Christmas Eve Eve

The presents are wrapped, the goodies are baked, and the house is starting to become presentable. I'd say we're just about ready!

The kids have really been fun this Christmas season. Every morning the boys are excited to get their daily chocolate ration from our advent calendars. Every afternoon Emmett asks to listen to my circa 1983 Raffi Christmas album (I've taught him to say "Let's get our Raffi on!"...so awesome.) While Seth is still in toddler Christmas Oblivion, Emmett knows what's coming. He heard me say the word "presents" the other day and shouted out "Presents? Santa's coming! Oh, I hear the doorbell!" Someone clearly isn't used to living in a house with a chimney. ;) He also sat on Santa's lap at the preschool Christmas party, which is HUGE for him (he usually has a total "stranger danger" reaction when he sees Santa).

I'm really looking forward to spending some time with my family this weekend. I can't wait to see my boys in their matching Christmas eve PJ's (matching outfits is probably my *favorite* thing about having same gender kids), opening presents and enjoying all the goodies I made for them. It's all so exciting and magical for them, and watching them enjoy things totally makes my Christmas. I vividly remember being Emmett's age and fully believing in Santa, lying in bed on Christmas Eve and pretending my hardest to be asleep (and hoping Santa couldn't tell!). It's hard to believe that now I'm the one telling kids to go to sleep so Santa can come!

Merry Christmas!

Sweet Procrastination

I've got a to do list a mile long and a house that looks like a herd of wild goats meandered through, so I figured, what better time to catch up on my blogging?

So far this month has been really, really rough for us. The day after we got back from Lethbridge, James got really sick - we suspected food poisoning until I came down with it a couple of days later. When we found out that James' parents were suffering the same fate, we realized that stomach flu was our lovely souvenir from Lethbridge Regional. Thankfully, the kids only got a really mild version, and James and I weren't deathly ill at the same time. Once we started to slightly recover, James got rear ended on the way home from work (not hurt though), and about an hour after that his Oma passed. He wasn't able to attend the mid-week funeral, which was a real let down. Oh, and did I mention I've got my annual mid-December cold? I swear it's become a Christmas tradition.

Ok, I'm really over being this. Onwards and upwards, I say!

It's Emmett's last day of school today before Christmas break, and they're having pajama day! They're having school-wide milk and cookies as well (yay for gluten free oreos!!), I'm sure he'll have a blast. Sethers and I are going to head down at the end of class to wish all of Em's teachers a Merry Christmas, which works out well, because for Seth going to "big kid school" is practically Christmas!

Emmett drew his first self portrait yesterday, which is such a HUGE step for him. A couple of months ago he couldn't copy a horizontal line or draw a circle. I reminded him to draw a circle for his head (which he did, perfectly!), and then just asked him "What comes next?" and he added eyes, a nose and smile, arms, legs, feet and hair! You'll notice I left "body" out of that list, so it ended up looking like one of those Mr.Men cartoons - so cute. ;) I made a big deal out of his accomplishment and he seemed pretty proud of himself!

Seth has been talking more and more...we're starting to get phrases now! He likes to say "There it is!" and "Thanks. Buh-bye!" a lot. I also notice him trying to copy lines from songs and tv shows...he's really trying hard to communicate now. He's also discovered he can push boxes and things around to use as a step stool, so we have to really watch him like a hawk now.

And me? I'm just trying to get into the Christmas spirit. Once my cold is gone, the gifts are all wrapped (2/3s of the way there now!) and my house is back to rights, I will hopefully be full of Christmas cheer, or at least less Grinch-y.

To Lethbridge and Back

On Tuesday night when I walked in the door from shopping, James had an absolutely downtrodden look on his face. His mom had just called and told him his beloved Oma was in the hospital in Lethbridge. Her health has been declining rapidly in the past few months, and it looked like she might have only hours left. We had to make a quick decision. We knew James could probably only take 1 day off work, so we decided to make the 5 1/2 hour trip down, stay for a few hours, and then come right home.

We took off around 7:30am Wednesday morning. It was pitch black and cold but with a couple of warm blankets and sippy cups of chocolate milk, the boys were comfortable. Thankfully, I was able to prepare and pack lots of gluten free food for my guys on short notice, so they didn't have to go off their diet. The kids were perfectly behaved on the long drive down, and played quite happily for hours in the hospital. James was able to sit with his Oma and hold her hand - she was very weak, but she knew he was there and was happy to see him. I'm so glad he was able to be there for her, and most likely say goodbye for the last time to the woman who helped raise him.

The drive home was very tough. It was already completely dark when we left Lethbridge at 5:30pm. James was in no condition to drive, and I hadn't gotten much sleep the night before. Seth was content the whole way home, but Emmett lost it around Calgary - he cried off and on the rest of the way home. Thankfully we made it home safe just after 11pm and then we all collapsed into bed. I did end up sleeping a full night, but I don't feel rested. I'm glad to just have today to play catch up with laundry/cleaning and just be there for my guys.

I'm having a good day.

I'm sitting here enjoying the quiet bliss of "school/nap time". The only sounds are of my ticking clock, my typing fingers and the furnace doing its job. I'm warm, comfortable and enjoying watching the snow blowing outside my window.

I'm feeling thankful. Thankful to live in a safe, peaceful country. Thankful to have my own home. Thankful for my furnace, stove, and hot water tank. (Oddly specific, no?) Thankful that my husband is employed in a job that's in-town and doing work he finds challenging and engaging. Thankful I can pay all of my bills, every month. Thankful to have a full stomach and food in the cupboards (even when it's getting close to grocery day and I have to start getting creative!). Thankful to have two beautiful, healthy, vibrant little boys. Thankful that my oldest son has amazing teachers, therapists and other supports to help him learn and grow. Thankful that my youngest son heals fast and gets over things quickly (he fell head first into the sharp edge of my headboard yesterday and is currently sporting a huge bruise and cut right between his eyes).

I woke up this morning under my warm covers, with a little body snuggled up against me. Emmett always wakes up when James' alarm goes off early in the morning, and as soon as James is down the stairs Em hops into the "big bed" to take his place. I rolled over, gave him a kiss, and the first thing he said was "Mommy, I love you." It was the very first time he said "I love you" without me saying it first.

So yeah, I'm having a pretty fantastic day. :)

We made it!

