I am SO not ready for this!

So, it dawned on me recently that my children are not so little anymore. Of course, M&C are still small, but the original M&M team are slowly growing up. Who gave them permission to do this? I told them they're not allowed to grow up so fast but they don't seem to be listening!

Last week I was out with the kids and Matthew shares some information with me. Now, I thought I had a good handle on observing my children but you know, after they potty train and learn how to wipe their own butts and wash their own hair, all bets are off. So, it came as some surprise whenMatthew told me he had hair on his legs. I was like what, hair on your legs? How is that possible?!?!

Later on I checked and sure enough, he had hair on his legs! Now, really, this growing up business is getting all too real! I mean sure, you're really in the dregs when they're babies and you're knee-deep in changing diapers and cleaning up spit up. Then they start school and as a parent you feel all proud, excited and melancholy that your child has passed another milestone.

But none of this compares to when your first-born announces that their body is on the edge of entering puberty. I asked my husband if hair on the legs was the beginning of puberty and if it was I was SO not ready for this! Holy guacamole! This can't really be happening. Children don't actually grow up do they? I mean, they stay in elementary school and you always feel young because you have little children. Right? Right?

Last weekend they kids when to the in-laws. Last year when I would talk with Matthew on the phone he sounded so little and far away. So it was easy to think that he was still a little boy. But this past weekend, he sounded, well . . . like a kid. Not a little kid but a boy's who voice inching into the land of voice-change! Just another clue.

And lastly, my son has his first crush. Actually, I think it's his second LOL! A friend of mine from church has a 12-year old and my son talked about her a lot in the past year. I kind of consider that his first unofficial crush. But tonight he told me he had a secret.

Apparently, he has a HUGE crush on a little girl from his 3rd grade class. She's a very sweet girl and comes from a family of 4 girls. Just what he needs - more girls LOL! For his first crush, he couldn't have made a better choice ;) He was all embarrassed he told me and asked me to promise not to tell anyone. Then he promptly told his dad.

At bed he said he wasn't sure why he had a crush on her. I asked what he liked about her. He said she is so beautiful and it didn't know why but he just loved her. He said he has a huge crush on her. I asked if he was going to tell her and he said he didn't know.

I don't know what to make of all this. Do you have the "Talk" at age 9 and 4th grade? I can't imagine where all this would go but kids are so much more savvy these days. Yikes! When I see him from afar and interacting with his friends, I can see how he's growing up into such a fine young man. He has such a sweet spirit and I really do look forward to seeing the wonderful young man he's going to grow into :)

Allergy Update

So my dinner last night went well, especially since I hadn't planned it out ahead of time. I micro-defrosted my chicken tenderloins. Half I seasoned with Shake and Bake and the other I brushed with a little Olive Oil and sprinkled some salt, pepper and onion salt. I told Madison that I was making this chicken for us and the other kids had to have something different since they were so picky.

She didn't argue but I don't think she bought it either.

I also fixed white basmati rice, fresh corn on the cob and mixed veggies. It was delish! Everyone loved what they had except Mia. But then she's like that with food and I'll worry about that later. I'll devise or find a nugget recipe that's egg, wheat, soy and milk free at some point. Until then we can eat it plain w/ spices.

I was really encouraged to get a meal out that was theorhetically allergan free. I perused the Food Lion last night and found a couple things to try. I discovered today that I can make the corn cake packet and use goat's butter because non of it had allergans in it, including the "creamed" corn.

I'm keeping lists. Lists of banned foods, lists of allowable foods, lists of things she's tried and not liked, a list of each allergan and it's derivative for food shopping. I'll make a list to tack to the fridgie to remind us and at some point I'll probably make a menu of sorts to help with meal planning. On this side of things, I think I'll be easier to fix things we can all eat, even if the same or repetitive, so that no one feels singled out. It's just not fair to sit there and eat pizza and fix something different for my Madison.

My friend J, sent a recipe for Wacky Cake she saw in the newspaper over the weekend. It's an awesome recipe with the only allergan as wheat. Since I don't have to take the wheat out as of yet, I want to make this soon. I'm sure we can replace the wheat flour with a derivative and make it completely allergan free. We'll see. I'm going to make it properly first and then with an alternate flour or two to see how we fare. I'm excited about this! Oh and it has chocolate in it so it can't be too bad ;)

Feast or Famine?

I've collected some books from Freecycle over the past few months. The only one I felt compelled to read, "B is for Burglar" by Sue Grafton, I started reading and left at my dad's. Great.

In the meantime I bought some books online and reserved a book at the library. Yesterday I received three books; The Memory Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards, The Book of Ruth by Jane Hamilton and My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult. I also bought The Other Boleyn Girl which I wanted to read first but I couldn't wait so I started the Picoult book last night.

