After a 5 day trip to Ohio, I’m working on getting unpacked and back to normal. We had a great trip, but it’s good to be home. Of course, what would the trip be w/o one sick child? Kayla got yet another stomach virus while we were out there. Thankfully it was mild and short-lived AND no one else got it. But she missed out on some fun with her cousins which she was not very happy about. I’m pretty exhausted as I slept with Alysa. The night after Kayla was sick, I slept with both of them. Let’s just say I was up pretty much all night.

My Sister was great and aside from Zach (11 months) having dairy twice, everyone was dairy-free. It’s a huge stress staying with someone else with dairy all over the house, but having meals and snacks dairy-free really helps to ease the pressure. It’s also good for Kayla as she asks whenever we go somewhere – “Will there be dairy there?” It’s really very cute.

Traveling went pretty well. For some reason the DVD player would not stop skipping – but when it skips it shuts off and turns back on – so it was useless. The girls were troopers on the way out and on the way back. Although coming was a bit harder since the girls were exhausted. Alysa actually took a 1.5 hour nap on the way home and woke up happy as can be. Kayla, on the other hand, melted down before finally falling asleep towards the end of the trip. She woke up 15 minutes from home and sobbed the entire way.

Alysa and Elliot – only 3 weeks apart in age were adorable. It’s so cute to see them together. The similarities and differences.

While there, I got to have lunch with Chris and her real-life friend Thea. It was great to meet her and I enjoyed my lunch breakfast immensely. Saturday night I was able to go to the Opera my brother-in-law directed. Afterwards, we went out for dessert – yum!

The night after the morning Kayla was sick – she slept down in the basement with Alysa and me. The intent was for her to sleep on her child-size air mattress while Alysa slept on the pull out couch with me (full size). The two of them kept getting up to play in the playroom portion of the basement. Finally, I warned them that if they got out of bed again, I would shut the playroom light off (Alysa had wanted it on b/c initially she was scared being down there). I had to go down again when I heard the toy cash register. As soon as they saw me (yes, photos were taken), Alysa said, “You’re going to shut the light off. We in the playroom.”. Finally, I had to go to sleep while they were still awake – it was pushing 10:00. That’s when I found out Kayla decide she was sleeping in the bed with Alysa and I could sleep on the air mattress. So the 3 of us slept together.

Saturday, when we went for dessert my Dad watched the kids – yes, ALL-SIX-OF-THEM! My two were in bed and so were Zach and Elliot. When I asked him, he said Alysa (who slept in the basement with me) gave him any “trouble”. He said he never heard a peep out of her. The next morning I found out why. She HAD gotten out of bed and gotten into the markers. Her index fingers on both hands were completely purple. It was on her face too. Pretty cute actually, but I didn’t tell her that.

The girls are glad to be home and J is happy to have us back. Now I just have to figure out how to get caught up. But I did get some of my auctions up on eBay finally. I’ll be finishing that up tonight and tomorrow. I’ll post some links when I’m done. I have 3-6m, 6-9m, 6-12m, 12-18m and 18-24m.

I also have some food allergy items to post and will come back to post a slide show when I get all the pics uploaded and sorted.