How's Naomi

Naomi is doing o.k.
There for a while she was having some tonic seizures where she'd fall, stiffen like she was stretching out, it would last about 5 seconds then it would end. I think adding carnitor to her diet helped that. She's not doing it anymore. She's still falling because she stiffens really quick, but it's over before she hits the ground. We are constantly following her around or putting her in her play pen which is her ball pit now. It's nerve wracking! Especially when she constantly wants to climb onto the dining room table. Isaiah heard her move a chair last night and he ran to get her and as soon as he got hold of her she seizured. That happens a lot, seizuring as soon as we get to her, I mean. Sometimes it's like seeing us coming for her triggers it. Sometimes when she's being ornery and getting into stuff she knows she shouldn't she'll have a seizure when I come to pick her up and I tell her "don't try to make me feel sorry for you" :).
In July Naomi was averaging about 15 seizures a day. Now we're up to about 40 and no idea why! We upped her ratio and that just seemed to make things worse.
We took her to a gastroenterologist last week and they're testing her for celiac disease as a precaution. It's not uncommon for them to see kids with neurological disorders, they said. We're supposed to give Naomi 11 grams of Miralax a day and prilosec. Though they prescribed a liquid Prilosec which she can't take because of the carbs and her diet. I'm waiting for the ketogenic nurse to tell them what she can take.
I'm going to have to tweak the 11 gram dosage of Miralax. She's going constantly and is way too gassy. The carnitor helped her bowels a lot! So maybe she doesn't need quite so much of a boost in that departement. The GI doctor said it can take 2 weeks on Miralax to establish a routine bowel movement.
I took her yesterday for bloodwork. They drew 4 vials for testing for celiac disease. I also called our dietitian and said I wanted her BHB (ketones in blood) tested and her glucose. For some reason she doesn't want to eat in the morning. She wakes at 6:30 and will not eat until 9:30. She needs to eat before that! Her ketones have been staying high and I want to make sure they're not too high in the morning. She's cranky also.
My mom is diabetic and I went to her house while she and Dad were gone and found her meter and tried to test Naomi's glucose on my own. It is a 2 person job! There's no way I could poke her then squeeze her finger to put blood on the strip by myself! She is way too strong. She wouldn't hold still, was screaming and just totally foul! I just put her in the car and headed home. On my way Bill called me and I told him what I tried to do and he said "can't you just take her to the pediatrician office and have them test it". To which I said "Probably, but would you want to go sit in an exam room with THIS" (insert screaming child in the back seat) "while waiting 20 minutes for the doctor to come in and see what you want!?" He didn't think so. Sometimes he'd just be better off if he made no suggestions.
So now I have to wait for the lab work to come back. The dietitian is off on Wednesdays and at another facility on Thursdays. So it will probably be Friday before I hear anything. So aggravating!

Tooth Fairy

Isaiah is 10 and lost a big tooth. It bled like crazy! He immediately said "Dad! Stick it under my bed!" (meaning pillow!). Bill said " Son, remember what we told you about Santa and the Easter Bunny? Who do you think is the Tooth Fairy?"
Isaiah says "Sissy? Papaw? OOO I'd love to see Papaw in a pink tutu and tiara! Let me guess Dad, you're just gonna give me money. Right?"
Bill gave him $5.
This happened on Saturday. The same day my Dad was picking Isaiah up to spend the night and go see Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs. Which they really liked.
Sunday evening Isaiah was unpacking his bag from his overnight stay and flashed me a wad of bills.
"Where did you get that money?" I asked
"From Papaw and Grammy." He says
"How much did they give you?" I ask
" $15" he tells me.
"Is there a gold filling in it? What are you doing "shopping" your tooth around?" I say.
Later I call my dad and say "There's been a bit of inflation in the last 30 years. Since when is a tooth worth $15?!"
My Dad started laughing then told me that Isaiah showed them the tooth and told them his Dad gave him $5 and Papaw told Isaiah that he wasn't about to be out done by Bill. So Papaw gave Isaiah $10. Then later my mom gave him $5. I'm not clear whether she knew he'd already been paid twice for it or not.
Anyway, it ended up being a $20 tooth!
I only remember getting coins for my teeth!
He may be a slow reader and writer, but I think he's aced Economics!

My Investment Has Grown

Bill and I married 12 years ago.

Since then he's gained over 50 lbs.

He needed that 50 lbs. though! He's 6 ft. tall and only weighed 150 when we married and was so skinny you could see his backbone and ribs. He says he had a "6 pack" back then. He's wrong! It was just his ribs :)

This was his dinner Friday evening. Not JUST this, he had sides and then a slice of Mt. Dew cake for dessert.

That's a 12 inch plate the Porterhouse steak is sitting on. It was huge and he ate it down to the bone! I mean wolves leave more meat on a bone!

He's still slim. No one would call him fat.

Some days I hate him for his metabolism!

But my investment has definitely grown

Where I live...

