Someone is practicing for something bigger

E has pretty much mastered the art of pulling himself up on things. He's been practicing cruising the furniture. And the walls. Next up, independent standing. He works on this by pushing himself off of things and falling back onto them. His favorite is the bean bag in the living room.




In other news, we are still waiting for spring. We tried going to park days yesterday and I nearly froze. Well, that may be a bit of an exaggeration, but it was COLD! Definitely not June. I hope it really does warm up this weekend like I've heard it's supposed to.

Some people have asked how the food thing is going. Ugh. M hates the restrictions of his diet. I'm hating the restrictions in his diet. He can eat fruit in moderation, meat and vegetables. That's it. Really. Poor kid. He has supplements he is supposed to take but he hates them. For some reason, he just can't get the logic that if he takes them, he will be able to eat more foods. He just complains and "forgets" to take them. I contemplate giving up. I just keep telling myself it will be worth it eventually. Wish I could see that "eventually". Right now it seems I'm spending a fortune on feeding him. Not to mention the daily arguments over what he can eat given what is in the house. And what G can eat. And the rest of the family. Finding a balance between trying to not make it too hard on M to watch everyone eat his favorites, and just plain getting picky G to eat is like walking a tightrope.
I think my temper, and everyone's, is a bit shorter for it all. M has another appt on Wed and I will ask Dr. J what we can do to expand M's diet. He seems to think we can try eggs and raw dairy. I have to admit to being a bit nervous about that. M has had anaphylaxis type reactions to those in the past. But I'm trying not to show that to M at all. I know he has his own anxiety about them (paranoia?) that we have to overcome. I know I'm going to have to hide these foods in order to judge whether he reacts to them. Otherwise he'll give himself a physical panic reaction that looks exactly the same.

We seem to be adjusted to being home. Good thing, grandma comes again next week. M is already planning a months worth of activities. you'd think the kid never saw his grandparents. But we'll have fun.

My husband is the sweetest

Cuz he brought these home to me on Tuesday. What a nice guy. And it was totally "just because." Awwww

chicken pox

No, we don't have it. Sigh.

Many of you know that I'm not a big fan of vaccines. I'm not anti vax. I think they totally have their place. I just think that injecting every child with every major dead virus is supreme idiocy. The vaccine that I hate the most is the varicella vaccine. The makers of this vax would like you to believe that chicken pox is a horridly deadly disease.
Okay, who had chicken pox? Yeah, and you pulled through just fine huh? Probably got to miss school for a week if you were lucky too, right? I even had it about a year ago. I felt like I'd been hit by a truck, but it only lasted for a few days. I'm thrilled it wasn't a stomach bug!
Want to know how to protect your child from varicella? Make sure they get it as a child. Then make sure as you age, you are around kids with chicken pox. Seriously.
Here is a fantastic article on why we need chicken pox.
Oh, and DO NOT GIVE THEM TYLENOL!!!!!!! It will prevent the liver from coping with the disease. They absolutely HAVE to have the fever to process the disease too, so avoid the advil too, please. Giving these drugs has been shown to cause more complications from chicken pox than any thing else.

My new washing machine

10 years ago, when we found out we were expecting M, we figured a washing machine would make like a whole lot easier. Given our student budget, I think we did very well in our Sears machine. It was tiny, but it served three people very well and survived several moves.
A few days before leaving for Idaho though, it started screaming at me. Literally. You could hear it through the whole house. I called the repair guy and he guessed at the problem over the phone and said it would be in the neighborhood of $150 to fix. Much cheaper than a new machine so I almost said yes. But after talking to C, we agreed that we had gotten our money out of the old one, and it was time to upgrade to something bigger.
We did some online research, I talked to my mom who recently bought a new machine, and we did some legwork in Boise. I decided on the GE Profile based on the recommendations of the salesguy at Jim's. The great thing is, that when we got home, I got a great deal.
I called a few places around the area, trying to stick with non-box places, but I did call Sears too, just for a reference. Walt's in Sherwood gave me the best deal. They normally carry the washer for $549, but had it on clearance for $499. Jim's quoted me $548 for a contractor price. To sweeten the deal, delivery and hauling of the old machine is only $50. And get this, when I asked when it would be delivered, the woman asked if between 1 & 4 would be okay. Today?? Yup, same day. So I had my new machine up and running by 3:30 that day. Good thing too! I had 4 big Rubbermaid roughtotes in the living room brimming with laundry. All that? 5 loads. Wahooo! I'm in love. And it's sooo quiet. Due to the extended spin cycle, the dryer gets done at just about the same time too.
Now for the real experiment---
M has decided that unloading the dishwasher is horrible and boring. Well, he decided that a loooong time ago, but I digress. I made up a list of the chores that have to be done. He picked laundry. No joke. We'll see how long it lasts. He did his and G's laundry yesterday. I don't think I really want him to do mine and his dad's. I can see that being a bit of a disaster. He of course refuses to have anything to do with washing diapers. Wimp.

