Gluten Free

A.J. has been my special baby, as far as medical needs go. Remember this? His legs are good and strong now, you can't even tell that at one point his legs were not even able to be straight! His toes are still stacked funny like that, but he doesn't seem to mind. It makes This Little Piggy extra fun!

One day, about a year and a half ago at his 9 month checkup, I noticed that A.J.'s growth had significantly slowed down. He had consistently been in the 99% of height and weight, but at that 9 month check up he had dropped down to the 70 something percentile. In only a matter of three months. For the next several check ups it kept dropping, until at one point he was in the 40 something percent for height or weight, I don't remember, but I was hounding the pediatrician at every appointment. He kept assuring me that it's common for breastfed babies to suddenly average out. My maternal instincts were just screaming at me that it wasn't right somehow. My husband is 6'7", I am 5'8", and my daughter is the tallest in her class. It didn't make sense.

I eventually put together a few seemingly unrelated symptoms and decided that A.J. had a gluten allergy! A simple blood test confirmed it a few weeks later. His symptoms were the sudden growth slow down, chronic soft stools, anemia, pica, and I've always had a suspicion that John had something similar as well.

So we are a gluten free family now! It has not been a hard transition, we ate fairly "clean" at home as it was. Eating out is where it becomes troublesome.. fast food choices are scarce, restaurants serve bread at the table, etc. Anyway, in a few short weeks the difference is already noticeable! A.J. hasn't licked any more walls, his poops are solid, and he really seems to have grown a whole inch now that his body is absorbing nutrients! Yay for healthy babies!!

I hope this is the last of A.J.'s, or Maddie's for that matter, health concerns!

Empathy

Our family was out and about one afternoon this summer and a fire truck went zooming past. Since AJ and Maddie are huge fans of fire trucks we decided to follow. As we got close to the ocean, out of my passenger side window I spotted a HUGE column of black smoke. We decided to be lookie loos and see what was going on.

We pulled up at a house build on the beach and it was fully engulfed in flames. We watched the fire fighters do their job bravely and try to put out the flames. The houses next door eventually started to burn as well, and the middle one came crashing to the ground. These houses are HUGE.. more or less mini mansions on the beach.

It started to get crowded there on the street so we made our way to the beach side of the house. It was obvious who the family members were that lived in the house. They had a small pile of belongings in the sand in front of them and they were huddled together just watching. Not sad, not angry, just watching. John explained to Madeline that that's the family whose home was burned by the fire, and that all of their things are gone.

She asked John if the family could stay with us since they didn't have a place to sleep, and asked a few more questions. Then, totally unprompted, my 3 1/2 year old little girl walked shyly up to the family with John's hand in hers and said "I'm sorry about your home."

Sometimes she just makes me so darn proud.

Little Boys

We are in the process of letting AJ potty train himself. We did the same with Maddie, mostly just let her figure it out on her own. We let them run around naked and they quickly figure out where to put the stuff that comes out. Yes, we went through a couple loads of small towels.

Apparently little boys, uh.. "signal" that they have to go pee because their uh.. "antenna" sticks out a little. My husband tells me this is normal. I wouldn't know, I have never peed out of a penis before.

So anyway, I have been encouraging AJ to go to the toilet to go pee pee because he has been "signaling". He sits on the potty and immediately jumps back up and hollers "DONE!" and is so proud of himself. (The potty is empty). Today as I was sweeping and vacuuming the downstairs and AJ was stacking random objects and congratulating himself, I noticed he had to go. So I encouraged him to go put his pee pee in the toilet.

Into the bathroom he went and onto the potty he sat, and on the potty he stayed for a full 5 seconds before jumping up and hollering DONE. I was mildly excited as I went into the bathroom to check the potty for pee pee. It was empty. That's alright, I thought. At least he actually sat there for a few seconds. Maybe he's starting to get it. For the next 20 minutes AJ went back and forth from his stacking task to the potty as I kept encouraging him.

On one of his bathroom trips he stands in the trashcan and started playing with the plunger as he likes to do, and I went and put the vacuum cleaner away across the hall. I was still calling out to him to put his pee pee in the toilet. I hear AJ call out "Uh oh. Towel." And he comes to me and asks me again "Towel!" I again get mildly excited because I think OH YAY! AJ peed in the toilet! He missed but he peed in the toilet!

I go into the bathroom with a towel to wipe up the spill, and.. find the TRASHCAN full of pee and little pee footprints across the bathroom. It's one of those wicker trashcans with the fabric lining. Sigh.

Meat..

