Alex and his first food

Well Alex turned 6 months today! To celebrate, I made him some zucchini. Mom brought some from her garden, so it was nice and organic. I steamed it up, then used the Magic Bullet Blender (thanks, Joyce!!) to puree it. When Biju got home from work, we gave him a taste. This whole "eating" thing might take awhile to get down, but I'm sure he'll be a pro in no time. Here are a couple of pics to enjoy---

Nix on the diet

Well, it lasted about a week. I liked the results we started to see, but it was so draining on me. I was in the kitchen constantly, and the food disappeared all too quickly. I wouldn't mind trying this diet again, but I need to hire a chef first :)

Alex's bugbite

Okay, add to all of the poor kids food allergies. I think he's allergic to whatever it is mosquitoes eat.... or maybe the stuff that they leave behind when they suck your blood. Whatever it is, it sure is mean to my poor baby. I took him outside last night to help get him relaxed for bed. He loves being outside! I even had him covered up so he wouldn't get bit on his legs. Turns out he got a bite on his elbow and his EYE!!
I happened to take a photo of him right before we went outside. So here is a before shot, and an after....


And while we're at it - A shot of him sitting up, watching Ajay play with his ball popper last night, and a nice happy photo of him today, even tho it looks like he's got a shiner

Our journey with the SCD

Well me being on a diet (for Alex's allergies) just wasn't enough :) Now I've roped Biju and Ajay into a diet, also. It's the Specific Carbohydrate Diet. Not "low" or "no" carb, but specific. The idea behind it is to only take in simple carbs, and not the complex carbs, and not have any starches or sugars. I have a link to a website that talks more about it on the left hand side of this page. That site deals mainly with how the diet helps children with autism, but the diet helps those with Crohn's and other bowel issues, ADHD, Schizophrenia and other mental illnesses, Allergies, and other illnesses. It's the gut-brain connection. What you eat really does affect your mood/mind! Anyhoo, I won't go into more here. If you want, you can read more about it on the pecanbread website, or check out the book Breaking the Vicious Cycle by Elaine Gottschall (they have a website, too http://www.cobbler.plus.com/btvc/index.htm).
We did the intro part of the diet on Saturday and Sunday. Then Sunday night we bagan Stage I. There are 5 stages, each one you get more (and better!) foods. There are tons of recipes out there, I'm finding. It's all very healthy food for you, so cutting out all the complex carbs, starches, sugars can only be a good thing. I'm already noticing a difference in Ajay (it is Tuesday night as I post this). He is very hungry and is eating very often - but my mentor told me to expect this. (My mentor is a friend I met on the internet who has 3 children with multiple food allergies) Ajay has tons of energy, I can't keep up with him!! He's not having the sugar high/crash from all the other foods. Tonight he actually did what I asked him to do! Biju is on second shift tonight, so it was just me and the kiddos during bathtime. I gave them both an epsom salt soak, had story time, and now they're both in bed. Alex is snoozing away (he's already had his first wake-up of the night, but is out again) and Ajay is talking to himself in his bedroom. He's starting to quiet down tho....
I emptied our cabinets of all the no-no's and this is about half of it:

A lot of that we didn't use on a regular basis - had around for random baking, or we'd forgotten it was up there. It's nice to get it out anyway.
As I mentioned above, you find all sorts of recipes for foods you CAN have. I found one for chicken pancakes. You just take one boiled chicken breast (with whatever spices you want, but no garlic powder or onion powder, as those are usually mixed with some sort of starch to avoid caking), you grind up the chicken in the blender, then add 3 eggs and blend again. Looks just like pancake batter! Cook it up on the griddle. Yum! Ajay gobbled these up. I'm sure it'd be nice w/ a dip of some sort. But I attepted homemade mayo and it didn't work out. I'll try again another time. (There is a recipe for chicken nuggets, too, take ground up cooked chicken breast, mix it with the mayo, dallop it onto cookie sheets and bake!)Here is a shot of the pancakes:

Since Alex is allergic to eggs at this time, I can't have anything with egg, but Biju and Ajay can, so it's nice to have these things on hand. Hopefully after some time on the SCD, Alex will be able to tolerate eggs and I can start eating them again!
I also made up applesauce!! Biju was kind enough to peel, de-seed, and chop up about 5 apples for me. I put them into the crock pot w/ a bit of water, a squirt of honey, and let them go for about 6 hours. Then I put them into the blender and presto chango - homemade applesauce. I think I'll do something similar once (if) I get around to giving Alex apples. Of course I'll omit the honey, tho! Here is the applesauce (The jar was an old instant coffee jar we had around waiting to be recycled. Pretty handy!)

Thats all for now, but I'll try to mention the diet now and then when I think of it :) If anyone is interested in more information, please e-mail and I'll help however I can!!

