Play Doh

I bought Callie her first batch of Play Doh now that she is no longer allergic to wheat. I was always so paranoid that playing with it and if she accidentally ate it that it would be a problem but now we can go wild. I think I made a mistake in introducing it with a fork, spoon, knife, rolling pin, and cookie cutter. I also may have said pretend cooking... She immediately thought she should eat it. Yuck! I had to stay right with her as periodically she would taste it again. Otherwise though she was enthralled and playing for over an hour and would have gone even longer but I forced her to clean up before we had an even bigger mess. How cute is she? She kept making a snake and saying "oooooo, snake" then taunting me with it and waiting for me to act scared.

Happy Birthday Bryce and Matthew

My friend Amy has 2 boys whose birthdays are only a few days apart. This year they threw a combined party at the park. Callie's nap time really cut into us enjoying the party and of course today she decided that it would be a good day to not want to nap until later. Even though we were super late, Callie still had the best time. We were the very last kid to leave, even after the birthday boy! I had to drag her to the car. They had a great big bouncy house with a slide and most of the kids were under 4 years old, so it was pretty safe for Callie to play in there and towards the end it was just her and one other kid. Boy were they loving that. A huge bounce house all to themselves. Amy's son Bryce also has severe food allergies (almost the same as Callie) and so this was the very first party we have ever been to where Callie could eat the cake :) She was happy about that for sure! They also had a balloon animal artist. We sorta missed that part so Callie didn't get to ask for a specific balloon, but I improvised when she wanted one and found a half popped one another kid threw away and fixed it up. It wasn't exactly an animal per say but she still liked it, lol. Callie had a great time. Just in the last few weeks she is really enjoying the slide and she loved the blow up slide and the various slides on the 3 playgrounds nearby. Callie wanted to hug Bryce and she was very loving towards him. Amy thinks she will be a good big sister to a new baby brother. I think she is overbearing. Can't you see Bryce is just trying to escape! ha ha Thanks for an awesome day, Happy Birthday Bryce and Matthew.

It's a BOY!!!

Jeez, I have been a slacker with my posts this weekend. I was busy having fun and never got around to getting photos up much even though a LOT happened. So without further ado, several posts will follow about our weekend. First things first, Friday we had our 18 week ultrasound and have a final confirmation, absolutely sure, its a BOY!! So Callie will have a little brother. Also, it will be nice that his new cousin (who should be born around the same month) will also be a boy, so hopefully they will be best buds. Here are a few shots from the ultrasound. That little profile is so cute! Honestly it reminds me soooo much of Callie's ultrasound with her adorable button nose. 

 Baby Boy Chavez (yet to be named)

 Callie Maria

Don't you think crazy similar? Anyways, we are super excited and now need to get on to the naming part.. I would prefer to call him by his name then Baby 2.

Christmas Lights

Our neighbors have the best lights imply. Callie loves to go visit their lights at night. Their Giant Elmo is a big hit with Callie as well as their Minnie and Mickey riding on a carousel of reindeer. Tonight we were going to go to December Nights in Balboa Park but I was too worried Callie would be cold, it's about 50 degrees maybe a little colder. I know you east coast people are thinking that's warm!

Here are some photos of her insisting the lights this week in her Elmo hat. The photo of the gingerbread house was outside target. It was a salvation army display. Callie liked putting money in the bucket as much as the house. She would have emptied my wallet if I let her.

Happy Birthday Tia Mari

Callie celebrated Mari's birthday with her today since she came for a visit. She got her a Christmas cactus and signed her own card ;)

Callie is still figuring out the crutches and boot thing but knows Mari has a boo boo and likes to "help" her. Honestly she isn't helping at all but she tries at least.

Happy Birthday Tia. We love you lots!!

Embarrassed, don't take my photo! Lol

Shirtless Callie, one tough cookie

Today was a rough day for little miss. When I went to pick her up Nena was concerned Callie was complaining about her right arm and not using it well. Sure enough she was very fussy crying if you touched her arm at all and avoiding using it. So I called the pediatrician and they saw her right away. The doctor thinks she most likely dislocated her elbow (nurse maids syndrome) but that it was already back in place. She could feel some swelling and Callie was very sore there but she didn't feel it pop back in. Callie wouldn't even take a cookie with that hand at the doctor! There were lots of tears. They took some X-rays just to be sure it wasn't fractured since we didn't know of any specific injury that caused it. We are thinking maybe she got her arm stuck in the crib rails and pulled too hard to get it out or maybe even a not obvious movement earlier that pulled her arm.