So Maddie is pretty much in the princess phase now (along with the WHY phase which started 3 days ago). She likes princess dresses and musicals and pink and ruffles etc. etc. etc.

John has a Little Mermaid CD in the car for her that she insists gets played every time we go somewhere. She also insists that I sing along.

The other night I was tucking her in and she requested the Part of Your World song as her lullaby. I began and couldn't get more than one sentence into the song without being corrected.. and I had to stifle my laughter the rest of the way through the song. My first error?

Me: "Look at this stuff, isn't it neat?"
Maddie: "No, meat."
Me: "Meat? Oh, sorry. Look at this stuff. Isn't it meat? Wouldn't you think my collection's complete?"

I sang the rest of the song imagining I was singing about an underwater cave full of sausages and hams and roasts and steaks a hundred deep.

Dinner at my place

Typically dinner time at my house consists of AJ in his high chair shoved off to the side and throwing his food, Maddie walking laps around the table, me getting up countless times to get something else, and John answering a dozen text messages a minute.

The other night, though..... The other night... it was wonderful. I made healthy chicken nuggets (Out of the Eat-Clean series of cookbooks.. you've GOT to try it!) with real honey mustard dipping sauce. I pushed AJ's high chair right up against the table, Maddie sat across from him, John put his phone away, and everything that was needed was already at the table.

I looked at everyone and smiled and said "My whole family is at the table!" It made me so happy to have everyone there! The kids couldn't eat those nuggets fast enough. At one point, John got up to use the restroom though, and Maddie said "Mama your whole family is going pee pee." I think I'll start another series of Funny Things Kids Say.

After a few minutes AJ looked at Maddie and blew a raspberry. Maddie blew one back and soon they had each other cracking up in fits of baby giggles. I swooned with happiness.. John asked me if this is everything I always dreamed of. Yes, my dear husband! Giggles around the dinner table are absolutely a dream come true!

Happiness is...

Happiness is... my little girl with her bouncing curly pigtails, and her too big Barbie princess dress, dancing along with the dancing princess Barbies in her Twelve Dancing Princesses movie, turns around and takes my hands and says "Mama, dance with me."

Happiness is... my little girl Swiffering the whole kitchen floor while I put her brother to bed, spilling her full cup of milk, and having it all wiped up and clean before I even get downstairs.

Happiness is... my baby boy saying Happy Happy Happy Happy Happy Happy... Buta Buta Buta Buta Buta Buta to me on my birthday, then to himself on his!

Happiness is... my daughter and son singing at the tops of their lungs in the back seat of the car. Out of tune. Different songs.

Happiness is... the quiet few minutes of snuggles when my children first wake up, before the 500 decibels of noise and mess begins.

Happiness is... when the 500 decibels of noise and mess begins.

Happiness is... goodnight kisses and hugs and I love you's called back and forth your whole way down the stairs.

I love you John, Maddie, and AJ!!!

Strawberry Shortcake and friends

I celebrated my 6th birthay in Austria (Alps, not Kangaroos). I was there with my grandmother and grandfather visiting his sister and her family. I had a lovely time playing with my cousins Alexander and Evelyn. I adored Evelyn.. she was about 4 years older than me and she had the most wonderful clothes. She sent me home with a lot of clothes that she had outgrown. I especially loved the flowery twirly skirt with matching peasant blouse!

My mother mailed me a birthday present for me to open on my birthday. How wonderful it was to get a package!! I opened it and it was a Strawberry Shortcake doll, the tomboyish one, Blueberry something-or-other I think. Or maybe it was a butterscotchy one. I don't remember. Anyway, I was already was envisioning her living alongside Strawberry in the shoe box she occupied. She smelled soooooo wonderful!

On our last day in Austria we took a long time to say goodbye. I cried. I was going to miss everyone so much. I STILL absolutely love the memories I have of that trip.. the old lady with the budgie birds, playing in the rain with a plastic swan, wandering in the woods looking for mushrooms, feeding wild birds that landed directly on my hand.. I love all of the memories! Except for one..

On that very last day of our visit to Austria my grandmother thought it would be a nice gesture on my part to give cousin Evelyn my Blueberry (Butterscotch?) doll. As a way to remember me. As a way to say thanks for the clothes. As a way to say it was nice to see you again. It pained my heart to hand over that delicious smelling silky haired doll. I even said no, out loud, to my grandmother. That's just not done. But I did it because I adored my little doll. She was my BIRTHDAY present for crying out loud! From my mother! Who was in another country!!

I still miss her.