max update

We rushed Max to the hospital late last night after discovering that he has "pretty substantial" pneumonia in both lungs at our urgent care visit. The doctor panicked and called an ambulance after he saw the x-rays, but the nurse convinced him to cancel it and let me drive him myself to avoid the hassle. Apparently the hospital is brimming over with pediatric pneumonia patients, as we were in the hospital for almost a full 24 hours before he was even checked by a doctor. They told me he was "low priority" compared to the other patients.

I got about five minutes of sleep last night, as Max kept pulling out his oxygen tube in his sleep. His oxygen sat. dropped each time and his machine started beeping and flashing. I spent the whole night making sure he didn't pull out his IV or oxygen tube, it was awesome. Especially since the night before last I only got two hours of sleep because Ava was up all night with the stomach flu. Double awesome.

A room in the peds wing finally opened up late this afternoon and we were able to get out of the loud, cramped ER. Max has been a total trooper. Even with all the blood draws, IV insertion, tubes up his nose, etc. He has been so calm and well behaved. He only shed two small tears when his IV got clogged with blood and they had to backwash it.

Feeling very grateful for helpful family and friends, modern medicine, and pateint nurses. We are stuck here until he gets a little better and can go without oxygen/fluids. Hopefully we will both get at least a little bit of sleep tonight. Fingers are crossed.

burrito and whale

The boys got plenty of great toys for Christmas this year. Ironically, the only ones they play with are two small stuffed dogs they got in their stockings. Upon first sight, Max named his "burrito" and they have since been inseparable. Ian named his "whale". The two of them make dog houses out of blocks, the play dog catch (using dogs instead of balls), they play "house" where they are the parents and the dogs are the babies/children. They put their dogs in "time out" quite frequently for misbehaving. They put them down for naps. They wrestle with them (and each other). They play dog pirates. They play hide-and-go-seek with them. Watching this explosion of creative dog play makes me more than happy. Although I will admit that I am secretly happy that Max's dog allergy will prevent us from ever getting a real dog.

miss sassafras

Ava slept all the way through church today. It was so nice to be able to actually sit and enjoy the meetings, rather than chase her down the hall or feed her in the mother's lounge. Which is what I normally spend my time doing. In a little over two months she will go to the nursery and I won't have anyone to chase. Pretty sure that will compound by baby hunger. I was born with a serious case of baby hunger, and I don't think it will ever go away. No matter how old I get, or how many babies I have.

green

We make smoothies a lot. At least every day. I do my best to rotate ingredients. We have a LOT of variety in our diet these days to prevent new food sensitivities from popping up. Rotation diets are supposed to do wonders for the food allergic, so we are trying it out. Anyway, today I was making a banana, mango, pineapple, and vanilla hemp milk smoothie. Right before I turned on the blender, Max stopped me. "Mom! Wait! What about the green stuff?!? You forgot the green stuff! Should I go pick something?" We picked a handful of kale and threw it in. Along with a tiny bit of raw honey to mask the bitterness. And it was actually really, really good. Long live the Shrek smoothie (as Max calls it).

planting

This is what our day looked like. A lovely 80 degrees. I decided that it was time to edit the garden and prep for some more planting. I really wish it wouldn't have taken me five years of living here to figure out that I could grow greens all winter long. It has been delightful to be able to go outside to pick lettuce for a salad, beet greens, chard or kale for a green smoothie, cilantro for guacamole, bok choy for stir fry, etc. All fresh and organic. We have even had several cold nights (low 20's) and it hasn't phased any of the plants. My gigantic basil plant died with the first freeze, but everything else is frost hardy. Apparently you can even dig kale out from under the snow when you want to pick it.

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And I finally gave the blog a little face lift. I was craving something clean and simple.

isn't she lovely?

Isn't she lovely...spikey, uneven hair and all?

Ava and the buzz cut, or why a 3-year-old should never play with scissors

*raising her hands "as high as you can" as prompted by the Little Einsteins show she is watching...she is also saying "hi!", and exposing us to her unchewed gf pumpkin muffin.

Ian cut Ava's hair. Five inches off the top. I cried. Then I laughed. And then I threw away the scissors. It happened a few weeks ago, and I haven't felt like taking pictures or blogging about it. But I'm over it now and think her little pixie cut is quite cute. Despite all the comments I get about how she's "a cute little feller".

Ava is 15-months-old and full of spunk. And fun. And Energy. And drama. She is talking quite a bit. She lovingly refers to her "bruz" by their nicknames, "beanie bean" and "mac-mo". It's her best effort to say "eanie bean" and "maximo". She follows them everywhere, and plays in the dirt alongside them with trucks and dinosaurs. Her grandfather was horrified when he came to visit, and promptly requested that I "get her some dolls to play with". She has plenty of dolls, but would much rather do what her brothers do. They are rock stars to her.

