"Free" Living

Today started our journey to gluten free, dairy free, egg free living for Phineas. I was told there is a huge learning curve to this new life. This can be seen in my first attempt at "free" bread.

I know. Yikes! Fresh out the oven, it wasn't too bad. Okay, it had the texture of a sponge, a really dense sponge. But butter on anything can make a vast improvement. Now all it is good for is bread crumbs. Which is great - we are having meat loaf this week and spaghetti with meatballs next week.

I did succeed in making "free" chocolate cupcakes from a GF cake mix. Phin's going to take these to his Easter party on Thursday. It's fun to send stuff that he can eat and that everyone else will enjoy too. If anyone is interested, I replaced the egg with applesauce (2 TBS for each egg) and the sour cream with soured potato milk, then cut back the water to 3/4 C. They turned out really good. Even Adam said they were good.

Phin did really well today. He was excited to eat his Cocoa Pebbles with his "special" milk. I tried to toast "the bread", but butter couldn't save it a second time. For lunch/dinner he had peanut butter sandwiches (thank you Mette for the bread) and then he enjoyed a chocolate cupcake as a treat. Tomorrow we will try "free" chicken nuggets for lunch and the meat loaf for dinner.

And although this post sounds nice and cheery, making these changes has been anything but. Adam and I were grumpy and grouchy and everything got on our nerves today. We took a walk to clear our heads (and cleaned the kitchen together) and that helped a lot. Deciding to do this now is not convenient either. We are going to relative's houses for Easter and then we have a week and a half trip to Portland. Trying to eat "free" when you are not at home is a challenge. But I really think this will help Phin. So I'll do it and enjoy it.

Medical Madness

When it comes to the mysteries of medicine, the internet can be a blessing - and a curse. How many hours have you spent on WebMD when you or your child was sick? It's the old "is it serious enough to call the doctor?" question. So you type in the symptoms and it tells you "yes, you need to call the doctor" or "no, just get extra rest and drink lots of fluids." Great! The internet just saved me a $65 office visit.

For me, though, the internet has been a curse the past little while. Our little Colin will be six months old next Friday. As of yet he does not roll over or bear any weight on his arms or legs. As I mentioned before he has constant fluid in his ears and is not verbalizing as much as he should be. He's also had respiratory infections or problems from the time he was two months old. So I started searching and have nearly sent myself (as well as my wonderful pediatric nurse) to the loony bin.

"What could it be?" I kept asking myself. Cerebral palsy? Ataxia? Spinal Muscular Atrophy? Pretty soon I was reading blogs and looking at pictures of wonderful children who couldn't even hold their own heads up and the incredible parents who care for them day after day. I was so scared. I called my pediatrician - "Let's do an ultrasound to see if there's brain damage. Or how about blood work to see if his CPK levels are high. They do genetic testing in Spokane, you know. We could overnight the sample there." Finally, Adam and my pediatrician told me I had to stop. Colin has a well-child visit at the beginning of May. Two weeks is not going to make a difference either way, they told me.

And they are right. So, I've let it go (as much as a mother can). I still try to get him to stand up on my lap and with some massage we've actually achieved a five second stand. But until the first of May I am just going to enjoy my baby.

Just for reference to how insane this week has been, we've already seen the naturopathic doctor (Phin is allergic to everything I feed him apparently), the chiropractor, the audiologist, the urologist (Colin is having surgery on his testicle), the pediatrician (George has strep throat) and the speech therapist. We're looking forward to seeing the developmental specialist and the optometrist before the week is over. I am thinking we probably should have put more money in our flex spending account, hmm?

Little Big Blessings

Sometimes I stop and think of how good I have it. Since it is spring break, a friend with kiddos similar in age to mine asked if I'd like to spend some time together. The plan was to go to the library and then head to the park for a picnic lunch and outside play. It was supposed to be 61 degrees today.

The weather man lied and it was cold, windy and raining. So we opted for the indoor play place at Burger King. How great is it that I can take my kids to lunch at the drop of a hat? We don't do it all the time, of course, but it's definitely a blessing that the option is open to us. We are so fortunate.

Later, while looking over my calendar for the month, I noticed at least 7 appointments this month where I will need someone to watch one or more of my brood. Seven! So I sent an email to our Relief Society sisters and BAM! within an hour three of the seven are taken care of. Isn't that awesome?! I love Relief Society.

Little big blessings all day long and waffles with crisp bacon for dinner. Plus Adam did the dishes! How can I not be happy with a day like today?

Running Away or My Husband is Awesomer than Your Husband

Four kids under the age of 6 one of which has been congested, coughing and basically unhealthy more of his life than he's been healthy, and another who should have come with "DIFFICULT" tattooed to his behind. I've been sleep deprived for six months and had a doctor's appointment every week for the past two months. I'm really concerned about Colin's health but have given the "wait and see" diagnosis from the doctor. I was yelling at everyone and crying at the drop of a hat. So Adam made me run away.

