You know what is not fun? When you have to work the last week of August and the first two weeks of September, and life suddenly feels like “all work and no play”.
That’s been my dilemma, and why I’ve been incredibly patchy on posting lately. There’s just too much to do at home, and not enough time at home to do it all! Something had to give, and unfortunately, writing was the biggest thing to go.
Until I became so overwhelmed that I had to stop, I didn’t fully realize how much daily writing served as a cathartic, mind-calming exercise for me. Whether I publish it or not, it is quite clear to me that I need to write something every day.
Anyway, enough of that: I have good news to share!
Last Friday, we declared sea salt a safe food!
This is a big deal! Not only is it Zac’s 11th safe food, but it’s the very first “overlap” food; the first food I currently consume that he has trialed and can safely eat. Whew!
The little munchkin loves his salt, too! When he is served any food now, he immediately takes it to the kitchen counter where the salt is kept and points to it, demanding we salt his food.
We’d intended to immediately launch in to another food trial, but the very day salt became safe, Zac decided to get me all worked up.
That morning, he vomited. A lot.
It wasn’t profuse FPIES vomiting, but it was a very large, cover the kitchen floor kind of spew.
Not comforting!
The night before he had refused any dinner, and while he slept well, he woke in a very cranky, unhappy mood.
The previous day he had speech therapy, and had eaten great until about 4 hours after we left the office. Friday (the day he vomited), he was supposed to have another speech therapy session to make up for the missed one on Labor Day.
I sent a message to his therapist saying that he had vomited, and I didn’t know if it was a food reaction or a stomach bug…should we stay away or go ahead and come?
She responded that it was up to me, but that another of her patients had called out sick for the day because of unexpected vomiting.
That WAS comforting! If another little kiddo was sick, then the odds were good that Zac had picked up a stomach bug at therapy the day before. It fit the timeline, after all, so I crossed my fingers that he was simply “normal kid sick” and not FPIES reactive.
After the vomit, he seemed much better. He perked up and behaved perfectly normally from then on.
His appetite wasn’t very good, and stayed iffy for a few days, but he had no signs that would indicate an FPIES reaction.
Stomach bugs are terrible, but they’re so much better than an FPIES reaction!
Still, I hate it when he looks like this:
Poor little guy.
I had to leave for work on Monday, the first day I would have been ready to trial a new food. Even thought we suspect he’s outgrowing FPIES and Darrel is growing impatient to trial more foods more quickly, I’m not comfortable, yet, with starting trials when I’m gone.
Mores specifically, I’m not comfortable starting food trials when the BOOBIES are gone. Zac likes to comfort nurse when he’s reacting, and on the off chance that the new food causes a reaction it would be best for both of us if we were together.
So the food trial is delayed until Friday. Bummer.
In other random bits of life over the past couple of weeks, I called to order more bananas for Zac, only to learn that our supplier closes down for two months every year! Ack!
They won’t reopen until November 5th, and we cannot go without bananas that long.
So I ordered a lot of bananas.
A LOT.
Instead of my usual 20 pound order, I went a little crazy with “OMG we’ll run out” fear and ordered 100 pounds.
I forgot to take a photo of a full box, because Darrel and I were working so quickly to freeze those suckers before they went bad, but here’s a partial box:
That’s about 3/8ths of a full box.
We got 3 full boxes just like this. Yikes!
Here’s what about 30 pounds worth of banana peels looks like, too, just for fun:
I don’t think we’ll run out of bananas before November 5th!
It’s well established by this point that Jed doesn’t like me leaving for work. One thing I’ve done to make it better for him is to start bringing him a little gift when I come back.
Since I don’t want give him toys every time, I always bring him a little book. Less spoiling that way, and books are fabulous any time, right?
Last week when I gave him his book gift, he was thrilled to see it was a Clifford the Big Red Dog coloring and activity book. We went through the book from beginning to end right away, with me asking him to complete the activities, and him telling me stories about each of the coloring pages.
I had to stop and take video of one particular page, though, and thought I’d share it with you. Just because it’s totally cute and we can all use a little giggle, right?
Here’s what Jed thinks “whales” are called:
Blow-hole fish. Too. Cute.
How he learned the name “blow-hole” but missed the name “whale”, I’ll never know!
Oh, and even though he gets a book and not a toy, he has made it quite clear that he doesn’t think it’s a proper gift unless it is wrapped. He almost completely rejected the book two trips ago because I simply handed it to him from my suitcase!
So now I have to hide wrapping paper and tape in the trunk and wrap the book before I come home.
The things we do for our kids, right?
How have things been in your neck of the woods?
