First Doctor's Appointment In Florida!

It's such a gloomy rainy day today. I wish we could've stayed in our jammies all day long, but the kids had a doctor's appointment at 9 this morning followed by school for Ava at noon. I absolutely adore our new doctor. She's GREAT! She stayed in the room with us for nearly an hour just so she could make sure we were on the same page about everything. I always get really nervous when we see a new doctor because Blake isn't vaccinated and a lot of doctors refuse to see patients if they're not vaccinated. I explained the situation to the doctor, I told her that I felt strongly that vaccines had something to do with Blake's illness(es) in the past and I explained why I felt the way I do. Much to my surprise she told me that she thought I was "a very alert, educated and responsible parent" because of my thinking and my way of doing (or not doing) things. I was throughly impressed by that! I told her about Blake's stomach issues and she thought we definitely needed to test him for celiac disease. I've always suspected that he might have it, but since he gains weight fine now, I had almost ruled it out. She said that not every person with celiac disease has trouble gaining weight. I read that there are two different types, one type involves the body not being able to absorb fat properly. I've known for over a year that Blake's body doesn't absorb fat properly!! We did blood work when he was 6 or 7 months old and determined that so it upsets me a little bit that this is the first time we're testing for celiac disease. For the next month I have to feed him gluten rich foods so we have a better chance of accurate results. With all of the Paleo foods he's been eating for the past month or so, his body could very easily give a false negative to the test if we did it now. 

Both kids are growing and developing well. Ava is smaller than average for her age.. I think we all know who she gets that from! As a grown adult, my 10 year old nephew is taller than I am! Blake, on the other hand, is BIG! He's in the 75th percentile for height, weight and (big ole) noggin! The doctor said that she thought they were both really bright children and she said she's never had an almost two year old do so perfect with an exam. Blake is (USUALLY) fantastic at following directions so I wasn't surprised by how well he did, but it was nice to get that compliment! Ava had to get a shot and she was so excited about it. I'm totally serious! She asked me or the doctor every minute or so, "Am I going to get my shot soon?" When she got it, she took it like a champ and had a big smile on her face when she got her super sweet bandaid! I declined the flu vaccine for all of us just because I don't like it. It doesn't protect against all types of the flu and I specifically didn't like that at the beginning of last year they included H1N1 in the vaccine without telling people. I know this because a nurse in my family shared this lovely info with me. I know a lot of people couldn't care less, but I like to know what I'm putting in my body and more importantly in my kids' bodies! 

It's been raining since early this morning and Gracie (our dog) has major anxiety. I swear she's a lap dog in a lab's body! She's huge, but she always wants to sit in my lap! She's scared of the rain, she's scared of water (which will make the bath I'm about to give her a grrrreat experience, I'm sure), she's such a big baby! I totally love her though!

I don't have time to blog recipes because the smell of wet/dirty dog is really starting to disgust me, but I'll attach a link for one of my most recent favorites! Enjoy!

Easy Skillet Rosemary Chicken, Pecan Basil Parsley Pesto! - This chicken and pesto was so good! We had a lot of leftover pesto so we used it as a veggie dip until it was gone.