A week in review...

Alright, so now that I've begun my blog with "alright", I'm beginning to realize I always start my entries with either an "alright" or an "okay". Weird, but I just can't think of any way else to start my entries. If I were like the Portuguese I'd say "Bem", or something like that- it's been so long since I've been to Portugal, it's hard to remember what all the old folks there used to say to start off their rambling... "Ora Bem!"... Anyhow, here's my "week in review", or at least some of it.

"Bem", I've been waiting ALL WEEK for Ian to start crawling. I thought it was going to be last week, no such luck, and I had hoped it would be this week, since he likes to get up and rock back and forth on his knees now; but alas, the big "move" hasn't happened yet. He still prefers to roll around on his tummy to get to where ever he wants. I'm beginning to get a little worried about Ian recently though. He's such a happy baby... most of the time. Sometimes he just SCARES me because he has got quite the TEMPER on him. He throws a temper tantrum every time I need to dress him; especially when I'm putting a shirt on him. He cries at the top of his lungs and throws himself backwards, stiffening up. It's rumored that I may have a bit of a temper- just a wee little temper though; and I'm not even sure I had a temper at as young an age as Ian is now. Fortunately, the tantrums don't last very long- I would have pulled my hair out long ago if they did.

So Noah's been following me around the house the last couple of days still calling me "Tephie"- not "MOM". I chuckle every time he says it. I used to always think I wanted my kids to call me by my first name rather than titles like "mom" or "mother", but now that I'm a mom, I WANT to be called "MOM".

I just spent most of this afternoon at the mall, on a SHOPPING SPREE. Sadly, I can't say the shopping spree was one for myself- nope. In fact, it was actually for the boys. You see Noah's still wearing 18 month old clothing even though he's 28 months old, and Ian's wearing 18 month old clothing even though he's only 8 1/2 months old. We had plenty of clothing for Noah to wear, that is until Ian moved up a size and started sharing his clothes. Now, I've been feeling like I've been doing wash around here twice as often as I normally used too. So today, I dropped Noah off at the Scera with his Grandma and Grandpa Campbell, left Ian home to nap with Spencer, and I hit the mall. Somebody please remind me not to go to the mall on a Saturday again- especially here in Utah Valley. Uggghhh, the people just drive me crazy, but that's a whole other story. Anyhow, I hit up the usual shops I like to find my kids clothes. Baby Gap, The Childrens Place, a boutique outside of Baby Gap, Nordstroms, and I even ventured into The Disney Store and Gymboree to see what was available and cute for toddler boys. I'm not even kidding, The Disney Store was a shopping nightmare, and a total disappointment. All they have is stuff for girls in that store- that and Power Rangers stuff. Can somebody tell me when Power Rangers went Disney? I must be out of the loop. I was getting desperate trying to find some cute boy clothing, so I looked in Gymboree, even though my sister Trish and I have both decided Gymborees Boy clothing looks Gay- (sorry to anyone who may be reading this and think it's utterly cute). The boutique I usually check out had nothing. The Children's Place had nothing either, except I did get the boys a couple pairs of pants from there since they were on sale. Nordstroms kids section usually has some cute clothing (pricey but cute), nothing for toddler boys; so my last hope was Baby Gap. Normally I find more than enough cute clothing at Baby Gap. Today I found shorts,sandals and swimwear!!! Hello, it's only January, outside it's been snowing and we've had freezing weather across the country! I'm usually always a little anxious for Summer to arrive, but somehow I think it's a little TOO soon to be selling Summer wear right now... Okay, so I'm exaggerating some; Baby Gap had some cute Winter/Spring appropriate boys clothing- so I snatched up what I could find, grabbed a matching top here and there for both the boys to wear and the clerk at the register asked me if I had twins. HA! I completely understand where she got that idea, since I was buying some of the same clothing in sets of TWOs. If only she knew, I just have one SHORT TWO YEAR OLD and one SOLID & TALL 8 MONTH OLD. There's a 19 month gap in between the two boys!!! (PS. I love GAP KIDS CLOTHING- it's classic and it washes great, and in case you weren't aware- all of GAPS toddler pants have the expanding waistline elastic thingy in them- so you can adjust the waistline as your child's tummy grows. I swear I'm not a GAP snob, I just used to work there and I know that the kids clothing is WELL WORTH THE EXTRA BUCK).