I have only read one other of her books, The Pact, and really liked it, although it was a heavy topic. This one proves to be the same. I was into it right away, however, the narrative bounces from character to character and I get kind of confused at times as to who is doing the talking. Usually this happens late at night. ;)

This morning I received a notice from the library that my book was in. Astounding! When I reserved it a couple weeks ago, I was 300 something in line. A few days ago, no earlier than the weekend, I was over 150 something in line and yet today my book is ready and waiting for me to pick it up at the library.

So now I have four books to read! Most have no time limit aside from the library book and I promised the Boleyn girl to someone else when I'm done. It's so nice to have some interesting and exciting things to read for a change. I can't get into the birth book I'm supposed to be reading for my La Leche application. I don't know if it's because I'm done birthing babies or the fact that it's a Bradley book and when I do read it, I'm just reminded that I never really had a birth like that and never will. Or maybe it's because now I have these ultra interesting books to read.

I stayed in bed until 10 this morning to read. I really just wanted 30 minutes to read but I kept getting interrupted. Such is the life of a mama! And I wouldn't trade a minute.

Feeling Discouraged

It's been 3 weeks or so since I've talked with the ped about Madison's allergy issues. I've been reading boards, perusing magazines, talking with people and buying products. It's frustrating spending hours poring over ingredient labels and recipes, spending extra money on special products and then having my girl turn up her nose at them.

It's frustrating find products that *almost* fit the bill. It's frustrating that everything on the market, especially in traditional grocery stores, have soy in them. It's incredibly frustrating to break my little girl's heart time and again when I tell her no she cannot have something, and it's always the yummy things.

It's frustrating to go to a gathering or restaurant and try to figure out safe foods. It's frustrating not being able to pop into the drive-thru for a quick meal on the run or throw a pizza or nuggets into the oven for a fast dinner. It's heartbreaking when my son complains that it's her fault we have to spend so much time in the store.

It must be terribly frustrating for my sweet little girl to be denied things she's always eaten and can no longer have. Comfort foods, special treats and sweeties are now off limits to her.

I need to work on finding alternate recipes that are tastey and fun to eat. I need new nuggets, cookies, muffins, pancakes, waffles, just to name a few. I'm getting some lovely recipes and support from some friends. I found a great magazine via J entitled Living Without. I'm sure I'll find more resources as I go along. I'm also kind of mourning the things we won't be having/keeping in the house out of support for Madison.

Within a week after eliminating cow's milk, the rash was about 98% gone. So quickly too! Unfortunately, she had a flare up over the weekend so I'm not sure what triggered it. Hopefully not the goat butter because I can use that in baking. I need it! We'll just keep trucking along. She'll be off soy at least a year and probably cow's milk and eggs as well. I think those were all Class 6 allergans. That's a long time but hopefully that'll give her body a chance to get the allergans out of her system and let it heal. Then we can reintroduce the allergans after that at some point to see which ones cause reactions still. I anticipate that we'll all be a little healthier and have better eating habits a year from now.

ADHD Revisited

Coming to you live from my second floor! Finally dialed in to the wireless network with an old laptop. So cool!

So anyhow, I finally got back to the ped. to talk about the allergy bloodwork results that came in. The short result is that she's allergic to over 23 things, including cow's milk, soy, eggs and wheat. She's also allergic to rye but we don't really eat much of that. She's also allergic to green beans, kidney beans and another bean, perhaps white or pinto beans. The soy, eggs and milk were all level six allergans.

I came away from the appointment with a solid plan of attack.

First we begin to eliminate cow's milk/dairy and eggs from her diet. I'm not really sure how to go about this. I mean, when I did a dairy-free diet while nursing it was "easy" as easy as any of that could be. I could eat whatever I needed and continue cooking and feeding my family the same as always. But to eliminate dairy, eggs and soy from our family's diet is going to be difficult and potentially expensive. I know they make all sorts of vegan products but they are so pricey. I'll get rice milk for the girl and I can cook with that. I'm not so sure about finding an egg substitute for baking. I see myself making a lot of things from scratch.

Second, she needed more bloodwork. Since the wheat was so high, we did a celiac bloodwork up. Depending on what it reveals will affect what happens next. But at the very least, we'll need to eliminate wheat as well. We're good for rice, potato and oats. I'm sure I can fashion things from that. I don't think she has celiacs because she's never had problems with her stomach, stools or growth pattern. But you never know, I guess. I should probably do some reading up on that.

Third, we'll meet again in early August to have a strategy meeting before she goes back to school, which is what started all this. I was hoping to be dairy/egg-free by July 1 but looking ahead, I don't think that's a realistic time frame. Dr. S said that it could take a year for some of this stuff to be completely out of her system. I'm hoping that some of it will help her eczema at the very least. At the most, it'll have a positive affect on her behavior/learning capabilities.

