Life by the Lists

Five Favorites
1. Peanut has only been waking up once a night for several nights now.  Sometimes that one feeding lasts for 3 or 4 hours (I fall asleep all the time), but it still feels like he's going to get the night sleep thing sooner than later.

2.  This elimination diet I've been on has at least been good for my baby weight loss--down to 7 pounds less than I was when I got pregnant with Peanut and only 10 more to go to pre-kid weight.
3. The kids have been really busy with making books lately and I love that they can stay so busy creatively--and they've actually been doing a decent job at cleaning up the craft room (as long as I remind them several times).

4.  Brussel Sprouts--It's kind of sad when you can get so excited about a food that most people don't even like, but its one of the best tasting things I've been able to have the last couple weeks.  (I just realized I've never posted the recipe for these--have to do a post soon.)

5.  7:30 Bedtime.  Peanut isn't usually ready for bed quite that early, but once the big kids go down, the house gets amazingly quiet and I can suddenly think straight again.

Five Worsts
1.  How many times a day I have to strap a sad little baby into his carseat so we can do a school run, and most of them seem to be right at nap time.

2.  Trying to keep up with the laundry.  Just when I finally get the mountain taken care of, it reappears.  I've taken to storing our clean clothes in the Pack'n'play in the corner of our room.

3.  As the weather has cooled and its feeling like fall, I keep feeling nauseous because my memories of last fall are all so strongly tied to feeling sick.  I'm hoping that goes away before the holidays, but rereading some blog posts from last fall left me totally queasy.

4. Peanut still won't sleep in the car.  We tested him out on a road trip to the temple in Columbia, SC, 1.75 hours away, and he didn't nap the whole way there, or back--only a 10 min. nap in Daddy-o's arms the entire 6.5 hour trip.  Not looking good for a fall beach trip, or even apple picking up in the mountains this year.

5.  Making delicious baked goods that I can't eat.  The kids have been loving the zuchini bread, pumpkin muffins, oat bread, whole grain cookies.  Eggless rice flour pancakes just don't quite cut it.  I can't wait to be able to eat more foods.

Five Recent Reads
1. The Unhealthy Truth--scary look at our nations food issues in connection with food allergies.

2.  A Thousand Splendid Suns--fantastic book, although it was pretty depressing most of the way through.

3.  Mini Shopoholic--my guilty pleasure read.  There's really nothing worthwhile in this series, and I don't identify with the main character at all, but she's so over the top, ridiculous that they make me laugh.

4.  Throw Out 50 Things--Haven't finished my 50 yet, but its inspired some purging.  Goodbye, junk in the garage, old bottles in the bathroom, maternity clothes, and some of the too big pants (but I have to be realistic--we're eventually going to have to wean, and given my track record in that area, I don't want to be caught pant-less).

5.  The History of Love--good read, although I felt like the ending was a little messy.

Top 5 To Do List
1.  Buy the kids some new pants so they don't have to wear high waters anymore.

2.  Finish the last 2 little projects I want to do for Peanut's room.

3.  Mend the clothes I've had piled up all summer.

4.  Clear out the shelves and cabinets in the playroom so we can get it organized after the summer of craziness.

5.  Learn how to use Photoshop.

Little Bit o' Crafting

A couple weeks ago, I actually spent some time on creative endeavors.  Honestly, it wasn't a pretty week.  Both of these projects came with deadlines, and I'm just not ready for deadlines yet.  Too much pressure, and of course when I have something I *have* to do, Peanut has the worst nap week of his life and Bugaboo decides that he needs my undivided attention All.Day.Long.  There were more tears involved than I like to admit, from all of us.

This matchbox advent calendar(room for a mini candy bar in there if you like) will be one of the crafts we're offering at our Souper Saturday activity with the women's group from church.  Every fall we have a Saturday filled with craft projects, mini classes (Daddy-o is teaching a pie making one this year), and soups, breads, and desserts.  I didn't make it last year due to Peanut-induced throwing up, but its always a lot of fun.  And while making the sample was more stressful than I like, I am glad to have mine done already.

