Boston - Orchard

The Belkin Family Lookout Farm is one of our FAVORITE places to visit in the Boston area. We went there when Kaylee was 9 months old and vowed to go back everytime we are in Boston in the fall. This time when we were there Ainslee was 7 months old, so she didnt get to enjoy it quite as much as Kaylee on her first visit. But dont fret Ainslee, we will definitely be going back when you are bigger!

Our little family September 2009

Our even "littler" family October 2007

4 little apples in the apple tree3 little apples in the apple tree

Ainslee the buffalo


Kaylee the buffalo


Kaylee loving sitting high on daddy's shoulders

Kaylee ate SO many apples her 1st time at the orchardAnd she ate even MORE her 2nd time

Apples were the only fruit in season our 1st time at the orchard, and Kaylee had teeth so she had no trouble digging in to all the apples we gave her

There were apples, plums, and peaches in season our 2nd time to the orchard. Ainslee does not have any teeth yet, so she had wait like a little baby bird for her momma to feed her. But she sure did come close to eating her weight in fruit that day.

What was nice about the timing of our 2nd visit was that since we went a month earlier in the year we were able to experience different varieties of apples than our first visit. This time we discovered the honey crisp apples, which I have to say are FABULOUS! If you see these available in your local grocery store or farmers market you have to try one. I'm not saying that it is going to be as good as the ones picked directly off the tree, but it will surely be a treat.

I really hate that when we go back to Boston in Novemeber the farm will be closed. But if you are ever in Boston in the fall, you need to pay the Belkin Family Lookout Farm a visit.

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New Cup

Kaylee's new cup FINALLY arrived! I searched and searched and researched many different styles, designs, and materials of cups. I finally made my choice on the one that I thought best fit what I was looking for. My biggest thing is that I wanted a SAFE cup for my children to drink from. I do not want the "toxins" from plastic leeching into my children's drinks and therefore into their bodies. So after the safety criteria was met I focused on all the "extras." I knew I wanted a straw cup, I preferred aluminum, I wanted it to be well insulated to keep drinks cold for long periods of time, and a BIG PLUS was having it be durable! Cause everyone knows how destructive my little monster can be.

The cup I finally chose was the Foogo by Thermos. I ordered mine on Amazon, I only got one so I could try it out for myself to see if it really does live up to all the reviews . I also ordered one of the Foogo food jars. I have to say that I absolutely LOVE this cup, and so does Kaylee! It does do everything that it says it is supposed to.....and it doesnt sweat either! I mentioned to Marcus the other day that I wish cups did not sweat, it is a pain in the butt cleaning up sweat rings and water from everywhere. And this one doesnt sweat, how cool is that? Now I do have to list the good with the bad, it does leak. It only leaks when the top is not closed. But when it is closed it is completely leak proof. So I just have to train Kaylee to close the top after she is done drinking. It leaks because the straw does not have a valve in it like most cups, but to me this is a good thing, because her cups that have valves always spray when opened due to the pressure that has built up. I think I will deal with teaching her to close the top over uncontrollable drink sprayage.

I have to say I was VERY eager to test the insulation. The first night we had the cup, I put ice and a little bit of water, and I left the cup sitting on the counter throughout the night. I figured if there was still ice in it in the morning, it would pass my test. It still had ice in it the next AFTERNOON!

Ainslee perked her head up to see what all the commotion was when the new cup arrived

What?....I think I'm gonna like this cup

"Mom, why are you taking pictures of me drinking from a cup? It's JUST a cup!"

She wanted to sit in Ainslee's lap and drink.....so she did

I think she likes it!

This was HER idea! She wanted to share with Ainslee, and Ainslee surely took her up on her offer.
Because the cup does not have a valve, Ainslee is able to drink from it too. She thought she was hot stuff for drinking from a big girl cup.

Now all our other cups with the "bad" plastics are going in the trash, actually I wonder if they can be recycled? This is just one step in me trying to make our lives (and more importantly) the lives of my children healthier. Now I just have to buy more of these cups so that we can have extras and always have one clean.

Boston - U2 Concert

The orginal reason why we went to Boston was to go to the U2 concert! I mean seeing Crista and Harry were high on the priority list too.

