Kids
Friday, May 09, 2008
Jay: Like Flipping a Switch
Just a quick update before the baby finishes waking after going on a three hour nap.
Valerie had no milk this morning.
It’s been like flipping a switch and turning the bladder control issue off.
She still had less coffee in it that had been the case, but I gave her coffee the way we would if we were out of milk, using a bunch of dry creamer and then diluting most of the glass with cold water.
Its possible it’s also other food factors, which yesterday saw the beginning of reducing for her (I created a dish for supper that even the baby could eat, which was so delicious it needs a write-up… if only I had a food blog- oh wait!), but milk would seem to be the big thing.
Update:
Of course, the peetastic one having greater control means she can be far more spectacular at the angry house cat thing that she’d been exhibiting as well, from before she completely lost it. In this case I suspect she was mad at Sadie for hogging my computer, but they’re both banished from sitting in my desk chair again. I might be able to sit in it with the giant bath towel folded on it, after having used two other towels to sop it up first. I’ve never seen her produce that kind of output other than in the potty. She was clearly holding it and released on demand, which her smirk seemed to confirm.
Wednesday, May 07, 2008
Jay: Food Sensitivities
You all know that Henry has food sensitivities. Those see to be multifaceted, depending how observationally off some of it may have been.
Milk is in a class of its own. He appeared to get an immediate rash where milk touched his skin, and if he drinks milk - but it’s always in the form of coffee or strawberry milk his sisters have left where he can reach - he gets itchy and miserable to the point of needing Benadryl shortly after.
Bananas are in a class of their own, potentially related to latex allergies.
Everything else seems to relate to salicylates. If you search for salicylate sensitivity, you can get an idea the foods involved, which can vary by person, variety, location where grown, and manner of processing. Pears are about as safe as it gets, and he can demonstrably eat canned pear halves in heavy syrup without issue. However, he just as demonstrably can’t drink pear juice, which is concentrated and isn’t carefully segregated from the peel in processing. Pear was an expensive substitute for apple, which we’d been giving him as a safe food and juice nobody could ever be allergic to, and the absence of which for two days unintentionally made him heal as fully as he’s done since he started eating food. Grape juice was a clear reaction. Consume it, wait briefly, go crazed with rash and itching.
Foods he reacts to also seem not to digest well.
At this point, he can eat meat, rice, oatmeal, white sugar, water, butternut, potatoes, carrots and sweet potatoes, but those last two are relatively high and we may be setting him off if we give him too much at once. Probably forgot something there.
He has no overt allergy, apparently, to peanut butter, eggs, corn, or wheat. He did get especially itchy the other day after eating Play-Doh, but not sure it was that, and obviously that’s a big exception.
All of this is confused by the fact he scratches as if he’s itchy when he gets sleepy, and apparently when he’s in pain. He also gets worst drool rash ever.
A lot of dried herbs/spices are a problem. We noticed a possible correlation for the first time the other day when he got some of the outside of chicken that was heavy on black pepper, as well as having some other things on it.
So that’s him. What was interesting is researching and realizing I may have the same sensitivity to some degree, and that it could be the answer to a range of symptoms over my life that include the mystery skin pigmentation and bladder urgency and, when I was little, bed wetting. It’s made me curious about details of my diet when I was a kid in the bed wetting stage.
Which Valerie is in, and we might have chalked up to her age, except it’s gotten to be total loss of control at random. In the last couple days, we seem to have proven a correlation between stuff that’s part of the same sensitivity, and Valerie’s issues. She gets mysterious headaches, perhaps more of them than we realize, as well as having the bladder issues. She also went from being the happiest baby to being rather somber, which made me wonder about the extent of the headaches or if there’s other pain. It’s painful to hear here declare “I’m a happy girl” in a tone that sounds the opposite, like she’s trying to convince us and herself it’s not the end of the world.
This could also be completely unrelated, but I had her doing well for several hours the other day, with the change seemingly triggered by consumption of pear juice and Cran-Apple. Ironically, in an effort to keep her more hydrated, to reduce the problems.
As far as we can tell, the closest Sadie has come to any of this is developing contact rashes from tomato-based products touching her face. She seems to be able to eat or drink anything with impunity.
So. We’re not necessarily going on a crash elimination diet for three of us, but we are going to start changing what Valerie in particular gets, monitoring specifically what happens.
Monday, May 05, 2008
Jay: Much to Say
But if I start typing, I risk the kids coming unglued. In a way it’s gone fine, Deb being at work while I’m with the kids. At least, if doing anything useful - at least in chunks longer than 3 minutes - is not desired. Also, working on the house seems to go over better than working on work, even if that runs the risk of “help” or at least being a human moth magnet.
