Book Reviews...

Well I have just finished a book that I wanted to recommend.
"Changing the Course of Autism" by. Bryan Jepson M.D.

Now you may be asking yourself why I am reading about Autism..

If you have ever wondered about the safety of Vaccines (and the quantity we should get at one time).
If you have ever wondered if the toxic environments we live in could affect our babies in womb or while developing (even making them overly sensitive to stimuli...)
If you have ever wanted to get your hands on a book that compiles all of the research out there (so you don't have to rely on what the news reports or does not)
If you have ever wanted to understand the role of various nutrients in the body.
This book was written for Physicians and Parents. All of the research (dating back to 1938-2007) is there, both the well done and poorly done studies, so that we can each start learning for ourselves how to be wiser parents in the protection of our children. But for Jacob (who is reading the book as well), he is learning all of the biochemistry (which he loves) behind not just Autism, but the many reactions and quarks that we see in our children. He is learning how to treat children who have 'weird' symptoms that scare parents.

This book was just published last year. See if your library has it. I had to ILL it as my local library did not have it. I do have to say, this one will sit on our shelf of Medical books, it is that good and for those of you who need 'evidence', the words, "evidence-based medicine' is on the cover and 1/3 of the book is just taken up for the references detailing all of the studies.
Check it out.

Now on a lighter note. One more book recommendation: A cookbook that some of you would love, called
"Deceptively Delicious"
by Jenifer Sienfeld

It is a cookbook (with pics) for those of you who have kids (or spouses ) who refuse or don't like to eat veggies/fruits. This mom just got plum worn out fighting with her kids about eating 'green things' or taking a bite of carrots etc...
She revamped her families food to incorporate the veggie/fruit in the food (as a puree) that you can't even taste or see. Thereby slipping in the much needed nutrients without the fight. She also still offers a regular looking veggie on the plate as the children still need to get used to seeing it and trying it in normal form. She even has recipes for dips and during that crazy time before dinner while your still trying to prepare it, she sits those yummy dips out with raw fruits/veggies. The kids are so happy to have dip they start eating the veggies (even the same ones they would refuse to even have on their plate 15 mins later at dinner).
It is also just published, I checked it out at my library. It will be another keeper, or one we buy. I like all the recipes I see. As of yet my daughter eats the food put in front of her but whats the harm in slipping it in, in order to get more nutrients.
Check it out.

More Daddy's

All right,
Well tonight Jacob is off at a Priesthood meeting. As he was leaving Liliana broke down into sobs of tears and finally said, "I don't want you to go daddy, please stay home with me".
We didn't know what to say. She has always been bummed when one of us takes off for something but she has yet to actually cry or show lots of emotion.
As I was tucking her into bed she said to me that "she missed daddy and just loved him so much".
I just wanted to take a minute to express my gratitude for all the daddy's out there who work hard (both to support their family, as well as working on themselves). I love that my daughters light up when they see their daddy. I am glad they have Jacob to look to as an example of a man. A man who cares about virtue and honesty. A man who knows about and cares about his priesthood power and responsibility.
Daddy's, if you are listening, you can win your daughter's hearts over by being funny. You can win them over by being soft-spoken (especially when disciplining). But they will love you forever if you are a Man of integrity.
The world needs more Daddy's with these attributes.

all in a days work...

Well yesterday was quite a busy one. It all started around 2am with Liliana waking up (throwing up and all...). Jacob tended to her then was off to work (he leaves around 4:30 or so)...Then by around 9am I captured Mattie rolling over for the first time. Liliana saw me taking her picture and asked why. I Told her how excited I was that Mattie was rolling over. Confused at all the excitement, LIliana started to roll over saying, "Look mom I can roll over also". She wanted me to be excited and take her picture as well.
During the day both Liliana and Mattie continued to throw-up, but in between episodes they were both happy. I was still groggy the whole day from the previous days dental visit (where i was drugged and drilled)
Anyway around 1pm I was carrying a tub of clothes down the stairs and lost my footing. I smacked the stairs with my back (it is still yelling at me), crawled into the kitchen to call jacob home and was moaning like I was about to have a baby.
Jacob came home within the hour to take care of all his 3 sick girls. Both the little girls have recovered and as for me.well lets just say I am sooooooo thankful my husband is an Osteopath. He was able to work on me, which has allowed me to walk (slowly), bend over (imagine a 9mt pregnant person bending over), and get up out of a chair (once again, pretend your pregnant). It will be a good week before i am back to walking normal and not in pain or feeling like someone is continually smacking me with a bat in the same spot.
On the upside, my husband got permission to stay home and tend to us, which has been great to see him (as tomorrow he will be doing another 30hr stint at the hospital).
Well that is the update for now. For those of you outside of Maine...and just incase your wondering, yes, it is still winter up here, I will keep you posted on when the season changes (check back in 4mts or so...)

