At the Risk of Sounding Like Someone I Know

The day after my last post I made, my tonsil pain started flaring up again. It's looking more like this can be blamed on the gluten as well. Google search results (because they are just reliable as a visit to the doctor, right? Right? ;) )with the words "tonsil" and "gluten" are numerous. The tonsil inflammation and pain lasted a few days, but yesterday I noticed it had completely subsided. Thank you, sweet baby Jesus. I had been battling it off and on for nearly two months. Hopefully it stays far away. Before when I went paleo I would give myself one cheat meal a week, and it always contained gluten. Always. I did it so I "wouldn't feel deprived". When I had those meals the only real side effects I felt were bloating and brain fog. But it was always in my system, I suppose, since it can take up to two weeks for your body to get rid of it. I've had a recent love affair with a jar of chocolate almond spread from Trader Joe's. Thankfully we finished the jar off yesterday. I won't be buying that again any time soon. It was delicious, oh so delicious, but I don't want to be planning my days around when my next spoonful will come. And the sugar content was a wee bit over the top.

Personal Diary

I think I'm going to start using this space as a personal diary. Today I've wondered for the first time if I really do have a medical gluten intolerance, or even Celiacs Disease. Maybe, maybe not. Maybe I will peruse testing in the future, for now I will just self experiment. I've been gluten free before, back when I was training in the gym and following a paleo diet. I never in my life felt physically and emotionally better than that period of time. But life with a family got in the way and I fell back into the gluten-filled habits that I had grown up with. Recently, I've re-introduced myself to paleo and training. This time the kids came on the paleo ride with me(it has had amazing effects and benefits for Evan, but that's another post for another day). A few days ago, I ran to the store to grab a rotisserie chicken so I could pack some in Evan's lunch the next day. It was late enough at night that the deli had been shut down, so I hit up the pre-cooked, pre-packaged area of the meat aisle...and dum dum dum...I didn't do my job and read through the ingredients list before throwing some sliced, cooked chicken and steak in the cart. Today I opened up the steak for a quick lunch, while heating the meat I flipped the bag over and started reading, and found that it contained yeast, a.k.a. gluten, a.k.a. that evil bastard known to cause inflammation and a plethora of other things. Not wanting to toss a five dollar bill in the trash, I willingly chose to eat it anyway. About thirty to sixty minutes later, I started to feel a somewhat familiar pain that starts in my knees and radiated out through my calves. These symptoms typically show up along with a bizarre, tingling, painful, pins and needle type of numbness in my feet, hands, and elbows. I always assumed that when I felt like this in the past that I was becoming dehydrated. Today, I know that is not the case, as I've consumed nearly 3/4 of a gallon of water. For the first time, I can actually document that I consumed gluten and developed these symptoms shortly after. I will for sure be keeping this in mind for future occurrences. Perhaps it is gluten related, perhaps not. I'm hopeful that time will give me more clues, but for now I'm going to take some ibuprofen to ease my obvious inflammation.

Musings At Home

It's Done

We've already had two full days with all three boys here at home during the day with me. It isn't as bad as I was working it up to be in my head. Granted, they are probably watching more tv than they should be. Actually, there's no "probably" about it, they ARE watching too much tv. Hopefully I'll get better at trying to keep them occupied without turning to Bubble Guppies and Yo Gabba Gabba for entertainment. I need to also work on our lunch options. I doubt they'd enjoy the constant rotation of mini corn dogs, fish sticks, and chicken nuggets - I want better for them, that stuff is all junk.

Evan's last day went pretty well on a personal level. I didn't cry as much as I did on the twins' last day. I guess it prepped me pretty well. I got a huge knot in my stomach as we turned onto the road where there school is. Something about knowing it was the last time we'd make this trip. We took all three boys in and got in a few more goodbye's with Brennan and Carter's teachers.

Since it was Ev's last day we decided to have him celebrate with his class by ordering pizza for lunch. I think they enjoyed it. Miss Sarah was so sad to see Evan go and was crying in front of all the kids, which made them worried. She waited until we left to read the card I wrote out for her. Want to guess how I know that?

We took pictures of all the boys with each of their teachers and amongst the hustle and bustle of making sure we had everything of Evan's cleaned out we forgot to snap one with Miss Sarah. Fortunately I realized this when we were walking out to the parking lot so Ev and I headed back in. Miss Sarah was pretty upset and was telling me about how she just had just finished reading her card. She really liked it and we captured our last picture of the two of them.