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The atmosphere, the stage, the company we were in, the night, EVERYTHING was awesome! I couldnt have been more pleased! It was fabulous! Even despite the minor techincal difficulities! I cant wait to go see them again

Boston Children's Museum and Aquarium

Ok so here is the first batch of pictures from our trip. We visited the Children's Museum twice, and Kaylee had a blast both times! We were there for hours and hours each time and none of it got old to her. Im sure you will notice from the pictures that I was wearing the same shirt both days. My only excuse is that I packed light, and wanted to wear a nursing top to make it easier to nurse in public.

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We didnt get many pictures at the Aquarium. Im not exactly sure why, maybe because we werent there too long and we were busy chasing around a crazy maniac child the entire time! Lets just suffice it to say that the aquarium wasnt her "cup of tea."

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Since when.....

Since when do 2 year olds call there vehicles by there make? As in the MAKER of the car......

Tonight Marcus had to go help his mom pack up from a show, so he had to take my car. Obviously he can load many more boxes in it than in the Jetta. After he left I had to take some of the recycles out into the garage and, like she is all day long, I had my little pip squeak on my heels. When I opened the door to the garage she immediately noticed that my car was gone. Here is the dialogue that took place

Kaylee: "where's mommy's car?"
Me: "remember Daddy took it to go help Amma Rita."
Kaylee: "OOOOhh"
Me: "Ok lets go back inside the house."
Kaylee stands there for a second and thinks
Kaylee: "Daddy can NOT drive the Mercedes!"
Me: "WHAT did you just say?"
Kaylee: "Daddy cant take mommy's Mercedes!"

Are you kidding me?


I have just about got all the Boston pictures narrowed down.....I think I chose about 100 of them to share with you; however, I'm not exactly sure how Im going to go about doing that.

Oh and you know how my earlier post mentioned Ainslee starting to crawl.......WELLLLLL she is a speedy gonzales! It is only her 1st day of really crawling around and I am already having trouble keeping up with her. Oh and she pulled herself up to a kneeling position on the couch today. What am I going to do? She is growing up way too fast!

New Record

This has to be my ALL TIME RECORD OF LONGEST TIME IN BETWEEN POSTS EVER! I mean I didnt take this much time off when we went to Mexico for 2 weeks, or even when I had Ainslee and was in the hospital. I never neglect my blog for so long. I guess I warned you that this might happen, but it is definitely not for the reasons that I predicted. I havent even gotten 1 single solitary minute to read anything about GF stuff yet.

Here is a little of what we have been up to.

1. We made it to Boston, and home from Boston all in one piece. It was a miracle, but we did it! We hardly slept a wink while we were there. More on that trip later, I have to sort through about 1000 pictures.

2. Kaylee started getting sick the night before our flight home. She proceeded to give us ALL whatever germs she had acquired. The girls and I have been battling upper respiratory infections and ear infections since returning home. So pretty much we havent been sleeping much because WE.CANT.BREATHE!!! Oh and Kaylee has finally learned to blow her nose, which is much easier than me having to suck it out with that bulb syringe. I am SO thankful that we dont have the piggy flu!
3. Ainslee is CRAWLING!!! YES, I know, I cant believe it! I really thought that she was going to skip the "real" crawling phase, but she proved me wrong once again. She has been doing the army crawl thing for about 2 months now, and today she decided that it was time to just go ahead and crawl the "real" way. YAY for Ainslee!

4. While I was packing for Boston, Ainslee was playing on the floor of our bedroom, I looked over and she had pulled herself up on the suitcase and was standing, I thought it was a fluke until she did the same thing in Boston, twice on the bottom stair and once on the bar stool in Crista's kitchen. Looks like cruising isnt too far in the future.

5. Ainslee has tried countless new foods, and loves just about everything you put in her mouth. She becomes a different person when food is around, and she cant eat it fast enough. Auntie Crista and Uncle Harry were very surprised at her aggressiveness when it came to eating.

