Easter Weekend - Saturday

Saturday morning the Easter Bunny showed up with some plastic eggs, a crazy coupe for Owen, a Tonka truck for Isaac and some Legos for the girls.  The kids favorite part was finding the eggs that were hidden all over the main floor of the house.  

 Isaac LOVES smoothies at breakfast.  Asks for them almost every day. 

I figured it was my once chance to get spinach in him in day filled with candy. :-)

We then headed out West of Utah Lake to go shotgun shooting with my side of the family.  I brought the camera, but since my Mom and I took the babies away from where the shooting was happening, I was nowhere near the action and didn't get any pictures.

I shot once and bruised my arm.  

Then in the afternoon we headed out to Greg's parents house for the annual Easter Egg hunt and dinner.  The kids had SO much fun (and my in-laws were and got dark chocolate for the kids so they could have some dairy free chocolate, then mainly filled the eggs with fun stickers, stamps and other small toys that weren't a dietary issue for us.)

Then, a big hit with the kids, was decorating the giant Easter Bunny cookies.  Isaac couldn't wait to dive in . . . 

We had such a fun, full day -- it was a perfect start to a perfect weekend.

Fifteen Months Old

So, this is a few days late, but Owen is now officially Fifteen Months Old!

He's an interesting mix of growing-up-so-fast and perma-baby.  He just broke through his first tooth at 14.5 months old (and it's all by itself, so far).  He actually took his first steps yesterday (three days after turning 15 months old).  He's not too interested in walking, talking or you know, growing up.  :-)  He's snuggly, cuddly and still sucks on his two fingers constantly.  I love this little guy!

Catching up on March . . .

So, besides my last post going over everything we've been up to 'medically' this last month with the kids, I haven't updated my blog for the entire month of March.  So, I thought I'd grab a few pictures and put together something to catch up a bit . . .

Here's my three little ones (my boys and my niece, Bailey -- when I have all of 'em with me it's three kids two and under.)  This is how I handle all three, throw out some giant cardboard and some crayons and let them go to town . . .

My little guy is getting so big . . . 

We had a fun preschool fieldtrip to the Children's Museum.  Isaac asks almost daily to go back . . . 

Then just random pictures of the kids . . . 

Then, lazy-bloggin' at it's best . . . my facebook updates from last month! :-)

March 15th, 2013
Well, I'm not worried about Isaac's Vitamin D for the day -- he just spent three hours playing outside in nothin' but a diaper . . .

March 16th, 2013
The most frustrating part of our process-food-free Lent has been the dishes! :-) Preparing absolutely everything from scratch means I've been doing 3 loads of dishes a day, plus washing a lot of the big stuff by hand! It's been worth it though.

Grandpa Robert, Aunt Lacy and Uncle Ben, and Uncle Cody took the kids up bike riding in the canyon (with Ellie and Isaac in the bike trailer -- whoever pulled that was a rockstar!) Aunt Lacy was talking with Annie about school, and Annie mentioned how excited she is to start 2nd grade later this year. "Wow," Aunt Lacy said, "Second grade?! Before we know it, you're gonna be 20!" At this point Isaac piped in, "And before we know it, I'm gonna need another cracker." 
 
Annie not only biked up and down part of Butterfield Canyon today, she then got in a good 7 miles on the Jordan River Parkway. Go Annie! (The two younger kids slept most the time).

March 18th, 2013
My baby's FIRST TOOTH just made an appearance.
Only took 14 and a half months :-)

Who knew that taking four young children on a shopping trip just by myself could be so emotionally, physically and mentally draining . . . then to come home and get them all into bed by myself . . . I feel like melting into an exhausted puddle in a corner somewhere . . .

 

March 20th, 2013

Argh! I had really been holding out hope that this dairy free, nearly sugar free, almost all processed food free, diet we've been doing for a month now would mean my poor little Owen wouldn't be plagued with ear infection after ear infection. Guess who just woke up from a nap oozing gross stuff outta his ears . . . sigh . . .

 

March 24th, 2013

We got a new mirror in our room, and Isaac was anxiously watching Greg put it up. Finally, impatient, he asked, "Dad, are you done so I can get up and see how handsome I am already?" Ha! Love this kid!

