This is their actual height differnce. Ryan was trying to make them smile and Eli totally started laughing right away and JoAnn was a little more shy. They both seem to be daddy kids.
Doesn't he have beautiful blue eyes.
Monday, November 24, 2008
Bucher Family Fun
The other night Daniel, JoAnn and I went over to Daniel's brother's house and JoAnn got to play with some of her cousins. It was so fun to see JoAnn playing with them and to see how they enjoyed playing with her. These are a few pictures I took of Eli and JoAnn. Eli was born 8 days after JoAnn. This first picture made me laugh because it looks like JoAnn is towering over Eli. In reality she was standing on something.
This is their actual height differnce. Ryan was trying to make them smile and Eli totally started laughing right away and JoAnn was a little more shy. They both seem to be daddy kids.
Doesn't he have beautiful blue eyes.
This is their actual height differnce. Ryan was trying to make them smile and Eli totally started laughing right away and JoAnn was a little more shy. They both seem to be daddy kids.
Doesn't he have beautiful blue eyes.
Saturday, November 22, 2008
So long, where to start?
It has been a very long time since I have put anything up, mainly because I have been so busy and haven't really had much time to sit down and write. I hardly know where to start, but I will give it a shot...
Well, when I took JoAnn in for her 15 month check up, her allergies had been really bad and it had bothered her asthma. So for the second time the doctor wanted to put her on steroids to clear up her lungs. That sort of shocked me into being more diligent about her allergies and breathing. To be put on steroids for the second time and only be 15 months old is actually quite a lot. The good thing was that only one dose of the steriods cleared it all up and I have been able to keep her from getting bad again. Hopefully, I can keep this up and not forget as much to give her allergy medicine every morning and every night. Which you would think wouldn't be hard to remember since I have to take mine at the same time too. Go figure.
Not long after I had JoAnn back to being healthy, my mysterious rash started to come back pretty strong. I never seem to get rid of it, but it does seem to get really bad every so often, then I get put on a new medicine to try to help and it starts to get a little better for a few weeks until it gets totally out of control again. I don't know if I am just really getting sick of it and can't handle it as well, or if the totally out of control stage gets worse everytime but it is really starting to make me miserable. Anyway, after a couple days of being completely miserable I talked to one of my doctors again, who mentioned to Daniel and I that maybe we should consider coming back to the US a few weeks early and try to get into a dermatologist there. (I had been to a few different dermatologists in the Philippines since moving there and have thought none of them were worth the $6 appointment. They just didn't seem to know much about eczema or if they did they refused to write a perscription for something they didn't sell in their office.) Daniel and I talked about it and decided that we would go ahead and get some of the blood tests that had been suggested, we would also try one more dermatologist in the Philippines and at the same time we would change our tickets to come home two weeks earlier. So that meant I had one week to get everything I was going to do in 3 weeks done and add to that a couple doctor appoinments. But on the up side of things, it also means we will be home for Thanksgiving as well as Christmas.
Anyway, I went to see a new doctor who thought it was all my eczema that had flared and gotten a bacterial infection. So, I went in for all my tests and then started a semi-strong antibiotic. The antibiotic ended up being just like everything else I tried. It helped a little, mainly because I did have some secondary infections, but then stopped way short of actually clearing up the rash. I have to say though, until it started to help a little I had told Daniel I wasn't sure I was going to be able to travel half way around the world feeling like I did, so I was very glad it helped even if it didn't clear it all up.
A few days after I saw the dermatologist, I took one of my Filipino friends to Divisoria to do some Christmas shopping. Divisoria is one of my favorite places to go shopping in the Philippines. There is absolutely nothing like it in the US. It is a gigantic outdoor/indoor market. They have seriously anything I could think of and it is much cheaper than anywhere else I go, even when they give me the "rich" white person price. Since it was getting closer to Christmas it was pretty crowded and I tried to get a picture to help discribe what it is like there, but my camera battery was dead. This is a picture I found on the internet of where we went. This is an alley near Tutuban (the pink building in the background), which is one of the indoor markets we went to. I seriously could walk all day along the streets without doing any shopping and not even see all of Divisoria. It is huge and everywhere you go is about as crowded as this alley.
After doing my Christmas shopping, I went back to get my lab tests results and so far all of the tests say I am completely normal except I had a high score on a test that was for a non-specific inflamation or infection...that helps a lot. Then a couple days later, Daniel, JoAnn and I boarded a plane to head back to the States.
We got to Indiana on Thursday afternoon and let me just tell you the trip seemed ETERNAL. We all got up and got ready to leave for the airport at 2:30 AM Manila time and arrived at Daniel's parents' house at 2:30 PM EST. That means we were traveling for 23 hours and only arrived 12 hours after we left.
JoAnn did wonderful on the trip, except she did exactly what she did last year on the trip over, which is not sleep. I think she slept somewhere between 2 and 3 hours the entire trip. Daniel and I were exhausted from trying to keep her entertained the entire time. Although, the big winners that kept her attention the most were the headphones they pass out to watch the movies with and her sippy cup. I don't know why I even try to bring toys.
These two pictures were taken in the Manila airport while we were waiting for our first flight. I had wanted to take more pictures of the trip, but the truth is I was just too tired to even think about trying to find my camera in the what seemed like huge carry-on bag.
Notice the way too short pants that JoAnn has on...that is because she is so stinkin' skinny and tall. If the pants fit at the waist, they are about 3 inches too short and if they are long enough, they literally fall off her. We definitely felt out of place with her running around the Detroit airport without a coat and in what looked like capris.
