My Cardio for the Day

Does anyone know how hard it is to pull two kids around on a sled for half an hour? Because I sure didn't know. The last time I was anywhere near a sled, it was being pulled around by a horse and I was on it. And trust me...that was quite awhile ago. This past summer during the height of garage sale season, I found a nice plastic sled for a whopping dollar and decided that it might be fun when we got a nice big snow. Oh, I was right. It's a whole ton of fun...if you're not the one pulling it. I sometimes forget how big Alex is. He's just over 40 pounds now. I swear the kid is 90% muscle. After a half hour of running and pulling him around, I was about to fall over on the ground. Abby is 27 pounds and so she's a bit easier. In fact, once I got going with her, I could barely tells he was in the sled. I actually had to turn around to see if she hadn't flown out of it. The kids had a blast today with the remaining snow. Actually, the snow that we have left is perfect for sledding. It's just hard enough that you don't sink down immediately. They were laughing and smiling the whole time and I had to drag them inside completely against their will so their little noses wouldn't freeze off. I got a stitch in my side, felt like my lungs were on fire and could feel my heart pumping harder than it's had to in awhile. But it was worth it. So today was a first for me. I got to take my kids sledding. When you are a kid, you never think, "Someday I want to go sledding with my kids." You simply enjoy the moment for what it is. But I hope that when Alex and Abby grow up that they have just as much fun sledding with their kids as I did today. I'll just have to get in better shape before next winter so that I don't feel like I'm about to have a heart attack after it all is said and done.

Funday Sunday - Banana Milk/Banana Shake

I've been meaning to put this up here since before I started Funday Sunday so it's about time that I share. Every morning, and I do mean every single morning, the kids enjoy a nice big cup of banana milk. I have no memory of where I picked this up from but I've been doing it for a long time now. Once Alex started drinking milk out of his straw cup, I had so much trouble getting him to drink it that I had to use flavoring. Seeing as how soy-milk is the only way I can get calcium in him, it was imperative that he drink it. Unfortunately I can't substitute calcium with the yummy cheeses and yogurts that other people get to use. So I found some fun flavoring called Magic Milk that was banana flavored. It was the only thing I could find that would make him drink his milk. No chocolate. No strawberry. Guess what? They discontinued it. Ugh. So I had to resort to making my own. I wasn't sure it would work, but I found a great idea for Banana Shakes. It's really two ideas in one. I modified it to work as banana milk too. You can use soy-milk or regular cow's milk. It's great either way. I'm giving you a recipe that works for two servings.

Banana Shake

2 c. Soy milk*
1 Frozen banana
1 t. vanilla
1 T. Sugar
2 T. Chocolate syrup (opt. for a chocolate banana shake)

Easiest directions ever. Peel and cut up the frozen banana and throw all the ingredients into a handy dandy blender and blend till smooth. It really does taste a lot like a shake with out the muss and fuss of ice cream for kids with allergies.

Banana Milk

2 c. Vanilla Soy milk
1 Banana

Okay...this is the easiest recipe ever. Just blend it up till smooth and serve. If you don't have vanilla soy-milk or are using regular milk then just add 1-2 teaspoons of vanilla and 1 Tablespoon of sugar (or as much as you feel necessary.) Vanilla soy just takes out those two ingredients and my kids look forward to this every single morning. It's the best way I've found to get at least 8 oz. of milk down them each day and they ask for it as soon as they wake up.

*I use Very Vanilla Silk soy milk and cut out the vanilla and and sugar.

De-medication Update

I blogged about four days ago about Alex's de-medicating process. Basically, I'm taking him off of Claritin in hopes of having him a little less drugged for awhile. Well, it's been four days and tonight is the fifth night he will have completely skipped all allergy meds. I am happy to say that he is doing really well. Every once in a while he will rub his nose. But to be perfectly honest, he did that with Nasonex and Claritin in his system. So in the end, I'm not sure I see too much of a difference. Once more, I can only assume that the medication is fully out of his bloodstream and that this means that his allergies are in check for the time being. We actually had a bigger test when we went to Mandy's house for a play-date. She has three dogs and Alex has a dog allergy (the last time we tested him anyways). For safety's sake, I wiped him down when he got home with a wet rag to remove any residue. But other than that, he did great. The other development is how he has been since removing him from Claritin. He has more energy. Which, of course, I didn't think was humanly possible. He is also waking up a lot earlier and is rip-roarin' ready to go. He seems to have a lower tendency to have tantrums as well. I would like to think that the medication isn't responsible for his short fuse, but I suppose that when he has to go back on it, that will tell me more. I am still watching him like a hawk for any of the tell tale signs that he is needing the anti-sniffy drugs, but as of now things are looking great. I'm hesitant to be optimistic. But...I'm slowly getting there. There are a lot of people praying for the not-so-little little guy. So here's hoping that the weeks continue with no problems. I guess for now it is one reason I am thankful for winter.

Abby-1, Commando Joe-0

Play dates are back in full force. Thank goodness for that. Alex and Abby have been running up and down the walls to get out of this house. So today we bundled up and headed to Aunt Mandy's house for a nice little play date. One of the issues we have going over to Mandy's house is with miss Abby. She has a bit of an obsession with putting things in her mouth. Yes...I know that most kids do. But Abby is obsessed. I would say that on on average, I have to tell her to spit something out of her mouth twenty times a day. And that's on a good day. Unfortunately, she is more prone to doing this at places outside of our home. Why? I can only guess it is because the objects are so much tastier in a new environment. She is also very bad about biting and gnawing on things. Wesley, like Alex, got a nice bag of army men for Christmas. (Can you see where this is going?) So after the third time of saying, "Abby, what's in your mouth?" she waltzed over to me and spit out something new, grinning all the while. It wasn't an army man. Oh no. It was the head of an army man. Apparently she bit it off. Seriously...she BIT the head off of a hard plastic army man. I laughed so hard I cried. So here lies Comando Joe...