We did it...tomorrow marks 1 full month of eating gluten free! (Ok, ok, *I* haven't been totally GF, but my guys have). For the first week or two, I was skeptical. It was a lot of work, and while James reported feeling a bit better, I didn't notice much change in the kids. Then around the 2 week mark, I noticed that Emmett was much more energetic. He always seemed more lethargic than other kids his age, and I would really have to encourage him to get off the couch and be active. Now, he spends his days running loops around my kitchen, jumping and watching himself dance in the mirror. ;) His teachers at school have noticed a real increase in his energy levels too. I would also say he seems happier - he's laughing more, he runs to the school bus every afternoon, etc. I think he's just feeling better in general. Seth was never lethargic, but he's had chronic eczema since his was a small baby - at times he would have huge patches all over his legs, arms and stomach, and his elbows and ankles were always really bad. He hasn't had an "outbreak" all month, and he just has a few tiny patches on his arms that are almost gone. James says his stomach pain is gone, and it's a lot easier to get up in the morning.

Needless to say, we're staying gluten-free. It's been a real learning curve trying to menu plan, but I think I've got it down now. I'm getting pretty darn good at the baking aspect, too. (I can make rice flour sugar cookies that taste every bit as good as the real thing!!) Eating out is the most challenging part...Emmett really misses Wendy's cheeseburgers, but he's happy with just fries and a frosty, too. It's actually a good thing, because having very limited eating out options forces me to cook at home which is so much better for us.

I guess the other good news is that I think I've figured out that my guys don't actually have Celiac Disease, but "Non Celiac Gluten Sensitivity". People with NCGS will test negative or inconclusive on tests for Celiac disease, but still have the symptoms and feel better off gluten. It seems like the non-celiacs have less problems with small intestine damage, malnutrition, anemia, etc, so that's good. Emmett was given some pretzels by mistake at school this week, and he didn't have any ill effects. Hopefully if we try our hardest to avoid gluten the boys won't suffer too much from any "oopses".

My boy has a "three kid scream"!

Yep, one house that Em went to expected to find 3 or 4 kids and were surprised to find out that the very loud "TRICK OR TREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAT!!!!!!" was just from one little guy! The kids had a blast this year. It was Seth's first year TOT'ing, and he had a pretty typical 1 year old experience I think. He didn't totally get what was going on, he forgot to carry his bucket half the time, but he enjoyed himself (for 3/4 of a block or so, anyways). Emmett was full on into it; running, laughing, screaming at each and every door. He went as "Super Emmett" this year and enthusiastically told everyone who asked that he had "the power to help!". He covered a few blocks and got a pretty big haul.

And as for the loot, I noticed some pretty distinct patterns emerging. Emmett is a "gorge myself on as much candy as possible as quickly as possible" kid. Seth is a "savour one tootsie pop for over an hour" kid. I predict in future years that Emmett will blow through his stash in less than 48 hours, and Seth will still have some candy tucked under his bed come Easter.

Quick Update

Well, we've survived a week without gluten. :) The first day was rough...it was a busy day and I didn't have time to bake, so the kids had to make do with rice cake sandwiches. Em took it in stride, Seth just about lost it. Once I got the hang of things though both kids were fine, and have happily accepted my homemade substitutes for their favorite foods. So far I've made cheesy biscuits, muffins, pumpkin spice bars, pie crust and bread. Bread has been the trickiest...my 1st attempt was a dry, blobby, half-baked failure (although my carb-starved kids attempted to eat it anyway), 2nd attempt produced something that actually looked like bread but didn't rise (kids still gobbled it up and begged for more), and my 3rd attempt produced two nicely risen loaves that look and smell like real bread!! My homemade loaves cost an estimated $2 a piece to make, (which seems excessive for homemade product) but when you factor in the (much) more expensive ingredients and the fact that a store bought loaf costs more than 3 times that, I figure I'm doing pretty well!

Going gluten free

A few months ago some routine blood work that we had done on Emmett came back showing he may have Celiac disease (intolerance to gluten). He had a biopsy done on his small intestine, which came back negative, but they told us he needs to have the blood test every 6 months because he's still at risk of developing the disease. I've since learned that the biopsies can be unreliable, and some chronic (mild) health problems that James and the boys have may be due to gluten intolerance. So, we've decided to go "gluten free" for 4 weeks (starting tomorrow) to see if anything improves.

Although I'm the only one not suspected of having a problem with gluten, as the family shopper and cook I've now got a whole bunch of extra work to do! Gluten is in almost all baked goods - bread, cake, muffins, etc, as well as in pasta and a lot of pre-prepared foods (bye bye cream of mushroom soup!). You can buy a gluten free version of pretty much everything, although you're paying a premium (a small loaf of gluten free bread runs around $6.50). We'll be buying a few snack type GF products (for in the car/preschool/nursery), but mostly I'll be cooking and baking everything from scratch. Yesterday I went to bulk barn and stocked up on rice flour, potato flour, tapioca flour and potato starch. We've also got xantham gum (makes GF baked goods taste more like the real thing) and rice pastas. Of course, there are tons and tons of foods that are naturally gluten free that we can still eat...we're just going to have to be a lot more careful about things. The thing that really worries me is Em getting upset if he can't eat the same snack as his friends at school, or that he won't understand why he can't get a cookie or muffin from the bakery at the end of a grocery run. I suppose he'll just get used to it.

Now I've got to go pack up all of my flour and pasta and get ready for "G Day" tomorrow. Wish us luck!

Wait...why am I doing this again?

Kid 1 likes grilled cheese sandwiches, but not tomato soup. Kid 2 loves tomato soup, and will eat grilled cheese but usually just nibbles at them and throws most of it on the floor. Gave kids 1 and 2 their preferred meal items for lunch. Kid 1 refuses to eat anything and wanders off. Kid 2 sips at his soup until he spots kid 1's abandoned sandwich. Kid 2 decides grilled cheese sandwiches are now his FAVORITE FOOD EVERRRRRR and pulls the tablecloth toward him in order to obtain said sandwich. In the process the now neglected (and rather large) bowl of soup hits the floor in such a dramatic fashion that it could have been recorded and played in slow motion in a paper towel commercial. Kid 1 of course must investigate the crash and wanders straight into the soup mess while I'm scrambling to clean up.

Stick a fork in me, I'm done!! Of the past 21 days, I've been sick for about 19 of them. I'm pretty sure I managed to pick up another virus literally a day after I recovered from the last one. I was starting to improve but I'm feeling worse today. I'm just tired and cranky and apparently about to send kid 1 off to preschool with an empty stomach. Sigh...

Mr. Simpson? Gary spilt his ear medicine.

Man, have we been a family of "Gary"s lately. James and I have been miserably sick for the past 4 days and we've been shelling out for all kinds of pills and potions promising to subdue our misery for a few hours. James has discovered that combining Sudafed with his daily dose of ginseng tea gives him the kind of euphoria normally reserved only for those on speed and 12 year old girls at a Justin Bieber concert. I've discovered that using a Neti Pot (go ahead, google it) is quite effective, although a little awkward and highly unattractive.

