Thanks for Thanksgiving

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving. We started the day by running the local Turkey Trot. I was very pessimistic about it and told D that I did not want to run hard since I have not been running a lot lately and since I wanted to enjoy the race and not be dying toward the end. Well anyway everyone was running very fast from the start and I just went with it. I felt really good and strong and kept pushing myself. The last mile was literally uphill (for Ohio standards) and I finished the race in 39:16. Which is really good for me and is actually a little less than 8 minute miles. I can't remember the last time I ran a 5 miler under 40 minutes. I know for sure the last time was in college when I was running cross country and I ran the local memorial day race in 38 minutes. So for not really training I was pretty pleased with my time. D also ran really fast he ran about 5 minutes faster. I kept telling him and while I was running it I kept thinking that the course was short but he did not think so. So I think I had a really good race. I was sore the next day but it always feels good to be sore after a hard workout. It was nice to be at a race with D. We always used run races together (not really run together but go together and eat breakfast after) in Tennessee. It was like our date night, except it was early in the morning and we were running races. But it was our bonding activity that we both enjoyed.

After the race we cooked and around noon we ate our Thanksgiving meal with D's mom and step dad. Our food was good. The turkey was not as delicious and juicy as it was that one time in Tennessee but the gravy helped it. It was a great day. We played games with the kids and in the evening we went to my dad's house to hang out with my siblings. I played Wii for the first time. I bowled and actually got a 230. That score consisted of like 8 strikes and some spares. It was fun but next time I will have to increase my skill level since I have never actually bowled that number in my life.

I really should have taken a picture before I peeled the skin back. It would have looked better.

Our other food. Not a great picture since everything was covered up. But those are the only pictures I took which is surprising for me since I take pictures of everything. I just forgot and was so hungry I just wanted to eat.

Well Nathan has had a bad diaper rash the past few days (mostly because we have been too busy to change his diapers) and so we have been leaving his diaper off to air him out. I must stay that tonight he peed four times in the bathroom and I think a few times yesterday. He came to me two separate times and said "pee" and we ran to the bathroom and sure enough he got right on and went to the bathroom. I have been so amazed since he really gets on the potty and pushes it out. He really gets it. Like I said in an earlier post the girls never got it this early. Mallory was fully potty trained by 2.5 and Julianne was potty trained a week before she turned 3 (we basically made her by saying we did not have any diapers). So I am just amazed that he is not 2 yet and he is a boy but he really does get it. So I will defiantly take more time to let him run free and see what happens. I don't know if he just gets it earlier because it is just him or because we are using cloth diapers on him and he knows when he gets wet. We will never know but it will be interesting to see in the next few months what happens. I am not pushing it but I may try more often to see if he is more interested.

Another Nathan fact. His eczema is back!!! Yikes. So all my previous theories are out the door. We are back to square one. It is not as bad as it was but it sure is getting red and I can he has been itching it more and more.

Things my family was grateful/thankful for:
-Mallory was thankful for her heart and her family
-D's mom was thankful for her son and her grand kids, her health and her husband (she was very cute and teary eyed while stating all this).
-D was thankful for his family and for finishing his degree (he said more that than but that is my summary)
-Julianne wrote two letter:
Dear Dad. You are a good dad. You play good sports with me. You can be a coach when I play soccer. You buy good clothes.
Dear Mom. I love you so much. You are a good mom. I want you to volunteer again (in her classroom).
-I am thankful for having my mother-in-law and step father-in-law over for our first Thanksgiving in our new house. I am also thankful for all the support and love they give and have for our children. I am thankful for Mallory and her beautiful smile, her love for her siblings, and her creative nature. I am thankful for Julianne and her hard work at school, her love for writing and how she is a great friend. I am thankful for Nathan and his strong will and determination. I am thankful for D and all his love and support for everything I do and for who I am. He is very understanding and caring and I know he loves us.

