Don't be a stranger...

I've been out of pocket in the blog-o-sphere lately. Wasn't intentional. Life just got in the way. I had no idea how many people actually read this blog on a regular basis until I stopped posting weekly. Emails and phone calls and texts have been coming in from many friends (and even family) asking if everything was ok. Everything is more than ok...we're simply living life and enjoying the small things. Such as snuggling with daddy...

 And sister snuggling...

 And mommy snuggling...

 Mikey and I were able to get in a long run together (I know, we look so hot). Mike's back has slowly started to feel better and he's easing back into running. He was shocked to run with me for the first time without my headphones in...we actually talked the entire run. Thanks to running with my Perfect Stranger girls to being able to run for hours on end whilst talking. That takes talent, you know. And huge lung capacity. Just sayin'.

 I've also been reading an amazing book. Lance's ex wife is a runner. And boy can she ever write. And relate. She runs with a group of women every week dubbed the "sweat sisters." I've been highlighting all my favorite parts that I can relate with and will be passing this along to every one of my runner girls.

 My sister and her boyfriend was (briefly) in town and we met her out for breakfast. The girls loved seeing their KiKi and so did I.

 I had a girls' night out last weekend with some fellow mom friends from the girls' school. Have to admit, I had so much fun and made a handful of new mommy friends. 

 So here's something super fun, Izzy's school has called me twice in the past month about "issues" she's had. Both times were on Fridays. The first time was to tell me she had a piece of rock salt stuck up her nose. She sniffs everything (and I have no idea where she gets that from) and apparently found a little piece of salt on the floor at school and sniffed. Said salt got lodged in her nose. Every time the teachers asked her to blow her nose to get it out she sniffed (she still hasn't mastered the art of blowing her nose...when is a child too old to not know how to do this?!?!). Which only made the salt go further up her nose. We left her at school (she wasn't bleeding or uncomfortable) and believe that it eventually dissolved. So that was fun.

The second time school called was to tell me they thought Izzy had the measles. Come again!? Since there was a recent outbreak of measles in a nearby town none of us took this lightly. I called the ped and they asked us to come immediately and to knock on the back door of the office so we could enter wearing masks. As soon as we got into the doctor's they realized it wasn't the measles. But it was definitely a bad case of hives. Not a rash (contact dermatitis, caused from lotions or laundry detergent) but hives (usually caused by a food allergy or a virus). We were able to narrow that day's food Izzy ate down to peanuts being the only culprit. After a referral to an allergist and the strong suggestion to keep away from the peanut family, we were on our way.

Izzy made sure to remind me the next morning at Dunkin' Donuts while I was eating my coveted peanut donut that she had to stay away from the peanut family and now I had an entire peanut family in my tummy. Mmmkay.

We visited the allergist and we have to get blood drawn in a few weeks to determine if a peanut allergy is truly what Izzy has or if it was just a reaction to a virus. Learned that usually a food allergy presents itself with hives and is accompanied by a systemic side effect (cough, throat tightening, etc). Since Iz didn't have any other symptoms it may not be an allergy. So off we went with an epi pen and we'll wait to see what the blood test says in a few weeks.

 In the meantime, Izzy has been enjoying her gymnastics classes and learning a lot of new skills. Just last weekend she learned how to climb the rope! It's a huge deal at the gym if you can climb all the way up and ring the bell. Izzy's class was only able to get about shoulder height before getting scared and climbing back down. Just so darn proud of her and I love watching her learn new things every week.

 Another topic I've failed to keep you updated on is the state of this little girl's health...

 We received the results from the EEG and they were negative. Meaning there was no abnormalities in Laney's brain activity. This is inconclusive as the neurologist said kids with epilepsy can have normal EEGs. The doctor challenged us to pinch Laney the next time we saw an episode. Wouldn't you know it that we haven't seen one single episode since the EEG. It almost seems as if they have disappeared as quickly as they came about. We're just happy to have some more knowledge on epilepsy and what to do if we see more absent behavior from Buggy. And many thanks to all of you for your thoughts, prayers and emails you sent our way.

On yet another random note, Laney has been going through a strange stage where she'll get out of bed in the middle of the night and either falling asleep in the hallway outside of her room or coming into our bedroom and just sitting on the floor watching us. Mind you, we sleep with a very loud fan on so we never hear her come in. I'll roll over while sleeping, notice our door is open, and sit up to find Laney just sitting there. Quite creepy. I'll be bringing this up with the neurologist at our follow up appointment to see if this has anything to do with abnormal brain activity or is just a stage. But strange, no?

 Bug is quite the ham these days. And she knows it. Plus, her daddy is getting pretty good at pig tales which makes her even more cute and irresistible.

And Laney is quite the bruiser these days. Rough and tumble is her middle name, that's for sure. Check out her black eye from falling on the playground.

Happy March Madness everyone. We're looking forward to going to the Big T.en Tourney next weekend for some basketball with the Funsters! And I promise not to be such a stranger. I'll have lots to update you on in the coming months, as we just started building a new house. Say what?!?!?