These kids

This kid.  He's something else, guys.  He's a ham.  He, over night it seemed, starting talking in full sentences pretty much all of the time.  (Which is something, since his older siblings have regressed into talking in one word sentences and grunting when they want things at the table.)  He learned a new word from A, "boobie".  Which is, um, interesting.  (Of course, I couldn't punish A, because he then proceeded to ask me what a "boobie" was. After which O pointed to her chest and said "these little pointy things."  So much for always calling body parts by their real names.  Breasts, people.  BREASTS!)

  Zeke constantly hits his head, though.  Constantly.  He currently has 7 bruises and a carpet burn.  On his head.  Also, the GI doctor thinks his constant pooing is toddler diarrhea.  Which can last until age 5. Fun.stuff. At least its nothing serious.

He's also become very self-efficient.  A few days ago, I didn't come down stairs right away (ahem.  I fell back asleep after E woke me up and left for work.  Note to self- DO NOT CLOSE YOUR EYES after E wakes you up to get up with the kids.)  He had pushed a chair over to the pantry, got out a tortilla and peanut butter, and was spreading pb over the tortilla.  meanwhile, the big kids were sitting at the table, waiting for me. He was hungry.  He wasn't waiting around.

These big kids have been busy playing outside, enjoying the weather.  O was diagnosed as FTT again, like I mentioned previously in this post.  After 2 weeks trying to increase her calories and protein per the dietitian, the child LOST a pound.  I kid not.  How does that happen?!?  So, now we're trying some protein/meal replacement drinks.  Except, she hates them.  And she cries about how full she is and she doesn't want to drink them anymore.  After 3 nights of that, I went out and bought some Bolthouse Farms chocolate protein drinks.  She doesn't have to drink as much (4oz versus 8 oz) and they don't taste like glucose drinks.

Then there's this kid.  She is so fun.  But, not at night.  When she's not fun.  Rather, she's anti-fun and, apparently, anti-sleeping-alone.  She takes stellar naps, alone, in her sleeper.  But, the past week has been terrible for night time sleep. Boo. 

We had our appointment with the GI yesterday.  He told us, (wait for this information, its totally NEW information,) she's allergic to dairy.  (See!  I told you.  Totally NEW information and not information we've suspected since December.)  The appointment wasn't a total bust.  I did sneak in two questions about O and I, which he happily answered.  Score! 

However, for miss Eliza, there's not a whole lot more I can do for her besides avoid dairy protein.  We'll probably get around to starting food here before too long.  We were waiting to make sure she wasn't allergic to soy or something funky.  The GI just said to make sure to only introduce one food at a time, with sufficient wait time in between foods, since she has more of a risk of other allergies because of her dairy allergy, and to wait until she's 6 months old.  Check there, good buddy.  Frankly, I'm thinking about waiting until 8 months.  I'm pretty sure I don't want her to be eating real people food on our trip to PA next month.  I don't want to hassle with that.  Because I don't want to.  Because I'm not sure she's ready.

To end, I am going to shamelessly ask you to vote for miss Eliza.  Because you love me, and/or you think she's cute. :)  http://photos.parents.com/parents-cover-contest-2012/17/2012/4239

half a year

Because she's cute

I haven't had time to blog lately, as I'm sure you can tell.  Between O's FTT repeat diagnosis, following blood tests, dietitian appointments, and anxiety therapy (which, as a total aside, can I send a bill to the parents of a child in my daughter's class for more therapy?  because we were about to get released, then she started picking on O during recess, which caused her anxiety to kick up into high gear again.  Y'all, I know the mom.  I'm this [ ] close to sending her the bill with an attached note to ask her daughter to please be kind, or at least not overly hurtful.) plus Eliza's doctor appointments, and now GI appointments, and probably allergist appointments, my dentist appointments, the kids dentist appointments.

Plus school.  Plus dance.  Plus swim.  Plus groceries and homework and housework and running and weight watchers and getting ready for my brother's wedding and and and and LIFE.

Surely this will slow down this summer.  Right?

Well, I have blog posts in mind.  That will likely never actually make it to my blog.  Because of life.  But, pictures.  Well, I'll keep posting those.  Because, let's face it, I'd be doing a disservice to the world by not posting this cuteness.

4 fancy kids and a camera

Ever wonder what having 4 kids looks like? 

A little like this.

Come and Knock on My Door

My local mom's group did a craft swap last week.  I missed the last one they hosted, and was so disappointed!  When they announced this one, I jumped on board immediately. 

I browsed Pinterest for ideas, and finally settled on a burlap wreath.  However, as I've mentioned in the past, I'm a crappy searcher over there and never seem to be able to find *exactly* what I want/need.  (of course, now that I go back and look, I see one that is just about what I did. Hmph.  What.ev.)  So, I modified different tutorials to meet my needs.

Here it is!  I wish, now, that I would've made two!  I love it so much!  (By luck of the draw, my bestie actually got my craft.  So, I have visitation rights and such.  Plus, her door is red, so the colors in the rolled flowers look fab and complimentary and stuff.)

My weight loss, my match book, and my goal that isn't my goal anymore.

I've always been the "heavy" one in my family.  My mom is skinny minny.  So skinny, that she has to GAIN weight for an upcoming surgery.  My dad weighed less than I do now when he was 30.  My brother, well, he used to drink protein shakes in high school to try to gain weight.  So, yeah, I was wearing the fat jeans in our house.

