Someday...

Someday all of our electronic devices will work at the same time.

Someday I will go to bed when I am tired and not stay up past my sleep time, making it impossible for me to go to bed until a much too late hour of the night.

Someday I will learn to use a candy thermometer and make toffee and other goodies that I now just dream of. It's depressing to be ignorant of this candy making skill. It is, however, probably for the best since we really don't need anymore sweets.

Someday I will buy a meat tenderizer. I used to have one and never used it. Now I don't know where it went. Again, there are many recipes I would like to make (mainly chicken ones where you roll tasty fillings inside), but I don't have the means to pound that chicken breast flat. Ugh again, big sigh.

Someday I may be as smart as my email account. I went to send someone an email with a letter for them to review. As I hit send, gmail popped up with "you wrote, 'I've attached' and do not have an attachment. Do you want to send it anyway?" Well of course not, thank you for telling me I'm an idiot.

Someday I will know all my account names and super secret passwords for important top secret web sites like Pei Wei and Walgreens photo center.

Someday, I hope, all our debts will be payed off and we'll know not to get back into debt.

Someday (soon!) tax season will be over. I won't be so busy, life won't be so hectic, and I won't have as much income. That won't help with the above 'someday' though, will it?

Someday I will know my alphabet well, and know that 8 times 7 is (49+7=) 56 without doing that little addition problem in my head.

Someday everyone in this house will stop coughing.

Today I will appreciate what I have, what and who I know, and who I love because I don't have it too shabby.

Found this Via a Friend's Blog

The Power of 'Yes'!

Basically, say less 'no', say more 'yes'. Stop trying to make people (kids) be who you think they should be, and let them be who they are. Stop listening to people tell you who you should be, and be who you want to be.

'No' is for emergencies and safety situations :)

Q: What is the good thing about not being able to breathe through your nose because you're so congested?

A: You can't smell the puke your child has hurled multiple times during the day, even if some lands on your shirt and you don't have anything to change into.

Pertussis and How to "Whoop" the Whooping Cough

First off, I need to state that I am not, by any means, a medical doctor.

Second of all, I need to state that I am not, by any means, over this dreadful cough. This will be the first post on this subject as I will hopefully learn and experience more relief as the days and weeks continue. Yes, you read right- WEEKS (!), as I am currently on week 5, at least.

Third of all, regretfully, I will not be giving you any links because I still feel really cruddy, I'm on my laptop and the articles I read are on my phone. I did write down these facts that lead to my final disclaimer:

• the incubation period (when you are exposed to it and when you show symptoms) is typically 7-10 days, but could be anywhere from 6-20 days
• you are contagious for the first 3 weeks, which is usually before you realize that anything is really wrong (it presents as a typcial cold or a simple cough)
• the cough lasts for months and is called the "100 day cough" because of this

Finally, you need to understand that this post will be full of sarcasm because the more I find out about this disease, the more I realized that so much is known, unknown, diagnosed and undiagnosed.

Alrighty then, without any further ado,

How to "Whoop" the Whooping Cough:

