::ANNA::

Laugh until you Cry

love it when this happen.  It's that "double over because your stomach hurts and tears streaming down you face" type of laughter.  I have many childhood memories, sitting around the dinner table with my Mum, Dad and sister, doing just this.  I used to think that my sense of humour is typically British, but these I wonder...

I tend to laugh at the things in life that most people don't find funny, a trait I share with my sister, who laughs at the same things as I do.  When she told me about this movie, I knew it would be good, but really i had no idea!  Talk about funny!  There aren't many movies I will watch twice but this is one of them.

Something else that made me laugh yesterday was Luke.  Now that he's really starting to vocalize what he is feeling, we are hearing the funniest things.  Yesterday, we went to the store with the intention of getting him some pants that he would wear, as it's becoming more and more difficult to get him out of his jammies each day.  I failed miserably and we ended up with yet more jammies.  At least he went for the larger size which will last him a while.  I chose that option over an embarrassing meltdown in the store, though he was really cute asking the store assistant if she had jammies with motorcycles on them.

On the way home, we passed the base hospital and Luke proceeded to describe his experience of having his shots several weeks ago.  In a very high volume and emphatic voice, he proceeds:

" DOCTOR. VERY. BAAAADDD.  HE. SHOT. ME. VERY. HARD.  HE.  TAKE.  PIECES. OUT. ME"

It's interesting to hear how he perceived the experience.

Ella is doing better at school.  She continues to tell me she misses me when she gets on the bus in the morning but she goes without any problem.  She loves her teacher and has a "mystery" friend, whose name remains so far unknown.  This week she has developed an interest in drawing mermaids.  She saw someone do it and now is drawing them over and over again.  I remember at school, I was probably 7 years old, doing the very same thing.  At first it was Kingfishers, of all things, and then a cute dinosaur I had seen someone draw.  So many similarities.

Another little glitch is that Luke has misplaced Carter, his beloved little dog, who is his comfort.  I say misplaced because he is in the house somewhere because we haven't been anywhere with him since he was last seen.  We just don't know where he might be.  I've turned the house upside down.  I've even looked in the oven, but no joy.  In the meantime, he's taken a liking to his "baby jaguar (or jaguwater as Ella calls it)" even though it's actually a tiger :)

Ronalyn's home tonight.  Looking forward to seeing her again.

Happy Friday! 

Milestones

It was a big day for us all yesterday as Ella had her first day at Kindergarten.  It was a great start to the morning and it helped that there were no tearful goodbyes from any of the other children in the class. 

Strike a pose!  Note Luke with his own little pack lunch, that he insisted on by the way, and is still asking me when he can go to "Baby Scoo"

Ella keen to hand me her backpack.  "It's too heavy Mommy".

Ella sees Sariah (our next door neighbour) and takes the lead.

Ella standing in line with the picture she decided she wanted to draw for her new teacher.

I picked her up at 3.45pm.   When I asked if she had had a good day, she gave a brief answer, "yes".  Ella is not usually one to elaborate on details, so I didn't think anything of it, but pursued for more information.  She then announced she had tummy ache and was hungry.  On reaching the car, I opened her lunch bag I was surprised to find she had barely touched her lunch, eating only a few vegetables.  At first, when asked why she hadn't eaten her lunch, she told me she was full, but she is usually a good eater.  She hadn't eaten much of her breakfast either so she should have devoured her lunch.  It took some probing and a lot of patience, but it appears she didn't have time to eat her lunch.  She said all the kids had finished and were packing up to go to the park.  So she did too.

Information often comes in broken pieces over a period of time requiring some piecing together.  She later said that she didn't actually play at lunch because she said her tummy hurt too much. I've recently discovered that it all amounts to her short attention span to certain tasks and her being easily distracted.  It's a constant process at home to remind her repeatedly to get on with the task in hand, and I am assuming  the lunch room filling up with more and more children simply distracted her.  She won't say anything because she likes to please and does not want to upset anyone.  Fingers crossed for today now that her teacher has been notified.