I decided to take a quick drive down to the QUICKSILVER OUTLET in Provo to see what kind of tee shirts they had for toddlers. While they didn't have a huge selection to choose from, their selection of tees were super cute and since it was the OUTLET store I scored when it came to prices. I think from now on, I'm going to buy most of the boys tees from there unless I'm in San Diego and I can find any other outlet stores for name brands I like the boys to wear. Check the store out if you have little groms of your own.

So, I'm relieved to say, that after HOURS of shopping, (thankfully NOT with the boys in tow), I found plenty of clothes for Noah to wear through out the week and for Ian to share, and hopefully I can cut back on washing some.

Shopping today in all of those cute kiddie stores made me really wish this next baby was a girl. Truly I'd be happy with another boy- ultimately I want 3 or 4 boys, and one girl. There's SO MANY cute dresses and tops in all of these stores for little girls to wear. I'd have a HAY DAY dressing a girl. Spencer would probably choke and die if he knew how much I was ogling over all the little baby girls clothes. While I love shopping and dressing my little boys "like little men", it would be a DREAM to have a girl. Only another week before we find out if this baby's a boy or a girl...

So I had a couple of doctors appointments this last week; one for myself, and one for Noah. We had to drive up to Murray on Wednesday to meet with the GASTROENTEROLOGIST for Noah (Just one of many specialist Noah has seen in his day). Surprisingly Noah behaved very well at the doctors and he even let her examine him without pitching a fit. It was sort of funny, because Noah doesn't go places often without his brother Ian, so when the doctor asked Noah a question, not pertaining to Ian at all, Noah would answer back by telling the doctor ALL ABOUT IAN.

I'd taken Noah into see the doctor about "the runs" he's had quite a bit of. Remember back in August and September when kids were catching that water parasite from public pools- well, we thought Noah had gotten it too since he always liked to drink so much pool water at the water parks, but they tested him and even medicated him and nothing- he didn't have it, but yet he still had the runs. So it was suggested that quite possibly he had Celiacs or a Gluten Allergy like myself and many other members of my family, but they did some blood work and the tests came back inconclusive. So, Noah's Pediatricians main concern is that because his growth curve is low and he's has "the runs", that maybe there's an underlying problem gone unnoticed. Thus the reason for his check up with the Gastroenterologist. So the "gutt doctor" did agree that Noah had an unusual bloated tummy along with being very short for his age and she suggested we try 3 things to see if they help his problem. First off, she suggested for a week I take him completely off of dairy and put him on a lactose free diet. If nothing changes in a week, we can only assume that dairy isn't his problem. The 2ND suggestion she had was to try him on a particular prescription, one that's used for children with Toddler Diareah. Apparently there is such a thing as Toddler Diareah- causes unknown, but it is certain that children who have this will have it until they're either 3 or 4 years of age and then it goes away. If the prescription doesn't help Noah after two or three weeks, then I can assume he didn't he T.D. The doctors third suggestion is that we get a biopsy done to see if Noah TRULY is allergic to wheat. Even though he had his own blood work done before and the results were negative, the doctor said that blood sample tests, especially in children, are not even considerably ACCURATE for testing Gluten allergies. Her guess is that Noah is allergic to Gluten, particularly because of his short stature, my family history of the disease, and because of his swollen belly; but it could be a while before a biopsy's done since we have to rule out the other two possibilities first.

I learned something interesting while I was at the Gastroenterologist. Did you know that 2% of Blond hair, Blue eyed people are gluten intolerant. (While 2% doesn't sound like a whole lot, it really is when you think of the millions of blonds populating this earth).

