Flooding and Swine Flu

Last weekend we had a wonderful weekend! We spent some time with friends at their farm, we all had a great time. Bella caught several fish, played with a turtle, and lots more fun. Little man had a blast being loved on by everyone. This week started off great with a play date with friends. Then the rain started...and the flooding began. Our area (Cypress) received over 10.5inches, our backyard and front yard were completely underwater. Thankfully it didn't rain for several days in a row or our kitchen would be underwater. Of course this means that daddy was working extra hard due to all the flooding in the area. After the rain there was the swine flu, and of course this means lots of work for daddy with his job. Needless to say I had my hands full with "single-parenting". But we had a great week! Bella and I made some yummy cookies, danced, and played. On Thursday I took Bella to ballet and we picked up her first dance recital costume. IT IS SO ADORABLE! I also was able to see her perform the routine, I do admit she did an amazing job and I can barely wait until June. Friday we had a great time at our last MOPS meeting. We ended the weekend with a birthday party and dinner with friends!

Bella is still my beautiful princess. A little more every day. Her vocabulary still continues to amaze me. The expressions and statements she makes just melt my heart. She will randomly come up to me and say "Your beautiful mommy" or "I love you too mommy". I continue to notice that her memory is becoming grand. She has several songs and books memorized and loves to recite them to anyone who will listen. We are still experiencing some behavior hiccups, but I'm hoping that this is just another two year old phase and will pass soon. Overall I can't complain she is my adorable princess.

My little man! We were suppose to have a weight check this week, but decided to hold off going into the ped's office until the swine flu check-ups pass. He stands up on his own constantly now, and is taking up to three or four steps on his own. He will take seven or eight steps if he is walking to you directly. This week he has been in constant chase after his sister! He adores her and is trying everything possible to keep up with her. He is still babbling away, and eating like a horse. I'm hoping that this means he is growing like a weed. He still looks so small to me. Frankie is an "animal" as we affectionately call him. He has NO FEAR !! He destroys everything and is smiling all the way. I have never seen a happier baby!

We are hoping for a fun-filled rain-free week!

Home!

We are back from our whirl wind trip to Ft. Worth. We had a great time as always with my family, we were able to spend some extra quality time with my sister. Of course there isn't a trip to FTW without some hiccups. By the end of the week we either had been or were getting sick

:-( allergies, sinus, and a virus are not great combos. But we made it through and were able to drive back home on Sunday. That being said we weren't able to accomplish pretty much anything that was on our list for visiting friends and family, but they will be another trip soon. Since we had quite a bit of down time, I was able to catch up on some much needed me time with some R&R. The kids had a great time playing with Mimi, Papa, and Nanie. This trip we came home with lots of funny stories and great memories....one of the favorites is Bella trying to put my mom's dog on the potty b/c she the dog had an accident and telling the dog she needed to peepee in the potty. I admit my daughter is hysterical and truly a constant entertainment.

This week so far we are trying to get back into our normal routine. We spent Monday & Tuesday trying to get over the last hump of everyone not feeling well. We went to the park yesterday in the beautiful weather..sunny, 90 degrees, and perfect. The kids and I had a great time just being outside again.

Bella is doing wonderful as always and is still surprising us daily with what comes out of her mouth. Potty training is complete. She still wears a pull-up at night, and still has a bit of fear for public places but can now "hold it" until we get home. The only thing we have to work on is Bella going alone. One step at a time..I have to admit I'm shocked and amazed on how easy it went for us, because I was expecting it to be much harder. We have been having some MAJOR sleep issues with Bella lately. Night Terrors...basically she will wake up and cry for about 30minutes but never open her eyes and never wake up. It is scary to watch, needless to say isn't sleeping well at night and still wakes up between 6am-7am. Hopefully this is just a passing phase. My little man is doing excellent! He is up to 7steps walking towards one of us, and will stand on his own and take 3-4 steps to a toy. He doesn't do this at every instant, but I'm sure that is around the corner. He is talking quite a bit more frequently, he doesn't seem to be interested in signing yet. I try not to compare but Bella was already using 2 or 3 signs by this time. He is saying mama, dada, baba, bell for bella, bye-bye, and a few other sounds. He loves to play and is in constant motion, still quite the bulldozer as he has no problem crawling over anything and knocking EVERYTHING off every table. I am a bit worried taking him for a weight check next week, he eats ALL the time and a ton of food. Just last night he had chicken nuggets, pears, green beans, and some crackers. He just doesn't look bigger to me. I'm praying that he is!