He gave me all of his blow money from the past few months and told me to go away for the weekend, stay in a hotel, eat out, sleep in, do whatever I wanted to do (within reason since I would still have to take Colin with me). So I found a deal at a hotel in Spokane and Thursday afternoon, I ran away from home. It was so nice. I read a book that did not have pictures, I slept until 8:30, coaxing Colin to sleep with my finger in his mouth for the last two hours, and I went to a museum without worrying about anything being broken.

I had written "The Plan" a couple of weeks ago when Adam stayed home from work because I physically and mentally could not take care of the kids one day. Here was the plan:

1. Get 7 hours of sleep, be in bed by 9:30 pm

2. Take my vitamins

3. Drink more water and eat healthy (no treats until after dinner)

4. Move each day, exercising for at least 20 minutes

5. 15 minutes of scriptures, 15 minutes of journal (blogging counts)

6. Pray on my knees, morning and night

7. Go "to work" three days a week to get household "stuff" done, don't let "work" interfere with family time.

I was going to do this for 14 days. It lasted about 5 days. But after my weekend away, I'm starting again with new determination and a grown up "sticker" chart to reward myself for the days that I stick to the plan. I guess I never gave up the need for gold stars.

So here's to being happy. Or at least having the energy to act happy. Goodnight.

The same -- but different

So as mentioned in the last post, Phineas and I took a road trip to Spokane at the beginning of the month. Here we are at Red Robin. He just had to have his picture taken with the carousel horse.

There we found out that he has a mild to moderate hearing loss in both ears. His loss is similar to George's in that he cannot hear higher frequency sounds. The ENT and audiologist were shocked that he can speak as well as he can. After hearing that he needed aids, I felt guilty for not catching it before now. I've always considered Phineas my "challenging" child, and here he was compensating for not being able to hear well for four years. What a strong kid. He has definitely shown that he can adapt well to nearly anything (except being told no). And because of that, I know that he has incredible potential. I have no doubt that whatever he decides to do in life, he will accomplish it. He's one of my heros.

Here he is with his new aids (he picked purple and blue ear molds and loves them):

He's been good about wearing them most of the time, only requiring short breaks here and there. They have a clip that attaches them to his shirt, so even if he takes them out, they are not going anywhere. His adjustment has been quicker than I thought it would be.

At the park with his rock "baby"

Although we went through this with George and much of it is the same (cost, doctors visits, audiograms, school IEPs, etc.) some of it is different. There wasn't that wonder in George's eyes when we put his hearing aids on for the first time. With Phineas, we had a hard time keeping him quiet to try and test him with the aids in the sound booth. It was like, "hey, I can hear myself! I think I'll just keep talking, making noises, whatever." With George it has been the way of life. Wake up, get dressed, put on the aids. He takes care of them himself and except for changing the batteries or occasionally clearing out any moisture, I don't even touch his aids anymore. With Phineas, I have to remember to put them in a safe place when he is not wearing them, check the batteries, put them in his ears, watch that he is not taking them out. I've also seen the benefit of them almost immediately. He is more precise in saying his words (the blended "L" sound making an pretty consistent appearance, as in "bLue" "famiLy" and "pLease") since he put them on two days ago. He will start speech therapy again next month and I think this time will get so much more out of it. We are excited to see his progress and amazed at his ability to "make things work" up until now. What a trooper.

And speaking of troopers, had to share this photo of Colin, who was just so tired.

Poor kid has had a cough or congestion for 3 months. Older boys keep bringing home stuff and he gets it all. Thank heavens for nebulizers and albuterol.

Random Update

I've got to be better at this blogging thing. Yes, now I have four very active little boys and everything else in my life has been on hold, so why should blogging be any different?

So Colin is growing up. What a good baby. I'll nurse him, put him down totally awake, say "sleepy night night" and not hear a peep out of him until about five hours later. He's very patient and hardly ever gets cranky. Love, love this kid.

Thanksgiving was good, spent at home with friends because there was terrible snow in the passes. Christmas we made it to Boise and loved every minute of it!

Adam and I got a big screen TV for Christmas and a Roku box. Now the boys don't know how we ever survived without "the magic movie box", even threatening not to go to Grandma and Pop Pop's anymore because they don't have one. It was definitely an upgrade from the 15 year old TV that was missing some shades of yellow and blue so that if a scene was in the snow, you really couldn't tell what was going on.

