emergency room

eli had two "firsts" in the same day. his first bites of peanut butter and his first trip to the emergency room. he's allergic.

it was obvious that we had a problem within minutes of his first taste and the ER nurse that checked us in zoomed us back quickly so he was medicated before things got out of control. we had to hang out in a room full of scary knobs, drawers and thingamajigs that made our 5 hour "stay" a bit tricky with our curious little ones. fortunately, ava was whisked away by preston's co-workers and came back full of stickers only to be whisked away again by "papa" who took her to greensboro for the night (she's playing doctor now she had so much fun!). as for eli, he's still breaking out occasionally as this passes through his system (supposedly normal) and he has an appointment with an allergist on the books for additional testing.

honestly, i knew our days were numbered before eli made his inaugural visit to the ER, but i'm surprised our first trip was for allergies...

no more peanuts for the peanut!!

lost my noodle

it was almost lunchtime and the cupboards were pretty bare except for half a box of angel hair pasta. usually i stick to pinchable and forkable noodles for the kids for obvious reasons, but a quick ride to the store was out of the question. i went for it...

i had a little more to clean up around eli's chair today but the extra lunch giggles were worth it....though i'll be sure we have plenty of "swirly" pasta in the cupboard from now on!!

the blue line

summer is almost over & school starts for the big moseley's soon. we made our last trip of the summer memorable. friday was spent at the pool - this time eli went down the slide head first...over and over! saturday we spent the morning travelling on charlotte's light rail, the blue line! our destination was the downtown library, but really the whole trip was an adventure.

upon our departure kate and caroline had a coversation that went something like...

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carrie: can't they stay longer?

kate: no honey, they have to get home to uncle preston.

carrie: well can we at least keep eli?

angels bowling

as a kid i remember racing into my parents' bedroom each night it stormed and "sleeping" on blankets beside their bed knowing i was safer there. now i love the magic and mystery of storms.

we've had a number of storms this summer, most occurring at night, and have quickly learned that ava is not a fan. my mom told me thunder was God rearranging His furniture (is that why i like to also?). my friend mandy's mom told her it was angels bowling. i really liked the imagery of angels at play so that's what i've told ava. she still doesn't like storms, but when i remind her it's just angels bowling she tends not to worry as much. and we usually have a pretty fun conversation about what the angels look like and whether she'll get to bowl when she's an angel (yes!).

"uh oh" king

smooch...

not only has eli mastered walking, he has started talking. sort of. pretty much just one word. over and over. and you know something is about to crash in 0.7 seconds when you hear it.

i tried to capture his version of "i love you" (sounds like "eye ew") but all i got today was...

splash!

hot days. by afternoon the sun hits the back of our house with force, making it very sauna-y inside. with this steamy weather it's nice to find some refreshment. there is a short window of time between afternoon naps and dinner/bath/bed so i made the most of it by not wasting time with clothes!! the kids didn't notice.
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since eli is determined to drown himself in shallow water, we've found a splash mat that allows for wet fun without the constant survival practice....
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allowing me to take some pictures...

garden of eden? not so much...

-2 green peppers
-3 oddly shaped cucumbers
-15 roma tomatoes (the size of large grapes)
-basil enough for one large batch of pesto (more on the way!)
-lettuce enough for a couple sandwiches
-one blueberry
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though the growing season is not quite over, the piddly list above is all i've been able to harvest from my garden so far. (i tried strawberries, yellow squash & zucchini with no luck. zero. and to my family members...you know who you are...who have snickered and said that zucchini practically grow themselves....that's obviously not true!)
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stubbornly i didn't "feed" with (organic) fertilizer regularly because that didn't jive with my goal for natural gardening. isn't soil, water and sun enough? perhaps. but it turns out my garden plot is a little more shady than i thought. no amount of gentle urging conversation or prayer helped! i had prayed for enough to share with family and neighbors, but it seems God wants me to share in other ways than produce.
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the most satisfying seeds we planted were sunflowers! and a close second are green beans, but only if they work (to be determined).
turns out i didn't get the right sunflowers for harvesting sunflower seeds though...bummer.
on a juicier note, the blueberry farm that mandy and i found last year had PEACHES this year. twisting off a peach right from the tree and savoring its sun-warmed juiciness has been the highlight of my summer...at least as far as eating is concerned! not surprisingly, eli enjoyed them too!