We hope everyone is having a great week! We have a busy weekend planned so hopefully I will be able to post some cute pictures this weekend!

Happy Easter!

I can't believe it's April already! Seriously where does the time go? I swear it was just yesterday I wrote a post. Ahh! The life of being a parent with two babies that are nonstop on the go 24/7. I'm happy to report that we seem to have made it over the allergy season hump finally. The kids and I have been able to make it out a bit more often and even attend a few play dates. The past couple of weeks have been filled with playing, an allergist appt., potty training, and fun!

Bella my sweet princess! I think I can officially say she is 97% potty trained, we haven't had an accident in almost two weeks. She is in panties full time except at night, and is using the big potty all the time. We still have a bit of fear at public places like restaurants etc., but she seems to be fine in a "school setting" as she did just find while she was in her classroom for MOPS. Fortunately for us she hasn't had any accidents out and about, but is running to the bathroom by the time we get home. She is quite proud of herself and I am of her !!! She continues to amaze me on a daily basis with talking, dancing, and memorizing, she brings me so much joy. Her bond and love with her brother continues on a daily basis, and they are figuring out ways to play together ie. Bella rolls a ball and Frankie chases it. My favorite line of the week is after hearing thundering walking in from outside she looks up and says "Mommy storm clouds are coming!". Where does she get this? Too precious! We do still have our diva moments, but hopefully those too shall pass with time.


My little man! My wonderful son...every day is a new smile...a new look...a new sound. This is one of my favorite stages. Each day brings a surprise! He is now officially standing all the time, letting go, and can stand up on his own from a sitting up position. He is also taking up to four steps at a time. I'm also proud to admit he is 100% boy, we call him "Animal" as he plows through, crawls over/under, sits on ANYTHING! Still something I'm adjusting too..and probably will for quite some time. He adores his sister and would follow her around all day if she let him. My little man will also EAT anything and everything. The boy loves food! He puts it away as fast as we can give it, with the assistance of his new two top teeth. Oddly enough we are still struggling with weight gain, but hopefully we will be over that hurdle soon. We did some partial allergy testing for Frankie last week. We weren't surprised...but some of the results he had some skin reactions and some not, as the majority of his reactions are still GI related. The top allergens are soy, egg, potato, carrots, and cinnamon. We go back in a couple of weeks for fruit testing. Nothing that we can't handle or overcome!

We've had a lovely Easter holiday! Starting with our Easter party with our playgroup on Friday, a Fish Fry Friday evening with our dear friends, and today with family. The kids woke up to a small Easter egg hunt at the house and spent the morning playing with all the new goodies in their baskets. This afternoon we went to Grandma Bird's, a great time was had by all !!

This week the kids and I are off to DFW to spend the week with family and friends! We are going to try and visit everyone!

Potty Training

Well we don't have a ton to report as we had ANOTHER week stuck at home. My poor little man just can't shake this bout of allergies and asthma. Just another sign that his past case of RSV really messed with his poor little lungs. We spent this past week either at home or running to the doctor's office getting Frankie's pulseox range checked. Needless to say since we were stuck at home, I decided to give potty training another go. I'm happy to report that it is going very well. Bella is still running around naked and her potty chair is still in the living room, but other than that it is going fantastic. She was having anywhere from one to two accidents a day, but yesterday she didn't and so far so good today. She obviously is still soaked at night, and refuses to go poo-poo in the potty. But I'm more than pleased with where we are at. Now all I have to do is get her to go in the actual bathroom and put her in panties!!

Overall the kids are doing fantastic! My princess imagination is still growing by leaps and I could sit and listen to her play with her little figurines, dollhouse etc. for hours. She is so precious!! She is missing her friends terribly, and hopefully we will be out and about soon. We are still working on colors, I can't decide if she knows them and is just saying Blue over and over again to drive me crazy or if she is really confused ;-) I wish I could keep a video camera on her 24/7 as the most adorable phrases or expression come out of her every day. Just this morning she asked me "if I had a wonderful dream?" (Yes she loves Cinderella)

My little man is still eating and going NONSTOP!! We have officially stopped all baby food except for a few mashed up meats. Unfortunately because he moves NONSTOP the weight isn't sticking to him yet, but we aren't going to give up. He also is now saying bye-bye and waving on a regular basis. Just this weekend he also took two steps, they were more leaning and rushing forward but I think that almost counts. He is standing alone more often, so he just may be on the same track as Bella and be walking by 11mths. WOW!! I still think he is the most precious little man and has a smile for everyone.

