Ouch!!! Patrick took a tumble Monday after playgroup in the playground. Poor guy tripped on his own feet and smacked his head off the asphalt. He also scraped his hands and knees right thru his jeans.

Doesn't seem to be any lasting effect except a sore noggin. He had tylenol after lunch but didn't want it later that night.

The big bruise is subsiding, but the smaller raw patch will take a lot longer.

Brotherly Love:

William likes the exersaucer! He even spins himself around to play with other toys.

Growing up fast!!!

Kathryn made this at preschool today. I love all the colours but I love her description of it even better.
Kathryn says this is our family. Everyone gets 1 eye. I guess we're all standing sideways? The eye that is mine has glue on it (my glasses) and the smallest eye is William. Isn't that adorable?!

A friend loaned me her cuddly wrap which is basically a long piece of fabric. I have a ring-sling but just couldn't make it work so we were both happy and comfortable.

I like this wrap! And W seems to as well. I am going to take apart my ring sling and make it into a wrap as he seems to need a more rigid fabric (he is a large boy!)

Super comfortable though and hands-free holding!

Kathryn had her first dance lesson last night. She was so excited!!! This is the new body suit we purchased for her - she just loves the little attached 'tu-tu'.
Ready to run out the door!

She had a GREAT time. There are 2 other little cuties in her class. When she got home she showed us all the steps she remembered. Next week can't come fast enough for our little dancer!

Had a little photo shoot with William. I was trying to get a good smile with him in this cute outfit that Shaun's work buddies gave him.

He did smile lots - but not when I was actually snapping pictures.

He's adorable though!
Shaun's buddies had no idea when they bought this sleeper that Shaun's nick name as a child was BUCK! So fitting!!

Here's a blurry smile! Such a cutie pie.

There have been people asking what I'm actually eating these days so I thought I'd post quickly about that.

Breakfast is 1/2 cup instant oatmeal with 1 cup vanilla rice milk. I also add some stevia sweetner for flavour and I've started adding 1 tsp of ground flax for fiber and omega's. I also take my prenatal vit, vit D and calcium citrate.

Lunch is often rice (2:1 ratio of brown to white) with chicken and peas mixed together with some chicken bullion concentrate for flavour. Sometimes I have a biscuit (recipe below) with some turkey slices, carrots and cellery. Sometimes left-over rice pasta with beef and a salad. I've been meaning to get back to salad with chick peas in it but I haven't been motivated yet. I used to eat that with a creamy dressing - which I can't have now.

Dinner varies more. Last night I had the rice-noodles with beef and a salad. Tonight I'm having pork chops, applesauce and sweet potato. A few nights ago I had shredded, fried potatoes and a huge salad.

For snacks I often have unsweetened apple sauce, apple, plain rice cakes, a biscuit, raisins, sunflower seeds or carrots & cellery. I'm drinking mostly water but I'll have black tea, sometimes with honey, or welches grape juice with seltzer (my new 'pop') as a treat. I have been eating way too many plain potato chips - they're so yummy - but I'm going to cut down.

Here is the biscuit recipe. Finally got it right and quite enjoy it.

Whisk together 1 TBS ground flax and 3 TBS warm water. Set aside.

In a large bowl, mix together:
1 cup flour
1 TBS guar gum if using gluten-free flour
1 cup rolled oats
1/2 tsp salt
3 tsp baking powder
(1/2 tsp nutmeg and 3 tsp cinnamon - can be omitted - Cinnamon gives W gas)
1 tsp liquid Stevia.

In a medium bowl, mix together:
1/2 cup oil
1 cup unsweetened applesauce
1/2 cup vanilla rice milk
Flax/water mixture

Add the wet ingredients into the dry and mix. Spoon into greased muffin tins. Bake 400 degrees for 15-20 minutes.

I think the next time I make them I may try adding 1/2 cup of honey instead of the stevia. I may also use flavoured unsweetened applesauce for a different taste.

HAPPY 3 MONTHS WILLIAM!!!!

We did a little photo shoot of the birthday boy. He's wearing a new outfit here - its a size 9M. Crazy. Just a bit long in the sleves,the rest fits fine.

Such a happy smile here!

The obligatory monthly chair shot:

Happy Happy Happy!!! He has such a sweet smile.

I weighed him before his bath and he is 15 pounds!

Ever have a 'colic' baby? This blogger explains it from the parent's perspective.

I read it and I laughed a bit at his humor... but it really hit close to home.

William's colic and crying sessions aren't as bad as this Dad describes in the article, but I can completely relate.

Tomorrow William is 3-months. I'm hoping we get to experience a bit of 3-month magic as well. Fingers crossed.

It was a gross and rainy day, but we went to the Apple Orchard anyway!

The kids were certain this was how they were going to wear their pants and boots... but we helped them tuck their pants in instead.
At the Orchard! MmMmmmm Pie.... We picked 6 apples and toured the store. It was pretty rainy and icky so we didn't stay long.

They love holding their baby brother!

Perfect shirt for the boy who looks just like his Daddy!!

Happy kids in PJs!! I love how W is looking right at the camera here!

PICTURES!!

This one is from when my sis-in-law came with her daughter and my mom-in-law to swim Tuesday afternoon. It was so much fun just us girls and the kiddos!!
Here is one from a few days ago. William still doesn't have the neck control to be in the bumbo for very long, but he seems to like it when he is in briefly!

And this one is for Anna. She asked how I get 3 kiddos into 1 cart at the grocery store!

William wasn't to happy being on the bottom shelf... and K and P complained about having to share the middle leg-space. About half way thru the trip I took Patrick out and put William on the top (sideways) and that worked well too. Patrick is excellent at walking in a store now - he stays close and -mostly- does what we ask.

And the results are in!