Emmett has managed, miraculously, to avoid this plague, but Seth is suffering along with us (and without the aid of OTC meds). To add insult to injury, he's rashy from head to toe and now has 4, count 'em FOUR, different ointments that need to be applied at various times throughout the day. For a child that can barely stop moving long enough to eat, you can imagine how well all that "greasing" is being received.

I'm not really sure what the point of this post is, other than I haven't blogged in awhile and have absolutely NOTHING going on in my life right now other than trying to keep my sinuses from imploding and trying to make sure the right cream is going on the right parts of my toddler. We've got to get better eventually, right?

13 going on...13

My mom brought over a big bin of my childhood and teenage keepsakes yesterday, and I just went through it. The items ranged from the adorable (my little brownie uniform, complete with sash, belt and dues pouch!!) to the absolute cringe worthy (various diaries from 1993-2000, the worst of which was the one from 8th grade). I discovered that I was just as naive, shallow and overly dramatic as any other 13 year old. My best friend was Stephan, who I apparently had a bit of a crush on! ("Stephan and I are going trick or treating as an old married couple. It's going to be so wicked! PS. I (heart) Stephan. I hope he (heart)'s me back.") My family was investigating the church at the time, and I ranked all of the missionaries who taught us according to hotness...how deeply spiritual of me. ;) Oh, and every time I got punished or my parents wouldn't drive me to the store, my life was ending.

Some of my favorite excerpts:

August 1994: "I had a bad dream about school starting last night. I dreamed that my math teacher was Hitler."

July 1994: (on vacation) "There was a cappuccino stand, and they wanted $1.25 for a pack of gum...what a ripoff!!"

January 1993: "I learned that they have clear Pepsi now. To be honest it doesn't really taste like Pepsi but its still pretty good."

Ah, memories. ;)

I have a short memory.

Short memories can be useful, on occasion. They say, for example, that women purposely forget how painful childbirth is so that they may actually decide to go through it more than once. I can attest to the truthfulness of that statement, as I distinctly recall having an "Oh, right. This is what agony feels like." moment during my labour with Seth. I seem to also have a short memory when it comes to being wronged by others...occasionally some moment from way back when in high school will come up in conversation and someone (usually my mom) will say "Remember when so and so did/said ______? You were SO upset.", and they answer is almost always no. I figure that's a really good thing, as we're supposed to forgive and forget. Clearly I've got that going for me. ;)

I also seem to have a short memory when it comes to eating at a restaurant with my small children. I haven't been feeling great the past couple of days, and my kitchen is a mess as my sink has been backed up (with what turned out to be long dark hair. HAIR. In the KITCHEN sink. I don't even know what to say to that one.). So when James got home I announced that I wanted to go out for dinner, and he obliged. Now, normally when we eat out it's fast food, preferably in the car where the kids have no choice but to remain strapped down, but for some reason tonight all common sense left my brain and I decided that we were going to eat at a REAL restaurant, with menus and real cutlery and everything!!

Here's the highlight reel:

-Seth CHUGS a large (almost adult size) glass of chocolate milk in literally less than 5 minutes. I ponder whether it's too late to cancel his dinner order. His food came like 2 minutes later, so yes.
-Seth reacts to me trying to feed him ravioli like I'm trying to poison him. We're talking flailing around in the high chair, howling and trying to throw anything within his reach to the floor for full dramatic effect.
-Seth decides he's too full for food, but still has plenty of room in there for crayons! Not unlike Smarties, red ones are his favorite.
-We take the ravioli away, but not before he has a chance to dip some of the crayons in the sauce, and then paint his colouring sheet with that.
-Since I finish my meal first, I offer to take Seth for a walk to burn off some energy. Cue Emmett meltdown. So now I'm trying to herd both of them around in the same direction while James finishes his meal and orders some previously-promised ice cream.
-Seth discovers if he takes a spoonful of ice cream, holds it in his mouth until it melts a bit and then leans his head back, he can make a melted ice cream volcano out of his mouth!! He is VERY please with his new discovery. Thankfully, Emmett was way to engrossed in actually eating his ice cream to notice or copycat.

Yeah, I think we're going to go back to solid diet of Wendy's, in the car. Just for the record, we DO correct the bad behavior when it happens, and the fact that Emmett sat nicely, ate his meal, said thank you to the waitress and was completely fine other than the "Mommy can't go somewhere without ME!!" upset gives me hope that someday going out to eat won't be a freaking circus.

Waning Summer

I love this time of year. It's getting cooler at night, school supplies are front and centre in all the stores, and every once in awhile you'll see a few yellowing leaves. Summer is on its way out, and it's time to get ready for fall! I'm not a huge fan of summer...I'm a big wuss about the heat, being out in the sun for even a couple of hours makes me all useless and sleepy, and the mosquitoes have been brutal this year. But there's something wonderful about the last couple of weeks of August - canning, pickling, buying new school clothes and supplies. I love this time of preparation.

Of course, I haven't done any canning or pickling this year...that would require me to have my crap together, which I don't. Maybe next year. Oh, I have big plans for next year...I'm going to do some container vegetable gardening, and hopefully I'll end up with something worth canning.

Emmett heads back to preschool in a couple of weeks, and I can't wait. Emmett/Seth cat fights are now happening with much more frequency...everyone is bored and cranky. It will be interesting to see what Em thinks of having afternoon class and taking the school bus from our new place. Hopefully he'll have the same teacher so something remains the same. Fingers crossed!

Random Cute Kid Stuff

I figured my facebook friends may be getting tired of my constantly kid-centric status updates, so I'm putting this here.

Seth has recently become a huge fan of "Blue's Clues"...Em loves the show so we watch it quite a bit. When Seth realizes that I'm putting on an episode, his face lights up and he says "Boo Coo!!!" while doing the "Blue's Clues" hand motion. Soooo stinkin' cute. I'm going to have to start hunting for some BC themed party decorations for a certain someone's 2nd birthday (yes, I'm already thinking about the kids' birthdays. Just ask my mother how party planning obsessed I was as a child...I haven't changed much!)

Emmett's latest obsession is Rhett and Link - a couple of guys who make up catchy songs about everything from velcro to Facebook. He especially loves this one, where they took the "Sham Wow" infomercial and made it into a song:

ShamWow Song

Now if you come to my house you can hear Em singing about how the sham wow "holds 20 times its weight in liquid" and that "the Germans always make good stuff", pretty much all day long. It's hard for him to sing the whole thing because he can't talk fast enough, but he sure tries! I usually sing along with him, which he looooves.

So there's my random kid cuteness for today. :)

Twenty-nine!!!

