a few new things…

April 20th, 2008

things here have been doing pretty good…

I have been swimming as much as I can and it is getting easier and easier… not only to swim, but to actually get up and go…

Khéna is growing and changing like crazy… at almost 17 months old he is starting to say more words and loves to make us laugh. He also loves to cuddle and is just a little sweetie…

The weather here has been really warm the last few days… in the 20’s even! and the snow is melting fast especially in the back yard. (the Front still has quite a bit though… this was taken yesterday)

We have been hanging out on the deck most days though and I have been able to clean the kitchen and some of the house with all three boys playing outside which feels so weird at times… I love when they start playing alone like this…

Colin is still a little monkey… jumping everywhere and chattering and singing constantly… he loves to please and loves to cuddle and give kisses and talk with us… His language skills are amazing and the things that he says sometimes surprise us…

Xavier… well he is my Xavier… he is getting really interested in so many things and is starting to ask more and more questions about everything and really understanding what we are explaining even if it is a bit more complicated…. also… he lost his first tooth on Saturday!! Well technically it is the second tooth that he has lost but I won’t really count the first because it was knocked out almost 3 years ago… funny how they both line up perfectly though….

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First Haircut!

April 7th, 2008

I decided that it was finally time to give Khéna his first haircut…

though I don’t mind… he was being called a little girl by everyone that saw him… but mostly… it was getting into his eyes…

It was hard to decided though because it would mean losing his curls… I love baby curls…

Before…

After….

In that last pic you can also see a bit of his teeth… Surprisingly he has all of his teeth now…

16 of them!!

So teething is pretty much all over until the 2 year molars come in!

oh… and here is what is left of the snow in our front yard… at least it is starting to melt more quickly now…

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What colour are white marshmallows?

April 1st, 2008

Wanting to make some homemade snack bars that the boys love… (made with cereal, granola, nuts, seeds, dried fruit and a few chocolate chips and held together with marshmallow) I picked up some marshmallows at the grocery store over the weekend…

Xavier has been asking me to make them since then…

So this morning I get out a few things and just as I was about to open the bag of marshmallows I noticed the ingredient list…

“colouring”

Why I didn’t check while at the grocery store? I don’t know…

If you have been reading here for a while, or have read the archives a bit we have been avoiding food colouring for the boys for about a year and half… Colin has physical reactions and Xavier has behavioural…

Dr Feingold and the diet he promotes has been telling families with hyperactive children to avoid food colourings (along with other foods and additives) for a long time believing that they are linked to behaviour problems…. and these diets have helped many families dealing with ADHD and an array of other problems… and though I have never read any of the books and don’t follow the diet I do think that there is a lot of truth in his ways of thinking…

however… for many the link between a cracker or a yogourt and behavioural problems is something that is hard to grasp and the fact that food colouring is in so many foods makes it really hard to avoid even when you eat mostly whole foods…

I hadn’t seen but last year there was finally a study…

Though Feingold was proved to be right that food colouring can aggravate the symptoms of ADHD… and that avoiding them can have great effects… the link had never been made officially between “normal” kids and behavioural problems linked directly to food colouring and additives.. until now…

Food additives and hyperactive behaviour in 3-year-old and
8/9-year-old children in the community: a randomised,
double-blinded, placebo-controlled trial

Background
We undertook a randomised, double-blinded, placebo-controlled, crossover trial to test whether intake of artificial food colour and additives (AFCA) affected childhood behaviour.

Methods
153 3-year-old and 144 8/9-year-old children were included in the study. The challenge drink contained sodium benzoate and one of two AFCA mixes (A or B) or a placebo mix. The main outcome measure was a global hyperactivity aggregate (GHA), based on aggregated z-scores of observed behaviours and ratings by teachers and parents, plus, for 8/9-year-old children, a computerised test of attention. This clinical trial is registered with Current Controlled Trials (registration number ISRCTN74481308). Analysis was per protocol.

Findings
16 3-year-old children and 14 8/9-year-old children did not complete the study, for reasons unrelated to childhood behaviour. Mix A had a significantly adverse effect compared with placebo in GHA for all 3-year-old children but not mix B versus placebo. This result persisted when analysis was restricted to 3-year-old children who consumed more than 85% of juice and had no missing data . 8/9-year-old children showed a significantly adverse eff ect when given mix A or mix B when analysis was restricted to those children consuming at least 85% of drinks with no missing data.
Interpretation Artificial colours or a sodium benzoate preservative (or both) in the diet result in increased hyperactivity in 3-year-old and 8/9-year-old children in the general population.

I know that there are some that brush this off because their kids might not become more active after eating food additives or either don’t believe it or just don’t care… Think if the bad rep that sugar has gotten as parties and how it has been proven to not be the cause for the hyperactivity… what if it was the all of the food colouring and additives that have really been the culprit all along… the fact that food additives that have NO other function than to make a food look prettier and can have such an impact on behaviour is scary at best and I know for sure that I will never be able to turn a blind eye…

and the white marshmallows…. I called the number on the back of the package to ask what colouring was used… they have blue… but couldn’t say whether it was #1 or #2….

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Cabane à Sucre…

March 22nd, 2008

We went to the same place as we did last year… it is so hard to find a great Sugar Shack… there are so many here and they are so commercial that often the feeling of being at the Sugar Shack is lost….

Anyway… here is our day… and mostly our food… (all traditional Québécois “Cabane à Sucre” foods!)

I forgot to upload the Animal pics… but first we saw the animals that live there and then we went on a horse and sleigh ride…

Khéna wasn’t too sure….

It was beautiful out… but still cold at about -4

Inside for food…
Cretons (spread made of pork and spices)

Pea Soup

Lunch… Omlette made with maple syrup, small potatoes, sausages, maple bakes beans, and maple smoked ham… with a side of “oreilles de Crisse”….

