11/27 - Thanksgiving at the farm

Eli had been sick for a few days before Thanksgiving and we wanted to make sure he wasn't going to get my grandma sick because she would also be at Papa's Farm. We thought we would be okay but by late Wednesday morning, Eli started heading downhill again. When Brad got home from work around 12pm, I took Eli into urgent care again. They said his ear was all read and gave him antibiotics for an ear infection. They also gave him some steroids for the nasty cough he was having. Although we got a very late start, at about 3:30pm we headed up towards Papa Farm. It was a long drive but we finally pulled in at about 10:30pm. The boys did a great job on the ride.

We all slept well and were excited for the next couple of days. On Thursday morning, Aiden was playing on the iPad (Eli and mommy slept in late) in the living room. Papa tried to show Aiden that the fire place was okay and wasn't going to hurt him but he wasn't so sure about that. Brad, Aiden, and Papa went exploring this morning around the farm.

Once Eli and I finally woke up, we put together a train track that my dad got from a friend. The boys LOVED it!! It took Brad and my dad a little bit of time to figure out how to make the track but once they did, we were good to go. The train has 3 cars plus the engine but since it's a little old, the rubber on the wheels doesn't grip the track too well so it can only pull 2 of the cars. It even makes train noises!

We gave Papa the picture that we worked on with all of our handprints. It turned out good. I even added some real grass at the bottom by gluing pieces on (after this picture was taken).

We decided to take a trip outside because Eli and I had been in the house all day. We walked down one of the many huge hills and Papa was showing the boys something at the bottom.

Aiden was very interested in what Papa had to say. He's like a little sponge. Eli wasn't feeling well yet so he was pretty fussy and just in a bad mood for the most part.

We headed up the the other side of the hill and Aiden took off with Papa. Eli wasn't feeling as I already mentioned so he was .... a little slow. Also, he's just a little lazy and doesn't like to walk unless he has to. Needless to say, I carried him up this giant hill and a got a great workout in the process. haha.

I love that our boys (for the most part) are so kind to each other. This picture makes me smile because I see how happy Eli is and I can tell from Aiden's cheeks, he is smiling too. They are such good friends and I hope it stays that way forever.

Eli went inside after out walk and didn't want to come back out again. Aiden still wanted to do something so papa took him on his first ever 4-wheeler ride. I was so excited for him because ... I loved 4-wheelers as a kid. My sister and I would drive it around our property in Inverness (FL) all day long. Well, I should have remembered we were talking about Aiden. Pappa was driving nice and slow and did a little circle with him around the part of the property that is relatively flat (except for the one huge hill down and another one that's not as steep that we get up). Well, Aiden didn't like it. He was yelling for Papa for to stop and for him to get off. He got off but you could see he really wanted to like it. He then said he wanted back on so we put him back on. He rode for a little bit longer with Papa.

This is the view from the front door of the farm house if you look to the right. It looks about the same looking to the left except there is no flag. Haha!

Eli saw Aiden riding around on the 4 wheeler and finally decided to put real clothes on come outside (he slept almost naked that day for nap time). My dad said I could drive the boys around for a bit while he got Thanksgiving dinner ready. Aiden went with me although he was still very hesitant. He said numerous times he wanted to get off and then when I would stop, he would change his mind. Poor kid. 

It was turning into a beautiful night. The weather got a little colder and the sky was beautiful colors so I wanted to take some pictures. That said, I changed spots with Brad so he could drive the boys around on the 4 wheeler. Here is a little collage of the pictures I took of Aiden. He is such a sweet boy. He found a dandelion and I told him if he blew all the white things off of it, he got to make a wish. He wished for the sweetest things like "Eli feeling better and finding mommy a present in the woods."

They had fun watching each other take turns on the 4 wheeler. Eli liked the 4 wheeler right away! You can see him below grabbing onto the barb wire fence to try and get closer to Aiden and daddy. Don't worry, God was watching over him and he didn't actually grab a barb. Brad and I did scare him to death by both screaming as I took this shot.