We are in the middle of birthday season. We told the boys that they could pick one fun activity to do on their birthday. Phin wanted to go swimming and was insisting that I open the pool, in January. So we called around to the local clubs and found one that offered a family pass for $23. We went there and the pool was closed. So we called the other club to see if they would price match (never hurts to ask). They said better than that, they would treat our family to free swimming for Phin's birthday. Boy was he happy. We had an absolute blast and three very tired boys.

He also wanted a Dora cake. George almost had a heart attack because "Dora is for girls." But that's what Phin wanted --

For Spencer's birthday we went swimming again and had a blast. No pictures because the camera was on the fritz. But here is a picture of his cake. Went pretty simple. He's so laid back, he was just happy there was cake.

We went winter camping for the first time up at Camp Zarahemla. We had a nice cabin there that took about 7 hours to warm up. The boys were sleeping in their snow clothes it was so cold. And did I mention that Colin DOES NOT like the cold. At all. He was awake most of the night even after being bundled up and sleeping with me. But I'm getting ahead of myself. We got to camp Z and set up in Cabin 3. Really small with no table to eat at, but warmed up nicely. I unpacked while Adam took the boys to the restroom (that was like 1/4 mile away). George came back without Dad and then Dad came back with Spencer and no Phin. Phin had wandered off. Luckily we found him quickly and set strict limits on where he could go. The caretakers mentioned that Cabin 4 was available and bigger than 3. So we packed up and moved over. As we were moving, Spencer found himslef alone in the cabin and decided to check out the gas stove. Burned fingers. Thank goodness for snow right outside. Just got settled when it was time to heat up dinner (wished the cabin heated up as well) and then get ready for bed. Adam took the boys to the bathroom in the truck, not wanting to loose anyone in the dark. When they got back, Spencer fell out of the truck right on his face. Yikes! Blood everywhere and a big gash on his lip. It needed stitches, but we were about 45 miles from the nearest hospital, it was 9:30 at night and snowing. So we got the bleeding to stop, and with help from the caretakers and their popsicles were able to stick it out through the night. Poor Spencer kept waking up telling me his fingers and head hurt. Note to self: always take children's Tylenol and Benedryl. No sleep was had by mom that night. At this point, camping was no fun at all. But with the rising of the sun, we found a new love for being away from it all.

The binky helped him from biting his lip and making it bleed again and again.

Five new inches of snow had fallen and we went sledding. When I say we, I mean me and the kids. Yes, I got on the sled and then after a few times remembered why I don't sled. It's hard on an old body. The boys just loved walking around and eating snow too. We'll probably go back next year but remember to ask them to turn on the heat before we leave our house.

Then came the week of medical mishaps. Tuesday, I took Colin to the doctor because he's been coughing and wheezing for it felt like months. They checked him out, took a nose swab and sent us home with an antibiotic. We picked up the boys from school and as I call Phineas to lunch I find him in the den with hearing aid battery stickers all over his pants. "Where are the batteries, Phin?" "In my tummy." Yikes. Thoughts of mercury poisoning go through my head, I called poison control. They wanted to make sure that none were stuck in his esophagus, so they told me to have him eat and drink and see how he did. He did fine, so I was told to just let them pass, but to get an Xray to make sure that none were caught up anywhere.

Yes there are five hearing aid batteries making their way through Phin's tummy.

The next day was our trip to Spokane. Phin had been referred to the audiologist at his four year checkup. They couldn't get a good test here and the screening showed hearing loss, so we scheduled a sedated test in Spokane. Road trip! We got to the ENT, he cleaned out Phin's ears (could have grown potatoes in there I guess), and then the audiologist took him to see if she could get a behavioral test before we sedated him. She did a great job and we ended up not needing to sedate him. He has a mild to moderate loss in both ears and will be getting hearing aids on Wednesday. He was so excited and to tell the truth so were Adam and I (after swallowing the $4500 price tag). We are hoping that lots of Phin's behavior has been because he can't hear us. The ENT said to give it a year and if we haven't seen any changes in his behavior he would be shocked. So two boys in hearing aids with speech therapy and IEP's at school. We are having Spencer and Colin retested. Spencer speaks so well, however, that I have no worries about him. Colin, you never know. It could be that the 25% chance of genetic hearing loss should have been 25% hearing just fine. Hey, one out of four ain't bad.

We took the Xray after getting home from Spokane. Then we got the test results for Colin. RSV -- off to the doctor's office for a breathing treatment on Thursday and then a doctors appointment for me on Friday. And, no, it was not to the psychotherapists office. The next week I talked to the doctors office so many times following up on Phin and Colin that they almost didn't need to ask my name anymore. This past Friday when I went in for well child exams for Spencer (perfect health) and Colin (possible undescended testicle) I asked if they had missed me. So now it's back to the doctor for an ultrasound on Colin and possible follow up. Our flexible spending account didn't even last until May. I'll be sure to put in more next year. With four growing and active boys, it seems the wise thing to do.