Alysa had her Upper Endoscopy yesterday. It went well. She freaked out a bit coming out of the anesthesia, but not as bad as Kayla did. She calmed down quicker and conked out in my lap – I miss those days. ;) The doc found irritation in her stomach, so she’s back on Prevacid – definitely reflux. But she also saw that the opening to her stomach is VERY small, so that is causing problems with her eating. It could be either muscle spasms – which there is medication for. Or it’s just too small. She is going to get copies of the pics from her Upper GI from when she was 3 months old. If that looks ok, then it’s a spasm, if not, then “it’s a whole different ball game.” At this point I was with a screaming child, so I couldn’t ask questions beyond that. It makes sense now though as she always preferred to drink rather than eat (even cereal baby food) and what she will eat are all soft – yogurt, eggs, bananas, etc. I’m figuring it’s uncomfortable/painful to push harder foods through that little whole. The poor thing.

She was quite the comedian at the hospital. They gave her the "giggle juice" and she was very cute. I got a bit on video w/o my digital camera. Unfortunately, her true giddiness didn't show through until the nurses came to take her back. But we can tell a bit she's off on the video. When the nurses came she was all smiles and laughter. At one point, she started to fall backwards (she was sitting on the bed) and said "Whooooaaaaa!". She even wanted the nurses to carry her instead of riding in the bed. She also had Baby and Taggie with her, which always helps.

Here she is cute as can be in her too-big hospital jammies...




Here is a little video of my "drunk" girl...


We all know when it rains, it poors. J is having surgery on his wrist on Tuesday. He got a splinter a month or so ago and it punctured his vein. Apparently, instead of healing, all this inflamed tissue/scar tissue grew OUT of his arm. He’s got this hideously ugly/painful growth on his wrist. And it’s on a tendon so he had to go to a hand surgeon who is surgically removing it on Tuesday. Fun! Never a dull moment in this house. And Alysa’s surgical copay was $150, so that means J’s will be too. Nothing like killing us all at once when I’m trying to X-mas shop! LOL

I hope everyone is enjoying their weekend.
:)

I have good news – Kayla’s doc agreed that the cold/flu season aggravates reflux and can “confuse the situation”, so she has agreed to leave Kayla’s medication unchanged until May or June of 2008. Yay! My Mommy Instincts tell me she’s not ready yet and I’m glad I don’t have to put her through that right now.

This weather we’re having is driving me insane. We had some beautiful fall weather a few weeks ago and it’s…90 today…and…HUMID! I can’t take it anymore. It’s not supposed to be 90 at the end of September. And poor Alysa has very few short sleeve shirts that still fit – they’re almost all too short, so she’s showing off her cute little belly. Not good for a Mom for Modesty. :) I can’t say I’m looking forward to winter, but I’m done with heat. I’m ready for the nice 60’s to 70’s. And I’m really looking forward to the holidays. My Christmas shopping is in full swing and I have the girls’ Santa lists all made up. I absolutely LOVE being Santa. We’ve put an item number limit this year – which is good b/c I can really go overboard especially with the girls. But I’m also very picky with what we get them. I go for educational toys and do a lot of shopping at higher end toy companies via catalog/internet and parent-teacher stores. The downfall is this stuff is not on the inexpensive end of the spectrum. But it’s high quality and they’ll get so much out of them.

I have a new favorite store right now too. I found it by accident – it’s a newly open store by me. Lakeshore Learning is a Parent-Teacher store with a very thick catalog and a huge beautiful store filled with educational supplies, educational toys and wonderful arts and crafts supplies. Every Saturday, they do a themed craft. I took the girls last Saturday and they both made clay magic wands and I got some birthday gift shopping done. I think we’ll be sending quite a few Saturdays there as they have some great crafts scheduled over the next few months.

