where wrong turns lead we will follow

There is this fantastic little thrift store a few blocks from us - we call it the Hospice Thrift, as all the proceeds are for hospice care and it is staffed by elderly women who are quite proud and particular. The prices are fantastic, and they never sell junk - nothing broken or partial  - they run it like a boutique and everything in that store is in good condition or better.

The other day Kiernen and I were about to go to the bank and the library - which when we come out of where we live, are to the left. This was my only errand, so I was surprised to find myself pulling out of our lot and turning right.

"Why did I just do that?" I said out loud to Kiernen. "I'm going the wrong way. Oh well, no matter, I'll just turn left ahead and double back."

So I did, and we were then driving up the street toward that little thrift store. It came into my head to go there, since we hadn't been in awhile and sometimes, you just never know, there are treasures waiting to be found. I needed some dowel rods for a project - perhaps they'd gotten some in? I asked Kiernen if he was interested in stopping there, and he was. I fleetingly wondered if they ever got LEGO in their store, but seriously fleetingly. I figured not - LEGO is expensive, and people who own it know its value. Old sets can be resold on Ebay for more than a person paid for them, after all. And lots of folks just plain saved them from their childhood for their kids.

Kiernen's Lego, for example, consists of pieces from my own original Lego set when I was three or four, plus additional Lego my brothers added to it growing up, plus so much new stuff. His kids will have the Lego collection to end all Lego collections, especially if we keep going at this rate.

Thought tangent aside, we got to the thrift and went in. As we approached the toy section, I noticed an unopened Bionicle box sitting on the shelf. Or Kiernen noticed it. One of us saw it and I took it down and handed it to him. $4! A steal for a 2004 (I think) Bionicle - and I also remembered Kiernen had been wanting his own Bionicle.

"Cool!" I thought, worth the trip. We looked around in the little 25 cent toy bin and looked on the shelves...and then I saw it. A LEGO Creator set. $5. I'm not one to turn down cheap Lego - an opportunity to add even more Lego to our collection? Great! I was happily showing Kiernen, then we were looking around at the rest of the stuff, when I noticed something I hadn't noticed before: a large bin on the floor with a huge clear plastic bag inside it. And it was full of...are those Megabloks?

No. It was marked $40 and it was completely full of genuine Lego. I didn't even think about it - I untied the bag to make sure, but it was true - it was almost ALL Lego. Kiernen is no fool - he knows his mother is a huge sucker for a deal, and a huge sucker for Lego, and a huge sucker. Ha! I kid. And I really am a big softie when it comes to stuff like this. I didn't have many toys growing up because my mother didn't have much money, so I completely overcompensate for my own lack of toys in childhood by making our home into what really resembles an awesome toy store.

Kiernen said hopefully, "Are we buying this, Mama?" as he helped me untie the bag and go through it to confirm that it was, in fact, Lego. (We are snobs and purists when it comes to building toys, thanks in large part to having actually purchased a Megablok set long ago - and never since.)

When we got the set home, we poured it all out to see what we'd actually  gotten.

Looks like about 9 different bases (whoa!), 2 big bags of LEGO, plus the medium bag of LEGO Creator. Cool!

 A close-up of the first bag - looks like some castle stuff:

 Bag two looks like some kind of underwater set...

 

The LEGO creator bag with miscellaneous pieces:

  

We poured it all out on the floor to see what's there.

Whoa! Click any photo to embiggen and see more detail.

 

a whole ship already built from the underwater set: 

 Parts of a castle:

 The LEGO creator pieces all poured out:

Some kind of ship that isn't actually LEGO:

Then later, I went online to see what the sets actually were, because it looks very much like we have two full sets - and I mean the big sets - plus some assorted bases and pieces. MSRP on EACH of these two sets is around $90. Not including the Creator set, NOT including the Bionicle. We bought over $180 in Lego for less than $50. The deal seeker in me is elated. The kid in me is screaming with joy. The me in me is totally blissed out.

Oh, and the sets themselves?

Royal Knights Castle and Neptune Discovery Lab

The directions weren't included, but Kiernen now knows we can look up directions online, which we have, and are building the castle set currently. He is truly delighted in this new score, as am I.

All for having taken a 'wrong' turn and deciding to go where that led us.

today

For you, my lovely friend, Denise :-)

lots of maybe boring stuff about what I'm feeding my kid and myself

I've noticed that with Kiernen, even as I make these little changes in his/my eating, I am seeing subtle changes in him and his navigating the world, even if I am sometimes unable to pinpoint exactly what those differences are, because our kids are always growing and changing, and is it the diet? Or is it a phase? Or or or???