We're Baaack!

What a fun trip! We went to Idaho to meet up with Lanna and family at C's parents house. It was such a treat to see them. My boys enjoyed having full-time playmates, E enjoyed being held all the time. The adults enjoyed catching up. GramRe and Papa enjoyed having the whole family together.
No problems keeping busy. I can't even remember what all we did. The bad thing is that I hit a camera snag and didn't get pictures of everything. Hopefully I can harvest from everyone else. Please say yes?
Here's some of what I remember:
Birds of Prey, where we saw lots of cool birds and learned about the awesome birds of prey in Idaho and around the world.
Boondocks, where we completely wore out the kids (and big kids!) riding on go karts, playing putt-putt golf, riding on bumper boats, playing arcade games, riding the kid-size go karts, riding on the slicks. Whew, it was exhausting, but we had perfect weather that day for being outside all day.
Funny enough, the day after Boondocks, where we all got just enough sun to give us a "rosy" glow, was family picture day. Tyler from CPX photography did a great job. We can't wait to get our photos to hang on our walls. We had some great outdoor shots in grandma and grandpa's backyard and some indoor shots in the living room.
I think--and I'm a little fuzzy on this, but I think that the next day was the day the girls went shopping. We found oodles of delish yarn at Handmade in Eagle, ate food at Quiznos and Cold Stone, and found toys for Nyssa at the Children's Store. It was hard to decide what to get, but she made some decisions. I think Lanna headed out the next day or later that day for a new suitcase.
Oh, and we had dinner at Red Robin and headed over to Krispy Kreme for dessert. Then the boys headed to Cabella's for a true American Experience and a selection of the women went to Craft Warehouse for beads.
It seems we just ran and ran, but it was so much fun. It was hard to say goodbye. I really hope we can find a way to all get together again soon!

I did it myself!

I have a surprise for all of you, but first, a bit of E cuteness. He likes to crawl up under the chair, pull himself up and scream in a fun, playful, split your ears sorta way. It's delightful! See?Now, some may believe the rumor that circulates that I may not know how to do my own dishes. That is becuase I don't. Well, not really. I load the dishwasher a few times a day. But I don't handwash. I scrub out the pans when I need them. Same with knives. But I don't often take the time to fill up the sink, wash all the dishes, dry them, put them away and wipe the counters. I blame my kids. Really, I do. There just isn't time to stand in the kitchen.
But the kitchen was getting bad. The weather is nice. I sent the kids outside (I think, I don't remember if they went out or stayed in--this was like, a day and half ago for crying out loud!) and I cleaned the kitchen. Here ya go! It looks awful again already. After all, its a kitchen.


And because I'm a nice mom:This is a castle or something. Isn't it the coolest one you've ever seen?

Oh, and because I need to learn more cooking skills, Mhas been taken off all grains. Hopefully temporarily. But we are going to try eggs and see how that goes. He tested clear for them.

Happy Birthday to Aunt J!

Having a baby brother is like having the best doll, pet, action figure and prop all rolled into one. Here he does double duty as a doll and excuse not to help fold laundry.For the last couple of months, I have been offering solids to E. For the last couple of months, he has been refusing them as outright disgusting. I offer spoon. He grabs spoon. Some food gets in mouth. Baby ponders. Baby makes gross face. Baby coughs out food.
This weekend, G found some PerkyO's and was eating them. E reached out and grabbed one. I decided to let him decide what to do with it. He stuck it in his mouth, started to make the face. And stopped. He chomped on it awhile. He swallowed. He reached for another!
So we gave up on the carefully mashed fresh food, and have gone for the steamed chunks instead. My baby is happy. He struggled a bit with the slippery-ness of the sweet potatoes. Last night we tried green beans since I was using them in our soup. Oh happy baby! He devoured green beans. See? Happy baby!
I have mentioned the awesomeness of Aunt J before, I'm sure. But she really is so tremendously awesome. She watches my boys, she comes over to our house to do things like dishes, laundry and cooking. She tells us to go on dates. She does yard work. She drops everything to help when there is crisis. There is no way I could ever repay what she does for me. I couldn't do it without her. Thanks J! And Happy Birthday!!
But just for fun, we made her a cake for her birthday today. It was lots of fun and hopefully she enjoys it and shares it with her friends.
The boys adore their aunt. Here they are absorbed in card making. I'm not all that sure G is actually making a card. He's probably playing with the scissors.