I was taking a photo of Naomi by the front door and noticed after I took the photo there was a buggy in the back ground. I must have deleted that photo. I took a few others because the buggy stopped to talk to the Amish man walking down the street, so I had time to take a few.




So Here's proof, I live in Amish country. I don't know what was going on but from about 6:30 Saturday morning and through out the day there just seemed to be buggy after buggy. The photo of Naomi with the dog on the arm of the couch looking out the window shows how much our dog hates buggies. Well I don't think it's the buggy she has a problem with it's the horses and the sound their hooves make going down the road. Our dog is 13 lbs. I don't know what she thinks she'd do to the horse if I let her loose!

He Can See Clearly Now

"When I go back to school tomorrow, I'll be a whole new man."

- Isaiah

My Neck of the Woods

Apparently a local farm was featured in a New York Times story about Haycations. I thought I'd post a link to the farms website because it tells a lot about our area. http://morganfarmstudios.com/
This week is the Ashland County Fair. In true fashion, it's humid, rainy and cool in the evenings.
It's just not fair week without some mud!
I asked Isaiah if he wanted to go to the fair one evening and he said "why? You won't let me ride the rides anyway."
No I won't. Every year there are stories about kids electrocuted on Ohio fair rides and such. So sorry but I'll pass on putting my kid on a ride put together with rubber bands and bubble gum.

More blimp!

I told you I see the blimp frequently! I spotted it again today while driving home from church! It was at a distance from me, not directly over head and it's so much like a whale in the sky, the front is slightly up, then the back. Then it levels out. It made me think that maybe it would make me a little nauseous to be riding in it.

A Little Verbal

Last night Naomi was fussing about who knows what. Bill stood up and headed towards her going to the stairs. When he got near her Naomi stuck her hand out as in "stop!". Then she said "No Dad!". Bill turned and looked at me and we both smiled then started laughing. She never puts words together like that. Also at this time her vocabulary is pretty much only no, yeah, Dad, Mom and she often squeals with happiness.
She, and the rest of us, has had a cold all week. Who knew so much green mucus could come out of one little nose!
Last night I commented that she has been so good humoured lately. She's just been a real joy. She smiled a lot and wants picked up to be near us. I think the dog would disagree. She almost hunts that dog down, just to pull her ears. This morning she walked in the kitchen, went straight to the dog kennel and reached in and just put her hand on the dog and made a sound like "awwww". She's so excited to see the dog every morning.
Speaking of the dog, I better go get the mail. The mailman left a box on the front step and it's worrying my dog!

Are You Smarter Than My 5th Grader?

Isaiah had his first Math test. This is what his study guide said.

Secure goals
*Draw arrays to model multiplication
*Know multiplication facts
*Identify even and odd numbers
*Find the factors of numbers

Developing/Secure goals
*Understand how square numbers and their square roots are related (I learned this in 9th grade)
*Identify prime and composite numbers
*Use a divisibility test to determine if a number is divisible by another number

Beginning/Developing Goals
* Rename numbers written in exponential notation (I had to Google this!)

Beginning Goals
* Find the prime factorizations of numbers (I had to Google this one too!)

A Trip to a rural store

Naomi and I dropped Isaiah off at school then made a quick trip to a bulk food store in a rural area outside of town. We first stopped at the hardware store and when I got to the door an old farmer was sitting there b.s'ing with the clerk. He jumped up to get the door for me but I beat him to it. After I got my 2 small bags of dog food and dog shampoo I put them by the register and the old guy jumped up, he was going to help me get my things to the car. I thanked him but was able to get it myself. It all fit in one little plastic bag :) So nice of him though. His politeness made my morning!




Then we went to the market. It' a place with bulk items and an enormous deli. By enormous I mean it! Like 7 types of bologna alone! The cheese! I know they have over 40 different types of cheese. Last week when we were there I bet there were 50 cars in the parking lot! They were swamped. I asked the girl who checked me out if they were always so busy and she told me that Monday mornings are slow until lunch time then they're busy the rest of the week. I ran into her today and told her she was right! Monday is the time to go! There was only one other car in the parking lot when I pulled in shortly before 9 a.m. They opened at 8. I took a few pictures on the way there.





An Amish "pickup"

The front is a buggy the back is a stainless steel bed, just like a pickup truck.

An Amish School

Photo taken from the parking lot of the market.

Notice the bikes propped against the backstop of the baseball field. There are 3 such baseball fields in about a 1/2 mile stretch of road!

Front view of the Amish school taken from the main road.

Just a view of the state route I take to get out here. Amish farm in the distance.

I hate taking pictures of Amish. I feel like such a tourist! Not to mention I know it's against their religion. Other's know too but persist. You wouldn't walk up to a Jewish man and yank a Yamikah off his head! The Amish kids are fine. They haven't joined the church yet so it's not such a big deal. But about that I feel, would you want strangers coming up and taking photos of your kids? Most English people (meaning us) would call the law. So if I want a cute photo of an Amish kid, I buy a postcard.

