KinderMusik Creation

This semester N is learning about the weather in KinderMusik. He is learning about the sounds drops of rain make, we pretend we are splashing in rain puddles, etc. He has had fun homework assignments. This week he was suppossed to make a windchime. I had him go around the house and choose things that he thought would make cool noises. These are the items he choose...I found his choices quite creative.

windchime (l-r) earring, screw, belt buckle, jingle bells and a spoon

It really does make wonderful sounds! N knows Grandma Andria likes windchimes so he has the perfect place planned for his windchime at her house.

A few weeks ago he was tasked to make his own rain hat. He choose one of daddy's construction hats and a few things from the craft tote to complete his masterpiece.

And here he is sporting his digs

Not sure how dry it would keep him but great none the less!

Good News!

Yeah! H had her follow up appointment today at the U. The doctor was impressed with our progress. Two months ago they asked me to put Miss H on an antihistimine that causes rapid weight gain. Of course I researched this drug and asked everyone I knew what they thought of it. The pharmacists I talked to informed me it is an age old antihistamine and should be okay, however the pessimist in me kept thinking yea but every drug has side effects. And besides that she doesn't need to be on an antihistamine - it just happens to make kids hungry. I was scared. You are talking to a girl who doesn't even like to take tylenol for a headache so I agonized about it, prayed a lot and came to the conclusion that I would do my very best to ignore H's behaviors. If she was eating good at the table I would praise the heck out of her. If she wasn't I would ignore it, not say one word, and when her 20 minutes were up we would get down from the table and move on. I gave this a try for a week and wouldn't you know...she began eating like a champ.

Now I know 2 year olds can eat great one day and then eat like birds for a week so I was a little pessimistic at first. I couldn't help but think meal times would go back to being the worst part of my day. But that wasn't the case at all, we have had a very successful two months! Miss H gained 9.97 grams per day, which was at the 90th percentile for weight gain!! Yes, 90th! Woo-hoo! The prior four months her weight gain has been 2.7 grams per day. A child her age should be gaining between 5-10 grams per day and one that has some making up to do should be gaining between 10-15 g/d. They told me those stats but still said we did a great job. They said to keep calorie boosting everything she eats and ignore any negative behaviors having to do with eating.

We still have a ways to go. She is 2 years and six months and only weighs 21.5 lbs but we are making progress! I have to celebrate that. They would be really happy with 23 lbs.

pic: She had KinderMusik tonight after a long day of traveling. She did not take a nap so she is about falling asleep eating her ice cream before bed. She is wearing her warmy cuddly favorite DORA pjs so I'm sure she'll have a great nights rest.

Naomi's Kitchen

Betsy called yesterday and asked if I would like to join her and our friend Katrina on Saturday November 22nd at Naomi's Kitchen in North Liberty. I had never heard of this. However in my entrepreneurial day dreaming I have thought of such a thing! Probably wouldn't go over in SE IA but I'm certain it will make it in North Liberty anyway I recommend visiting their website but here's how it works. Each month Naomi's Kitchen posts a new menu. You log on and choose 12 meals that you want to make. You go make it all, they provide the dishes to take your meals home in, and THEY clean up the entire mess. You just bring a cooler and take it all home to your freezer for tasty quick meals! At first I thought it sounded a tad bit expensive but when you do the math it's not. Twelve meals for $200. I hate to admit it but I almost spend that much on 10 meals so I'm giving it a try. I forgot to ask her if we can bring our purees to add to the dishes or not. I'm sure they won't mind but I will certainly blog about this experience to let you now how it goes. If any of you Mom's are interested we are addicted to Jessica Seinfeld's recipe book Deceptively Delicious. We puree fruits and veggies and sneak them in to our kids favorite foods and they are none the wiser. For instance tonight we had homemade Chicken Noodle soup, YUM! I added an entire cup of pureed cauliflower to the soup that was already packed full of the veggies my kids will eat (like carrots, beans, peas, lima beans) and they gobbled it down.

Betsy and Katrina visited Naomi's Kitchen in October and they are hooked. In addition to taking the stress out of a few nights a month I will also have a standing date to visit my friends! Thank you sooo much for inviting me!

Grandma Klima

This may seem inappropriate to blog about but I want to remember this so I'm going to do it. Grandma Klima passed away on October 31st after a short illness. I had originally thought we wouldn't take the kids to the wake or to the funeral because they wouldn't understand at 2 and 4. However it was a Sunday afternoon (out of town) and the entire family was at the wake so I didn't have a choice. We had explained to N that Grandma passed away and she went to Heaven. Before we reached the door of the funeral home I decided I needed to explain a little more. I told him, "N, Grandma died, her body was broken and it didn't work anymore. The doctors nor God could fix it so she is going to live in Heaven, she will be very happy there. When we walk in here Grandma will be laying in a special bed and then tomorrow she will go to heaven."