Original idea came from here.

Then, there was the chocolate peanut butter chip cake.  This one was for a good friend's baby shower, and I was so excited to be able to help celebrate their little boy's upcoming arrival, but remember what I said about deadlines.  Add in my memory struggles which led to a last minute shopping trip for missing ingredients and it was a pretty hectic day. 

Then there's also the fact that I couldn't even eat any of the cake.  But from what I hear, it was delish. I went for flavor over decorating since kids are probably the only ones that care more about how cake looks than how it tastes.  I knew the mom is a chocolate/peanut butter fan (and her husband isn't, so this isn't something she would be making for herself), so I pulled together three different recipes to come up with this.

The cake base is a doctored cake mix from here, using the suggestions in the comments to change it to peanut butter chips; the peanut butter filling (which I think was Daddy-o's favorite part) came from here (but the cake there got terrible reviews); and the ganache came from  this recipe, only I used vanilla instead of the rum.

And now, I'm not accepting anymore deadlines for awhile.  I can eventually get around to doing things, and have a few projects I'm working on, but it needs to be on my time table so I can enjoy the crafting process.

What's Happened to My Little Boy?

He is just in too big of a hurry to grow up.  Look at that hole, and he's only 4!  Looks like the one next to it is loose too.  And then there's the fact that he's learned how to read in the last few months.  I feel like he's already hitting all of the kindergarten milestones and it makes me a little sad.  He's supposed to be my little boy for another year.  But he's so excited to grow up.

4 Months

I've been waiting to write this until Peanut had his well check at the doctor, for a couple reasons.  First of all, I would have his stats, and also because I've honestly been pretty worried about him and was hoping to have something more certain to report.

First, the good news.  Peanut is on target behaviorally--he spent the entire visit trying to engage the doctor, cooing and smiling at her as she tried to talk to me.  He is using his hands how he should at this age, has good neck control and seems strong and has rolled from front to back, and is moving around as much as he can at this stage.

But, his digestive issues do seem to be affecting his weight gain.  He weighed in at 11 lbs 12 oz, and 25 3/4 inches long.  He's tall (70%--and I actually think he's longer than that but he was MAD when she tried to measure him, so she had a hard time pulling his leg out straight), but really skinny (3%).  Between the low weight gain, and mucous in his poops, his doctor wants him seen by a gastroenterologist.  I'm relieved because I'm doing the best I can on my own, but 3 weeks into this elimination diet, I'm not seeing much improvement.  But the dr. was very supportive of what I've tried and encouraged me to hold on for one more week so I can let the specialist know everything I've done and that my system is clean of all common allergens and we can go from there.

I was really hoping I was making a bigger deal out of all of this than it really is, but I guess not.  In some ways its a relief to know I'm not just a total hypochondriac.

In the meantime, please keep us in your thoughts and prayers.  We're just trying not to worry too much and enjoying this sweet little boy.  He really doesn't seem "sick", so its actually easy to forget that something isn't working quite right.
Hanging out with the boys:

 "What is L doing?  I don't get it."

And speaking of our little friend, L--he stopped me at the preschool the other day to let me know, "You still have a cute baby!"  I don't know if he was reassuring me that he's not ugly yet, or that he hasn't gone away.  Funny kid.

Another First Day

 (I asked him to hold up "4" for his age, but of course one hand wasn't enough.  Gotta go big.)

We've had a couple conversations in the last week reminiscent of last year where Bug tried to tell me he didn't want to go to preschool, but luckily, once he started, he's decided its really fun and has been having a blast with his friends.

 The mulch pile at the beginning of the year is always a big hit.  The kids are a little sad once it finally gets spread around the playground.

 And of course, its just too fun to try out all the daredevil stunts that make me so nervous to watch.  But he knows what he can do and is pretty careful.

 And of course its been fun to see all his friends from last year.  There are 16 kids in the 4's/5's class and 10 are from last years class, so it has been a fun reunion.

Hard to believe next year he'll be in Kindergarten!