Busy week

Well we have been pretty busy this past week. We are having Thanksgiving over at our house with D's mom and step dad. So I have been trying to get organized and to figure out what we will be making. I bought the turkey last night and will be preparing it for brining. I am not much of a turkey fan but a few years ago I made the best turkey where the breast was juicy and it actually had flavor. So I am going to try to recreate that. I will brine the turkey in salt and sugar water and then roast it. So we will see how this year turns out.

I took pictures of my brother's family on Sunday and my friend's boys on Monday. So I have been fiddling with those pictures. I have also been ordering Christmas gifts, getting our calender and Christmas card ordered, and making gift lists for our relatives. Two main gifts that I putting together for the girls are pretend boxes. I am making a doctor one for Julianne and a hairdresser one for Mallory. I am actually finding real stuff (like stethoscope, blood pressure cup, scrubs, bandages, etc) off Ebay and from thrift stores. I almost have the doctor box complete. All I have to do is get the bandages, ace bandages, and other stuff from the drugstore. For Mallory's I am going to find old curling iron, hair dryer, and then buy curlers, hair things and other stuff for her box. I really like the idea (of which I found off of another blog) because I get tired of the same old toys that they only play with for an hour and then they become clutter in our house. So I think that these pretend boxes will last a long while and since they are made of real stuff and not the plastic kids stuff that breaks after a few months the girls will love to play with them. I am really excited about these things since I really don't like the consumerism mentality of Christmas. I really hate the "have you been good/bad all year for Santa" idea. Really, who thought of that idea? It was obviously some guilt ridden parent who did not know how to parent their child and resorted to guilting them into behaving well so that they could get gifts from Santa. I am glad that we do not emphasis the wanting and getting theme of Christmas. They really have not asked for too much stuff. D usually buys the girls clothes and they will have a few other things under the tree from Santa but other than those items and their pretend boxes that is it for us this year. They receive plenty of gifts from relatives so they will have fun.

Here are some pictures from this past week.





Things I am grateful/thankful for:
-Thrift stores-what could be better than reusing an item that someone does not need anymore.
-capturing moments with my camera
-getting a compliment from a stranger saying that "I had a good yoga practice" she said my lines were very straight and it seemed like I had a lot of strength and endurance.

Correction

Last night I was going through our pictures for our annual calender and I found the ones of Nathan when he had the terrible eczema on his face and arms. These pictures were taken on May 1th but I remember that after his well baby checkup with the doctor on April 22 was when the eczema began to show up. At that appointment he had is DTaP and his HIB shot. He has had these shots before so I don't necessarily think they are related but it does seem fishy. I went back to the doctor May 4th because I think he had an earache and we discussed is appearance. That is when she mentioned the possibility that it could be a dairy allergy. So that is when we started to eliminate diary from his diet. Ever since then he has not had eczema on his face and arms and he has never had his red eyes. In my earlier post I stated that we eliminated diary in March but we did not actually do it until May. So we will see. Here are pictures of him when he was at his worse.

Nathan's eczema

Well the past week and half Nathan's legs have been virtually eczema free. So I have six hypotheses.

1. The seasonal allergens have been eliminated from the air because of the cold weather and the fallen leaves. I checked the seasonal allergies report and it said that since the beginning of November all the allergens, such as mold, grass, tree and weed have been low to no activity. However in October and even the end of October the report showed that mold was high to moderate and throughout the entire summer/spring season one of the allergens has been high to moderate. However, Nathan's legs were also covered in eczema last winter also so who knows if this theory is correct.
2. For the past two weeks I have been mixing into his cereal ground flax seeds. I read online from different sources that flax seeds or other food high is Omega 3s is good for some reason. So adding the flax seeds to his cereal can not hurt him and with his limited diet will help him get those good fats into his diet.
3. For the last few weeks I have been not putting the Aquafor lotion on him and I started putting Cetaphil intense hand cream on his legs. I think I have used this before and not really seen a difference but it is not as greasy and I use it also for my hands.
4. A week, two weeks ago, I put evening primrose oil which contains Gamma-linolenic acids which are a type of fatty acid on his legs. When I was using it two weeks ago I only used it for three or four days straight and I did not see a difference. However, I have read that herbal treatments may take a couple weeks to actually work.
5. He is outgrowing his eczema. I guess that most kids with childhood/infant "grow" out of it. So maybe this is the end of it.
6. His eczema is just not present right now and could come back with vengeance tomorrow. Who knows but I do know that I don't remember him not having it for this long.

