Updates, Life, Trials and Tribulations (Translation: Lots of News)

Growing up in a small New England town and with genetic stock that consisted of farmer's stock (on mom's side) and fisherman's stock (on dad's side)...well with other stuff mixed in, but you get the idea...you can guarantee that there was always this intangible, but always prevalent under atmosphere of paranoia in our household.  Superstitions were very real to my parents, especially my father, and in turn a lot of those superstitions were passed down to me.  Sure, I might not be as good at adhering to said superstitions (all I can think of is Ash from "The Evil Dead" saying, "Yeah I said the words" speech *laugh*) as my parents.  For instance, I can never remember what shoulder to throw the salt over when I spill it so I throw a tiny bit over each shoulder.  Weird?  Probably.  Worthwhile?  Well, I know my dad is looking on and smiling somewhat amused, let's just put it that way *laugh*.

What does that have to do with an update on my life?  Easy.

Everything comes in threes.

That is one of the first lessons my mother taught us when  we were young.  When something bad would happen we'd wait with baited breath for not only the other shoe to fall, but the third pratfall to hit us.  When something good would happen we'd wait anxiously to see if there was anything else cool that was going to happen.

This summer has sort of been like that for me, but in an odd way.  It seemed like a LOT has happened, although I'm thinking that the superstition is outdated.  It should read, "Things happen and keep happening until you're sanity is a thing you left five miles back and you just want to sit down and relax with a good book and a cup of cocoa more than anything else in the universe."

So, here's how my summer went down from the time of my last post.

1.  Worked like heck to get Alvah on a feeding schedule and get him to gain weight (or at least stop losing weight).  So, we got him on a feeding schedule.  It worked okay, but he still continued to not want to eat much.  I finally got to the point that I asked his new pediatrician for advice and she suggested finding something high calorie that he'd eat and just feed it to him at every meal (although his weight was STILL okay, we were just trying to stop him from losing more).  After much searching I found that Alvah loved chocolate so he started getting Enjoy Life Chocolate Chips or peanut free M&M's at every meal (oh and to the blog reader who e-mailed me and asked where I GET said peanut free M&M's, I get them from Vermont Nut Free Chocolates and they are called Skippers...just search for it in their search field :).

Alvah also found that he loved other foods, which floored me.  He ate supreme pizza, onion rings and a bite of spring roll all within a few days of each other (which honest to the good Lord above is HUGE for a kid with his sensory issues).  Unfortunately, all the new foods he found he loved (and in some cases ate while mom's back was turned by mooching off of dad, who isn't as careful as mom) contained garlic and in the case of the spring rolls were fried in peanut oil (oh what that did to his poor skin for the next week *flinch*).  I've finally come to realize something that I've suspected since the food allergies were introduced.  My son LOVES, not just likes, but LOVES garlic.  Unfortunately garlic does not love him *sigh*.

So, anyway...

Results:  With the feeding schedule, the addition of chocolate at every meal and snack time and Alvah showing more interest in food (including picking up a love for Nutella while at OT) I watched the child not just eating, but near INHALING food.  I was thrilled.  And then we went to the pediatrician for his back to school exam and found out that he'd lost 1/2 a lb.  I wanted to cry until his doctor laughed a little and said he'd also gained 3/4 of an inch in a month (I've been keeping up on getting him weighed and growth charted obsessively of late) and losing weight while growing is a pretty common thing in kids.  So, yeah, sometimes you just want to stomp your foot and other times you just have to realize that your son uses all of his energy to grow UP not out when you feed him constantly and he'll always be in the 90th percentile for height but (hopefully) in the 45th to 50th percentile for weight.  He's still getting chocolate with every meal, though, in the hopes that he'll at least gain some weight BACK now that he's stopped growing for the moment (I hope).

2.  We house hunted.   And get how THIS chain of events went...

1)  Looked at a house we loved and really wanted to buy and ended up getting hooked up with Steve Renner at IEC Realty in Wasilla.  Honestly, he was the BEST real estate agent I've ever had the pleasure of working with, so if you want a good realtor, call him!  He hooked us up with Academy Mortgage in Anchorage and more specifically Leon McKean, who I also highly recommend if you are looking for a great finance guy (never have I had things go as smoothly as they did when working with him...sure you have to work to get things done, but Leon and crew at Academy SURE know what they are doing!).

2)  The house we had been looking at turned out to be out of our price range, which then catapulted us into looking at homes, which I have to admit I HATED more than just about anything else in my entire life.

3)  Right when I was starting to get discouraged we found a home that was way below what we'd been pre-approved for and within five days of the home being on the market we made and offer, it was accepted and after that it was seriously like grabbing onto an out of control freight train and waiting for it to cruise to a stop.  It finally did stop less than a month later.  At closing.  With us as new home owners.  Which was probably the single most scary and exhilarating feeling I've ever had in my entire life *laugh*.

3.  And then Moveaggedon started.  We picked the single most summer in creation to move where EVERY SINGLE one of my husband's family was either moving themselves, were working crazy hours, were getting married or were in the middle of needing knee replacement surgery (and no I'm not kidding).  So, it's just been the hubs and I moving for the last month trying to get everything packed up, moved over and hopefully in a somewhat functional way.  It has NOT been fun.  Alvah even managed to take off on us for 10 minutes into a nearby subdivision one day when both the husband and I's backs were turned for three seconds just to put the icing on the cake and scare at least 10 years off of my life (between my children I swear I'm going to drop dead any day now *sigh*).

4.  Summer school hit in the middle of all of the rest of what was going on.  Alvah did well, by the way (they even got him up to 4 items on the PECS system, which was awesome :), and while we had issues with missing coats (which went missing literally day two of summer school) and snack bags, all items were recovered the next to last day of school, so it was all good.

5.  And there were definitely other things that happened, including a letter from my visiting teacher and friend on suffering that seriously hit at just the right moment (one day I'll try to share a link to it with you all that are religious :) and I've still got up on my fridge and reread about fifteen times a day.  It's great to get things put into perspective and just make sense at just the right moment isn't it?

And now school is starting day after tomorrow and I'm in the middle of trying to get boundary exemptions and making sure all the last minute school things are taken care of (including stocking up on corn free items for the daughter's lunches and snacks), so to say that I'm busy doesn't even BEGIN to cover it.

I'm honestly not sure when I'm going to have time to blog the next little bit.  I have a lot going on and am hoping to work on potty training with my son as soon as school starts (since I'll have him without daughter's help or hindrance for a good portion of the day), so my already jammed schedule is going to be insane, but hopefully in a more low key way, here very soon.

I hope you all had a great, fun and RELAXING summer.  I've got to go and run baths for the kids, so I'm out for now.  Take care and I'll see you all, hopefully soon!