My parents were in town this weekend and it was wonderful to have them here. My mom and I were able to do a bit spring cleaning and shampooing the carpets. My dad helped in our yard and with planting our garden. I think the yard is coming along quite nicely and was so happy with the end results of everyone's hard work. It truly was a wonderful weekend with family and yummy food!!

Hopefully we will have some more exciting things to report this week as we can make some small trips away from the house. Sorry for the lack of pictures as we can't really take pics of Bella naked ;-)

Allergies please go away.....

Last week started off great, we relaxed on Tuesday and Wednesday we took Frankie for his 9mth appt. The doctor said he is doing great! His lungs are getting stronger and developmentally he is doing FANTASTIC. The good news is he had gained 2lbs since his last visit and is growing. The bad news he is still in the negative percentile. Unfortunately he is battling a double edge sword, since he is so extremely active he is burning up everything he takes in. His stats are 16lbs 10ounces negative 3 percentile still, 27.5in for length 25%, and FOC 17in 10%. We reviewed his eating habits, and she wanted to try some weight gainer supplements ;-) more like protein shakes. I told her I would research it for the ingredients b/c most of those are soy based. Overall we couldn't be happier, we are still on breathing treatments probably until the end of May. But we are hoping it is the treatments that are making his lungs so strong. My little man is doing so well, and he is self feeding most of meals at least 90% of the time. Where does the time go? He is still babbling away and letting go of the furniture more often to stand on his own. He amazes me everyday with how active he is. Again just another reminder how different boys and girls are, I distinctly remember Bella being perfectly content to sit on the floor and play with the few toys in front of her. I'm constantly chasing him around the house, fishing things out of his mouth, and double and triple baby proofing the house! He doesn't sit still all day !!! His big new thing is..and we hadn't posted it b/c we thought it may have been a fluke but it is occurring regularly now. Frankie is say "Bellllll" referring to Bella. When she runs into her room it is the first thing out of his mouth, I just melt every time I hear it. Oddly enough even when he goes "Belllll babababab" she runs to the kitchen and grabs his bottle. Just another miracle in the mystery of communication.


Friday morning I went to MOPS and I have to add it was an INCREDIBLE meeting. I was truly touched by what I heard. It was about "princess with a purpose" and raising your daughter as a princess to the king of kings our Lord! http://www.princesswithapurpose.com/frmHome.aspx
It was truly wonderful and I'm strongly considering sending Bella to her princess camp this summer. (she also has a prince program) It also opened my heart as a mother and wife...Kelly read several verses regarding God has a plan for us all. It just happened to be the perfect day for me to hear this. It was an incredible experience I actually couldn't wait to tell my husband all about it when he came home. It really help me come to peace about several things going on in our lives right now...my son's health, finances, etc. Especially my son's health I had been turning into a self pity party lately, wondering if I will ever get to spend an extended length of time anywhere outside, park, or a public place without the constant worry that is will have an attack, a severe setback, or worse.


As luck would have it Friday afternoon, my little man took a turn for the worse with the severe pollen count in Houston. Both of my Frankies were in a severe amount of discomfort Friday evening. The early hours of Saturday morning were spent in the shower with my little man, Mr. Blue, and the breathing machine in overdrive. This continued on to Sunday, Monday, yesterday and today. I'm happy to report that he is finally seems to be not getting any worse. He still has zero oxygen flow but I guess after all of these months of this going on. My poor guy has learned to sleep through night after the worse seems to past in the early evening. We are extremely excited to finally have him tested on everything at the end of the month.

My poor princess unfortunately is stuck at home with little man and I. But we try to keep things exciting. Between puzzles, flash cards, coloring, playdoh, and making cookies. We try and stay busy. Hopefully next month she will be able to enjoy the outdoors just as much !!! We decided not to attempt potty training until Frankie is healthy again.

We are looking forward to seeing our Aunt Kimmy this weekend and hopefully getting some honey-dos accomplished.

(and yes if you haven't noticed, Bella feels the need everytime she takes a picture with Frankie to put her hand on his head ;-)))))

We are home !!!