Henry fell asleep repeatedly over lunch, then refused to nap and revived completely by the time I had him cleaned up. I cleverly put lunch on the table for the girls, so they’d be at the opposite end of the house while I put him to sleep, so instead they followed us into the bedroom. Which didn’t matter, because he was openly amused with my antics, thought I was a funny guy, thinking he’d nap.
In a way this isn’t much different from normal, in that there are stretches of peace, but I never know when I will be interrupted or how long I have at once to write, think, code, design, plan, whatever.
I managed to keep them from letting him get any milk, and so far any juice, so that’s a plus.
The idea is for me to do this and that and piece together a living here, while Deb spends a lot of scheduled shifts out of the house, which also constitutes a mental health break. Any running around or seeing clients in person would work around her schedule or get covered by brief, as-needed babysitting.
However, we also talked about the idea of having someone like my mother come here for extended times even while I am not scheduled to leave, so allow me to get things done, while not having the kids alone for long periods without backup. That’s looking better and better.
Okay, gotta check on them…
Saturday, May 03, 2008
Jay: Farming
We have the option of planting stuff on a small patch out back. We’re talking maybe 3 tomato plants of decent size and maybe a couple other odds and ends, depending how much of the false bamboo I want to try to eradicate. I was thinking that we could throw some stuff in containers on top of where the bamboo grows, effectively quashing it, but that begs the question of what for containers.
So I’m trying to decide whether to buy seeds and such and start tomatoes inside, or if I should just buy some. Trouble is, a flat typically has more plants than I think I can fit, so I’d probably want to share with someone. That and trying to decide what else. Tomatoes are obvious, and reasonably compact. The neighbor has promoted the idea of cucumbers, but those take more space. Though it could be fun to plant something that roams and encourage it to encroach on the bamboo. Peppers are fussy, in my experience. I don’t care for leaf lettuce.
Anyway, half the reason for this is the kids - teaching them how stuff is raised, and where things like tomatoes come from. Sadie will think it’s cool.
Friday, May 02, 2008
Jay: Sunday
Was supposed to be the annual Easter egg hunt for the little kids, at my grandmother’s house, but I don’t even need to discuss it with anyone to know it’s off. The weather is, well, the kind of weather that makes us do this well after actual Easter in the first place. Cold. Rainy. Completely unsuited to scampering around the yard on a search and consume mission for plastic eggs and their contents.
My mother would be handy in a drought. Pick a day, have her plan an outdoor event on it, and voila, rain. It’s very nearly uncanny.
Thursday, May 01, 2008
Jay: Blargh
I feel lousy this morning. Got enough sleep, even if much of it was in Sadie’s bed because she apparently decided our bed would be better and warmer. Well, “even if” makes her bed sound bad, and actually it’s awesome. I may have gotten deeper sleep there. I noticed Valerie eventually abandoned her bed too, presumably joining the crowd in ours.
I woke up from one of those crazy mashed up dreams. It involved starting a job, and the place or aspects brought in elements of multiple past employers and situations. The place was named Halliday, which is one job. The lobby was right out of Corporate Software, which later became Stream. I was supposed to start at $8.00 an hour, which happens to be minimum wage in Massachusetts currently. I speculated they might start at slightly higher, which Flatley Company did when I worked at Waterford Village. Minimum wage then was $2.90 and they paid $3.00. Then minimum wage went to $3.10 and they paid… $3.10, which completely destroyed some notions I had.
I was talking with someone, speculating that the company might pay me a little above the minimum. Sure enough, it was going to be $8.02, which somehow morphed into the exact same thing as the $12.02 I started at with Corporate Software. Anyway, even the reference to pay rate is a reference back to prior jobs.
The exterior of the building was some kind of generic cross between places, hard to say one more than another, but there might have been elements of a Christy’s Market, adding another old job.
Later, when I was on the job, there was a scene in an apartment. Apparently apartments were part of what the place did, which goes back to Waterford Village. It was vacant, had been mine, still had some of my stuff in it, and was not going to be rented any time soon. This was like the office I had in Easton, which took me a month extra to move out of after the last official month, with them in no hurry for it. A guy named Matthew showed up in the dream. We once shared an apartment in Greenfield, and I was telling him he might soon want to get his stuff out of this one that he’d left it in with me. He hadn’t even realized I’d moved. Shades of former partners having left stuff in the office in Easton, which had to go to them, be disposed of, be adopted, or be stored.
