Picture Time

DRUNK? Nope just sleeping! This is a serious sleep.

My geniuses in the making. Puzzle time.

Twin1 loves puzzling. Oh, and the picture was taken by twin2. Pretty good, eh?

This is the first time Twin2 has chosen to draw a face all on his own, no prompting at all. Wow.
It even has ears.

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Sorry no picture of the baby.

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We have been taking advantage of the gorgeous weather of late. Yesterday we headed off to the zoo. I can not explain what a great day we had. No fighting, yelling - just plain fun. Wonderful. We have also been riding the bikes a lot lately. The baby (who I guess I now have to refer to as the toddler) sits on the back of my bike. We all love it. The twins spend the entire time with huge grins on their faces. And I love because I no longer have to worry about them riding ahead. A blast. We went out this morning and they have already asked to go out again this afternoon. Fun, fun.

Thank you for all the comments and well wishes. Life is pretty interesting around here and it is only going to get better. Fun, fun.

Oh and for those of you who thought we were having triplets - ARE YOU NUTS?

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I mean... we won't find THAT out for another 10 -12 weeks!

6 - SIX

6. Yup. Six. In September, we will be a family of 6!!! Are we ready? Nope. Excited? Yup. Scared? You betcha.

Gulp.

The King

Twin1 set his chair up on the coach, plopped himself down and announced, "Me King." I guess so.

The king and his loyal subjects! Well, sometimes.

My husband and I had a major cheat on the diet last night. Uncle R was visiting and my husband and I were having major cravings (I know it has only been a week), so we ducked out the door and off to McDonald's. Not 4 minutes after scarfing down my French Fries, my head got all stuffy and my ears started to ring. It was like I had a cloud in my head. So, we thought about it. I obviously have an intolerance, but to what: potato or MSG? Hmmmm.

The twins are starting to have cravings - for Fruit. Just another 2 days and we can reintroduce Fruit. Ya.

Oh, I have to give out a big cheer to my husband. He has finished the baby's room. Wahoo. Just a few days f airing it out and we can make the move.

Swimming today. Better get things going.

House

Oh the wonderful world of imagination. We built a house, stole a heavy duty flash light from Daddy's shed, and set up their car garages. I really do love the age of 3. Twin1 changes his identity on a daily basis: pilot, Bob the Builder, Handy Manny, Fireman, Mom, Dad. I love it. We put together a tool box for them (originally there were two, but my husband re-claimed his) and they alternate 'Bob the Builder' days. Today is Twin2's day.

Wit and Wisdom

I went to a parenting lecture tonight about parenting with Wit and Wisdom. It was a very interesting lecture. Much appreciated and needed. I have begun to hit my head against the wall lately because my yelling has become louder and a lot more regular around the house. I have felt a little stressed and overwhelmed by things lately and have felt like my 'punishments' were getting no result. I was struggling with the same problems each day. ie. 'gentle around your brother', 'we don't hit', or the one that I hate 'what were you thinking?' I knew that I needed to change my punishment, but how?

Well, as it turns out I have been punishing (yes, I know I said that above) and not disciplining. So, my new motto.

Have the child recognize the misbehaviour, decide together how to fix it, and fix it.

Oh, and I guess I have to stop with the bribes!!! Sometimes a little leverage is all I have got against the three hooligans, though.

What I did discover, however, is that I am doing a pretty good job. Just need to do some tweaking. Sometimes things get overwhelming and you need to take a step back and look from the outside.

Part of this, I think, has been the lack of 'me' time. December and January have been so crazy that it was hard to find the time. Now that we are back on track and in a routine, I will have to start the 'me' time again. Tonight was great, but not fully about me. So, I am back looking at cooking classes again. Who is in for some Indian in February? February 16 or 28? Let me know.

Food Intolerance

Here are the foods we can no longer eat.

Grains: corn, oats, rye, spelt, wheat
Fruit: apricot, banana, cantaloupe, grapefruit, orange, pineapple, raspberry, strawberry, watermelon
Chemicals: Aspartame, MSG, Sodium Bensoate, Sodium Metabisulfite, Sodium Phosphate, Tartrazine
Veggies: Green Beans, Soy, Cabbage, Cucumber, Green Pea, Mushroom, Peppers, Regular Potato, Tomato
Nuts/Seeds: Cashew, Hazelnut, Peanut, Sunflower, Sesame
Dairy: All (Goat is only a mild sensitivity so we are still eating that)
Fish: Lobster, Shrimp, Tuna, Sole
Meat: Beef, Lamb, Pork
Other: Baker's/Brewer's yeast, Chocolate, Fructose, Honey, Sugar, vinegar
Misc: Dust, Mites, Feather


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(Oh, I guess I better get rid of the feather pillows they are sleeping on. I was so focused on the food, I didn't notice.)

