Post Whole 30 Reflections

 

We officially ended the whole 30 and started introducing foods back into the diet in December. The first thing we tried to re-introduce was soy. I made my own soymilk and sweetened it with a couple of dates. 

Soy caused us all to be really gassy but then it went away. 

We then tried grains like quinoa, rice and oatmeal. No issues. I did however at this point start to feel a bit more tired in the afternoon and didn't feel like I had as much energy as I had before introducing the carb-rich foods. 

We then did wheat, gluten containing and things were ok. We made the mistake by going big and getting doughnuts. Everyone was just fine except for Hailey whose eczema flared up and at night she woke up every 2-3 hours complaining that her butt and stomach hurt. We later figure out that there is also milk in the doughnuts... so we had to take a step back to see if it's the gluten or dairy that affected her. 

After 2 days of getting back onto the whole 30, we tried bread again. We found that a slice of bread was ok, but bread, pasta, and cookies made her tummy hurt, so we are going to limit her gluten intake. 

I knew dairy was a culprit, so I decided to take things slow and try yogurt one day (in a smoothie), which seemed to be ok; butter, in a dish, which ended up being a no-no for Hailey; and then lactose-free milk in cereal, which caused her belly to immediately hurt. She also started to wake up at night all through those few days. We finally stopped dairy and the night wakings have also stopped. 

What I'm taking away from this experience 

After a whole month of eating whole 30 I felt like I was slimmer and trimmer. My weight didn't change too much, but I felt like my clothes fit better. As soon as I started to incorporate carbs and sugar back into my diet, I feel a bit more..."puffy." With it being the holidays, I have decided that it was worth it to enjoy a cookie after dinner or add a splash of egg nog into my coffee in the morning. Will I continue to do it after the holiday season is over? Probably not, but you only live once, right? 

We are eating more veggies at most meals. I used to check the veggie box off by always serving at least 1 veggie at dinner. Now, I make sure I try to incorporate at least 1-3 different veggies at each meal (except for breakfast, which I'll talk about in a separate section). So, basically veggies for lunch and dinner. I don't make the kids finish all the veggies, but I usually ask them to pick 1 that they would like to eat and have them finish those items. 

Breakfast is now more hearty. It's a pain, but I've been incorporating eggs into our breakfast. The kids love their cereal. It's convenient. Instead of allowing them to eat 3 bowls of cereal in the morning, I am having them add other items such as an egg, a slice of frittata, or a piece of avocado toast to their 1 bowl of cereal. This also tends to hold them over until lunch. (I do let Hailey have fruit and/or nuts when she wants a snack) 

Steve says that besides the initial weight loss, he did not feel any different than before he started the program. The kids also agree. I feel like carbohydrates make me feel sluggish and I'm always feeling like I am in need of a snack especially in the evenings. This didn't happen before I started the program. 

Going Forwards: 

I'm going to continue cooking nutritiously balanced meals for my family, but I'm going to rely less on grains as I did in the past and if I do have to, I would use a mixture of the brown version of the product (rice or whole wheat). Half of the plate will be veggies, and not just 1, but a good assortment. 

I really believe that kids can listen to their body and figure out what their body needs. It's the sugar and the ingredients in the processed foods that may lead their tastes astray, so if we don't offer those things as an option, we can let kids eat what they want and I think that they will grow up just fine. In fact, Hailey has shown the fastest rate of growth these past 2-3 months than she has grown since she turned 1). There was a period where she wasn't growing much, but she's catching up. 

Overall, I'm glad I went through this journey with the family. What you put in your body can affect how efficient your body functions. It's made a believer out of me. I feel like I'm less inflamed over -all when conforming to Whole30 rules. But I am curious into the Paleo / keto lifestyle and will be doing more research over them in the future. 

All is Calm, All is Bright

Dear Kids, 

I can't believe that as I write this, Christmas Eve will be tomorrow! As each week flies by in a fleeting moment, I can't believe it's about to be 2021 again. This week the COVID vaccines have started to make its rounds to medical workers and eventually all who will want one will get one. This gives me hope for a life of normalcy. 

But what is normalcy? What will it be when things start to open up and we can start to gather? I've actually enjoyed not having to rush around so much and have enjoyed not having to be anywhere at any certain time (except for doctor appointments). I'm looking forward to figuring out a happy medium in the future. 

Homeschool Update

School this past week has been a bit more relaxed. We finished up our astronomy unit with moon phases. Not wanting to steal your future science teacher's thunder, I decided that this year, I would focus more on dispelling the common misconceptions that kids have about basic scientific concepts while boosting vocabulary usage. 