Last night I went, with William, to the Naturopath for a follow-up session to get the results of the blood test.

Overwhelmed? Yep. Just a bit.

She gave me lots of information and suggestions and I'm still processing and remembering it all. But in a nut shell, my body is reacting negatively to the following foods:

- All Dairy except Goat Milk
- Oysters
- Bananas
- Cranberry
- Egg White
- Coffee
- Sugar Cane
- Yeast (Baker's and Brewer's)
- Almonds
- Wheat
- Gluten
- Kidney and Lima Beans
- Rye
- Spelt
- Sesame Seed
- Whole Wheat
- Asparagus

Wow. Thats a lot of stuff. But on the bright side, I get corn back! Yippie!!!

I've decided my first step is going to be to remove as much sugar from my diet as possible, on top of the wheat and dairy. Refined sugar is in a LOT of things, so this will be a challenge in itself. I'm also giving up my cola (*sniff*) and replacing it with either black or green tea which may be nice with cooler weather coming up.

Surviving

My first day alone with all three kids went well! Better than I expected in fact. I fell back into my old pattern easily, and William fit in fine. It helped that he had a 3.5 hour nap in the afternoon and it even overlapped with the kids 'rest' time. Awesome. I even did a load of laundry and cleaned out part of K's closet! Coming out of that first day I am feeling quite confident in my abilities to make this work.

Besides surviving and the above mentioned chores, we also went for a visit in the morning to K's daycare to pick up paperwork and to introduce William. I am sooo very happy that K is looking forward to going back to little school. She starts on the 16th and will be going Thursdays. I have her on the wait list for Tuesdays as well. Not sure if she will need it, or if I will want her gone 2 days, but want to have the option when it arises, especially this winter.

We also played about an hour of hide-and-seek in the house, played Alphabet bingo, built a train, played with K's castle, watched half of The Little Mermaid and played with the K'Nex dog building set. Whew!

Today is going well too. William was up early, but I got a shower after he passed out again for 45 minutes. Everyone was up by 7. We watched a new Barbie Movie while eating breakfast, and then Shaun's mom and little Abby came for a visit. We all walked to the park and came back for snack. Then Sherry, Patrick's previous therapist came for a visit which was wonderful. She's such a nice person and we'd missed her. She stayed for 45 minutes and then we had lunch - it was 12:30 at this point. After lunch, P&K went up for their rest-time and William had a fussy time. Actually, he's been fussy all morning but I'm dealing with it. Sometimes he has to wait. Thats part of being a family. I'm also getting really good at eating meals standing up while bouncing him since that is what settles him best. So far, no spillage or choaking!

Now William is napping in the swing and Patrick just got up and is playing in the living room. K will probably sleep until 2:30 and then there is talk of a visit from Shaun's sister, her hubby, Abby and Grandma for a dip in the pool!! If not I may be brave and take all 3 to the grocery store. Their carts accomodate all 3 kiddos at once with a bit of space for groceries too. See? I'm even feeling confident!

Right now I am cooking pasta for supper. I bought some rice pasta for myself and I'll have it with the beef (Shaun is making spaghetti) and mix it with beef bullion and green beans. Should be yummy - and its different than just regular rice.

If William lets me, I'm going to quickly vacuum the basement and maybe do the dishes!

Petrified

Tomorrow is my first day alone with all three kids and I am feeling very anxious!!!!

I know I've been very lucky/spoiled to have another adult or two around every day since William's birth, and I am very very thankful for the help as William is very needy right now. But I really wish this day wasn't coming so fast!!

We do have plans for every day/morning this week so that will help. But I will be on my own with all three kids from when they get up until suppertime.

Next week I will have another adult every day as Monday is labour day and Shaun is off, and my parents are coming Tues-Thurs and then Shaun likely will be home on Friday as well. I am really looking forward to that.

So I just have to survive this week. Hopefully we'll fall into a nice rhythm. Hopefully I'll re-find my grove of being a stay-at-home-mom.

Wish me luck!!

This Wednesday night, I finally get the results from the blood test that I had done thru the Naturopath.

Before I get the results, I wanted to write a quick blog to reflect on the past weeks on this restrictive diet. I've mentioned it before, but I've cut out all dairy, all wheat and gluten, whole eggs, corn, strawberries, tomatoes, broccoli, chocolate and I'm also avoiding corn and soy products as well as spices.

It hasn't been easy. At first I felt really restricted. But the longer you're at it, the more products and foods you find that are 'safe'. And you get into a rhythm and although its kinda bland and boring its food... and you eat to live, not visa versa.

William's tummy is so much better now, and that alone is worth sticking it out for. As an added bonus I've also lost weight. All 30 of my pregnancy pounds are gone as well as an additional 4 from previous. As a long term goal, I'm going to get back to my wedding weight at which point I'm going to have my eyes corrected with laser surgery so I won't have to wear glasses. I only have 26 lbs to go. But I'm not in a hurry and I'm not actively dieting as it could wreck my milk supply. Just trying to make better choices and drink lots of water... which is surprisingly easy considering I'm not drinking much else.

I'm getting a bit excited at the possibility of adding things (slowly) back into my diet. Its crazy the things that make your mouth water when you can't have them. Recently, when I was visiting my parents, my Dad made toast for breakfast and that had me just salivating. I see people with Tim Hortons bagels and want them, even though they weren't something I wanted before. Cheese is a biggie - I really miss cheese. And muffins. And cereal beyond rice krispies. And milk on my rice krispies for that matter. Rice milk is OK, but its not the same. I could go on but I won't torture myself.

Wednesday will be here before I know it. I think above anything else I'm just curious to know. Will post an update after my visit when I can.

I just posted a couple of entries that happened before the visit with Great Grandpa (below) so scroll down to find them!
~ Deb