But more on the forefront is Halloween. I’m working on easing Kayla into the trick or treating bit. She’s a bit uneasy about it (others in costumes don’t thrill her), but I’m focusing on the candy. Speaking of candy, I’ll be ordering her candy very soon. I’ll be getting her Halloween chocolates from Chocolate Emporium and Amanda’s Own Confections. I have not purchased from Amanda’s Own before, but they have some cute stuff that I want to try. Both are dedicated dairy-free, so there is no dairy in the plant either. Our candy bill will definitely be higher than most, but the important thing to us is that Kayla feels as normal as possible. We let them do the traditional trick-or-treating and then will swap their candy out for the safe stuff. Then J and I get to take their loot to work and eat it ourselves. LOL

Alysa has her Upper Endoscopy Friday. I can’t say I’m thrilled she’s have it done but it will be good to know if there is anything else going on or not. And I am looking forward to seeing her on the “Giggle Juice”. Before they take the kids back to be put under anesthesia, they give them this medication that makes them completely loopy or drunk’ish. This way they are so relaxed they don’t care that they are being taken from Mommy and Daddy. I know b/c Kayla was on this stuff when she had it done a year and a half ago. And she was my clingy one then and she really didn’t care. I remember that day kicking myself for NOT bringing my camera with me b/c it was hysterical to see her “doped” up. She had no balance and had the major giggles. This time, I’ll be packing my cameras and taking pics/videos as long as they let me. I’m also heading to the store to get Alysa a couple small treats to entertain her during the waiting and ease her discomfort when it’s all over with.

Wish me luck that it all goes smoothly!

Here are a couple videos I took of Alysa yesterday.

Alysa's singing debut with the ABC song after a bit of indecision as to whether she should sing ABC's or Twinkle Little Star


Alysa singing Twinkle Little Star

This week's theme is Paper.

A paper candle Kayla made at school this week...

To view other Saturday Photo Hunts go here.

I'm glad this week is over. J was supposed to go on a business trip, but b/c of staffing issues he didn't which meant I rearranged my schedule for the week only to rearrange it again. Always fun. :)

Kayla is all better and was super excited to be in school all week (well, except for Monday). I'm still waiting for Alysa to get it. Crossing my fingers it's at least not too bad.

A few cute things from this week. On Wednesday, Kayla told J after watching the Wonder Pets (they are classroom pets) that the Wonder Pets are in a classroom, but they are not in hers. Then she asked him why they weren't in hers. She also has an admirer in her gymnastics class. The one week, J took her this little boy Nicholas gave her a hug during class. Then the following week, his Mom told me that after class, he said to her the little girl with the fishes on her bathing suit (her leotard) is sweet and has beautiful yellow hair. She's making the boys melt already. I love this age!!!

I got my halloween decorations up yesterday. Early for me, but it is almost October. Kayla loves all of them (almost). She tells me that "I bought them for her". On our last trip to North Carolina, we had stopped at a Cracker Barrel for a bathroom break. Kayla found this pumpkin that has a scarecrow and paper bats in it. When you push the button, the bats fly around the pumpkin. She loved it and actually wanted to bring it home. This surprised me b/c we have a singing/dancing Frosty and she wass terrified of it last Christmas. But I figured maybe she outgrew that. And my Mom, being as wrapped as she is, got it for them as their halloween present. So I put it out yesterday. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves...

Alysa...


And Kayla...


Needless to say, it terrifies her. She can be in the other room and she'll cry. All night she told me, "It's scary Mommy." "I'm scared of the pumpkin." It's going to be a loooong holiday season, as Alysa adores this thing, just like she adored Frosty last year. I'm thinking Halloween will go smoothly and our trip to Disney in a year and a half? Can't wait! [insert sarcasm here]...

On a yuckier note - the girls had their GI check-ups on Monday. I always make their appointments on days I can go, but with J's "trip", he had to take them. I figured it would be no big deal b/c we trialed them both off Prevacid in June and it failed. I just wanted to know how long until we trial again - I'm thinking give them both at least 6 months on the meds. Well, we got blind-sided b/c the doc is not happy with Alysa's weight gain - not too surprising as she doesn't eat much. But now she needs the Upper Endoscopy done next Friday (the 28th) to check her esophagus. The procedure itself is not too bad, except she's under anesthesia - so that is not always what I prefer. But I know things need to be ruled out. If that shows no problems, then the doc wants her to get Feeding Therapy. Kayla had this and it worked wonders. I also learned a lot and intro'd Alysa to foods much differently than Kayla. It worked - Alysa has a broader range of what she'll eat than Kayla did at her age. She just won't eat much at all - a few bites here and there. And she always prefers to drink over eat - which her doc did not like. At least we have a feeding therapist that we adore.

