Dear Kiddos,
Cedar season is upon us and it's been a rough one this year. Everyone in the family is now allergic to cedar pollen, except for me. So, this means a lot of indoor time for us. We've pulled out the Dance Dance Revolution (DDR) machine for epic dance sessions, skate around the closed garage, and we've basically just embraced the craziness that comes with being cooped up indoors. The past few days have been rainy and cold, but on days like today, where it was sunny and 70 it just didn't feel right to stay inside.
Today is officially the last day of the holidays since Daddy starts work again tomorrow and I'll be back to the role of chaos coordinator. I have a few tricks up my sleeve to help ease the transition so we'll see how everything goes.
Let's share what you all did during the holiday break.
On Christmas eve we tie dyed shirts. We researched different tying methods and you each picked your favorite.
I mixed up a batch of dye in the primary colors and what ended up happening was that the girls, we did traditional dyeing and the boys decided to try ice dyeing.
The final result.
We also finished up our astronomy lesson with a kiwi crate project. You guys created a constellation lamp and a moving model of our sun, moon and Earth.
That evening we set out some cookies and milk for Santa along with a carrot for the reindeer. (Yup, we stayed in jammies all day)
That night I made cinnamon rolls from scratch for Christmas morning and I was so surprised at how pretty they turned out. I made the dough and filling with ghee and then used dairy free cream cheese for Hailey's portion. This was also the thing that made us realize that Hailey may also be sensitive to gluten. So now we are taking both dairy and gluten out for Hailey and then once her condition is stable we will reintroduce these foods again, but wait a bit longer after gluten to try dairy.
Christmas morning quickly arrived and after breakfast, we opened up presents from Santa and then we opened up more presents with family over a Zoom call.
In the evening, we had sushi for dinner (at you guys' request). Notice how everyone has left the table and are playing with their toys while I'm still eating dinner? Yeah, this is what always happens when we do sushi at home. I can barely keep up production as you all demolish the delicate rolls that I pour so much love into, all in a matter of seconds.
Since we were unable to go to Chicago for the holidays, grandma and grandpa brought a little bit of Chicago to us. Daddy and I savored every bite.
So Hannah had received a fashion design toy over Christmas and was playing with it. Hailey, one afternoon, while I was away picking up library books, you decided to play fashion design with your own clothes. I came home and found you sitting UNDER the table (so you knew you weren't supposed to be doing what you were doing)
We didn't make too big of a deal. We just reminded you that scissors are for cutting paper and amazon packages and said since you already cut up your dress, you could keep going to make it more fancy, but after this one, no more cutting clothes.
I just had to take this photo of you sleeping because you looked so angelic and baby-like. This was after a very different, 45 minutes of screaming over something I don't even remember, but we were holding firm with our decision. You fell asleep at 5:45. You guys have never done anything like that (unless you were sick) But this just illustrates how even crying will put a lot of stress on your heart and wear you out. At 7:30 you woke up, completely happy, ravenous with appetite. You caught a second wind and didn't go back to sleep until close to 10. It was a long day.
Talking about long nights, you've been having trouble falling asleep at night and you complain that your butt is itchy. You scream, cry and we put all sorts of ointments on to help soothe the itch, and this just drags on until you are too tired to care and fall asleep. I'm thankful that this long holiday season is over and I can call up the doctor tomorrow morning to see what we can do. We are suspecting Celiac, but we are not sure if we've tested you for it already...another example of how broken sleep stretches is not good for the memory.
We had a modified week of school before NYE and for the first time, you guys were able to write your own thank you cards for all the presents that you received.
On NYE-eve, we went to the COTA race track to drive through their light show and drive a lap around the actual race track. Daddy thought it was pretty cool, to me it seemed like just driving on a newly paved road.
You guys (especially Hailey) enjoyed the "greatest show" and were sad when we had to leave and couldn't go through it again. I think it's something we can do again next year (minus the driving around the track part)
Hailey's growing and starting to catch up with Nathan and Hannah. You were behind for a little while, but in the past few months, it seems like you've done a lot of catching up. A part of me really thinks that doing whole 30 was the best thing we could do for you. We just have to figure out these food sensitivities and maybe through diet and monitoring, we can keep your heart from getting thicker.
Nathan, I finally let you read Harry Potter: Order of the Phoenix yesterday and you've been spending every free moment reading that book. I know you are super excited about it and want to discuss it, but we have to not spoil it for Hannah. I've been shutting you down abruptly, but as I'm typing this, I think I need to just spend 1-1 time with you so we can discuss the book.
Well, things go back to normal tomorrow. Please pray for my sanity.
Love,
Mommy
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