He did this not once, not twice, but probably about 25 times on Sunday afternoon.

Be a little more descriptive when handing a toddler an unfamiliar object. For example, if it’s a water balloon, don’t just say, “Hey-here’s a water balloon!” Say something more like, “Hey-here’s a water balloon. There’s water inside this water balloon.”

He was a surprisingly great sport about it after popping it in his face.

You love to snuggle, but turn your back quickly and ask us to pat your back. When we don’t do it correctly, you demonstrate how it should be done.

You speak to us in complete sentences and have much more compreshension than I ever imagined at this age.

You say “yes” slightly more than you say “no,” but we may just be asking the right questions.

Some days you and your brother hold hands in your carseats on the way to school. It melts my heart.

To say that you love puzzles would be the understatement of the century.

You want your mommy to take you to bed at night, and want your daddy to give you breakfast in the morning.

You’ll try anything we ask you to taste, even if it “looks yucky.”

You chase people down and yell “HUG!” if they are about to leave.

You make some great faces, especially the “mean” face with the scrunched up nose that Yago always complains about.

You have a great time at school and still love to tell me all about your day.

You give the best kisses and the best hugs.

You make us laugh and keep us on our toes!

See more weekly winners at iamlot.us!

It was their last day of World Fest, and we stumbled upon music and dancing from India. We stopped to take a listen!

Click through to access the media box on my blog page and watch Daryoosh ‘shake it’ to the music!

More on our trip to Silver Dollar City soon!

Anyway, I wish I had taken some photos while we were there. The appointment took a little over two hours (they had said to plan for four, so we were expecting much longer!), and Daryoosh was a ham the entire time. I took his favorite dinosaur puzzle and he did that about three times, and then eventually moved on to the iPad. He was talking to all of the nurses and doctors he saw as if they were his best friends. I don’t think I had seen him ever this happy while being poked and prodded.

In his short 2.5 years, Daryoosh has had more than his share of asthma flare-ups. After his third one, we saw an allergist last year and started preventive medicine. We also did allergy testing and last year he seriously tested positive for almost everything except for cat dander. (Which is a good thing considering we have two cats!) We almost gave up our dog, Baci, because the test showed positive for dog dander.

Well, Santi and I wanted a current allergy picture, so we asked for a test at our consultation at ASAP. Interestingly, Daryoosh is now only allergic to grass. This definitely explains why he doesn’t sneeze, have a constant runny nose, and doesn’t show other symptoms! It seems like his flare-ups are only when he catches viruses.

Our new doctors would like us to give the inhaler/spacer combo a try for his maintenance medicine. For over a year, our routine had been to use the nebulizer twice per day. And as you see in the picture, Daryoosh had started to hold the mask himself several weeks ago. I am not sure what we’ll do with the extra time in the mornings! Maybe the boys will sleep in later (who am I kidding?!). Added to the mix are a nasal spray and daily nasal saline wash (surprisingly, this is going over much better than I expected…but we’re only 4 days into it so who knows how difficult it will become.)

We are excited to try a new approach, although I think the boys are a bit sad that it’s the end of the air compressor + nebulizer era. This was their twenty minutes of Scooby-Doo on the iPad in the mornings before school. One puff of the inhaler takes mere seconds.

Stay tuned, but hopefully I won’t have any updates to post regarding asthma for a long time!

“I’ll skin you alive!”

Thank you Tom and Jerry for some choice phrases in my son’s vocabulary. Some others that he randomly spouts off?

“Touché pussycat!”
“Bonjour Monsieur Jerry!”
“O.W.T. out!”

Looks like we should find a new favorite show, huh?

Who do you see when you look at your reflection?
What are you thinking about?
I would love to know.