And for Kayla? The doc told J to take her off Prevacid COLD TURKEY starting Tuesday. Um...Huh? That really through us. He told her we were concerned, etc - only 3 months have gone by. She said to take her off and if she starts waking up, we'll put her on half her dose and try to get her to every other day? Needless to say, I'm not comfortable with this. I think it's way too soon. Plus, she's almost outgrown her dairy allery - I think it's too much to expect her body to heal both those huge issues at the same time. Plus, it's sick season (she's already been sick twice) and sicknesses make reflux worse. Plus...she's in school - I don't need her getting no sleep and misbehaving at school. Ideally I want to wait until school is over (or at least when sick season is over). But if she won't go for that than I want to trial starting Dec 17th when she has a few weeks off from school. And at the VERY least, I need to know a game-plan. If the cold turkey doesn't work, then what - if the half dose doesn't work, then what... Basically, I won't be waiting around for return calls while Kayla is suffering or waiting through a weekend until the office is open again. So we have not taken her off yet. I've been playing phone tag with the doc to get my concerns out and get a full plan made. Wish me luck. Mother's intuition tells me it's TOO SOON!!!

On a happier note - Alysa was thrilled to be back to gymnastics today. She'll miss next Friday, but I set up a make-up for next week.

It's almost that time to get Kayla from school. I hope everyone had a great week!

Yup - that would be Kayla. Hence why I haven't been on-line since last week. She missed Thursday and Friday at school last week due to her virus with a fever and cough. She had no fever Friday or Saturday, which was good b/c that was when my Sis was here with Zachary. But...then Sunday morning she was not right. She was pale and said her tummy hurt. Yup, you know where this is heading. She got her first stomach virus of this school season. Thankfully it was pretty mild, especially for her only lasting 3 hours. She was cute though, about an hour after she stopped throwing up, she started coughing - from her other virus. I was sitting next to her and got on alert. I asked her if she was ok and if she was going to "spit up" (as she calls it). She looked at me and said "I'm ok Mommy, it's just a little cough".

Despite the sickness though we had a nice short visit from my Sister. It was the first time the girls got to see Zach. They both adored him. Kayla would not hold him, but she enjoyed playing peek-a-boo with him. We wouldn't let her touch him, although she got in a couple quick touches b4 we could stop her. Alysa on the other hand, takes after her Mommy and is a "Little Mommy". She wanted to hold him a lot. She was asking where he was Sunday morning. I'm excited to see them again in early November when she comes out for the wedding and then again for Thanksgiving when all of them will visit. Here are some pics from our too-short visit.

Here is Alysa holding and kissing Zach




When Gramps came over to see Zach, there was some jealousy going on with Alysa. She didn't like that he couldn't pick her up b/c he was holding Zach and a crying Zach too. So she decided to hug his arm instead.


Alysa holding him again


Kayla would only sit next to him. :)


And here is Zach in Alysa's pink princess chair.


I hope everyone had a good weekend. Wish me luck getting Kayla back to school tomorrow w/o any griping after her 5 day weekend. :)

Yup, Kayla is sick and she's home today. I knew it was coming, but the 2nd week of school? Come on! Last night after gymnastics I noticed she sounded a bit congested. I figured she was getting a cold. Then when I was putting her to bed I noticed she felt a tad warm, but again, that could be from a cold, so I thought nothing of it. But she woke up at 10:30pm with a 101.6 fever and a bad barking cough. Luckily though the cough wasn't bad enough to keep her up. But she just felt horrible from the fever. She was crying and you know she was achy. So I gave her Motrin and brought her in bed with us. J didn't even argue, so that tells you something. She fell asleep right away but was fitful for a while. About 12:45am, I felt her and she was cool again, so I brought her back to her room and she slept the rest of the night. So far today, she has no fever and she's in good spirits. Her cough is even better than it was when she woke up. Here's hoping her fever doesn't return. If she stays fever-free today she can go to school tomorrow even with a cough. If it comes back tonight, she'll be home tomorrow too. This though will make her happy as when I told her she had to stay home with Daddy, she got a big grin on her face. Nice! I know she likes school (although she still tells me she can't tell me the names of her friends - again, Nice!), but I still think she's not liking the every day part. :) We're working on getting her to cough in her arm, not hands. That is what the school said they teach them to do. She's not liking that either. Oh well!

And of course, this is all perfectly timed as my Sis and youngest nephew are flying out tomorrow because she has a shower to go to on Saturday. I'll be really bummed if Kayla's sickness lessens the time I get with the little one. Crossing my fingers she stays on the mend. Not to mention that J agreed to watch Zachary Friday night so her and I could go out to dinner. THEN, my Dad offered to treat her and me to dinner. Does it get any better than that?