1. Get a vaccine, or don't; get a booster, or don't. Our family history includes the following: me- no booster, I've had the many pretty severe symptoms for 5 weeks, milder coughing for a week or 2 before that; my husband- no booster, seems to have mild symptoms; 13 year old daughter- booster last year, seems to be fine but has coughed a few times this last week (we're keeping tabs on this!); 7 year old daughter- full series of shots (the last boost in 2008), she's started showing signs this last week and is the only one that has actually "whooped"; and finally, my 2 year old son- 2 shots (the last one was 3 months ago!), he's on about week 4 that we can remember.
2. Take antibiotics, or don't. It really depends on when you realize you have pertussis (aka: whooping cough). Antibiotics only do any good in the first 2-3 weeks and the point is to stop you from being contagious. From what I have read, it does very little to help with the actual symptoms and doesn't shorten the disease. I took them, possibly during the right time and they didn't help my symptoms AT ALL. I may or may not have spread it to my family since they may or may not have been exposed to other people with pertussis.
3. Take probiotics, or don't. I don't know about this one because I haven't tried it yet. I have a friend that is on them at the suggestion of her naturopath. I guess you can sprinkle the capsule on food and take it that way. I doubt my son will do that, even more so since she told me her daughter won't. She also mentioned that they make a gummy form, which I will try to find tomorrow. Cod liver oil is also on the naturopath's list of remedies, but again, I know I can't get my son to take this.
4. Don't get angry, it makes the cough worse. For me this means staying away from everyone and not reading anything, especially nothing medical or political. Seeing as I've been very sick for over a month now, you can judge for yourself how good I am at the "no angry" step. I've been better at keeping my son calm, which does help. If he gets upset and cries or yells, he often goes into a coughing fit. You get it, be happy.
5. Be cool, but stay warm. This may be specific to our little family of symptoms, but it seems to be common amongst the 3 of us. We want to be warm but we all need fresh or cool air. I am most comfortable under a blanket with socks and the front door open. My son constantly wants to be outside and sleeps better with the window open but under covers. My daughter is in long sleeves, long pants and a light blanket with the ceiling fan on. Why all the details? Because these are atypical actions for all of us and I noticed them AFTER I read somewhere that this was one of the signs/symptoms that one might be suffering from pertussis. I'm not making this stuff up.
6. Eat chocolate, but not the candy coated kind. Dark chocolate has theobromine in it that helps sooth a cough. I didn't really care about the cough until my son went 3 days without holding anything down. The cough would cause him to gag and upchuck everything he had eaten. Eventually he wasn't even gagging, just throwing it all up as he asked for a bowl. It was quite sad. I haphazardly found the chocolate solution while trying to find a homeopathic remedy for pertussis. Not having any dark chocolate on hand, I gave him some semi-sweet chocolate chips. He hasn't thrown up since. I bought some dark chocolate that he won't eat, so I'll be enjoying the Ghirardelli myself. (no worries there: I eat less of the dark chocolate and I had a $1 off coupon at Walgreens)
7. Cold drinks may help. There are several stages of the disease, and several symptoms that one may experience. All 3 of us seem to be showing different symptoms (that I know about). One homeopathic site I was on suggested that cold liquids may make one feel better. On top of the chocolate, I started giving my son ice water. Being 2, he can't really tell me his symptoms, but since he had been throwing up even tepid water and juice, I figured ice water wouldn't hurt.
8. Check into a homeopathic remedy, if you want. My friend sent me a link to anAustralian Homeopathic group. Alright, here's the homepage: http://homeopathyplus.com.au/ You'll have to search for the pertussis stuff yourself. There were at least half a dozen remedies, depending on what stage and what symptoms you had. One seemed to help me, but it either didn't work on my son or made him worse. It's kind of hard to tell since pertussis runs in stages.
9. Have a pertussis test done, or don't. I don't think it will really matter. It is very rare that this test will come back positive. This is the most frustrating of all things I've come across. I actually read on the CDC website that the clinical test is super sensitive so they don't miss any cases in their studies, but that the public test is super INsensitive so that the public is not alarmed by an outbreak. Wait, aren't you the Center for Disease Control? Yeah, I guess if the public finds out there is a pertussis outbreak you are proving that you aren't controlling anything and that the vaccine doesn't really prevent anything. I guess it does make sense to use a test that won't diagnose anything.
10. Try a juice fast, or don't. I actually did this before I found out I was exposed to pertussis. I was having such a hard time breathing and I felt like I was choking and gagging on everything. Those particular symptoms did improve because there was simply nothing to gag on. I read how to do a juice fast it in a book at Hi Health which included: 2 days of nothing but (raw) fruits and veggies, 3 days of fresh juice (no tomato or orange), and 2 more days of fruits and veggies. I never would have made it without my husband and quite honestly, after day 1 1/2 I didn't want anymore juice. I think I got 8oz down on day 3, and then lived on lemon water. Possibly the most important thing this did for me was to stay away from dairy, which reduced the amount of mucus to hack up. OK, update: that was super, super important so I'm giving it it's own number.
11. AVOID DAIRY LIKE THE PLAGUE. I realize you probably feel like you have the plague already if you have pertussis (although those who have had the plague will probably argue), but if you have dairy you will feel worse. 'Nuf said? Words like phlegm, mucus, paroxysm, etc. are just the beginning. Don't go there, no matter how good the food sounds (although no food probably sounds good), and don't let your child with pertussis have it, no matter how hard he screams. (We bagged up the yogurt and hid it, bought soy milk for cereal...)

What will I be doing next? I was sort of bullied into taking my kids to the doctor tomorrow since my son was still throwing up. I considered cancelling, but since my daughter is still possibly within the 3 week contagious window I will keep the appointment and see if we should start her on some antibiotics. If it can possibly reduce her symptoms and stop the spread of this wretched disease, then I'm going to give her some meds. Ugh. My son is past the contagious point so I'm going to try to find the probiotic gummies, and possibly the cod liver oil if I get it for myself. I'll be going with some probiotics for sure and probably getting another homeopathic remedy based on my new symptoms.