...a brave soldier who simply didn't stand a chance against Abbyzilla. Poor Joe. Not the first casualty...but definitely the funniest. Let this be a warning to all the little green army men in our house.

De-medicate

Today is day one of Alex's de-medication process. For the past six or seven months (I've lost count to be honest) Alex has had to be on three different medications to control is asthma, allergies, and allergic rhinitis. When spring his last year, he started getting a very bad asthma cough and it happened the worst at night. Which, according to the doctor, means bad dust allergy. But during the day, he was a disaster due to pollen and all the happy joy-joyness of springtime. So seeing as how it is now winter, and the first frost has (should have) killed off the outside allergens, we have been told to try and get him off of his allergen meds. Now, in order to do this, I have been in psycho cleaning mode. I just bought his mattress allergen-proof cover and done all the possible cleaning I could possibly do to prepare for this. About two weeks ago, I took him off of Nasonex. I was nervous, but it turned out great! No sniffing or nose rubbing since. Woo-hoo! One med down. The big one I want to get him off of is Claritin. It's literally been in his system for well over six months straight and I have no idea how he is going to react without it. Last night I got up the courage to skip it. It has now been almost 24 hours without it and I am pleased to say that day one is a success. So far there are no sneezes, no sniffles, and no nose rubbing. Now, I have no idea how long it takes to get the effects of the drug completely out of your system. So if you by chance read this blog and know anything about allergies and meds like Claritin, feel free to comment and give me your take on how long it took to get it out of your system. I'd be delighted to hear what you have to say. Otherwise, this is going to take some prayer and patience. I am hoping that he is going to do well for a few months until pollen season jumps back into high gear. It would be nice to not have him so medicated for awhile. He will remain on his controller medicine, Pulmicort respules, until who knows when. I can only pray to God that his asthma gets better and that one day he won't have to be on any medications at all. Until then, please keep Alex in your prayers in this situation. And if you have a spare prayer for me, I'd appreciate it too. Sometimes his health issues can weigh very heavily on my heart and nerves.

Funday Sunday

So, when I started Funday Sunday I said I'd use it to share fun recipes or neat items of food that I've found that are milk-free. During Halloween, it was difficult to watch Alex ask for all of the chocolaty goodness and have to tell him no. I don't know why it hurts me to think that all those other kids get to try the Three Musketeer or the Snickers but not him. After weeding out all the milk-free candy, I got to wondering if I would ever find a label on something chocolate that would not include dreaded milk. This is when I almost tossed my miracle candy into the milk pile. I saw a little box of Junior Mints and after checking countless labels, didn't know if it was worth looking. But to my surprise, it said "May contain traces of milk" but didn't actually contain any in the ingredients list. So I got all warm and fuzzy inside and decided to research it. I called the company and had a message in to product control. They actually called me back a couple of days later and told me that it is packaged on the same line that have packaged one product that also may contain milk. Turns out that this product only 'may contain milk' because of where one of the ingredients come from. The lines are fully cleaned and sanitized and so after careful consideration...Alex can now have Junior Mints. Chocolate for my milk allergic kid! Ahh...a silver lining to the madness. I'll still always check the label though.

So Begins a New Year

With the start of the new year, I'd like to say that I have a bunch of resolutions to start the year fresh, but I don't think that I really do. I have yet to actually make a solid resolution that I kept. And that is mostly due to the fact that I haven't really made many actual new year's resolutions. I'd like to say that this year will be the year that I do something big and amazing with my life, but only time will tell. I'll just be happy to successfully raise Alex and Abby to be another year happier and healthier.

This year is different from the previous few because of two things. First, I have zero cribs in the house. So that makes it official that I don't have anymore babies in the house. Second, we have no sense of job security with Josh, which is always a cause for my constant supply of Tums. But we have the hope that things will only get better from here on out.

For a first time in awhile, I had the joy of ringing in the New Year alone. Well, maybe 'alone' isn't the most accurate word. But it's pretty darn close. Josh's job has taken him away from us for awhile now. He's been home everyone once in awhile for laundry and Christmas day, but overall not long enough. I actually feel very bad for him. The job is taking a toll on him. He has zero personal time anymore and has been living out of a suitcase. He actually hasn't played his World of Warcraft for going on a month now. That may not seem like a big deal for most, but it's a fairly good indicator as to what his life has become. The kids miss him dearly and are constantly asking where he is or when he is coming home. I see how tired and exhausted he is and how frustrated he is with his job and my heart goes out to him. He's definitely not the same Josh that I am used to. He even got sick this past week with a cold and can't seem to shake it because his immune system is drained. And please note that he is never sick. The job that he has, has inhuman hours and schedules and he's trapped there due to Union rules. So needless to say, he's working today (New Year's Day) and I rang in the new year by myself on the couch watching Transformers 2. It wasn't a bad night, but the entire time I kept thinking about Josh waking up at 4:30 in the morning and leaving us again. So our hope for the new year is that Josh will get a better job at some point in time with decent hours that don't require he transform into a robot to survive. (I also wouldn't mind moving into a new house with more room sometime, but hey...one hope at a time, right?) It was a tough year last year, but we came through with heads held high. So here's hoping for 2010. To all you and yours, I hope that your new year is full of wonderful things!