Confusingly, in a related sequence, I was showing someone how many bookcases I was going to be able to fit, in a ridiculous arrangement, in just the entryway/kitchen area alone. The someone was an amalgamation of a former partner and someone I didn’t work closely with at Stream, but who was similarly brilliant.
Very strange. I also remember thinking that I could crash in the apartment if needed, like if I needed to stay over at work since the place was vacant, I had access to it, and they’d made me welcome to use it, short of actually moving in.
Lots of stuff to do today. Hope I can remember what it is! I have some e-mailing and calling and going and researching and writing and food storing and cleaning and organizing and so forth to be done.
We received a book yesterday that we’d order super cheap from Half.com, a used copy of Teach Your Child To Read In 100 Easy Lessons. I need to do more than skim the intro, but it should be interesting. Sadie is beyond ready. She fell asleep last night with a book named “Ted” open, pages down on her chest. She studies and recites books from memory. She knows the letters. She has an idea of some words, like the Q thing she identifies with closing a program (Quit), that made he so excited to learn about how q and u go together.
This morning she spent some time on my lap while I didn’t write and I did an impromptu tiny lesson on m and s, which are the first ones covered in the book. She can point them out on the keyboard (and sound like I’m stupid to ask her) and I had her say the sounds. The actual lessons take about 15 minutes. Not a bad amount of time to devote, once or twice a day. I doubt she’ll need the whole thing or want to be held back to that speed once we’re rolling.
Anyway, I need to go take care of stuff in the kitchen. And post the birthday I didn’t know about before I started this. Sooner or later I’ll have no birthday-free days.
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Jay: Thinking Aloud
This is an exercise in helping me figure out what I am going to tackle today, and beyond, and wrap my head around what awaits my attention before I get all scattered.
I probably don’t need to mention the usual dishes to wash or load into dishwasher, of which there are relatively few because I’d caught up. I’ll want to just almost from this post right to the shower, so Deb can do laundry if her back is up to it. Poor back. (Sounds like it’s not.) Going to the store simply is, without option to avoid it. I could go to the bank while I’m out.
I have to take the registry thing to the town hall for an abatement on one of the excise tax bills, and pay the two of them. That needs to precede any visit to the registry, which needs to be preceded by contact with the insurance company. In Texas. Which probably means simply not possible to register car this week, before the gathering Sunday. Annoying. Also annoying that said gathering is at the same time as something else we were invited to first, which worst case I could have gone to with Sadie alone, since she’s the one near Dale in age, and it’s his birthday party.
I have e-mails to answer. Some are going on two weeks old.
We’re expecting my father to swing by late in the day, so I have to plan around that, even for a quick drop off of some stuff. That influences the timing of errands.
Yesterday I discussed a web site update with the former big client, who has realized that my original preference on something was right. I’d proposed to them a month to month flat fee for site maintenance and updates covering most anything short of a complete redo, since it’s not covered under the current support contract they have and I did the original based on their marketing/design person’s plan. They managed to get me to do a one shot update for the monthly rate, which ended up working out to no more than $12 an hour and required a ton of waiting. That’s long paid, but the last tiny bit is still not done, waiting for a photo. Obviously I am not going to make another change, which could involve changing every page, without another modest fee. I suggested an additional change to include and will hear back eventually.
I did site backups across the empire and was going to update WordPress on all the blogs that use it, starting with Dan’s, which I didn’t update last time. I was falling asleep at my desk last night when about to do that, so figured I’d better wait. I’ll want to do those before much time passes, so I don’t feel like I must do the backups over again.
I have some paying work I need to get cracking on, which among other things will require me to get more familiar with RSS. I have dabbled with RSS readers myself, but none have “stuck” and I always revert to reading from links. How 2003 of me! I guess I need a reader I like enough, and then to be careful what I include, or to be able to categorize it well. I could almost see an automated system being useful, so your daily reads would appear every day, keyworded stuff would appear daily even if it’s not a daily read, and a measured amount of “check weekly” and “check monthly” stuff would automatically be included in your daily reading, perhaps varied by day, so if you want to do more reading on the weekend, it can play catch up then.
That probably exists.
I also need to learn all there is to know about measuring RSS feeds subscribed/read for a given site. Heck, I have no idea how many people read us that way.
Thoughts? Suggestions?
Perhaps I can fit in some of that project today.
I also need to work with/learn more about Facebook and some of those.
I’m still on the office reorganization, which spills into the kitchen, where I still have stuff on the table that was once in the office. That seems to work okay by pecking away at it, like when I crave physical work and need to get up from the computer.
