Busy Week...

Like most weeks here on the hill, this is going to be a busy one.  Yesterday we had our Dr. appt and Sissy had practice.  Here is how the rest of the week will smoothly run :) (Hopefully).

Tuesday -home learning, Sissy game

Wednesday -home learning, Sissy physical therapy, Daddy volleyball game

Thursday -home learning, Sissy game

Friday -home learning, Sissy game, Sister K and Sister E come for the weekend.

Saturday and Sunday To do list -chop firewood, winterize camper, clean up garden, prepare new garden spot for rye planting, Mass, clean breezeway, finish painting girls room and rearrange littles (probably won't all get done, but by-golly we will give it a whole hearted try!!  Hopefully I'll get some pictures posted somewhere in there too :) 

Talk to ya soon...

Dairy Days...

Yesterday was our visit with the gastroenterologist!  I was quite anxious about 2 things yesterday.  1: I was taking all 3 little's out by myself (something I rarely do :) and 2: we just purchased a BEAUTIFUL 12 passenger van that is quite tall and I wasn't sure if we were gonna fit in the ramp.  If we couldn't I didn't know where we were gonna park!  I wasn't concerned about little peanut's dairy issues, I actually figured if nothing more she would be able to continue on the 16 oz. (yes, we made it to that point!:).  I thought maybe they would give us some sort of paper telling us what to introduce and when though.  On our way I realized that if God gave me these 3 littles under the age of three, He must believe I can handle it.  If He has faith in me than why should I doubt?  Anxiety #1 - Solved!  There was still the issue of the van and the ramp though.  Well, long and behold we DIDN'T fit!!  Thankfully, there was a parking lot, with no restrictions, across from the ramp.  I put little peanut in a stroller and the twins each held onto a handle with my hands over theirs.  They were amazing!!  They did so well!!  They oohed and aahed over all the cars, trucks, tractors and buses on our walk there.  Brother S pushed the big blue button to open the doors for us to get in and Brother J  pushed the button on the way back out.  They never once attempted to run off or fight staying with me.  They even behaved like angels in the Dr. office!!  The Dr. came in to assess our little peanut and said she is CURED!!!!!!!!!  We no longer have to monitor what she eats (for dairy anyway:)  She can have whatever she wants - cheese, ice cream, yogurt, bread, butter!  All the yummy things we take for granted :)  He wants us to follow the new pediatric guidelines for other high allergenic foods: eggs at 2 years of age, peanuts/tree nuts at 3 years of age and seafood/shellfish at 4 years of age.  Not a problem!!

So, all in all, this was a VERY BLESSED day!!

No more dairy days!  EXTREMELY well behaved 2 year old twins!!  A parking lot right across from the ramp to park our beautiful, new, HUGE van :)  What more could a Mama ask for?

Catholic Vote 2008...

Dairy days...

Today is day 8 of our dairy days!!!  Can you believe it?  She is doing SO well with it!  Today our little peanut will get 4 ounces of milk.  She has had 3 ounces in her oatmeal this morning and I will mix the last 1 ounce with her rice milk when she wakes up from her nap.  Yesterday we used the last 2 1/2 scoops of her Neocate.  Yaaaaaa!!!  Can you see daddy's wallet getting plumper?  We haven't started the coconut milk yet (we might not if the dairy continues to go well!), so we have to ensure she gets an appropriate amount of fat each day.  Truly not an easy task!  She doesn't seem to mind the rice milk alone though, it is really quite sweet.

Sissy had her first volleyball game on Tuesday night.  We all went as a family.  The littles had a blast playing with the basketballs and volleyballs off to the side of the church gym.  Homeschooling families have LOTS of kids!  There were so many littles running around :)  Our little peanut even got involved!  Believe it or not she was able to keep up with them!!  She has a new pair of soft shoes, and she really thinks she is something.  Once daddy put her down with the other littles, she was off!  It was tougher trying to keep track of her than it was the twins.  Daddy said he won't make that mistake again :)   He says he's not letting her down at the next game (yeah, we will see what she has to say about that)!  Well, they won the first 3 matches (they play 3 out of 5)!  What a way to start the season!!  Sissy played great!!  She started the game out serving and got 3 or 4 points right off the bat :)  Yahoo!!  I took my camera to get some action pics but the only action pics I was going to get was of us chasing the littles!  Maybe next time.  Her next game is tomorrow against a really tough team.  Keep your fingers crossed. 

Home learning with the littles has just mainly been a review from last year so far.  I put out on the shelves everything we ended with last year.  I wanted to see what they were still interested in, what they needed presented again, blah, blah, blah.  The practical life activites were a hit again.  I have definitely figured out we need more pouring and sorting activities out!  Brother J spent alot of time sorting and pouring.  Brother S spent most of his time with the cylinder blocks (his favorite from last year).  I'm taking the time to prepare more activites that we will put out for next week. 

Today is going to be busy!  Preparing a menu and grocery list for daddy, me and little peanut have doctor's appt.'s, Sissy has school (she is going with us this afternoon to sit with the boys :)  Better get busy!!  Here are a couple of pics from our first day of learning:

 

Brother S pouring, Brother J matching

Brother S with the cylinder blocks

Brother J sorting

Talk to ya soon...

Dairy Day 2,3 and 4...

Dairy day 2: one drop on the tongue and one drop on the lip.  Done!  No problems!!

Dairy day 3: 1/2 ounce!!  Done!  Yahoo!!!  No problems!!

Today she received another 1/2 ounce of vitamin D whole milk, Day 4.  So far so good!!  Tomorrow we move up to a whole ounce.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!...

One year old today :)  Happy Birthday Little Peanut!!  We Love You!!

Dairy Day 1...

With our little peanut nearing the one year mark it is time to wean her off the bottle and the unbelievably expensive formula.  So, I placed a call to her GI doc asking what we could wean her to.  I specifically asked if we could wean her to rice milk.  I had read on the Neocate website forum that some moms were weaning their little ones to rice milk mixed with coconut milk.  Enriched rice milk is chock full of vitamins and minerals, somewhat better than milk, but it is lacking in fat, which growing toddlers need for proper brain development, and protein.  The coconut milk is LOADED with fat!  14 grams of it per 1/3 cup!  These moms are putting 1/4 cup coconut milk in a sippy cup then filling the sippy cup with rice milk.  How ingenius is that?  So anyway when the nurse called me back she said that Dr. wanted to try her on vitamin D milk.  These were the instructions: Day 1- one drop on her lip and on her tongue.  If all goes well...Day 2 - one drop on her lip and on her tongue.  If all goes well...Day 3 - 1/2 ounce; Day 4 - 1/2 ounce.  After that, if all is still going well, we can gradually increase to no more than 16 ounces daily over a period of 10 - 14 days.  She said if little peanut doesn't do well with it to call them back and Dr. would probably keep her on the Neocate.  So I asked her about the rice milk/coconut milk option instead.  She said she would talk with dietician and Dr.  Well, she called me back this afternoon and said both dietician's said that would work just to watch her protein intake and the Dr. gave us the OKAY!!!!  That is such good news for the pocket-book!  We will have to gradually try the coconut milk to ensure she isn't allergic of course, but YAHOOOOOO!!!

Of course this is all ONLY if she doesn't handle the dairy.  So, this morning I placed one drop of vitamin D milk on her tongue and on her bottom lip.  I think she did okay.  She had a slightly yucky diaper this evening. But, it wasn't loose and there was only one messy diaper!  Before she would have had several!  So, it's only Day 1, but so far so good! :)  We will see what tomorrow brings.

Talk to ya soon...