Alysa got her cast off yesterday, so my Gimpy Girl is gone. Her arm healed really well. We're supposed to stop her from climbing for a week as her bone is weaker and will break easier. Um...if we could STOP her from climbing, she wouldn't have broken her arm in the first place. But, we'll do what we can. Funny how 21 month old Toddlers tend to NOT listen to Mommy and Daddy. Her arm was very sore yesterday which is normal b/c it's all stiff and her muscles and haven't been used for so long. But she should be back to 100% in a week or so.

Now I have to share that I ran into TWO, count them, TWO ignorant people yesterday. I'm think if ignorance is bliss, then these were two very happy people. The first has to do with infertility and the second, food allergies. When I was waiting to get Alysa's x-rays, there was a woman who really took a liking to Alysa. She asked if she was my only one, if my other was older, if I had another girl? Blah...blah...blah... But then came my favorite question. Oh, are you going to have any more? Maybe try for a boy or another girl? These questions drive me batty. They used to send me to tears while battling infertility. But I also find it rude - why is it any one's business? I was nice and simply said, No. Now for most people, it ends there. But not her - she had to press and said Oh, you don't want anymore? At that point, I just looked at her and said "That's really personal". She then apologized and she didn't speak to me again. Who knew it would be that easy to shut someone up. ;)

#2 was at gymnastics. After class, Kayla insisted on going on the elevator. So we went and waited. We get on and so did 2 other Moms and their daughters. Once on the elevator, I noticed one little girl was digging into a thing of cheese. So I nudged Kayla back a bit so she was further from her and got down on her level and told her that the little girl had cheese. Kayla then said, "I can't have cheese". The Mom overheard and said, oh is she allergic? I said yes. She then proceeds to tell me her daughter (the one eating cheese) is allergic too. Then she says, she outgrew it. Ok fine - I said, Kayla is working on it, but hasn't yet. Then she proceeds to tell me how she got her to outgrow it by introducing it to her slowly and little by little. Um...the right there tells me she's not allergic - b/c that is not how to handle an allergy - it will make it worse. So then after going on and on as we're walking out of the building - she says, she still can't drink milk - it still gives her the gas, etc. So I said, Oh she's lactose intolerant. She responds with Yes. This is common for people to think lactose intolerance and dairy allergy are the same, but they're not. Lactose Intolerance only makes you uncomfortable where the allergy can be potentially fatal. So I said to her, Kayla is ALLERGIC, she can stop breathing. Her response? "Oh, she'll NEVER outgrow THAT!" Huh? What the heck to do you know - you don't even know know what a dairy allergy IS! I just said, actually she is starting to outgrow. Then she got all concerned, like, oh how do you handle it, etc. Luckily, I didn't have to talk to her that long. But come on - nothing like making a Mom feel good when her daughter has a food allergy.

I'm still shaking my head over these two. It was just one of those days I guess.

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Last, but not least Christine and Janeen gave me the Nice Matters Award.



It's nice to know others think I'm Nice. :) I guess that makes me loved! Thanks girls for the award. Sorry it took me so long!

It's hard to believe that it has been 6 years. I remember growing up hearing about how everyone "knew what they were doing" when they heard about JFK's shooting. I never thought I'd experience something like that. Then 9/11 happened. I was at the Dermatologist for an appointment for an allergy (yes, I was pawned off on a dermatologist for an allergic reaction - don't ask...). I was completely oblivious, as I was going to be late for work. I left the doctor's office on that beautiful fall day to get in my car and find out what was happening. I remember driving to work in utter disbelief. I couldn't get through to J and it took me forever to get through to my Mom. Nothing was accomplished at work that day. My boss had a small tv in his office and that is pretty much where we all stayed. We watched the towers fall on this little b&w tv. Then, we were sent home. J of course, had to stay at work b/c retail never stops. It was horrendous to just sit and watch the news, yet you couldn't turn away.

It was a time my children were not alive to witness. They will grow up hearing about Sept 11, yet never knowing the feelings we all experienced. I plan on taking them into New York City ("The City") for various things, and it still seems weird that they'll never see the Twin Towers like I did growing up.