6. Kaylee got her cast off before we went to Boston, her foot wasnt healed quite enough, so the doctor put her into a removable "boot". She was told to wear it about a week, and then try taking it off. We did just as the doctor ordered and tried taking her boot off while we were in Boston. She limped at first, trying to adjust back to normal walking is a bit difficult when you have been in a cast so long. She would walk fine for a couple hours and then revert to limping. We kept switching back and forth - boot, no boot, boot, no boot. But after seeing the doctor the other day he suggested that we keep it on her a little longer, and thus she is back in the boot full time now. Her foot is still a tad bit swollen and she walks with a limp most of the time. I really hope that it heals quickly because that boot is D-E-A-D-L-Y!

7. Kaylee missed another day of school, her count is up to 4 now, and she has only had a total of 5 days. I love paying for something my child doesnt even get to experience.

8. We now live in the jungle! After countless days of rain, and NO grass cutting our yard is looking more and more like a home for some wild animals than our yard. I wonder what Marcus' "plan of attack" is going to be to get it back to normal.

9. We have NO food in this house! When I say no food, I mean NO FOOD! I have been to tired and sick to do any sort of grocery shopping, so we have literally been scrounging around for something to eat for the past 4 days. I have GOT to get to the grocery store ASAP!

10. I promise that pictures and accounts of our time in Boston will be coming soon. I have been going to bed before 8 since being sick, and not doing much of anything except trying to survive, so I will get to working on those posts tonight.

Wordless Wednesday

1st Day of School

NO! I do NOT consider this her first REAL day of school! I dont know why I keep calling it that, but I do. So for clarification purposes I guess today was her "1st day of MDO"! Her first day of school will actually be when she starts Kindergarten.

Here I was this morning, planning to leave the house in enough time to be able to get a few pictures of her. I actually left the house a little bit early, but I forgot to get a picture of her in front of our front door. I have seen many many pictures of kids by their front door on the 1st day of school and i just LOVE the idea of seeing how the child grows throughout the years. But I totally forgot to get that shot. I might just have to cheat and get that picture another day and pretend it was today.

She surprised me though when I dropped her off. She was very excited about her new room, and we had talked all morning about how she was going to stay at school and I was going to leave, and mommy would come back and get her after lunch, and nap, and play time. She ran into the classroom and found her "apple" on the table (although having a Kevin in the class confused her, no one else should have a K name, that is in her mind they shouldnt). She began playing with the toys and the other children, asking them all their names. Everyone was asking about her cast, it was just so cute to see her so excited. Then it was time for me to leave, Ainslee was getting cranky, and i didnt want to stay and be obsessive. I do not believe in the "sneak out" approach. Especially since I was leaving her with perfect strangers. So I went over to her and told her I was leaving, gave her a kiss, and told her I would be back to get her. Her voice got all crackly as she said "NO mommy I want you to stay here with Kaylee." I told her again that I could not stay there that I was going to be back to pick her up after I ran my errands, and I turned around to walk away. She followed me into the hall and said "dont go mommy." Still no tears. the teacher led her back into the classroom, and I left. I wondered all day if she was bothered after I left. Come to find out she wasnt, thankfully! Oh and the "errands" I was supposed to run today got pushed to the back burner because "little miss" took a 3 hour nap. Man I could get used to this......drop Kaylee off at school and then get to take a nap myself. I hope that wasnt just a fluke!

Kaylee was so cooperative this morning. She listened fabulously and cooperated with all my picture taking. You can tell by the pictures that I have ABSOLUTELY NO IDEA WHAT THE HECK I AM DOING IN THE PHOTOGRAPHY DEPARTMENT!!! I dont know about lighting, shadows, oudorr vs indoor, the settings on our camera, or anything else when it comes to taking pictures. Heck the way I feel is, as much as we paid for that darn camera it should take the pictures for us! Is that too much to ask?

Oh and she is sporting her NEW lunchbox. Her Auntie Rah-Ra, AKA Aunt Ceire, got that for her and had it monogrammed. It is TOO CUTE!

These 2 are going to be the bestest of friends!

In front of the door to the school. This is where I remembered that I wanted this shot in front of OUR door at home.



Here is "Chandler" by her folder in the hall. I watched as other parents arrived and took pictures of their children all smiley and "picture perfect", and here she is -eyes closed and with the goofiest looking smile you ever saw.........and it is like that in EVERY picture!! I wouldnt be so sad about this smile except her REAL smile is so darn cute I want to be able to capture those shots too!

