When I dropped Jacob at preschool the other day, they had a sensory table full of split peas and scoops.  Julia was so angry when it was time to go that I thought, why not do that at home?  I have never seen her so engrossed in an activity before.  She absolutely loved it!!  She sat there with the dried beans for close to an hour before I told her it was time for lunch.  She (once again) was quite upset and would gladly have skipped lunch to play in the beans some more!!!

Julia has also been enjoying coloring.  The boys didn't want to color at all until they were at least three.  James didn't want to color until he started kindergarten.  Julia loves it.  Yesterday, she sat with her markers and said she was drawing a kitty.  Then another kitty, and another. 

It was very cute!

Second opinions and diagnoses

Those of you who see me frequently know that I have been having a hard time with my health lately.  Beginning in late January, when I had a horrible tummy bug, I also had very weird symptoms--numbness and tingling in my hands and feet, going to the bathroom constantly (particularly at night), worsening heartburn symptoms (even though I'm on a very powerful reflux cocktail), etc.  I went to the internist in Feb, as we thought I had diabetes.  No diabetes, labs were very clear there.  More labs were done to rule out auto-immune disorders, such as rheumatoid arthritis and lupus.  All were negative except for one, which my doctor indicated was probably a false positive.

Last week I went to my gi doctor.  She didn't have a lot of wisdom to share with me.  She thought I may have a stomach disorder, gastroparesis, in which the stomach is slow to empty (resulting in vomiting the next day).  The treatment for which is a low fiber diet.  She didn't really address the meds I am currently taking, nor did she address the other symptoms, though she indicated an immune disorder was possible.

Today, I visited a second gi doctor, for another opinion.  I feel so enlightened today and as if a huge burden has been lifted off my shoulders.  He listened to my explanation of symptoms, looked at my hands and said, "I think I've heard enough."  He proceeded to tell me that I very likely do have an immune disorder, which explains 90% of my symptoms, particularly the worsening reflux symptoms.  He's sending me to a rheumatologist for further direction.  He also suggested that eating a low fiber/low residue diet would minimize my reflux and possibly make it recede altogether (he even suggested taking a liquid diet for a week).

So that's the good news.  The bad news, I could have an auto-immune disorder.  The symptoms involved are described as the CREST syndrome, which is a connective tissue disorder with the following symptoms:  calcified deposits under the skin (which I have and have had for nearly 10 years with no explanation); Raynaud's in my hands (basically signs of poor circulation and discoloration with very dry skin); esophageal problems--he indicated that my reflux was more due to inadequate esophageal muscle, meaning that it doesn't squeeze hard enough to move food along, so food sits in my esophagus longer, creating irritations.  So I am going to see a rheumatologist soon.

You may also be aware that I have not slept well since before Christmas.  I have been awake at night more times than I can count, sometimes waking as many as 5 times a night (worse than having a newborn!!).  The second gi suggested that I am refluxing at night without real symptoms, causing me to wake up.  He suggested simply raising the head of my bed by six inches.  All of this together has made me extremely stressed and irritable.

I am so relieved to finally feel like I have a light at the end of the tunnel and that there is an explanation for all the crazy things that have been going on inside my body.

Pretty Girl and Play doh

Julia loves her "pretties."  She likes pretty things in her hair and especially her pretty tutu that mommy made for her.  In fact, the day I made it, I made two for her friends for Valentine's day.  I was working on them as Jacob and Julia finished lunch.  When she saw what I was doing, she stopped eating her lunch and started repeating, "Pretty, pretty," and began reaching for it.  My favorite "pretty" example so far is a week or so ago, when the Today show was talking about Princess Diana's wedding dress.  They had the dress in the studio.  While we rarely have the Today show on in the morning, it was on this particular day.  Julia looked at the dress on tv and started saying "Pretty," and reaching for the tv.

 Perhaps the only thing Julia likes as much as her pretties is play doh.  She likes to squish it, roll it and put shapes in it.  She just loves it, period.

Julia is taking her socks off so she can dance better.

Jacob's (aka Clark Kent) Birthday and Superbowl

Superman as Clark Kent as Jacob Rhees!  Jacob loves Superman.  His grandma made a cape for him and put it with this cool shirt and glasses for his birthday present. 

When he opened it, he was so darn cute.  He went over to her and said "Thank you, thank you, thank you," with the biggest smile I've seen on him in a long time.

 We had a party for Jacob on Sunday evening during the Superbowl.  We had originally intended on having a party Saturday morning, but the tummy bugs took out their weapons of mass destruction on mommy this weekend.   So we had to uninvite Jacob's friends and have a smaller gathering with just grandmas and grandpa.  We still managed to have a good time.

Dinner in the family room.  Meatballs, veggies, fruit and crackers!

The loot.  In addition to the Superman stuff, he got lots of Toy Story toys.  His faves were the garbage truck (that's all he's been talking about since Christmas) and the Lotso bear.



Happy Birthday Julia!!!

Julia had a tea party for her second birthday.  This is the "main" cake, shaped like a tea cup.  I also made little tea cakes so I wouldn't have to cut the tea cup.

Julia's tea party was complete with all kinds of finger foods--veggies, fruit, crackers, sandwiches, etc.  Of course everything went into tea cups!

The happy birthday girl dancing around!!  Grandma brought her a new hat for her birthday!  Julia loves hats!  She also got new shoes from her other grandma. 

If there's anything she loves more than hats, it would have to be shoes!

 I made paper tea cups to go along with the tea party theme. 

We filled them with cookies shaped like the number "2."



Happy Birthday to you, Julia!!!



Jacob's idol

So, Jacob finally got to meet Robert Franz.

Grandma Coolidge made arrangements for us to meet with Mr. Franz after preschool. 

Jacob was so excited!

Robert Franz gave Jacob an autographed photo with the caption "Best wishes on your conducting career."

Then Jacob got to see all of Robert's music scores (There were quite a lot).  They share the same "favorite" piece to conduct, the "Nutcracker."

After browsing Mr. Franz's scores, Jacob got to go into the rehearsal room and stand on the big podium.  What fun that was!!!

So much snow!!!  All three kids enjoyed playing in the snow over the last couple of weeks.  Julia was especially delighted to feel the snowflakes on her nose.  Both Julia and Jacob took great pleasure in eating the snow from anywhere possible, especially off the swings in our backyard.