I'm a Book Worm Too!

I finally started reading again!
It's been a while and I thought... I'll post what I'm reading in a gadget on my blog!
Well here's the problem with that. When I start reading it's hard for me to stop! I can read a book a day or maybe 2 days. I got the book The Hour I First Believed by Wally Lamb on Friday, December 19th and thought, "Man this is a big book! Can I finish it before I have to return it in 2 weeks?!"
Isaiah's eyes got HUGE when he saw it, I believe it's like 750+ pages. When he saw me come out of the library he said "what's that mom?"
I told him "Something for you to read while your off on holiday break"
His voice cracked as he said "I CAN'T READ ALL THAT!"
Well I think it took me all of 3 days to get through that book! I tell you , I have a sickness! I HATED to read in school! I guess because the teachers always want you to read off a list and even though I like fiction, nonfiction and love biographies I never found anything that interested me on their lists.
Another problem of mine is when I find an author I like I have to read every book of theirs I can get my hands on. A few years ago it was John Jakes. I read so many of his books! Also I've been stuck on Maeve Binchy, Sophie Kinsella, Jonis Agee, Sarah Strohmeyer, Jodi Picoult, books from Ophrah's list and Anne Rivers Siddon.
My book Gadget has gotten outdated pretty quick! I read 2 books over the weekend. I read Sea Glass by Anita Shreve and Remember Me by Sophie Kinsella. I really liked Anita Shreve's book, well I liked them both but I've run out of Sophie Kinsella books to read! So now I'm going backto the library to check out a couple more Anita Shreve books.
I should start reading only dead authors then at least I'd know what I was up against.
I tried to read Faulkner, his book As I Lay Dying was on Oprah's book club list and I may have missed something. It was the stupidest thing I've read in a long time, I do not see the genius in it It's a story I could have heard from any of my hillbilly relatives!
My favorite author, the author I just can not wait until he puts out a new book is David Sedaris! He's in nonfiction, all his books are stories from his life, but are so unbelievable hilarious! I love a book that makes me laugh out loud! If you've never read his books or even heard of him search for him on Youtube. There's videos of people reading his books and once I saw a video of him doing a reading on Letterman.
One of the best biographies I ever read was A Boy from Plains by Jimmy Carter, I'm not just saying this because I met his brother Billy when I was young (like 4!). I also read Barack Obama's book Dreams from My Father, which was lucky since now I can dispute my mother in law when she says things like "he's not American because Hawaii wasn't a state when he was born". Also Charles Barkley's book I May Be Wrong.... But I doubt it, is so funny, though I guess that's not really a biography.
Anyway, if anyone has read anything good let me know. I'm always on the look out for a good book!

Bilingual??

On Christmas Day I talked to my friend Carol in North Carolina. Then that night I woke up and was just laying in bed thinking. At some point I realized my thoughts had a southern accent! I don't know why but it was crazy! I don't know if it was talking to Carol that bought it out or what!
When we moved back to Ohio from North Carolina I had a very thick western Carolina accent. You know, where it's not "pen" it's "pey-en". It's not a "shopping cart" it's a "buggy"(heavy on the UH in bUggy).
A local factory was shut down without notice and they filed bankruptcy and the people thought they'd be with out a job for Christmas. Well a North Carolina based company came in and bought them. Gave them all $1500 shopping cards just to win the trust of the former employees, isn't that nice. Well last night I got to thinking, I should go down and see about getting a job there! I could tell them I'm bilingual and would be able to answer phone calls from their main offices in N.C. and actually understand what was being said to me. Also I know enough to talk slow so they can understand me!
When we moved back to Ohio there was a message on our answering machine. I remember Bill and I sitting around the machine and playing the message over and over saying "why is she talking so fast?". I can't remember what the message was about but it took us a bunch of tries to try to understand what that fast talking northerner was saying! She wasn't talking any different than anyone else up here it was just so strange to hear! I think that's when I finally admitted I did have an accent!
Speaking of accents, since we got a Christmas card from Fawn Isaiah has asked me some questions about Canada. First he wondered if when they talk do they say things like "Nice car, Aay". I don't know where he got that! Probably some cartoon with a Mountie in it. Then last night I was watching Comedy Central and Jeff Dunham and Bubba J came on. Isaiah saw Bubba J and said "Why's he talking like that? Is he from Canada?" Sorry Canadians!!! Obviously we have not let Isaiah spend nearly enough time with his Daddy's family or he'd know exactly where Bubba J is from! HA!! Kidding!!! Actually some of Bubba J's stories sound like my own father's family!
(note: the clip on Youtube is NOT the same as was on T.V. last night. I didn't let Isaiah watch the whole thing and there was no cussing on the t.v. version!)

