Bye Bye Paci

Jackson has been a tried and true Paci user since birth. As a baby he had it in his mouth the majority of the time because it was the only thing that seemed to have a small chance of calming him down. As he got older we knew we needed to start using it less and less. We waited a good few months past moving to Colorado to start weaning him down to just nap & bedtime use and it went pretty well! With our few trips back and forth to Oregon and all the change he's gone through I wanted to wait till around 2 to start the process of saying bye bye to paci.

I've been spending tons of time lately researching tips and tricks on how to get rid of paci. I decided to get the Elmo video "Bye Bye Pacifier" because Jackson digs Elmo and I thought if he saw Elmo say bye bye it would make things a little easier. With Jackson's spirited personality I was SURE that this process was going to include screaming, fits and a few weeks of little sleep and naughty behavior.

2 days ago I decided to put the video on just to give ourselves a break from the obsession of curious george that has taken over our house. We talked a little bit about what was happening in the video and that Elmo was a big boy now and didn't need his paci anymore. That night...without even thinking about it I picked up Jackson to go rock him for bed time and realized half way through my rocking that he didn't have the paci in his mouth! I thought well...let's see what happens. And to my amazement he simply rolled over and fell asleep and slept all night! He hasn't mentioned the Paci since and goes down without any issues.

HE BLEW MY MIND!

Many stages that we've gone through with Jackson have been HUGE struggles. He is quite a strong willed and spirited child and constantly provides us with opportunities to work on our patience :) I am so thankful to my child for providing us with a mini break in a big change in his life! I am thankful to him for finally not fighting me on something and being the Big Boy that I know he is becoming.

Thank you Jackson from the bottom of my exhausted mommy heart!

My child...the food monster

Right around Jackson's 2nd Birthday (one month ago) he went through what I thought was a huge growth spurt. He was eating tons at meals and always asking for seconds! However, that was NOTHING compared to the growth spurt he's going through right now! This kid is a BEAST! I swear he is going to eat us out of house and home!

Here is what he's eaten so far today....and we haven't even hit dinner yet!

Breakfast - 2 cups of cheerios with milk
                  Half an eggo waffle
                  Cereal Bar

Snack(s) - 2 cups of Blueberry/purple sweet potato organic puffs
                 2 cups of strawberry/beet organic puffs

Lunch - 1 container chobani yogurt
              5 huge strawberries
              2 handful blueberries

Snack(s) - 2 cups strawberry/beet organic puffs
                 1 Banana
                 1 bowl ritz crackers
                 1 bowl of cheddar bunnies

(I clearly need to sneak some veggies in him at dinner!)

He's currently working on the cheddar bunnies and already asking for MORE!!! He's a food monster! I am in no way complaining as this is VERY positive for us...it's just so dramatic from the amount that he normally eats. Just blows my mind!

Sneaky Cookies!

Jackson is a 2-year old and of course that means he makes disgusted faces and runs from the dinner table when something that he doesn't recognize shows up on his plate. Now he does have some internal problems that prevent him from eating certain things but these things would not be such that would prevent him from eating any vegetable beside green beans and peas. He is a child that doesn't like his food mixed together so casseroles, lasagnas and pasta type food (besides mac n' cheese) are out of the question. All of this leaves us with chicken nuggets and other such items.

I just had to share this recipe for the mom's out there that are struggling like I am to get their kid to eat something that's good for them but they just refuse. I must say though if the food in question makes your child ill or he has NEVER liked it than maybe don't make the recipes with that food in them but in the case of this recipe Jackson has eaten carrots before and loved them as a baby so I know he likes them...he's just being a 2 year old :) I found this recipe in the magazine, Parents.

We're also in the process of trying some recipes out the book, Deceptively Delicious!

Here's the recipe for the sneaky cookies! (they are actually super yummy so you may want to make extra because you may want to have a few also)

Ingredients:
1 cup White or whole wheat flour
1/2 tsp. Baking powder
1/2 tsp. Baking soda
1 tsp. Pumpkin pie spice (i just used cinnamon)
1/4 tsp. Salt
1/2 cup Canola Oil
1/2 cup Packed Brown Sugar
1/4 cup Granulated Sugar
1 Egg
1 cup Regular Rolled Oats
1 cup Finely shredded Carrots ( about 2 medium) - i think you can even add more and the kids won't notice - they are THAT good!
1/2 cup Raisins

Make it:
* Preheat oven to 350F
* In a small bowl, stir together flour, baking powder, baking soda, pumpkin-pie spice, and salt; set aside
*In a large bowl, combine the oil, sugars, egg, flour mixture, oats, carrots and raisins.
* Drop dough by slightly rounded spoonfuls 2 inches apart on prepared cookie sheets. Bake each sheet for 10-12 minutes or until cookies begin to brown.
* Place on cooling rack
*ENJOY!!!