About a month ago after researching about allergies/asthma etc. I was reading about reintroducing foods into a child's diet after thinking that they were allergic to it. We think that Nathan was allergic to diary after his first birthday when he broke out in eczema on his face and arms. We had an allergy test in February and he only tested positive for peanuts. The doctor was surprised that that was the other thing he was allergic to. She thought that maybe next year more allergens will show up since he has not been exposed to too many allergens at that time. So we eliminated peanuts and the eczema on his scalp went away. After that he still had it on his arms and face (he had it on his legs during this time also but he always had eczema on his legs ever since he was a little infant, but the eczema on his scalp, arms and face were new after his first birthday) so after reading more that children who were allergic to peanuts were also highly linked to being allergic to milk, soy, eggs and tree nuts. So in March we eliminated diary and his eczema on his face and arms went away. After that he only had the eczema on his legs. Since March he has been on rice milk and little bits of cheese here and there. So this week I wanted to retest him to see if he still had that reaction since it did not show up on his allergy test. So for nothing has showed up. So we will see. It will be nice to have him back on milk since everyone has milk and plus what is "rice milk" anyways. It just sounds wired and not as whole some as good old fashion milk. We will not have him tested again until February so it will be interesting to see if any more allergens show up positive on his test.

To stick with the first snow theme we made pictures and painted them with shimmer (which is actually Epsom salt and water). The pictures turned out well. You can really see the shimmer or fake snow on them. It looks like crystals.




I have finished my crayon holders and I really like the way they turned out. they are very cute and compact and hopefully the girls will use them. I am saving them for Christmas and will probably make some for their cousins.



Things I am grateful/thankful for:
-getting the second to last spinning pass when I only had my spinning shoes on and the two kids (I was glad that I could work out and not have to go home because I could not get into the spinning class).
-Hearing Nathan's speaking progression
-having a break from thinking about how I can help Nathan's eczema
-watching Mallory play with her dolls (they are getting married and having babies right now)

We are all well

Well we have recovered from our stomach sickness. It started with D last weekend having an overall stomach sickness. Then Nathan threw up a small amount on Wednesday night in his crib, I thought it was from his coughing but it may have been the stomach bug, and had diarrhea for the rest of the week. Mallory threw up twice in her bed on Thursday night, Julianne threw up twice on Friday night and I had the bug on Saturday. So after washing several loads of sheets and Nathan's pants from diarrhea we are finally back to normal.

I had Julianne's parent-teacher conference last Wednesday and she is doing very well. She loves school and her teacher. Her teacher said, "I am not a psychologist but Julianne seems like a very happy child". That is probably the best compliment I could ask for. She said that all her pictures and writings are about family, playing, having fun, doing things, hanging out with family and neighbors, etc. She said she is a good friend, respectful, listens and has a good time. She did say that she sometimes gets distracted by talking too much and she has to remind her to get back on task. She said she only has to do that once and she does get back on task. So that is good, I am glad that she is having fun and enjoying school.

Last night I went out to dinner with some mothers from her school and one of Julianne's friends mom was telling me that some of the girls like the boys, as in a boyfriend. So it is interesting that it is happening so soon. I asked if Julianne liked any boys and she said her daughter said that Julianne does not have a boyfriend. So I will have to talk to her tonight to see if I can get any scoop like that. Julianne tells me about work at school, what they had for lunch and snack and other activities but not really about what happens on the playground. I will have to inquire about that soon.

