Catching up from the weekend.

We had a very busy weekend and it seems the week has gotten away from me. Friday night we drove to Iowa 2.5 hours. My husband stayed with his brother and they tiled 2 bathrooms and 1/2 of the kitchen. They worked till 2am friday night and then worked most of Saturday day. They were exhausted. Saturday night we drove back home. Sunday Gioia had her dance recital. My parents and sister were able to come and also some of our friends. It was so PRECIOUS! All the girls did excellent and danced so good. My mom brought Gioia flowers. She was really proud to have "her own" flowers.

This week we have been bumming around. Yesterday was my 28 week appointment. I am right on target with weight and belly size. Baby is still laying sideways. My midwife is not concerned. She said baby has lots of room in there so it just moves around. Once baby starts running out of room he/she will turn the right way.

I took Gioia to get a rash on her face looked at today. It has been there for like a month. He thinks it is a kind of staph infection. Not a serious one, just minor but hard to get rid of sometimes. He gave us some nasty smelling herbs and made it into a cream for her face. Also a homepathic. He wanted Gioia to drink the herbs 3 times a day as well. Um, yeah. When I gave them to her she puked. SO that is not happening. They smell foul. I think we can clear it up with the topical herbs.

Tonight is an impromptu MNO. We are going out for Thai Food. It should be fun. Just to hang out with the girls.

Our first ER visit.

Dominic had his first trip to the ER last night.

Luckily DH came home from work early and we had eaten dinner early. SO about 5pm we had just finished eating and the kids ran up the stairs to the bedrooms. I sighed and followed them to the foot of the stairs shouting at them to come back down right now! We don't let them play up there unsupervised because of the bathrooms and they get into stuff.

Well they were up there 2 mins tops and Dominic starts screaming! He runs out to the top of the stairs with blood streaming down his face. I yell at DH SHIT he is bleeding! I scoop him up and run to the bathroom. Grab a towel and see a 1 1/2 inch gash on the top of his head. It is kind of off to the side, like where a guy might do a side part. Well I see this and yell to DH "We gotta go to the hospital! " He dresses Gioia, gets me a rag to clean Dominic up and some clothes for him. Of course both the kids were naked or in underpants. It stopped bleeding pretty quickly so we calmly made our way to the hospital. We just went to Olathe Medical, because I could see it was going to be a routine head wound thing. He never passed out or anything.

Gioia said he fell against the cot. We had a camping cot set up in our room for Gioia to occasionally sleep on. Well Dominic kept saying the door. The door didn't make sense. I saw blood on the carpet by the cot. Well this morning he showed me and he pointed out the wooden window sill NEXT to the cot. So that makes more sense.

The kids were both really good at the ER. It took 3 hours total to get in and out. They used numbing gel for his head and he got 4 STAPLES. We left the ER about 8pm, he was asleep before we left the parking lot.

Fathers Day Weekend

So we had a really great weekend. Saturday we went to the Arboretum for a walk in the morning. We found all kinds of fun bugs. Dragonflies, beetles, Rollie Pollies, and SNAILS. This giant cottonwood tree had snails all over it. The kids loved it. They even found a few snails on the ground that they picked up and looked at.

Then we went to Home Depot for more landscaping materials. DH finished the backyard landscaping. He also cleaned out he garage and got his cars back in it. Sunday we went to Mass. Later DH smoked a turkey on the smoker and we also cooked brats and steak for lunch. The kids played in the front with me all morning. Later it rained so we took naps and watched a movie. After dinner DH wanted to go get ice cream, so we did. We ended up going to the movies and watching Kung Fu Panda. It was cute. Dominic had trouble sitting still but he was good for most of the movie.

Gioia drew us the cutest picture.

VBS

Vacation Bible School is this week. Gioia is going and she loves it. It is from 9-11:30 in the mornings and when I drop her off she is Miss Independent. She just does it all on her own. Could care LESS about saying good-bye to mom! HA HA! Yesterday i said, Ok honey I will be back to pick you up later. She said "I know." and kept walking. :) The first day she got upset because she didn't have time to finish her craft, so we brought it home and she worked on it more. Then yesterday she had to bring home a coloring book they were making because she didn't have time to do that. The teacher said she was REALLy working hard on a flag craft and didn't want to stop. I love it. She really works hard on things. She also doesn't have that switch tasks mentality that other public school kids have because as a homeschooler she can actually finish a project before moving on to another. Friday is their program. They will sing songs for us and give us some crafts they made.

We also went swimming yesterday. My legs got a little sunburned. I was sitting on the edge in the water and I guess the reflection got me.

My grandma has been in the hospital for a couple days. She went home yesterday. Her heart was doing funny things, but then they found pneumonia. Strange. At least she is doing better. We went to see her the other night. Then my mom, my sister and I ate at Figlios on the plaza. It is expensive, but the food is amazing. Mom said after going through a stressful hospital day she deserved it. I agree.

Ying and Yang

One thing makes me smile and one thing makes me sick.

