Sports Saturday

We had a pretty typical Saturday around here- catching up on housework, playing games, and Carter's soccer game.  The three days of rain has stopped and its time to get outside.  I was so excited I was finally going to get to watch him play.  I love kids' sports.  The passion, emotions, comedy, and sportsmanship can't be beat.  He had a great time watching his friends play and playing himself.

Good save, Carter!

Julia is feeling the same as yesterday.  She woke up asking to eat and actually wanted eggs.  I was optimistic that she would eat them and actually feel full for once.  She didn't like the first round (too dark she said), but did eat the second bowl.  I thought we were set until lunch.  Not so fast.  Fifteen minutes later she was hungry.  She asked for spaghetti noodles...not it.  Red peppers.... not it.  Strawberries... not it.  Toast... not it.  Peanut butter... not it.  She finally ate cereal.  Okay, now we're good until lunch.  Nope, still hungry.  She couldn't find anything she wanted.  I made her lunch shortly after and none of it appealed to her.

I must admit I cheated today.  Out of ideas, I suggested Daddy take her on a trip to the drive thru for ice cream- sold.  It worked for a little while.  I also sold out and offered her chocolate chips twice because I knew that would work.  And by the end of the day- after trying dozens of foods... I broke my rule about the pacifier only in the bed and hospital and gave it to her and it works.  Good to know.

Carter's sports day continued when he and Daddy went to see the Wolfpack play in Raleigh.  This is his first college football game and he was beyond excited.  He's had this day marked on his calendar for weeks.

Here he is in front of the Philip Rivers monument- one of his favorite quarterbacks.  He still follows him with the Chargers...

He loved all the game excitement you miss on TV including the marching band with their pregame and halftime show...

 

 One happy little Wolfie...

 

Daddy and Carter sharing their passion for football and all things NC State...

 

 One tired little fan...

 

...he made it through the whole game, three hours past his bedtime.  (Sweet dreams of a Pack win 45-14!)

Julia and I had a fun girls' night in.  She has been learning to write her letters- so we wrote for awhile, painted our toenails, played in the bathtub, ate more chocolate chips, and cuddled on the coach.  She was starting to shake tonight which she does often from the bone and jaw pain from her vincristine.  When I leaned over to kiss her head, she was warm.  The fever is back, 101.7

I called Dr. Wofford and we talked for awhile.  Julia's blood cultures are still negative and her labs were not dangerously low, so as long as she acts okay she said we can wait until tomorrow.  We will reassess in the morning.  The guess is she can't shake the virus she is fighting.

So we wait and pray until morning.

A Fresh Week

Julia had a rough time last week.  Fortunately the vomiting did not return, but her pain remained.  We are still not quite sure how she's feeling which can be frustrating.  The oncologists tell us the most likely source is bone pain.  She has been crying, whining, yelling, and angry most of the week and weekend.  The pain medicine helps some.  At times I think she is doing more than she is able.  Our situation is a catch-22... on one hand she is resilient to her situation because she does not fully understand and just adapts, but on the other hand she pushes herself to do too much which creates meltdowns.  We have been letting her self-regulate her activity, but we might have to intervene a little until she recovers more.

She continues to struggle with eating.  Her appetite has remained strong through most of her treatment.  She has days when she eats nothing, but overall she hasn't lost her appetite.  Food, however, has lost its appeal.  She tells us she's hungry, we ask her what she would like, she doesn't know, we spend several minutes deciding, we make it, she takes a bite, it doesn't taste right, she cries, and repeat.  I feel guilty complaining that she wants to eat because so many chemo patients struggle with severe weight loss, but this process is wearing and goes on all day long, everyday.  She didn't each much the end of the week.  Sunday morning she woke up asking for scrambled eggs.  I was extremely doubtful, but made them anyway.  She ate them and asked for more, and ate those, too! Over the course of the day she ate five eggs!! Yippee! Now, hopefully this nutritional boost to her system will last a few days.