How The Diet is going

Well we've been on the diet about 8 weeks now and Naomi is still not staying in Ketosis. Her ketones are very low in the morning and don't get up to the range we want them until around 3 p.m. They fall again before bedtime. I've been keeping the dietitian updated on how it's going but can't get any answers or instructions on what to do next. With the holidays and the fact that the dietitian is only at main campus 3 days a week, it's been a pain to get answers. I emailed her this morning and she emailed me right back but I've never gotten an answer as what to do next! Do I just wait it out? Does something need to be changed? It's very aggravating. Naomi gained over 2 pounds since the start of the diet. They aren't supposed to gain ANY weight. So something needs fixed!
Her seizures have been cut in 1/2 since we met with the dietitian Dec 5th and changed her to a 3.5:1 ratio (3.5g fat to 1g carbs+protein). She's still having clusters when she wakes and then one here and there. We call the one's here and there her "stragglers". They're usually very mild and she just falls to her bottom, they're over in less than a second.
It's just aggravating to have been on the diet 2 months now and she's still not staying in ketosis! Hopefully we'll get some answers soon!

Dashing

Isaiah had his choir concert Thursday. On the way home he said "I look quite dashing don't I?"

We made all over him! OH YES YES YOU DO! My parents made all over him how HANDSOME!

Then we got home and I wanted to run some of the kids old coats to the neighbor lady. She's dropping them off at a shelter today. Anyhow.... Isaiah walked to her house with me and she wasn't home. We left the coats because her purse and keys were on the table and her car in the drive. So I called her cell. She was at another neighbors, having a cookie swap. I told her what Isaiah had said when we left her house .... "Too bad Georgia is gonna miss my dashingness!" So she immediately left her cookie swap, Grandma instincts kicking in!, and came to see him. She walked in and said "OH, my goodness! You are Dashing! I'm so glad I didn't miss this!" then had him turn a full circle to model his "dashingness". He had the BIGGEST grin on his face. He was SOOOOO proud! It was too funny!

You can't tell it, and I didn't notice until after the concert but... there's a price tag hanging from the back of the tie! A big one!

The concert went really well! God Bless the choir teacher and her nerves of steel! All those 4th graders and their squeaky recorders! She HAS to be medicated! HA!!
Some poor family had a toddler who threw up right before the curtain was pulled! Not ours! Ours peed through her diaper onto her Daddy's coat, again! I luckily had a spare pair of pants. No spare jacket though!We were only gone an hour and changed her RIGHT before we left!

Other than that uneventful!

Tools of the Trade

Say over 4 days Naomi is going to have #11 four times. I get a stack of these 4 oz cups write #11 16 grams of applesauce on 4 of them. I also check to see if any of her other meals have applesauce so I can measure them all up at once. Then I make a big stack of cups that need applesauce and each of them is already labeled with what they need so I can do 4 days of applesauce in no time. I do that with all the remaining ingredients of the meals. Usually I label all the cups first according to meal number, then separate them according to what goes in them, chicken, hot dog, cheese, 1o % fruit, Group B Veg. etc....






I also do her cream in batches. I make up a weeks worth of stickers for her sippy cups writing what number meal and what goes in the cup. Then I do about 6 cups at a time.






Here's some cute little silicone scrapers, a whisk that fits right into her cups perfectly and an egg separator I found. Aren't they adorable!!!!! Plus the scrapers fit right into the 4oz cups then right into Naomi's mouth so she gets every last bite! I put my regular size scraper and whisk along side so you can tell how small they are.



And here's what it all looks like tucked away on the Keto-shelf of the fridge.
I'm not very well stocked here! Only 2 meals. All the 16 grams are for #11 which she eats for her 1st and usually last meal of the day. I usually have way more whipping cream stocked up too! I was just at Walmart yesterday and I don't think I grabbed any! That's unusual!