We went in and he insisted on seeing Grandma in her special bed so we went in and said a prayer and told her we loved her. N then told me he needed to go potty. We went to the restroom and this was our conversation:

N: "How long will Grandma stay in her special treasure box?"

Me: "She will stay in there for two days"

N: "Then tomorrow after the funeral, God will shut the door and she will magically disappear to Heaven?"

Me: "Yes honey"

Sabbatical

Sorry, it has been a little rough with Aaron being gone most of the summer assisting with FEMA trailers. He is back and we are going to start blogging again. Yeah!

Blood work results

We received the report from the University and it indicates that Favorite Girl is a healthy little girl. Thank goodness! Thank you for all of your prayers.

The speech and swallowing report state, "The Bzoch-League Receptive Expressive Emergent Language Scale , with both parents as informants, revealed that FG's receptive and expressive language skills are at expected levels. In fact they are somewhat above expected levels. FG's speech and language development appear to be as expected, at this time. Her parents reported that they thought her language development was at the same level as other same age peers at her day care. FG's oral motor skills and swallowing appear adequate."

The report from the Pediatric Growth Clinic states...

Review of Systems
"FG is a healthy girl with occasional colds as noted in HPI, all other review of systems negative."

The report then lists the results of FG's blood and the acceptable range for a girl her age. There were 40 different tests ran on her blood. The only thing that came back to "review" was her Mean Corpuscular Volume. Hers was 79FL and the acceptable range is (75-90). I looked this up in a lab book at the hospital and it stated that it may be low in strict vegetarians and people that are anemic. I guess it makes sense that she is on the lower end of the range since she will not eat very much meat...other than hot dogs, and I'm not quite sure what nutritional value comes from a hot dog.

Impression
"Twenty-five month-old female with lack of normal physiological growth and behavior concerns"

Plan
1. FG should be fed in a high chair instead of a booster chair, so that she cannot remove the back of the chair. The high chair should be far enough from the table that she cannot kick he high chair over. Mealtime should be a pleasant time, avoiding tension and fights over food. If parents feel frustrated with feeding, they should hide their frustration from FG.
2. Distraction should be limited during mealtimes. TV off and put dog in a separate room during dinner.
3. Parents and children should sit at the table together during mealtime. If children want to get up from the table, they should not be allowed to return to the table to eat until the next meal or snack.
4. Meals should be limited to 3 full meals and 3 snacks per day without grazing between meals. Meals should last 20 min, and snacks 15 min unless active eating is taking place in which meal times may be extended.
5. FG should be offered solid foods first during mealtime and a drink at the end of the meal to prevent filling up on liquids.
6. Juice should be limited to 4 oz per day.
7. Water, pop, Popsicles, Kool-Aid, and other low calorie dense foods should be avoided. Instead, FG may eat fudgesicles, fruit with Cool Whip, whole milk or other calorie dense foods.
8. Meal time recommendations should carry over to daycare, so that FG receives calorie dens meals at daycare and avoid behavioral conflicts.
9. FG's father should take responsibility for the majority of the tooth brushing times to avoid conflict.
10. A follow up appointment will be scheduled in the Growth Clinic for 2 months from original appointment to discuss progress.

Everything they told us was common sense and things we were already doing except for FG did eat in a booster at the table, we did not limit meal and snack times to 20 and 15 minutes respectively. Each meal lasted about 1.5 hours at our house. We also offered water all through out the day, and prior to this appointment our kids did not get to dunk everything they ate into some high calorie dip or frosting.

We have made the changes they recommended and I thought we were doing really really well until Monday! FG and mommy were at their wits ends with one another and then on Tuesday mommy discovered FG's 2 year molars are coming in. I can tell she is in a lot of pain and the feedings definitely are not going so well but we will get back on track as soon as the teeth are in.

Daddy continues to live in CR helping everyone recover from the flood. We miss him lots!

Update on favorite girl

The day of our visit to the University I received a business card from the dietitan we met with. She told me to give her a call if I thought of any questions. I finally decided to call her since I have not heard anything yet on the blood work. She told me she would not be able to share any results with me but that she could look in favorite girl's chart and tell me if I will be cc'd on the results. She told me that some of the blood work would be "sent out" to the Mayo clinic so not to be alarmed that it is taking awhile. She looked in the chart and said that our pediatrician here locally and myself are both listed to receive the results so I will receive a copy in the mail. She said the chart had not been "closed" yet, indicating they do not have all of the blood work results back yet, so to be patient. Ugh! Easier said than done. We have our good days and our bad days. The same as all parents of toddlers. She eats really well one day and then hardly anything the next. If mac n' cheese is her favortie today it is "acky!" three days later. She was doing really well on the carnation instant breakfast in her milk but now she has caught on and if she sees me adding it to her cup she cries and won't take a drink...I have figured out that if I let her put on a Dora shirt and say drink your milk Dora is hungry she will drink it right down. I guess we will be purchasing more Dora shirts!