Happy, Busy Spring

Lack of posts does not necessarily mean lack of events to document.  As for most of us, lack of posts or communication means serious lack of time.

Three had an endoscopy a week or so ago and we found out that she has something called eosinophilic esophagitis and eosinophilic duodenitis.  Very basically, as far as I understand, this is an allergic reaction resulting in eosinophils (a type of white blood cell that fights off infections.  Different problems can cause high numbers of eosinophils such as allergies.  When there are too many in the body, it may be and in our case is an eosinophilic disorder.) within the esophagus and duodenum which is causing all of her problems.  Her GI believes that this is what is affecting all of us and we feel that because we are not a severe case, we can achieve good health through food eliminations.  We are wheat free, dairy free, peanut free and egg free.  Over the past three months we have noticed some significant changes in our health.  One used to get migraines (since she was four), nosebleeds (every day) and has done physical therapy for joint pain.  These things have stopped.  Two, Three and Four have all had major stomach problems (think grass green diarrhea 10 times a day), stomach pains and cramps, nausea and vomiting, and serious leg pain (I haven't slept through the night ONCE since One was born (except if I've been out of town w/o the kids.  Think Ukraine).  That's 12 years people.).  They wake up in the middle of the night screaming with pain that we treat with tylenol and/or advil and heat and massage.  If I had not experienced these same pains growing up, I would not understand.  We were told it was growing pains, although all four girls are in the 10th percentile for height and weight.  Leg pain has stopped, stomach problems have ended.  Just out of curiosity, I fed them wheat three different times over a three week period.  Each time these symptoms recurred.  When I asked the GI about this, wondering if a stomach allergy could in fact affect the rest of the body this way, she told me 'the proof is in the pudding.  Obviously wheat is like poison to your body.  When you ingest these foods it results in an allergic reaction that initiates in your esophagus and gut but that effects the rest of your body.  Everyone's bodies are effected differently, you are finding out how your body is effected.'  So that's that.  It's good to know.  

Our day starts at 5:25 a.m. which I realize is probably fairly typical for the rest of the world.  However, when you don't go to bed until 1:30 a.m., it quite sucks.  BoyOne goes to a football conditioning class at the high school.  He's what we call 'over-committed' at the moment, but at his choosing.  As his parents, we decided this was a great life lesson for him.  We counseled him, he chose to ignore us (because we're just his parents, what do we know:)) and now he is committed to A LOT.  After the first day of all of his many activities, he wanted to back out of all of them.  We sympathized with him as to how tired he must be and then reminded him of his commitments by showing him the contracts he had signed to be on the various teams he had joined.  Anyhow, on to the rest of the day and week.

The rest of the kids are up at 7:30 a.m. and out the door at 8:30.  Sometimes, like today, we get to squeeze in a trip to the grocery store in that hour because we're out of almond milk and our already limited choices for breakfast are basically non-existant without that main ingredient.   

I still spend quite a bit of time at the elementary, but this year I don't have to be in BoyTwo's classroom at all times.  It's sufficient for me to be in the school.  If there's a big problem, they can get me.  If there's a little problem, I usually have a little suspicion rise in me and can simply walk down the hall and happen to run into Mr. Trouble.  I'm super happy that he's much less violent this year, but really wish he could get through the day without throwing a tantrum, being sent to the principal's office or losing a recess.  Those three things tend to happen every day, not just one of them each day.  Just to keep it real, last week he was sent to the principal's office four times, threw a tantrum at school each day, missed three of his recesses, was removed from an assembly, tried to start the neighbor's playset on fire, broke all of their matchbox cars they had received for Easter (he smashed them with a stick into smithereens.  He smashed them into a railroad tie so hard that we could not even remove the pieces.  If you didn't know what they were before you saw the pieces, you wouldn't be able to tell.  He did this while I was in the bathroom, so what, maybe five minutes?), broke a picture frame, stole three different times from three different people...  You get the picture.  

After school, we hit the ground running.  

Monday:   BoyOne has baseball

                 One has dance

Tuesday:  BoyOne has a baseball game, then soccer game

                 One has dance

                 Two has tumbling

Wednesday:  BoyOne has baseball

                      Two, Three and Four have dance, all at different times, of course:)

                      BoyOne, One, Two and BoyTwo have church activities this night

Thursday:  BoyOne has his away baseball game, then an away soccer game

                  One, Two, Three, Four and BoyTwo have tumbling

Friday:  BoyOne has his track meets

             One has dance

Just to recap, BoyOne is participating in football conditioning, baseball, soccer and track.  It is kicking his butt.  We are happy that he is having to listen to direction from several other people at the same time.  He has a difficult time taking direction from anyone and tends to think that whomever his current coach is is a tyrant.  While we readily acknowledge he is over-committed, it's been good for him to have these four things going on at the same time so that he can see which coach really is a tyrant and who is not and that all have similar expectations.  I'm not sure where this mentality comes from, but he tends to think he is king of all sports and everyone else is a pathetic loser.  This has been a humbling experience for him, in a good way.  He is realizing that while he is very gifted athletically, he still has to put forth effort and train hard and still might not be the best.  Instead of motivating him to try harder though (I do know where this mentality comes from), he tries to back out and quit (this is where the contracts come into play).  He has learned to persevere (thanks to his stubborn mother) and that with consistent and determined effort, he can progress (thanks to his coaches).  He is getting stronger and much more healthy.  It's a good change in him.  

School is still a fairly significant struggle for four of my kids, which weighs heavily on me.  Although, and perhaps because, they are in public schools, I feel largely responsibe for ensuring they progress in their education.  I look forward to summer when I can have our own curriculum and structure.  We tend  to make leaps and bounds during the summer months academically and generally the kids return to school in the fall caught up.  With the exception of BoyTwo who will more than likely move at his own pace indefinitely.  He does progress more in the summer than during the school year though, both academically and behaviorally.   

Life is good and busy and we are all still here.