Where were we?

Sometimes I worry that this blog will look like a visual version of a playgroup conversation. For those of you not familiar with "conversations" that take place when there are upwards of 10 small children ranging in age from one year to 4 where everyone is talking at the same time and disagreements can end in hitting are biting so they must be monitored very closely, let's just say that many ideas are started never to be finished. Every Wednesday once I feed and get the children to bed after playgroup I sit and think about all the things I started to say to someone only to be interrupted along with all the what sounded like they would have been interesting stories I heard fragments of but never really got the whole thing. It is the same with the blog, in the evening when my mind is finally free to wander I find myself writing long posts with funny interludes and great stories. The problem is I am usually in the shower or already in the bed, no where that I could actually capture the thoughts and but them in a safe place for a later post. I need a voice recorder for my inner thoughts. Can someone invent that for me? Thanks.

There are a lot of things to catch you up on so forgive me if this is a hodgepodge list of accomplishments and stories.

Where to start.... how about swimming lessons? Otto has been taking swimming lessons every morning, this is his second week. He goes with eric which is a nice special time they get to spend together just the two of them. We were hesitant to sign him up for classes because he gets very overwhelmed in group settings and I was fearful of him getting scared of the water because he was scared of the class. Then we went to a pool party at a friends house and he was terrified of the water. That sealed the deal, he was going to be scared with or without the classes so I thought we better try. Learning to swim is something that i think you HAVE to do. The thought of an older kid who can't swim scares me a bit. Plus, I am like a fish in the water and I am really looking forward to having many a long summer day with the kids at the pool and in order for that to happen they need to learn how to swim. I fully thought that Otto wouldn't go near the pool and would be terrified in the class but he has surprised us and is doing great!! All of the other kids in the class have taken the class before which I actually think is good because he gets a chance to see the other kids doing stuff without being scared. Each class he is more and more brave but the best part is he loves swim class. He is excited to go everyday and tells me "it was GREAT" everyday when he gets home. Eric is pretty sure that if enough treats were offered he would swim underwater across the whole pool. I am fine with him being motivated by a piece of candy at the end of class from the teacher if it means that he pushes his boundaries and tries new things. After this week he has a week off then we will starts two more weeks of class to finish off the summer. I think that we will try a program over the winter as well to keep the momentum going. Perhaps Mette will try some too. Something tells me she would LOVE swim class!

In more Otto news, he a had a complete allergy testing done a few weeks ago. We needed to check his peanut levels so he had an appointment with the allergist but I also wanted to get him tested for seasonal allergies because he seemed to be very sniffly lately. There is a lot of talk that SPD can be caused by allergies or at least aggravated by them so I wanted to get any allergies he might have in check. Eric is allergic to quite a bit so it would stand to reason that Otto may be as well. He tested positive to dust mites, trees, grass, cats, cockroaches and ragweed. The allergist said as long as we keep the cats out of his room (which we have always done) that it shouldn't be a problem. He asked what Otto's reaction to the cats was, which is nothing unless he actually lays on them, then he wants to rub off the cat hair. He doesn't get a rash, he doesn't itch, he eyes don't burn or run and his nose doesn't run. So for now the cats are staying, but if his allergies become worse we will have to think about new homes for them. I am going to ignore that for now, good old Storb repression at it's finest! The dust mites we can and have done something about. I have been washing ALL of his bedding down to his new allergy protective mattress and pillow protectors, along with Mette's in hot water and running them through the dryer, normally I would line dry them. This includes blankies, alligator and mun-key which requires quite a bit of planning on my part. I order an all natural laundry additive so I won't have to use hat water or the dryer which will be nice. I am all for killing dust mites, but the environmental impact of all that hot water and dryer time is a bit much. I also ordered a earth friendly, plant based spray for the furniture and rugs to use between steam cleaning that should kill dust mites as well as neutralize pet dander. Uncle Ben, all of this should be good for you too! :) Just in case you were thinking you would google dust mites to learn a little bit more about them, I would like to stop you. Take a minute and think about how prepared you are to change how you look at everything in your house that is made of fabric. You also need to think about how you feel with bugs crawling on you all the time. If only someone had warned me before I started googling. There really should be a page that blocks you from learning too much about something that is totally going to freak you out. Needless to say, Otto's bed is not the only one that is getting the FULL weekly cleaning. And I should add, I always changed the sheets every week, but I do so much more now. Don't say I didn't warn you. Right now, while the grass allergies are high we are giving him children's Zyrtek in the morning. It works great and makes a big difference. The allergist said when ragweed hits we might need something stronger but we will cross that bridge when we get to it. He also thinks that Otto may be growing out of his peanut allergy which 10-20% of kids do. That would be AWESOME!!! He is going to do a blood profile in 6 months to see if his levels are going down. We know now that small amounts of peanut don't cause immediate anaphylaxis shock which is great, but the less I have to worry when sending him out in world, the better.

Speaking of sending him out into the real world, he starts preschool this fall! I can't believe it. The week after Labor Day he will be going every Tuesday and Thursday morning. I don't know what I will do with myself.

And now Mette. Mette, Mette, Mette my darling. First, she is scheduled for her plastic surgery to remove the cyst above her eye on the 3rd of August. We had the pre-op last week and she has been cleared for take off. We have to be there at 6 in the morning so my mom is coming the night before to hang out with Otto while we are at the hospital. It should be a very simple procedure and we should be home by lunch. There is a chance that she will have a black eye with some swelling for a while but other than that she will be the same. Let's hope all of that goes well.

Mette is an adorable little stinker. She throws a temper tantrum complete with throwing herself on the floor screaming, tears, holding out her hand and yelling stop, the works, when you kindly remind her not to eat books. It is a bit intense here these days. I keep telling myself that it is just a phase and it won't last forever, but WOW, she is a drama queen! She is also insanely charming and sweet so that helps her last through the day. She is in a big mommy phase and me leaving the room and/or other people looking at her is often enough to send her over the edge. In her defense she has cut three molars in the last two weeks and there may be more teeth coming but I am too scared to stick my fingers in there to be sure. These teeth are ones she has been working on, no lie, since last Christmas. It has been a long road. The past few weeks there have been many tears, some fevers and diarrhea but I think they are finally cutting through and not going back up, I hope.

The other news from Metteville is the potty. I am hesitant to write about it, but here it goes. I am also fully aware and fine with the fact that this may turn into nothing. For a while now she has been interested in sitting on the potty and she has pooped once or twice on the potty and there has been the occasional pee but really most of the time she sits there for one millisecond and pops up and announces "done!". But as of last evening and this morning she has been peeing an pooping on the potty with only two small mistakes. I have just had her in a t-shirt and nothing else around the house to make it easier. A couple of the times she has said potty and ran over and peed. Often I ask her if she needs to go and when she sits on the potty she pees. She thinks it is very exciting. With Otto, he was 2 1/2 which was very early for a boy, but he still got it in a weekend. With Mette only being 17 months old I am sure that I will have to ask her about 100 times a day if she needs to go potty for it to take and it still may not. But regardless, I haven't changed a stinky diaper in a while so that rocks!

As for me. I am doing well. A bit on the tired side, but who isn't really. It has been crazy hot which I hate. It is cooler today but really anything above 75 I am not too fond of. I am already dreaming of fall. I have been working of a few small projects but mainly just trying to keep up with laundry and cleaning. It seems like a never ending quest.

So that's the news from our side of town, how are you?