Me and My Papa

The plus side of Morgan having to be at work at 6am is he arrives home each day around 2:30 (that is if he doesn't have to work over-time). This is also the changing of shifts around here. Morgan and Anaya go on little adventures while I work from home. Just these last couple of weeks they have gone to the farm, the park, the zoo and prehistoric pets.

Anaya loves her Papa time!

The Santa Ana Zoo

OC Centennial Farm

Oh! my gosh... a baby!

Weeee... Park time!

we heart this new band...

we hear a request for 'weekend' daily from Anaya.

What's crazy is she knows more words than Morgan and I do.
My next mission: record her singing along.

the filming in this clip is pretty bad.

Wish it was Josh filming away. It would have been amazing.

needing some magic...

As soon as Anaya cleared the 72 hour quarantine period of strep throat, showed improvement in her eyes and no fever for 5 days were else to go but 'the happiest place on earth', Disneyland! Some of you would shutter to think we went after a month of sickness. But, we needed this so bad! Since we got in free through a friend's father it was a very casual trip. Being a local, yes that is possible. We took Anaya to Disneyland before but she was only 3 & 6 months. So, this was the first true Disney adventure for her.

Walking through the gates we were immediately greeted by Alice and the Made Hatter. They were dancing and singing, gleaming children surrounded them. Anaya held me tight. Our day of magic begins.

special moments...

- 1st ride, Finding Nemo aka. submarine. Anaya was in awhh! her favorite was the whales. The best was when she saw the crab out the window looked at me and said, 'like at dim sum'. God, I love this girl.

- loved taking her onto the Jungle Cruise. My dad's favorite.

- after a surprisingly yummy lunch we hoped on the train and just lounged. We absorbed the park from a distance. Anaya was intrigued with the secret tunnel of dinosaurs. Who knew this still existed!

- Meeting Mickey for the 1st time. I thought she was going to freak out since this has been the reaction with almost every character. But once she got face to face with him she was smittened. I was shocked. Anaya was quick to give him kisses and kept saying how nice Mickey is. She didn't mine being 2 inches away from his face. it was very sweet.

this is the ONLY picture we have. You can't really see the gleam in her eyes. But, of course their professional photographer took quite a few and was able to capture the moment,
ChEcK It OuT

-The look of amazement as the parade went down Main Street. She could of watched this for hours. Her favorite was the Lion King float.

Beatle Mania

Beatle love. still going strong.

china-doll

In process of making my very 1st doll for Anaya.

It's just taking a bit to complete.

Anaya came up to me the other day and said, 'can I have my doll when I'm six?'.

Morgan thought it was funny to teach her that. ha-ha.

Wee Wonderful Doll

our little sick bear

Anaya has been really really sick majority of the month. I think we had a week and a half of her being healthy. It all started when we enrolled her into a small in-home daycare program. Literally, a week after she started she became sick. She had diarrhea for days, then it evolved into cold/flu with a temp., a constant cough, throwing up and then totally lethargy! This is when freak out mode came over Morgan and I. I have always used the Sears website, almost as a bible and I remember it saying something along the line of, 'doesn't matter how high the temp is it's how they are acting. Lethargy is NOT a good sign immediately call your ped'. It does something to you to see your child in this state. Here is a toddler that should be running around (driving you nuts) but instead she's sitting on the couch not able to keep her eyes open. For two days she didn't even take ONE step. Anaya started to loose weight she didn't have much of an appetite. Luckily, she was drinking plenty. I treated all the symptoms with homeopathic, herbal supplements, natural remedies. We even saw her chiropractor Dr. Jen. who diagnosed her with a sinus infection. I was told which homeopathy's and supplements to give. I left feeling better having a diagnosis. But when the next day came and she was in the same lethargy state and we were now going on almost a week of sickness. I panicked. I made an appointment with her pediatrician, Dr. Jim Sears. I love the Sears for their support on extended breast feeding, healthy eating & not pushing vaccines. But I have almost lost complete hope in Dr.'s, in general. I think every sick visit we have gone to I have left with a prescription for antibiotics. So here I am again leaving with no true diagnosis and a prescription for antibiotics. To top it of!... Dr. Jim had the nerve to fan her file at her while she was coughing and said 'Don't get me sick'!!!! WTF!!!! I almost lost it!!!! I started Anaya on antibiotics that night. In about 3 days she started showing improvement. It took her about a week to get her complete strength back.

1st true day of feeln' better.

Fast forward a week and a half later...
Anaya got sick again. She woke up with a rash ALL over her body and a temp. I treated the rash naturally but no results. The next morning she woke to both her eyes being blood shot red and a fever. I started to look for a diagnosis on-line. Morgan's parents sent me info on Kawasaki Disease. She had 4 of the 6 symptoms!!! I begin to secretly loose it. Feeling vulnerable from the previous sickness. I had Morgan take her to the Hoag walk-in clinic across the street. It took 2 hours for them to be seen. Of course, no diagnosis. They had no idea what she had. They requested she should be seen by her ped. Argh! I hate Dr.'s. The 3rd day her rash started going away but her eyes were still super red and she continued to have a low grade temp. I tried seeing Dr. Bob but he wasn't in! F@!? So back to Dr. Jim. Good thing he seemed to be in better spirits that day. She tested positive for strep throat. But, he was kind of alarmed of her having a rash and red eyes. These are not symptoms of strep. He turned to me and said I want you to keep an eye out for 2 things, excessively chapped lips and peeling of finger tips. immediately I looked at him and said, "Kawasaki Disease" he replied, "yes". My heart sank. We were given amoxicillion for the strep. This Dr's visit was last Wed. Yesterday she woke with red eyes and a temp of 99.9 the rash seems to come and go only on her face now. The whole day her temp stayed below 100! Yeah! This morning my prayers were answered... Anaya woke with improvement. Slight, but it was improvement. Her eyes looked pink appose to red and she had no fever. I do see the light at the end of this very long tunnel. I do.

a new chapter...

Anaya just started going to a Waldorf inspired daycare/program, 2 days a week. She has lately been showing major signs of wanting to be with other kids (on a more reg. bases) and wanting to spread her wings, slowly, from mama and papa.

She goes Tues. and Thurs. morning from 8:45 - noon.

Ezekiel's Garden is such a magical place. The bunnies run freely in the yard, there's a large sand box, slides, tree swings, bikes, rocking horses galore and everything you need to play 'house/babies' with, Anaya's favorite.
Ms. Phyllis incorporates lots imitative hands-on task such as baking (using all organic ingredients), sewing, building and even gardening!

Anaya says she love her 'school'.

So, here's to a new chapter...