The other day the three of them were playing in the boys' room, when all of the sudden it got very quiet and I heard the boys whispering something about Ava being on the bed. I rushed in to see what was going on, and found Ava on the TOP bunk, hanging over the ledge with a huge smile. I still can't believe she can summit the top bunk already. She has NO FEAR. So different from my careful boys.

She always reminds us that she is a girl with dramatic outbursts, despite her tomboy tendencies. When she doesn't get her way she stomps her feet, shakes her head, and even throws herself on the ground and "cries". The other day J-P didn't give her what she wanted, so she threw herself on the ground next to his feet and started crying. He immediately walked to the other side of the kitchen and started to do the dishes. She immediately stopped crying, walked over to where he was, and dramatically threw herself on the ground by his feet again and started crying. As if to say, apparently you didn't notice me. Let me make this more obvious for you. We still laugh about it on a daily basis.

She is saying quite a few words. When she has a BM she comes to find me, and with a very distressed face says "pooped". Whenever I ask a question (who wants to go to the store?, who wants a snack?, who wants to take a bath?, etc.) she comes running and yells out "I doooo! I do! I do!" It's completely adorable. In fact, she says "I do!" whenever she sees anything she wants. If I am eating a banana, she points to it and says "I do! I doooooo!" If we are at the store and she sees a toy she wants, she starts bouncing in the cart, hyperventilating, and saying "I Do! I Do! I Doooo!" If she doesn't want something, she is equally as dramatic. She shakes her head and says "Huh uh. No. Na Na Na NO!"

And for the purpose of recording, I will have to add that she holds her own with the boys. She bites, pushes, steals toys, scratches, and more. She also LOVES clothes. And shoes. She is always bringing us clothes and shoes to put on her, and she tantrums if we don't comply. At any given point of the day, she is usually wearing a pair of shoes and up to three sweaters. Sometimes hats or other random accessories she finds. Oh, and she is finally willing to keep a headband on for the first time in almost a year. But only if I tell her how pretty she looks. She immediately stops yanking at it and starts smiling and batting her eyelashes. I'm not kidding. Her love of clothes and "looking pretty" is definitely not something we've instilled in her. She has come up with that personality trait all on her own.

Other things I don't want to forget: how she sings "bye-bye baby" (rock-a-bye baby) to her dolls as she rocks them in her cradle. And how she immediately starts dancing and laughing whenever she hears music. She stomps her feet and spins around while yelling "dan(ce)!, dan(ce)!, dan(ce)!"

Ok, I think that's it. I'm so curious to see how she will change over the next few months.

an update

"You have to look up Ian..."

Hello. We're alive. And well. It's been a busy month. Full of business trips, teething babies (all four molars, ouch!), the flu, family coming to visit, and more. J-P has been going to lots of appointments (physical therapy, acupuncture, cortisone/epidural shots, etc) to try and help his back. Nothing seems to be working that well, so he has an appointment scheduled with the neurosurgeon. His MRI showed bulging/herniated discs, and one that "is exploding over and dripping down his spinal column". Whatever that means. Between all the appointments and his busy work schedule, things have been a little crazy around here.

I have had a lot on my mind. Namely, kindergarten registration. And peanut allergies. And sending my highly allergic child to public school. In short, I'm terrified. I have been staying up late researching cures and treatments. And I'm trying everything. Right now doctors at Mt. Sinai Medical Center in NY are curing peanut anaphylaxis with a Chinese herbal formula. The formula is in stage two of clinical trials, but probably won't be released for another 10 years. I got a copy of the ingredients, and J-P's acupunturist said he would make it for Max. We'll see how it goes.

I have also been doing a lot of research on different health conditions for family and friends. During these late nights, I discovered something called a MTHFR gene polymorphism. And I think a lot of people in our family might have it. It basically means that we don't detox properly. Sooo...I have been doing lots of crazy things like driving all the way across Phoenix to buy a 50lb. bag of clay so we can take detox baths. I have been doing regular epsom salt baths for the kids as well. I have been giving Max milk thistle, among other things. I have also tweaked our diet a little more. I know, it sounds like I am certifiably crazy. But let me tell you, I have seen a HUGE difference. HUGE. The dark circles under Max and Ian's eyes are gone. Their moods are fantastic. They just seem healthier. Which makes me happy.

In other news, Max is still loving preschool. I thought he was going to explode with excitement over his Valentine's party today. He woke up, quickly put on a red shirt (per his teacher's suggestion), and asked me over and over "is it time for preschool yet?" He has also been saying funny things about babies. "Mom, I think we should get another baby. Because I like babies. And I think grandma likes them too. And I think we should name it Fleewah. Ok?" If only I had a magic wand to make our house bigger. Or turn the economy around. With our house being worth less than half of what we payed for it, we won't be going anywhere anytime soon. Which I try not to think about.

Oh, and if you have a curious mind and want to read about the MTHFR mutation, clay, etc. I wrote about it HERE.