Twenty nine years ago today, my very scrawny (4lb 12oz), rather purple, and decidedly bald self entered mortality. Woo hoo! (Thanks for that mom, and sorry I was born before epidurals were readily available. You ARE the woman.) I've gone from "pushing 30" to "REALLY pushing 30", overnight. ;)

I remember years ago when a co-worker friend of mine turned 29, I thought that was sooo old and that I would probably feel as depressed as he was about the "big 3-0" being right around the corner. I was 23, I think...and you know what? You couldn't pay me to go back to 23! Sure, my stomach was still intact, I could go out whenever I wanted, and I even got to sleep in (I think I remember that...),but I am SO into the whole established, boring, responsible adult thing I've got going on now.

I think I'm going to thoroughly enjoy the last year of my twenties...life is busy but really good and I'm enjoying it.

Seth's First Conversation

James just told me about his first conversation with the Seth-meister, and it was so cute I had to share!

(First thing in the morning, James sees Seth's awake and goes into his room)

"Oh, you're up...hi!"
"Hi!"
"Do you want out of your crib?"
"Yeah"
(James picks him up)
"Wheee!"
"Do you want to go see Mommy?"
"No"
"Really?"
"Choo!" (as in "choo-choo")
"You want to play with your trains?"
"Yeah"

So he's up there playing with trains right now. What a little character!

Summer Updates

Wow, that was an incredibly lame title. Let's move on, shall we? ;)

As of tomorrow, we will have been in our house for a whole month! It's flown by, for the most part. Home ownership has been an interesting experience. When we moved in, we of course had a to do list of a million little projects that we wanted to tackle asap. However, we seriously underestimated how difficult it is to get anything done with a couple of ankle biters "helping" (ie putting drill bits in their mouth and running off with instructions). It's going to take a loooong time to get everything done that we need/want to do, but we're getting there (thanks to the help of friends and family!).

We had our first big "mishap" last week - our old, crappy dishwasher finally gave out and flooded the kitchen and down through the basement (and over our phone box, which then shorted out). While it was a bit of an ordeal, I now have an AWESOME new dishwasher (and after over 7 years of hand washing, I can't even tell you how psyched I am about it!).

As busy as we've been around the house, we've tried to get out and enjoy summer as much as we can. James' union had a family picnic at Fort Edmonton Park last week; we got free entrance to the park, tickets for the old timey midway, and a BBQ with bison burgers and ice cream - score!!
Then this weekend we hit Taste of Edmonton, where the kids practically tackled me for my coconut gelatto and baklava. Poor Seth tripped and scraped the right side of his face down a stone wall, leaving him with the unfortunate nickname of "Two Face" (I know, I know...we're bad people. ;)). A little more coconut gelatto and he was happy and running around again, even though he was still bleeding a bit - that kid is such a trooper!! 48 hours later and he's healing really well - it's amazing how fast kids heal.

We've also started attending our new ward - we really like it! I can't get over how many kids are in this ward - they have more Sunbeams than our last ward has in its entire primary! Em is still pretty unsure about attending his new primary by himself, so I've been tagging along, but he went to Sunbeams solo today and did well, which is encouraging. Sethy just turned 18 months and has attending nursery for the past 2 weeks. He never showed one bit of hesitation; he saw those toys and it was "Dad who?" I can't believe my baby is old enough for nursery (but I'm definitely not complaining!!).

Is it July yet?

June 2010 will probably go down as one of the cuh-raaaaziest months in history for the Johnson family - cleaning, packing, painting, cleaning, moving, unpacking, and more cleaning. Oh, and all of the lovely paperwork and running around that comes with buying your first place. A few things I've learned over the past few weeks:

-People are filthy, filthy creatures. Well, at least some of them are. My SIL Brittney took some "awesome" before shots of our place. Let's just say I discovered that the inside of my kitchen cupboards were an entirely different colour than I thought after I took to them with a magic eraser.

-Once you venture into home ownership, it is probably easiest to just sign your paycheques directly over to Home Depot. It's a good thing the kids are always up for a run to "Ho Depot" as Emmett calls it (snicker, snicker), because we've spent a lot of time there recently!

-Mormons really are the best movers on the planet. A bunch of people from the ward showed up on Saturday morning and swarmed our old place like a hoard of locusts, leaving nothing in their wake. All of our wordly belongings were out and loaded in the truck in 45 minutes!! The entire move was over in 3 hours...incredible.

-There's nothing quite like the feel of brand new carpet under your feet. Emmett actually told me the other day the was going up to his room to lay on "his carpet". ;)

-Being able to walk around your bedroom (versus shuffling and frequently banging up your shins on pointy furniture) is a wonderful thing!

-Seeing your old place all empty is a weird feeling. While I'm so happy to have moved to a place of our own with double the space, we have a lot of great memories from our little basement apartment. We moved there when Em was just a newborn, and that's where we brought Seth home from the hospital. There was something just a little bit sad about scrubbing scribbles off of those walls for the last time.

Tonight I'll be finishing up with the old place and handing the keys back - there's one chapter of our life over. Then it's on to a busy summer exploring our new neighborhood, completing a million little reno projects, and just getting down to the business of enjoying our new place!

House Update

So it's officially super official now...we're homeowners! We got the keys to our place on Tuesday, and well, I'll be honest - it was little underwhelming. We bought the place knowing it was going to need a good cleaning and a lot of paint, but it was BAD. We knew that the sellers' dog liked to pee on the upstairs landing, but they had obviously been covering up the smell somewhat with incense, because once they stopped doing that the smell was overwhelming. I emptied a full bottle of Febreeze into the carpet and that only kept the smell at bay for about 4 hours. Good times. I can now say with almost complete confidence that I will NEVER own a dog.

So needless to say, that first day was pretty discouraging, but it's been a very busy week. The nasty carpets have been ripped out (thanks so much Carl, Kryssy and Rod!!), which has taken care of 95% of the smell issue (the other 5% will be tackled when I get a chance to scrub the heck out of everything). My hideous dark pink bathroom is now a white (and soon to be turquoise) bathroom. And other projects are well underway...we had planned to tackle the ceilings and painting later, but my parents came by on Wednesday and offered to help us take care of things now. My dad, bless his heart, has been breaking his back scraping the filthy popcorn texturing off our ceilings, and after that it will be time to clean everything top to bottom and seal it all with Killz. Yaaaaay Killz! We're going to paint the bedrooms and hallways a neutral colour and worry about personalizing them later.

I've been a bit worried about how Emmett would react to the move and how much of what was going on he understood. As usual, he has surprised me - no anxiety at all, and he asks quite a bit to go see "our house". In fact, he said our bedtime prayer last night and said "Thank you that we could see Grandma and Grandpa, and go see our house." Love it!

The house is a construction zone right now, but it's going to look so great when it's done, I'm so excited! It's really nice to see the kids excited too, I know we're all going to love having more than twice the space we did before.