Over dinner she demonstrated some of the sounds of letters in the alphabet and told us that she had sang 2 songs.  She had made one friend, a girl, but didn't know her name, because she didn't say.  She didn't think to ask the little girl what her name was, but was more focused on the fact that she had told her what her name was.

She played with Luke really well after dinner.  This is another change we've seen since we've been in this new diet, that and he is consistently sleeping 12 hours at night.  Can I hear a "Woohoo!"

At bedtime, she wanted me to read her story, not Daddy.  Which is not unusual for her.  This is typically Mommy-Ella time when we talk and she will often tell me her secrets.  Instead I found her in bed crying saying she didn't like school and didn't want to go anymore.  Again it took some probing, but it finally transpired that she does not like her music teacher.  He's a man to begin with and she's always feared men.  I was the same as a child.  Apparently, he pretended to be a monster, and because she has an over-active imagination, she was very scared but not able to tell anyone.  At first she didn't want me to say anything because, "It is a secret from her music teacher". I was eventually able to persuade her otherwise.

She was very intent on telling me that she paid attention and did everything she was told.  She loves her story time before bed but couldn't help interrupting every so often with rules that she had learned throughout the day, or telling me about the little boy who had to stand in the corner for throwing a "rock" at her teacher.

Again this morning, she was adamant about not going to school but I promised to take her into school and tell her teacher for her that she is scared.  She later agreed on going on her "big yellow bus" as long as I sent an email to her teacher.

 

I

ncidentally, Luke also thinks he's getting on the bus, hence the backpack.

Notice Ella let's her friend Jackie go first, just to make sure she's not left on the bus on her own.

So....So far so good...

Phew!

Luke and I went to Barnes and Noble yesterday, so that he could play with the Thomas trains and I was in search of some gluten-free/casein free cookbooks.  I came away with this one which not only has some good basic and quick recipes but also gives some great explanations as to why this diet is working so well for us so far.

In brief:

Food allergies and food sensitivities are completely different.  The former result in immediate physical reactions where the latter result in a much broader array of symptoms, including behavioral, change in mood or development symptoms, which can take from 1-3 days to appear.

Symptoms of food sensitivities can include: Fatigue, food cravings (people crave the very foods that are causing the bad reaction), Eczema, dark circles under the eyes, stomach aches, loose stools/constipation or alternating states between the two, congestion, abnormal pulse or high blood pressure, headaches, ringing in the ears, dizziness from standing up too quickly, ADHD symptoms (decreased attention span, hyperactivity, impulsivity), irritability, mood swings, anxiety and autism symptoms (poor eye contact, social withdrawal, decreased language, obsessions and repetitive behaviours).

Normally food is digested in the small intestine where they are broken down in various stages to small molecules.  Along with nutrients these are allowed to pass through the intestinal wall (absorbed) into the bloodstream where they go to various organs in the body, including the brain  The lining has to be a good barrier to prevent the food being absorbed before it has been fully digested.

Many children with ADHD and autism have what's called a "leaky" gut, basically microscopic holes in the intestinal wall which allow larger, potentially harmful molecules to pass through the blood-brain barrier.  These children also have trouble breaking down proteins which consist of many chains of amino acids which are not useful, and can do harm to the body, if not fully broken down before they are absorbed.  Normally they are broken down to their smallest state, pass through the intestinal lining, and then are reconstituted by the body to create the "building blocks" of our bodies.

People with a "leaky" gut can end up having short chains of amino acids called peptides being absorbed into the blood.  These peptides can give signals to the brain which should not normally occur and basically create a short circuit, which creates the behaviours and developmental delays in children with ADHD and Autism.

In addition, these peptides can also have an opiate-like effect on the brain, rather like morphine, which is why people with these disorders crave the very foods that are making them sick.  Casein, Gluten and Soy are the biggest offenders, with Corn closely following behind.  Opiate-like peptides have been shown to react with areas of the brain that are involved in speech and auditory processing.

Make's sense, right?

Thanks to all those who have emailed with great information, tips and ideas as I venture through this maze and try to figure it all out.  I am truly amazed at just how many people are experiencing the same symptoms and issues.  It's actually quite alarming.

Read this.

OK, off to take Luke to the park :)  He misses Ella.

