Toddler Watercolour Art Project

Parker and I spent part of our rainy afternoon yesterday creating a hanging piece of art. A few nights ago I was reading Rhythm of the Home and came across a neat art idea.

So I mixed up some watercolours and prepped a painting space for him and away we went! He had a hard time with the scotch tape (had I used masking or painter's tape as suggested it would have been fine) so I laid the tape down. The rest was all him:

Long day.

Last Wednesday we had a busy day. It started with having a mini-meeting with the Occupational Therapist that Parker is on the wait list to start seeing. I was unsure how seeing an OT would help us... in my work children who see OTs have much greater needs than my son does so going into the appointment I felt like it was a waste of my time. When our pediatrican wanted us to see OT, I thought it was because he thought Parker was overly cautious and hadn't mastered walking up stairs yet independently at 2. It wasn't a big deal to me and I thought the doctor was making a mountain of a mole hill.
But OT will help us with so much more than Parker's lack of confidence to try new things (which could be the reason he's delayed in speech). We did an unofficial checklist/questionaire about sensory and while she couldn't say for sure after only spending an hour with us, there were some big red flags that lead us to believe that Parker has a hard time with sensory perception. Which isn't a surprise to me at all and it was even a relief that someone else, someone "official" was listening to me and agreeing with me and not telling me my intuition was wrong. We're still on the waitlist but the OT said we're among the top 20 to be seen... so hopefully within the next few months.
Next we had our last day of playgroup for children on the waitlist for speech (or those who are already in speech). I'm sad that it's over because Parker really loves that hour we spend there. After the group was finished, the leader came up to us and commented that it was amazing to see the changes in Parker over the last few months. His speech has gone through another mini-burst and he was singing along (well, not all the words but all the signs and some of the words) to all the songs. I'm really hoping they start up again in January. Not only do I really love the group as does Parker, it'll be nice for Parker to be familiar and comfortable with the building as that's where we'll be for speech and OT.
Later that afternoon we had an appointment with Parker's pediatrician. I really appreciate not being rushed and the doctor taking his time with his patients but the wait to see him is pretty long. Too long for a toddler, a baby and a mama who's been on the go all day. The appointment went well, we talked about his milestones, development and he was weighed (32lbs). There wasn't a whole lot to say as we are still on the waitlists for OT and speech but Parker's general assesment was sent over. Our doctor mentioned that while he doesn't get the autism "vibe" from him, we should keep an eye on that over the next few years. He agrees that Parker does have difficulty with sensory perception and recommended a few books to us. One thing I really liked is when he said that sensory perception isn't something we can change in Parker.. there's no "fixing" him... it's how he's wired. It's us that need to change how we interact with him and help him go through the day.
Anyhoo... it was an emotional day but like I said.. it was a relief to have someone hear me and not shrug off my concerns yet again.
I really look forward to no longer being on a wait list and to having the support our family desperately needs. Our hard days where Parker spends all day screaming or hurting himself affects us all in all parts of our lives. It breaks my heart to see him so upset and I'm often at a loss of how to help him when its been hours of crying. It affects my relationship with my husband and our relationship with him. I love my son to a million bits but sometimes it's sooo hard. Like lately. I get so overwhelmed (as does he) that I don't want to leave the house, it's too much to get us all ready to go out and when we do go out, it's too hard to go out alone with him and Sophie.
Anyways... I'm rambling now. I'm feeling stressed after a week of really rough days.... looking forward to a few good days. The good days always make up for the rought ones a hundred times over. :)

2 and a half, baby!

Parker is 2 and a half... I can't believe how much he's changed since he his birthday even! His personality is really emerging and I get glimpses of who he will become as he gets older. Fascinating to say the least. :)

Since we started a GF diet for him just after his 2nd birthday, his behaviour has really evened out. He's no longer the constantly raging baby. Looking back on his first two years, my heart just breaks for him and all the pain he was in. No wonder he wasn't a happy child. But now even though he has his rough days (don't most of us though?), his happy days are much more regular.

We're thinking that in addition to a gluten intolerance, he has sensory issues as well. Well, I know he has sensory issues. The more I read about sensory processing disorder the more I'm convinced this is what's going on. And you know what? I fully blame the 10 ultrasounds and his 2 month vaccinations for it. There's research out there now that shows that excessive ultrasounds can cause neurological damage, same with vaccines. I feel guilty but more than that, I feel anger that my caregivers during my pregnancy pushed fear on me and used that to bully me into tests and procedures I wouldn't have otherwise agreed to....

