Seems the past month has been a busy one! I've been doing a fair bit of reading/research into diet/nutrition and making changes to the foods we eat. Hopefully it won't be so time consuming once I'm in the routine of things, but lately I've felt like I'm on my feet ALL day until I finally crash into bed around (or after) midnight. But once I've worked out what we're eating and where I'm buying the foods from, and meals etc then hopefully it will become habit, as is already happening with some of it! Maybe I should post a blog another time just about the food related changes I'm implementing! :-) But I've bought a lovely German grain mill for making flour. And now I've got 25kg bags of rye and spelt grain for making sourdough bread. And at last, I've managed to "catch wild yeast" in the air for my sourdough starter and made a lovely batch of 4 loaves of bread yesterday. It's amazing to have bread that is only made from water, flour and salt - NO packs of yeast, and NO sugar! And it's very yummy too. Also, breakfast is porridge that has been soaked overnight in water & kefir, or scones (biscuits to Americans) I soak the flour in buttermilk or yogurt for 12-24 hours first. Fermented grains are supposed to be the only way our body can easily digest them, so I'm trying to get into the habit of a new way of cooking/baking! :-) And the taste is lovely too! So yeah, plenty of things to change. Hoping to buy organic meats next, so have bought a new fridge/freezer (meaning we now have 2!) so we'll have freezer space for buying it in bulk. But it's fantastic to have so much fridge space, especially with buying lots of yogurt and other dairy products! But anyway, enough about foods/diet for now - I'll save that for (maybe) another post some other time. :-)
Two weeks ago was our trip to the animal park, which the separate post below is about. Then the following Thursday we took Abigail to the hospital in Inverness to see a paediatrician. She's been getting pain/cramps in her legs (starting in her thighs) since towards the end of April. I took her to the GP who couldn't find anything visibly wrong and referred her to the paediatrician. The first time it happened she was crouching down on the pavement outside to draw on some paper and came in the house *screaming* about a pain. She ended up being sore for a couple of hours and not able to walk very easily. It's happened quite a few times since, sometimes severe enough for her to scream for several minutes, and other times she's just unable to walk/move for a short while. It does mean she needs us to carefully listen out for her, as on occasions she's been coming down the stairs when she suddenly gets the pain and can't move, or on her way to the bathroom but can't stand up to reach the door handle or get to the toilet herself. Anyway, the GP thought the paed. might do an x-ray or ultrasound (which I prepared the frightened Abigail for as we went to the hospital!) but what I didn't know was they only wanted to take some bloods! :'( That proved *very* difficult. I thought it was bad enough when Clement was 8 weeks old, but wow, trying to hold down a 4.5 year old who is hysterical was very hard! Poor thing - she was very upset and they had to attempt it at least 5 times due to all her movements. Thankfully they got it in the end, but not without some bruising to her hand. Also while at the hospital the paed. noticed a murmur in her heart. It seems it's very common for children to have innocent ones, so we hope and pray that nothing is actually wrong in that regard. But they do want to do an ECG sometime soon to make sure everything is okay.
And then on Tuesday this week I had a detailed scan at the hospital. It was my first time to have a 20 week scan, so it was quite amazing to see such a detailed view of the baby. Everything looked perfect too, which was good to know. And I actually asked if they could tell me if it was a boy or girl! ;-) I've never asked before, but as much as Abigail has been hoping for a sister, I thought it might be nice to know ahead of time, should I need to prepare her for a third brother. BUT, they said it's a GIRL! :-) So that's quite exciting. Then after the scan we had our "monthly" homeschool get together which is always fun. It's nice to meet new people and see "old" friends too. The children enjoy the games, crafts and friendship too. And then on Friday Dad and Anna came to see us, which was lovely. They stayed overnight and then went to Lochcarron on Saturday for the weekend. They were back here on Monday afternoon and left on Wednesday, and are hopefully back in Texas by now! It was nice to see them again after such a long time and the children really enjoyed them being here too.
So yes, busy few weeks, really! Plenty of photos of the children below.
