"Confuser"

Sidney requested a diffuser and essential oils for her bedroom recently and since she had an Amazon gift card, it was a perfect time to place her order. She patiently waited for it to arrive and promptly set it up in her room (I had to admit my jealousy seeing as those her diffuser is pretty awesome compared to my dated diffuser in the kitchen).

Lincoln caught a glimpse of it all lit up before bed that night and quickly whined that he needed "a confuser" too. We have not stopped hearing him beg for a cool light up confuser too :)

 

Chicago

For Regan's birthday this year, we struggled to find just the right gift for our new teenager. We thought and asked and finally decided on an "experience"....

fitting that I opened this dark chocolate wrapper while we were on our trip. 

My mom and I decide to book flights and take her to the Windy City for a long weekend. Our real reasoning was to see Hamilton (something she has been begging for since last year). 

But we did a lot of exploring and had some fun along the way. 

We put on 5-6 miles/day on foot, walking all over the city. While the river was no longer bright green from St. Patrick's Day, the Riverwalk was a lot of fun and the architecture was incredible. 

Sunday morning was the Shamrock Shuffle. All of the streets were closed down as runners came flying by. Regan was wishing we knew in advance of this race so she couldn't joined :) My little runner, so proud of her. 

Instead we stopped at every Starbucks she could find, cupcake shops and popcorn shops. 

Navy Pier 

Millennial Park

The famous bean

Tricks on the bean

After hours and hours of walking and eating and exploring, we finally got what we came for: Hamilton. 

I suspect all 3 of us are going to be singing those lyrics for weeks to come. It sure didn't disappoint (and this was my second go-around, and I loved it just as much the second time!). I'm so grateful for my mom for sharing this experience with us, we sure made some great memories! 

He passed! A long goodbye to allergies

Lincoln was diagnosed with food allergies at roughly 15 months old. Egg, dairy and peanut. At around 3 years, he outgrew the egg, and by 4 years he had outgrown dairy. At 5 years, his tests came back with indicators of him growing out of peanut (sadly, he was also developing some tree nut allergies at the same time).

 

In preparing him for a peanut challenge, we first had to trial peanut cereal. He passed this challenge and proceeded to spend the next 4 months eating a larger amount of peanut cereal each day until he reached 40 pieces. We did this over a course of 4 months. And then it was time for the big day.

 

 

As luck would have it, my job was over the top-crazy-busy, but I was not re-scheduling this day for him. My anxiety was through the roof, and I was subconsciously a mess. I needed to get this appointment behind me. So we headed into a 3+ hour office visit where he started off by eating an entire peanut. The whole darn thing! I had fleeting thoughts that he would go into anaphylaxis reactions, but he didn't. He was just fine. And then it was 3 more peanuts, and then 5 more. By the end, he had eaten 20 peanuts. And he was just fine :)

 

We aren't in the clear yet. His doc wants us to feed him peanut products 2-3 times/week, and continue to carry his epi wherever we go. We also need to try some other tree nuts to ensure he won't react to them. So although we are certainly rejoicing, we know we have work to do before we can be in the clear.

Off season

Our girls have been putting in blood, sweat and tears during the fastpitch "off-season". Last summer, at the completion of the regular season in August, they signed up for fall ball, then it was onto winter dome ball and then it was weekly clinics with the association. All the while, there were private pitching lessons for Sidney and weekly catching sessions for Regan for 1-2 pitchers taking their own lessons as well as her own private catching lessons. The costs are astronomical, but beyond that, is the time commitment.
For us, for them.
We giggled this winter when people would ask us when softball starts....it never ended!
 

The sacrifice of hanging out with school friends, is balanced by the introduction of new friends by expanding themselves and branching out. It's all been worth it, but more than that, it's been FUN!

  They love this sport. And for the moment, we are hanging on for dear life, letting them lead the commitment. We are so proud of them and support their love of this game 100%.