So the food issues in our house will likely continue for some time.  Nothing has been easy with these two.  Well, except nursing for the first year.  After that we just went downhill.  Carter didn't like baby food and had oral aversion as a baby (usually only found in kids who had breathing tubes- not him). The first few years he had a sensitivity to milk and an allergy to apples (I ate applesauce everyday of my pregnancy- don't recommend it). Then he had a crazy virus at 2 years that led to an array of health and feeding issues.  Then he entered food therapy for his small size and lack of interest in food at 4 years. (He honestly sees eating as a waste of time.)  And now Julia's cancer and chemo.  I say all this, not for pity, but because its hard to keep a positive outlook when all the parenting books and advice go out the window. This appears to be where we live in the feeding department.  It seems we are always trying to undo habits or create new ones.  The one bright spot in our family is that our kids' natural desires are for healthy foods, though in random combinations.  So I guess we can just pray that in the end they both come out with some sort of healthy eating habits- as odd as they may seem now...  and try to think about it as little as possible.    

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Today we headed to the dentist.  It is one of their favorite places to go, which really says a lot for this office.  They were incredibly helpful in working with us to make this possible for Julia with her health.  They both did great and got good reports.

They are both so cooperative and agreeable, which just adds to the doting by the staff, and makes the kids' day even better.  They look so cute in their little sunglasses...




We spent the rest of our rainy day reading books, doing schoolwork, playing musical instruments, doing teaching trays, and playing board games.  And the whining and screaming was minimal.  We are hopeful that this week will be better than last.  She goes in for labs on Thursday and we'll find out where she stands.  Hopefully we haven't lost too much ground with this most recent treatment.

Now they are both sleeping peacefully.  Julia actually fell asleep in my arms as I read her books...

I love the way Carter 'tucks in' everyone in his bed and hugs his bear...

...even the upper deck fans get a blanket :)

So now we're off to sleep, thankful for a better day, and hopeful for tomorrow.  Praising God for all He's teaching us through these trials and seizing the joy in each day...

End of the Weekend

It's been a good weekend around here. Carter had a great end to the week... Thursday at the pool for playgroup, Friday at the water park, Saturday playing baseball with Daddy, today in his new kindergarten class at church, and tonight at the last Sunday night Hopper's baseball game. It was his kind of weekend! (Thanks to all of you who took him along with you!)

Julia stayed in- and I say with mixed emotions- she is fine with that. It can only be by the grace of God that a 3 year old can watch their brother climb into a van with her best friends and head off to the water park for a day of fun and dippin' dots and just wave and smile. She continually amazes me. She has been feeling pretty good. She still has the jaw and teeth pain and gnaws on her hands a lot. Her appetite has been insatiable, unfortunately her desires are hard to determine. When we do find something though, things are good. Her requests for food come about every 20 minutes, like clockwork. I don't know where she puts it!

She has been fever-free all week. Thanks for your prayers! She is still compliantly wearing her mask, though she hasn't really left the house much. Tomorrow we head back to the hospital. They don't expect her blood counts to be high enough for chemo, but she's due for her weekly physical and labs, so we will see...

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And we had a major breakthrough this week. Look who cleaned his plate!! ....

.......FOUR nights in a row!!!

Those of you familiar with Carter's eating issues know how utterly amazing this is. This is the kid who survives and thrives on water and air.

A little history... He had a severe GI virus for 6 weeks when he was 2 that caused him to lose 20% of his body weight, stop eating, and get really sick. This created numerous issues that combined with his small size, picky eating habits, etc. created a perfect storm. Here's what our meal times used to look like in some earlier attempts at meal times. He spent time in food therapy and was released last spring. They were really a great resource (didn't mean to make it sound like jail!). He's been doing so much better, but this is a first for us. Our little 40lb, almost 6 year old, must be growing :)

Chemo Diet

The doctors have been intrigued that Julia has not struggled with constipation from her chemotherapy drugs. She is one of the only kids they have ever seen on vincristine without chronic constipation. They have been asking about her diet, so we decided to keep track. Don't know if it holds the secret or not, but it works for her.

She has 1-2 days a week when she doesn't eat much of anything. She has definite taste preferences from the meds and some days eats only one or 2 of these items all day long. She has had quite an appetite. Most days she's eating 6-8 small meals a day, sometimes more. We feed her whenever she's hungry and follow her lead if she doesn't want to eat. She hasn't lost any weight so far. Here's her list...

