested that I take his picture with them.

Household Duties

I will be the first to admit that I SUCK at house keeping. I am not sure if it is my lack of motivation because the kids mess it up right behind me or if it is my lack of attention span. I am going to go with the latter of the two. It's now 9 am. I have been out of bed since 5 am. In that time I have

1. filed bills and paper work that has been sitting on my desk for 2 months
2. finally made labeled folders for business stuff
3. messed around on the computer
4. put dishes away, left the dirty ones in the sink
5. ran the washing machine (cloth diaper day)
6. put 1 load of clothes in the dryer
7. loaded 1300 wedding photos into lightroom to soft edit when the kids nap or if I find a 5 minute break. those 1300 are only of the bridal party from Saturday
8. put Siena down for a nap
9. made my self breakfast, forgot about it in the microwave and ate it cold
10. find random laundry around the house and collect it for washing
11. put Cole in time out for pestering the dog and waking Siena up
12. Cuddle with kids
13. make Siena a scrambled egg
14. ran the washing machine (cloth diapers)
15. call In and Out and inquire as to why the 6 french fries Siena ate on Saturday gave her massive diarrhea and gas for 2 days. This kids is seriously letting off farts that last for 3 minutes each.
16. pick up goat cheese and eggs that Siena threw on the floor
17. clean floor by her high chair
18. put Cole in time out for hitting me
19. cleaned toilet
20. ran the washing machine (cloth diaper)
21. washed high chair tray, left rest of dirty dishes sit in sink
22. cleaned litter box
23. made my bed
24. helped Siena drink from a cup


and after i finish this blog post I am going to

1. move clothes out of dryer to coffee table
2. move cloth diaper to dryer
3. get both kids dressed (they are both in nothing by a diaper and underware
4. eat an orange
5. clean the bathroom counter
6. sweep
7. wood floor mop
8. clean out fridge
9. let dirty dishes still sit in the sink
10. possibly organize the laundry room / office shelves so I can have access to the top of the dryer again
11. try to vacuum the dog, I am sick of the hair
12. clean off my dresser
13. pick up kids room
14. cuddle kids more and try to make cleaning a game


Any thing else I can do by noon when it is nap time and I get 2-3 hours of peace from cleaning, kids, and I do nothing but what I want which usually involves editing, internet and the camera. And a Dr. Pepper.

Wedding, weddings and more weddings

Tomorrow I have my 3rd wedding of the year to photograph. 4 more to go after this one. I absolutely love photographing weddings. I love that each one it unique. You will never find two alike. Everyone is happy and dressed to the nines. How can you not love photographing them?? A year ago I was freaking about about doing one and now I get so excited! The one tomorrow is at Monte Verde Inn in Foresthill and the next one up is at Empire Mine State Park in Grass Valley. So many beautiful locations, beautiful people, and tons of fun. Plus, I get to bring Mike with me, no kids and now two weekends in a row we have enjoyed filet mignon dinner's with adult conversations with the other vendors. Good food, great conversation, what could be better! So excited to edit this one. But before I can dive in I have two other weddings and two family sessions to get edited!

Some how he manages to sleep through it all

Every day, if Cole is asleep past 3:30pm, I let Siena in to his room to wake him up. All I have to say to her is Siena, do you want to wake brother up?" She then runs for his room making kissing noises and if the door isn't already open, she waits for me to open and it and then she runs in saying "brada" (brother) and slobbers all over him. And some how, he manages to sleep through it all. This day in particular, Siena was a little bit moody. She is teething and with teething comes a GRUMPY toddler.




Then one of the cats runs by the door and she flies out of Cole's room with her head pointed down and she growls at what every cat she can get to.

Listening skills and other ear piercing things

I am going crazy these days. Cole has apparently forgotten how to listen. He completely ignores everything we ask him to do or stop doing, mainly stop doing. It is driving me crazy. He is tormenting the dog to no end and I feel so bad for her. I have to lock her in the bathroom and that isn't fair to her. Any ideas on when their hearing comes back?

Siena is teething and by teething I mean she is grumpy, whiny, fussy, refusing to eat anything and all around hard to deal with. Today she ate half a scrambled egg and 4 ounces of apple blueberry baby food and 1/2 a rice cake.