 

Hailey's now working on cutting with a purpose. Instead of just giving you a piece of paper and watching you happily make confetti out of it, I've been drawing lines on random pieces of paper for you to cut out. You seem to like the challenge. 

For math we applied concepts that we've learned this year. I gave each of you $5 to buy whatever decorations that you would need for the gingerbread house. I gave you the receipt and you both had to write down the price of the candies on the box. I then had you guys decide what fraction of the container you would need and had you, Nathan give a good estimate of how much that portion would cost. 

You would decorate some and then come over to buy more candy and add more to your tab. Both of you would keep your own tab as you "bought" candy from me.

At the end you both had to add the cost together to come up with the final bill. I then had you each write a "theme" with supporting statements (as Mrs. Shields from "A Christmas Story" would call it) about whether it was better to create your own gingerbread house or to buy a kit from the store.  You both decided it was better to make one from scratch. 

Here are a few pictures that I took during the building process along with the final products. 

If I were more on top of things, I would also have you guys measure the dimensions and have Nathan calculate the area of each wall. But I didn't want to be a buzz kill...yeah. 

With the left over dough I was even able to make one myself this year! 

A few nights ago, we attempted to go outside to look at the "Christmas Star." The whole experience and the discussions that took place through the viewing was a lesson in itself. We were able to see this through the telescope. 

Auntie Momo's friend, gave us a few Hogwarts crafting kits from the library that she works at.  You guys worked all morning (mostly independently) on creating various Harry Potter Themed Crafts: wands, mandrakes, a Monster Notebook of Monsters, a Hogwarts pennant, shrinky dink house charms, 

and even different potions. These were super fun and I loved hearing your conversation about the books that we read a few months ago. In fact, this kit has rekindled Nathan's interest in reading Harry Potter and you've been spending a lot of time reading on your own, making it easy for Hannah to pick Hailey as a play mate. 

Dear Nathan, 

The past few months I've been working on making my expectations for you guys a bit more realistic. I feel that I've always treated you guys as if you are older and I sometimes often forget just how young you guys are. I like to think it's because I've always been told that toddlers and teenagers have similar levels of impulse control. I'm joking...not joking. 

I've seen the biggest change in you, I think it's because you being the oldest, my expectations have always been higher for you. I've caught myself too often using threats and guilt trips to get you to basically do what I want you to do. I've blamed things on you (in the name of teaching you consequences) that weren't even your fault (For example, after I burnt toast because I was busy cleaning up a glass of spilled milk, I would blame you for the burnt toast because you had spilled milk...yeah, I know, I'm not proud of it at all). Anyways, because of how I parented you, you started to feel powerless and started to hold in a lot of frustration, anger, and fear. I wrote about this a few months back (maybe it was a year) and this year I've been focusing on 2 things: raising your self-confidence (you were so afraid of failing because of my high expectations of you) and easing my high expectations of you. 

There's been quite a few double take moments when the more forgiving-in-nature words that come out of my mouth were not what you expected. As more words like "It's ok, it's just an accident!" or "You made a mess, but that was a tough task" I could see you guys become more at ease when you realized that you had done something wrong. Slowly it started to manifest in the words that you guys would say when something goes wrong: instead of blaming words, phrases like, "It's ok, we'll just clean it up!" come out of your mouths.  Even Hailey is picking it up! "It's ok, we can try again!" 

Overall, there is less anger, less frustration and less fighting, but when Nathan, you do throw a tantrum it's because of something that you see as being unfair (and usually I feel like it's legit). But you typically will remove yourself from the situation and calm down after awhile. 

Dear Hailey, 

One of our traditions is to go out and look at the Christmas lights after dinner. We do this about once a week. Something that you love to do is to stick your head out the window and belt out random songs in a very dramatic way. It's simply adorable! 

You are kind of obsessed with brushing your hair and your teeth by yourself. You finally figured out the trajectory of the spittle and most of the time will land it in the sink (as opposed to the counter or the mirror). It's made cleaning a lot easier on me. 

I do enjoy the quiet moments before bed when we read together. Lately, if I read stories to you, you will beg for me to sleep with you. Usually I do, or I have Daddy read you the story because he has more willpower against your big bright eyes than I do. Last night you kept kicking me in the face (you are like a top when you sleep, there's so much movement) and I had to leave. Tonight I told you that I had to sleep in my bed because you kick too much. You seemed to understand and didn't even ask me to stay. I'm glad you are a fairly reasonable girl. 

