Post Thanksgiving Update

Another month has slipped by so I guess it's time for an update on the family.

We started our Thanksgiving holiday by traveling to Maryville to be with Lindsey's family on Wednesday afternoon. Thursday was the typical cabin luncheon with only about 65 family members this year and then a journey into Knoxville to Fred and Cynthia's house so I could FINALLY get some bread and some mashed potatoes. I don't know what is up with people who don't think bread and mashed potatoes are part of a Thanksgiving dinner. Thank God for Cynthia! She loves me!

Here are some pictures of the girls bundled up and playing in the leaves at the cabin.

On Friday, we had a birthday celebration for Molly, McKenzie, John, and Lew. The girls got to eat some delicious cupcakes. Once again, Molly tore into hers like there was no tomorrow.

McKenzie though prefers to keep her hands clean. Therefore, she just went into the thing face first...at least until all the icing was gone.

We returned home on Saturday and had another Thanksgiving lunch with my family. Then it was time to rest...

On Monday, the girls had their one year checkup with the doctor. We were supposed to get shots but neither girl was well enough for them. Isn't that odd? I thought so. McKenzie had a double ear infection and Molly had a wheeziness in her chest. McKenzie got "the pink stuff" which she likes way too much and Molly got to do breathing treatments 3 or 4 times a day for a week or two. Fun!

Molly weighed in at 21 pounds 7 oz and was 29" tall. She's 60th percentile in weight and 50th in height.

McKenzie weighed in at 19 pounds 5 ounces and was 30" tall. She's 25th percentile in weight and 60th percentile in height. This was the first time that the girls measured differently in height.

Head circumference for both was 46cm which is right at the 50th percentile.

On the following Saturday, we actually got snow! First time in a long time that we've actually had anything that stuck to the ground. We got the girls all bundled up and went out to see what was going on. McKenzie went nuts crawling all over the place. Molly stood on the sidewalk and cried. Shocking...

Here are some pictures from that morning.

On Thursday, the 10th, we decided to take the girls to see Santa for the first time. In order to get ready, we decided to get all dressed up and then play some so we would be in good moods. Here are some "getting ready for Santa" pictures:

And finally, the big moment...

Once again, McKenzie is kinda passive and Molly is about 2 seconds from losing it entirely. We're gonna need to get Molly over her fears at some point. I just don't think it's going to happen today.

Yesterday, we went back to the doctor to finally get our one year shots and some other stuff. Each girl got 4 shots including the swine flu shot. It wasn't pretty. McKenzie had a finger stick to draw blood for her iron levels. They are finally in the normal range so we're good for now. Molly had a vial of blood drawn from her arm so that the doctors can run an allergy screening.

The thought right now is that Molly has a milk allergy. Whenever she has milk, she gets a really bad, blistery diaper rash and has really loose stools. We took her off milk everything about 2 weeks ago and things have gotten A LOT better. Some of the strangest things have milk in them though. Case in point: soy yogurt. The yogurt cultures are milk based. Same for soy cheese and a lot of the rice based products.

We went to Greenlife Grocery (cool place by the way. A ton more people were there for lunch, not buying groceries...) earlier this week and found some Vegan Cheddar "Cheese". It's...odd. It's kinda crumbly and wet for some reason. Also, expensive ($5 for 8 ounces). Apparently Molly likes it though.

We're kinda hoping that this allergy is something she'll grow out of. If not, she's not going to enjoy sitting in the car while we eat Nana's Custard =)

We'll know the results of the allergy screening in about a week.

So, that's it for now. We're gearing up for Christmas traveling as best we can. Santa's going to bring us lots of fun stuff (not that we need any more toys in this house!)

2008

2009

Til later...