Last night after we got back we were able to see all of our neices and our nephew on Daniel's side of the family. I was a little out of it at that point so I didn't get any pictures of the kids playing together, but I will hopefully get some in the next few days. I can't believe how old they are all getting and it is so fun to watch JoAnn have some kids to play with. I am really looking forward to the next few weeks we have in the States.
Well, when I took JoAnn in for her 15 month check up, her allergies had been really bad and it had bothered her asthma. So for the second time the doctor wanted to put her on steroids to clear up her lungs. That sort of shocked me into being more diligent about her allergies and breathing. To be put on steroids for the second time and only be 15 months old is actually quite a lot. The good thing was that only one dose of the steriods cleared it all up and I have been able to keep her from getting bad again. Hopefully, I can keep this up and not forget as much to give her allergy medicine every morning and every night. Which you would think wouldn't be hard to remember since I have to take mine at the same time too. Go figure.
Not long after I had JoAnn back to being healthy, my mysterious rash started to come back pretty strong. I never seem to get rid of it, but it does seem to get really bad every so often, then I get put on a new medicine to try to help and it starts to get a little better for a few weeks until it gets totally out of control again. I don't know if I am just really getting sick of it and can't handle it as well, or if the totally out of control stage gets worse everytime but it is really starting to make me miserable. Anyway, after a couple days of being completely miserable I talked to one of my doctors again, who mentioned to Daniel and I that maybe we should consider coming back to the US a few weeks early and try to get into a dermatologist there. (I had been to a few different dermatologists in the Philippines since moving there and have thought none of them were worth the $6 appointment. They just didn't seem to know much about eczema or if they did they refused to write a perscription for something they didn't sell in their office.) Daniel and I talked about it and decided that we would go ahead and get some of the blood tests that had been suggested, we would also try one more dermatologist in the Philippines and at the same time we would change our tickets to come home two weeks earlier. So that meant I had one week to get everything I was going to do in 3 weeks done and add to that a couple doctor appoinments. But on the up side of things, it also means we will be home for Thanksgiving as well as Christmas.
Anyway, I went to see a new doctor who thought it was all my eczema that had flared and gotten a bacterial infection. So, I went in for all my tests and then started a semi-strong antibiotic. The antibiotic ended up being just like everything else I tried. It helped a little, mainly because I did have some secondary infections, but then stopped way short of actually clearing up the rash. I have to say though, until it started to help a little I had told Daniel I wasn't sure I was going to be able to travel half way around the world feeling like I did, so I was very glad it helped even if it didn't clear it all up.
A few days after I saw the dermatologist, I took one of my Filipino friends to Divisoria to do some Christmas shopping. Divisoria is one of my favorite places to go shopping in the Philippines. There is absolutely nothing like it in the US. It is a gigantic outdoor/indoor market. They have seriously anything I could think of and it is much cheaper than anywhere else I go, even when they give me the "rich" white person price. Since it was getting closer to Christmas it was pretty crowded and I tried to get a picture to help discribe what it is like there, but my camera battery was dead. This is a picture I found on the internet of where we went. This is an alley near Tutuban (the pink building in the background), which is one of the indoor markets we went to. I seriously could walk all day along the streets without doing any shopping and not even see all of Divisoria. It is huge and everywhere you go is about as crowded as this alley.
After doing my Christmas shopping, I went back to get my lab tests results and so far all of the tests say I am completely normal except I had a high score on a test that was for a non-specific inflamation or infection...that helps a lot. Then a couple days later, Daniel, JoAnn and I boarded a plane to head back to the States.We got to Indiana on Thursday afternoon and let me just tell you the trip seemed ETERNAL. We all got up and got ready to leave for the airport at 2:30 AM Manila time and arrived at Daniel's parents' house at 2:30 PM EST. That means we were traveling for 23 hours and only arrived 12 hours after we left.
JoAnn did wonderful on the trip, except she did exactly what she did last year on the trip over, which is not sleep. I think she slept somewhere between 2 and 3 hours the entire trip. Daniel and I were exhausted from trying to keep her entertained the entire time. Although, the big winners that kept her attention the most were the headphones they pass out to watch the movies with and her sippy cup. I don't know why I even try to bring toys.
These two pictures were taken in the Manila airport while we were waiting for our first flight. I had wanted to take more pictures of the trip, but the truth is I was just too tired to even think about trying to find my camera in the what seemed like huge carry-on bag.
Notice the way too short pants that JoAnn has on...that is because she is so stinkin' skinny and tall. If the pants fit at the waist, they are about 3 inches too short and if they are long enough, they literally fall off her. We definitely felt out of place with her running around the Detroit airport without a coat and in what looked like capris.Last night after we got back we were able to see all of our neices and our nephew on Daniel's side of the family. I was a little out of it at that point so I didn't get any pictures of the kids playing together, but I will hopefully get some in the next few days. I can't believe how old they are all getting and it is so fun to watch JoAnn have some kids to play with. I am really looking forward to the next few weeks we have in the States.
Thursday, November 6, 2008
Another check up
Alright, I just had to share this bit of information. Yesterday, I took JoAnn to the doctor for her 15 month check-up and I knew that she had grown a lot since her first birthday, but no clue she grew nearly as much as she did. In three months she had grown 8 cm (or about 2 1/3 inches) and 1 kg (or 2.2 lbs). That brings her up to 33 inches tall and 19 lbs. The doctor said that is the average height of a 2 year old and the weight of a 9 month old. No wonder she only wears 6-9 month clothes!