Shoot, that about covers today, doesn’t it? Not even getting into posts to write, my book/series of posts idea to work on while timely, CotC, the business site needing updating, etc. and so forth.
Well, off to it. Don’t be alarmed it there’s a lack of posts or if I revert to drive-by commentary.
Sunday, April 27, 2008
Jay: The Luckier Away Team Members
Saturday, April 26, 2008
Jay: Henry Being Lively
Jay: Poor Henry
He had one of his worst breakouts last night. What changed? We gave him pear juice as a replacement for apple and grape. It should be safer. What I gave him wasn’t watered down as much as we usually do. Traditionally the purpose of juice for us has been to make water taste better for the kids. Luckily, he has always liked plain cold water.
The thing is, after deciding it had been the pear juice, with a chance it could have been beef, pork, or some random thing (caught him sucking on a raisin at one point, snagged from where it had fallen from the table to Sadie’s chair), it turned out Sadie had left a cup of strawberry milk on the floor where we wouldn’t see it readily, but Henry might easily have gotten into it. That’s candle to moth. I took Valerie’s cup away before he could drink any coffee milk from it, disappointing him at one point. If he finds them he will drink from them. It’s time to make the girls drink at the table, period. They’ve already gotten used to eating only at the table with few exceptions.
None of which explains why during the night I started itching like crazy, and haven’t entirely stopped. That could mean something that bothers me is bothering him, so is it food we both ate, soap I used, or what? Or is it coincidence?
On another note, Deb found dairy-free margarine, the trick to which was getting the “light” variety, completely soy based. It’s not very good, and expressly says not to use it in cooking, but at least it’s something.
Thursday, April 24, 2008
Jay: Preoccupied
I was working on a post about recent work experiences, but decided I’d cut to a this and that post and save the other for later.
Things got more interesting again with the baby. Henry is apparently allergic to milk. He got into a sippy cup one of the girls had, got a meaningful amount, and where it dribbled down his front, he got contact hives.
So we are up to milk and presumably milk products, with it all the clearer the big incident was cheese-related, bananas, apples, grapes, juice of the above, apparently broccoli, and I could swear I’m forgetting something else. The seems to be able to eat/touch column includes rice, oatmeal, potatoes, chicken, beef, pork, butternut, carrots, and sweet potatoes. We’re reasonably confident about pear. He tasted Valerie’s cranberry strawberry juice today with no obvious or immediate consequences, but hard to say. The girls aren’t going to be easy to train. I got cranberry specifically because we know apple and grape juices are bad, and in case it’s good for Val’s urinary system. At the same time, wanting it so tasty she drinks plenty and stays hydrated.
Good thing he loves rice cakes.
This means Deb is back off dairy again, and I’ll avoid it for cooking anything we’ll all eat. We really need to find margarine that contains no dairy products.
I have so much on my plate, I’m lucky to slip in a post. I had a crazy, way underpaid bit of work Sunday and Monday. I helped someone with a computer speedup and de-infestation yesterday. Apparently I have some big fans at the old stomping grounds. The bit of work yesterday might lead to more. I have some work we’re calling tech-marketing that I need to ramp up and spend some real time on, getting a handle on it. The cool thing is it reminds me of my favorite college class, which was named management seminar, and was a graduate-style case course on strategic management and, by extension, business development. It’s like being handed a case to work on for real. There’s some writing work still pending, which I need to check on, status-wise.
There’s everything being made interesting due to the baby’s medical/diet issues.
There’s an ongoing, fits and starts reorganization and cleanup of the office and the house generally, purging stuff we don’t need, traveling a bit lighter.
There’s the project of thanking all the awesome people who donated to us recently, which is up near the top of the priority list for today.
There’s marketing. It looks increasingly like I may be able to piece together a living from this and that, and may be able to do that and spend a lot of time on the home front, while Deb has the potential of some supplemental outside work. However, the marketing includes of her, on the idea we can both do this and that without more than part time or hit and run outside the house work.
So that’s the stuff I’m working on or concerned with, that may mean a post is slow to appear if it’s somewhat extraneous.
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Jay: A Post
Here is a post. A simple post. There are kids. And an interview. And stuff to tend. Thus there may be a longer post later, but this will have to do for now. I do want to tell you about my adventures in sub-sub-subcontracting and such, so we’ll see what I can finish writing later. Meanwhile, Henry seems to be offended by the air surrounding him, or the presence of the floor, or something. Again.
Sunday, April 20, 2008
Jay: Valerie the Naturalist
Jay: Three Girls
Sadie, cousin Julia, and Valerie down by Cape Code Canal.
Jay: Well Prracticed
Neatly Tangled at Etsy
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