Julianne found these Yu-Gi-Oh cards in our garage and asked all the neighbors if they were theirs and no one claimed them. She had an excellent idea of making a lost card sign and posting it to a tree. So she wrote, Lost Yogy kors. Are thes your yogy kors. Translation: Lost Yu-Gi-Oh cards. Are these your Yu-Gi-Oh cards. It was really sweet. They lasted on the tree for about a couple hours and then she took them down. I think they are still in the house somewhere but it was a sweet thought.



Nathan loves lawn mowers, tree trimmers, trucks, diggers, anything that is big and moves, basically. Our neighbor was mowing the other week and Nathan got his lawn mower out and followed him and observed him for about half an hour. It was very cute and the man was very nice and came and talked to him later.


Things I am grateful/thankful for:
-Having D home on his day off
-going to yoga with D
-sleeping in a comfortable bed
-Having everyone well again
-A washer and dryer for pukey and diarrhea soiled laundry

How cute

On election night Dwight and I went down to the basement to watch the coverage after putting the kids to bed and this is what we came down to:



Mallory set this scene up and it is such her personality. She really pays attention to detail and had all the people lined up like they were watching TV. The babies, the adults and the kids were all in their perspective seats with tables, lamps, etc. watching the TV. What you do not see is the bathroom and the computer room set up that she had set up to the side of this scene. I thought it was adorable because she loves to pretend play and I can just her imagining her playing with them and making up a story behind the organization.

The kids are kind of sick today. Mallory threw up twice last night and Nathan has diarrhea. Mallory was feeling better this morning but had a 100 temperature this afternoon. Nathan has the diarrhea and a lingering cold/cough/congestion but he is not phased at all. He still runs around having diarrhea in his pants and does not worry about it. He has not eaten very much today so hopefully he will get his appetite back and eat since he is so small to begin with. So we stayed in today, watched movies and we made play dough in the morning. It was nice to not be running around all morning. I actually had time to deep clean while Mallory laid on the couch this afternoon.




Mallory wanted red play dough so I put the red food coloring on it and forgot that it stains so now I have red dye # 5 (or whatever number it is) leaching into my body. I am sure that is great for me.

Things I am grateful/thankful for:
-lazy days at home with the kids
-getting caught up on my household stuff
-appreciating Nathan's zest for life and activities

Halloween and fall fun

Well we had an excellant Halloween. The girls had fun at their school parties and we had an even better time trick-or-treating with our neigbhors. Mallory was a princess, Julianne was a witch and Nathan was a lion. We began the day by going to see Julianne's Halloween parade at her school. Then we all got ready and hung out and had dinner with our neigbhors. The girls pretty much trick-or-treated all night with their dad and Nathan and I went to a couple of houses and once he got a sucker he was satisfied. Then, we went back to our house and hung out with our neighbors on the street. Some members of the highs school marching band appeared on our street and played some songs. It was fun to see them and to hear the music. I think the kids realized that they were too old for trick-or-treating but if they entertained the adults by playing they would get some treats. I thought they were pretty smart.





The neighborhood kids.
Additionally, over the weekend I finished with my Lazy Day skirts for the girls. I loved this fabric that I picked up from the local fabric store. It had adorable flower apliques and I thought that they could were pink leggins and a solid shirt with the skirt. The fabric was probably not the best for this skirt since it did not pleat very well and the skirts were a little too long and wide but the girls loved them. So that is what counts. My next project is making the Child's Coloring Wallet. I think that the girls will love them since they love to draw and color.

Julianne really did like the skirt she is just making a funny face.
Fall fun photos



Nathan putting leaves on our neighbor

Nathan relaxing on Daddy

Things I am grateful/thankful for:
-Seeing a deer on my early Monday morning run
-not recieving any more annoying political phone calls
-seeing Nathan walk around the house with the girls dolls
-Having great neigbors to share our trick-or-treat experience.