 

 

Good Stuff

Well, I didn't get my albums completed as intended but we did get to go to the State Fair.  It opened this weekend and runs for a month.  We didn't go last year because it rained the entire month and let's just say I'm not an "all weather" type of girl.  On Saturday, temps soared into the 70s, and so, we couldn't not go with it possibly being the last nice weekend.  Just today Ella declared "Fall is here" (to the entire street) as she witnessed the first leaves fall from the tree in front of our house.  Ashton and Luke then proceeded to pick them all up and deposit them on the "landing" half way down the stairs.  Oh JOY!

So we sat in traffic for 2 hours which we sort of expected.  What we didn't expect was that none of us lost our cool which is extremely rare.  I'm notorious for hating heavy traffic and standing in line but surprisingly I was super cool.  Luke also was laid back and continued to surprise us for the rest of the day.  He even sat still long and still enough for them to paint Nemo on his face.  We had a really good time in spite of the heavy crowds.

...and no fighting on the flying saucer like when we were in Florida.

Always love the wild hair at these Alaskan fairs.

This scene will soon be a distant memory, which leaves me wondering, who will be toting all that stuff when the stroller goes away?

The only meltdown followed with the parting of this "moto-cycle" as Luke calls it.  It wasn't so much that he had to leave it behind but the fact that he didn't want any other "babies" riding it.  I find it interesting that he refers to other kids of similar age as "babies" yet he considers himself to be a big boy.  Motor cycles are his "thing" and he REALLY fancied himself on this one :)

8pm and we're heading home.

Sunday, it was haircuts for the boys, Commissary and Costco, a.k.a "lots of running around".   

Diet Update:  We're approaching the end of week two on this diet.  I can't believe I have been completely without dairy and wheat for 2 weeks, and even more importantly I can't believe the changes we are seeing in all of us. 

Luke had a rough day on Thursday and I later learned that the cous cous I gave him the night before is a gluten product.  You live and learn.  Some of the things we are noticing are that he will now hold my hand when asked to do so, he has a little more patience and does not fly off the handle quite so quickly.  He is more inclined to ask for help than go into meltdown mode.  Today he and Ashton actually played together, with a few spats, but nothing like before. They are usually arch enemies. He is playing with his toys as opposed to breaking them.  I have also noticed a huge leap in his speech and maturity.  Somehow he suddenly seems much older and is able to communicate like he has never done before.  It's almost like his brain is beginning to finally function properly.

Even Ella is less hyper.  She is less verbally repetitive and is not driving me crazy with her constant questions and obsessive desire to know exactly "what are we doing next?'  Or perhaps this diet is affecting me positively.  I don't feel that rage rising inside me when irritated, I'm more laid back. Having 2 less demanding children certainly makes life a lot easier and far less stressful.  I think we might well be sticking with this diet.

Ella of course starts Kindergarten tomorrow.  She's excited but nervous about all the new faces.  Not  sure how I feel about it at this point.  There have been so many other things going on that I don't think I've really spent the time thinking about it.  She doesn't tend to like change so it will be a case of getting into the routine at first, but she likes her teacher so I'm confident she'll be fine.

The new diet does present a bit of a difficulty in that she will be the only one who cannot have what everyone else is eating during snack time.  Eric and I have thought long and hard about the diet.  It is not convenient for sure but we have seen the huge difference it has made to both Luke and Ella in just 2 weeks.  So in order to make snack time easier for her.  I made her own little snack box.  I will bring in 7 snacks for the box each Monday for her to choose from, so she should have 2 remaining each week just as perk of giving her extra choice.  Ella didn't want to miss out on the action so she made one for me also, all on her own.

She of course picked the papers and is particularly taken with the shiny ones by Worldwin

Which brings us to today.  We finally got around to decorating those sugar cookies with "safe" icing.  They turned out pretty good.  At least Luke thought so.

I leave you tonight with Luke's last words as I tucked him in to bed tonight. 

"I know everyone's names....You're the best Mommy, Ella is the best (pause) Ella, Daddy is the best Daddy, and I'm the best Lukey."

