Thanksgiving Break Fun and Teddy Update

Dear Kiddos, 

This past week was Thanksgiving week, so we took it easy and did minimal traditional school work. Instead, we built simple robots, 

and learned how to play baseball / softball. 

We were able to purchase most of our equipment through
 our neighborhood garage sale site! 

Nathan, you are still enjoying basketball with your friends every week. To tell you the truth, you guys still look pretty adorably clumsy out there, but it's getting better and that's what's important. 

Hannah and Hailey, with each week that passes by, I'm seeing your relationship become closer and closer. You both have full on conversations and enjoy each other's company so much. 

The dynamic is still the same. Things are usually great anytime there's 2 kids playing together. 

But, when you add in a 3rd wheel, that's when things get squeaky. 

It's Thanksgiving week, so I'm going to have to post a bunch of obligatory eating photos. With the whole 30 dominating our lives right now, we've been spending A LOT of time in the kitchen. One day, Hailey you asked me if you could try to peel the carrots. I let you try, expecting you to fail, but you did awesome! So I showed you how to peel one side and then flip the carrot over to peel the other end, handed you 6 more carrots and you happily peeled 3 before your interest started to wane. 

And of course, in the kitchen, there's always lots of sampling. In this picture, you guys were trying out the whole 30 "compliant" pumpkin pie that I made. Not very sweet, but passable. 

I also made a few crustless ones in silicone cups and they were devoured quickly. 

The sampling method is still my best kept secret method to get you to try new foods or foods that you used to not like so much. Usually, you still say "yuck" but at least you are open to trying. 

Tonight we are reintroducing foods back into our diet. One of the ways we introduced legumes and a little sugar was coleslaw. The traditional mayo that we buy is made out of soybean oil, so I used that to make a Popeye's copycat coleslaw and I quartered the sugar in the recipe. It was a hit. You had 3 servings of coleslaw. This is great news because you just increased your vegetable repertoire by a lot! You now like peas, cauliflower, broccoli, peas, coleslaw, peas, and cooked carrots, oh, and peas.  

You did not like my mamarazzi moment to capture you scarfing down coleslaw.

Sometimes your eczema is still bad. You ask for ice packs sometimes and one day, I found you icing 2 spots at once. You immediately placed the ice pack exactly where you needed it like it was routine. 

Hannah, I think you are really enjoying having a mini-me to follow you around and to dress up. Some days it's matching pigtails. 

Other days it is princess dress-up 

Some days it's face paint and leotards. Yes, those are painted on necklaces, bracelets, and a unicorn face. 

But Hailey, sometimes you just want some alone time. In the past few weeks we've been eating a lot of our meals outside, but with the temperatures dropping lately, we've been eating indoors, except for Hailey. You seem to channel your inner Elsa and brave the cold. I made a connection of you tending to prefer colder environments to your heart disease and asked on the support group board if preferring to be in cooler environments was a thing for HCM patients. Apparently it is. The heat and humidity actually make it more difficult for the heart to pump efficiently, so it makes them more uncomfortable. I guess that's another reason why you prefer cool baths too. 

At this stage,  Hailey, you have type 1 tendencies. You prefer things a certain way and you want to do things correctly. There's a general sense of order (except for when we ask you to put away what you were playing with) on how to do things with you and if it isn't exactly how you want it to be, that calls for a temper tantrum. 

On Monday, we went to Enchanted rock. It was a brisk morning, so there weren't many people at the park. We sat down for a pre-climb snack of energy balls. 

Hailey, you refused to be carried by dad, so I carried you up the 1,823 feet high trail to the peak of the large granite dome. 

On the way down, I was able to convince you to let Daddy carry you. 

You did also say one random moment, 

"I love him and I love you. I love both-a you. " and then when I asked if you loved Nathan and Hannah, you said, "Yes, I love both-a them kids too, like me." 

We don't get to take many pics together, so I quickly snapped one. 

We learned about the igneous rock cycle, the role that lichens and ferns play in primary succession situations and the only thing that you probably will remember is the broken tree trunk that looks like a unicorn. 

After we came down, we had a feast of random picnic lunch items. It was cold, but you all ate quickly and enjoyed the food without too much complaining. 

Here's a photo that I snapped of you jumping on the trampoline. You seem to giggle and laugh more these days and I'm really happy that we have finally figured out why you have been so grumpy all of your life. We have an appointment to see the HCM specialist next week and we were told that the appointment will be a long one. 

 
So a not so good update about the most mature Honeybun, Teddy. At the ripe old age of 14.5 years old, Teddy was diagnosed with liver cancer today. We find out more about how he's doing tomorrow when his lab results come in, but besides rapid weight loss and sleepiness, he's doing pretty good. He doesn't seem to be in pain, but the doctor said that he could be with us for 6 months, or just a few days. He has been the best dog in the whole world. He wasn't overly barky, he tolerated all you guys when you invaded the house one by one, and he is never demanding (except recently as he can't control his bladder as well anymore). More updates on Teddy next post. 

Well, Daddy is takin' the week off this week, so we'll see what sort of adventures we get to go on. 

Love, 

Mommy