This is a day to remember what this country has to fight for. Our freedom - something worth fighting for. A day to remember the innocent lives lost. And a day to remember those that have given their lives to protect us and those still fighting to protect us.

On this day, I would like to send a special thanks to Michelle, her husband Joe and her daughter Kayla. Joe just left for Iraq. Kayla misses her Daddy, Michelle misses her husband and Joe is missing all of them, including his 2nd child on the way. They are an amazing family and deserve our thoughts, prayers and gratitude for their sacrifices. This also goes for every other military family. You are appreciated and loved. I thank you from the bottom of my heart.

Hop on over to WW to see more great photos.

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Hop on over to Christine's to see her page and others who have joined.

This week's theme is Music.

Here are the girls making music...

To view other Saturday Photo Hunts go here.

This week has been whirlwind. I have not had much time to breath and I am SO behind on my stuff. But, that's how it goes.

Kayla has completed her first week of school and this morning we had tears. Well, ok - that's an under-exaggeration. She clung to my legs and cried when I went to leave. But she stopped as soon as I left the classroom (her teacher had to pick her up to get her off my legs). I'm guessing she didn't realize that this school business would be every day. ;) But she has fun and was all excited and chatty when I picked her up. I can't get much out of her. The only friends she'll give me names of is her teacher and the assistant. At least I know she likes them. The other kids are just "her new friends". She loves the playground and the slide. Today I got a detailed accounting of her snack. She had regular crackers (as opposed to graham crackers), she drank water and she used a napkin to clean up and then she was all done. Yet that is the only detail I get - her snack. I thought girls clam up as teenagers, not preschoolers. We also have a couple homework projects for this week. Some getting to know you stuff. She has to pick some favorite things to bring in to class. That will be fun to do with her. They also have the kids bring in a plant to take care for throughout the year. J got that for her today. Hopefully she takes after Daddy and not me. I'd kill it. If it doesn't make noise and "ask" to eat, I'll forget about it. ;) The past 2 days she brought artwork home with her - so that made me think, where will I hang this? So I got a large cork board at Costco today and J is going to hang it tonight. Kayla's excited that I got this "for her". I got to run some errands this morning with only once child - ah, bliss. But why couldn't I have had the child that likes to shop with me? Alysa was quite the crank after about 5 minutes in Target. I relented and gave her my keys in Costco b/c it kept her happy.

I have a couple more errands this afternoon and have a retirement dinner for a coworker tonight. Tomorrow we head to my parents' so they can take Kayla on her belated birthday outing.

I have a lot more to share, but I just don't have time. Hopefully I can get on here Sunday since I'll at least be home. What plans do you have for the weekend?

Well, we did it. We survived her first day of preschool! She was very excited to go and was actually kind of giddy this morning. I got a few pics b4 we left the house and at the school. They were great with her snack box and epi's and her teacher put them right in the classroom. Kayla was very excited to be there and I'm happy to report that not a tear was shed. She actually could not have cared less when we left. So much for my Mama's Girl. I was ok as I was kept pretty busy. My Mom came with us and we took Alysa out to breakfast and then to the Children's Museum.

Here is Kayla all ready to go this morning...





Here she is at school:




In her classroom:




Saying "Don't let the door hit ya..."


Alysa enjoying breakfast - she's actually banging her arm on the table saying "We want food!" - something she learned from my father.


I was told she did really well today and snack time went well. At one point, J called me on my cell and I almost had a heart attack when my cell rang. I was just a tad on edge today. One day down, how many to go? :)

First, I'll start out by saying it's good to be back. I never was able to get on the computer b/c we had a last minute change of plans. Friday morning, as we've got the car packed and ready to go, we found out my niece, Maddy was sick with a 104 fever. I REALLY wanted to go to Ohio, but I didn't want to chance my girls getting sick, especially with Kayla starting school on Wednesday. My father didn't want to risk getting sick either. The last time they went to Ohio, a tummy virus went through the entire house. So, he had the great idea to instead, head south to North Carolina to visit my Grandmother. So that is what we did. The girls had a blast and it made my GM's year!

