Monday, February 25, 2013

I guess he was right

For years my dad has called Owen an old woman. He says this as Owen tries to keep control over situations most kids don't care about, like when he puts his hands on his hips and firmly says, "dad, we do not throw balls in the house". Or when he promptly marches over to the tv and declares, "we have a rule dad and we do not watch tv on Sundays!"

I am afraid if I had any doubts about Owen's old woman-ness, they are gone now. He came home the other day with a "caught in the act" certificate and a gold coin. He was so proud and said the principal gave it to him for helping set up cones for the buses at recess. I asked him questions about it, like did they ask you to help, what were your friends doing, were you playing ...

In a very serious tone, he went on to explain that he always helps out the recess ladies. In fact, he went on, he very rarely plays at recess, he mostly just hangs out with the recess ladies. He even went so far to say he is basically a kid recess lady. He said he waits around for kids to get hurt or need the recess ladies and then it is his self assigned job to get help.

All I could hear in my head during this conversation was my dad, smirking and smiling, saying what an old woman Owen was, and frankly, I agree. After calling himself a kid recess lady, there is no denying the precision and accuracy to which my dad has labeled Owen.

I appreciate that he is so helpful but you can imagine my joy when he came home today and announced he gathered a group of kids together and he orchestrated the group to pretend they were guards protecting the prisoners and the prisoners were trying to break free.

I am sure he kept a tight rein on the specifics, but I was glad he was a little more like kid old woman than kid recess lady.

Tuesday, February 19, 2013

It is kind of annoying

So, on my quest to feed myself and my kids non-GMO, real food, I have to break through a 7 year-old who gags when he looks at food and I am here to tell you, it is not going well.

I feel bad, his ranch is gone, his syrup is gone, his old chicken, 3 cheese tortillini, and ketchup, gone gone gone.

Now don't get me wrong, he eats better, but I wouldn't say he eats healthy. There are still no vegetables, not even one. His meals are always the same, I have just replaced everything with the organic, non-GMO version. He gets bunnies instead of goldfish, organic pretzels instead of not, organic bread instead of that one we loved from Fred Meyer.

I read blog sites about the picky eater and it really is so annoying, they act like they will just eat it. Or, that adding a dip will make them like veggies. I am here to tell you and all of them that it doesn't work like that.

I went to a party on Sunday where we cooked a healthy meal together, I asked the instructor chef what she does to have her kids eat it. She replied by telling me they love the food and actually ask for it. That is less than helpful. Hello? There is absolutely no instruction in that in case you thought there may be. Let me promise you that Owen is not going to love a black bean, guacamole, sweet potato taco.

Owen was crying tonight because he wanted pizza from Whole Foods. Through his tears i was informed he has nothing to eat. He can't eat his chicken cause he hates the ketchup, he eats noodles every night, and he didn't want macaroni again, there was nothing left. (See, I wasn't kidding, those are his dinners and we need work. )

I recently read not to cater to the picky eater, I am also pretty sure I could find something that says not to starve your child.

Owen comes from a long line of picky eaters, I mean honestly, how much worse does it get when Ben used to eat miracle whip sandwiches, a salad to me meant only white lettuce and ranch until just a few years ago, and up until a few years ago, I can't recall ever seeing my mom eat a vegetable.

He is doing a fabulous job in keeping with tradition but can't he love something as simple as a carrot?

Sunday, February 10, 2013

Cast Free / Still Alive / Love my Oils

Because I fear that I will never post about the following three things in separate posts, they are getting put into one post even though they have nothing to do with each other.

1. Autumn is cast free! She wore that little cast for 2 1/2 weeks and then, just as simply as they put it on, they took it off.  She was a little cautious the first day without it and tended to use the other arm for a day or so, but then, it was as though it never happened.  And yes, it is true, she did not have a bath while that cast was on.  Judge me if you must, but seriously, how dirty can a miniature baby like her get?  Besides, she HATES the bath.  She stands on the side and screams during her entire 15 second bath.  The idea of a 15 second bath with a cast, well, it was just too much to bear.  She is clean now.  All is well.

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2. Ivy is doing AMAZING with her teacher.  I have to say I am surprised, shocked even.  She seems to understand her teacher is “sick” and she has a different teacher until she comes back.  I do know that she is never coming back and heard from the school director that it was a decision that had to be made for the safety of the school.  Clearly the leave of absence term was a polite way of saying: we had to fire her in the middle of the day, in the middle of the school year for reasons we can’t tell you.  I have been waiting for the fallout, waiting for her to hate to go to school.  Nothing.  We have talked a lot about what is different about school and what is the same and her wise little self understands.  I didn’t know it, but her new teacher came from a different classroom and had been spending snack time in Ivy’s class.  Perhaps, Ivy was just familiar enough to make this work.  Not only is this working, but as I picked her up from school the other day, I found her running around on the playground holding two little girls’ hands.   I almost cried, not only was she ok, but she was PLAYING!  My heart was full and happy for her stressed little playing self.   This is serious progress, and she and I may live after all. 

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3. Owen woke up last night around 11:30.  Greg and I were downstairs and may or may not have been smooching on the couch when my poor little boy came down with tears and sobs and explanations that his ear hurt.  Exit wife and enter mom with OILS.  We pulled out the oil book and my growing collection of oils and determined for ear infections we should use Lavender, Melaleuca, and Purify.  They were supposed to help with the pain and the actual infection.  I put two drops of each on the front of his ear, behind the ear and the top of his ear.  I then read that Grapefruit can help with the pain, so we added a drop or two of that to the same places.  A lot of oils you can use directly on the source of the problem, however, you can’t put the oils directly in the ear.  We used a cotton ball, and over the next 20 minutes I alternated the different oils.  We did two drops of an oil at a time, placed the cotton ball in the ear, and covered it with a heating pad.  I would let that sit for a few minutes and then do two drops of something else.  He watched Clifford and cried off and on, but was much better then when we started.  To help him calm down, I added a few drops of Balance and Citrus Bliss to the bottom of his feet.  Within 5 minutes, and 30 minutes after he first came down, he fell asleep and slept soundly on the couch until 5:00 in the morning.  When he woke up and came upstairs to bed,  he climbed in, woke me up to let me know my oils worked great and his ear was all better.  He laid back down and slept until 8:00 this morning.  Upon waking up, he declared his ear to be fine and has been outside in the cold, playing with his friends for the last 3 hours. 

I do love those oils.  So does Greg….

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Saturday, February 9, 2013

One of the best

I am obsessed with this picture. I mean, seriously, how amazing is the wolf in the middle?