Recovering Noah

NOTE: If you came across this page by googling "Shirt Chewing", please click here for the most recent post on Noah's shirt chewing. Thanks! Sugar. Who knew that five little letters could wreck such havoc? As I've mentioned before, Noah has a terrible shirt chewing habit. I can't quite remember when it all started, but we all noticed that it STOPPED completely when we were in Austin. The only thing that was really different was his diet - since we were living out of a hotel for a week. When we got home, we racked our brains to figure out what it was.... what food triggered Noah' s shirt chewing. We were home about 2 days when Noah started chewing again. Agave Nectar. Sim had put agave nectar on Noah's waffles. We took the agave nectar out of his diet and the next day, the chewing decreased. A few days later, I gave him a peanut butter and jelly rice cake. He started shirt chewing. It had to have been the jelly.. which goes to show that just because it's

Okay, so this is not going to become a blog about vaccines, but with all the buzz being created by my new favorite person - Jenny McCarthy - people are starting to pay attention. This is a post that refutes the CDC study that vaccines play no part in autism. Wow. I had no idea that the people in the original thimerosal test study in the 1930's were all dead by the end of the study. Wouldn't that make you go... hmmmmmm?? But somehow it's okay to put it in our vaccines? Oh, and isn't it odd that the person in charge of the study is a vaccine patent holder himself and on the advisory committee for childhood vaccines? Like I said, I am PRO-vaccination. Vaccines are good. They're life-saving. I am all for wiping out serious disease. But please take the junk out of them. Please acknowledge that not all kids can handle them. Like Dr. Kartzinel said on Larry King last night.. if you give every child in the world a cat, some will be fine and some will be allergic. All kids

Okay, I'm not a confrontational or even a controversial person. Now, I can stand my ground, and I do turn into a Mama Bear when it comes to my kids - but I'm not some hot-head who likes to stir the pot. So, having said that, I think it's worth looking at the full-page ad that Generation Rescue put in USA Today this morning. http://www.generationrescue.org/pdf/070626.pdf It shows you just how many vaccines children under the age of 6 were receiving in 1983 versus how many they are receiving today. In 1983, by the time a child reached 6 years of age, s/he would have received 10 vaccinations. Today, in 2007, that number increases to 36. What gives? I am NOT anti-vaccine. Please understand that. But I am for a delayed vaccine schedule. I think doctors should give one vaccine at a time and monitor individual response. I'm also against what the manufactures put in vaccines. Even though thimerosal is "supposedly" no longer in vaccines (except for the flu shot - it is

Yea! We're back! Wow, what a week. I know there's no way I can do this post justice. I wish I could just videotape myself talking and put it on here. There's no way my fingers can type as fast as my brain is thinking. I'll get all the frou-frou stuff out of the way first. Eli was NOT impressed with Sea World. Hmmm... aren't we glad we didn't splurge on going to Disney? He was scared of the rides, did not want to get wet, and had a fit when we tried to get him to see the sharks. Apparantely, he didn't like that it was dark in the shark exhibit. Okay, so this is a child who has gone to either the zoo or the aquarium nearly every single WEEK for the last two years.... and he's scared of the sharks?? Oh, and we missed Shamu because I wanted to save it for it last and then got the time wrong... even though it clearly said 4:00 in the guide that I had in the stroller. The poor guard guy or whoever he was was kind enought to let us watch the whales swim in th

It is 11:45pm and the alarm is set to go off at 4:00 o'clock. And what am I doing? Sitting here blogging. But I can always sleep in the car, so it's okay. We are headed to Austin tomorrow via Sea World. Eli turns 4 on Monday and he's been begging us to go to Sea World for the last 9 months. I think he saw a commercial about it or something and that's all it took. At least we got him to quit talking about Disney World. Honestly, I think he just wants to go somewhere that ends in "World". I once told him that we were going to Wally World (Walmart) and he got SO excited. And he didn't even care when we pulled into the Walmart parking lot. It had the word "World" at the end of it - so that's all that mattered. He is terribly excited. I have a feeling we will be hearing about his excitement for the entire 5 hours it takes to get down there. Sim and I will be half-dead and Eli will be a ball of energy. But it'll be cool. It's always cool to

