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!