Monday, June 29, 2009

Anniversary of the Shark Attack

Can you believe it has been one year since Evan's shark attack? I am sorry to say that after 1 year of recovery, the shark has attacked again. I can't believe I caught video of the attack. I will post last years attack so you can see how teeny he was!



Friday, June 19, 2009

Mini-Donut Mania




Many friends and family members have reached out to say that the pediatrician is nuts to change so many things in E & A's daily routine at the same time. She is a serious, hardcore lady who wants to see more fat on my kids. My sister says that she is just a hardcore $itch.

She is a full Captain in the Navy. She means business. She is also a nurse practitioner, not a doctor. She also said that if she could, she would load kids up with 8 vaccines at the same time. I do not like her. She does, however, show me that she cares enough to keep an eye on my kids' health. The last few pediatricians were extremely nonchalant about their development. I got no direction.

So now I know what I need to do. Get more fat on them. I will not be doing it all her way, though. Stopping the bottle, feeding them only whole milk, and changing their diet all at the same time is insane. I can't believe I even tried to attempt what she said to do. I have had a horrible past few days. I checked the fat content of the formula for toddlers and there is slightly more fat in it than whole milk. So who gives a crap if they keep getting formula? I am now making formula and adding milk to it. A 75/25 ratio. I will gradually add more milk. And as for the bottle, if I give it to them in a sippy cup, they only drink a little and then starve, not getting the fat they are supposed to be getting.

To get more fat in them, I am trying a million things. It is hit and miss. The most successful has been mini-chocolate donuts. They both had at least four or five this morning. Maybe I will start giving them a double mocha frappachino with whip cream to choke them down. Then the Cap'n can call an ambulance to transport them to their appointments because they can't fit into our minivan. Of course I'll have to arrange for the crane to bring them down from the upstairs window first.

Monday, June 15, 2009

I'm a Big Non-Fat Failure

Zero percentile strikes again!

Well, the kids had their 18 month check-up and shots today. I knew that they were still considered small, but was shocked when I saw the digital scale numbers underneath my little Amelia. 17 lbs, 5 ozs. Could it be wrong? Please say it's wrong. Nope. Today I was told that my daughter is severely underweight. She is tiny in weight and in height (28.27"). Evan weighs in at 19 lbs, 67 ozs, which isn't quite on the growth curve for boys, but much better than Amelia's weight. His height was measured at 31", but I'm telling you right now that there is no way he is more than two inches taller than his sister. They look about the same to me, maybe he is slightly taller.

It shocks me sometimes at how small they are, but I am still somewhat OK with it because John and I both have nieces that were tiny, too. And neither of us were very big. Nonetheless, I have been tasked with feeding Evan and Amelia a high fat diet. For the next two weeks, butter will be served on everything. All veggies will be in ranch dressing or coated with cream soup. All fruit will be dipped in a cream cheese topping. I have mostly been giving them short-bread style cookies for dessert. Now they will get Twinkies, mini-donuts, and Oreos. I have been giving them healthy hippy crackers. Now they will get full fat butter cookies and croissants. And to drink? Only whole milk. No water, no juice. No more formula. No more bottle.

I can't tell you how horrible it feels not to figure things out on my own. I've been pretty good at anything I've tried to do in my life. Why is it that I need so much help when it comes to raising my children? I'm so clueless. I can't believe that I didn't figure out the high fat thing on my own. I should have been more forceful when it came to making them drink cow's milk.

On top of all that, I've been told to make their naps last at least two hours and make them sleep for 11-12 hours a night. Supposedly one hour naps and 10 hours of sleep a night just isn't enough. Sure, stop giving them a bottle and they'll go to sleep all night. Yeah, right! I'm just going to start with feeding them the new foods and we'll go from there.

I guess I'd better go take a stick of butter out of the fridge...

Wednesday, June 10, 2009

My 52" Nanny

I said "Nanny", not "Manny". Get your head out of the gutter!

According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, T.V. is not recommended for children under 2. Young children should learn only through talking, reading, singing, listening to music, and playing. Well, here are my two cents on that.

Of all the pediatricians and pediatric specialists we've seen, approximately half have not had children. Now, many have been military doctors, which could be the reason for that, but many have not. Let's face it, I've seen a lot of doctors and trust me that a lot do not have children yet or don't plan to. And if they do have children, and maybe this seems sexist, but they are old men who were probably too busy working and their wives were the ones dealing with the kids. And trust me. Their wives were letting the kids watch T.V. and lying to their husbands! Better yet, there was no T.V. yet!!

Have any of these doctors seen the current programming for young children? "Super Why" teaches them how to spell and read and say the alphabet. They interact with an actual children's book, which is a step further than what I can do. "Classical Baby" introduces them to the art of famous artists while playing classical music. I'm sure not taking them into a Museum of Art at this age. They would just scream to hear their echoing voices. Because of this program, my daughter sings opera! And Dora, Diego, Kai-lan, and Mickey's constant prodding for answers from my children? Not only do they encourage my kids to talk, but in multiple languages! I think it's funny that these doctor's would think that if the T.V. is on that they will sit in front of it like zombies and not play. Have they spent time with toddlers? Do they not know that their attention span is only so big? When they lose interest, they run around, try to crawl in the toybox, and put buckets on their heads.

There is just no way that someone with twins can get away with not turning on the T.V. A sane person, anyway. I choose sanity. When Evan and Amelia were 5 months old and John was in school and studying non-stop, I was their sole care provider during the week. I didn't get to sleep much. If one woke up at 3 am after the other one was up at 2 am, I would put them in the baby bouncer chair in front of the T.V. and turn on Family Guy. Why Family Guy? Because we were in the middle of one of our three moves within a year and that's what we had on our recorder. I really didn't care what it was, as long as it stopped them from crying and I could sleep for 30 minutes. Who cares if Peter was wearing buttless pajamas and chasing people? I sure didn't.