Planning Naomi's meals

I've been working on this for a while! I got started then decided I needed to compact it a little! There's a lot to fit in! Fawn did a good job of showing how she weighs out her daughter's meals and what they look like. I've been trying to decide how to show how I plan and get together Naomi's meals. First of all I print out a weekly calendar.

Naomi's meals on Ketocalc are numbered so I simply write #11, #18, #13 or what ever. Maybe with a note to remind myself exactly what #18 is! #18-Eggnog.

Then I got the idea of printing out the meals on an index card from another Keto-mom but that was long before we even started the diet and I forget exactly who it was! I'm pretty sure it was Stephanie Precourt though! I printed them out and then bought some of these nifty magnetic photo holder's and put the index cards in there. I keep them all on the left side of the fridge then move over the day's menu to the right side then move them back as I've fed her those meals.

Right now (subject to change at any moment! Especially since I've just recently gotten all new cards made up!!!) Naomi's on a 3.5:1 ratio and gets 1050 calories a day split evenly into 4 meals. So she eats every 4 hours. Usually 6 a.m., 10 a.m., 2 p.m. and again at 6 p.m. She is not on fluid restriction. She guzzles down Free America carbonated flavored water from Walmart! Usually at least a whole 34 oz bottle a day plus her cream 4 times a day which I've been adding water to so she ends up with at least 64 oz. daily. She'd probably drink more if I let her and the skin on her feet is still dry as a bone!

Enough for now, next tools of the trade!

The Free Ride is over!

My husband was off work for a long while. His last work day was the Wednesday before Thanksgiving and he just went back to work Monday! This is how Naomi spent that whole time! Usually her little chin was nestled right in the curve of his neck. Her little hand patting Daddy's back. I think she forgot she had legs! If she was down on the floor and her Daddy walked through the room she immediately threw her arms up to be lifted. If he was standing watching T.V. she was circling him letting him know, all he had to do was reach down and pluck her up. When he was trying to fix a lamp, up on his knees leaning on the back of the recliner fixing the switch, she was trying to climb up, grabbing hold of his pants pockets to try and pull herself up on the recliner too. She was pathetically attached to him! I don't know how many times he didn't realize she'd walked right up behind him and he knocked her down. He was up on a step ladder cleaning the ceiling fan and when he stepped down she was so close he somehow stepped right on her.

Now he's back to work. She's loving on me when she wakes up, unless we come down to find him still in the kitchen and then she abandons me. When he has to leave she comes back to me, but when he walks through the door in the evening, she's right there, waiting at the gate with her arms up. Her and the dog, I don't know which one loves him more!

Santa's out of his bag!

On the way to school today (about a 2 minute drive), Isaiah had time to say
"Mom, some kids at school said there's no Santa. They said your parents just sneak the presents under the tree when you're sleeping. Is that true?"
Remember he's in 4th grade! We're surprised he's believed this long! I was about to pay his friend to tell him the truth. The gifts just keep getting more and more expensive and when your child can argue back that "Santa just has his Elves make them" and you have to argue back that some toys are trademarked and Santa can't just make them.
He said "if you're Santa where's your beard?" then laughed at his little joke.
Then before he got out of the car he said
"What about the Easter Bunny?"
I said: That's allllllll me too buddy. Sorry!

My ornament

If our tree had nothing but the Christmas Tampon and this Sylvester on it, it'd be fine with me. That's kind of what I had in mind for this year! HA! Didn't happen!

I can SOOOOOO remember going into the Hallmark when it was on South St. here in town and purchasing this ornament! My mom took me and they had a whole wall of ornaments, just like today's Hallmark's. We sadly no longer have a Hallmark in our town, I miss it. They have such nice gifts, and I could read cards till the cows come home!

The scary part is, on the bottom of Sylvester it says 1977! That makes me 3 when I bought him! Yet my memory of buying him is vivid!

I have lots of odd memories like that shoved in my head! Memories of being places for no special reason yet having a photo of the moment stuck in my head!

One of my favorite Christmas memories was going to Enderle's Foodline IGA with my Grandma and we came around the end of an aisle and there was this older man there. For some reason, in my mind he looked like JR Ewing from "Dallas". Anyway, there was a fruit display at the end of the aisle and mistletoe hanging. My Grandma lets go of the cart (I actually call it a "buggy" now after living in North Carolina for a time!) goes over and grabs "JR" and pulls him under the mistletoe and lays a big old smooch straight on his lips. He starts laughing and Grandma turns and smiles at me and tells me not to mention it to Grandpa! She knew as soon as I saw Grandpa I'd blurt out the story! Grandpa acted like he couldn't believe his ears as he winked over my head at Grandma.