Since I'm pregnant I couldn't stay with her for the X-ray which made it more traumatic when I left her with the two male X-ray techs to hold her down and stay still. Equals more tears. Luckily the X-rays were all negative and so they just recommend we keep her quiet and resting and she can have ibuprofen if its sore still.they think it will heal up well, although once it happens it is more likely to happen again so extra cautious with her arms and pulling, dressing, getting in the car seat, etc.

Then we had to go straight to our regularly scheduled allergy follow up across the hospital campus. The doctor was super late, 50 minutes, after I rushed and walked so far together there in time.  I was stuck trying to entertain Callie all that time. Her elbow started feeling better from the medicine they gave her though and she started using her arm again to color :)

She had to have 11 needles in her back for her allergy skin tests. I thought it would get easier as she got older but I think it's harder. She is strong and wiggly and complains. The test lasts 15 minutes but its like getting stung by bugs with really itchy bites since she is allergic to most of them. Poor kid kept saying "mommy back" and trying to scratch her back while meanwhile I am trying to keep her occupied and distracted all while not really touching her sore arm.

After the allergy tests we saw the dr again and then had to go tone lab for bloodwork. It took two phlebotomists 45 minutes to draw blood and they had to move the needle several times. They only had one arm to work with since one was already injured which made it more difficult. By now she was ballistic and this was by far the worst part. Blood draws for 9 lab tests is so unfair for a toddler. She must have said "mommy done, done mommy, done" about 100 times through her tears.

When we left the hospital 4 hours after we arrived and 4 appointments later she was still crying and wanted to call dada and GiJu and papa to tell them about her boo boos. Each time she talked about the boo boo or I explained she got more upset so then we started saying all positives, the boo boo is healed, Callie was so tough, what a good girl she was to be at the hospital all afternoon. That seemed to help. Unfortunately it was raining and that meant even worse traffic then usual at 5:15,so our 20 min ride became over an hour on the way home. Lucky for me and Callie I had Curious George episodes, 1 hour with on my iPhone for her to watch quietly.

While this was a very very difficult day with wayyyy to many doctors and ouchies, any one of these things alone could have been enough for one day, there were some big positives.

1. Callie's arm isn't broken and should be perfectly fine in a few days with some rest and extra gentle coddling.

2. Callie's skin tests went way better then expected. She is officially not allergic to wheat and can continue eating it since we had such success the past two week. Her egg allergy decreased and her peanut allergy seemed to have disappeared! On the down side her walnut allergy nearly doubled and pecans also went up. The blood tests will help confirm if any of these allergies are small enough to try a food challenge, which is where Callie eats a peanut or egg at the hospital, just to be safe in case of a very bad reaction. If she passes one of those she could possibly add them to her diet! Boy would that wold awesome! I was so negative about ever kicking the peanut allergy.... But now so hopeful. The dr tells me not too get too excited until we get the blood work back but that its a good sign and she is happy to see her eating wheat without issue and that the allergies seem to be lessening.

3. While none of Callie's issues are fun, I always run into at least one family who knows me from work and they love to see Callie. I remember that so many kids have issues that are way more serious, way more disabling and tough for the families and they have lots more appointments that also have surgeries and other way worse ouchies.

Callie was one tough cookie today even with all the tears. Everyone was impressed with her language skills as she told people about her ouchies and all kinds of other stuff between tears. Here she is shirtless which she was almost the entire afternoon between the dr for her arm, X-ray, and allergy tests. She was exhausted tonight and so am I, phew!

Zoo time with Nicky

Nicky and I went to the zoo with Callie on this sunny Sunday afternoon. Boy am I tired tonight from all the walking! Callie had a very fun day. She still is sometimes more excited by the people at the zoo then the animals and also the inanimate animal statues more than the animals in the enclosures. Either way we had a very fun afternoon looking at the animals. Thanks for coming with us Nicky or as Callie calls her Micky lol :)