Another Month gone....

Another month over. Oh it's Harry Potter's birthday - totally noticed that this morning when I woke up. I just put the kids to bed. The cloth diapers are washing so they can dry overnight. I planned to get more done but my baby girl was needing cuddles and I am in more pain than I expected today. I made an awesome dinner tonight - it was yummy. My husband should be home soon to have his.

DD was diagnosed with hearing loss. We find out in three weeks if\when we'll need a hearing aid. Maybe this is why over a year of speech therapy has done little for her. Well that's not true. She makes gains and then has a big seizure and looses her progress. Then when her words come back [weeks or months down the line] she gets new words back, looses other words she once had. It's hard.

It's hot here. We've had little or no rain for months. We're on water restrictions but we're still allowed to water our lawns three times a week. What's up with that? Who cares about someone's stupid lawn? I let ours die. Don't even have to cut it.

In my boredom I began writing fanfic again. It feels like 2005. :P I have also been reading a lot of fanfic and here I was thinking I haven't picked up a book and then realize I read over 500, 000 words in fanfic in July.

Being normal

I usually hate the word normal. I was never normal growing up. I was too tall, too skinny, didn't like what the other kids liked. I wanted Star Trek toys for Christmas and didn't get them because I was a girl. My parents claimed I would grow out of my whole Star Trek thing. Then I met a guy debating Star Trek and we several years and hundreds of Trek debates later named our daughter after a Star Trek character. My husband and I were not normal. We were weird, nerds, geeks, losers.

Yet it breaks a mother's heart when you realize that the other kids don't see your child as normal. One boy tells my son he's allergic to him. My son is a strong advocate for himself at school. I am so amazed how he asks if there is soy. Yet when he tells me this other boy doesn't like him and says he's allergic to him. It breaks my heart. Just a whole big bunch. He's a sweet, amazingly smart, funny even if slightly annoying sometimes kid.

I know not everyone can like my kid. Not everyone likes me. That's life. Still. I won't admit to wanting to smack this kid I don't know. How dare you not like my baby. He's awesome.

What is awesome is my son says it's okay because he's got his friends and he names the friends he has who like him. That warms my heart.

Back to what made me think normal today.

My two year old is stilling on the floor in the front room happily enjoying a bag of animal crackers. What is more normal than that? Owls. Penguins. Elephants. She's making the animal noises and eating away. I find a bunny and tell her he's going to get into mischief. She smiles and eats him. Yep. Just like Mr. Rabbit who ended up in a pie. <3

Adventures in feeding

My daughter has had quite a journey with feeding. At birth she refused to nurse. Her brother latched on 7 hours after he was born and nursed like a champ for two years. I never expected a child who simply wouldn't suck even if she did eventually hold my nipple in her mouth. We suspect although we can't prove it at some point she had some issues with her soft palate that eventually worked themselves out. Aspiration pneumonia, Upper GIs, feeding evaluations, teaching her to use her tongue, different bottles and cups to support safe feeding.

So how far we've come is remarkable. The hours and hours of physical therapy [DD had low muscle tone in her trunk\core and legs] and feeding therapy and hundreds of Momma hours.

This week DD has been eating an entire apple for lunch. Raw. Biting off pieces, chewing them up, swallowing without gagging. It's been amazing. Tonight for dinner she had baked brown rice - another favorite of hers and simply amazing to see her feed herself.

We tried a cup which had an indented lid with little holes. To work her towards coffee style cup. It didn't work out. She had fun but wheezed and coughed during and wheezed for hours afterwards. Pretty good bet she had airway penetration if not outright aspiration. We'll try again in a month and see what happens.

Halloween

I think overall we have a fun Halloween. My tip my hat to my husband. After being up for like 26 hours [he didn't take a nap to spend more time with the kids Saturday knowing he worked overnight] he came home from work Sunday morning. Slept for only 4 hours got up because he wanted us to go to Trick or Treat through History out at the museum. It was a lot of fun. My son had trouble understanding he couldn't sit on the 200 year old sofa and was shocked to learn little boys wore dresses in the 1850s as babies and toddlers. Each room had a period appropriate Halloween thing for the kids and Mom and Dad got to look around at the cool exhibits. Being in Illinois we got to meet Abe Lincoln of course. My daughter was scared of him - being just turned two she still didn't really get it but she loved walking around and was willing to drag us along to go quicker.
We came home to a beautifully roasted chicken I'd put in the crock pot six hours before. It was perfect. $4 for a 5lb whole chicken - we'll get another meal or 2 out of it. I can't decide because hot chicken sandwiches or chicken salad or soup. I saved the broth I didn't use for gravy...it was amazing!! I put some have looked better carrots on the bottom to act like a roasting wrack so the chicken didn't stick to the bottom of the crock and burn. Roasting in chicken juice sure did give those carrots a second life.
Monday my son went to school in the morning. I went to see the end of the day. He had fun. After lunch we got ready. Another truck or treat, a trip to the park and then this HUGE trunk or Treat to end the night. It got cold on the end. The kids didn't like their costumes so I dressed them up as Farmers with overalls, plaid shirts and my son carried a bucket instead of a pumpkin. They had music and games. Not many people where we went even the other side of town had their lights on. Good thing we planned to go to other events instead of door-to-door.
Then Daddy got to come home and help with bedtime and go to work. Daddy sure was tired when he got home. He rocked it out though. Awesome Dad.

Dear Halloween Candy companies,

Why write "this is not packaged for individual sale" when you know people will be giving them away. Food allergies can be deadly. We have to avoid so much, don't ruin a fun day with unlabeled candy. Put your ingredient list and warnings on EVERY product you sell. It's good for everyone. Parents of children with food allergies will support you, as in buy your products and recommend your products to fellow parents of allergy kids.

Dear some stupid parents,

Painting your kid to really look dead is creepy. It's not fun. Maybe I am a stick in the mud but I have no desire to know what my baby looks like dead. Letting your 10 year old dress up like a "zombie hooker" makes parents like me want to SMACK you. Protect your child's innocence as long as you can. It's short lived as it is.

Friday Photo Feature

These are my daughter's 'safe' cupcakes. Both my son and my husband came to me separately to remind me to make safe cupcakes for her. He loves his sister and doesn't want her to feel left out. Tomorrow is his fifth birthday and he picked out a cake from the bakery but his sister can't eat regular cake. It fills a momma's heart to know he loves his little sister so much. <3

I'm not a baby

My daughter who's proud to be a 2 year old has declared baby food off limits. I had been slowly but surely using up the last of our baby food and not making new. It's hard through - trying to get food into her diet other ways. She's rejecting acorn squash apple sauce which made me feel so creative at the time. I guess this is life - now she wants big girl food all the time. Can't blame her.

I am going to try sweet potato fries again. I'm trying to find bigger safe noodles - alphabets are hard to scoop up and eat. Maybe I'll find stars or something.

She's doing really well - loves pears, peaches, apples, crackers.

We failed our lamb trial. I was wondering how much we'd be able to add to her diet when it's $6.87 a pound but it would have been nice to have an easy protein. I am thinking of trying Sunflower seed butter - see if that will work since it's a seed not a nut\legume.

In other news my son is five years old in a week! He refuses to have a party and does NOT want presents or anything else which will make him five. So once again I am keeping his birthday low key since he doesn't want a party. We'll see how this goes.

changes

Last week we finally took the plunge and moved our daughter, who will be 2 the end of September into her brother's room. My son was not as happy about this as Daddy and I were. He doesn't want to share. Funny since he complains about being alone.

* Edit 09-09-11 *

I didn't realize I didn't post this. The move went well and the children have made a nice transition into being room mates.