...and he's the best little boy, we've just rarely seen it before.

Great Prices...

Here.

Random

Do you ever look back on your week and think it seems to have been longer than 7 days?  That has been me this week.   It's been a long, busy and eventful week.

Monday night, we briefly met Ella's Kindergarten teacher, Mrs Pope, and made our appointment for a meeting Wednesday which went really well.  Ella seems excited to start school.  So far so good....

Tuesday, I got together with my German friend here, Jutta, for the first time in a LONG time.  She's been in Germany, I've had family here and then it just got to that point where we both thought it had been too long to call.  Glad I took the chance and contacted her.

Tuesday was also the day we were told Eric is going back to shift work which is not good timing for us having had Luke just diagnosed with Aspergers and his Psychologist advocating routine as the best way to handle him from hereon.  She has written a letter explaining this but we're not holding out too much hope.  Mission first and family second is usually the way it goes.  I accept him going back to shift as being part of the job, but it's the way it came about and the lack of honesty from someone we thought of as a good friend that is the difficult part. 

It is what it is...so moving on.  Eric has decided to pull his extension paperwork so looks like we'll be moving next year afterall.  We're aiming to make this our very last move to avoid more transition than is necessary for both Luke and Ella.

Diet is going well although we have met with a few grumblings from Ella which is to be expected.  Picked up some goodies yesterday from the Natural food section and it seems to have quietened her for now.  We're also going to be making some "safe" iced sugar cookies today which she'll really like.  Even the Doc yesterday commented on how much calmer Luke seemed yesterday which is a good sign, that said she didn't see the scratches on my TV screen he made a few hours earlier.

I have an appointment today with someone new to manage my own meds with the view of coming off them in the future if at all possible.  My friend is going to watch E & L so they're looking forward to playing with Hailey and I'm hoping to nip into the Scrapbookstore to pick up a few bits for a Digital Scrapbooking assignment.

My thoughts are with Ronalyn today as it is her Dad's wake today and funeral tomorrow.

Planning on relaxing a bit this weekend and doing a little creating.  I got 2 mini albums put together last weekend and hope to finish them up with some typed journaling:)

Have a great weekend, and here's a sneak peek of some of what's coming:

New ART

...available since Sunday at Designer Digitals here.

Includes the following LandscapeART Paperie, in which I used photos from a recent trip to Denali National Park.

Weekend Antics +

Time flies when you're having fun and also when you're not.

Saturday night, my main hard drive failed.  When you've got 190 GB of "stuff" stored on there, to say it is a big worry, is a slight understatement.  Eric built my all singing all dancing PC (with a terabyte of memory I might add) last year and has al gone swimmingly until this weekend.  He told me when he built it that it had a "Raid 5 configuration" (whatever that means...) and so I didn't need to back anything up because if a drive failed it would be copied to one of the other drive (or along those lines).  I'm not tech savvy at all so I'm not even going to try to pretend I know what I'm talking about.  Put me in Photoshop and I'm fine but the hardware is all Eric.  I did doubt him at one point but he, and "The Raid Configuration",  have lived up to their reputation.   Panic over.  I now have a back-up of a back-up and am even considering a third back-up.  Over the top?  Perhaps.

The diet on the other hand is going AWESOME.  I have been amazed at how easy it has been.  I had a bit of a craving for the dairy on the third day but since discovering this and this it's been a breeze.  I kid you not that they are better than the real thing.  I have also found a Rice Milk that I like in my tea and so now I'm really laughing.  E and L love the Chocolate Chip Cookies and Waffle Mix.  It's really great to have the whole family on board and be able to eat almost the same things as we used to.

Friday, Luke got hold of a cheese stick, while ona  playdate, and that night he screamed with stomach pain and didn't eat a thing.  We've also noticed that after almost a week we are seeing a few differences in Luke.  He used to drink obscene amounts of orange juice, probably the acid helped his stomach with all the dairy, but he's not drinking nearly as much juice as he used to.  He also sat in his stroller quietly today while we did the remainder of Ella's school supply shopping.  We've never seen that before.  He's usually...Wild.