Minus the redness around his eyes and face, I think this photo reminds me of ones I've seen of my dad or one of his brothers when they were a child. Anyone agree with me? :) Abigail & Clement definitely favour their daddy's side of the family, so Benjamin is my only "Little Smith"! LOL Anyway, I really like that photo of him and think it shows how he looks like my side of the family. ;-)
As you can see in the above photos, this is what Benjamin's face looks like after eat *anything* with egg in it. :-( His sensitivity to eggs has become a lot worse over the past few months, meaning it can be stressful at times to make sure everything he eats is totally egg-free - especially when we're out or someone else is offering him something to eat. It's hard on him too, as so many yummy baked goods have eggs - Mars candy bars included! The above photo was taken after he'd eaten some rice crispies snacks I'd made with melted Mars bars. :( And then the eczema/itchiness gets so bad that I have to resort to steroids/antibiotics every time to clear it up again. The reaction happens about 12 hours or so after he's eaten the food, so it makes me think it's not a true egg allergy but perhaps gut related (leaky gut syndrome?) and the redness/itching/eczema is happening when the food is being digested. Obviously I'm not a doctor, but I'm left to think/sort a lot of things out myself when neither GPs or even the dermatology department seem to want to offer any help. It's often a case of them asking me what I want them to prescribe, rather than them being the experts offering their expertise! So yeah, plenty of time is spent looking after Benjamin. But he's my lovely special little boy and is worth every minute of it! :-) We recently had a very severe spell of the eczema after I started him on a therapeutic dose of probiotics. I hadn't realised I needed to give him 1/10th of a capsule to start with and only increase it by 1/10th every 7 days or so....and I started him on a whole capsule. Bad idea! He ended up with eczema coming out everywhere (like we'd not had in *months*) and his face even looked how it only looks after he's had eggs! But this is a known thing to happen, known as a "die off" effect - the probiotics are working in your gut and the bad stuff in there is giving off toxins and can make whatever conditions you have worse. So maybe it's a sign that there's hope and healing up his gut will help in the long term. I've finally cleared up his skin with Fucibet Lipid cream (steroid antibiotic mix), so hope to soon start him on the 1/10th capsule - if I can work out how to divide a tiny amount of powder into 10 portions! :-P
Clement looking very pleased with his new car seat!
Abigail reading a story to Clement - it's wonderful having a child old enough to read books to the younger ones! Yesterday it was probably the only point in the day when Benjamin sat still & quiet for 40 minutes - when Abigail was reading to him! :-)
The favourite spot of my three children - at the counter watching mummy cook or do dishes! I love having such an open kitchen with plenty of space for them to be around me, especially on the days where I'm in the kitchen for so much of the day!
Eating, as always! Crumbs all over him and floor! He can end up going through 3 sets of clothes per day!
Another thing he loves to do - be outside for ages! He's still not thinking about walking but will crawl around the garden and thinks it's the most fantastic thing to do! The warm days we had earlier in the month were lovely - but it's back to damp and cold weather just now.
Balls are his other favourite - he plays with them all day long. He enjoys throwing them up the stairs, climbing half way up, and then throwing them down again. He's quite good at throwing too!
Driving is lots of fun!
Fun in the sunshine
And crawling out on his head when he wants to leave the car!
Moving chairs around the house so he can reach heights is very common - looks like he's trying to find out how to get out the front door!
My boys out in the lovely warm sun
My three beautiful children - it's such a privilege to be their mother! Sometimes it's easy to get caught up thinking about all work a mother has to do (like right now when I've not finished the dishes and it's 11pm, due to Clement only recently going to sleep!!) But they are a wonderful blessing and there's nothing else in all the world I'd rather do or be than their mummy! :-)
Oh yes, chairs are wonderful - this time it's the top of the fridge he's getting to!
And of course, the table is his favourite place to be. I guess it put him level with me while I'm in the kitchen. He often sits there for ages while I'm cooking or doing other things in the kitchen. But sometimes he likes to just turn around and back off the table feet first as if it were a low bed - and then crash! Seems he's always falling off of things, though at the same time, he's actually quite a capable climber!Right, dishes for me to do! I'm sure I should have finished them first, but if I had, this would have never gotten done. I've been meaning to post something for weeks, but the evenings/nights just vanish before I know it.