Food Storage Rice Pilaf

I discovered a super yummy way to make rice tonight, using only shelf stable ingredients (several of which were right from the storehouse). Since some members of my family may be celiacs, I've been trying to come up with more interesting things to do with rice, so this was perfect.

Food Storage Rice Pilaf
(all amounts are approximate, since I didn't really measure)

3 tbsp olive oil
1 1/2 cups rice (you could totally use storehouse rice, but I had Uncle Ben's on hand)
1/4 cup dehydrated carrots
1/4 cup dehydrated onions
1 box chicken broth (at least 3 cups) (homemade stock would be perfect too!)

Heat olive oil in a medium pot on med-high, then add rice. Stir for a few minutes until rice is starting to brown. Add carrots, onions and chicken broth. Bring to a boil and then simmer until done. Voila!

The only change I would make would be to add some parsely flakes for colour. I served this with pork chops but it would be a great side for a lot of dishes. You could also do this like regular rice without the olive oil if you're watching calories, but browning rice gives it a nice nutty flavour. (Besides, olive oil is good for you. Just do it!! ;))

I'm old.

I caught myself doing something today that is the very hallmark of the old: I complained about the fashion choices of today's teenagers. I saw a kid, about 15 or so, walking down the street today - well, walking isn't really the best word for it. More like waddling. You see, this young man had decided to combine two trends: 1) the super skinny jean, and 2) wearing your pants so low that at least 6 inches of underwear is visible and the crotch of the pants is closer to your knees than, well, your crotch. It appears the "waddle" is no longer solely the domain of toddlers and the very pregnant...sullen teenagers in tight pants are getting in on the game! What are these kids thinking?!

I imagine about 10 years from now he'll see a picture of his teenage self, and have a "What was I THINKING?" moment. But now I'm wondering how many people secretly snickered at my "awesome" vintage polyester shirts and bell bottoms I was so fond of a decade or so ago...

This just in...

...having stomach flu is downright unpleasant. Also, my mother is a saint. Yesterday I came down with stomach flu, and I was having a really hard time taking care of the kids, but James couldn't come home (he was the only one in his department at work and they would have had to shut the site down if he left). I was starting to panic a little, and I called my mom. She came right over and took the boys so I could rest, even though that meant she had to go back to work in the evening. Moms rock.

I'm starting to recover today, although I feel like I've been in a fight and the smell of food, any food, just about sends me over the edge. It's like really bad morning sickness, only all I'm incubating is a cute baby virus. Bummer.

Anyhoo, since I'm stuck in bed and James is on kid duty, I thought I'd do some random blogging.

A couple of days ago Em and I were reading a Mercer Mayer book (LOVE those books!), when he noticed an ad on the back cover for this book:



Em LOVES "Just Grandma and Me", so I told him I would get on the computer and ask it to find us a copy of the book. I went to the library website and found a branch we'd never been to before that had a copy - I told Em and he was SO pleased! So off we went on our library adventure...and let me tell you, once he had that book in his hand he couldn't get the smile off of his face. I love that little things like that make him so happy. Seth's even easier to impress...he just kept running around the library saying "Wow! WOW!". He was happy until I wouldn't let him go down a certain hallway, so he headbutted me in a fit of toddler rage and then fell against a window and cut his head open. It takes a special kind of kid to figure out how to draw blood at the LIBRARY. That's my Sethers!

Other random stuff: we spent all of last weekend packing, and we're well on our way. James even found some stuff tucked up in a crawlspace that we didn't know was there! We found a huge Japanese fan (the kind you hang on the wall), and judging from the box we think it's from the 60's or 70's. We're going to keep it when we move, because it's just cool. We also found some weiner sticks that, well...let's just say I wouldn't bring them to the ward picnic. That's right, we have been unknowingly harboring X-rated campfire cooking implements for the past 4 years. You should have seen the look on James' face when he found those! So if anyone's looking to spice up their next weiner roast, I guess I can hook you up. ;)

Preparations

Yesterday I took the boys to what will soon be our new neighborhood - we've driven through a few times but had never gotten out and walked, so I grabbed the stroller and we set off to see what we could find.

We walked through our new complex, and I pointed out which unit is going to be ours (Emmett was pleased about that and wanted to go inside right NOW). We met the 3 little kids that live just 3 doors down. We figured out a path to snake through to the elementary school down the street, and we tested out the playground equipment. :) We watched a bunch of teenagers play basketball, which was hands down the most exciting part of the whole excursion for Seth! I also learned that Emmett is quickly moving into a "chase little girls around the playground" phase, which was apparently a favorite past time of his father at that age. ;)

I felt really relaxed in our new 'hood...it reminded me a lot of my own childhood. I spent my preschool/elementary years living in a townhouse complex - I had lots of kids to play with, a little park, and school was right next door. I really liked living there, and hopefully Em and Seth will enjoy the same type of upbringing.

We take possession in 4 weeks and 4 days, but who's counting? ;)

Spring Cleaning

The past couple of months have been pretty eventful for the ol' Johnson family, and a lot of things have been getting neglected...like home organization, for example. Piles of clutter have been creeping up everywhere, various cupboards and drawers are starting to spill out their haphazardly piled contents, and my duster hasn't seen the light of day for weeks. I see two reasons for this:

1) We have way more stuff than we have places to put it, and

2) The fact that we are moving in a few months has only encouraged my housekeeping apathy; I'll have to do it all in a little while, so why bother now?

As much as I can't wait to get out of this apartment, it IS home for the time being, so I've decided to start sprucing things up, one little project at a time. I'm quite pleased with the results; there's something rather satisfying about hauling everything out of a cupboard, scrubbing it out and neatly replacing the contents. Catharsis for the home is catharsis for the soul, I suppose. Besides, I'll have that much less to do in the upcoming cleaning/painting/packing/moving insanity that is fast approaching. It's an exciting but daunting prospect.

On the Emmett front...no more answers yet. We took him for a bunch of blood tests but the genetic testing needs to be redone, and now he needs a small intestine biopsy as well because they suspect he has celiac disease. Oh, and the medicine they prescribed to calm him down for medical appointments makes him hyper instead. Heaven help me! He is still doing fantastic in school though - this morning it occurred to me that I can't remember the last time I asked Em to "use his words". He's come so far since February! He's also obsessed with pigs right now and loves to watch "Charlotte's Web 2". In fact, the other day he came up to me and introduced himself as "Wilbert" the pig and started oinking. What a character!