But that's all for another post I think.

This post is about my little man turing 2.5 and celebrating all that he has accomplished since his second birthday. :)

At 2.5 years, Parker:
~ is a very affectionate and loving child. Cuddles are always guaranteed when Parky is in the room.

~ still nurses on occasion but I think he'll be done before he's three. And in all honesty, I'm ready for him to be done.

~ uses the toilet when we're at home with very little accidents. Still working on ditching the diaper for naps and public but no rush.

~ His vocabulary keeps exploding but his pronounciation needs some work. Also, he tends to stick with 2 word sentences, sometimes 3 word sentences. We're on the waitlist for speech which he'll hopefully recieve before he's 3.

~ He and I attend a speech focused playgroup on Wednesdays for an hour. He looooves it, especially the circle time.
~ adores his sisters. He often gets annoyed with Sophie bothering him but he's protective of her and enjoys giving hugs as long as it's on his terms. Ally is his best friend for sure... he could spend all day following him if she let him. :)
~ Loves to go on nature walks, leaf picking is his new favourite activity.
~ loves loves loves music. He loves action songs, seeing people play musical instruments and putting on a show for us.

~ He sleeps in his bed in his room for about half the night. Sometime around 2 I find him laying in his makeshift bed (a bunch of blankets and a pillow) on the floor beside me.

~ He naps for about 1.5 hours a day but if I nap with him, he'll nap for 3 hours sometimes more.

~ loves brocolli, nutritional yeast, beans and yogurt.
~ loves to make pretend tea for everyone and insists that we pretend that it's too hot. He loves all imagination type play.
~ loves to be read to. He's really liking Robert Munsch's "I love you forever" and Strega Nona.

~ loves to be around me or his dad. He's a great helper who insists on doing everything by himself. "no me do" is his new favourite phrase.

Parker's 2 year Check-up

Parker had his two year doctor's appointment yesterday and I was eager to discuss my suspected gluten intolerance with our family doctor. I worried all week how I was going to word it just right so my doctor wouldn't just shake his head at me like he tends to do. He's not the most supportive doctor, or at least he hasn't been when I switched my maternity care to a midwife when I was pregnant with Sophie. Methinks he was a tand offended.

I wrote all of my concerns for Parker so I could bring it with me. I tend to get flustered and forget everything I want to discuss. My concerns and possible symptoms were:
~ reflux up until around 1 year
~ delayed in speech development
~ Mucousy, acidic BMs up to 6 times per day
~ Often undigested foods in BMs
~ VERY fussy, cries a lot
~ Poor sleeping
~ Gassy
~ Horrid, open sores and welts kind of diaper rashes.
~ seems to have an intolerance to citrus as it will worsen his symptoms after eating.

Now imagine my surprise when my doctor agreed with me that it was most likely an inolerance to gluten!! He offered to have him tested for Celiac but I decided not to as it's a blood test and I don't want to put him through that. Instead we agreed to stick with a GF diet and check back with the doctor in 6 months. He said that sometimes it could also be an allergy to dairy but since our GF diet seems to be showing improvments already to stick with this. He also said that often a child will outgrow a sensitivity so we'll see.

So  YAY that all went well... until my doctor started talking about his poor sleeping and crying. I wasn't so much looking for solutions to his nightime wakings as it doesn't really bother me, I just thought it was important for him to know and I've heard that it can sometiems be related to Celiac disease. He offered suggestons but then about the crying, he threw his hands up and said that Parker looked happy and healthy so he didn't know what to say. I was starting to get frustrated because this is what he said when I brought him in at 2 weeks, 6 weeks, 3 months, etc etc about his constant crying. Seriously my poor little man has spent the first year of his life crying and while it's not as often as before it's still abnormal, imo. All my doctor kept saying all those months was that he's healthy and maybe I was just overwhelmed and that caring for a baby was harder than I expected. Ummm.... I have been working with children and babies for 10 years and Parker is my second child. I think I knew exactly what to expect from caring for a newborn and baby. And yesterday he was starting to say the same thing, that because he looked healthy and happy (in the 10 minutes we were in his office he determined that since Parker wasn't crying then that he was a happy child who doesn't cry anymore than other toddlers!!) he didn't know what to say. I could feel myself getting angry and wasn't ready to argue with my doctor so I got up and told him I was leaving. I was at the door when I turned around, crying at this point, and just let all my frustrations with the care my family has been recieving from him in the past two years and how insulted I was by how he handled my concerns over my child's crying.
He apologized and gave me a referral to see Parker's old paediatrician again whom I really like. So hopefully he can give us some answers.
In the meantime, we're sticking with our GF diet and looking for a new family doctor!