I knew some of this was coming, in the back of my head. But now that the reality is here, I'm having a hard time wrapping my head around it. My original thought was to have the entire family eat the same so she didn't feel singled out. But I'm not so sure that's going to be entirely possible. I suppose I should just put it in the Father's hands and fall back on my mantra: one day at a time.

Squirrely Squirrelly Squirrels

I was going to start off my blog with a snippet from Wikipedia about squirrels. However, there's a lot more information about squirrels there than I anticipated. For instance, I knew about grey squirrels, naturally, and black squirrels.

I've seen only one black squirrel in all of my town since I've been here; approx. 20 years. I used to see them frequently in the neighboring county where I grew up.

There are also albino squirrels with pink eyes. Pretty freaky looking, if you ask me. Apparently, there are also white non-albino squirrels which are not as white as their albino cousins, as well as red squirrels in England.

Squirrels like to chew on things to hone their ever-growing teeth. I guess that explains why they chewed holes in my plastic trash can lid. Aside from the obvious reason of getting at what's inside said trash can.

They are members of the rodent family which I feel makes them no better than their rat cousins. Even if they are cuter and their tails are fluffier. There is one picture on Wikipedia of a squirrel in Washington, DC that's the fattest squirrel I've ever seen. I guess not only people can benefit from the largess of the Nation's Capitol.

When I was about twelve, a squirrel started hanging around my grandparents yard. We stupidly started feeding it. The squirrel's favorite snack was not - surprise - nuts but dog treats. Specifically, "People Treats." I don't know if they still make these as a couple decades have passed since I was 12 but they were brightly colored dog treats in the shape of people such as mail men. Hence the name People Treats. The squirrel became very brazen and would climb up on the trash can and knock on the kitchen window for treats and attention. We stopped feeding it when it climbed up my arm. I guess it mistook my twig-like arm for a tree branch.

Earlier this year, we began having a problem with squirrels in our trash. Seeing as how we'd lost several lids on windy days, this was a real problem. However, it became a larger problem when they chewed a hole in the top of the only lidded can we had so they could get in the trash. I had know idea squirrels were such scavengers. Raccoons, yes. Squirrels, no.

We discovered that the squirrels had built a nest in the partially-finished ceiling of our carport. DH had a friend come and help him take the ceiling to discover a squirrel city condo going on up there. I'd like to say that that got rid of our squirrel problem but there were about 5-6 having a pow-wow in our yard today. Maybe it was the first day of summer camp.

My son received a bird feeder for Christmas from my uncle. It was a craft at some sort of event that involved wood, nails, glue and a humongous glass mason jar. It was very cute and recently we decided to hang it up in a tree for the birds, knowing that it would have been more useful in winter when food is scarce. I knew the squirrels would probably eat most of the food anyhow so whatever.

After two days, the *(^!#!%^^ squirrels had ripped the thing apart. The bottom half, including glass jar, was lying upended on the ground with seed scattered. The roof remained hanging uselessly in the tree. How sad a picture that made. I picked up the jar and put it on the table to try and repair it later on. After dinner we noticed several squirrels sitting on the table eating the seed. The kids thought it was cute but all I could think of was that squirrel butts were sitting where we put our food.

The next morning I opened the blinds and discovered that the squirrels must have gotten mad when the seed was gone. There was glass *everywhere*! Stupid @##%^Q!#! squirrels. I was disappointed at the loss of the feeder for my son's sake but now there was broken glass all over the patio. I've cleaned it up but am leary about broken shards remaining and getting stuck in little toes and feet. Hence, I insist the kids wear their shoes at all times when outside. They get aggravated when they're swimming in the wading pool but I figure some grumbling is better than trying to fish glass out of raw flesh.

To the squirrels -- thanks a lot. NOT! This is an open invitation to find a new place to play.

Summer Vacation Part II

So, we survived the first week. Tried to stay somewhat on schedule.

Highlights are the freakish storm Wednesday. Downed trees and limbs everywhere. Thursday the power went out around 1-ish after our trip to the library. P's mother picked her up early so I took the little girls to my dad's for the night.

So nice not to be care-taking two toddlers. I've really enjoyed my time with my older two. We ran some errands, picked up by 2 week old nephew for a visit while his mom rested, enjoyed pizza lunch and Rita's.

Tonight I'm meeting to help plan a World Walk for Breastfeeding Celebration planned for August 3 I believe at the Sykesville Fire Station. On a breastfeeding note, I'm sick of pumping. I can see now how much milk C is still drinking from me which is a lot more than the other two did at this stage. It's okay in general but when she's away for any length of time, I need to pump. And then what to do with the pumped milk? It's not like I need to stockpile any longer. I think I'll give it to her at meal times. There's over 23 ounces and I'm not just throwing it out!

They'll be back this evening. I sure do miss them especially after spending time with Baby D. Almost makes me want another.

Almost...