Simi's Kindergarten Presentation

At Simi's school, each year, each grade level has a presentation for the other students and parents in the auditorium. The Kindergarteners sing songs and each child takes a turn to say one sentence in the microphone.

Simi's presentation was today. It is absolutely adorable. All the children wore the same thing: blue jeans and the same t-shirt. They wore bandannas around their neck and some children wore straw hats. The theme was: "A Day At The Farm". They sang songs like "Old McDonald".

Simi's growing up too fast. When he's with his friends, he doesn't want to pay attention to me. He's only six years old and he's already too busy with his friends. It breaks my heart. Soon, he'll be going off to college and moving away (to an Ivy League school, of course, on full scholarship). Thankfully, I still have Asher and Leila who don't mind hugging me and having me hold them and love on them still.

Bison for Asher?

Asher has been trialing bison for 2 weeks now. And the verdict is.....still out. After he eats it for a number of days, I notice that he is very tired in the mornings and can't get himself out of bed. He is low energy the entire day and, although not irritable, he's definitely not his smiley happy self. This past gymnastics class, he couldn't do any of the things the other children were doing. They were things he had done easily in the past, yet he couldn't do them on that particular day.

The question is: are these symptoms due to the bison or to something entirely different? I mean, I know that sometimes I'm more tired than other times and it's probably not food-related. There are so many variables, it's hard to tell cause and effect sometimes.

Yesterday and today, he's been feeling GREAT. He has high energy, very smiley, doing great on his puzzles and moving quite well. Let's hope he keeps it up.

So, we're going to stop the bison for two weeks and see what happens. If the symptoms stop, it'll be another data point. Then we'll resume bison for another two weeks to see what happens.

Leila Sans Tonsils

It is nearly three weeks post tonsillectomy and adenoidectomy and I'm proud to report that Leila is now nicely recovered. She's doing GREAT!

She's eating, easily, more than her two older brothers combined. Golly, that girl can really chow down! Prior to her tonsillectomy, she barely ate. In fact, she hadn't gained a pound in a full year (and she's only two years old). I suspect she's gained a pound just in the past week with all she's been eating. I have honestly never seen a child eat as much as Leila has been eating this past week or two. Wow!

Leila learned to talk with two large marbles (her tonsils) in her mouth. Once they were removed, she had a very difficult time talking. I couldn't understand a word she said. Now she has to relearn how to talk. She's working on it, but it's still difficult to understand her. I suspect, in time, her speech will improve. Of course we'll give her speech therapy if she needs it.

Even though she's back at daycare and it's the middle of the winter, she is congestion-free. It's the first time ever! And now, just because I wrote this, I suspect she will come down with some incredibly nasty bug!

I'm so glad she had her tonsils removed!

Jump Rope For Heart

Yesterday, Simi and I jumped some rope to benefit the American Heart Association. It was quite the fun event! Sponsors, thank you VERY much for your support. Together, we raised $100 to benefit the American Heart Association.

The event was done during Simi's gym class. The gym teacher had five stations set up within the gym. The stations were: traditional jump rope, hippity hops, individual trampolines, hop scotch pads, and "new-fangled" jump ropes. The children did the activity in each station for five minutes while the teacher played some fun music. The music stopped, then the children stopped, returned the item to its proper location, then did some gross motor skill (skip, roll, crab crawl, etc.) over to the next station. The music played and off they went. In this particular classroom, about five mums showed up to participate (me included) and all of us children and mums got our heart rates up for the half hour class. It was really fun!

Making Pizza

In Asher's gymnastics class, the teacher plays different games with the children to warm them up. One of the games is "making pizza". They sit on the floor with their legs spread apart and they go around the circle taking turns to add ingredients to the pizza. One child will add a make-believe ingredient, then they add it to their pretend pizza which is in front of them, and they mix it up and stir it around -- all the while stretching their arms, legs and torsos to warm up.

Asher's never eaten pizza. It's a concept he doesn't have.

During Asher's turn, he adds things like "chocolate" to his pizza. Some children follow his lead and then add other things, like cotton candy to the pizza. Other children add mushrooms and black olives; they've obviously eaten that kind of pizza. So, when the pizza is all put together, it becomes a very interesting mix of ingredients. Good thing it's all make-believe.

Bison - Day Six

If Asher has a reaction to a food, we usually see it on day five. I hate day five of a food trial. The days leading up to it are nerve-wracking because I tear myself apart with worry that I'm giving my child something which hurts him. On day five, I'm super-sensitive all day, looking for any and all signs of food failure.

Today is day six of the bison food trial. And the verdict is.......the jury is still out. There are some signs of food failure, but the evidence is not enough to pull the food just yet. Sometimes it is very difficult to tell if he is having a food failure.

Yesterday, Asher couldn't wake himself up in the morning. He needed help waking up and getting started in the day. When he's feeling good, he gets up and out of bed by himself. Thing is, Leila kept all of us up the night before, so perhaps he was tired because he didn't get enough sleep.

When he's feeling good, he is a medium to high-energy kid. Yesterday, he was a medium energy kid. He had a lot of fun and worked really hard in gymnastics. If he was having a food failure, he would not be able to work as hard in gymnastics class.