Back Off Lady

Today Jackson started his first dance/music class. With the days leading up to today, I myself was very excited for Jackson to start this class because this kid has music just pulsing through his blood! I was ready for him to show these Colorado people what he was made off and get down with his bad self!

Of course I was prepared for Jackson to be how Jackson is and most likely throw a few fits here or there and for me to spend the majority of class redirecting him from destroying activities that other children were trying to enjoy. But I thought to myself...just stay relaxed, keep your cool and expect these things to happen so maybe it'll be a little easier if they do. Well....they did happen and it wasn't any easier.

For some reason I just can't seem to wrap my head around why my child is the only one in these classes that I take him to that acts out and can't listen to instructions. Why???? Now to be fair to Jackson the majority of kids in this class were girls and this may be where part of the difference lies. I have been told and witnessed in these classes that the girls tend to be more mellow and able to stand still and wait for things to happen longer than the boys can. This has been very much the case in all of Jackson's classes. However, Jackson is typically the only or one of two boys in the class that just wants to run and be free and play, play, play and unable to stop and listen to instructions. I know he's 2 and he's learning but it is so frustrating even still.

The class started off with the teacher throwing out a bunch of balls for the kids to play with. Jackson grabbed a ball, played with it for awhile, dropped it than ran off to get a different one. Typical 2 year old behavior right??? I would think that's normal for a 2 year old but apparently i was wrong because when I looked around every single kid was playing with their one ball and nicely passing it back and forth to their mom without any issues or fits. I thought to myself...hmmm robots??? haha no in fact I was slightly envious of those moms and their beautifully controlled children. I noticed that one of the little girls was from Jackson's last social play class he took in February and I remember that the mom would often give me dirty looks in that last class. Now the little girl is very small for her age so it's possible that this mother is VERY overprotective but STILL it didn't give her the right to do what she did.
Jackson was running around picking up different balls to look at the different patterns on them and he just happened to pick up a ball that this little girl had dropped but I watched her and she just ran and got another ball. Then when she dropped the next ball I grabbed it and handed it back to her saying "oh sweetie here's your ball." Nice right?? So then this mom looks right at me and instead of saying Thank you she says " Actually her ball is the one that your son grabbed off the ground after she dropped it." REALLY LADY?!?! Of course I was on my last nerve with Jackson because he had already attempted to destroy 3 different activities that the kids were trying to do in class and I had every mom's eyes staring at me while I was desperately trying to get Jackson to behave so my response to this mom was " well...it looks like she found a different ball that she likes so maybe you should back off." At this point we were 20 minutes in to class and I was DONE...I grabbed Jackson and we left.

Not sure if we'll try again next week...I have a week to decide.

Plan F

 As I'm sure many of you know...Jackson has had many tummy troubles since he was born. He is being followed by a team of doctor's for his issues and recently I had an appointment with his Gastroenterologist to discuss where we have come in the last 3 months and where we need to go.

Here is the plan now....what I like to affectionately call 

"Plan F" - mostly because i feel like we've gone through this many plans so far!

1. Number 1 and the good news from the visit is that he is very happy with where Jackson's weight is right now. He's gained a good amount since our last visit in December and is definitely headed in the right direction...yay positive!

2. And this one relates to number 1 - is that he feels the reason that Jackson has gained this weight is due to his tummy feeling better from the meds.

3. Because Jackson has gained weight since first starting the 2nd med (erythromycin) and the medicine doesn't seem to be as effective anymore he will have his dose uped so we can get control of the issue again.

4. The doctor feels that it's possible that with his weight gain and the possibility that he's grown some form of immunity to the med that he will go off of it for 5 days (starting today) and then when he starts it back up he'll start back up on his new med. This is supposed to do 2 things. 1) let his body have a break from the med to work against the immunity & 2) basically gives us a mini look at what would happen if we took him off of the med now.

Unfortunately after today being off of it his symptoms have increased quite a bit Not what I was hoping but certainly what I expected.

5. I asked the doctor the pointed question of basically how much time do we have left that we can give him to see if he'll grow out of these issues. He said that we'll give him till he's 2.5 (6 more months) and if he has to continually have the dosage increased with weight gain and he isn't showing any signs of improvement than he has a doctor doesn't feel morally right to just continue refilling his prescriptions which are essentially just masking a problem that is very visibly there. At that point the next step and new plan would be to perform an Endoscopy to see what truly is going on. Obviously this is our last course of action so we are praying pretty hard that he snaps out of this in the next 6 months. He said that when looking at Jackson's Upper GI test we did earlier last year that the way Jackson is "made" is correct but it is his plumbing that's an issue.