Fortunately I have outside eyes, other eyes like Baden, who is an expert on diet and changes it creates, and is my greatest support in taking on this new way of eating for myself and Kiernen.

The other day we were talking about the changes and I was saying just what I said above, and she mentioned to me that she had noticed a difference in him in just the past couple of weeks, which is about how long I've been really implementing these changes. She mentioned that I had told her that he takes a bit to warm up, especially to adults, but that all of a sudden in the past two weeks he has been really interacting with her, and even been willing to stay in the room without a parent with her or other adults around. That was pretty much unheard of before - Kiernen would never stay in a room without Mama or Daddy there, not for an extended period of time. If it was just kids, he might for a bit, but with other adults, no way - it was an unpredictable element for him. And both Baden and her sister, who is here frequently as well, have noticed this sudden change.

Is it his diet?

And. He has all of a sudden become just fine with baths. We've been working with him on this for awhile now - we realized we could get him to take a bath if he had a friend in there with him, and then for awhile there it was every time, because it was literally the only way he'd bathe. But recently, just in the past two weeks, he has been fine to the point of my saying, "Hey, you need a bath," and he just says, "Okay," and climbs in. And that's that.

Is it his diet?

In the past two weeks, we've been slowly transitioning. I am finding that it is important to add more things in when I am taking other things out. We've done away with wheat and sugar altogether, in any form other than fruit or honey. No fruit juices, even, unless I've personally made them myself and they are very fresh. But even then the only ones I'll really make for him are watermelon juice, which he rarely drinks, and orange juice, which we mix with his "foot and leg juice" (magnesium).

We tried cod liver oil, we really did, but he took it all of two times before the mere mention of it brought him to sobbing. I'm thinking to order some flavoured stuff - they have these flavoured gels and such - we'll see.

We're doing bone broths as often as we can - it's hit and miss with my soup recipes, so we're working with that - most of the time they're wonderful, but when they're not, they're not, and its disappointing. We all like really good tasting food, so we don't really settle for anything else.

I'm also adding lots of raw fats, like grassfed butter, avocadoes, raw cream (if he tolerates it - we're trying raw cow milk kefir right now to see how we do with it). I also use the high vitamin butter oil as well, about 1/2 tsp per day when I manage to remember it.

I'm wondering if I need a checklist of some sort, as I seem to forget things I mean to remember daily. Yeah, I believe I need a checklist.

We're trying to do the baby calm daily, as well, generally before bed, as it helps with a good night's sleep. Probiotics are another one I am trying to manage to remember daily. Checklist needed!!!

Foods...well, I'm working on that one. Lots of eggs, some fruit - still lots of fruit but making a transition to less, gradually...he won't eat salads or drink veggie juices, so I rely on green smoothies for greens, which he will drink a little of every day. Soups. Raw grawnola (made with nuts, seeds, etc) for cereal if he likes (I need to make some, though, as we haven't had any in awhile). Chicken, salmon, homemade veggie burgers, homemade but burgers...

Yeah, I am still working on foods for him, because there is still this level of picky, but still something I can work within for the most part, I just have to get creative about it.

I'm watching his teeth closely, and his behaviour, as well. Both are pretty steady right now - not getting worse, even possibly getting better.

I notice immediately when he hasn't had enough food or if he has accidentally ingested a food that isn't working for him - today we went to out favourite organic fair trade coffee shop to hang out a bit. I got him a kids smoothie - because it is just fruit and ice - and immediately after beginning to drink it he went a bit loopy and got silly. Nothing too over the top, and most people wouldn't have noticed really, but I saw the difference immediately. I tasted the smoothie and I could tell it was just too concentrated, the fruit, so I mixed my unsweetened rooiboos iced tea with it and diluted it greatly. Not only did it taste amazing, it really did the trick - he was much calmer after that when he drank his smoothie. In future I believe I am just going to make him my own kids sized smoothie or hot chocolate with my own ingredients and being it there and put it in their cup for him - so much safer.

I look forward to being able to get more raw fats into him - more kefir maybe, and raw cream - I have a source for these, I just need to make sure we both do okay with them before proceeding and making them a permanent part of his eating.