Seth is doing great as well...walking like a pro, and saying about 10 words regularly. He is SO different than Emmett, I feel like I don't know what to do with him sometimes. When Emmett gets upset, he wants cuddles, songs, etc...any kind of mama attention. Seth doesn't want that at all - if he wipes out he gets MAD and throws a little "life is NO FAIR!!" style tantrum. You need to distract him or just let him burn out on his own...he's my little Mr. Independent. Figuring out how to parent Seth the way he needs to be parented has been a real learning experience - I'm really enjoying him though! My Sethers is moving from baby to toddler so fast, I'm trying to soak up all of his "babyness" before it's gone.

I've booked us in for a family portrait this Friday...I probably don't need to add anything to our current chaos, but I want to document our family as it is now - time is going so fast. Life is really chugging along, and I've got to try to savor the good moments when they come (and handle the disappointments and trials with some sense of decorum). Every day I'm reminded of the fact that my little family won't be little forever.

We bought a house!

Yep, we did it. James and I have joined the ranks of the property owners. We bought a townhouse in Mill Woods today, and we're pretty durn excited about it. :)

It's 1200 sq feet, 3 bedroom, 1 1/2 bath with a little patio type yard in the back. It's not much, but it's ours! I'm not going to post pictures yet because frankly, it needs a really good cleaning and a lot of paint, but we're going to fix it up nice. We don't take possession until June so now it's a matter of sit and wait (and pack, and plan!).

I remember when Emmett was a baby, and housing prices went through the roof...I really felt like we'd never be able to afford our own place. I'm so glad that wasn't the case. I know it's going to be a lot of work (and money!) but I think I'm really going to enjoy fixing up things the way we want them and turning it into OUR home!

Adventures in House Hunting

The past 2 weeks have been crazy stressful - we found a (great!) realtor, put an offer down on a house 2 hours after we started looking, sat in limbo on that for DAYS, realized they were trying to screw us over big time on the deal, and walked away from our "dream" house. Sigh.

Yesterday we went out again, and this time we took the kids with us. They were SO good and sweet! Emmett *clearly* has a HUGE crush on our realtor...he was calling her by name and asking her to "Come here!", following her around, etc and was SO sad when she had to leave. We also think that he thought we were looking at the realtor's own house, because he kept asking to see "Jaclyn's room"! Seth was his usual charming self, trying out all the stairs he could find and just wandering around and clapping. We discovered the boys' #1 criteria for a house - ceiling fans! The last place we looked at had a couple of them, and both boys were absolutely enthralled - it took a lot of coaxing (well, forceable removal essentially) to get them away from those fans!

We've decided to put down an offer today on another place...fingers crossed this one works out! In any case there is a lot of "sweat equity" work in our future...at our price point the stuff that's available is in most cases a little run down looking. James and I aren't afraid of a little hard work though, and the thought of renovating things to our taste is pretty exciting. The last time I was allowed to paint/decorate how I want, I was 16 and living at home, and that was a looong time ago. Mostly I am just super ready for us to have a space of our own and a place for the kids to grow up!

Yesterday was a good day

Progress! For the past couple of weeks it seems like all we've been doing is waiting - waiting for meetings, waiting for people to call me back, waiting for stuff in the mail, etc. And yesterday it all came at once!

1) We got James' marks back for 3rd year, and he passed! We were pretty sure that he had, but we had never had to wait that long to get his marks back before (he took his test Feb 26) so we were sweating it a little bit. That means that James is officially in his last year of apprenticeship, and will get a raise (from 70% of the journeyman rate to 80%). That also means that we can go ahead with buying a house! I'm in the process of finding a realtor right now, and James and I have been scouring MLS. We've got a few places in mind and our fingers are crossed that we'll find something suitable. Our budget is definitely in the "teeny tiny" category, which limits us a bit, but I think we'll find something that works. My strategy is that I keep my standards low, and then I won't be disappointed. ;)

2) I heard back from the nurse at the Glenrose, and they will be mailing me a prescription for some anti-anxiety medication for Emmett. He really struggles with anxiety, both with little everyday things and big scary things (haircuts, medical appointments). These pills will hopefully help him with those big scary things when they happen.

3) I met with Emmett's teacher, SLP, OT and PT yesterday to write up his IPP for school (ah, the land of special needs is full of abbreviations!). Basically, I sat down with everyone who works with Em at school and we discussed his strengths, weaknesses and made some specific goals for him for the rest of the school year. It was so great sitting down with these women who have been getting to know my son and had some great insights for me. I was happy to learn that Emmett has a little group of friends in his class and he loves to spend time with them and do what they do - he has some issues participating and trying new things, so watching his friends do things is going to be huge for him. He's happy at school and his speech is really improving...at home I've noticed less and less of using just one word and a big jump in using short sentences. The staff at his school are so nice and accommodating - they didn't even seem to mind that Seth was in the meeting or that he continually added his own opinions, at top volume!

Life is so busy right now, and it looks like it will continue to be in the months to come. I am really looking forward to summer in my own place, with my own (landlord's-dog-poop-free) backyard, with everything unpacked and just being able to relax with the boys. I can feel that time is coming, but there is a lot to be done first!

And the journey continues...

It's 2:30am, and I can't sleep (it seems a lot of my blog posts are a result of insomnia!). Four years ago exactly I was tossing and turning as well. I was in the hospital, extremely pregnant and with my waters broken, waiting for my baby to make his or her long awaited entrance into the world. I wasn't in labour, just being monitored and watching for pot to boil, so to speak. I didn't have a private room so James had been sent home and told to come back if I made any progress (you can guess how much sleep HE had that night...zero!). I was so excited (I'm going to be a MOM!!) and nervous (this thing is coming out of me, and I'm going to be solely in charge of it! Are they nuts??!?). Of course that "thing" turned out to be Emmett, who finally arrived on the scene around dinner time that day. It was an exhausting and emotional day, and I will never forget the moment I looked at my son for the first time, saw he was a boy and James and I said to each other "Emmett! We have a little boy, Emmett!".

Now I'm up again in the middle of the night, after another long and exhausting day. We had the family conference to wrap up Emmett's assessments and get a diagnosis. Essentially, Emmett is about 25 months old mentally. He is severely delayed in his communication and learning. We're not sure why, but we suspect the cause may be genetic. We will probably be undergoing some genetic testing to see if we can isolate the cause.

I'm still processing everything...a lot of the behaviors that I'm concerned about, and that were leading me to believe he may have a form of autism, could be explained by the fact that mentally he's only 2. They aren't totally ruling autism out at this point but right now he doesn't meet the criteria for that diagnosis. We also aren't sure what this means long term...he will continue to progress but he has been classed as having below average intelligence and will probably never fully catch up to his peers.

So that's where we're at right now. Obviously, it's upsetting news and not what we wanted to hear, but it's reality. The good (great!) news is, Emmett has been blessed with SO many family and friends that love him and will support him. He's in a great program with excellent teachers and other professionals. He's got all the tools he's going to need to live up to his full potential in life, whatever that may be. We are clearly living in the "right" place, at the "right" time...there are so many programs and resources we can access.