 

Eli wanted me to drive him around too so I happily obliged.

Actually, Eli didn't care who drove him around ... he just liked it no matter what.

When Eli wasn't napping or riding the 4-wheeler on Thanksgiving, this is how you could find him. Poor thing didn't have much energy and was just laying on the floor watching the train drive around.

It was raining Friday morning so we had to stay inside. Eli didn't want to wake-up from nap so we didn't get moving until pretty late; about 3:45pm. The only way we even got Eli out of the house was to take him on a 4 wheeler ride. After both boys got a ride, we went to a local park for a bit and let the boys play. It was pretty cold out and I don't have any good warm clothes for Eli (Aiden didn't need them last year in Florida). He was not feeling great and was very cold even though he had a couple layers on. He wouldn't even smile for me to take a picture this day (the day he's wearing the mickey mouse hat). 

We tried to take some family pictures at the park but Eli wasn't having anything to do with it.

I even got a few pictures with my dad. I'm so bummed I didn't get any with my grandma but am so thankful to get to spend some time with her and let the boys be around her more than just an hour or two on a holiday.

Aiden discovered that he could fit under the bed and that entertained the boys for an hour or so. They started playing on their air mattresses in the bedroom and we didn't see them for an hr or two. They finally came out and their faces were all red from jumping around on them. 

It wasn't until Saturday morning that I actually got a tour of papa's farm. Brad and Aiden and I walked around for a long while. It was FREEZING outside but it was good to get out. Eli didn't want to come which was fine because I would have had to carry him and I had NO IDEA how hilly my dad's farm was. I would have been exhausted after about 5 minutes. It was neat to see his farm and it was extra cool that Aiden was telling me about it. He did such a good job of listening to papa talk about it on Friday morning, that he was able to tell me quite a bit. He even told me how Indians used to live under some rocks and how my dad grows clover for the deer to eat. Brad was a great tour guide too. He filled me in on lots of info that my dad told him on his tour.

I just love this picture of Aiden and Brad. It was so hilly and uneven that Aiden had to hold onto a hand going up or down hills.

We stopped at a spot that Aiden picked out so that he could have a giant stick in the background. He was excited to wear papa's orange hat (so he wouldn't get shot)!!

We got back home and found Eli having a good ole time. He really wanted to watch Monster Trucks so I got the DVD out for him and let him watch some. He was pretty happy with that.

We ate lunch, packed up, and got on the road at about 1:30pm. After 2 gas stops, a dinner stop, and a quick potty break, we got home about 8:30pm which was good. We were all exhausted and the boys were little wired from sitting for so long but it didn't take long for us to get our schedule back. We had a great time at the farm and it was nice to just unplug from the world for a bit. I say that but I did do a little black friday shopping on my phone!! Anyway, we can't wait to go visit again when the weather is a little warmer and try some family camping!

11/20 - Therapy airplane

So Aiden has been pretty excited about his new airplane that he earned at therapy a few weeks ago. You can see in the first picture that he is just about ready to throw it. He tries so hard ... a little too hard and sometimes runs it right into the ground. 

Here a picture of Brad and Aiden. Brad just threw the airplane and it's making a loop (look right in the middle of the green tree and you'll see the white airplane). Aiden can make it do a loop every now and then but he's still practicing.

 Aiden has earned his airplane for another week by putting on his socks and shoes. Go Aiden. Just this morning he was trying to show Eli how to put his pants on. It was so sweet to watch.

11/19 - Clifford & Trains & the flu

We've been wanting to take the boys back to the Science Museum and finally made it happen on Veteran's Day since Brad had off work. We went Monday morning and the timing worked out great because it rained almost all day but it didn't matter since we were inside. Here are the boys playing in a room that is pretty crazy. In the first picture, Eli is on the right and Aiden on the left (thereby making Eli taller than Aiden). You can see in the next picture that they switched places. They were having fun in this little slanted, crazy painted house.