So yeah - also, what he eats, I am eating. Oh! also the raw cheese - although I believe it important to make it grassfed - I've introduced some, and though he doesn't seem to be having any reaction to it other than going back to pooping every other day, I am not faring as well (it makes me break out, my skin is a mess). He LOVES being able to have cheese, so I am going to get some cheese from the raw milk lady and see if that makes a difference.

the party is coming together

We have been in the midst of a heatwave. In BC, Canada. It boggles the mind - it feels like it did in summer in St. Louis, and yet here we are on the mild west coast, where it is supposed to be like 80 degrees out there, tops. And you see, the weather is one of the myriad of reasons we LEFT St. Louis. Oh, and because we always always always have mild summers, almost no one has air conditioning, either. And so we've been spending lots of time with our neigbours in our air-conditioned common house (think clubhouse like in an apartment complex) - sharing meals, watching movies, playing games, etc. Because all of our units are way too hot to live in!

Thankfully today the heat let up a bit and we were actually able to spend some time outside. Tomorrow we're planning more of the same.

When I'm not trying to stay as still as possible because I really haven't the energy to do anything else in this heat, I've been busy making all sorts of different "cake" recipes - and I use that word loosely - in preparation for Kiernen's birthday party. I even made ice cream bars today, which sadly in the end turned out nothing like I'd hoped, so back to the drawing board on that one. But there's hope! I recently accidentally discovered these when I was looking for silicone popsicle molds, and so I've ordered them both. Kiernen actually picked out which ones we got, because * I * wanted the hearts and stars.

Anyway. We're doing the watermelon cake, AND little raw chocolate cupcakes with frosting. Food is still sort of up in the air, but at least I'm getting somewhere with the cake part. I don't remember having this much difficulty planning the party last year, and I went way over the top.

Is it the heat?

EFT for fear of the water

Wow. What a great reminder from the Universe and myself.

My beautiful son has had ongoing issues off and on with bathing - he doesn't like to get wet, he becomes afraid of the water, and he won't take a bath for weeks, which turn into months...We wash him with a washcloth, but it really really isn't the same. And I've found really only one way to get that hair clean. The bath.

Mostly we sort of don't know what to do about this - it has abated in the recent past, and he took baths willingly and happily - until I took him swimming. And then because I insisted on washing off the chlorine and washing his hair that night, he freaked out again and hasn't taken a bath since.

So it's been awhile, and his hair was starting to get not only sort of heavy from not washing it, but also there was some sticky stuff in there causing it to tangle. So today I said enough and called time on the bath. I told him about his hair and how we wanted him to get clean. I told him it was really the only way I knew to get his hair washed, and I told him we were going to do it tonight.

Kiernen replied, "No, Mama, I don;t want to take a bath! I'm scared of the water."

I tried to find out wherefore came this fear, to no avail. He would only repeat that he was scared of the water. I remained calm, I intended to hear his feelings and find a way to give him a bath without him freaking out again. After all, he has done this in the past - this has previously been a fun thing for him. We have all sorts of fun little water toys for him to play with in there.

And I had the brilliant idea to tap. For anyone reading this who isn't familiar, I'm referring to EFT - Emotional Freedom Technique.

Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT) is an emotional, needle free version of acupuncture that is based on new discoveries regarding the connection between your body's subtle energies, your emotions, and your health. EFT has been reported successful in thousands of cases covering a huge range of emotional, health and performance issues. It often works where nothing else will.

I'd used it a couple of days ago when we were talking about the bath previously. I tapped on him, saying, "Even though I'm scared of he water, Mommy and Daddy love me very much." And then, "Mommy and Daddy will be there for me, they will keep me safe. I've had fun playing in the water before - I played with my boats and my turtles and I had a lot of fun. Baths can be fun, I remember that. I could take a bath. I would be safe. Mommy would be right there with me. It could be a lot of fun."

He asked, "Me?" as I began to tap, and I let him know that yes, we're tapping for him. Meanwhile, MBD was downstairs getting the bath ready.

I did the very same thing this evening. When I finished, he needed to pee, so I got his preferred potty for him. When he finished peeing, he said, "I want to take a bath."

Off we went down the stairs. He willingly took off his clothes and then he even climbed into the tub with no help. And he got to playing with his toys like he did this all the time. I talked a bit about washing his hair while he was playing, and he said no, he wanted to play, so I said, "Okay, when you're almost finished with your bath, we'll wash your hair. Remember, we need to wash your hair to get out all of the dirt and that sticky stuff. But you play now, and I'll come when you're finished and wash your hair."

And at the end of the bath, he was fighting and protesting and beginning to cry about washing his hair, and since he was worked up, I did surrogate tapping on myself, making sure to speak clearly so he could hear me. And do you know, at the end of it, he picked up a cup and poured water on his own head. It was amazing. We got his hair washed with his help, and no tears, and then we whisked him out of the tub and got him all dried off. And all went quite well.