I don't think Evan fully understands that he'll never be going back or visiting with his girlfriend Rhiannon again. He's already said he wanted to go back once. I expect this to pick up in frequency in a little bit and then die down as he starts to forget about them.

We're doing well here at home though, despite the near constant fighting. But that's certainly nothing new. On a positive note, the ladies at the gym daycare were excited to see them. Miss Mariyln (who is probably 70 or 80 years old) even remembered their names, and they haven't been there since early last July!

Brennan and Miss Jenn


Brennan and Miss Michelle


Carter and Miss Jenn


Carter and Miss Michelle


Evan and Miss Kelly


Evan and Miss Sarah

Two Down, One To Go

So somewhere within this last month we made a huge mistake. We told all of the boys' teachers that Tuesday would be their last day. Tuesday, what we were thinking was the end of the month. Not so much. I finally pieced it all together on Saturday when I saw an International House of Pancakes commercial for National Pancake Day, which happened to be on TUESDAY, March 1st. I'm the kind of crazy that just for a split second wondered if it were possible that a date error got past an entire large corporation, marketing company, and editors. And then reality sunk in. And then the panic. I seriously stressed out over this for the remainder of the weekend due to the fact that having my babies attend their last day of school was making me an emotional basket case.

So this morning, before we took the boys to their classrooms, we stopped at the front desk to see if by any small chance they had the room and kind hearts to let us have Tuesday as our real, official last day. They quickly noted that that was fine. Going into this, I knew that there are state laws that require a 4:1 student to teacher ratio. And also, knowing what a fantastic school the boys were in, that there is a massive waiting list. Naturally, I was worried that the replacement kids were starting their enrollment on the 1st. And rightfully so. Except that Kevin and I are complete morons.

All was right with the world, things were working out in our favor. We dropped off the boys, I headed home to get some things together and have some breakfast and then went to Target for some nice thank you cards for the teachers. I was finishing my purchases and on the phone with Kevin when school called. Brennan had thrown up. Not once but twice. He didn't have a fever and was feeling and acting completely normal, but because their policy is that if a kid throws up more than once they need to be sent home, they asked me to come and pick him up.

I get to school, pick him up, make Carter angry because I didn't take him with me and proceed to have a discussion with Miss Michelle about what kind of cupcakes and how many to buy for the twins' going away party tomorrow. We leave, we go to the grocery store. I was just finishing up with finding my items and heading to the front of the store to be checked out when I get a call from Kevin. He had just got off the phone with Mr. Kyle who regretfully informed him that indeed the ratios would be off tomorrow and that the twins last day was again officially today. Evan was somehow spared and is able to return to school tomorrow for a proper send off.

Instant sadness, seriously. I almost cried right there in the middle of Dierberg's. It isn't the end of the world, but I wasn't prepared for an "ending" like this and it caught me completely off guard emotionally. I went back to the bakery section and put the cupcakes back onto the shelf and was near losing it the entire time. We went back home and I put Brennan down for a nap.

Later that afternoon I met up with Kevin to go pick up Carter and Evan. The twins' teachers were also not expecting things to happen so quickly. They had to get everything together, including their memory binders together with final entries, in just an hour or two. They were pretty crushed by it too. There is just something so incredibly sad about packing up the diapers, extra clothes, bed linens, and artwork knowing you're never coming back or that you won't really see these people again. There were tears a plenty as I tried my best to fight them back. We took a few pictures of the boys with each teacher. Technically we'll get to see them again tomorrow when we drop off and pick Evan up, but we said our formal goodbyes today.

It's so strange, this is the first chapter in any of my kids' lives that we are closing. And to have to do it for all three of them at the same time is just awful. I feel like we're moving far away, forcing them to leave all of their little friends and start over. I know that 18 month old kids don't really have friends at this age, but that doesn't make it any less traumatic for me.

Tomorrow's going to be a rough day because Evan DOES have friends, and in all likelihood he'll probably never see any of them again. Heartbreaking, just heartbreaking.

Success!

Operation: Big Boy Bed is a raging success. I really have no idea what was so different about this last round of trying to get Evan into his own bed, in his own room. Things went relatively smoothly throughout the entire process. I don't really have any complaints.

The majority of nights he doesn't even leave his room anymore. He knows that when we say it's bedtime that he needs to walk himself into his room and climb into bed. He usually has minimal fussing and quiets down once we leave his room.