We wanted to go back to the museum because there were still things we didn't get to see with the boys last time. The Dora and Diego is gone and they have a Clifford exhibit now. It was much smaller than the Dora/Diego exhibit but it was still fun for a bit. 

I tried to get a picture of the boys sitting by the giant Clifford but there were some rowdy kids there and one of them had just thrown a giant bone that hit Aiden in the head so he started to stand up and cry. Aiden could spend all day at this peg board ... if it was just him. He gets so annoyed if someone goes to the other side and pushes the pegs the wrong way. He'll stay at one peg board and make sure all of them are in place until he is done. Bless his little obsessive heart. 

It so funny the things that can keep the boys busy. They had a ton of fun putting envelopes in the mailbox and delivering them to the little houses and mailboxes around the area. 

Aiden played with Cliffords giant food bowl and bones for a while but the rowdy kids came around so he left. 

They even had a little deli stand set up. You can see Eli giving me some food and Aiden playing with the cash register in the background.  

We headed back downstairs to the main level and they played for a while in the Kiddie Play area. Here is Eli playing with the water.  Aiden and Brad were off climbing in the clubhouse thing while I watched/played with Eli.

After Eli was done playing and took his apron off, he decided to make sure he was completely dry by standing under the dryers. It was too funny. It was laughing so hard at himself. These dryers are already low for kids to be able to dry their hands so he had crouch down to fit under it.  

The boys also found this dodge ball mat. It lights up and you can see a couple of squares that are supposed to be a ball and you have to dodge out of the way of it and stay on the mat. They had a blast. 

An unexpected bonus at the museum was the HUGE model train exhibit they had. We had no idea how big it was. The boys spent more time up there than anywhere else. The LOVED watching all the trains go around. We actually went to see the IMAX movie this day and I was able to take Aiden early to let him see inside to make sure he would be okay with the bigness of it. He said he would be and was very excited to go. We got our tickets, got in line, got seats in the very back (least threatening place to sit), daddy got popcorn, the train movie started (it was about making the Rocky Mountain Express line in Canada), and ..... Eli flipped out. He was so scared. Brad took him and they got their money back and Aiden and stayed to watch the whole thing (1 hr). We had no trouble finding Eli and daddy when the movie was over .... they were looking at the model trains.

With as much attention to detail that Aiden gives things, I could easily see him getting in to building model trains. The boys had a blast and we literally spent all day at the science museum.

Last week, I got to go to the boys daycare and have Thanksgiving lunch with them. It was fun and my first daycare-related event (besides the fall party). They made cute hats that they wore for a bit. Eli ate a bite of everything they had (all the staff brought sides) and Aiden had to have a few bites of turkey in order to get dessert. It was fun to see them interact with their friends a bit. I'm a sucker for Aiden and he hates nap time. He asked very nicely if he could do with me during nap time so I took him to do an errand with me and then dropped him back off at daycare towards the end of rest time.  

There was no therapy this week so I made it a point for Aiden to do some at home. He chose to work on his foam sticker project he has going on.

 

Another day he chose play-doh which was surprising. I showed them a new trick with a toy that we have and that entertained them for about an hour. Eli loves play-doh but I think even Aiden out-lasted him this round.

We have been a sick household lately. I ended up taking him to urgent care on saturday morning because he was extremely lethargic and started to have a fever. The fever started to get pretty high so off I went with him. He tested positive for influenza so then I had to take him to get meds. The first pharmacy didn't have any so we then had to go to a second one. He was so tired and exhausted and feeling so horrible so I just took him home and went a little later to pick up his medication. Below are the pictures from that day/morning. He actually fell asleep in my arms while we were waiting for the test results to come back. He then slept almost the entire day!!

Aiden was feeling just fine. He was even practicing his Christmas songs for his daycare musical in a few weeks. Aiden and Brad went to walmart in the morning while I had Eli at the doctor. Aiden was really wanting to do crafts with me in the afternoon. I was so exhausted but he set everything up himself. It was too cute. We then skyped with Nana and did a little arts and crafts.

