April update - forgot to publish this post.

Yeah! It's April. Life is so busy right now. I don't even know where to start, but I have a few quiet moments so I better take advantage of them.

Maya is basically the source of our busy schedule. She has tap followed by ballet class on Monday nights, both are 50 minutes long with a 10 minute break inbetween. The break is great for her but it really makes my life difficult. I don't want her to be at the dance studio alone for those 10 minutes, but Cora is an absolute nightmare running around causing problems if we stay there for too long. Lately it has been working out though. I drop her off and Nick is able to come to the studio before the break to sit with her. Then he takes her home after ballet. It's funny watching the moms who have one child in class. They read a book or play on their iPads...I feel like I just ran a marathon chasing my little ones and trying to keep them quiet! On Tuesday nights she has piano lessons and she loves it. I was hesitant to start lessons because she already has other things going on and we don't even have anything for her to practice on, but she kept asking when she could start. She's had 5-6 lessons so far and her teacher says she is really catching on! Maybe she can teach me how to play someday? We found a great deal on a keyboard that has headphones, a nice stand, and it also comes with internet software to help teach you the basics. Every other Wednesday afternoon after school she has Girl Scout's and absolutely loves this program! Her leaders are amazing and she's with a great group of girls. On top of her busy schedule, she also has daily homework and reading assignments and she's our little social butterfly so we try to fit in play dates as often as we can. We're so happy she's made some good friends at school this year. She lost her 2 front teeth and looks absolutely adorable! She loves reading now and loves the Junie B. Jones books. We have caught her reading late into the night several times now. It's hard to get upset with her when she's doing something that is so good for her.

Josh is also keeping me busy in different ways. He has school 3 times per week and is getting ready for Kindergarten. I think he is more than ready for the academic part -- we'll see how he adjusts to a full day away from mom and Cokey. So, last October a friend of mine told me about an allergy elimination center that she went to to treat her seasonal allergies. It sounded like a bunch of hocus pokus to me, but I went home and researched it a bit anyway and decided to call the center to get more information. Every time I think about Josh going to school with his milk allergy and asthma I become filled with anxiety. So I spoke with Nick about it and he agreed that we should give it a try, especially with full day Kindergarten just around the corner. Anyway, we found out that there were a lot of minerals and vitamins that he wasn't able to absorb so she treated those first, then moved on to the food allergies. He had a berry allergy/sensitivity that we didn't know about. I did notice that he would get more rashes after he ate certain things but I didn't put two and two together that it was another allergy. The berry allergy is gone and we have worked on all of the other sensitivities including dust and mold, which contribute to his asthma flare ups. We are currently trying to work on the milk allergy and it's proving to be a very stubborn allergy because it is so severe. He's received 4 treatments and his practitioner said it could take up to 9. We just don't know because everybody is so different. I will say that his skin test we did on Friday at the allergist showed signs of improvement from last year's test! So that was promising. I will update more later.

Cora, oh Cora. My sweet baby has turned into a major pain in the butt. She is hilarious but she has gotten so feisty over the last few months. She definitely has a mind of her own and doesn't care what big brother, big sister, or mom and dad have to say. She's not talking a ton. We are trying to help her but I know her vocabulary will come when she's ready. She gets into everything! She's always been busy, but I feel like she's constantly from one mess to another mess. She loves drawing on walls, dumping white-out everywhere, making a mess of Josh's Legos, etc. etc. We love her to pieces though! Maya likes to hear "Cora stories" after she gets home from school. She gets a good laugh out of them and is surprisingly pretty patient with her.