She is looking up at her teacher. See the nice mosquito bite on her cheek? Yeah! She has one on her forehead and about 5 on her legs. She must be allergic because they swell up and get a really hard bump on them. I feel so sorry for her, the mosquitoes are going to eat her alive eventually! I guess she is just so sweet they have to take a bite.

These next pictures are from after school when we went to pick her up. Marcus wanted to come with me to get her on the 1st day; here he is trying to get her to notice him. She was still so "busy" (that's how her teachers described her) that she barely stopped to acknowledge that we were even there.

After being a teacher for 5 years before Kaylee was born, I learned A LOT about the way I wanted to be when i was a mom, and the way I didnt want to be. Among other things, I never want to be that crazy obsessive mom who bugs the teacher to death about every.little.thing.imaginable! But I fear after just the 1st day I have become THAT mom. I wanted to know everything about her day! I hope her teacher doesnt think I'm crazy......even though I know I am!

Not sure if you can see in this picture, but Marcus is trying to give Kaylee a kiss, he was all puckered up and everything. Like I said before she was having nothing to do with us, she was still busy exploring her new classroom.

Here is daddy putting her shoe back on. She is SUPPOSED TO leave it on at nap time. When asked why her shoe was off she gave this response "Kaylee took it off." But along with that response she had a "I know I did something that I wasnt supposed to do, now what are you going to do about it" look on her face. She is such a little booger!

Here I am trying to get my hug and kiss

As you can see everything was put away, the chairs were stacked, and I'm sure the teachers were ready to leave, but Kaylee was STILL trying to play! I promise we have toys for this deprived child to play with at home

While we were busy with Kaylee, the director of the Preschool/ MDO just couldnt keep her hands off Ainslee. She stole her and walked all around with her. Isnt my baby such a cutie!

But this is what happens when she wants her mommy. Ainslee is going through another mommy phase. She seems to be ok with others if I'm not around, but if she can see me or hear me.......then she wants to be with me. Her crying and tears stop instantaneously when I hold her, it is insane!

Kaylee RUNNING around the classroom, you think that cast slows her down one bit? Ummmmm, I dont think so! She is going to be quite a challenge for her teachers this year!

Here is the happy foursome. As you can see Kaylee has had enough of smiling her Chandler smile and Ainslee is too interested in Kaylee to look at the camera.

Oh and I forgot to take a picture of her "homework tree". Maybe I can snap a picture of it hanging on the wall one day. But I wanted to tell you what her teacher said about her when we picked her up. She said lots of things actually, she said that Kaylee was the "short teacher", when the other children werent doing what they were supposed to, Kaylee would tell them what to do. Kaylee had to be told many times it was time to come inside. She didnt even eat 1/2 her lunch (they actually didnt TELL me this, I saw it for myself when I opened her lunch box. I was shocked she didnt eat more. She was probably too busy worrying what the other children were doing to eat her own food). And they said she is very talkative, each one of them said they carried on long conversations with her. They said her cast was not a problem for her, even outside on the playground. She talked nearly the entire nap time. She followed her teacher out into the hallway, when she wasnt supposed to. She even locked the teacher out of the classroom once. She used the potty multiple times, by herself I might add. Overall I feel like it was a successful 1st day, but I feel like we are in for a "fun" year, I am using the word FUN very loosly. I guess "fun" depends on how you look at it and your definition of the word. I guess interesting is a better description.

Now she has to miss 2 weeks while we are in Boston I hope she makes the adjustment smooth when we return. I doubt that she is going to have any problems, but as I have learned with kids you should always expect the unexpected.

Contaminated

I failed at baking yet ANOTHER loaf of my GF bread Saturday night!!! I cant even count how much money I have wasted on GF bread over the past 2 years. I used to be able to make it, and one day something happened and I can no longer do it. I dont know what happened. I was so upset Saturday night that I got online and started looking for answers. I just want to find something that I can eat that tastes somewhat normal. I'd prefer that it doesnt cost me a fortune and is fairly simple to make too, but I wont hold my breathe, considering NOTHING GF is. I have to admit that I get sucked into reading about GF stuff and cant stop.