This morning, even with a good nine hours of sleep (with a three hour nap on Wednesday), he couldn't get himself out of bed. Although he needed help getting up, he had medium energy while getting ready.

Have I mentioned how much I hate food trials? I can't begin to tell you just how much I'd like to stop these food trials and just let Asher feel good for a long while. But stopping the food trials means that Asher can only eat four foods and drink his nasty-tasting elemental formula. Either way, it's a mean thing to do to the kid.

Bison

Asher continues to be healthy. I can't believe what I'm about to say: for the first time EVER, all children are HEALTHY! Woo hoo!!!

Asher has had a nine-day stretch of feeling good...well, except for Thursday and Friday when he battled strep throat. But I don't really count that as sick because...it's treatable! Now he's back to feeling great again.

With three healthy children, I'm on cloud nine.

I can't believe that I may possibly, willingly, mess things up now. It's time to try a new food. Asher wants a bit of variety in his diet. Eating the same four foods three times a day, every day, gets a bit boring. But what's a good, safe food? BISON!

Beginning today, Asher and Leila are eating Bison. They both love it. Leila just can't get enough of it; she easily eats more than double what Asher eats. Needless to say, they're very happily enjoying their new food.

I tried to find rabbit, because rabbit is the least allergenic meat. Unfortunately, Whole Foods doesn't have a rabbit supplier who meets their rigorous standards. They tell me it'll take some time to find one. Lamb is next on the bottom of the allergenic list. Thing is, I just can't bring myself to buy that. Thankfully, the chap at Whole Foods talked me out of buying lamb and into buying bison when he told me that people either love or hate lamb and that the taste isn't one children generally like. Which led us to bison.

Which leads me to a different topic:

People who don't eat meat shouldn't cook it. I really have no clue how to cook any of this stuff and I don't taste it to see if it's cooked enough, so I think I overcook things quite a bit. Asher and Leila get rubberized pork burgers all the time. Luckily, they don't seem to mind. And although I'll do ANYTHING for my children, cooking this bison is kinda gross to me. I think it's because the meat is so RED. Or maybe it's the texture. Whatever the reason, I struggle not to lose my lunch while cooking theirs. Thankfully, they really seem to enjoy it and are blissfully ignorant that I have such a difficult time with it.

Let's hope that Bison is good to Asher. And next time we go to the zoo, we can show him what he's been eating.

The Monsters

Asher is four years old. It's the prime age when children are afraid that monsters will come out from under the bed or from inside the closets at night.

When Simi was four and afraid of the monsters, we put a "monster key" on the wall, which wards off monsters. It worked. Simi slept fitfully. The key remains on the wall.

Before Asher felt well, he slept too deeply to care about any monsters. But now that he's feeling fine, he wakes in the middle of the night, scared that the monsters will come out from the side of the bookcase and eat him. The monster key, which helped Simi, doesn't help Asher feel more safe.

So now Asher goes to bed with a sword, so that he can beat off any monster who comes near him.

I'm relieved to have a "common" problem to solve!

Leila's T&A

As Raj mentioned, Leila had her tonsils and adenoids removed. She had her adenoids removed last year, but they grew back. Her tonsils were HUGE. She couldn't breathe and was constantly getting sick. While she was under anesthesia, the ENT also inserted ear tubes since her first pair was such a godsend.

For recuperation period, the ENT prepared us for 7-10 days of absolute misery. Having tonsils removed is quite painful. Then, on day 7, the scabs fall off and the bleeding begins, which could be a problem.

So far, Leila's recovery is congruent with the description. It's painful, so she cries and cries. She says, "hurt hurt hurt" and "ouch ouch ouch" and just cried. I give her tylenol with codeine, which takes the edge off her pain but makes her nauseas. On Saturday and Sunday, she was sick. She laid around like a sack of potatoes - feeling terrible and dry heaving all day Saturday. In the middle of the night (why do these things ALWAYS happen in the middle of the night???) she vomited and vomited and vomited - and spent all day Sunday laying around nearly lifeless. The ENT doctor on call says she must have gotten a virus because vomiting isn't a complication of a tonsilectomy. Luckily, she's over it and we're moving on, happy to be this far past the surgery.

Poor Leila, she learned to talk with HUGE tonsils, which were like having marbles in her mouth. So now that they're gone, she can't talk. She squeeks a lot and makes lots of nasal sounds. I can't understand a word she says. I'm sure she'll adapt in due time.

Jump Rope For Heart

In honor of Heart day/week/month, Simi's school is raising money for the American Heart Association. On February 15th, during gym class, Simi and his classmates will be jumping rope. And since parents are encouraged to jump rope with the children, I'll be joining Simi in jumping rope during his gym time. I can't wait!

Since it's a fund-raiser, we have to raise money. Would you like to donate to a worthy charity (the American Heart Association) and support Simi in his jump-roping efforts? If so, you can do it online by clicking here.

Update: 4 PM: At the link above, go to "Sponsor a Student" and type in Simi's first and last names in the box.

Another Fascinating Article

Here is a fascinating article on eosinophilic esophagitis. Forewarning: It's full of "medical lingo" (don't those medical people know that us non-medical folk read their stuff too?), so plan accordingly.