Today is Emmett's birthday, and we are going to celebrate him. He has changed my life forever, and if I had the choice of doing it all over again, I would without a doubt. That sweet child is and always has been a huge blessing to our family, and I love him for exactly who he is.

A little bit of everything

I've been meaning to post for awhile, but didn't have anything "major" to blog about. So I figured I'd just update on a few little things:

Weight Loss

I lost another 3 lbs in February! I figure that's pretty good considering February was pretty insane for me...with James being in school I was pretty much a single mom and was transitioning Emmett into school at the same time. I just discovered this morning that my scale is broken, so this will probably be my last weight loss update for awhile. I'm not at my goal yet, but all my pants are too big so I'm happy with that. The next couple of months will be crazy as well, so I'm just going to keep doing what I'm doing - watching portion sizes and making good choices most of the time. I'm also trying to carve out some me time a few mornings a week to work out at home...lately I've been kickboxing.

Seth

My little one is growing in leaps and bounds! He took his first steps a couple of weeks ago, and it's starting to dawn on him now that walking *could* be a better way to get around than crawling! He usually starts out walking and goes as far as he can with that until he falls down (which doesn't take much!) and then finishes with crawling. He also now says "Emmett" clear as day, which is so awesome! He usually goes down for a nap while big bro is at school, and often "Emmett" is the first thing he'll say when he wakes up...he misses his brother! He's turning into your typical annoying little brother, following Emmett around and bugging him all the time. Usually this does NOT end well, but once in awhile Em will play with him and it makes him SO happy!

Emmett

My eldest is SUCH a grump in the mornings, until I mention the magic words: "school bus". Yesterday I wasn't getting ready fast enough and I got "Come on mama, time for SCHOOL BUS!!" You should see him waiting in front of our house every morning, he's practically bursting with excitement. His bus drivers love him and it's a great start to his school day. He also understands the whole birthday thing this year, and is VERY excited for his 4th birthday next week. He's getting cupcakes at school, a friend party, *and* a family party so he's going to be in heaven! He is still obsessed with Cars (in fact we're watching it right now...sigh...) and we got him Mater, Sheriff, Red (the firetruck) and Chick Hicks for his birthday - he's going to flip when he opens them!

My Hubby

James survived school again this year...he got the highest mark in the class on his blueprinting project and passed all of his subjects. Now we're just waiting for his final exam marks...he thinks he did pretty well. He's back at work, but they've actually got him doing materials handling for the time being - a complete overhaul of their warehouse. Word must have got out that James was a parts handler for 4 years, because he's been put in charge of the project! James has a real knack for organizing so he's right in his element.

Assessments

Emmett's big appointments at the Glenrose are scheduled for Mar 8-10...I'm a bit nervous but looking forward to getting a complete picture of what he's dealing with and how to help him. I'll update on that once he's been assessed.

Oops.

I noticed a few days ago that Seth had a bit of a rash on his back. It's not unusual for Seth to be a bit rashy so I didn't pay much attention to it. When I undressed him last night I discovered that he was now covered in big red welts.

Oops.

So, off to the after hours clinic I go...I've never had to wait there more than 45 min or so, so I figured I would be fine with just a bottle and a few diapers.

Oops.

After 2 1/2 hours of waiting (and 2 hours past bed time), Seth had explored every inch of the clinic and was DONE. It was all I could do to keep him from screaming his head off. I resorted to wearing his pajama top as a hat for comedic effect and was ready to start making origami out of the paper covering the exam bed when we were finally seen. He's got hives all over his little body from some kind of allergic reaction (to what I'm not sure, but our scented laundry detergent is the #1 suspect right now - good thing I just used the last of it yesterday and had just bought some fragrance free stuff). By the time we got out of the clinic it was 11pm and we were both incredibly tired. I had a prescription but I didn't think he'd tolerate another stop at the pharmacy and we had to be up at 6am, so we just went home to bed.

Oops.

Did you know that the Shoppers Drug Mart on Whyte and 109th street is open at 2:30am? Cause it is! Did you know that doctors at the after care clinic prescribe weird liquids that cause pharmacists to make a "What the hell?" face and phone 4 other pharmacies looking for the stuff? Cause they do! Poor Sethers had to settle for some OTC stuff and an oatmeal bath in the middle of the night. By the time I got to bed I was supposed to be up in 2 and a half hours (to drive James to school so I would have the car to take Em to school) so I woke James up and told him he could just take the car and I would walk the kids to the school in the stroller.

Oops.

The fact that the stroller is currently located in the trunk was the very first thought I had when I woke up this morning. About an hour after James left. Thankfully my friend down the street has a very nice jogging stroller that I was able to borrow....phew! Hey, at least I'm getting my exercise today (72 blocks for 2 round trips).

Something has to go right today...right?

Prayers Answered!

Emmett is doing wonderfully at his new preschool! He did WAY better than I expected - he cried a bit when we first arrived on the first day, but once he noticed all the toys he started to warm up to the idea. I stayed at the school for his whole first day and popped in and out, and he wasn't clingy at all! This morning he went by himself the whole time and did great!

They way this worked out was no coincidence...things were mentioned to the right people at the right time just when a spot opened up. Heavenly Father knew this was where Emmett needed to be, and I know he's going to blossom!

Good News/Bad News

The past week has been crazy - in a nutshell I learned of a spot at an amazing special needs preschool and have spent the past week trying to figure out if we can get Emmett in there. One of the pre-requisites was an official assessment to send to Alberta Learning so that Em could get funding to attend. We had that assessment today.

The good news is that the speech pathologist seemed pretty positive that he would qualify for funding. He's pretty much already been accepted to the school and the vice principal is just trying to get all the ducks in a row to make it official, but that was still nice to hear. Actually, I think the reason she told me he could just start attending right away is after meeting him for less than 10 minutes she could tell he would qualify.

Emmett's speech delay has been classified as severe. She didn't give me an approximate age level that he's at, but I'd guess about a 2 year old level (he'll be 4 next month). She said "I know that's hard to hear", and I was very professional about it all and tried to focus on the positive (now he can get the specific help he needs to grow). I won't lie though, inside I'm really struggling. I know this is just the beginning and things can only get better from here, but it's still scary and overwhelming. I question my ability to help him reach his full potential.

Next week is going to be very difficult - ever since his 3 day stay at Hitler's Preschool for Young Nazis, Em's anxiety goes right through the roof whenever he's in a school type setting. Heck, he was practically hyperventilating at library storytime. My family has been great about agreeing to watch Seth so that I can stay with Em at school for as long as he needs me there, but it's still going to be hard. At least there are a TON of cool things to do at school, which should help win him over...the question is how long that will take.