So what's more important? A mother's sanity so she can love and be with her children when her mind is clear and rested? Or an insane overtired mother who plays non-stop with her kids for hours and hours? How is that even possible, I ask you?

Now I'm not saying I don't do these things with my children. We play multiple times everyday. I read them books everyday. We have a dance party at least every other day. We are always listening to music. We sing songs. I talk to them (duh). It's just that in between all that, there is still a lot of time to a day. I have to do laundry and dishes and pick up crap from the floor. And I also check my email 'cause I have a life. So guess what, the T.V. is my nanny during those times. Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.

Now I know there are a lot of parents who claim their kids don't like T.V. Sometimes I feel like they think there is something wrong with my kids because they like it so much. I feel the opposite, if you know what I mean. My kids have an attention span. They know what they love. There are shows they don't like and shows they do. At 17 months, Evan has a hysterical sense of humor and loves to watch old cartoons like Bugs Bunny. He knows that the characters are being wacky and laughs and laughs. How smart is that? I think very. I think it might be genetic. Both John and I grew up loving T.V. Some of our fondest memories of our childhood are of Saturday morning cartoons. I can't imagine having that not a part of my life. I think it made my childhood better. My imagination ran wild with possibilities. I ran like Speedy and the Roadrunner. I fought like the kids from Dungeons and Dragons. I was a Master of the Universe. I developed my sense of humor though Bugs, Daffy, Droopy, etc. I dare my mother to say I wasn't exposed to cartoons until after age 2.

OK, that is enough. I just thought this was an interesting topic because I overhear moms talking about what shows their little ones are or are not watching. (Why they are watching The Wiggles and not Imagination Movers, I don't know. My kids are hip ;)).

Evan and Amelia's current favorite shows in order:

1) Wow Wow Wubzy
2) Super Why
3) Jack's Big Music Show
4) Mickey Mouse Clubhouse
5) Sesame Street
6) Yo Gabba Gabba
7) The Backyardigans
8) Sid the Science Kid
9) Dora/Diego (same thing)
10) Curious George
11) Kai-lan
12) Imagination Movers
13) Thomas the Tank Engine for Evan (though he seems bored of the annoying talking faces) Olivia for Amelia
14) any other kids show


Watching T.V.


Not Watching T.V.

Saturday, June 6, 2009

Friday, June 5, 2009

Short Eyelids??/Setting Evan Free


Within the past week, we have been on two separate medical adventures with boring endings. The adventure is getting to these appointments. Then when you get there and expect the Magic Kingdom (expert advice), you get Gatorland (bad or no advice). Oops, wrong turn!

The first appointment was a Developmental Clinic held at Madigan Army Medical Center, west of Tacoma. We saw 7 doctors in 3 hours: a developmental pediatrician, an orthopedics specialist, a physical therapist, 2 geneticists, and 2 neurologists. I also shouldn't forget the high school student who was observing (??). Oh, and a social worker. Let me list each one to show you how stupid the whole thing was:

Dev. pediatrician: His observation of Evan was that he was progressing like a normal 17 month old. Stupid comment made- "That brace he wears at night doesn't do anything. What's that going to do?"

Ortho guy: Didn't really tell us anything new.

PT: "Work on that torticollis." No shit.

Geneticists: Can't really tell us much. We might do a blood test to rule one disorder out. But, what he most likely has is not genetic. Yup, we knew that. Stupid comment made- "He doesn't need to write, he can just talk into a computer." Are you serious?? You are at least 80 years old. Time to hang it up. Another stupid comment: "One of his eyes is lower than the other." I said, "you mean like most people? My husband and I both have one eye slightly lower. I have crooked ears, too." His response, "Well, yeah, like that." Thanks, doc!!

Neurologists: They couldn't find any observation that would lead them to believe something was wrong with his brain. They did, however, let me know that his eyelids are short, meaning his eyes look like his Dad's eyes. John has a large brow bone and not a lot of eyelid. I didn't know we needed a neurologist to tell us he looks like his Dad. Un-be-lievable!

Then, as a group they watched him run back and forth down the hall. They all observed that his legs were farther apart when he walked than his sisters were. I asked them, "Isn't that because he just started walking and she's been walking for 6 months? Their response, "Yes."

I should also mention that the social worker asked me how I was handling things. And then I rang her neck. Kidding!!

So I drove all the way down there, with my Dad's help thank god, for this bunch of crap? I did this clinic, even though my instinct was that it was not needed, because I didn't want to be that mother that denies her son medical help and opinions.

I will just mention the second clinic we did yesterday really quick. Went to Seattle Children's Hospital to the Limb Difference Clinic, which involved a physiatrist (rehab doctor) and an occupational therapist, both specializing in limb differences. And some others I had no idea who they were. We visited them because, obviously, Evan has limb differences, but primarily to make sure I am doing everything I can for him. It was unanimous that I am do everything and that Evan is remarkable. There advice is to let him figure things out on his own. I (we) already do. I guess it was good to get some confirmation that I'm doing the right thing, though. I've been worried that he is lacking some kind of therapy because we don't know what muscles he is missing on the left side. The physiatrist says that current medical thinking is that you work with what you do have, not with what you don't. So the plan is to keep on going to therapy and hopefully everything will work out.

The point to these stories is that we are done putting Evan through this stuff. John and I have been able to email back and forth a little bit. He told me that we need to set him free. Free to have a normal childhood and stop with these specialists that aren't needed. We will see the ones we have to when we need to, but no more poking and prodding to educate others. He's unique, but still the same as the rest of us, so now we are going to concentrate on playing! Yay, Evan!