A new week

Well the weekend is over. We were lucky to have Jacob home for 3 days in a row. he does not normally get 'holidays'. Even though he is still technically a student he no longer has a student schedule. He has whatever schedule the various doctors he works with want him to have. Which usually is a schedule like theirs, I mean, their thought is always, "If I have to be here so should you". Never mind the fact that when the doctors are working junky hours they are getting paid, but when it comes to paychecks my husband is still considered a student (which means, we PAY for his junky schedule). Anyway...
It is the middle of February and is still cold. It also is a few days past my 28th birthday. My sweet husband made me a Beeswax candle. He even made a tied wick for the candle. It smells yummy and burns great. For those of you who may not know, Beeswax candles burn free of smoke. They are a great natural candle. He made one the size of those Yankee Candle jars (the big ones) and it only cost $7-8.00. Which is much cheaper than most candles.
Anyway, friends watch out, you may be getting a candle for Christmas:)

Bath Time

Well Liliana is in the bath. It is the middle of the day and the middle of a cooped up week in the house and she likes to play in the bath. There are other reasons she needs a bath. Like the fact that I just gave her one of her favorite snacks, celery with cream cheese in it. She decided to rub it around her mouth/nose area while she was eating it. She also had it on her hands. So obviously when she comes over to touch me I say, "don't touch me, your hands are dirty, go wash up". She looks at her dirty hands and then proceeds to put her forearms on my head saying, "I can touch you with my arm, they are not dirty". (Forget the fact that while her clean forearms are touching my head, her dirty hands are touching my face/clothes)..
Anyway, she wants something to drink so I say, "You need to wash up first, then I will get you something". So she runs into her bathroom and comes running out her face dripping with water and a big grin on her face declaring, "alright mommy I want my drink now". I look up at her and see this big wad of cream cheese in her nose and what do I do. That's right, I take a picture of it. So she gets impatient with my camera taking and runs back into her bathroom to get her drink by herself (you see she swiped a plastic egg carton from her craft supply area and filled each hole up with water and i peek into her bathroom and see her tipping it into her mouth). Anyway, she was just a mess, so off to the bath we go.
As she climbs into the bath I discover yet another reason why she needed a bath as I see pits/pieces of poop floating to the surface as her bum submureges into the water...(You see, my daughter likes to 'wipe' herself, she does know how to do this activity correctly but well I am sure you understand, it just takes so much time out of the day to wipe every single time you go potty, so she skips doing her wiping job some times throughout the day).

Your Right and I am....

Well I sure got some education today. I thought it would be fun to do some sequencing with Liliana. We started off by measuring out some string with a ruler and cutting pieces at different lengths. Than I got out the beads and made a 8-9 bead sequence on a bracelet. I instructed liliana to copy my bracelet and provided her with all the beads she would need. I could tell she was struggling to 'conform'. She wanted to break loose and make her own bracelet. But big mean mommy kept insisting on her being able to copy my pattern. So finally we finished that.
Than I took a popsicle stick and using the same beads glued them in a pattern on the stick. You should see a pic of mine to the right. I then instructed Liliana to copy me once again. I gave her the beads and the glue and tried to 'help' by asking, "which one will go first"? She answered correctly and I thought to myself. "Alright, she is finally getting this pattern copying thing". Well I run upstairs and then come down to a very excited liliana. She is done and wants me to look. What I see is a popsicle stick that looks very different than mine. I say, "Liliana, that is not like mommies, you were supposed to copy my pattern". She says, "yes, mommy it is like yours". I say (a little frustrated), "No, it is not like mine (at this point I line ours up to help demonstrate how they are not the same). You will see the pic to the right. Anyway, I say, "See, the first bead is purple and that is the same, but then I have a blue charm and you dont, they don't line up".
She says, "Yes, mommy they do line up, see..." (At this point she proceeds to move her popsicle stick so that our charms do infact match up)...I have included a pic.
So at this point. Refusing to say to my 3yr old that she in fact right and I am in fact in the wr...(just cant even type the word), i just say nothing and we move on to the next activity.

Let us reevaluate

Well for those of you outside of Maine right now, it is COLD up here. With the wind it is under zero degrees. I wake up a put my winter hat on (even though we have the thermostat set for 68) and a light jacket. The wind just sucks the warm air right out of the house. Such a great thing to realize with the wonderful oil prices we have these days. Why did we ever decide that we should rely on a non-renewable resource (or one that is a fossil fuel) for heat, energy, cars, etc...

Why did God give us the Sun, Wind, and Water for if we are just going to drink, fly kites, and get a tan? Sometimes I wonder about the human race. It has been discovered that we use only a very small portion of our brain.

Well, I am thinking it is about high time we start using the rest of it. We don't seem to do so well only using less than 10%. Any thoughts?