Sadly there is no sap running yet this year… winter is lasting long… so they have been using last years syrup… and the syrup is put on pretty much everything on the plate…

then dessert…

Maple Syrup Pie and fresh doughnuts

Maple Cake

and my favourite… “Beignets” (fried doughnut) smothered in maple cream sauce….

then the traditional Maple Taffy…

Syrup is heated to a certain temp.. then poured on snow…

then poke….

and roll…

(and then the boys played to work off some of that sugar)

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a little funny…

March 20th, 2008

Colin just came up to me to cuddle… but wanted some sympathy also… so he said…

“Mommy… I am so sad”

so I asked why…

“I hurt myself…” he said…

I asked his where he hurt himself and he said that he hit his head on the fridge…

So I said that I don’t mind cuddling him of course, but that it wasn’t true because he had not been in the kitchen…

so he said… “was that a lie” and I said yes….

he got off of my lap and went away…

then I heard a thump in the kitchen… and he came back and said again… “mommy, I hit my head of the fridge… I am so sad… I want maju”

he now has a red spot on his forehead…

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Endo appt…

March 20th, 2008

We had the appointment at the Endo on Monday…

and… as I expected and really just knew all along, everything is completely normal with Khéna….

He is a big healthy boy.

Yes, He is very overweight, and off the charts at a bit over 18 kilos or 40lbs… but everything is normal…

They did mention that if he maintains the weight that he has now, he would come into the 97th percentile on the charts at age three… so they do think that he should not be gaining more… but there is nothing they can recomend for him not to gain weight… and because they could not blame overeating, because he really doesn’t eat much… they did try to hint that my milk might be too rich in calories and that he should be eating more solids… but then didn’t mention it again after they couldn’t explain why that would be when his two big brothers had the same nursing patterns and were/are pretty small..

I also asked if it was OK if ever he lost weight because with the spring and summer on the way and more outdoor play, swimming etc… and they said that there was no problem with that…

So for those IRL, and who read the blog and have been worried about Khéna’s weight… don’t worry… he is a healthy, beautiful and yes… big boy…

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Xavier got a haircut!

March 11th, 2008

We have been asking him for a while now if he wanted to get it cut and he always says no… the problem with the long hair though is that he doens’t want to brush it and never wants to tie it… so it was always in knots and in his eyes…

Over the weekend though we were able to talk it out and gave him the choice between caring for his hair by brushing and tying it when it is getting in his eyes… or cutting it…

I also gave him the choice of me cutting it, or going to the Salon to get it cut… he chose the Salon…

So today… after he had to hold his hair back to lick the syrup off his plate after eating french toast, I took an appointment…

here is just before…

during…

and after….

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I am so tired of being sick…

March 5th, 2008

We though we were doing pretty well this year until a few weeks ago… then our systems started to fail us…

colds, coughs, stuffy and runny noses, junky lungs and fevers have made us all miserable in the last few weeks…

during the night, the night before last, I asked Simon to stay home because I was feeling so awful… awful enough that I dreamed that Simon wrote on my blog that I was no longer living… Thankfully, I am still living and Simon did stay home yesterday and helped with the kids even though I was feeling a bit better…

Xavier however was the worse hit yesterday… he stayed on the lounging chair in front of the TV all day, feverish and in and out of sleep only drinking a bit of water, emergen-C and a bit of juice and once in a while shakily walking to the bathroom…

He is still sleeping at the moment, but his fever seems to have broken and hopefully today will be a better day even though we are all becoming a bit stir-crazy…
It seems to fit of course that we are having another winter storm, 25 cm of snow complete with freezing rain to top it off…

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misc…

February 7th, 2008

I went to two homeschooling meetings in the last two weeks and both turned out pretty well… I still feel uneasy about the local group but it is getting better… the last meeting was a bit more relaxed so that helped… but there are still things that bother me… and most of it I think is about a lack of self confidence and continual excuses when it comes to looking out of the box of doing “school at home”…

but the other group is different… What I like about it I think is that homeschooling is not as new to all of them, there is not the constant “what are you going to use for this” and most of the group are confident in what they are doing, there are no lame excuses when different ideas are brought up so even though we do not all have the same style, we can still talk and share and accept the differences…

Anyway… I do look forward to going back soon… especially to the farther group because there are a few that I really get along well with…

Aside from that I have been working on getting into a routine more here…

I have continued to declutter and I have been trying to get into a better everyday cleaning routine… Last weekend I attacked my closet and my room in general and everyday I have been maintaining it as much as I can (though at the moment I have some clothes to put away)… the kitchen is the same… everyday I get it clean, dishes done and counters wiped down, sweep and clean up they toys etc… this of course may be second nature to many but it is not to me, but it is starting…

I have also been spending less time on the computer in the daytime… I have been reading more, looking at books with the kids more and I slowly but surely I have been finding the time to sew more also… The boys have been a lot better at keeping the playroom a lot cleaner and since Khéna has been putting things in his mouth less I have been letting all three play in the playroom while I sew…

I find it great because I got a great response on the two message boards that I post on when I shared the last dress that I made and now I want to make more… I really enjoy being at the sewing machine and making something that I find beautiful out of a few pieces of cloth and getting paid for doing so makes it even more inspiring… Xavier has also been gaining a lot of interest in my sewing and will often come and watch me and ask questions… I found a small sewing machine for a few dollars and I am going to sere if it works and if it does I am going to give that to him to start learning…

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more snow…

February 3rd, 2008

This morning we woke up to yet more of the white stuff…

I am really amazed at the mountain of snow that is in the front yard… Our lantern is long gone and I wonder how long it will take for this stuff to melt when spring comes…

When we woke this morning…