Going Gluten Free.

A facebook friend posted a link to the Gluten Free Challenge and I happened to be bored that day so I clicked on her link and had a read through. I was very interested when I read some of the symptoms of gluten intollerance in children and Parker fit several of them.

Since Parker was born, he's always had very mucousy, frequent BMs and horrid diaper rashes. He would poop up to 6 times a day and it would be (tmi warning!) very loose and sometimes even frothy and even if we changed him as soon as he had gone, his poor bum would be so red and irritated, sometimes welts and blisters would be left behind. Parker also has been a very spirited child, always irritable and has always been a bit behind in reaching his milestones (but not enough to warrant therapy of any sort). My dr wasn't concerned: he blamed it on teething, too much fruit, extended breastfeeding, and because even though Parker was slow to meet his milestones he did eventually meet them.

So after reading into Gluten Intolerance and Celiac Disease, my husband and I decided to go gluten free with him for a month and see if we noticed a difference. And my goodness... it's only been 5 days and already we noticed a HUGE difference!! He's only having one or two normal bms a day as opposed to up to 6 loose and acidic bms a day which has made him less irritable because his little bum isn't burnt raw constantly.

Yesterday was a slip up day though... we went hiking with my SIL and I didn't think we'd be gone for too long so I only packed him a snack and she didn't know we were going gluten free so she packed a pb/banana/honey sandwhich for him. He didn't eat the bread but we gave him the bananas from it and then later on that day I gave him a few of my potato chips not thinking there'd be gluten in there (I later read there was). So today his BMs were loose (not like before though) and his little bum was a bit red. I will definitely be more vigilant from now on, it's hard though as we're learning as we go along.

He has his 2 year check up on Monday and I'll mention this to his doctor and see what he has to say about it all.

Being that I love to cook, it's actually been fun looking up new recipes to try out! The other night I made mushroom soup from Gluten Free Girl which was yummy but cost waaaayyyy too much money to make (we're talking $35 for a pot of soup which is too much imo). She has some other recipes that I've tried and am eager to try as well. Last night we had quinoa salad with smoked salmon which was delicious!

Birthday Dinner

Oh, how I love birthday dinners! In our family, the birthday boy/girl gets to choose what's for dinner. Ally usually chooses something like hotdogs or pizza (although this year she just wanted chocolate cake) and Parker isn't really old enough to decide what he wants. So I decided to go with tacos since he enjoys those and his birthday falls on Cinco de Mayo.
Normally I just buy the tortillas but thought I'd try making them homemade. And man, was it worth it! First off, it's SO easy to make once you find the masa flour (in Nanaimo, the only place I could find it was Walmart but later a friend told me that you can get it at Taj Mahal spices on Bowen) and secondly, it tastes SO much better.

Here's a picture of the masa flour (do not use cornmeal!):

All you need to do is add some water (2 cups masa, 1 1/4 cup water) and mix until it forms a dough:

Roll it into 16 balls:

Next, place ball of dough in between two thick pieces of plastic (I cut up a ziplock bag) and either use a tortilla press or use a heavy pan to squish the dough into a thin circle. You can use a rolling pin to thin the dough out if needed:

Peel dough from the plastic and cook in a dry skillet over medium to med/high heat for 45 seconds each side. Stack tortillas and cover while cooking the rest:

How easy was that?!

Normally I make cake for birthdays but there's a new cupcake shop in town called A Wee Cupcakery that I've been dying to try.  It was yummy and the woman who worked there was really kind to us. The only thing I wished was that the cupcakes were boxed better because they were a little smooshed up when I opened it. We each chose a different flavour: Mexican Chocolate, Pink Lemonade, Triple Trouble and Coconut Vanilla. All to die for but I think the best weas the Coconut Vanilla.

Happy Birthday Parker!

