September Transitions

Time for the month of transitions! Last year my motto was, "Wake me up when September ends," because that was my month of being 9 months pregnant and having to go through childbirth and recovery. This year I'm really excited about September! The leaves are already starting to change, Jack starts kindergarten this week, and then football next week, so he should be a very happy little boy soon. And hopefully those things will do a better job of tiring him out than I've been doing. Jack continues to seem to be one of those people who just needs less sleep than everyone else. We have always prioritized nap/rest times and reasonable bedtimes. But lately it doesn't matter when we get him to bed for the night (usually around 8:00); he just isn't tired AT ALL until around 10:00. And it's not like he sleeps in late. He's almost always up for the day by 7:30 in the morning. So he sits in his bed for 2 hours, quite bored, talking to his stuffed animals, and requiring frequent check-ins from us. I feel bad for him. I've considered letting him stay up later doing a quiet play time, but with school starting this week it'll just be easier to keep that 8:00 bedtime. With more activities and the sun starting to set sooner I think he'll have an easier time falling asleep in these next few months.

We started this month with another fun transition: Bringing back the dairy! I'm so happy I could cry. I celebrated with a Little Caesar's pizza. Alice had an allergist appointment this last week. We had them test for 6 foods we were suspicious of that they didn't test last time: Dairy, soy, beef, tomato, and sunflower. (He also retested for egg to see if that allergy has improved since last time.) The bad news is that 5 of those came back positive for legitimate allergies. Sunflower was the worst. Almost as bad as peanut. And egg had gotten worse since last time too, ughhh. But I walked away from the appointment feeling lighter because if I could choose just one of those foods for her not to have to be allergic to it would be dairy, and she tested negative for dairy allergy! The last time we trialed dairy was 3 months ago and she broke out in intense hives. But dairy is one of the allergies that is most frequently outgrown in babies by the time they reach a year old, and it appears she has outgrown it so we immediately added it back into my diet and hers. She has responded just fine to dairy baked into things--even short bakes like waffles and pancakes. She had intestinal trouble after yogurt so we're going to back off yogurt/milk for a bit but try cheese next week and see how that goes. And I'm back to eating all dairy (in moderation for my own stomach's sake). I did not expect to come away from that doctor visit with dairy back in our lives so that was a very happy surprise. 

More new transitions--Alice's top 2 teeth are ready to rumble, and she turns one this month. September marks the month Jared begins year 3 of his 3-year work contract, so if and when we feel ready we can start putting out feelers for Utah jobs (spoiler: Jared's already started poking around just to see if there's anything interesting there). I'm not necessarily ready for 8 months of clouds, rain, longer nights, and our children getting sick twice a month (yesterday a girl in our primary class announced, "I'm sick!" and then halfway through my lesson I looked down and saw her sticking her fingers in Alice's mouth--sure enough Alice woke up with a runny nose and a cough this morning. GOODBYE.) But fall in Washington is so cozy. I'm lighting up all my fall candles and leaning into this next season. Here are some pictures from our week:

A headboard is nice, but it's been even nicer to push our bed right up to the window so we can watch sunsets like these from bed. One of the things I'll miss most about this house when we move some day is the sunset views over the enormous evergreens outside our big master bedroom and bathroom picture windows. 

^^Alice did great through her second prick test. Minimal crying. Maximal wiggliness. (The "s" is for sunflower. The allergist is getting bloodwork done to determine how serious the other allergies are so we can come up with a game plan for introducing or avoiding her other allergens. Right now we're avoiding all peanut and sunflower, not worrying about almond, leaning into introducing egg more and more often to try and push back on that allergy, and standing by on soy, tomato, and beef.)

^^Meet the teacher night! We're all excited about Jack's class and teacher for this coming year.

^^We attempted a day trip adventure to see Diablo Lake and Ross Lake in the Cascades. It's been on my Washington list for some time. Unfortunately, all hikes and viewpoints to the lakes were closed due to a recent forest fire so we didn't get to see much. Luckily we found a cute hike to a small waterfall in the area so the drive wasn't a total bust. We caught enough glimpses of the lakes from the main road that we feel ok checking them off our list.

^^A mommy Jack date to get a snow cone, buy a Halloween decoration in the Target dollar spot, and find some swings by Lake Stevens. 

^^Allie Baby Sweetie working on her fitness. We got our garage all cleaned and organized last month and it feels like a retreat now even though it's just your standard semi-organized garage haha

^^Washington State Fair! Jared's sister Annie recently finished 3 years of teaching English in South Korea. She has been back in Washington for the past month or two and it has been so fun having her around. The kids love her and she is so sweet with them. She will be moving to England this week to do a master's program, and then eventually she hopes to move back to Seattle. Sad for us to see her go again, but happy for her to keep progressing and move toward a career doing cool things!

^^One of my happiest summer 2023 memories: riding a roller coaster at the fair with my Jackie Boy while the sun set off in the distance. He was soooo excited about the rides. Jared's parents spoiled us with lots of yummy fair food, and we saw tons of cute farm animals, but Jack only had eyes for the rides. He kept saying, "This is my favorite day ever!" He was so cute on the roller coaster. It was pretty tame, with just one fast little "drop." He spent most of the ride smiling, put his hands up in the air during the slow parts, and then whenever we'd get to the drop he squeezed my leg so tightly. Core parenting memory for me. 

^^Alice stayed up waaaay past her bedtime and screamed the whole drive there and back. But you know. Memories and such. Worth it for one last night of summer fun watching the sun set and experiencing the fair lights flick on at night. While we were there Alice lived her best life with a corn on the cob and a big bowl of bbq pork. I can't even say how much of a relief it was to eat whatever I wanted without worrying how it would affect Alice, and not worrying about giving Alice something that might or might not be cooked in butter, since she doesn't have dairy issues anymore. We kept talking about how sweet it will be when Alice is old enough to do some little rides with Jack in a year or two. Can't wait. Until next summer!