Saturday, April 14, 2012

The 6th Month

I'm encouraged today!

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Sure, maybe I missed Easter because I got some freak allergy-induced ear infections. Maybe I still have to strain to hear my family talk to me. And maybe the house is a rockin' mess...but I'm encouraged.

This morning, I was thinking about what I wanted to write about, and I was enjoying thinking about the fun things we did over the last month. And then, before I started this post, I read back through the last post, and I can see that things are better right now than they were then.

Trevor is still struggling with his OCD, but I really think it is milder now. He can eat 90% of his meals peacefully. He still gets weird about William, but it is way less often. He doesn't walk around like a surgeon, with his hands in the "sterile" position, as much anymore. He does still tell me at least once a day that his OCD is "hurting him"...but he used to say that things were "hurting his OCD". I think that he is separating it from himself more...realizing that it is not part of him. Now, we can talk about it, and he can move on. It is true that he probably deals with it way more than I am aware of, but I think it is interfering with his daily life less than last month.

We have been doing the light therapy for almost 4 weeks now. I really think it is helping. We had his vision tested after 2 weeks, and his visual fields are opening up more. Also, we finally, after years of hearing about gluten-free and casein-free diets, have decided to try it out. The whole family. I know it's not very scientific to try more than one variable at the same time, but we were desperate!

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Zack has been taking better naps. He rarely cries when I put him down anymore, and also, in one week he went from taking terrible 45-minute naps to taking full 2-hours naps. In fact, now I have to go get him up after 2 hours, to make sure he will sleep good at night still. What changed?? I really think it is the GF/CF diet. His good naps started within 3 days of the diet, and are now very consistent. Whatever the reason...the point is: Aaahhhhh. It's sooo nice.

A lot has happened in the last month.

I had a birthday. Here I am, posing with my new skillet and apron. Apparently I didn't want anyone posing with me.
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Also, William turned 9!

We had chocolate-peanut-butter milkshakes for lunch. Nice choice:)
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And after dinner at Grandmothers, we had jello cake. William's choice. He even made it himself.
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It was actually surprisingly delicious.
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Zack has hit both the 5-month and 6-month marks, since I last posted. He has picked up several new skills:
He can jump...
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He can sit all by himself...(even while flapping his arms!)
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Yesterday he learned to eat a Cheerio!
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Not exactly Gluten-Free...so we'll see how that goes.
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He still has to concentrate to chew.
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And today he cut in his second tooth!

Even though he can sit alone, we still like to pop him in the bumbo in the kitchen. He loves to play with his toys.



We have had a couple of fun adventures lately. One day a couple weeks ago, being inspired by the Mission of Motherhood, I took the kids to a local plant nursery, and told them they could each spend $5 on plants. Well, while we loved looking around the beautiful nursery, $5 didn't get us much there. So, off we went to Lowe's.

I have to admit, I had visions in my head of everyone getting flowers. I imagined snap dragons, marigolds, colorful pansies...apparently I still have a lot to learn about raising boys. The only flowers we came home with were the zinnia seeds I picked out for myself.

But, don't think I was disappointed! It was so much fun, and I learned so much about the kids.

William was on a mission. He wanted a pitcher plant...a carnivorous plant that drowns its victims. Nary a one could we find.

Samuel was the first to actually snag a plant. His choice?
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Oregano! He wanted something that wasn't going to just die at the end of the summer. Plus, "we can use it for food." He still had over a dollar left to spend, and did a lot of thinking while the other boys found their choices.

While we were looking for a pitcher plant, we found venus fly traps and sun dews, which are also carnivorous and catch their prey on their sticky leaves. Our fly trap is thriving out on our patio, so Trevor decided to get a sun dew. It's not looking so good right now, but I expect it will take some time for it to recover from its time at Lowe's.
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William's second choice of plant was a cactus. Let me tell you, Lowe's has a large assortment of cacti. I know, because we inspected very variety of cacti. Twice. At least. This is what William chose:
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It is a nasty little thing...the deceptively soft-looking needles on it come off so easily, and seem designed to lodge themselves into little hands. It's called a Bunny Ear. Perhaps someone had never really held a bunny when they named it that?

While William was shopping (and shopping and shopping) Samuel decided to go spend his last bit of money. At first he thought he might get a snap dragon (yes!) but then he saw the seed stand. He brought me a large handful of seed packets, and wanted to know how much it would cost to get them all. He had watermelon, corn, strawberries, broccoli, peppers, and cucumbers, I think. He was a little deflated when I added them up, and told him it would cost over $8 to get them all. We talked it over, and he decided to get...
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Broccoli.

I told him he was like a farmer. He really liked that idea.

We came home and planted all our treasures. The kids have really enjoyed taking care of their plants. Samuel especially likes to go out and water his "garden." I loved seeing inside their little hearts...seeing what delights them.

The next day, we went to the library. Samuel got some Scooby Doo books, William got some cactus books, and Trevor got a sun dew book. At the last minute though, we found The Mushroom Book. Trevor has been interested in fungi for quite awhile. He had actually wanted to find mushrooms to buy with his $5, but, where does one buy mushrooms??

This mushroom book is so cool. If you happen to like mushrooms, you might like it.
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He has had hours and hours of entertainment from it. He has even sucked us in...especially Tim.
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Trevor hunts all over our yard, and can find new mushrooms every day.
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It's really amazing how many different kinds we have in our yard. The book has an identification guide that Trevor likes to use. He also likes to record what he finds.
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We bought some mushrooms from the store. We used to pick them out of our food, but now we have started eating mushrooms.
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We put them on our burgers (along with sauteed onions...it's a little like eating steak, since we aren't eating buns anymore), and in our stir fry.

That same week, we went to the book sale at our library. It was so funny to me to see what the kids picked out. Samuel got a Prince of Egypt book (the Disney version) and a Sonic book (the Saturday morning cartoon character). William picked out these decorative coffee-table-type books:
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and Trevor picked out this:
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I just love how different and complicated they each are.

Oh how I praise God for the fun memories this month...for the help he has given us. I know many people are praying for us, and we are very thankful. I'm taking Trevor back to re-test his vision again this week. You can pray for that, and also that my ears would heal without any expensive trips to the ENT like the doctor mentioned could happen. :)