After having stomach pains for the past week I decided that I have to get more strict with my diet. No more cheating! No more contamination! Did you know that people with Celiac arent even supposed to eat food that has been contaminated with gluten. You might wonder what is considered "contamination"?
Contamination is:
When Marcus puts his pizza on the rack in the oven, then I toast my bread on the same rack without washing it with soap and water.
When I marinate our steak in beer.
When eating out there are MANY ways that food can become contaminated, the biggest one I can think of at the moment, is when food is fried in the same oil as food that is breaded.
When something that contains "modified food starch" and it isnt labeled specifically what kind of food starch. It could be derived from wheat or corn or a number of other things.
When food contains any "hidden" gluten, and there are TONS of things on that list.

I am going to go back to my doctor to see if anything has changed with me, or if I have done anymore damage to my body by not being so strict with my diet. I am going to be doing A LOT of research online in the near future. I am going to learn everything there is to learn about gluten free food. I am going to read and read and read until my eyes pop out of my head! And I am determined to find a better way, because anything is better than what I got going on right now (i mean when it comes to my diet). So I am announcing my blogging and FB sabbatical in advance. I apologize now for not posting much over the next couple of weeks or so. And, well, our trip to Boston isnt going to help with my sabbatical either.

HAPPY LABOR DAY EVERYONE!!!

4:28

I think Ainslee has an alarm clock in her room that I dont know about!

It's either that, or someone is playing a sick SICK joke on me!

For the past like 5 nights in a row, when I hear her on the monitor, I roll over to see what time it is and it has been the EXACT same time EVERY SINGLE night!!! What are the chances that she wakes up at exactly 4:28 for 5 nights in a row?!

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Other news from the Martinez house.....

When you ask Kaylee her name she now responds "Kaylee Martinez Cole." Her middle name is Nicole (for those of you that didnt know).

We are in the process of completing Kaylee's 1st ever homework project. When we went to orientation last week we were given a tree for Kaylee to put pictures of her family on and decorate it. I'll post pictures of the completed project.

We are 4 1/2 days away from our trip to Boston. I have been busy packing the girls bags, making my packing list, and mentally preparing for the journey. I dont know why but I always get so anxious before travelling with the kiddos.

Ainslee can get to a sitting position by herself now. And she is eating chunks of food, instead of pureed food.

I think that is all that has been going on around here

My day at a glance

This is sorta how my day went, I'm sure the times are off a little bit but you can get the gist of it