After I got married, and I was in control of what I was eating, I joined weight watchers.  (A total aside here.  But, its still so strange to me that my body looked better then, at 24 lbs heavier, because I was all non stretched out and stuff.  Anywho...)  I lost 30 lbs. that I maintained for about a minute before I got pregnant. 

I learned, with each pregnancy, what to eat, and how to stay active.  O's pregnancy I gained around 50 lbs (yikes!)  A was 40 (though I still had an extra 20 from O's pregnancy still hanging on) I was 35 (I did lose all of A's weight) and E was 28. 

I thought gaining less this last time meant that it would be easier and less time consuming to lose the weight after the baby was born.  That held true, for about the first 2 weeks.  Breastfeeding makes me hungry, and it makes me hungry for sweets and protein.  Around 2 weeks, I completely stopped losing weight.

Around week 4, I started running again.  I lost, maybe, a pound or 2.  Not much, and certainly not enough for me to be comfortable standing up in my little brother's wedding on my 30th birthday with 20 somethings who have never had children.  Ahem.  Moving along.

I went dairy free for Eliza in the beginning of December.  I started to, finally, see a little weight come off with the dairy free diet combined with running.  When I saw this, I quickly wrote down my weight as of that day, so that I could enter it into my excel weight loss worksheet (totally E's doing.  Not mine.)  I wrote it down on something I had handy in my bathroom drawer. 

Well, I never got around to actually entering it into the spreadsheet.  The next time I weighed myself and I had lost weight, I wrote it down.  This is how my match book became my weight loss tracker. 

Contrary to the match book's record, I did gain some weight back here and there, and I joined Weight Watchers February 19, with a starting weight of 159.  Since then, I've lost 11 lbs. (15 lbs since January)  Which, for me, is pretty amazing.

I've hesitated to share because 1. I was afraid I wouldn't lose any weight and I'd feel silly and exposed. and 2. I didn't want people to feel bad when I boasted about my weight loss/weight goals.  So, really, its because I'm afraid of what people think about me. (Sounds about right.)

But, now that I've reached my goal weight that isn't my goal weight (Its my pre-pregnancy weight with Eliza.  I liked how I looked/felt at that weight then, pre-her, but not now.  A change in my body from pregnancy, I think.) I feel like I can step out for a minute and say something about it.  I feel like I can tell you all that I still want to lose more, even though my lowest weight in my adult life was only 6 lbs less than what I weigh now. I have no idea what I want my final goal to be, but I'm starting with another 5lbs.  I feel like I need to share, so that when I start trying to maintain my weight loss, you all can help me be accountable.

Plus, I totally want to show you all my awesomeness in my bridesmaid dress.  The one I AM going to feel good about wearing.

There it is.  Its out there.  

I feel like this has happened before

Deja Vu. 

That's what I feel like is going on at our house right now.  O had her 7 year check up on Wednesday.  I was assuming it would go wonderfully.  She hasn't been sick much, her asthma is generally under control, she's thriving at school. 

The first thing O had done was measurements of height and weight.  Her height seemed a bit low to me, but I couldn't really remember what she was at her 6 year check up.  Her weight is always low, so that really wasn't a surprise. 

Still under my assumption of having a perfect appointment, the pediatrician walks in and says "well, we have a problem."  Really?  Already?  Because we haven't done much, yet.  Only taken measurements.  Oh.  I see.  "O has only grown .25" and gained 1.5lbs the last year."

Cue flash back...Now! We're back in the years 2005 and 2006.  Getting O weighed creates so much anxiety.  Has she gained enough?  Are we going to have to have more testing done?  Am I going to have to meet with the dietitian again who treats me like I'm abusing my child by not feeding her? The dietitian who says my breast milk isn't fatty enough.  Is my breast milk not fatty enough?  Is she allergic to dairy?  Please, please, please have a gain on that scale!

I thought we were passed this stuff.  After 1.5 years of trying to figure out why O is little, we (the pediatrician, O's GI, and E and I) came to the conclusion that she's just tiny.  Its just her.  She was hanging out on her little growth curve, albeit below the charts, but, she had a purty little curve going.  Unfortunately, this latest ordeal has her dropping off in her own curve in height and weight. 

So, we're back to more testing.  Some of the testing of the blood work O had done when she was 1.5 really wasn't super reliable. Things like Celiac may not show trustworthy results with just blood work until after the age of 5.  (They gave us the option to have a small portion of her small intestine biopsied, but we declined.)    She'll likely have a repeat of those kinds of tests. 

As for right now, we're keeping a food log.  Monitoring everything that goes into her tummy.  (Which is sort of funny, in a weird way, since I'm doing the same for myself for WW.  Although the intent with mine is to LOSE weight.)  She's bringing home apple cores and corners of sandwiches from school.  (Its kind of gross since its been hot.  It gets all smelly in her lunch box.)  We should hear from a dietitian in the next few days.  They'll come out and take a peak at O's food log and determine if she's eating enough calories (which, I think she probably is.)  Then, we'll go from there. 

This is real life deja vu.  I have done this before.  At least this time the dietitian can't blame me for breastfeeding O.