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So my Big Girl Kayla starts preschool tomorrow. I am a huge mix of emotions. From excitement, to worry over her adjustment (although I know once she adjusts she'll love it) to that deep down fear over her food allergy management. I have done my best to give the concise and thorough information on how to keep Kayla safe. I typed up instructions detailing her allergy and her known reactions. I gave them instructions on how to manage her snacks and other school functions such as arts and crafts with food and birthday parties. I made up laminated cards that list all the ingredients that dairy hides behind. I also made up cards with an Emergency Action plan in case of exposure or reaction and they have her picture on them and are laminated. All of these were given to her teacher last week. I have not heard from her with questions, so I'm taking that as a good sign. :)

When I drop her off tomorrow, I will be giving her teacher this pouch

which will have a bottle of Benadryl and a dosage cup as well as her Epi Pens and her Medic Alert ID card. This will stay in her classroom and will go with Kayla wherever she is.

Then I made up a nice snack box for her. I really liked Janeen's idea, so I snagged it and labeled her box "Kayla's Safe Snacks". I also added added some fun stickers and made some up to label it correctly.









I have a variation of snacks - teddy grahams in different flavors, pretzels, graham cracker sticks, popcorn, shortbread cookies and some chocolate chip cookies that look similar to munchkins in case parents stop at Dunkin Donuts (which is known to happen). As soon as they come in, I'll be adding some granola bars. I also have in there a box of ziplock bags in case they need to save anything. This way I know the bags have not been cross-contaminated. Yes, I'm anal - but you can't be too careful.

So as I said, I'm as prepared as I can be. And it was great that Janeen and I are both starting this venture together. Her youngest son (who has multiple food allergies) is starting preschool as well. So it was great to have her to collaborate with. We were able to "proof" our action plans and instructions to make sure neither of us missed anything. Thanks Janeen!

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And since I spent some posting time last week griping about food allergy idiots, I thought I'd share a very pleasant experience that I had this weekend in North Carolina. Saturday morning, we took the girls to the Wilmington Children's Museum. When we got there, I asked if they allow snacks in the play areas. I asked this fully expecting them to say NO - only in the snack areas. What I was told is yes. It really floored me as I've never been to a place that allowed snacking in the exhibit area. Why you'd want to clean up food is beyond me. But...we got there when they opened, so I decided to give it a shot and figured we'd leave if it became an issue. I will say I never saw one morsel of food anywhere while we were there. The girls were having fun playing and I looked up towards the front desk and I see them making butter popcorn (they sell it). With that in the museum, I couldn't stay. So I told my Mom that we'd have to leave once I saw the popcorn around the museum. W/o me knowing, she took it upon herself to ask if we could get a refund, but we had been there almost an hour at that point. The girl my Mom spoke to said she could give us coupons to come back and if we do come back to call ahead of time and they'd hold off on selling the popcorn while we were there. Let me preface this by saying I would NEVER have asked them to NOT sell something for us. But since she offered, I went to her and said, is this something you could do now. Basically, what's the difference between today and another day? She said they will be having a show soon and the popcorn is very profitable. I understand this. But then, she offered to hold off for this show so my girls could see it (of course they weren't interested). And she said she'd hold off as long as possible. Again, this is not something I ever would have requested - I would have just left. So we continued to play there with the girls. Then another employee up to me and said she was told to ask if it was ok for them to sell the soft pretzels. Now I would never feed them to Kayla, but they are MUCH less of a risk than buttered popcorn. I told her that was fine and thanked her for checking. Most people actually assume pretzels are automatically safe (which many are not). Then we were downstairs a little while later and the initial woman we talked to (she was the customer service lead - no manage was on duty at the time) came up to me and said she was going to hold off on selling popcorn until we left. Again, this was ALL her. I thanked her profusely. I so appreciated how she went above and beyond for Kayla. I made sure to tell her this. And we had told her we were from out of state - so she knew we weren't going to be frequent visitors. Initially when I saw the popcorn I had decided to NOT go back on future visits. But after my experience there, I would most certainly go back and put their site up so others who live locally can know about them. They have so many fun things for the girls to do and they were wonderful to Kayla in a hard situation. Kayla never knew there was an issue and it was so great to not have to cut her visit short b/c of food.

I know that got kind of long, for which I apologize, but I love to share stories of strangers going out of their way for Kayla. And luckily for us, things like this are more the norm for us than the exception. And I appreciate every single person that helps me keep Kayla safe. I will be calling the manager this week to let them know how wonderful Laura was to us and how I will recommend them and will come back when we visit.

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I hope everyone had a great weekend. I now must start my catching up with everyone! Later today or tomorrow, I will get some photos up from our trip.