Recently Kevin and I have come to a pretty big decision together regarding my "career". The twins have been non-stop sick it seems and I was missing more days of work than I was actually there. The boys were miserable, I was miserable, I felt guilty for not being able to be at work and have others fill in for me constantly, and the Goddard School location we send them to was making out like bandits during all of this.

I am no longer working, I kind of, sort of resigned. I think my boss/brother-in-law was relieved to have the opportunity to hire someone more reliable than I was am at the moment. Our daycare requires thirty days notice, and somehow it worked out that we gave them our notice just before the beginning of February. The three boys will continue there until the end of the month. I'm really, really sad about this. I know that they all love staying home with mommy. I'm super excited to go outside and play with them with the weather gets warmer. I'm looking forward to fun little field trips to the zoo or the park.

I'm terribly sad about the three of them losing their friends. Not so much for the twins, since well...(you other moms of multiples know) they always have each other. But Evan has been at Goddard since the very first day our location was in business. To say his teachers love him is quite the understatement. The teachers in the next class up always call "dibs" on him before he's even old enough to transition. They say he's a great student, always helps out, and is very nice and friendly with the other kids. It's extremely rare when they have a problem with him, and usually on those days the teachers suspect that something is up and he isn't feeling well. Seriously, they LOVE him! Miss Sarah almost teared up when she heard the news, but is happy that she has the rest of the month with him. She even mentioned keeping in contact with us because there is a big end of the year party where the kids all have a "surprise" for the parents and she didn't want him to miss it. One of the pre-K class's teachers was in Ev's class when we shared our news and she also got a little teary eyed, mentioning that she had already claimed him for the next school year.

I'm getting a little emotional right now. We are so fortunate to have the people that watch our kids really care for them and hold a special place for our boys in their hearts. Brennan & Carter's teachers are awesome too. Just this morning when we dropped them off and left the room I caught a glimpse of Miss Michelle giving B a really nice hug...it looked like a hug I would give him when I'm proud of him for doing something great. Miss Michelle and Miss Jenn have told us they were sad about losing the boys as well. We'll definitely miss all of them.

I'm spending these last few weeks at home by myself (since I'm not working and still sending the kids to daycare) getting things prepped for the fast approaching state of constant mayhem. I'm having a local company purchase and deliver the expedit bookshelf from Ikea (the closest one to us is almost 300 miles away) so I can keep most of the crafting items, toys, and any other daily necessities organized and in one place. I've already had a small, kid sized table and chairs set delivered and assembled and placed in our dining room, being subbed as a play room. Now I'm in search of a playful rug to put underneath of the table so our carpet doesn't take too much of a beating from food, paints, crayons, etc. Anyway, it's kind of nice to divert my emotions and make a really fun room to spend our days in.

Voodoo? A Curse?

What is going on in this house? It's the million dollar question that I'd really, really like answered. Brennan came down with croup last Thursday night. I took him to the doctor Friday afternoon to get him some steroids. Dr. Y is nice and understanding enough to know that Carter will follow closely behind and gave us more meds than B needed so that C would be covered too. Carter got his first dose Sunday night when his croupy cough began. They've both had fevers since Saturday and neither Motrin nor Tylenol can get them to break.

Last night we started Operation: Evan's Room. He's been sleeping in our bed for almost a year now. Don't ask how that happened, it boils down to being crappy parents, Evan's anxiety, and his abilities to play us like a fiddle. We went to see Dr. Y about this Monday.

I guess the majority of this turn around is in my hands since I"m the stricter parent between the two of us. Last night was the first night and I was digging myself a foxhole and preparing for the worst. Which turned out to be not bad at all. Ev whimpered a little and began to cry when it was time to drop the bomb, but I was firm and I think he understood for once that Mom meant business. Plus, it helped that I turned his doorknob around yesterday to where it locks from the outside - and he sat there and watched me do it and seemed to get the severity of what was happening.

He went down without a fight. Are you shocked, because I was. Talk about that kid throwing me for an awesome "holy cow, this can't be real" loop! All night I was expected something to go completely awry, and it never did. He made his way into the doorway of our room three times though. Never made a sound, Kevin or I would wake up and notice him standing there. Kind of creepy. But, I would get up and walk him back to his room where he'd lay his head back on the pillow without a protest.

Hopefully tonight goes just as well as last night. But, I'm going to err on the side of caution and Murphy's Law and not count my chickens before they hatch (enough cliches for you?)

Maybe things are starting to turn around for us? I'm really not sure why the twins keep getting sick, and everyone else around here for that matter. But I hope we've paid our dues and are back on the track to healthy living soon.