Getting Ready for Kindergarten

Simi is getting ready to go to kindergarten. He's so excited; he just can't wait. Every time we talk about it, he gets a great big smile on his face and he jumps up and down; he just can't wait to go.

I think this year at pre-school has been difficult for him. He was REALLY sad last year when his friends moved on to kindergarten and he had to stay at pre-school. Now, he is the oldest in his class because he missed the cut-off for kindergarten by a mere two weeks. Academically, he is reading and doing math on a first grade level - in pre-school. So, he's excited to move up to kindergarten.

Poor kid, he's going to be in for a shock when he learns that he's far and away ahead of everyone else in kindergarten too. He is going to be bored out of his mind while his kindergarten class-mates are busy learning the letter of the week.

Simi and I went to the pediatrician for his kindergarten check-up. He got FIVE shots and he was REALLY brave about them. I just about passed out watching this kid get his shots and he took them so bravely.

The pediatrician was checking Simi's development and asked Simi to identify some shapes (circle, square, and triangle). Then, she asked Simi to draw one of each and to draw a picture of a person and she left the room to pierce another child's ears. Simi draws his shapes, then moves onto drawing his person. He first draws a head, with eyes, nose, mouth, and ears. Then, he draws a neck, shoulders, and arms. He draws a torso, and legs and feet. Then, he goes back to the arms and he draws hands and fingers. He draws five fingers on each hand. He would have continued but I asked him some questions and then we started reading a book.

The pediatrician walked back into the room, saw Simi's person and explained that at age five, they look for stick people with three parts (for example, a head, torso, and leg). Simi's person had well over 15 parts. So then the pediatrician and I talked of ways to keep him engaged and continue his love of learning while he's at school....

OK, now for his stats. But before we talk about this year's stats, let's review last year's stats. Last year, just before we got his heart fixed, he was in the 25th percentile for height and in the 5th percentile for weight.

Now, he is in the 60th percentile for height and 50th percentile for weight, with a BMI of 10.

And now we can register Simi for kindergarten.

Failed Apple Food Trial

On day 5 of Asher's apple trial, Asher had a full-blown asthma attack. Even the albuterol didn't help. It's painful to watch your child gasp for breath, to watch him cough so hard that he vomits, and resist eating or drinking any food because he feels sick to his stomach all the time. He's exhausted, yet the coughing interrupts his sleep.

Raj isn't convinced that the asthma attack and the food trial are related. I'm pretty sure that they are. He has only had two other asthma attacks: one at 4 months, right after we started feeding him rice cereal (with stage 1 applesauce) and one when he went on the elimination diet. I think that the food allergy triggers the asthma attack. At any rate, apples are out of Asher's diet and Raj and I intend to confer with Asher's doctor to get an understanding of what this means and what to do next.

If Asher is allergic to something as benign as apples, just imagine to what else he is allergic.

We've had one step forward with the successful pork trial and a million steps back with the big-time asthma attack.

More later as we figure this thing out..

Successful Pork

We're declaring pork a successful food trial. We're so grateful that Asher 1) can eat pork and 2) that he can eat and enjoy a food again. Asher is absolutely enjoying his pork fest.

Now we're trialing apples. Asher and I went to the supermarket on Saturday and bought tons of apples and applesauce. We're serving them fresh, dehydrated, fried, and cooked with pork. Asher is really having a good time with this now. With two foods in Asher's diet, his diet almost feels normal again.

Stay tuned to learn if the apple trial is successful.

Easter HinJew Style

We have been celebrating Easter all day and loving it. This morning, the boys woke up to find that the Easter Bunny left them both baskets filled with goodies. Out of respect for Asher, the goodies were all toys (silly putty eggs, eggs with stickers, rings, and other small fun things) and no edible treats. After breakfast, we had a few egg hunts, then went on to color Easter eggs. In short, we've all had a wonderful day.

What's a HinJew family doing celebrating Easter? Today's cartoon For Better Or For Worse speaks volumes. Honestly, what does Jesus have to do with the Easter Bunny?

Caminando!

Leila is 14 months old. We thought she'd never start walking. She seemed happily content to trot anywhere she needed to go while on four paws. She seemed to say, "why bother walking when crawling is a perfectly fine form of transportation?"

Then one day, she just started to take steps. Just as quickly, she stopped. There we were, patiently waiting for some more steps, which didn't seem to come.

Yesterday, she just decided that she was going to walk everywhere from now on and forget about crawling altogether.

And so it is. The little half-pint is walking.

[update]Here's a video of her starting to walk:


And another of her getting much better at it:

Asher Update

Asher has been eating pork for the past five days. I'm terrified to jinx it by saying anything and my fingers and toes are all crossed in the hopes it brings good luck. So far, we haven't had reason to stop the pork trial, so that's good news.

Yesterday, the boys went to a friend's birthday party. While getting ready to go, I had thought about what to do with Asher when the cake was being served and figured that I'd bring the Dum-Dum lollipops. They are allergen-free. My thought of Asher eating pork while the other children were feasting on cake and ice cream and juice was - well - was that it seemed really sad.

But in my rush to get to the party on time, I forgot the lollipops. We got to the party and when cake time arrived, Asher runs up to me and asks for his pork. Poor kid, he really wanted the pork. Every bit of distraction failed. He REALLY and TRULY WANTED THAT PORK. Little slivers of pork are Asher's treats. How absolutely incredibly sad.

So here we were playing in the gym, jumping on the trampoline and the ball pit (Well, Asher was jumping in the ball pit) and people kept coming up to us and asking if we wanted cake. And each time I said, "no thanks", I just felt sadder and sadder for Asher.

But now let's talk about good news:
1. His EE is under control. For the first time in Asher's life, his EE is under control. Just that is cause for celebration - woo hoo!

2. The first week that Asher began the elemental formula, I felt someone had to call the child welfare authorities on us. But then, during the second week, Asher underwent a transformation. He became a different kid. His energy level increased dramatically. He started climbing the furniture because he just didn't know what to do with his newfound energy. I used to call him my "teen-ager in training" because he was so difficult to get out of bed. Now, most days, he bounces out of bed in the morning and is raring to go. The dark bags under his eyes are gone. He seems to have more focus on tasks. Now we know what Asher SHOULD be like. Because he has always suffered with EE, we have never seen how he SHOULD be.

If nothing else, the trial of elemental formula has been a gift because now we know Asher's baseline.