A Quick Video

Here is a video of our newly painted front room. Try to ignore the red sharpie decor on the couch and some of the carpet...I tried to avoid videoing the exact areas of Sam's 2 1/2 year old expertise.



Speaking of Sam, the audiologist said that his eustachian tubes are not opening properly, so that is what is causing the fluid behind his eardrums. He is recommending to the family doc that we get sent to the ENT (Ear Nose and Throat) doc so he can see if it's a result of allergies, large adenoids, large tonsils, or something else making it difficult for the eustachian tubes to open when they need to. If you have no idea what I'm taking about, then here are two illustrations and a medical explanation:

About the eustachian tube
The eustachian tube begins in the nasopharynx, which is above and behind the soft palate, and extends to the middle ear.
The eustachian tube opens periodically to equalize the pressure in the middle ear. A malfunction of the eustachian tube may cause problems in the middle ear or the mastoid.
Some of these problems include:
Fluid
Infection
Retractions of the eardrum
Cholesteatoma
Children with some middle ear problems may "outgrow" the difficulty as the Eustachian tube matures.

Sam, cont.

I've abandoned soy. I've decided to try another route for Sam. He's going to the audiologist this Thurs. More about all that later; it's hard to type with one hand while holding the baby.

Dave's Killer 100% Whole Wheat Bread Recipe

Click this link to take you to the page where you can find the new 100% whole wheat bread recipe that I really like. The only differences are that I don't use a thermometer to check the temp at the end of baking the bread and I replace the sugar with an equal amount of honey.

On another note, Sam has an appointment with the doctor tomorrow morning. We will see if we have gotten anywhere with figuring out what is up with him.

More about Sam

Well, we tried him on the goat's milk, but it didn't seem to help with the snot production. I did more research on proteins in cow's milk and turned up some interesting information. Of course there is still lactose in goat's milk, just like cow's milk, but some of the proteins are different. There are two kinds of protein in milk: casein (KAY-see-in) and whey. The whey protein is different in goat's milk, but the casein is just the same. So, I'm guessing that since a person can have sensitivity to different fractions of the milk, that he is probably having a problem with the casein. I've put him on all soy for the next couple of weeks and we will see how it goes. He doesn't mind the taste, so at least we are good there. I've also learned that there are actually milk solids in margarine as well. I didn't realize it before, because I never read the ingredients in margarine...I just knew that there was hydrogenated oil in it. I also changed my bread recipe to eliminate the dry nonfat milk that I put into it. That's okay...I found a stellar 100% whole wheat bread recipe that was SOOOO good, Peter--the "I only like white bread best" boy--said, "Mmm...this tastes just like white bread!" I'm sure that's because I use hard white wheat instead of red and set my grain mill to "finer" instead of the "coarser" setting. Let me know if you want that recipe, and I will post it for you.

um, yeah,....fun....

Sam has had 3 ear infections in 2 just over 2 months. Finally, I started thinking along the lines of allergies. He had some blood drawn (oh, YEAH, that was fun....NOT.) for these alergy tests and we got the results yesterday. They tell me that he has possible sensitivities to three things: a common mold (they didn't say which one), a common weed (again, don't know which one), and cow's milk proteins. So, he has to lay off of all cow's milk products for a few weeks and see what happens. I did get him some goats milk, like what he was on as an infant, so that he can still get the calcium and other good things he needs for a growing body. I'm not so sure if I should be giving him that right now or not. I'm wondering about soy milk for 2 weeks, though I'm not really keen on only soy milk for little kids if it can be avoided. Oh well, I guess I'll do some more research and see where we go from there.

Just more pics

A good friend made some cupcakes for the kids. This is how Sam looked after digging into his. He even had chocolate boogies...sounds like one of those treats from the Monty Python chocolate frogs skit.

Next is Andrea in her first dance class. She did really well.

I had Claire giving good smiles and almost laughing while Daddy was supposed to be filming...well, it didn't work out like I had hoped, as you will hear at the start of the video.

Very Cute Pictures; Playing with my camera, Making Fairy Shacks

There, that title is my tribute to my brother-in-law, Bill. When my in-laws were on their mission, he decided that we should make the family emails more interesting by making each subject line into a haiku. I think I did it right.

Well, here are some pics for you. Apparently, some child was messing with my camera so there are some slightly strange-looking (Pete's is a bit creepy) pictures of my 3 older kids, and then some cute ones of the baby, and my sister Caitlin and her friend Katelyn making fairy shacks (they call them fairy houses, but I needed one less syllable for my haiku).

This one is a bit to reminicent of the movie The Grudge. Not a good thing.

Not much better....

This one's better, but still looks like it was taken from someone's dream or something.

"You must have been a beautiful baby...."

First day of First Grade!!!

The owners of FairyLand Construction Co. with their most recent project.

Baby Bath Time with Mom and Dad doting and cooing.