On Sunday, we all stayed home. Both the boys were on Tamiflu and I went in on Sunday to the urgent care clinic because both Brad and I felt horrible and the doctor didn't give us a prescription for Tamiflu, just the boys. I went, tested negative for influenza but they said I would probably get it since Eli got it (and none of us got flu shots this year yet) so they gave Brad and I prescriptions for Tamiflu as well. Brad actually got the chills and aches so I slept on the couch to try and prevent me from catching the flu. Eli started to get a little more energy but not much. He sat on the couch and cuddled with Pouncer for a bit.

By Sunday afternoon, Brad and I were feeling quite yucky and tired and Eli was starting to get a little more energy. Aiden had lots of energy and was feeling fine. We got out MarioKart for Wii and let the boys play for the first time. They loved it. Aiden played it for what seemed like half the day, and really improved. It was a little too tough for Eli unless he had help.

I kept Eli home from daycare on Monday because he was still up and down with a fever on Sunday. Both boys went to daycare on Tuesday though. Now, off to Papa's Farm we go for Thanksgiving.

11/12 - Some Food Changes

So I've been researching some stuff over the past few weeks and have scared our family into a different direction.
1. No more sugar-substitute foods. It's the real thing or nothing. No more diet or low sugar or low calorie. I was never open minded enough before to even contemplate this but wow, my eyes are open now. No more Splenda and aspartame (among a few others).
2. No more dairy!!!! I know. That's crazy. I love milk, cheese, and ice cream (frozen yogurt actually). This has been the hardest by far, to give up. After reading more research on the area of milk, I freaked out Brad and I and now no one in the house can have any kind of milk product. It's a huge change for us but the research out there is just too scary to be trying to drink it. We are the only species that tries to drink another species milk. You can read on one of the 2 links below if you want more information.

Link to a fairly long article about the negative affects of milk:

http://josquin.tripod.com/milk.htm

Link to a shorter article about milk and addresses the common myths many people have heard about milk:

http://lorton.patch.com/articles/milk-it-does-nobody-good

These adjustments left me starving for a few days because I didn't know what I could eat!! Haha. OK. So I went to the library and checked out a few books. I made my own granola and muffins (made from almond meal, not white or wheat flour). We are looking for a dehydrator now so we can make our own dried fruit and beef/turkey jerky so we have some more snack options.

After reading the library books I checked out and some other stuff on the web, we decided looking into the Paleo way of eating might be right for us (hard, but healthier than what we have been doing). So, I got a book and this is it:

We are not trying to lose weight. We are trying to allow ourselves to feel better and have more energy. The more I read about kids and milk and eating foods with preservatives in them, the more I get scared that I am just setting myself up for health problems and my children. I love them and don't want to doom them chronic sickness. In the real Paleo method of eating, you are not allowed to have any grains (nope, not even whole grains). However, based on the research that I have done, I feel comfortable allowing us to continue to consume some grains but we are trying to make them healthier ones. We had roasted butternut squash the other night along with some kale chips I made. Squash = yummy; Kale chips = we'll try those again in a week or two :)

We even bought a book that explains to the boys what we are doing and how we are chaining our eating patterns right now. We are doing this as a family for 6 weeks and then we will reassess how we are feeling.

The boys are doing just fine with Almond Milk but they are struggling to try and find a non-dairy yogurt that is okay. I've tried an almond milk based yogurt and the consistency/texture is much different and neither of the boys liked it. I also tried goat's milk yogurt (at least it is similar in make-up to human milk and supposed to be much easier to digest) but they don't really like that either. We are trying to find replacements for their most common foods and it's going pretty well so far. Aiden and I are likely to see the most benefit from this non-dairy change but Eli could as well. Asthma and eczema are both related to dairy consumption (along with chronic ear problems from all the mucus milk makes you produce) so we'll see. We are just keeping an open mind and trying to find something that works for our family and allows us to feel a bit better. We'll keep you updated.