To whomever is reading this...if you pray, please include Emmett in your prayers. We're praying that he will feel safe at school and learn to trust the teacher and aides. I'll post an update this time next week about how his first few days went.

Weight Loss Update

It's been 1 month since I started eating better and working out...and I've lost exactly 5lbs! It doesn't really sound all that impressive, but I'm celebrating anyway. ;) I am now approximately 10 lbs above my original weight watchers goal weight from when I was 19, so I know the scale is going to move slowly...I remember it taking a few months to get those last pounds off. Even though I'm almost 10 years older and have popped out a couple of puppies since that time, I think that goal is still do-able. I'm going to have to work it though!

My goals for this month:

-find more healthy and cheap things to cook, and try to move away from "recipes" a bit more and just cook lots of whole foods. (I'm thinking lots of root vegetables roasted with olive oil and a spinach salad sort of thing) The trick is finding something the kids will try as well...Emmett is very wary of foods he doesn't recognize, and Seth's starting to become kind of a pickypants too.

-drink lots of water, and less diet pop

-keep doing some form of exercise 6 days a week...I can really see a different in my abs already so I'm going to definitely keep up with that.

-this is unrelated to weight loss, but I need to get back in the habit of daily scripture study.

I'm hoping to see another 4-5 lbs gone this month...we'll see how it goes!

Simple Things

Emmett and I had a serious case of cabin fever yesterday, and James needed some quiet time to study, so I decided to take him out for a few hours in the afternoon. Emmett LOVES riding the bus, so we just took a bus up Whyte to run a quick errand, then back downtown where we had some Booster Juice and window shopped at the downtown mall. Em had his first ride on one of the new LRT trains (automated announcer that announces the stops=not cool, going over the river=very cool!) and mastered the art of stepping on and off of an escalator.

We didn't do anything big or exciting, but we had a lot of fun! We enjoyed looking for a bus with the right number on it's sign, finding juuuust the right seat (back of the bus, first seats on the left), pushing elevator buttons, saying "one, two, three, GO!" before getting on the escalator, and of course people watching. I remember riding the LRT with my dad when I was little, and having SUCH a fun time. We didn't have a lot of money to do stuff when I was a kid, but we always had fun. I really do think it's the simple little stuff that kids remember most....just having one on one time with mom or dad. I've got to find something to do with the Seth-meister, maybe a mommy and me swim class (he loves the bathtub and never wants to get out!). I loved spending some time with just my big boy though.

A long road ahead

When Emmett was about 18 months old I started to notice that he was a bit different than other children his age...I remember going to the health center and reading that kids his age should be saying something like 50 words, and Em was only saying 4 or 5. Things would bother him that wouldn't bother other kids, like people in a group laughing. He would plug his ears and hum when he felt uncomfortable or heard a noise he didn't recognize. He would point and whine for something he wanted, or use one word over and over, long after his peers started using simple sentences.

At first I just thought he was a late bloomer, and that he would catch up soon, and that the weird behaviors were just the quirks of a toddler. My mom tried to broach the subject with me gently (albeit not all that tactfully) and I kind of freaked out at her. I took it as an attack on my parenting, that he was behind and different because of something I did/didn't do. Still I told myself that he WAS going to catch up, it was just a matter of time, that by the time he was 4 or 5 this would all be a distant memory.

Then he was 3 1/2 pushing 4, and the "toddler quirks" weren't going away. The words "autism spectrum" came into my head from nowhere one day, and I started to research. I cried as I recognized many of Emmett's "quirks" on a list of "symptoms". I was quickly pulled out of my denial.

Nobody wants to be in the "special needs club". Nobody gets pregnant with the hopes of having a kid that's behind, that's different. I will be the first to admit I spent a day crying and feeling super depressed about it...then I woke up the next day I decided it was time to DO something. Denial wasn't going to help my child, and crying that it wasn't fair wasn't going to help him either. He needed ME to advocate for him if he was going to get the chance to live up to his full potential...whatever that may be. I realized that loving Emmett for the unique little person that he his and helping him be happy and successful on HIS terms was more important than him being the same as his peers.

I took him to our family doctor a couple of months ago and told him about my concerns with the hope of getting a referral to a pediatrician. I wasn't prepared to be treated like an overprotective mom with nothing better to do and to have my concerns challenged at every point. I stuck up for myself though and got my referral. Yesterday Emmett saw the pediatrician (who was MUCH better, and thoughtfully listened to my concerns and asked questions). She wasn't able to tell me anything right away...she's not totally convinced it's autism but agreed there was enough concern to do further testing. He's getting a full workup as well as some genetic testing, and he'll be going to a preschool assessment centre for a full evaluation. The process is going to take somewhere in the ballpark of a year. While it's frustrating that the wait is so long, starting now means we should have some answers before he starts kindergarten and hopefully we can get him in any special programs that he needs.

Emmett really is a joy to parent...he's a big time mama's boy and I love that he's my little buddy. We love to read together, sing together, have tickle fights. We even have inside jokes! I believe he came to our family on purpose...he needed us and we needed him. I don't know where this journey is going to take us, and I know there are many challenges ahead, but I also know that somehow everything is going to be OK.

Post Christmas Detox

I'm not much of a crowd follower...if everybody starts doing something that's usually enough to make me NOT want to do it (case in point: the whole of facebook still doesn't know the colour of my bra ;)). However, this year I decided to be totally lame/cliche/sheep-like and resolve to eat better and lose weight starting January 1. I lost about 25 lbs last year and then sort of lost my resolve (and by what I'm sure is some sort of miracle, maintained that loss). I've got another 10-15lbs to lose so I figured now was the time to kick it back into high gear!

I'm loosely following Weight Watchers (I did that program hard core for a couple of years in college, so I know it well) and eating mostly whole foods. There's a book I've been hearing a lot about that just came out called "Food Rules", by Michael Pollan. His philosophy is "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants." He includes such things as "the whiter your bread, the quicker you're dead" and "don't eat things your great-grandmother wouldn't have recognized as food". Sounds like a good philosophy to me!

I'm mostly a scratch cooker, so it hasn't been too much of a switch...just cutting back on the fattening condiments, watching portions, and no more weekly candy binges. I've always been good about making sure that Emmett doesn't eat too much junk food (good thing Grandma and Oma always hook him up with dessert at their houses or the poor kid would be totally deprived!), but I'd eat it myself without a second thought...not the best example. I'm finding healthier treats - my brother and sister in law got us a stove top popcorn popper for Christmas and I love popping some corn with a bit of olive oil. I get some healthy oil and it makes our place smell like movie theatre popcorn...win win!

Now I just have to get through baking Sether's birthday cupcakes this weekend without too much "sampling"...