I am tired and I think I would just like to sleep for the next year.

How's every one else feeling today?

Lending a helping hand

Cole thinks he does a great job at feeding Siena. I am not so sure she needed an oatmeal shampoo at 9 am. He did this to her while I was in the bathroom.

Siena's 15 months check up

Weight - 18# 15oz (less than 5%)

Height - 29 1/2 inches (15%)

Head cir. - 45cm

We saw a different Pediatrician today because Siena's normal doc is on Maternity leave. Overall he said she looked great. She has very advanced awareness of her surroundings (ducking under tables), developmentally she is doing great. Her body looks very well proportioned however he was concerned because her weight dropped to less than 5% when she has normally been in the 25%. Had she always been less than 5% he would not be concerned but because of the 20% drop he does want us to watch her and make sure she doesn't lose any weight. Part of the problem is due to her sensitivities / allergies to certain foods, mainly dairy. Every time I introduce dairy into her diet she gets a rash, this last time was with cream cheese, if she has too much of something over a period of time the reflux starts and she gets very gassy. Towards the end of April we did a wheat trial and with in a few days she was randomly vomiting. As soon as we stopped all wheat and gluten the vomiting stopped.

It if difficult to get her calories because she doesn't want to eat baby food any more but she won't eat enough finger foods to fill her self up. I cook her eggs in olive oil for fat. She has been eating goat's milk cheese which she has really seemed to be liking, however when I added some powered goats milk into the rice milk she refused to drink it. I tried adding coconut milk back into her bottle because she loved that before and now she is refusing that as well. It is pretty frustrating to deal with a picky eater, especially with these sensitivities. The doc said that the sensitivities can be just as bad on a person as allergies. For her, the irritants can cause reflux, intestinal irritation and possibly bloody stools. She has had all and because we can't see in her body to actually see what is happening to her, we need to avoid the items that cause her to have problems and hopefully she will out grow it one day. So she is still on a soy free, dairy free, wheat and gluten free diet. It is a lot of work!! She also got her last DPT shot. She was a trooper for that!

On another note related to Siena, I received a letter in the mail from the insurance company stating that the MRI was not covered because intermittent torticollis was not a valid reason for an MRI. The thing is, I was told by the neurologist and the physical therapist that Siena DID NOT have torticollis and that is why we needed to pursue the MRI. I looked over the letter and there was a doctor's name on it that I didn't recognize. I looked him up and he is a neurologist at Sutter, however I have never spoke with him, nor has he ever examined my daughter, so why is he submitting her records and false records at that???? I called the neurologists office and spoke with the nurse and she said that they never had patients get refused for MRI's and she also had not clue who that doctor was. I explained to her that the insurance company was sent records stating that my daughter had intermittent torticollis and that I was specifically told by the neurologist that she did not have it. So now this nurse is looking into it. She'd better to because yesterday I received an explanation of benefits from the insurance company and the bill is $6747.00 for the MRI's. Well it says at the bottom that the MRI is not covered due to the diagnosis, however because I went to a eligible provider for the service, I was not responsible for the $6747, which means the Dr. is and I am sure they are not going to be pleased to see that bill! I am sure this will all get straightened out but it is still annoying and I am not happy knowing that doctors who have never even spoken a word to you are writing up records like they know what is going on!

** Thursday update**

Talk to the nurse at the neurologists office and apparently the Dr. Siena saw actually did put in her record intermittent torticollis on the record. Why the hell would he write that when he told me she didn't have it? Anyways I told the nurse her record needed to be changed because as along as it said torticollis on it, the insurance company would not cover it.

Amgen Tour of California

Day 1 of the Amgen Tour of California started in Nevada City and made it's way to Sacramento via Meadow Vista and Auburn. These photos were taken at the intersection of Lake Arthur and Placer Hills Rd. and HWY 80. We had not seen the race before but we figured since Lance Armstrong was going to be 5 minutes from our home, we needed to go watch. We are so happy we did! It was so much fun and everyone was really excited to be there. We didn't bring the kids because we thought it was going to be a made house but if it comes through next year they will for sure be there. Although I am sure Cole would have only paid attention to the motorcycle cops and the helicopter and ignored the bikers.


Lance Armstrong

How much fun would this job be???? Riding the entire state of California photographing as you go along!