 

I feel good knowing that I have a time frame now.

6. So Jackson now have 3 diagnosis:

    1. Extreme GERD

    2. Sandifers Syndrome

    3. Delayed Gastric Emptying Syndrome

After Jesse & I talking last night I think we both feel that if we get to 2.5 and he hasn't shown signs of improvement then the Endoscopy seems like it is our best next course of action. 2.5 years is an awful long time for a little guy and us to deal with all of this and if he isn't showing us that he's getting better than I want to do whatever is in his best interest to help him feel better. 

Only time will tell....


Besides working on his new medicine regimen I will start taking Jackson to Feeding Therapy and Speech Therapy sometime after we get back from our Oregon visit in March. Jackson had a Feeding Evaluation a week and a half ago where they discovered that he has created many habits in his eating that stem from the pain and discomfort he has always had from his 3 diagnosis. 

  While all of this is extremely overwhelming and worrisome most of the time I know that we are very blessed to have a happy (most of the time), intelligent, beautiful and funny little boy. I know that we will figure this all out at some point and until then I need to be a strong advocate for Jackson and help him in every and any way I possibly can to diminish his pain.

It is my mission

As a mother I think about all the values I want to instill in my child as he grows up.

I want him to be a friend to all and a lover of the world.
I want him to not judge others for who they are but bask in the awesomeness of who they are.
I want him to be a positive productive member of society and be happy in knowing exactly who he is.
Of course there are many many more...

And this all means that it is my mission to provide him with a strong and supportive role model as a mother. This means doing things that are scary and uncomfortable at times to provide him with an example.

It is no surprise that most leasing consultants in apartment complexes aren't always the most delightful people. Unfortunately one such individual in our current leasing office has messed with the wrong mama bear. Let's just say that this man is not one of those people that is a "friend to all and lover of the world." He has treated Jesse and I disrespectfully since we moved into this complex and he has recently pushed my last button!
I filled out a survey sent to me by Corporate in which I , without naming names, briefly wrote how unsatisfied we were with a member of the leasing office. One would think that since this survey was sent to me by the Corporate Office that is where it would be returned...clearly not. This past week this man decided to take my phone number out of my file and CALL me to discuss my problem with him!!! Yes...he actually did that! During this conversation he did not take a tone of apology or a willingness to work things out he instead was confrontational and left me feeling scared and afraid to enter the leasing office or be in our apartment anymore. My initial reaction was to say...ok let's just leave it and not make it any worse. BUT I was reminded that it is NOT ok for me to have to live in fear in my own home because of someone else's actions.

This is now an opportunity for me to set an example for my child and to prove to myself just how brave I really am. I am not going to drop it and I am not going to roll over on this.

This man is a bully and it is my mission to teach Jackson that you don't have to let bully's bully you. 

Snowman Fun!

Well over the past few days Colorado has sure gotten hit by a fair amount of snow! 15" in our area to be exact since Friday and boy oh boy are these Oregonians happy!

Colorado does an amazing job at keeping on top of the snow/ice and making things as safe as possible on the roads. There was quite a different reaction to this storm vs. other storms that have come through this winter. This time around the news named the storm "Winter Blast!" which definitely reminded me of Oregon's reaction to snow :) People scrambled to the grocery stores leaving the shelves which contained milk, eggs, bread and meat completely bare! Crazy! Luckily we had done our grocery shopping earlier in the week so we were set to just hang at home and hunker down.

I don't think I'll ever get tired of seeing Jackson's reaction to the snow first thing when he wakes up in the morning...so priceless. And now that his vocabulary has started to grow at such a rapid rate the small sentences he puts together are so amazing and proud for me to hear! This time around Jackson came bolting out of his room and because the blinds were closed he didn't notice the snow at first. But when I told him to look outside he came running, plastered his face against the window and squealed "snowwwwwwwww....prettttyyyyyy....seeeee!" Made my heart melt :) Unfortunately during the first day for the snow on Friday the wind was howling so we had to stay inside all day because that's no place for a child with basically 0 body fat. But on Saturday we sure made up for having to stay inside all day on Friday!

Jesse, Jackson and I ventured out to build Jackson's 1st Snowman! Jesse and I both agreed that building that snowman as a family has been the most fun we've had since being here in Colorado! Such a wonderful memory for us all :)

helping Daddy!

Yes we did use Green Olives for the eyes & buttons, a cheeto puff for the nose and green beans for the mouth :)

I Love this!