The Christmas Tampon

Isaiah made this little beauty when he was in preschool! I believe it was supposed to be a sheep or something. Ann was the director of the preschool and she ended up getting sick the day they made these. She apparently was the only one who knew exactly what it was supposed to be! The teacher took directions over the phone.... but somehow I don't think she got it quite right.

Whatever it was supposed to be, it's always been The Christmas Tampon in our home. And will forever be known as such.

Sorry Santa!!

Sorry we missed you Santa. We go every year to see Santa at Possum Run's Christmas open house. Santa was there on Saturday from 10-4 but Naomi was running a slight fever and the roads were a MESS! Possum Run is kind of out in the middle of no where. Back a long and winding road. I love it there, but the road to get there is one of those that your stomach flies up to your throat as you go over hill after hill, and it feel like the tires are coming off the road. (They actually do if you go fast enough, yeah... I was 16 once!)
We did get a Christmas tree. It sure makes the house smell good! I wanted a small tree. Usually we all go out but it was so nasty out I just sent Bill out yesterday to get one. I had him cut a foot off the bottom of the tree he got. It was almost to the ceiling. I don't know why I want a little tree this year but I do! This one's still really round.
An old family friend puts up a HUGE tree every year! I mean, it's a struggle to get it in the house then she has to saw off the limbs to get it out! I have a picture of Isaiah in front of her tree from about 2 years ago, I'll have to find it and post a photo.

FREE AT LAST

FINALLY! FINALLY! FINALLY! I've made my way out!!!!
Naomi's 2 year molars have finally poked their heads through!
I knew they'd get here some time! They are 2 year molars! She's 32 months old today! They're a little late!!!!!! This explains the slight fever she had Saturday! The extra seizure activity lately! Maybe even the redness in her ear a couple weeks ago. That was my first thought when the Dr. said her right ear was a little red, her brother always got ear infections and high fevers with his bigger teeth. Good luck finding a Dr. that will definitively tell you that they're related though! I didn't mention the teething to the Dr., she had a bad cold and he's waving antibiotics at me, Yeah! Give me some of that for my Ketokid! It's pretty much my only hope! Otherwise I really try to avoid antibiotics. I bet Isaiah's only been on them 3 or 4 times in his 9 1/2 years.
Naomi's gonna hate me for a while! I have to give her acetominophen in the form of a suppository, she doesn't enjoy it much! It works though!
Good thing I just bought an extra box of latex gloves and a whole new box of the suppositories!

My Baby Rocks!

What do you do when your child is up at 5:30 a.m., you're trying to keep her quiet because the rest of the house is sleeping? You turn on the t.v. , but there's no cartoons on. Nothing with any music to get her going. You're just too tired to entertain her yourself. So go make some coffee, try to get the crust out of your eyes and then... YEAH at least MTV is playing music at this hour (only at this hour anymore!). So this morning at Naomi was rocking out with Katey Perry and her song "Hot-N-Cold" and also to Jason Miraz and his song "I'm Yours". It let me sit for a while and enjoy my coffee, and gave Naomi something to rock side to side to. She's a dancing fool!

The Day After

Today Naomi woke at 5:30. She's been waking up pretty good. No big seizures. But, yesterday she only got to nap in the car on the way back and forth from the hospital. She got a decent nap going up, maybe 40 minutes. Then maybe only 20 minutes on the way back. So of course this morning she had a bunch of seizures when she got up. The biggest part of them were over by 10 minutes, but they kept coming, sometimes not more than a strong swallow, for another 10 minutes. Then she fell back asleep for an hour. Woke fine, just 2 small little jerks. Then was sleepy again by 10 so we laid back down. She woke up fine this time, but she's having one little, almost dizzy spell , every once in a while.
Also before her nap I thought she felt warm and she had a temp of 100, so I gave her acetaminophen and she fell asleep gnawing her finger... Those molars again???? Will they ever come? Her gums look "full" but no white showing.
So to keep her happy we're watching Signing Time, over and over. Isaiah must have gotten tired of the DVD we were watching because he switched it out for another Signing Time.
I can't blame him!
This is her first day on 3.5:1 also so I'm sure her little body is trying to adjust. Her little mouth sure doesn't mind the extra cream! The kid just about chips her tooth trying to get the cup in her mouth! I've read to give the fat first, but if I give her the cream, she'll say to heck with everything else!