First the smile. 26 week pregnant baby belly! This little one is good an active. However when Gioia puts her hand on my belly, baby always stops moving.


THANK GOD DH has his electric car to drive to work. Our gas bill would be out the roof if not for that. We have limited our driving a lot as well. In the summer we always have this GO-GO mentality because it is nice out and we can go. This summer however we have bought a pool pass and are staying in town most days. A trip to my moms house cost us $75 in gas this weekend. Its just too much.

So here it is in pictures:

Fridge locks.

A Fridge lock is going to save my life. Ok..maybe not my life but definitely my sanity. So far this week my Raccoon son has gotten out the eggs and broke two, got out mushrooms and mashed into the carpet and gotten out numerous things to eat. I should also mention I found the broken egg mess by stepping in it. NICE. So I went to Walmart, which I loath to do, and bought a fridge lock. I am not sure it will be strong enough but we will give it a go.

Speaking of my son. We have finally determined the cause of all his mystery hives that pop up at random times. Sometimes they are bad. Sometimes they are one or two spots. The culprit? Cold. Thats right, I was stunned too. But after 2 popsicle instances, one cold water (pool) and cold fruit on his face I got to searching online. It is called Cold Urticaria (Urticaria is the fancy word for hives). Check it out here. So really there is nothing to do, except watch out for what he might be exposed to. The main thing to worry about is cold water like a really cold pool where his whoole body might have a severe reaction. They said in the articles that a doctor would do a ice cube test on the skin. I did that. After only 1 min, instead of 5-10 mins like was suggested he had a HUGE welt on his arm in the shape of an ice cube. Then I felt bad. I didn't mean for that to happen, I was just morbidly curious to what the ice cube test would say about him. Well it was a pretty acute reaction. We won't try it again.

Pictures from Friday night.

Cranberry Pecan Bread

This bread recipe is AWESOME! It is for the bread machine, but you can make it by hand.

Makes One (2-pound) Loaf

1-1/4 cups water
2 tablespoons butter or margarine
2 teaspoons salt
3.5 cups white whole wheat flour
1/2 cup sweetened dried cranberries
3/4 cup chopped pecans
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 teaspoons FLEISCHMANN'S Bread Machine Yeast

Directions

Add ingredients to bread machine pan in the order suggested by manufacturer, adding dried cranberries and nuts with flour.

Recommended cycle: Basic/white bread cycle, select medium/normal color setting.


Here is the conventional oven method: Same ingredients.
Directions
In a large bowl, combine 1 cup flour, sugar, dry milk, undissolved yeast, and salt. Heat water and butter until very warm (120^o to 130^oF). Gradually add to flour mixture. Beat 2 minutes at medium speed of electric mixer, scraping bowl occasionally. Stir in cranberries, pecans, and enough remaining flour to make a soft dough. Knead on lightly floured surface until smooth and elastic, about 8 to 10 minutes. Cover; let rest 10 minutes.

Roll dough to 12 x 8-inch rectangle. Beginning from short end, roll up tightly as for jelly roll. Pinch seam and ends to seal. Place, seam side down, in greased 9 x 5-inch loaf pan. Cover; let rise in warm, draft-free place until doubled in size, about 45 minutes.

Bake at 375^oF for 35 to 45 minutes or until done. Remove from pan; cool on wire rack.

Bambino Slings

So I have been making slings for a while now and I really like it. Several people have been buying them and even more asking for them. I have also sold a few at a friends business Happybottomus. My husband encouraged me to sell them myself and so I decided to do it. I really do like making them and I challenge myself to find funky fabric and fun things to stand out. I also make a few plainer ones for the people that DON'T want to stand out. :) So my new website is www.bambinoslings.com It is not very exciting yet. My sister borrowed my camera for the weekend so I can't add all the slings yet. But check back in a few days and I will have 5-10 slings up for purchase. I am also trying to really keep the cost down to $30 or less so people can afford to buy them. I know when I bought my first sling I paid $45 dollars. It was hard to part with that kind of money when I had never tried it before. I also have the option on there to have a sling custom made if you have your own fabric or you want something in particular. So tell people about it and if someone asks you about your sling send them to my website for a local dealer, even if I didn't make yours.

In regular news, we have had a nice weekend. Friday night we went out for my sisters birthday. It was only the second time in 3 years I had been to a bar. We went to Howl at the Moon piano bar. It rocked! They have dueling pianos (2) playing and they do everything from country songs to Def Leppard to Come on Ilene. All songs that people can sing or dance to. They get the crowd very involved and it was great!! So happy 29th birthday Melanie!

Saturday we chilled. Massimo went fishing in the morning. In the afternoon we grilled burgers and veggies. Today, Sunday we went to 8am Mass. The kids did really good today. Dominic even sat through the whole thing. We went fishing for about an hour but it got hot on us. Then we had pasta for lunch. After lunch we went to the Aquatic Center and swam for a couple hours. We are having BBQ ribs, corn, beans and spinach salad for dinner. MMM!! Can't wait!

Tomorrow I promise pictures from Friday night and a new recipe.