11/12 - Therapy

Aiden is getting stronger every week! It's so amazing. Here he is with Mrs. Rusty last week. He had to throw balls and hold up the hoop so she could throw balls. The little stinker loves to throw right handed even though he does everything else left handed.

She then had him use the rope and try to lift himself out of the ball pit. He needed quite a bit of help but he kept trying. Well, he said he was done because he couldn't lift himself up but she urged him to keep trying so he did.

I wanted to include this next picture so I had proof for Aiden that he really did hang on to the rope all by himself without letting his feet touch the ground.

The next exercise Aiden did was new for him. He loves this little house that has a bunch of locks on it. You have to unlock the doors to get out the shaped pieces that are inside and then lock the door back up. Mrs. Rusty coached him to have the hand position that is appropriate to lock and unlock the door. He was having to focus so much. In the picture below he has his little shoulders all tensed up ... well, that and he likes to use his upper body rather than just using his fingers.

He then gave her the pieces and she placed them on the side of the ball pit. He then had to retrieve them using a long pincher tool thing and place them back in her hand. Look at the far right picture below. He sticks his little tongue out whenever he is doing something challenging, especially involving motor control and moving his body.

He figured out right away that it's easier to grasp the pincher tool using both hands but we need his hand strength the get better so he was only allowed to use one hand. In order for this to happen though, Mrs. Rusty had to hold his right hand so he wouldn't use it.

After they were done getting the shapes, she had him draw a monkey on the mat that hangs up in the therapy room. Aiden actually even asked to use chalk which is pretty surprising because 1) he doesn't like chalk dust and 2) he normally doesn't like to write voluntarily. Mrs. Rusty does such a great job with coaching him through the process of making something. They made great monkeys and I was so surprised he could follow her directions and drawing to mimic hers.

The fight for Aiden to put his own socks on is starting to diminish. He now only gets to wear them at night if he puts them on. The other night someone was calling my name from their room and I was so tired. I answered back, "stop calling my name. If you need to go potty, go potty. If you need socks, put them on. Anything else needs to wait until tomorrow." (I didn't say I was going to win mother of the year award) Everything is quite for a few minutes and then someone is calling my name out again. I yell back the same thing I did before. I heard nothing else ... for a few minutes. On the third time, I was so annoyed and turned on the hall light (so I can somewhat see in their room) and said, "who is calling me and what do you want?" Aiden replies "I put my socks on by myself! Do I get a sticker for that in the morning?" He was so excited that he did it by himself so I didn't want to crush his world by telling him I was not answering a silly question like that when I already told them what I did. So, I shook my head in slight disbelief for a moment that I seriously got up to find out he doesn't actually need anything, and in fact, is finally doing things on his own. I told him "that's a great job Aiden and you get a sticker tomorrow. However, from now on, you can ask me that in morning. Great job though." You should have seen the smile on his face when he told me he put both socks on by himself.

We are still working on putting our shoes on but we are starting to finally make some headway on the socks which is very exciting. We went from rewards for putting socks on (M&M) and then to bargaining (I'll do it this time but you have to do it next time; or I'll do one sock and you can do the other). We gave him stickers for about a week of putting on his socks and now he just realizes that he has to do it (and doesn't get a sticker; but he can earn a sticker putting his tennis shoes on!). In fact, he put his shoes and socks on enough times last week to win a special airplane from Ms. Rusty. He LOVES this thing and we if he starts arguing about not wanting to put his socks on then I just say, "that's fine; I'll help you but we will have to take the airplane back to Mrs. Rusty to hold on to for a week until you can earn it back."

And here is something about Eli: He's starting to dress himself!!! Yeah!!!! Unlike Aiden, he has no idea how to match and doesn't even care. BUT, he's pulling his undies up all by himself, putting pants/shorts on if we are really patient, and even the shirt. He's starting to want to be independent like his big brother which is neat to see.