446am hear Kaylee call my name
447 roll over thinking that I am having a bad dream
448 realize it is not a dream and she really is calling my name
450 struggle to get out of bed and go see what could possibly be waking her at such and unGodly hour
451 as I approach her door I know exactly what the problem is. It is my biggest fear! I haven't had to deal with this for the 1st 32 months of her life***, and there is no better time than 5am to experience it for the first time. PUKE! The smell of vomit was so strong I felt myself getting queasy even before I opened the door to her room.
452 I prepare myself for what I might find on the other side of the door
453 I open the door to find Kaylee curled up in 1 corner of her crib and the rest of the crib COVERED in vomit. I had to think what to do. Do I wash her first? Do I get the sheet off first? Do I pick up the chunks (sorry for being so graphic)? No one teaches you the order in which to clean up such a mess at 5am before the sun comes out and the birds are awake.
455 I am in the process of trying to clean her up and explain to her at the same time that she did NOT poop in her bed that it was throw up. She was quite confused. I will say that she is a very neat thrower-upper, if there is such a thing. She only had the tiniest bit on her, quite frankly I don't know how she managed to avoid it all.
509 I have wiped her down with soapy washcloth, changed the sheets, put new pjs on her, and decided it was still sleepy time. I told her I would read her a book and she was going back to bed. She didnt complain
515 I walked out of her room, only to be greeted by the sound of Ainslee waking up. I dont know why I was surprised, this is her usual wake up time, but she does nurse then go back to sleep until 11 or so.
516 decided to take a bathroom break before entering Ainslee's room
517 just as I am about to pick Ainslee up out of her crib I see it. I rub my eyes to be sure that my brain isn't playing tricks on me. "How could this be?" More VOMIT! So I begin the process all over again. But this time the child didn't just sit where I tell her to and listen as I cleaned. Oh no she screamed if I wasn't holding her. So I had to clean her and her bed up while holding her. Poor little thing must have felt so bad and had no idea what was going on.
528 nurse Ainslee and put her back to sleep in a clean bed.
543 start a load of vomit covered laundry
549 text Marcus to tell him what happened
551 climbed back into bed for what I thought would be a couple of hours. Just as my brain quits processing what had just transpired and my eyes begin to feel really heavy,
631 I hear the screams coming from Kaylee's room again. OH NO NOT AGAIN! I rush into her room, thankfully no vomit this time. She asked if we could lay in her big bed together, and I agreed.
703 still not fully awake, I started preparing something for us to eat
728 Marcus comes home
738 I decided to finish the cleaning up job, that I basically only patched, in an effort to buy myself some more sleep. Started the second load of laundry.
755 it was time for a bath for Kaylee, I could still smell the vomit on her.
800 just as Kaylee and I are climbing into the tub we hear Ainslee waking up. Marcus had not yet fallen asleep so I asked him to go get her and put her in the tub with us. I bathed both girls at once.
828 I get all of us out of the tub and dressed. Everyone was obviously still very tired, so why not try a nap. I put Kaylee down first, then Ainslee, then myself. I had a hard time settling down, for some reason the smell of vomit lingered in my nose. I drifted off a few times, as I heard Ainslee talking in the monitor. As I would learn later Ainslee was making another nice little present for me, only this time it was coming out the other end.
1026 Kaylee woke up, but I laid in her big bed for an extra 20 minutes to let her rest more (actually I wanted to sleep longer).
1046 We get up and get a snack. Let me rephrase, I gave her a snack (that she requested) and she wouldnt eat it. I begin getting our things ready to leave the house.
1115 or so. Ainslee wakes up and gives me her 2nd surprise of the day! We get out the door without any more problems.
1125 headed to grandmas house
1200 eat lunch, Kaylee barely eats, Ainslee did pretty good eating
1251 try putting both girls down again. Ainslee cooperated, Kaylee not so much! Kaylee did however "rest" in her crib for about 1.5 hours.

That is as far as I got on keeping track of the day. Pretty much stayed the same. Neither one showed any more signs of not feeling well. I, on the other hand, started feeling progressively worse as the day went on.

Mom, Dad, both girls, and myself went to check out a play house that one of my dad's friends is GIVING us! I am so excited about it! I know the girls are going to absolutely LOVE it! Now if we could only figure out how we are going to get it here........

Marcus and I had Kaylee's parent orientation tonight for her new school (AKA: MDO 2 days/week). We listened to the director talk and explain the program, then got a chance to hear from her teachers. We are both very excited about this new adventure. We are pleased (so far) with her teachers and the program. I know Kaylee is going to have so much fun!

And I really really hope that I dont get sick! I am off to bed now, YAY for me I get to sleep in tomorrow because my mom has Kaylee tonight (that was planned before any of this sickness happened, and she agreed to follow through even though Kaylee isnt 100%! I am so thankful for family so close to home, who enjoy keeping the girls "in sickness and in health"!

***Kaylee has been sick before now, but I have never had to deal with it. Surprisingly enough, each AND every time she is sick we are out of town. The first time was last summer while we were in Mexico Kaylee was REALLY REALLY sick, thanks Ceire and mom (mostly Ceire) for taking such good care of her. The next time was last winter when we were in Hawaii looking for a house. Thanks again Ceire! and then I think it was when I was in Chicago (I cant remember) she was sick again! Thanks yet again Ceire. I promise I dont get her all sick and then leave! I know she is probably sick because she misses her mommy SOOOOO much! HA! yeah right

Wordless Wednesday

Cast Update

Here is a video of Kaylee the day she got her cast. She was a little wobbly for about the first 30 minutes and then she caught the hang of it.

Here she is 4 days later playing the Wii for the 1st time. She bowled a spare in her first frame. You think she is going to take after me when it comes to athletics?