Neal Stories

Ok, so it's been a while again since our last post. Anda and the boys spent 6 weeks in Latvia visiting family, and I was busy with work. They got home the day before Easter, so they all slept through the festivities (jet lag). But today I wanted to add a few stories about Neal.

When we were in Latvia at one of the grocery stores, Neal saw a tank full of live carp. He was fascinated by them. He saw them gulping or whatever it is they do with their mouths, and said, "Fishy talking to me!" He stared in silence for a while more, and said, "Me eat fishy! Take him out and break him in half!" Maybe it was funnier in person, but I about had a heart attack.

Today after church we were outside in the sunshine. Ben went back inside after a while, of course, but Neal loves being outside. We ended up over by the woodpile under the deck, and he was gathering little pieces of wood for his fire, giving them to me to put in his wagon. He found an old dirty furnace filter back there, and threw it down on the ground while I was walking over to the wagon. When I returned, I asked him if he had thrown that there, and why. His response: "That no loves me!"

Today Anda and I were lying down after church, and someone had closed our bedroom door. Neal came and knocked, and I said "Go away!" Neal yelled back, "Me no bad guy, me Neal!" So we let him in.

You already know that Neal loves to vacuum. He vacuumed a bunch of cereal that Ben had spilled. Then I saw him walking around with the thing where the dirt goes (it's a bagless vacuum). He walked into the bathroom, and opened the little door that gives access to the pipes for the jets in the tub. (Not a very clear explanation, but I'm not really sure why that door is there anyway. It's a door in the side of the tub.) Anyway, he made as if to dump all the dirt in that little hole, until I asked him what he was doing. So he turned around and saw me and pretended he hadn't been near the tub. He dumped the dirt in the garbage can.

So anyway, Neal is talking a lot more now, and he is getting to be a lot more fun. So look for more Neal stories in the future!

Have faith

After I told Ben this story about the cemetery later that day, he said:
-Mommy, I was dead once.
I told him I was pretty sure that didn't happen, because once you're dead, you can't be alive again, to which he answered confidently:
-Yes I can, because Jesus did it!

The will to live

Neal And I were driving past a cemetery and I told him that's where people get buried after they die. Neal, of course, asked "Why?" because that's what he asks no matter what you just said. "Because," I explained - "You would start to smell bad if you didn't get buried." In answer to this Neal curled up in his car seat trying to get as far away from me as possible and said in a pleading voice: "Me don't want to die, me too cute!" (At this point I had to concentrate on staying in my lane, I was laughing so hard.)

Story Time

Merry Christmas, everyone! We're busy trying to get things ready, but the house seems to be plotting against us. We're finally fixing the carpet in the basement, but today the furnace stopped working.

One quick story: Couple nights ago I was reading books to the kids before bed, and I was reading them in strange voices. Ben got fed up and said, "Daddy, just read it with the voice Jesus made you with!"

Fun morning

I've decided all posts posted by a girl on here will be red. Then you readers will know it couldn't possibly be Zilonis (or whatever he calls himself...) posting this. :) By the way, should the dot ending the sentence come before the smiley face or after? Are there rules about this?
Well, we had the funnest morning today. Last night we decided we could go to the zoo if it didn't rain in the morning. When we woke up, it, sure enough, was windy and wet. Not too rainy though, just a bit. So we went anyway. Cause- that's right- we're the boss, not the weather! :) We had the greatest time! We saw the tiger inches away from glass, warming up under the heat lamp, blinking at us lazily; one of the two polar bears put on a show trying to squish a plastic barrel full of water, standing on it with all four feet and making water squirt out of it; the sharks swam right up to us and almost stood on their tailfins, sticking their heads out of the water at us; the walrus pooped as he swam by the underwater glass wall (gross, but very entertaining!); beluga whales waved and moved their mouth at us; it was just generally very interactive today. The kids loved the lunch they packed and didn't whine even ONCE. And I had taken two Slimquick pills so maybe I was a little high from that. I just had the best time ever. We got wetter and wetter as the rain got stronger and stronger until finally we were walking UPSTREAM instead of uphill... :) We were wearing our rainboots, of course. :) And on the way home the kids shared a blanket as they rode in the carseats with no pants, boots or socks on. It was great. Wish y'all were there. :)