The Trifilio's are home from their trip to Fort Worth. We went to celebrate my father's retirement from AT&T...35 years. We are so incredibly proud of him!! It was a short trip quick trip, but we had a wonderful time. The party was Saturday afternoon, Sunday we spent at home with the family, and today we made a trip to our financial advisor and back to Houston. Of course if you have been keeping track this is our third trip to FTW in 5-6 weeks. So we are going to stay close to home for awhile. Traveling with two kids back and forth for quick trips take a ton out of all of us.

This past week was busy as usual. The major news is we did end up pulling Bella from school, and Wednesday was her last day. This was an extremely difficult decision, but we believe in our hearts it was the right one. Needless to say I tried to keep Bella as busy as possible. We had a wonderful playdate at the park and another home playdates (our favorite) at one of her friend's house. We had a wonderful time..and Bella loved playing with all of the "boy" toys especially a robot WALL-E. Also little man had a GREAT time pushing a car back and forth across the tile floor. Friday evening mom was able to get out and enjoy a MNO with the girls, and Saturday morning we hit the road to FTW.

The kids are doing exceptionally well as always, and I'm eager to take Frankie to his 9mth check-up this week. I still can hardly believe my baby is already 9mths old. Where does the time go? I do have to admit it is comical to watch him crawl, pull-up, stand-up etc. because he is SO TINY !!! But hopefully with the warm months approaching and cold/flu season almost over the weight will quickly follow. Again developmentally he is doing extremely well, and continues to crawl, babble, pull-up, etc. Frankie still isn't a fan of the sippy cup, but I'm not in any hurry to push it. Also we are still working on weaning him from the pacifier, but since mom had another round of a cold last week. We continued to run in his room at night and pop it back in. He doesn't get it all during the day, so I figured we are doing pretty good.

Bella my princess...this week was difficult for her, as she did sense the changes going on at school. I think this coming week will be a bit more difficult, but mom has tons of plans for her. She is still our singing and dancing queen; and is hopelessly in love with her brother. We still have our small battles of being "gentle" with Frankie, but we are working on it. Since our school situation has changed, we also are going to attempt potty training. Lord only knows how that will go.

We have another busy week filled with doctor's appointments, playdates, and more.

A quick family update!!

Again...I apologize for such a delay in between postings. We as usual have been super busy. We had another trip to Fort Worth to celebrate all of the birthdays in my family, a couple of birthday parties to attend, I co-hosted a baby shower, and still been dealing with either sick kiddos or a sick mommy. Our trip to Fort Worth was wonderful and we had a great time as always, unfortunately it was cut short because Frankie had to get back for work. But we always looking forward to a return trip for a longer visit. We then were all hit with a round of colds here at the house, so we all stuck close to him for a bit until we all were healthy again. The biggest thing that has been going on is a situation at Bella's school. Unfortunately Bella has been acting out in Ballet class, which we have to attribute to some of the roughness she has been experiencing and observing at school. Frankie and I both have gone round and round on how to address the situation. We as parents understand that no matter where she goes, she will see some sort of "naughty" behavior, we just don't think it would be as extreme as it is now. After some additional conferences, we hope to have a decision by the end of the month.

Both of the children are doing wonderful and thriving. Bella's vocabulary and memory still amaze me every day. Our biggest hurdle we are working on is colors, she hasn't been able to pick them up except for Blue, Red, and Pink. So we are constantly working on those, but her counting and alphabet is coming along nicely. We also got her a sing along DVD for Valentine's Day, and she LOVES IT. We are blessed to hear many Disney Princess songs over and over again ;-) Each day she falls more in love with her brother, and they now love to play peek a boo and tent together. Little man is doing great, lungs look great (though we are still on two breathing treatments a day) and of course we continue to work on weight gain. He is eating three times a day with one snack, I think he will be completely weaned off of baby food by the first of March. He already is eating sliced carrots, squash, zucchini, pears, and bananas. He ABSOLUTELY prefers to feed himself. He is still crawling, cruising, and getting into everything. I'm still personally amazed on how different boys and girls are. Bella was never as active and into everything as Frankie is, and she never put EVERYTHING in her mouth as he does. The smallest speck on the floor goes into the mouth. AHHHH !!! He is the sweetest boy, and has a constant smile on his face. I do have to add that he LOVES bath time and is known to do full rollovers while taking a bath with his sister.

I'm doing great and hoping to dive more into sewing soon. I've been busy with taking care of the kiddos and working out. So that leaves little time for anything else, but the kiddos and I are having a great time !!! The Trifilio's are on the go as usual...and will continue to keep you posted on all the craziness !!