My wild little man is two today.

And what a great inquisitive two year old he is!

Such a passionate spirited little guy.

And a definite love of my life.

Morning Adventures

Since Sophie's arrival, I've spent more time walking on trails rather than city walks. I find that it's easier to do so when you have two little ones because I don't have to worry about Parker as much. On most wide trails he can do and go pretty much where ever he wants. Not having to say: "be careful", "stay on the sidewalk", etc is also very relaxing for me just as it is for him to not have to hear it twenty times on our walk! :)

Today we went to Hemer Park which has really nice wide trails and is very quiet except for the occasional dog walker. I wore Sophie in the stretchy wrap (I'm impatiently waiting for my babyhawk to arrive!) and Parker led the way. Parker was fascinated with all the sounds he heard: birds singing and frogs croaking. We spent about an hour walking and discovering at a toddler's pace. We came upon a lookout over a large pond that Parker absolutely loved...we spent quite a while there watching geese, looking at lily pads and cat's tails.

I thought for sure that Sophie was going to fall asleep (she was dozing in the van on the drive there) on the walk but instead she became quite fussy and cried most of the way back. I'm finding it harder and harder to wear her as she's liking it less and less. I'm hoping it's just the wrap that she just doesn't like anymore (as well as the ring sling but I think that's because it shrunk and no longer fits properly) and not that she just doesn't like to be worn anymore. She was content if I was bouncing as I walked and patting her bum with her soother in her mouth but by then Parker was starting to become tired and wanted me to pick him up but of course I couldn't. Luckily just as we were all about to have a breakdown we passed 5 dogs. Parker loves dogs and the owners were nice enough to stop and let him pet the dogs and I was able to soothe Sophie until she calmed down. Next time I think I might bring the jogging stroller along with a baby carrier as a back up.. Parker can hop on when he gets tired and Sophie can go to sleep in it when she gets tired of being worn.

Needless to say that Parker fell asleep within 5 minutes of us being in the van. I nursed Sophie and she chatted to herself happily the whole ride back into town. :)

Window Painting Fun

Parker loves to paint but he quickly fills up a piece of paper in mere minutes. So instead of wasting sheet after sheet of paper and in my quest to find anything to give me a few minutes break I set him up with some paints outside on our deck so he could paint our patio glass windows!

I just mixed some tempera paint with a few drops of dishsoap in a cup, gave him some paintbrushes and let him loose on the windows. He was entertained for half an hour... that's alot for a not yet two year old!

To clean up, all you need is a bucket of water and a wash cloth. It comes off so easily because of the soap added in to the paints.

It's moments like these.....

                ......... that make the stresses of the day melt away.

Quality time..

Quality one on one time seems to be my biggest struggle since our family grew to a family of 5. But it's something I'm really working hard on lately. This past week especially, I've been thinking more about our family and my relationship with each member in it and I learned that each one of those relationships can use a little help.
I find that Ally being that she's almost 14 is hard to connect with the most on a daily basis. We butt heads and don't always enjoy each other's company. But I know that she's been feeling left out now that we have 2 small ones in the house so I've been making extra effort even when some days I just don't want to! Quality time with her is all about doing things away from the little ones, letting her have all the attention for a little bit. That doesn't happen every day but we go to the library, sneak out for an ice cream cone and every night we'll talk about her day while doing the dishes.
With Parker most of my one on one time with him is when he's nursing or if he wakes up in the middle of the night and we'll cuddle together until he falls back asleep. I look forward to when Dave's home on the weekends so that I can lay down with him for a nap just the two of us. We snuggle in tight, arms wrapped around each other and he'll grab onto a lock of my hair to twirl as he drifts off to sleep.
Sophie... again one on one time comes when she's nursing or when Parker's asleep and I sing to her or bathe her.
Staying connected with my husband hasn't been easy either. Since Sophie's been born we pushed each other's needs to the side and forgot about us as a couple which I know isn't uncommon but it's scary how quickly a happy marriage can sour if neglected. Having three children (and all who are at such tough ages: teenager, toddler, newborn) has been hard on us and we were getting resentful of each other as well as felt rejected by the other so this past week we've been working more on us: going to bed together, sitting near each other on the sofa and actually talking to each other.
It's not easy and we're just a family of 5. Makes me wonder how large families do it and make it look so easy at the same time!