This leads me to today.  We woke up this morning to Fall.  There was a chill in the air that told me to get out my big sweater which means we've probably seen our last summer day for 2007.  We've been lucky with the past 2 weeks though so we can't complain.  It's hard to believe the snow will be here to stay by Halloween. 

With Ella starting Kindergarten next week we're getting into the routine of the early morning.  Eric got me up at about 6.40am.  I showered and woke Ella up at 7am.  Luke awoke around the same time.  We dressed.  I cooked them breakfast, teeth brushed and we were ready to catch the bus at 8.25am, except the bus doesn't come for another 8 "sleeps", so they got to watch some TV and then we headed to the mall for new tap and ballet shoes, and some indoor sports shoes, which was more of a nightmare than I had anticipated.

We went to 2 malls, 5 stores total, and in each one it was like a zoo, people frantic and shelves ransacked.  I've always wondered what all the back to school hype was about and now I know.  It's like a mad dash to the finish line, or to the start, I should probably say.   We started out my day looking for a pair of $20 shoes but by the fifth store I didn't care what they cost, I just wanted to get out of there.  I found some cute pink Nike's stashed among the boys shoes and so Ella settled on those.  Coming from England this is all pretty new to me, so lets just say it's left me in a state of shock vowing we'll do school shopping in June next year :)

I leave you with one of our last Summer memories.  Eric and I sitting in Deck chairs at the park behind our house with a beer in hand, watching Ella, and Luke in his jammies, playing on the climbing frame.  Good times :)

 

Checkin' in....

It's been a busy week.

Some gorgeous weather as well a few more changes.

On Monday I took Luke to a Naturopath primarily for allergy testing, however, after hearing his medical history she suggested cutting dairy, wheat and citrus from his diet to see if this corrects the problem.  Eric has had Gastro Intestinal problems for the past 6 year and the Military have yet to provide a satisfactory cause.  We can only assume that he lacks the enzyme that breaks downs lactose which is often the case with Asians.  Luke had colic and reflux as a baby, and almost 3 years later, he's still struggling.  The doctors on base still insist there is nothing wrong with him.  So even though it goes against my beliefs that you cannot just eliminate a food group, we're giving it a try.  "Don't knock it until you've tried it" is what my Mum would say, and at the end of the day, what's 6 weeks?  Eric has been more enthusiastic than anticipated and it appears that I am the only one moarning the loss of my dairy.  Luke and Ella have adapted far better than I expected and I am amazed at the choices, and good choices at that, out there.  So day 2 comes to a close.  Ella and Luke scoffed down some chocolate gluten-free cereal, wheat free waffles with maple syrup and strawberries, brown rice pasta (which is actually better than the regular stuff because it doesn't stick together after it's been cooked) with tomato sauce and broccoli (unfortunately they didn't think much to the butternut squash) , organic apple and blackberry sauce, fruit leather, soy chips, chicken fried rice, fruit, and homemade Propel ice pops.  I've done more washing up than I would like and I really don't recognize much in my pantry right now but, so far so good...

 

Tomorrow, I have an Invisalign appointment so we'll be popping into the Natural Pantry and venturing into the world of wheat-free and dairy-free baking.

Will keep you posted on this little adventure...

New ART

Getting back into the swing of it...  Available here now.

Enjoy!

Change...

It's been a month since I have posted and I have certainly been procrastinating on this post not really knowing where to start.  Then there has been the fear that once I start, will another change throw me off course? Uncertainty seems to have filled my life over the past few weeks.  But through all of this I keep going back to this little saying:

"That which does not kill us, will only make us stronger".

Monday 9th July 2007 - Luke potty trains himself.  He'd tested the waters the previous 2 days by insisting on underpants and using the potty in the evenings.  On Monday, I had a lot of errands to run, out and about, so this was not good timing.  Nevertheless, we went with it, packed up the spare pants and clothes and let Luke take the lead.  It was a few days before he would use a public toilet meanwhile preferring just to hold "it".   He clocked 2 hours on that first day.  He still doesn't like anyone to be in there with him telling me "You stay outside" and "Don't move" so I had to be really sneaky to get this shot.  We're jsut learning to work with him.