This and that

Just a few pics of the boys. Ajay catching rain on his tongue, helping Daddy wash the van, taking a nap in a new spot, Alex playing in his exersaucer, enjoying his first sit-down in big-brothers booster seat (he didn't eat anything, just had fun in the seat)....

Blessings all around

We had Alex's baptism on Sunday July 6th at a church some family members belong to. My sis and bro-in-law had their little girl, Kyleigh, baptised at the same time. We thought it would be fitting since Ajay and Paige were baptised on the same day, also, 3 years ago. Ajay was baptised in the same gown Alex had on. It's a 3rd generation gown, used by me and my siblings, and an aunt and an uncle - so that gown is.... 50 years old??
Alex was sort of fussing, but had settled and had JUST started to doze off when it was time to go up for the holy water. I didn't realize he was dozing (he was sitting on my lap facing out) so when I stood up, it startled him. He cried the rest of the ceremony!! I ended up nursing him towards the end and Father had to finish the blessings while Alex was under my nursing cover.
















Here's Alex (sleeping) with Mommy, Daddy, Father, Godmother Natalie and Godfather Willie
















Here are the two baptism candidates - Alex and Kyleigh, with their parents
















Father could not do a Blessing of the Sick for Alex, since he's just a child (don't understand that one)so he blessed me, since I provide Alex's nourishment through my breast milk. Biju and my Aunt Tina, also my Godmother, put their hands on me as he prayed over me.
















Father also blessed Jaime as she carries little Logan Louis in her womb. My brother, Jeff, stood behind.
















Here's a snoozing Alex all ready to go!

Independence Day Celebration

We went to my brothers new house to celebrate - Ajay really enjoyed throwing the pop firecrackers intended for little kiddos. This is him and cousin Paige enjoying themselves:
















Here's a shot of Alex hanging out with Papa Jim and others watching all the fireworks. He enjoyed himself for the most part, but wasn't exactly thrilled with all the people and noise, so I ended up spending most of the evening inside with a fussy little one.

On Scary Men and Vinegar

Last night was rough. No one got much sleep. Alex was up way too much - the longest stretch of his sleep being 2.5 hours. I had just gotten back to sleep at one point when Biju came into Alex's room (where I was sleeping) and woke me - I then heard Ajay screaming from his room. The poor kid was freaked out. Biju told me he'd been laying with Ajay since 2am, but he wanted to go back to bed so he would be able to hear his alarm go off at 5am. So I went in and layed with Ajay - I didn't sleep well because I was afraid I wouldn't hear Alex crying in the other room. Everytime I woke up or moved, Ajay started whimpering, asking me not to leave. So at 6am when Alex woke up, I ended up taking him back to Ajay's bed, and the three of us layed there for awhile - then I realized both boys were fully awake. So we went to the couch. I called Mom so she could feel sorry for me :) Ajay wanted to talk, so I let him, and he told her all about the two scarey men that were in his room last night, and how one had put him back to bed. He told Daddy about it again at 9am on the phone. So after that phone call, I got out my spray bottle of vinegar, and let him go through the house and spray wherever he wanted, since monsters and scarey men don't like vinegar!! Hopefully the vinegar trick works, as I don't want a repeat of last night ever again!

Edited to add:
I put Alex down for his morning nap, and when I came back into the living room, this is what I found. I don't blame the poor kid! I just hope he still takes a nap after lunch!!

What we've been working on

We've had a fun few days, working on all sorts of things. Here are a few:

Ajay and I worked on puppets! He named his "Doggy" - pronounced "doh-ghee" and I named mine Annabelle.

Alex is working on sitting. He's doing rather well, and he's very proud of himself!

Ajay playing on the playset - he "snuck" out of the house, so didn't have his shoes on. He'd also dressed himself. Yes, it is now July, and yes, he is wearing a sweatshirt and long pants. Like I said. He dressed himself. At least it was less skin for the mosquitoes to feast on.



Alex has been working on his innocent baby face!

Alex working on yet more baby skills - playing with his toesies. They haven't made it to his mouth yet, I'm just waiting :)

Today I called the Parents as Teachers group that is part of our school district. They offer a "preschool" of sorts for 3 year olds. Its like a pre-pre-school. I'm excited to have Ajay attend! It runs like a regular school year, Sept. thru May, and we'll attend one day a week, for about 2 hours at a time. I say "we" because either I or Biju will be taking him to this classroom-type setting. There will be a certified teacher leading the "class," he'll have about 11 other students (all with their parents or caregivers) and we'll get to introduce a more structured setting with Mommy or Daddy, before sending him out on his own next year (for regular preschool). A perk is that this is free! It's a great chance for us, too, to see what type of learner Ajay, so we'll know how to help him when he starts to attend school. I'm super excited, can ya tell?