40-50oz water daily (she can't tolerate drinking anything else since chemo started)
Grape Nuts cereal
whole wheat toast
wheat waffles with maple syrup
Better Start Light english muffins with PB
crescent rolls
red peppers
raspberries
watermelon
blueberries
apples
mandarin oranges
Danimals yogurt drinks
Danactive yogurt drinks
Yoplait Gogurts (frozen)
corn
rice
Barilla Plus pasta
Campbell's kids' soups (low sodium)
pizza
hard-boiled eggs
steak (once a week)
PB Ritz Bits
Goldfish crackers
Super Pretzels
smoothies
vanilla ice cream

Daily supplements:
Centrum Kids vitamins
Calcium Gummy Bears
Coromega supplements
Primadophilus Children (probiotics), added to her water

Recipes...

Some of you know that I also started a recipe blog recently. It has become my online recipe book. The great thing is I can access it anywhere I have internet. No more toting the notecards and binders around. It's also so easy to tell people where to go to find them without having to send an email every time. (There's also a link in the sidebar on this blog.)

I tried two new ones today that I just had to share...

The first is Emily's Basil Shrimp with Feta. It is divine! Shana and I had the most amazing lunch today. It is easy, can be prepped ahead, healthy, delicious, perfect for a quick dinner or company. I must confess we were both licking our packets by the end wishing there was more. It's that good! (And shrimp is on VIC special this week, so you'll only have to spend $3 on the meat!)

Dean stopped by the other night with some fresh mahi mahi (like he actually caught it in the ocean and cleaned it himself). Now that's fresh! I had never cooked it before, so off to food network.com. We made Alton Brown's Nut Crusted Mahi. It was delicious. Billy is not a seafood eater and I have slowly brought him around fish by fish. This one has a great smooth texture and wonderful flavor! He even had seconds!

So check them out and if you have any of your own favorite recipes... you know those recipes you use over and over, pull out whenever you have company, or are always getting requests for- please leave them in the comments. I'd love to add them to the blog!

What's On My Tot's Plate?

This new site has quickly become one of my favorite resources for all kinds of information and inspiration. There's something for everyone. One of their newest features is healthy foods for your tot.

Here' is one of Julia's (34 months) recent lunches...

She is a big avocado lover. I fed them to both my kids as infants. It is believed to be one of the world's perfect foods. And I love the way God packaged them- self-contained, perfect texture for all ages, ready to eat, full of healthy fats, and it even comes in it's own feeding dish :) I cut them in half and save the other half (with the pit still in) in tupperware for the next meal- that is if I didn't eat it myself. Now as she's gotten older she loves that she can scoop it out and feed it to herself.

The raspberries are one of her favorite fruits (along with blackberries, strawberries, and frozen blueberries). We buy ours at Costco and on more than one occasion she has eaten the entire container by the time we checkout! The cashier always asks why we're buying an empty one.

We are big fans of the Barilla Plus noodles. Neither of my children are big meat eaters. I love that they have enriched these with protein and omega-3s. They quickly became a lunch staple at our house.

The smoothie is one of my own concotions:

• 1/4c. Dole frozen wild blueberries
  
• 1 banana (overripe, I keep a bag of them in the freezer)
• 1/4c. frozen strawberries (or any other fruit- canned or fresh)
• 2T ground flaxseed (I love that Walmart sells the organic one now! Keep in the freezer.)
• 1/2c. Stonyfield vanilla yogurt
• 8oz water/ice
• 2oz pomegrante or orange juice
• 1 scoop fiber powder
• 1t probiotic powder (from a healthfood store), optional
  

It has been great for my kids as a quick breakfast on the go or as an appetizer while I'm making dinner. It packs a nutritional punch on many levels. My husband and I enjoy them, too. It also keeps well in the refrigerator- just shake before serving. It usually takes two meals for her to finish the cup pictured. (The cup in the picture is a Nuby, but I have snipped the inside of the spout to accomodate a thick beverage. My older son drinks it out of a Tupperware kids' cup with lid.)