I let you put some chapstick on the other day. It was tinted. To you, it was magical as it transformed you into a real princess! Oddly, it doesn't have the same effect on me. 

You are getting pretty good at drawing. I think you are starting to have lefty tendencies, but you are still totally able to draw with both hands. I just love the detail!!!

One of our favorite neighbors dropped off a few "Do you want to build a doughman" kits for you guys to do. It was a fun activity as you each built your Texas snowmen. 

Dear Hannah, 

I love how you are so flexible and forgiving of everyone. I love how you see potential in every piece of "trash" that you come across with. If I were to dub you a name, I would name you the patron saint of repurposing. You continue to be a little foodie and you claim the role of being my toughest food critic. 

You are getting to be such a strong bike rider. Today we rode almost 7 miles on a trail by our house.  You can also do a quick handstand...on the trampoline! (You've also helped Hailey with her C-drops, which is coming along and getting noticeably better. She is now able to stand up afterwards about 50% of the time)

You are quickly able to switch gears from playing with Hailey and then playing with Nathan. I'm now wondering if you ever get to play what you want to. I need to remind you that what you want is important too! I don't want you to end up like me, in that giving in to others' needs, I completely ignore and eventually forget that I have needs too. 

Wow, this ended up being a pretty involved post, but I enjoyed writing it. 

Love, 

Mommy 

Update on Hailey: 

So I actually wanted to make this post after I heard from the doctor, so that's why it's a bit later than usual. The Medical Director of Pediatric Heart Failure, Transplant and Mechanical Circulatory Support at Dell Childrens (our cardiologist, crazy, right?) called today while I was driving so I didn't get to pick up. When I arrived home I listened to the message and she had said that she was leaving the office a bit early today and that she was leaving me her cell phone number to discuss the results. My mind immediately goes to the worse so I quickly call her back. Fortunately, or maybe not, Hailey's latest enzyme test came back showing that her glycogen processing enzyme levels were normal and that she doesn't have any symptoms of Pompe disease. So now we are back at square 1 and we still don't know what is the cause of her hypertrophic cardio myopathy. At this point, she will be monitored every 3 months to see how everything is progressing or not progressing and we'll just go from there. A part of me hates that we don't have any answers, but I also am at a weird peace with this because I know God has a plan. I'm thankful for all the prayers that have been said on our behalf and I'm thankful that we have a loving God who puts us through the refining fire throughout our lives. 

 

A Week Full of High Highs and Low Lows. (Also, Update on Hailey's Heart)

Dear Kiddos, 

With Daddy taking last week off, we've gotten a chance to have a little bit of extra fun. That's not to say that it was all awesome, but it has definitely been 10 days of extreme highs and lows. 

Let's start with the fun stuff. With a pandemic raging in the community, we mostly stayed at home and took a few short excursions here and there when the weather looked better. In fact, the first few days of Daddy's vacation were gloomy and wet. The first day that the sun came out, we all went to a skate park and we were able to have the whole bowl to ourselves. You guys zoomed around on your scooters and sometimes on foot up and down, up and down. 

At home, you guys got to play with Daddy a whole lot. The following picture is a great representative of what play looks like with him. 

Hannah, you've been really enjoying giving Hailey princess make-overs. And once beautified, Hailey, you refuse to take anything off or cover up the beauty. I eventually convinced you to put on a "princess coat" to go outside to play. At 3 years old, this look is adorable. If I were to try to pull this look off, I think my sanity would be seriously questioned. 

"Fruit and nuts!" Hailey, that is your mantra for snacks. Now that we've discovered that walnuts and pecans are ok for you, I've been buying walnuts in bulk. 

I also finally figured out a way for you to eat salmon! Salmon meat balls! You absolutely love eating them and will eat 7 of these balls in one sitting! 

Now that our whole 30 experiment is basically over, we baked some cookies the other day for our friend who is stationed in Bahrain. You each picked a type of cookie to make and they all turned out delicious! Hannah, you stuck with the traditional sugar cookie, but with a cookie press. Hailey, you made the cookie cutter version and Nathan, you created an everything cookie. 

Shout out to our local library for providing weekly crafts to complete at home. Hailey loved this tree craft! 

The trampoline continues to get high usage and I'm so thankful we decided to invest in one. 

Even if the static creates crazy hairstyles. 

This week we started to paint ornaments and I got each of you a little nutcracker to paint. 

