Weekly Top Ten - February 9, 2014

In an effort to revive our family blog, I'm attempting to post ten details from each week. 

1) Joseph gave his first primary talk. Scott helped Joseph write it Sunday morning, and Joseph rehearsed it several times before church. It was very important to Joseph that I stand next to him while he delivered it, but I was changing Helen's diaper when the time came (I'm the primary president, and had just stepped out for a minute to change Helen.) When I came back in he was just finishing the "questions" part, and I stood next to him while he read the rest. I was so impressed with the way he plodded through a rather long talk. He only needed help with a few words ("it can't be "know", mom, it has a 'K' at the front!) He delivered his talk with great confidence too, and was beaming when I caught his eye as he stepped down from the podium.

2) Joseph had his second Kinderstart this week. The year before Kindergarten, all students are invited to monthly orientations where they do crafts, have circle time, eat a snack, and practice being Kindergarteners, all the actual Kindergarten classroom, with their future teacher. I didn't realize Joseph would love it like he does -- he spent an entire afternoon trying to convince me that Kinderstart was now going to be held weekly, just because he wants go again! Because of Joseph's Fall birthday he misses the K cutoff in Texas by just a month, making him one of the older children in his grade. Here in Newfoundland the cut-off is December 31, meaning that some kindergartners start school at 4.5 years old. This age gap was really evident at the initial orientation when some of the children were only 3.5 years old and Joseph was already 5. He's taller, calmer, and more eager to be there than most of his classmates. Josephs buddies Brian and Oldric from preschool are attending Kinderstart with him. Joseph is especially eager to join Ian in the lunch room next year.

3) In Ian's class of 18 children, 9 or more have chicken pox! Oddly enough, all of these children have been vaccinated. I'm terrified that Ian will bring it home and expose Helen and Calder. (Helen will receive the varicella vaccination later this month, but it takes 6 weeks to build immunity.) Fingers crossed that we avoid this!

4) We received 6" or so of the fluffiest snow late Wednesday night, and woke up to a snow day on Thursday! They called it "superman snow" on the news -- so light and fluffy that it's easier to shovel. Scott's office opened at 9, and the kids had the full day off. The boys spent the entire morning doing water colors while I nursed Calder and then bathed Helen (who had water-colored her tummy green.) It was a nice slow day.

5) Scott was set to go to Norway early next week on business, but the trip was canceled late this week. I was prepared to hold down the fort while we was gone (or at least give it my best efforts!) but I'm relieved he'll be around instead. The first business trip after welcoming a new baby always scares me.

6) Calder is finally breathing normally this week. He has been on reflux medication (Zantac) for two weeks now, so we assume that he is no longer refluxing acid and milk into his nose, and that is why he is no longer congested. I have also been on an elimination diet for the recommended 3 weeks, so perhaps this is contributing to his improvement too. I've eliminated dairy, soy and eggs. I miss butter the most of everything!

Calder and Joseph went to the ENT this week. This was absolutely a tender mercy from a loving Father in Heaven. It generally takes 6 months to a year or more to get an appointment with a specialist here. Back in August a speech pathologist referred Joseph to the ENT, and sometime thereafter an appointment for February was scheduled. At the time I thought it was useless to meet with the ENT at that point -- what we really needed was to meet with an allergist, and that was scheduled for December. I know come February we'd have a newborn, and the last thing I'd want to do was to schlep everyone to an unnecessary appointment at the hospital. I planned to cancel the appointment but for some reason I didn't. Flash forward to last Sunday. Calder wouldn't nurse and spent an entire evening screaming and writhing. He was miserable, and I was skeptical that the reflux medications we'd been given were working. I had asked the family doctor to give him a more aggressive treatment (like we'd had in Texas) and she refused, saying we'd need to meet with a specialist. (Our appointment with a pediatrician wasn't until April 25. April! I knew we couldn't wait that long to get Calder the help he needed.) I was so anxious about the situation that I was having trouble sleeping and felt overwhelmed trying to care for a tiny baby who was so miserable he wouldn't eat.

It was at this point that I looked at the calender on my phone to see what our week would hold, and saw an event scheduled for Wednesday. It simply said Joseph ENT on Wednesday at 1. In that moment I realized that my Father in Heaven had provided for a tender mercy for our family way back in September. Our family doctor prepared a referral for Calder and faxed it over the morning of our appointment with the ENT. Even though Calder had a rough few days before the appointment, I knew we only had to get through it until Wednesday. On Wednesday Dr. Redmond put a scope down Calders nose (quite unpleasant) and confirmed that Calder indeed had reflux, but that it appeared the current medications were beginning to work and soon Calder would be comfortable. He gave me a few more tips to manage the reflux. It was such a relief to finally, after 6 weeks of questions, to know that there was not anything more seriously wrong (like structural deformities, etc.) that were causing Calder's constant congestion. Dr. Redmond also explained that Calder's congestion was a mix of refluxed milk and stomach acid, along with mucous that his body produced to protect is delicate esophagus and nasal passages from the stomach acid. He also explained that all of this was so far back in his sinuses that suctioning it was never going to help. It feel so much peace knowing that we have a firm diagnosis for Calder.

It was a tender mercy that we had an appointment with the very type of specialist Calder needed to see, and that it was provided for by a loving Father in Heaven so many months before it was even needed.

7) Helen says the most adorable prayers. She generally begins to pray as soon as everyone is seated at the table, or kneeling after family scripture study, and thus she ends up saying most of our family prayers these days. This week her standard prayer has changed from "Heavenly Father, Thank we a next week" to "Heavenly Father, thank we had a good day. Bless Calder."

8) I've been making all sorts of vegan dishes these past few weeks. Some have been wildly successful (like the brownies made with coconut oil!) others less so (vegan carbonera pasta, with a cream sauce made from avocados). Most days I eat a sweet potato for breakfast, and I keep a bag of grilled chicken in the fridge for lunch and dinner.

9) We held our first family MTC last Sunday, and our second today. We got the idea from an article in the Friend Magazine. Each Sunday we'll spend about an hour doing activities to help prepare our children to serve a mission. We begin with a prayer and singing Called to Serve. Then in four 15 minute sessions we: 1) Write in our journals 2) Read the scriptures (Ian reads the Book of Mormon, and Joseph flips through the illustrated version of the scriptures.) 3) Study a story in the Friend Magazine, then retell it the rest of the family 4) Watch videos on the Friend website. It's so fun! Helen was asleep this time, and it went a bit more smoothly.

10) In preparation for Valentines day this Friday, we've been writing love notes to each other. We each have an envelope hung in the dining room, and lots of hearts cut out of paper for writing the notes on. We saved them up all week and read them to each other last Sunday after dinner and will read the notes from this week on Valentines day. Joseph enjoyed cutting cool shapes out for everyone (my favorite was a Toronto Maple leaf for Scott) and Helen drew herself lots of multicolored scribbles. Our household mice even sneeked a note in to Helen, thanking her for all the crumbs she leaves for them.