Hazelwood for Eczema

Avaree's eczema has been really bad lately. Her skin has looked horrible and is really itchy; her whole body has been red and blotchy. I bought Jace an amber necklace about a month or so ago for teething pain, although he doesn't seem like it bothers him yet. While on the website for the amber, I came across hazelwood. I read the benefits of it and some testimonials and decided it was worth a shot. I ordered a hazelwood necklace for Avaree and put it on her as soon as it came in the mail. The next evening, she was almost entirely cleared up! It was crazy! I couldn't believe how well she looked after only wearing the necklace for 24 hours! I wish I would have taken some pictures of how her skin looked before putting it on her. These were taken after wearing it.

 

 

 Her worst spots are the back of her legs. in the bends of her elbows, and her hands. Her back has also been really bad lately. Apparently the hazelwood absorbs the acid (which causes eczema) in the body and the necklace lasts about 6-12 months. They say the first one may not last as long though. I'm going to go ahead and order at least one more for now so we'll have it whenever this one stops working. I was a little skeptical at first, but after seeing for my own eyes how well this has worked, I'm totally sold! I only wish I would have found out about these five years ago! They also say that these are good for reflux and morning sickness (if only I would have known!) so when I get pregnant again, I will for sure be ordering one for me!

Report Card

Avaree got her first report card! It's for the first 9 weeks. She did very well and we are so proud of her! She got Satisfactory in Writing, Handwriting, and P.E. and Excellent in Science, Language Arts, Math, Music, and Conduct.

5 Months

Happy 5 Months Jace!

Jace is the sweetest baby ever and he is getting so big! He's a happy little guy and he just brings so much joy to our family. He is so easygoing and content; he's no trouble at all.

 

 Jace is still sleeping all night and still taking 6 ounces of formula (with added rice cereal) every 3-4 hours during the day. He just started having oatmeal and a fruit mid-morning and a veggie (with a little rice cereal) and fruit in the evenings. He is drinking from a sippy cup during his meals and he's doing great with it. His spitting up has gotten so much better, it's nothing like it was!
He can roll tummy to back and back to tummy. He's sitting up on his own (although he's still a little wobbly).

 

Jace doesn't have any teeth breaking through yet, but I'm sure it won't be long. Everything goes into his mouth and he loves to bite on our fingers and his Sophie the Giraffe.
Jace spent his first night away from home (and me!) on Friday, October 8th. He and Avaree spent the night with their Gammy. I wasn't too crazy about the idea, buy Mom called everyday that week begging for him to spend the night. She picked them up from daycare when she got off; and then I took their clothes over when I got off and ended up staying for a little while. So really, Gammy only got a couple of waking hours with him because I was over there fairly early Saturday morning too to go shopping. It was really weird not to hear the monitor going during the night.
Here are some pictures from the past few weeks.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Happy Halloween!

We had a fun Halloween this year! Tonight we went trick-or-treating with our mini Taylor Swift and our little monkey! Avaree got way too much candy and there were a few people couldn't resist giving the cute little monkey a lollipop! Jace loved riding around in his stroller watching all the little kids.

 

 

 

 

 

Avaree also dressed up for character day at school, she was Pebbles Flintstone, and I made her costume. She had to dress up like a character from a book and bring the book in to show the class.

 I made pumpkin cookies for her to take for her party at school. These are yummy homemade vanilla sugar cookies with homemade buttercream icing!

Can you spot the one James decorated?

 

Solids Update

 Jace is doing very well eating solids. He's still eating them only once a day, in the evenings. He likes sweet potatoes, squash, peas, bananas, applesauce, and peaches. He does NOT like green beans--they make him gag! He's also doing great with a sippy cup. He drinks a little bit of formula out of it while eating his food.
This weekend I am planning on starting oatmeal so he can have that and a fruit in the mornings. I'm not sure how that will work during the week when he goes to daycare though. He will probably just eat it there because I don't want to have to wake him up any earlier than I already do.

 

Avaree loves her Tag

She falls asleep reading with it nearly every night! She loves it and I think it's helped her quite a bit.

Sick Baby

Our baby boy has his second cold, his first one was when he'd only been in daycare for less than a week. He was congested during the night Friday night and Saturday night. Sunday morning, he woke up with a runny nose, watery eyes, and a cough. He would cough up mucus and that would make him throw up. Poor little guy, he felt so bad. He was also running a low fever. Monday, he stayed home from daycare and he went to the doctor (he weighed 16 lb 12 oz!). We saw the nurse practitioner and she said he just has a cold and to do what we've been doing--humidifier at night, head elevated, suction his nose (she did say to use a saline spray which we are now doing), and to give him plenty of fluids. He's starting to feel a little better, still a little stopped up and still coughing.
He looks so pitiful!

 

 He still manages to smile even though he feels bad.