Since it was hard to find, yet has some of the best details on pertussis, I broke disclaimer 3:

http://homeopathyplus.com.au/whooping-cough-homeopathic-prevention-and-treatment-2/

Unique Pallets

We've gotten in the habit of letting Payton try even the stuff we know he won't like. I had bought some coconut water and didn't like it, passed it to Bill, and Payton demanded to have some. He took a big gulp, swallowed and made the worst face ever. The best part was the look he gave us that said, "what are you doing to me?" Later on, he came back over to the counter and I asked him if he wanted more. He replied with "No me lie dat co-co-nut waler."

Earlier that day I was eating some cabbage with a dressing of olive oil, garlic, lemon juice and parsley. Payton insisted on trying it, even though I knew it would be too strong for him. I gave him a little bit of cabbage and he didn't gag on it. (He usually runs to the garbage and spits it out.) He asked for more, I gave it to him. This continued until I ran out and he still wanted more. I made another bowl and didn't discriminate on the bites that I gave him. He had to have had some straight up garlic and ate it all.

Tasha's first salad dressing was balsamic vinegar. She continues to like this, but has branched out and is always asking for the salad at Costco for lunch. Aren't kids supposed to want the pizza?

When Kyra was just getting teeth she gnawed on a red onion quite contently during a lunch I had with my mom. (Yes, she was that baby that you could take to a restaurant.) She still had onion breath when her dad came home from work that evening.

I had a juice of apple, carrot, lemon, and ginger this morning... Payton said, "oh, too spicey, mommy!" I love that kid. I also think that lemon and ginger are my non-so-secret favorite ingredients to give juice a little zing.

Q: Why don't I spend 15 minutes a day working on cleaning out my laundry room so I have room to store the stuff that is cluttering my house?

A: Because in the 15 very productive minutes that I spent back there one morning Payton was able to :

• empty the laundry basket I had just taken out onto the living room floor
• take the empty basket to my bedroom to use as a step stool
• open my jewelry box and remove the drawer to bring to the living room
• get a carrot from who knows where (I thought they were all in the outside fridge!)

...and who knows what else that I did not find.

Pretty Boy Payton Turned 2

On his 2nd birthday, Payton walked into nursery on his own, without crying for the first time ever.

He now lets us read to him. His favorite books being:

• If You Give a Cat a Cupcake (he asks for "cupcake, cupcake")
• If You Give a Pig a Party (we enjoy finding all her friends)
• Blue Hat Green Hat
• Who Stole the Cookie from the Cookie Jar
• A stupid pirate book that has a "(s)cary bug" that we squish with our thumb and a "peencha c(r)ab" that we immitate by pinching each other with our fingers
• 10 Little Ladybugs (another "bug" book, but they are not scary)

He's not nursing anymore. He completely weaned about 2 weeks before his birthday.

He's settling in to a bedtime routine: teethbrushing, stories, and sleep.

When we bless the dinner he folds his arms, lays his head down on the table, and then after we've all said "amen", he will lift his head up, smile and kindly say "amen" as well. (this, instead of declaring in his loudest voice "A-MEN", or telling us "no pray, no pray"... I'm glad those 2 phases are over, although the first was hard not to laugh at)

He still likes "cook-een" in the kitchen with me. He mostly stays away from the oven though.

He has generalized that anything you plug in is either "loud" or "hot". It cracks me up. I was plugging in the hot glue gun and he said, "oh, loud!" On Super Why he always says "oh, HAUT!" when the pig saws out the letters creating a bunch of dust.

He knows the following shapes: cir-coe, tie-an-goe, oh-boe, ec-tan-goe, and kwair.

His favorite color is "lelloe". If you are familiar with the Sandra Boynton book, Blue Hat, Green Hat, he will read, "lelloe hat, lelloe hat, lelloe hat, oots!" This is precious. I need to get it on video.

The only way I can cut his fingernails is to bribe him by painting them as I go. I try to stick to boy blue, but he really likes the green and purple. Bill absolutely LOVES this.

He really likes to try on clothes when Tasha is. He especially insists on trying on the dresses and spinning. When he does this, Tasha and I say in our sweetest voices, "awe PT, you're so pri-tee!" He then gives us his most petite smile ever.

He can walk pretty well in Kyra's slip on high heals, even with his toes poking through the front and hitting the floor. (this may help, actually)

Bill might get concerned about all this pretty boy stuff, except that he has the following disgusting habits that I would like eliminated:

• He calls most brown things "poop", including the dinner I made last night.
• "too-pid, too-pid, too-pid" is a regular word, along with the phrase, "oh, c(r)ap"
• He likes to pretend to hawk loogies (is that how you spell that?), complete with a hand swipe of the mouth.
• He's fallen asleep more than once with his hand in his diaper. I got a picture, but it is very dark.
• He is VERY good at being a little brother. Ask his sisters. Someday we hope all the bullying will be put to good use and he can fend off undesireable male suiters.