 

Got 60 pounds of chicken trimmed, cut and bagged and vacuumed sealed this morning -- took half the morning, but it was good to get it done. The downside was when I was done I discovered not one, not two, but THREE children who needed to be changed out of poopy clothes. Sigh, dead chicken and poop. I lead a glamorous life.

 

March 28th, 2013

"MOM!" a sharp rebuke came from near the D.I. donation pile I've been adding to all morning, "I got this guitar at CHUCK E. CHEESE! CHUCK E. CHEESE! What is it doing in this bag? What were you thinking?!" My bad, Isaac . . . you're right, I should've taken it out while you were sleeping :-) "And this?! MOM! How could you!?" He's taking this awfully personally . . .

 

March 28th, 2013

 

 

 March 30th, 2013

Isaac came in with a nightmare in the middle of the night and ended up spending the rest of the night. I woke up next to a wet little boy in a bit of a puddle, as someone had leaked through his diaper. "Isaac," I said, "You're all wet, Bug." "Yeah, it was Bailey . . . she dumped water on me." "Bailey dumped water on you? During the night in Mom's bed?" "Yep, Bailey came over and dumped water ALL over me and I was ALL wet," he said in all seriousness. Two things, 1.) I'd be curious what he was dreaming about exactly when he was creating a whole new batch of 6AM laundry for me . . . and 2.) Talina, keep you one year old home and in bed all night please, I'm too tired to be cleaning up her messes :-)

 

Spanish at our house today:
1.) I was doing dishes, and Annie stomped through the kitchen angrily, muttering in Spanish to herself. I have NO idea what she was saying, but I was amused.
2.) Isaac upset about something in the van, he pouted and moaned, "No me gusta."
3.) Ellie calling Annie, "Annie, I really need your help in here!" Annie responded, "Que es?"
None of it is complicated Spanish, obviously (well, except maybe the angry muttering -- for all I know that included swear words :-) ), but I'm amused by how much more frequently they all use snippets of it now . . .

 

March 31st, 2013

Owen, you are 15 months old . . . and you repeatedly stood up on my bed this morning and started jumping. I'm gonna go out on a limb here, but I believe that if you are old enough to JUMP on the bed, you're probably about ready to take a first step or two . . .

 

Then I'll be posting Easter pictures in separate blog posts (like three of 'em, 'cause picture taking went a bit overboard.  Shockingly.)

 

 

 

  

Pondering on Poop

So I have tons of pictures and stories from March, especially Easter, but right now I'm gonna muse about poop a little. If you find such things offensive or of poor taste for proper blog discussion, you should probably just come back after I've put up the adorably-crazy-looking-children-being-posed-in-coordinating-Easter-outfit pictures I'll post in a few days.

Like most Moms of young kids, I feel like a lot of my day revolves around other people's bodily fluids and excrement.  And, I'm not trying to garner sympathy (but kinda think I'll get it anyway), but on any average day I change Owen-poopy-diapers 3-8 times, and Isaac-poopy-diapers 5-10 times.  Yep, on an average day, I can easily expect to change 10 poopy diapers or more.  Some days, a lot more.  Add to that, poor Ellie's been having poopy accidents anywhere from 1-4 times a day (5 or 6 on vacation, which is super fun).  To me, this seems like an alarming amount of poop.  I've brought it up often with my doctor, who has basically just told me that Isaac has 'toddler tummy', and the loose to watery stools multiple times a day are just his normal.  And for Ellie, she recommended an adult size dose of Miralax daily for the next year or so, as treatment for constipation.  I did push a few times with Isaac to talk about food allergies/insensitivities and parasites, and some stool samples were done, but revealed nothing new.  With Ellie I was especially frustrated by the 'constipation' diagnosis, as I've never once seen Ellie strain or produce hard or large stools.  And she regularly eliminates her bowels once or twice a day.  I raised my concerns, tried to take her off the Miralax and try more natural 'constipation-cures', but the accidents went from once a day back up to a few within days.   We tried several chiropractic appointments, visiting a naturopath, putting her on herbs and supplements, added even more expensive probiotics to her daily routine (on top of the magnesium, fish oil, Vitamin D supplements and L-Glutamine she was on), and basically anything I could throw money at.  But, as her accidents increased once again, I took her back in to see her pediatrician and get another stomach x-ray, which showed her backed up and my pediatrician once again said she needed to be on daily Miralax.  My last appointment, nearly in tears I told the doctor that I hated keeping her on Miralax when it just felt like a band-aid and we weren't getting to the root of the problem.  She kinda laughed off my 'overly concerned mother' thing and informed me that it's no big deal, and one of the doctors in her office keeps his own 2 and 4 year olds on daily Miralax because 'it's just what some people need' and Ellie may just need to take it the rest of her life to keep regular -- and at that point left the office, found a new pediatrician and called a pediatric gastroenterologist.  (Who informed me that they don't even do stomach x-rays, 'cause they tell them next to nothing and often pediatricians mistake the results for backed up, constipated colons, when they're not.  Good to know.)  (I want to go on record here -- I think daily Miralax may be a complete blessing to some people and children, but I always knew it was the wrong call for Ellie -- as she didn't have any constipation.  The gastroenterologist has confirmed that she is not having issues with constipation and she has excellent muscle control and reflexes, so basically the antithesis of what my pediatrician was telling me, that she was just so backed up she was 'leaking' stool due to pressure and poor control.)