I am not that hard to please. Just give me a wad of cash and point me in the direction of the nearest SuperTarget and I will remain on a marvelous high for at least 2 weeks. But today, I discovered something even better. I went into Mardel Christian Bookstore for the very first time. I am majorly in love. I LOVE IT! It weren't for the fact that the kids were getting antsy and I did not (in fact, never) have a fat wad of cash on me, I would have happily stayed there until they kicked me out at closing. What an awesome place. A homeschoolin' mom's place of paradise. If you could see me typing this, you would witness firsthand the goofy grin I have on my face as I'm remembering my journey into the wonderful world that is Mardel. (Insert big, fat, happy sigh). A friend suggested that I buy "The Power of the Praying Parent", so when we had a few hours to kill between therapy appts today, I stopped off in Mesquite, pushed my buggy through the door and instantly beca

Noah is STILL sick. It's been going on for over a week now. Low grade fever. Bad tummy. I have no idea what it is. He seems to be feeling okay - wants to watch videos and swing. But he wasn't too interested in jumping on the trampoline last night. And he's been up since waayyyy before dawn. He's drinking a lot, but not eating too much (unless, of course, I give him a bunch of potato chips. Then, all of a sudden, he's made a miraculous recovery. Sneaky little thing). He also has a TON of fire ants bites. Poor kid. We decided to go for a wagon ride the other day and he didn't want to get in the wagon. He just stood there whining. We kept saying, "Just get in. It's okay, get in." But he wouldn't. He just kept whining. Finally, Sim picked him up to put him in the wagon and we noticed that his poor little shoes, his leg, and his pants were COVERED in fire ants. That's when he let loose with the screaming. And the thing with Noah is that a bite

I am so sad right now. I can't explain it. My heart just aches. I had mentioned a few posts ago that my brother and SIL were trying to adopt a baby, who is the biological sister of the little girl they adopted a year ago. The birth mother has been on heroin for 9 solid months, so this baby would definitely be born addicted. For 5 months, they've been getting the run around. Well, the baby is due any day now and we found out today that she already had the baby earlier this week and the hospital let her take it home!! Are they insane??? For pete's sake, what were they thinking? She had her last 5 kids all at the same hospital, so they tested Alaina (my niece) right off the bat for drugs. This is a new hospital and all I can think is that they didn't test her. I don't know. Is drug testing routine for all newborns? I just cannot understand how they let that baby go home with the birthparents. Let me give you a bit of background though, so you'll understand why I&

So, we're laying in Noah's bed last night reading a book. Eli picked out "MONSTERS: The World's Most Incredible Animals", which, amazingly enough, did not give him nightmares (although I had visions of the absolutely terrifying hatchet fish all night long - go figure). Anyway, Eli suddenly says: "Mom, did you know I'm a vegetarian?" "You are?" "Yeah, I don't eat Whataburger. I eat WhataBOOGERS!" heeeheeheeeeheeee He totally cracked himself up. And I cracked up. And Sim cracked up. Even Noah started laughing. Ahhh, the world of a 3 year-old. Never a dull moment. Noah's Mom

Weird title, right? Where do I begin? Well, first of all maybe I should explain what I'm doing writing about church on a Sunday at 10:25 in the morning. Shouldn't I be at church? Yeah, I should. But Noah's sick and Sim is working, so I'm here... sitting at my computer.... writing about church on a Sunday morning. For a long time, we didn't go to church. It was just too difficult with Noah. In the beginning, when he was little, it was just too hard for me to see other kids his age and watch them progress, while Noah was regressing before my eyes. Then... he went through the Shrieking-Screaming-15 Hours-A-Day phase and we didn't really leave the house for a long time. Then we went a few times to a few good churches but we always stopped going. I would be afraid that Noah would have a BM in Sunday school and I didn't want anyone changing him. Or what if they whipped out the goldfish crackers and he grabbed a few? Would the other kids make fun of him? Would he

We finally have some new pictures to share. We haven't had a studio (i.e. Walmart) picture done in two years. Hmmm... now I remember why. It's the most stressful thing ever! It is impossible to get both of those boys to look at the camera and smile at the same time. Noah was really chewing the top of his shirt that day. We had to keep running over and yanking it out of his mouth. By the time we got out of the way, he was chomping on it again. And Eli decided it would be fun to make faces at the camera... and then when he saw how it riled me up, he thought it'd be fun to continue doing it. I think he enjoyed seeing my face turn all shades of red. By the end, I think I could've used a good dose of some strong prescription medication. So, we've learned that the way to go is to do separate photos. We can get them each to smile and look at the camera separately, but having to coordinate it together takes the skills and agility of an Olympic athlete. We also have a new p