Hi!
This is Anda posting (for a change). Here's my version of Ben's allergy story. See, Kevin is just observing the changes... I am the one actually MAKING changes in Ben's diet... I am losing my mind. It's just overwhelming an frustrating to, first, cook ALL the meals from scratch, and, second, use stuff I've never cooked with. Some substitutions were easy - switch from all vegetable oil (it's most of the time soy oil) to olive and corn oil. That works the same, so no big deal. But what about baking without eggs, dairy, wheat, oats, sunflower, soy, almond??? The kid won't have a sandwich for 6 months and very possibly for much longer??? How do you pack a school lunch without some type of bread??? Aaaargh!
On the other hand, I feel like I was not crazy to begin with. I decided to take Ben to a naturopath about 6 months ago. Everyone wondered why. But I had my reasons. To me, it seemed Ben wasn't getting all the nutrition he needed, because his poor baby teeth are in really bad shape although we brush every day and he never sucked on sugary drinks for hours at a time; also, he's had some spots of psoriasis on his knees for what seems like years; and he in general seemed to not have much energy. And he's a very picky eater. Our pediatrician didn't see anything worth fussing over, so I had to ask someone else, right? At first the doctor gave us supplements to improve the teeth and skin. Suggested protein at every meal to fatten him up, cut down on sugar, chew sugarless gum with xylitol, eat yogurt to help his gut... But after 6 months of that there was no big changes, so she suggested a blood thest to check for food allergies. This test tests 99 foods and costs $185. So Ben bravely and tearfully gave up a couple drops of his blood from a finger and Kevin already told you the results. I counted 97 foods in the results of which 33 Ben had a reaction to. He even had a low reaction to zuccini, radishes and cauliflower!! How whacky is that? Anyway, doctor said, it might get better. His gut must be in a bad shape to react to so much stuff, and if it heals it might stop doing that or something. That's the story. Oh, and I also want to get Kevin tested. I think he might be allergic to some things, too. And we know now my intuition is worth something, don't we? :) Well, talk to y'all later! If you need me, I'll be in the kitchen, losing my mind! :)

Allergies!

On Nov 1, Ben went to the doctor and received the results of his allergy test. We were mildly surprised. Here's the list of what he's highly reactive to (mostly off the chart): almond, barley, cheddar cheese, cottage cheese, cow's milk, egg white, egg yolk, filbert, goat's milk, mozzarella cheese, peanut, rye, sesame seed, soybeans, spelt, sunflower seeds, wheat, whey, yogurt, casein (a milk protein), gliadin, and gluten. He's only moderately reactive to brewer's yeast, coconut, oats, and sugar cane (they don't test for sugar beets). So we've been having an interesting few days trying to find out what he can eat. There are very helpful books (sarcasm alert!) telling such things as "If your kid is allergic to cow's milk, try goat's milk! If that doesn't work, you've always got soy milk." OK, so we check the list: "let's see ... cow's milk, check ... goat's milk, yup ... soy mi-- darnit!" Ben's drinking rice milk, which I must say is pretty nasty.

We went to the bookstore looking for cookbooks. There are gluten-free cookbooks, dairy-free, nut-free, etc, but VERY FEW that are for multiple simultaneous allergens. Basically, we need a food-free cookbook. The good news: he's not allergic to meat, fish, fruit, and vegetable, just everything you might use to cook any of that.

Some of the stuff Ben is fine without. He never liked milk and eggs anyway. But sugar! He lives off the stuff. And we had to tell him no more candy after he'd brought home a bucketful of trick or treats. And he doesn't get any more yogurt or PBJs. It's half-cute, half-sad to hear him ask, "Daddy, am I allergic to cookies?" But he's doing a great job. He seems happy, and may be filling out some, and the weird callous-type spot on his shin is going away.

Dinnertime has changed a little. We can't just make a box of mac and cheese anymore; all of Ben's meals seem to require hours of preparation. Neal and I had some leftover pizza the other day, and we ate in the bedroom with the door closed so Ben wouldn't get jealous.

One final note on the subject, and then I'll quit. Anda has great intuition/inspiration, because she for a while has felt like there must be something wrong with Ben that makes him so skinny. If I understand this right, his body does not get much if any nutrition from the food he's allergic to. So no wonder he's skinny. Supposedly we restrict the allergens for six months or so and then test again to see if things have calmed down at all.

So anyway, if you happen to know how to bake with rice flour (or one of the other weird and expensive alternatives to wheat), drop us an email!