6 week check up

As of Monday Naomi will have been on the diet for 6 weeks. We've been checking her urine ketones and they've been low but weren't sure if the blood work would match up. It did. Her ketones were only 2.?? when we had blood drawn on Wednesday. Also she was a bit dry, HUH? She gets 4 meals a day, she drinks 7 oz. with each meal. Then she sucks down a 34 oz bottle of Free America carbonated water from Walmart, everyday. Still she acts thirsty! I doubt kidney stones will be a problem!
We were at the Dr's for almost 2 hours and I changed her diaper 3 times. Then she soaked her diaper on the way home! (She soaked through at the hospital too, while her Daddy was holding her! teee heee hee).
We had to meet first with the dietitian and then the neurologist. The Dr was an hour late and something must have gotten messed up because she thought we were early! Usually she's right on time, so I'll give her a break.
We go back in 6 weeks, we'll have to meet with 2 neurologists then, plus the dietitian.
We better pack pillows and sleeping bags!

Better Day

After a terrible day, blechhhh, blechhhh, let me get the bitter taste of yesterday out of my mouth!!!! Yesterday was terrible, she had a series of 3 clusters that started off light and not scary, to a when will this end, I'm about to give emergency meds seizure. Today she had blood work in the morning and fell asleep on the way home and woke up fine. So that kind of held her nap off. I tried to get her to lay down about 2 but she wouldn't have it. It was almost time to eat again. So I went ahead got her up and fed her then let her be happy and expel some energy for a while. Then checked her ketones just to see where they were, about 40. Then I put her, an myself, down for a nap. Hoping that since her ketones were higher at this time of day than they would have been if she'd have napped at 1, as usual, that she'd wake up with less seizures. I also gave her acetaminophen for extra ooomph. She slept from 3-4:30. Woke up.......... JUST FINE! Nothing, NADA! First time in?????????? So let me celebrate this good day, who knows what tomorrow brings.
But it does make me upset that her ketones aren't up all the time and that her diet needs to be tweaked. It shows me that all this added seizure activity could possibly be stopped if her ketones would level out.
Meet with Ketoteam on Friday, wish her luck!

A place where everyone knows her name....

Think the theme from t.v. show Cheers... "Making your way in the world today takes everything you've got. Taking a break from all your worries , sure would help a lot. Wouldn't you like to get away? Sometimes you wanna go.. Where everybody knows your name, and their always glad you came......"
Well today Naomi went someplace everybody knows her name. The receptionist says "My she's getting big!". That place is..... the lab. She went for yet more bloodwork today. This time they only needed to draw 4 vials of blood, lucky girl! Once it was 10, seriously!
This time, as was the case last time, they had a hard time finding a vein. She had a wiggly vein that they finally tapped into after inserting needle and moving it until they hit it. If you heard a high pitched scream around 9:30 EST this morning, that was her.
Another office member even came and shut the door. But the waiting room still heard her. I let her walk out where her Daddy was waiting. She'd stopped crying, but when she saw him crouched with his arms open to pick her up, she cried again and did this funny little side to side "I am TICKED" walk/run to his waiting arms.
After they put her band aid on they asked the question..... Any parent who has taken their kid to anything stressful to the child knows what question I mean
"DO YOU WANT A STICKER?"
They handed her a Fairytopia sticker which she looked at, then glared at them, then promptly threw the sticker to the floor. The guy who stuck her said "I guess we know what she thinks of us!" She was his first stick of the day. I'd have to guess afterward he headed straight outside for a smoke. He said his heart was pounding.
When I was little I had a sticker book, several actually. I would collect stickers and put them in my books, maybe a precursor to scrap booking. It's no wonder kids no longer have sticker books. What a memory.. this Fairytopia sticker is from the time I had my blood drawn, this Barbie sticker is from 2 weeks later when I had my blood drawn again. This Sponge bob sticker is from the dentist, after my flu shot I got this nice Winnie the Pooh.... etc.
Can you imagine waking from , say a hysterectomy and the nurse says "which sticker would you like? High School Musical or Santa?" Oh that would make it all better!