Oh perhaps the most fabulous news I received ALL WEEK was news I learned while I was at the doctors with Noah. She told me about this fabulous health food store, close by in Taylorsville, called AGAINST THE GRAIN that sells ONLY FOOD THAT IS GLUTEN AND WHEAT FREE. Since I was in the area I decided to check the store out for myself, and oh my gosh, I can't even begin to tell you how ELATED I was being there!!! They had Wheat/Glutton free CORNDOGS, hotdog buns, fishsticks (not particularly my favorite, but I grabbed a box to sample), french toast, Spaghettios in the can (again they were Wheat free Spaghettios- and I had a hunch I'd hate them since I never liked the real Spaghettios, and my hunch was right; they were pretty gross). There were also wheat free Cheese Nip crackers- you name it, they just about had everything! I had a hay day picking up foods like these there to sample and eat since it's been so long I've been able to have anything like it. I only wish the store were closer to where I live. The store has it's own website, you can even order food off their website, so if you know anyone who is on a wheat free/gluten free diet or suffers from Celiacs, tell them about this website and store in Taylorsville www.againstthegrainslc.com .

So on television this last week I watched two fascinating documentaries! Lately I haven't been able to stay awake much longer after we've put the boys to bed, but on Wednesday evening just before dozing off I caught the end of both of these documentaries. One was called Natural World: Hawaii - Message in the Waves in was on The Animal Planet, and the other was called My Shocking Story: Half Man, Half Tree on TLC. I found the documentary on Animal Planet especially interesting, because Hawaii is a destination most people seek out because of it's beautiful waters that surround it, but in reality, I guess Hawaii's having a lot of problems with POLLUTED WATERS and LITTERED BEACHES. In fact, in the northern chain of Hawaiian Islands, the ones that aren't actually inhabited, it's the gathering place for trash and plastics that have been carried hundreds of thousands of miles in the currents of the ocean. After watching this show, it really made me wish there was something I could do to help preserve the beauty of the waters and the beaches there.

The other documentary I watched, Half Man, Half Tree was the story of a man who is half man, half tree, who lives in a remote village in Indonesia. Dede, 36 years old has an extraordinary skin condition; he has root like structures growing out of his body. It was hard to believe that this was actually real and that someone like Dede had this problem. I'm amazed at how advanced medicine is, and against all odds, believe it or not, there was a team of doctors who had developed a cure to help Dede's skin condition; sadly though, Dede refused the help because he'd made a career out of showing off his body in circus acts. What a beautiful day it will be when every ones bodies are restored to their perfect selves without disease or deformities.

We went couch hunting again this week. I know, I know... How hard can it be to find a couch we both like. Well, it hasn't really been that hard, we just want to make a good purchase and see all our options. We did find one couch that was just BEAUTIFUL. I even dreamt of this couch- seriously, I dreamt of it that same night we found it. It's made out of Italian top grade leather, it's a sectional and it's stuffed with down feathers. No foam, just down feathers!!! It was so comfortable to sit on, but as you may have guessed, it's a little pricey. Hopefully our "couch hunt" comes to an end soon- I'm so ready to toss these couches we have right now, especially since Noah spilled his milk and some of his yogurt on our couches just a couple of days ago, adding two new stains to the cushions.

Spencer sent off another application for Graduate school- this one to Boise State.He leaves for New York City in just over a week for a whole week. I'll be stuck here in Orem. I'm toying with the idea of going on a trip somewhere. I'd love to take off and drive to San Diego to visit my parents, but I don't think I'd do well driving that long with both the boys in the car. Maybe Rexburg??? I haven't been there in a while and I've wanted to see one of my friends who lives there. I have over a week to decide where the winds will take me.

I hope to finally start potty training Noah this next week. I've got the potty chair, the stepping stool, the super fun Huggies flushable wipes, the hippo Huggies hand soap that even has a blinking 20 second timer on it to make sure he washes away all the yucky germs and I've bought a pack of Huggies Pull Pull Up Diapers, ones that especially get cold if he "wees" in them. And to top it all off, I have a treat jar filled with cinnamon bears to bribe him. I'm a little nervous. Not so because I'm afraid he'll do terrible and fail; I'm worried I won't be consistent enough to see success- we'll see how it goes.

Oh before I forget to mention, I found in a magazine called "FamilyFun" a super fun, innovative way to serve kids oranges. I actually made these oranges last Sunday and the fam seemed to enjoy them- Noah especially was a HUGE FAN. They're gelatin oranges. Below is a picture of the oranges (not my own picture- I didn't take any- this picture is from the magazine).

If you want the recipe for these gelatin oranges, click here