We had an appointment with our new allergist the other day. I wasn't too fond of our old one, but we were limited to him because of our insurance. We found our new allergist when Sweet Pickles was in the hospital. He was the pulmonologist who consulted with the infectious disease doctor. When we found out he was an allergist as well we asked if he was taking new patients. He said he only dealt with the "big" allergies. We rattled off our list- milk, eggs, peanuts. Come on down was his immediate response.

At our appointment I told him Dill was having some issues with using the nebulizer every morning. It was a constant fight. He said no problem. We'll give him a puffer with a spacer. Poof! Just like that. When we mentioned the same problem to our old allergist, oh well, it's just something you'll have to deal with. He's too young for an inhaler. Our new allergist also gave us an eczema treatment plan (which was a heck of a lot more than our other guy did). After only a few days of this new cream- shazam! The boys legs look incredible! I can't remember the last time the back of Dill Pickle's knees looked normal. Maybe when he was born? I can't wait to see them looking like normal legs again.

We go back in 2 months for Dill Pickles and in 4 months for Sweet Pickles. Have I mentioned I love our new allergist?

Lots of separation anxiety this week at school for Dill Pickles. I think we may have solved the underlying issue, but I am afraid to post about it for fear of jynxing it. I will post about it next week as long as we keep having success. Sweet Pickles loves school. He even made a point to tell Dill Pickles that he is a big boy and doesn't cry at school. Way to help your big brother out there Sweetie. :)

I did make this yummy dinner last night. We all loved it except for Dill Pickles. It was something new so of course he "Just couldn't like it." I will make it again and hopefully Dill will try it again. I think it might have been the quinoa. It does have a different kind of texture. Due to allergies we obviously omitted the cheese.

Quinoa Stuffed Peppers
Ingredients
1 can (14-1/2 ounces) diced tomatoes, undrained
1 cup water
1/2 cup quinoa, rinsed
4 large green peppers
3/4 pound lean ground beef (90% lean)
1 large onion, finely chopped
3 garlic cloves, minced
3 teaspoons dried parsley flakes
2 teaspoons paprika
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
1/4 teaspoon pepper
2 cans (8 ounces each) no-salt-added tomato sauce, divided
3/4 cup frozen corn, thawed
1/2 cup shredded reduced-fat cheddar cheese

Directions
Drain tomatoes reserving juice; set aside.

In a small saucepan, bring water to a boil. Add quinoa. Reduce heat; simmer, uncovered, for 15-20 minutes or until liquid is absorbed.

Meanwhile, cut peppers in half lengthwise and remove seeds. In a Dutch oven, cook peppers in boiling water for 3-5 minutes. Drain and rinse in cold water; invert onto paper towels.

In a large skillet, cook the beef, onion, garlic, parsley, paprika, salt, pepper flakes and pepper over medium heat until meat is no longer pink. Stir in one can tomato sauce, corn, quinoa and tomatoes; heat through.

Spoon into pepper halves. Place in a 13-in. x 9-in. baking dish coated with cooking spray.

Combine the reserved tomato juice and remaining tomato sauce; pour over peppers.

Cover and bake at 350° for 30-35 minutes or until peppers are tender. Sprinkle with cheese; bake 5 minutes longer or until cheese is melted. Yield: 4 servings.

Transitioning back to school has been a lot harder on Dill Pickles than anticipated. I'm hoping after another week of the new routine he will be ok. The littlest things that wouldn't seem important to one person are so important to Dill. He wakes up at 640a every morning. Last school year he would watch the last 15 minutes of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse on the Disney Channel. When Shaun the Sheep came on he knew it was time for his nebulizer. Then breakfast, then get dressed and off to school. The Disney Channel has changed its lineup. Now it's Handy Manny and Dance-A-Lot Robot. He likes those shows. But it's a new routine. And it is taking Dill longer to adjust than I thought.

I can't believe school is starting tomorrow! Where did the summer go? My boys are growing faster than I ever thought they would.

Sweet Pickles

Dill Pickles

Daddy Pickles and I both attended Catholic schools. We wanted our children to do the same, but I just can't see a Catholic school being a successful place for Dill Pickles with his sensory issues. We unfortunately know that the school closest to our house wouldn't be a good match for him based upon talking to others in the neighborhood. This saddens me, but this will just bring us to do something better for him ourselves.

Starting in a few weeks Dill Pickles will be attending Children of the Lord at my mom's church. It's a Sunday School-like program that goes on during 9:30am Mass. I taught Children of the Lord when I was in high school. It makes me smile to now be sending my son there.

While I am confident that Dill will learn a lot, we will still be doing things at home as well. I was so excited to read a post by Lacy at Catholic Icing announcing that she would be posting a Catholic pre-school curriculum weekly she is using at her child's co-op pre-school. I'm sure I could have come up with things like this myself, but it will be so much easier to use the bulk of what someone else has come up with and tweak it a bit for my own. I think we will do her activities on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. I still have to decide if we will do them right away when Dill Pickles comes home from school or in the afternoon after naptime. We will just have to see what will work best for us!

I've updated our Shelfari with our new library books. Can you guess why we chose this theme? :) We have a few more on request from the library. We hope they come in soon!

Sweet Pickles wanted his own calendar in his bedroom like his big brother Dill Pickles, so I stopped by Dollar Tree a few weeks ago and picked one up. I thought I had more contact paper than I really did, so I had to come up with some other way to laminate the calendar because I promised him he would have it the next day.

I saw this on another blog and I can't remeber where for the life of me. I have a laminator at home and I just used two laminating sheets overlapping each other. Make sure that the sheet feeding in first is on top of the second sheet.

As it feeds into the laminator it will get kinda wonky at the end. I wasn't worried because my cards did not go all the way to the end.

Once your laminating is out of the machine you will see that the wonky part is now a little wrinkly. That's ok. You're going to cut it off anyways. :)

Of course I forgot to take a picture of the finished product. I'll try and take picks of both boys' calendars tomorrow.

Both Dill Pickles and Sweet Pickles start school on Tuesday. I am excited, but sad. As challenging as our summer was, I am kinda sad to see them go. But they won't be gone long. Dill's class is only 2.5 hours long and Sweetie's is 2 hours. Tuesdays and Thursdays are going to be busy days. Take Dill to school, take Sweetie to school, hang out for an hour, pick up Dill from school, pick up Sweetie from school, head to my sister's house for lunch, take Dill to occupational therapy while Sweetie stays with my sister, get Sweetie, head home. Phew. Leave the house at 7:45am and return at 3pm. Wow.

I found something else to add to my Christmas list- this adorable spool doll Nativity set at Holes in My Shiny Veneer. I just had to post it here so I wouldn't forget about it! I should have plenty of time to find spools on sale at Michael's and then raid my mom's fabric stash for the necessary scraps. Yippee for a Nativity set I don't have to worry about the boys breaking into a million pieces!