Tuesday, May 21, 2013

Happenings Around the House

I realized as I was rocking my youngest last night that we have made a big jump from Minnie to Princesses around here. She still likes Minnie, but we are definitely in the Disney Princess era, especially Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty (which she's never seen). Anyway, she wants everything princess right now. We found some old disney princess play shoes and an old pink princess tshirt at a garage sale last week and she barely lets me take them off. Literally. She would prefer to sleep in the shoes if I would let her and she wants to wear that one pink princess shirt 24 hours a day. Every. Single. Day. And whenever she puts on a dress now, she always looks down and says she's a princess and seems genuinely convinced that it must be so.
 
 
School is going well with our oldest, seems like we do a lot of unschooling around here. But his writing is improving, he's off the charts in math, and still progressing with his reading. He can also tell you all about our furnace, how it works and why, and he can tell you all the phases of the moon in perfect order and what they look like. He knows all kinds of random things like that because he asks. He likes to figure everything out. Just like his Daddy and my maternal Pappa.
 
 
Our youngest is doing great, too. she still knows her letters and their sounds, she has started coloring more (both my kids hate coloring), and she can now write a number one. She can also now count with meaning. She's been able to count for a long time now, but she's recently understood that when you say 1-2-3 and so on, that correlates to a certain number of items.
 
 
Also, we finally have all of the garden planted - yay! Lots of science can be discovered in the garden and we are all looking forward to the fruits of our labor. This year we have 12 tomato plants, 3 rows of potatoes, 3 rows of green beans, cucumbers, cantaloupe, watermelon, zucchini, bell peppers, snap peas, banana and jalapeno peppers. Should be an interesting summer! The kids love going outside every morning to see what has popped up overnight!
 
And the biggest news around here is that we recently found out our big guy has a food allergy to dairy. It was a major blow to us because his favorite food ever is cheese and he chugs milk all day long. But, it answers multiple prayer requests with just one solution, and it is so like God to do that. Wrap it all up in one package for us to be able to get it under control. Our doctor explained that he doesn't digest the milk protein. Instead, his body reacts to it by having an adrenaline rush of sorts, keeping him full of adrenaline all day. This is why he struggles with naps and bedtime even though he's tired, and why he wakes up exhausted at 6:14am everyday. The doctor thinks this is also the cause of his allergies/drainage and ear infections, and even his sometimes ornery behavior.
 
 
He's been off of dairy for over a week now and we have noticed a huge difference. Last week, he took a nap everyday without complaining. No running in and out of his room for hours fighting sleep. Same at bedtime. It was amazing. He was also a little different behaviorally and overall, just more pleasant. He accidentally had dairy twice this weekend and whoa, he's like a different kid again. He hasn't taken a nap since then and he's been waking up at 6ish every morning. He's exhausted and whiny and cranky and ultra hyper.

I'm sad that he has to go without his favorite food. It breaks my heart. I want him to have everything he wants in life, and I understand his love for yummy, gooey cheese immensely. I'm sad that I have to call his teachers at church and tell them no more goldfish. I really hope he doesn't have to be the different one in class, that they can all just have a different snack. I don't want my children to ever go without anything they want, even if it is something trivial like cheese. So we will cut out the dairy around here and we will pray. I am believing that God will restore my oldest's body to new and he will someday be able to enjoy cheese again.

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