We finished up our moon unit with a critical thinking and vocabulary lesson. You guys were pretty resistant to doing it at first, but once you realized that it wasn't "stupid" you got into it. 

In the evenings typically Daddy puts Hailey down for bed at 8 and I will do downstairs time with the big kids (we usually read a book and/or play a board game) until 8:30. 

Sometimes we switch places and tonight I decided to take a picture of this sweet moment because I know how quickly this will pass. 

We lost Teddy last week to cancer. We brought him in because he was starting to lose his appetite and losing a lot of weight. After a gut scan, the vet diagnosed him with liver cancer. We also had some lab work done and she said that with his liver in such a bad state, she was very surprised how well it was doing its job. 2 days later Teddy was in bad shape. He was lethargic, would sleep all day and basically refused to eat anything. We had planned to take him in that morning to get some fluid drained from his body so that he would be more comfortable and maybe that would help improve his appetite, but we woke up to a minefield of bloody poop all around the house. He looked miserable. 

I gave him his last bath and took him in to the vet. On the way there, I realized what I must do.  After discussing it with the vet, we both agreed that letting him rest after living a full 14 years of life was the best thing to do. We said our final good-byes and Teddy was put to sleep forever. 

Teddy really was the best dog ever. Sweet, never aggressive, independent, and would occasionally come up and snuggle. He was always there to greet me when I came home and would not stop wagging his tail until I acknowledged him and gave him a little pat. I'm gonna miss this little guy. 

After feeling the pain of loss, I don't regret that you guys never got super attached to Teddy. Sure, you all occasionally would try to play with him, but most of the time, he just did his own thing and you guys did yours. Now you guys want to get a hedgehog. 

Not going to happen for now. 

Teddy, we will miss you. 

****

We tried Sea World again. It was a pretty cool experience for everyone. There was hardly anyone there at the park so we felt fairly safe and were able to practice social distancing. Hailey, you got to see your favorite sea lions again. 

And Hannah, you got to see your favorite, flamingos. (Although, apparently your new favorite animal is a hedgehog). 

You guys were mesmerized by the sea turtle tank and just stood there and watched them swim around for about 20 minutes (while Daddy went to go ride a roller coaster). 

In the evening, the lights made the whole place feel super magical. 

Right before we left, we caught another show and we were able to get seats as close to the splash zone as we wanted. 

We saw the some beluga whales and dolphins. 

Yesterday Daddy took the day off and we went to McKinney Falls state park. We celebrated our gluten day with doughnuts at the park. I think we've learned that Hailey is sensitive to dairy and gluten. I'm going to try to fine tune that a little more so we can know exactly what she can and can't eat without feeling horrible. 

Going on a weekday, we basically had the trails to ourselves. Occasionally we would see a few people walk by, but the trails were open enough for us to pass by and keep a safe distance. 

Hailey, you walked for like 5% of the time and the rest of the time was spent either on my back or in the carrier in the front. 

Today we went to visit the Medical Director of Pediatric Heart Failure, Transplant, and Mechanical Circulatory Support. I know, daunting title, right? She is Austin's specialist for HCM (hypertrophic cardiomyopathy). We spent a lot of time in the imaging room as the tech took pictures for about an hour. Your septum (the wall between the 2 ventricles is abnormally thick) and it kind of looks like a mermaid on the screen. You found having a mermaid in your heart pretty amusing.  

She then hooked you up to an EKG machine and took some measurements. 

This past few days has been a complete emotional roller coaster for me. We finally got your genetic testing results back and it turns out you are a carrier for Pompe disease. You don't have it, but you are a carrier. When I first read your report, I had quite the scare, because without reading the report carefully, I immediately researched the disease and came up with very dismal search results: you basically had 2 more years to live if this condition was untreated.  Feelings of an impending sense doom suddenly took over my body and  I completely freaked out. 

Luckily Daddy sat down, read the report carefully and we realized that you don't have Pompe disease and all of the 26 markers that they test were normal. But we also now still don't know what is the reason for your heart condition. The cardiologist has referred us to a genetic counselor so we will see what they will have to say. In the meantime we will all have to get our genes tested to see if there's anything wrong with the DNA that affects how the heart functions. 

You had to get some blood work done today, so afterwards, we went and got some lunch and fro-yo. You were not keen on sharing and boldly suggested that I go buy my own bowl of fro-yo. 

Ok, Ok, I see how it is.  

Until next week, 

Love, 

Mommy