Tuesday 10th July 2007 - Ella and Luke perform an evening show for Mama and Papa.  Luke plays the sick patient and Ella is his diligent doctor.  This is followed by Ella's singing and dancing finale.  You'll be pleased to know we've now invested in a proper doctor kit :)

Wednesday 11th July 2007 - Anchorage Botanical Gardens.  Gorgeous day, lots of mosquitos and we managed to get Luke to use a Public Restroom. Yayyyyy!

Thursday - Saturday 12th-14th July 2007 - Denali National Park with Mum and Dad.  Eric stayed home with E & L so that we could really enjoy it. Some AMAZING sights.  You can see the photos here.

Monday 16th July 2007 - Luke is diagnosed with Aspergers Syndrome.  The more I read the more I see myself also fall under this spectrum disorder or life experience as I prefer to call it.  It is the missing piece to my puzzle and with all this new information I am better prepared to help E & L succeed and avoid the same patterns of bullying, eating disorders and depression that I have experienced over the years.  This diagnosis does not define who Luke is or who I am for that matter and has given me greater understanding into how dangerous stereotyping can be.  More to come on this.

17th July 2007 - New invisalign braces.  It's going really well.  So impressed at the changes happening in my mouth thus far.

18th July 2007 - Ella gets her physical prior to Kindergarten.

Thursday - Monday 19th - 23rd July 2007 - CHA in Chicago.  I took my two friends with me, Ronalyn and Allie, and we had the most amazing Girls long weekend.  It seems such a long time ago but included cocktails with the Designer Digitals team, a fun dinner with the Digital Scrapbooking team, trips to Denny's at 1am, downtown Chicago and Target, as well as some pool time, and of course, eye candy galore.  If you have never been to one of these shows, it can best be summed up by the following:

"Tell him I'm in scrapbook heaven and I am never coming home"  (We overheard a lady say this on her cell phone)

Demonstrating how to eat a mini doughnut :)

Tuesday 24th July 2007 - Come downstairs in the morning to find E & L with Auntie Sarah like this:

Wednesday 25th July 2007 - Anchorage Zoo.  My sixth trip of the season but this time with the Fam in tow.

Thursday 26th July 2007 - We head to Seward early.  Sarah and I head out on a boat to view Aialik Glacier and some wildlife in the Kenai Fjords, while Mama and Papa take E & L to the Sealife Center.

A Humpback Whale

Black Bear on the Banks

Staying warm.

Dall Porpoise swimming alongside the boat.

Wild Seals

Aialik Glacier which 1 mile wide

E & L make friends with a big Harbour Seal at the Sealife Center.

Friday 27th July 2007 - Baking with Auntie Sarah

Saturday 28th July 2007 - Eagle River Nature Center.  We took a stroll around one of the trails.

Sunday 29th July 2007 - Biking along the Coastal Trail, through Earthquake Park and pony rides Downtown Anchorage at the Weekend Market.

Saturday 4th August 2007  - Luke makes friends with Bob at Chuck E Cheese

Apparently he also discovers the art of taking a self-portrait.

Sunday 5th August 2007  - Sarah and I fly to Minneapolis.  Sarah is on her way home and attend the Creative Memories Showcase 2007.

Sarah by the "The Bear" at Ted Stevens Airport

It was fun to see the launch of the new scrapbooking products but my favorite part of the show was Michael Israel.  Check him out.  Awesome stuff!

All designed by me.  Just plain cool.

Pitched in and helped out with a Make and Take

And no trip to the lower 48 would be complete without a trip to Target.  Check out that escalator!

So finally back home, I'm catching up on phone calls, trying to get E & L ready for Fall and into a routine.  It's been a surprisingly glorious week so we've spent time outside.  Some random shots from yesterday.

   

With Ronalyn heading off to Hawaii next week for her Dad's funeral, she will be missed by me, but I aim to keep busy.  At least she'll be back.  At one point last week we thought that the Baruts would soon be leaving AK.  We're going to spend Ella's last days before Kindergarten having fun with a little work, scrapping, and blogging mixed in for good measure.

It's good to be back.