Since then we began a battery of tests on poor Ellie -- tons and tons of blood taken, stool samples tested and another visit with the gastroenterologist.  Her blood tests are showing positive for celiac disease, something her doctor strongly believes she has.  We're getting an endoscopy done on her this Friday so they can take some biopsies and confirm the diagnosis.  (Or hopefully disprove, but the doctor says it's highly unlikely. I'm keeping all my fingers crossed 'til then.)  All the allergy tests came back negative (egg, soy, whey, dairy (which is crap, she's totally allergic to dairy), wheat and several others), but we were also informed how horribly inaccurate the blood tests are for allergies.  Once Ellie was testing the way she was, it was time to bring in the other kids.  Annie got blood work yesterday (the one they're least concerned about), after all four kids met with our new gastro doctor.  (The boys were both flagged as 'quite possibly celiac' due to their symptoms and history.)  Isaac will get blood work done today once I bring in stool samples for both boys (Owen's being spared blood work, 'cause even though he's showing some real strong indicators of celiac, not the least of which is his slow growth and frequent loose stools, but he's so young she said the blood work is ridiculously ineffective at this age).

Can I just tell you how much fun stools samples are to get?  :-)  The ironic part this morning, is I'm having these two little boys tested, 'cause usually by 9AM I've already changed 1-3 diapers on EACH of them.  So far this morning, neither of them have pooped yet.  Of course.  In fact, I'm a nervous ball of energy, as we have Isaac diaper-less so he can use the potty with the 'poop measuring cup' (as he calls the clean catch toilet insert).  So far he's peed in the potty about 6 times this morning, but poop has been allusive.  And for the most prolific of my poopers, this is kinda surprising -- and a little amusing to me.  (As amusing as poop can be, of course.)  So, we wait.  Nervously, while trying to keep him off the carpet and sitting on towels.  I thought we'd make some progress when he got all excited because I brought his little potty downstairs and put it in the kitchen.  He squealed with delight and exclaimed, "I get to poop in the kitchen?!  Hey Ellie, I get to POOP in the KITCHEN!  How cool is that?!?!"  But, even with happily sitting on his newly relocated potty for a good 10 minutes, he only produced a teaspoon or so of pee ('cause again, he's peed like 6 times already in the toilet.) 

But seriously, how is it neither of them haven't pooped yet today!?  They're messing with me . . . :-)


edited to add: and essential oils.  On the list of things we've tried/currently use for Ellie's bowel issues.  Just thought I'd make sure that was there . . . :-) 

edited again to add:  Yes, DoTerra ones.  :-)

February Came and Went . . .

Wow, I haven't posted since January.  That's quite the gap.  Oh well, I'll fill it in with pictures and facebook updates, per usual, and we can pretend like I didn't miss a thing . . .