Mr. McSquinty

Last weekend or so, my mom mentioned that Isaiah seemed to be squinting a lot. So I watched him and didn't see it. I thought maybe he was doing it out of habit, but I tell you I did not see him squinting over his school work. I planned on making him an appointment with an Optician anyway but with all the calls out for Naomi's medicine and her therapy, plus starting even more therapy this past Thursday, I just never made the call.
So yesterday the phone rang and his school's number came up on caller I.D. My first thought was that they were sending him home because he's had a runny nose all week and a case of H1N1 was confirmed at his school and I thought maybe they were overreacting and sending anyone with the sniffles home. It ended up being his math teacher. He can't see the board and she's had to move him way up front and he is squinting. I told her I was aware and making him an appointment. She had told him to tell me but that hadn't happened. He doesn't want those "disk thingys that they put in your eyes". Contacts. I told him he'd probably get glasses if anything. He argued that he doesn't need glasses because he tried on his Grammie's glasses and couldn't see a thing. I had to explain that every one's glasses are specially made for them.
I'm wondering why no one ever picked up on this before or if it's something new. I'm hoping it will help him with his reading and writing also.
So today at 10 that's where we'll be. Getting a vision exam. Getting some answers.

One Flew Over the Cukoo Nest

This flew over my house on Saturday. By over my house I mean BARELY seemed to scrape by. It's amazing how low they seem to fly! I ran to get my camera. The neighbor lady was watching Naomi swing on the swing set and I moved as fast as I could. But as I got to the back yard the neighbor said it made a turn and headed west and was out of sight. I've seen the blimp a lot. But every time I get excited! I grew up near Rt. 30, the Old Lincoln Highway and it follows that route from Akron to where ever it's going and so I grew up seeing it float by. Still I love it!

What's in a name?????

You know when you name your child it's like they grow into it. You just can't imagine any other name for them.
Isaiah is just Isaiah, plain and simple. No other name would fit him. He's not a Mike, Joe, Phineas. He's an Isaiah!
Naomi is the same. We do call her Sissy a lot though. She even got mail from the dentist the other day that was addressed to "Sissy Keesee". I knew they took note of nicknames. I didn't know they used them for the mailing list.
The other day at Walmart there was a little girl who was all over the place. Loud. Running. Rude. All that and more. Her father told her to act like she had some sense and guess what this unruly child's name was.......... Serenity! I am not kidding! I swear that's what I heard them call her!
I wonder if they feel the same about her name?
Speaking of Walmart check out www.peopleofwalmart.com . A cousin sent me a link and I'll be darned if our local Walmart wasn't on page 13. The car with cats glued all over it is "Catman". He does live up to that name! His car is covered in cats, not stickers, all different forms. Ceramic and plastic all bolted or somehow glued to the body of the car. The horn of the car "meows". In the winter he wears a knit hat with a stuffed cat sewn on top.

When it's not so bad to have a Ketokid

It's not so bad to have a child on the ketogenic diet when...
you're in the drive thru at the bank and the teller sends out a bite size candy bar for the cute little girl

you go through a new coffee drive thru in town and they send out a sucker for each of your kids. Big brother loved that!!!

My favorite happened today... driving through Starbucks for a Pumpkin Spice Latte and they give you 2 good size samples of cranberry nut scones, and it's just you and the kid who can't eat a bite of it.

I must add, she's totally unaware of what she's missing. Were it Isaiah he'd unbuckle his seat belt, jump the seat and wrestle the scone out of my hand!

Happy Labor Day!

The Sound of Music

Last night The Sound of Music was on television. It's one of my favorites. I remember waiting for it to come on t.v. when I was little. It seemed like once a year it would be shown special. Now I own the movie, but rarely watch it. It's so long!
Well last night I guess I was feeling a bit cynical.
When I watched it all I could think is "that would never happen in real life".
Like when Maria goes in to talk to the reverend mother. The nun breaks into Climb Every Mountain. Can you imagine going in to talk to your boss and he breaks into song like that?!
There's also the scene out by the gazebo where Maria and Captain Von Trapp are professing their love and it's getting awful steamy! They're rubbing their cheeks against one another, kissing. Then she breaks into I Must of Done Something Good. UH, way to kill the moment Maria! I know she was going to be a nun, and may not be too worldly about men but my goodness! Why not just force him into a cold shower!?
The scene where Maria comes back home and the kids had been to try to see her but were turned away... They decide to sing A Few of My Favorite things. Then here she comes walking up the lane, swinging her suitcases. This is where I must confess! If in real life I was sitting with a group and someone broke out in that song I'd find it very hard not to sing along!

Weepy

Sunday morning I woke up really weepy and this Brad Paisley video was on and when it got to the part where the kids said what they wanted to be I started crying!
Then at church the preacher's wife read a letter from some soldiers the church sends packages to. She couldn't even get through the letter she started crying and thankfully someone else stepped in and finished reading it or I'd have been a puddle on the floor!
But if you have a few minutes check out the link. If you're in your 30's you'll get a kick out of the updates in technology mentioned.