The Dole frozen wild blueberries are great by themselves, too. My kids love to eat them, still frozen, with a spoon. They are a good fruit during the winter months when choices are limited. They have a very high level of antioxidants- 50% more than regular blueberries- and more than any other fruit!

Pajama Picnic

Mondays are the one day of the week we don't have to leave the house. We've started having school in our pjs which everyone loves. We spend the morning working upstairs, then the kids play in their tent while I make lunch. Several weeks ago, they asked if they could have lunch in the playroom in their tent. I couldn't think of as good reason not to, and they actually ate really well. So now it has become a Monday tradition to camp out and picnic in the playroom in our pjs. It's so funny to think how things like this get started :)


And even better, my kitchen floor doesn't end up looking like this...... at least until dinner time :)

The Family Table

There have been numerous recent studies on the benefits of family's eating dinner together- even just three nights a week. It has been attributed to reduce chances of alcohol and drug abuse, better social skills, less rebellious teenage behavior, and now earlier and more proficient reading skills. As Betsy Shaw (a favorite blogger) pointed out though apparently these studies were not performed at my house because the educational benefits of our meals are a hard stretch.
The typical meal:

• Julia is hungry before dinner is close to ready, so I cook most meals while filling her tray with bits of food that in the end will equal dinner.
• Next I work on Carter's plate. Ah yes, is it really time to feed him again? I feel tremendous mommy guilt about the angst I feel about having to feed this kid 3 meals a day plus snacks. I honestly feel he's found a way to survive and thrive on oxygen alone. He eats about 10 foods (OJ, plain noodles- with visible salt, baby carrots, frozen blueberries, pizza- only from a restaurant, stir fry zucchini- with chopsticks, white rice- with butter, miso soup, peach soy yogurt- only with orange spoon, red danimals with monkey picture, PB granola bars- has to see the wrapper to prove it's the right one, milk- flavored with coffee, pistachios, toast- cool with visible butter, and dry golden grahams) And note these are the things he may eat- there are no guarantees. He will absolutely refuse these things on many occasions. He seems to eat about every 3 days. I digress...
• I put our food on the table.
• Call everyone to dinner. Carter puts up a fight because "he's not hungry", never is- except those absolutely rare moments when hunger strikes and we are far from civilization and out of snacks, then he's hungry. Finally sits and lets us know this is not what he wants.
  
• Attempt to bless the food. Carter used to love this. Now he wants to do it, but says it silently so no one can hear. Hubby blesses the food, then Carter does it, and we launch into a discussion of whether the food and God heard what he said.
• Get up to get Julia refills.
• Get up to get Carter the "required piece of silverware" (different for every food item).
• Put food on my plate.
• Get up to get something off stove.
• Start to eat.
• Carter wants his food warmed back up. He's into this ideal temperature thing and I still have no clue what that temperature is, I just know it's not usually the way I present it. So back to the microwave for warmer, but not too warm. (This must be what all those years of science labs were for - picky preschoolers :)
  
• Julia starts to drop food on the floor.
• Get up to get more napkins.
• Ask hubby about work. Start to have discussion.
• Carter asks to be excused. Try to coax him to eat without using bribes or ultimatums.
• Julia points to fridge yelling something I can't understand. Start to guess. Strike out 8 times. Get up to try to find it for her- no luck.
• Give up. Sit back down and try to eat.
• Carter asks to be excused again, clears his still full plate and starts begging for someone to go outside and play with him. We explain, again, that we are eating and we like to eat and actually need to eat.
• Julia is still yelling. Finally get up and take her to fridge to show me what she wants.
• Get her back in the high chair and sit down again.
• Hubby is finished and starts dishes.
• Julia wants down and needs to be cleaned up.
• I still haven't eaten. I try to finish my lukewarm food and then get back down to pick up crumbs and scrub stickiness off the floors, chairs, and walls.

Was there even conversation?! Maybe it's just the effort that has an impact. Experts emphasize the importance of setting high expectations for our children. Maybe our kids can sense our intentions. That's a comforting thought for us as parents. Especially us moms who search for meaning on our knees as we're chiseling the food off the floor, for the 10th time today. I guess the important part is to remember to pray when we're down there and to look up because our Heavenly Father has the perfect intentions and expectations for us- His children.