Early on in the month, my kids were happy recipients of lots of vacation souvenirs (from trips taken by my grandparents decades ago) . . . and Isaac proved to be the cutest two year old who's ever worn a sombrero.  Just sayin'.  :-)

 Isaac got a little help from pint-sized cousin, Bailey.

Owen ate.  And ate, and ate, and ate.  This is what he does.  All day.

And still somehow weighs not quite 19 pounds at 14 months old.

We worked on a little strength training . . . 

 I know I should have picked one of these three pictures to post, but I couldn't help it -- they're all so adorable in their own way.  These two just melt my heart.

Annie is ridiculously buff.  A few days ago we were at the Safe Kids Fair and she totally surprised the police cadet when she hopped up and did five chin ups with no help.

 

Annie even pulled out a laundry basket and a pile of text books so she could practice on her own another night . . . 

 Isaac cuddled up with his various blankets and animals before bed (in my bed . . . I'm finding it SO much easier to get him to sleep in here, then move him to the shared bedroom later.  Will I kick myself later for this, possibly, but for now, it works, so I'll take it.  Man, that was a lot of commas.)

 Owen dyed himself green -- and was pretty happy about it.  And I had to get some pictures of his finger sucking -- I even managed to get one of him twisting his neck skin with the other hand (this is how you know he's REALLY tired).  Not so fun when you're holding him and he reaches up and tries to pinch your neck skin to soothe himself . . . 

Then, as far as catch up goes . . .
Owen's fourteen months old now -- and while he's FINALLY walking behind push toys and whatnot, and will even hold our hands and walk forward (that only started this month -- he was opposed to anything but side stepping 'til he was 13 1/2 months old), he's seems to be a ways off from walking still.  He has stood on his own once or twice, for a second or two. And he now crawls a little faster and will go up stairs and climb up on his climbing toys.  But still, at 19 pounds and not super interested in mobility, people often mistake him for a good 6 months younger than his actual age!

February 26th:

Annie's so practical. Watching the Wizard of Oz, and the wizard has just told them to bring back the witch's broomstick before he'll grant their requests. One of the characters asks something like, "What if she kills us first?" To which Annie replied, "Then you don't really need it anymore, do you?"

February 25th:

Annie came into our room around 4AM, upset from a nightmare. There was a skeleton T-Rex trying to get them. It tricked them by telling them he had something to show them, and Owen went towards him to see . . . but Aunt Star dove forward and rescued Owen while Annie stood behind her, "like she was a shield. And Ellie might've been standing behind Lacy, but I don't remember." Oh, and it was Dia de los Muertos. Then the T-Rex was turning into Pinocchio, "But it was scary Pinocchio . . . which doesn't sound scary, but it was." Then, she added, "And Owen had earrings. That part was just weird."

February 22nd:

"Ellie," I moaned while checking out her fingers, "You have GOT to stop chewing your fingernails!"
"But sometimes I get hungry," my four year old whined.
"They're not FOOD!"
"But they taste good . . . "
Then 2 year old Isaac, exasperated and with an eye roll, "Els, we CLIP fingernails, not eat them, clip them! Sheesh!"

(Also, Isaac has taken to calling Ellie "Els", Annie "Ans," and Owen, "O") :-)

February 19th:

Annie's been responding to me all morning in Spanish (fortunately for her, she never knows the answer to my questions like, "Where are your brother's shoes?" so she can just keep responding, "No se." But the one that cracked me up the most this morning was when I was looking for something and asked the kids if they had it, and my two year old responded with a shrug, 'No tengo.' I'm so curious how much he's going to know once he actually gets into the Dual Immersion program in like 4-5 years!

February 11th:

Ellie's being grumpy, and I'm not the only one who thinks so. Annie during prayer tonight, "And please bless that Isaac can feel better. And please bless that Ellie can just be happy." Amen.

Trying to make a phone call where I have to deal with an automated, voice response type system -- had to hang up, 'cause every 5 seconds it was saying, "I'm sorry, I couldn't understand that, let me repeat the question." All the while, I'm trying to get the one year old in my arms to stop chattering away and stick some food in his mouth or something so he'd stop confusing the voice response system that could hear his babbling :-) Guess I'll attempt to make that phone call again during afternoon nap today . . .