So, like I said. They have a sensitivity to everything!

Gluten Free / Yeast Free Recipes

We made it. We got through the critical time in twin2's cold with no hospital visits. YA for us. My mom asked for the Gluten Free recipes that I have found so far. We have found all of them to be a success and have had no problems at all with the transition of these items. Here they are.

Gluten Free Flour Mix (it is listed in parts so that you can make as much as you want)
3 parts Brown Rice Flour
3 parts Tapioca Starch
2 parts Chickpea Flour
1 part Almond Meal

Gluten Free / Yeast Free Flat Bread
*substitutions: Stevia for sugar, Flax Eggs for eggs


Gluten Free Pancakes
*substitutions: Stevia for sugar, Goat milk for milk, Flax Eggs for eggs

Gluten Free Tortilla's

Candida Diet / Asthma / Baby Update

The recipes went over beautifully. The pancakes were delicious. They tasted like multigrain pancakes, but otherwise very good. Now we have something to eat for breakfast other than goat yogurt. Ya. The flat bread at lunch was also a huge hit. The twins gobbled it down and didn't blink an eye. Phew. I am very happy about all this. Now that we have spent an arm and a leg finding foods the twins can eat, the next step is to source out places to get all these high cost ingredients for less. Thankfully, my cousin also has a lot of the same allergies, so he already know where to go. He also lives in the city and has offered to bring ingredients out when he comes to visit. Thank you very much, cuz.

On a not so great note, my husband and I spent the entire night trying to keep twin2 out of the hospital with another asthma attack. It has been over a year since he has had a bad one. We were up every hour giving him meds. I believe that we have it under control. YA. A hospital trip right now just is not what we want to do. Lets hope we get a full home based recovery. The difficult thing with keeping him at home is not giving him the meds at the right time, it is keeping him from over exerting himself causing his oxygen levels to go really low. So, I guess there will be a steady stream of movies on the TV today. Yuck. Just when we weaned them off again. There just is no hope for me and the anti-TV attempt. Oh well. We are still cutting it off after the Olympics.

The baby has cut a molar. Cranky city. We are running out of Tylenol. On the cuter side of things, he now says 'Done' when he is finished with something. Such a smarty pants. Also, he can now climb down a full flight of stairs unassisted and he is no longer a major worry when he is on the couch. He can get down all by himself. Oh, and he has taken to running everywhere, which has resulted in quite a few bit tumbles because he doesn't wait until he is steady on his feet before he takes off. It is a bit of a giggle to watch. Oh, and the funniest is that he has started to twirl. He waits until you are watching, keeps one foot planted, and pushes around with the other. He is going to be an entertainer. And as you can see from the picture, he is getting in to EVERYTHING.

Another one of 'those' nights last night. Not the twins, though. The baby is cutting more teeth, which means he is in a lot of pain, extremely snotty nose, and, this time, a croup like cough. Fun, fun. The baby's preferred sleep position when he is feeling like this is upright on his daddy's chest. So, poor husband had a very poor sleep. On top of that, the twins are rising very early lately - 5:30am. Ugh.

The is going shockingly well. I have searched out some recipes for tortilla's / flat bread / pancakes. I am going to try some of those out today and see how they go. We are still consuming some sugar, though, in the form of their yogurt. So, I am hoping that the pancake recipe that I found will alleviate this. It took some time, but we have found some snacks, besides veggies, that the twins can have. (ie. rice crackers, rice chips) The hardest thing so far has been keeping ahead of their hunger. Oh, another thing that I am having trouble with is finding a yeast-free bread. The rice loaf that we thought was good has yeast in it. So, hopefully the flat bread recipe and tortilla's will be the answer. Other than that, the transition has been pretty easy. A few more tweaks and I think we will have it. YA.

The baby is now talking on the phone. When he is given the phone he puts it up to his head. Too cute. Also, yesterday, we caught him doing the actions to the movie the twins were watching. In 'Little Einsteins' kids are encouraged to pat their laps and throw their hands in the air yelling blast off. Well, the baby was kicking his legs for the patting and threw his hands in the air for blast off. Adorable. But, also made me realize it is definitely time to limit his TV watching when he is alone with mommy and daddy. No more late night action movies when he is up in the middle of the night.

The twins had swim lessons today. They both jumped of the diving board twice without life jackets! I stayed home while the baby slept, so I didn't get to see. I am guessing the instructor was in the water to catching them as they can not yet swim.

Ah. Baby is up from his nap. Gotta go.