February 10th:

I love to hear Isaac's take on the world, and how he's growing his vocabulary and uses it to express himself -- today he came in crying and told me he'd 'Jammed up my finger on the door," and later, "Mom, Owen was smooshing my book" (by standing on it). I love hearing him say new things in new ways :-)

Last night I told Isaac we were going out to dinner. "At a fancy restaurant?" he excitedly asked. "Well, a restaurant." He has talked nonstop about our 'fancy restaurant' experience ever since. He asked if I wore my "Sunday pants 'cause we're at a fancy restaurant?" (I was wearing a skirt.) He excitedly told the people who were waiting alongside us to be seated that he was going to eat fancy restaurant food. He told us he loved his 'fancy restaurant crayons'. And one of the first things he said to me this morning, "Mom, 'member how we went to a fancy restaurant the other day, with you and me and Daddy and Owen, and not Ellie and Annie?"
Yeah, we went to Chili's. We've set the bar low :-)

February 8th:

Ellie has just discovered Greg's really old Nintendo DS, and she just came in the room excitedly yelling, "I am SO good at the Star Wars game!" She showed me the epic lightsaber battle she's involved in and happily explained, "That one's me, I think I'm Perry the Platypus." 

(Turns out she meant Jar Jar Binks.  So not even close.)  :-)

February 6th:

Dear Self: Stop placing Scholastic Book Orders. We do not need anymore children's books. Also, stop buying children's books from yard sale sites, we have fun out of space on all of the bookshelves in our house. You have a pile of books up in the closet just waiting for excuses to give to your children, you do not need anymore. Ooooh, look, Fancy Nancy just came out with another chapter book -- must buy!

Isaac just told me, "Mom, when I grow up, I wanna be a Mom like you." Awww, be still my heart!

February 4th:

"Hey Mom," Isaac says from the back of the van, "Remember that time we went to Cafe Rio, back when I was younger." Ah yes, the glory days of my two year old's youth . . . :-) 

February 2nd:

The kids were battling the evil Aunt Star with pillows and toy swords while playing 'Musketeers'. My favorite was when Isaac ran up, stabbed star with his foam sword and exclaimed triumphantly, 'I muskachoo'd you Star!"

February 1st:
Annie came home from school with her 'future career' picture she'd drawn, and happily announced she was gonna be a "entrenador de delfines" when she grows up. (Dolphin trainer, all the social sciences portion of her school day are in Spanish). Ah, my little girl wants to be a marine biologist! When are we going to Sea World again!?

[Turns out, later this summer! Woo hoo!]

Safe Kids Fair

This last weekend, my sisters Star and Talina, and my niece Bailey, along with my Mom and me and my kids, all headed out to the Safe Kids Fair.  So we could get pictures of kids on motorcycles and in fire trucks, of course.  The kids had fun, and it wasn't as insanely busy as I'd feared -- in fact, the only time I felt overwhelmed with the amount of people was trying to get out of the parking lot!
The kids happily posed for lots of pictures there . . .

 Annie, Ellie, Bailey and Owen with the weird 'Wear Carseats' Snowmen.   Isaac at this point was crying off camera 'cause he didn't want to/hadn't gotten to/wanted his turn/etc on the motorcycle.

 Wait, now he's happy.

 They had a fitness test exhibit set up (from some police department), and the kids did awesome at push ups and pull ups . . . the funniest part was when Bailey plopped down and tried to mimic big cousin Ellie.

 My four kids in front of the fire truck . . . two of 'em are kinda looking at the camera even!

 Ellie was pretty psyched to 'drive' the fire truck . . .

 Owen and Bailey looks so adorably cute and tiny up to the big wheel . . .

 Annie and Ellie did the bike riding course, so here they are in their awesome hair nets before getting fitted for helmets. 

We've done this nearly every year, and always really enjoyed it (plus we left with something like 20 coloring books and 10 packs of 4 crayons -- which means I have what I need to get them through Church for the next month or so) . . . I was surprised they only did one day of it this year, since it's always been crazy busy and crowded.  We only saw about half of what there was to see, and visited very few booths, but since everyone was trying to offer my kids candy bars when they'd gone dairy free and could no longer eat chocolate, that's probably for the best!