Cozy time

Lily isn't so into being held by Luke, but he sure loves holding her.

"But MOM, I love her," is the immediate response after I ask him to not drag-her-squeeze-her-lay-on-her-having-her-lay-on-him, etc.

Luke wasn't feeling awesome and said Lily would make him feel better.  They both have their lovies.  Love them.

The last day in January, my first born turned five. FIVE, I TELL YOU.  Bizarre.  I still found it hard to believe.  Since it was a school day, we decided to have a small celebration that night before we celebrated at his birthday party that weekend.  I surprised him with a trip to Whole Foods for a fancy-schmancy cupcake.  He picked a big ol' chocolate cookies 'n' cream cupcake. 

Daddy sure keeps him laughing.

Blowing out the candles, making a wish!

Daddy teasing Luke, stealing his cookie.

Lily was fascinated by the exchange.

My two favorite boys.

 

 

Luke was allowed to eat 1/4 of the cupcake.  He's so funny - he was bound and determined to eat it all the next day, but completely forgot about it.  Silver lining for ADHD? He is forgetful when it counts.

Paleo-ness

So a few months ago, Todd and I started really thinking about solutions to a few problems we're having in our family.

1) I swear I will never lose this baby weight (and then some).
2) Is there a correlation (causal or otherwise) between Luke's ADHD/ODD and diet?

I started doing some research and found that there is research done on food dyes/preservatives/additives and how it can affect behavior.

Paleo diet was a possible solution.

We have been on Paleo for a few months now and we have seen quite a difference.  Paleo is fairly straightforward - eat like a caveman (paleolithic).  So no bread, legumes, dairy.  It is gluten free, grain free, etc.  Nothing processed, nothing from a box.  All fresh veggies, some fruit, nuts, fresh/wild protein: beef, chicken, lamb, pork, fish, etc.  Organic as much as possible.

Cost wise, we do what we can.  It can't always be organic, it can't always be wild, pole caught, free range, etc.  A lot of cooking. Nothing easy. Lots of dishes. I hate dishes.

I miss pasta and bread. And sandwiches and cereal. 

But I love that I don't eat as much.  I'm simply not as hungry as I used to be.  Apparently that is from refined grains.  I love that I feel better, top to bottom.

I have eaten more vegetables in the last two months than in years.  So it's a good thing.  We've been a little more flex since I had my surgery.  I am the grocery shopper, so I've been out of commission.  We've playing a little fast and loose with our meals, but we'll get back on track by next week.

The results? I've lost about 20 lbs and so has Todd.  Luke has gotten thinner and leaner (which I'm not thrilled with) but his behavior has improved.  He is aware that he is off food dyes, though we are not strict about gluten with him.  He wouldn't eat lunch otherwise - he the PB&J King.  He has gotten pretty good about knowing what he can and cannot have, though he will ask.  It's actually pretty cute.  He'll hold something up and shout, "IS THIS ALLERGIC TO ME??"  He knows that chocolate is an okay food :)

It is definitely a lifestyle change that I'm happy with, but I know I can't be without bread forever.  It will be an "occasional" food, not an all the time restriction.  Todd is a LOT closer to his goal weight.  I feel like I'm an eternity away.  But I know that I'm better than where I was.

Keep it up Bickel family! 

We have seen a huge impact

Luke is doing . . . well.

So things have been going well . . . a few days before Easter, we received this note in Luke's belongings.  We were so thrilled! Bless those teachers . . . they are working magic on him.  Though I'll admit, it makes me feel more trepidation about leaving when he is going into kindergarten this year.  He was so proud of himself.

We would like to get to a point where we are so surprised when he does well.  We would like it to be a norm instead of an exception.  Will we ever get there? Will we have an opportunity to get there? Who knows. We'll live this up :)

Unfortunately, this week hasn't been as successful.  He has been "bothering" his friends (he can be pretty trying) and his friends then don't want to play with him.  And then he cries. That's new.

The teachers have been telling me all week that he has been really "sensitive" lately, crying easily about getting his feelings hurt.  I think that the sleep thing is a problem - he is still waking up a bunch (hearing noises at night) and taking a long time to go back to sleep, if at all.  I think he was so worried about me in surgery ("How did they put you back together, Mommy?" "With glue, sweetie.")  and he just is terribly emotional.

But Luke is still motivated to earn stickers (woo hoo!) and we're giving those away like candy.

I'm so proud of my boy. :)

Minus one appendix.

You know I can't simply go on  with my life if I haven't taken a jaunt over to the ER or had some sort of surgery for a few months at a time.  So I thought I'd have some appendicitis and take that sucker right on out. :)

A few weeks ago, about an hour out of lunch, I started having some indigestion.  I figured I didn't put my lunch (leftovers) in the fridge at work and was paying for it, digestively speaking.  It didn't go away, but I powered through because that's what I do.  It was the second day of a three day, 12 hour work day (a Thursday, 7:30-7:30) and I just couldn't leave.  I didn't eat very much at dinner and the science fair was awful. So many people, so much heat . . . bleh.  My boss told me to go home (made it out 15 minutes early - woo hoo!) and called the advice nurse on my way home.  By that point, the pain had localized to my lower right side and I had a feeling it was my appendix.  The nurse said it could be either my appendix or an ovarian cyst and scheduled an appointment for the next morning, around 10 am.

The next morning I headed into work (ready for the third of the 12 hour work days) and promptly postponed my appointment.  (What?!? I know, I'm crazy.) The pain hadn't lessened, but it hadn't gotten worse and I had a ton of work to do to prepare for Family Night at school that night.  I was the one organizing/running it and there was simply a ton to do.  So I worked, I even subbed for a teacher who went home ill :)  Go figure.

I knew that I wouldn't be coming back to work after my appointment, so I simply had to get as much done as possible. *sigh*

So I went to the doctor (random, not mine) and she had terrible bedside manner.  She mostly thought that I had constipation (seriously) and I was mortified that anyone would think I would go to the doctor for constipation.   But she decided to check me into the ER as a precaution.  They admitted me and mushed around on my belly. Which hurt. A lot.  Even more strange? They would push on my left side and my RIGHT side would hurt. Bizarre.  So I had a CT scan and surprise! Infected appendix.  Time for surgery!

At this point, I was by myself, Todd was with the kids and I like to do the ER thing solo. :)

After I spoke with the surgeon, she said that I should be able to go home in the morning.  I said that I would be good to go back to work on Monday and she laughed at me. Rude. 

The pre-op nurse asked me how old I was, he said I looked 16! Score! I felt pretty old and haggard, especially prior to surgery, but I appreciated the compliment. 

Anyways, my mom came after that and I went into surgery by 9 pm.  I was done by 10:30 pm and left to go home by 11:30 pm. Because I wanted to and that's how it is.

The good news is that it was a simple procedure and I've had no complications.  The path came back fine/normal on my appendix and I'm all better. I had last week off and this week is our spring break, which gives me a good couple weeks of full recovery.

Who knows what I'll head into the ER for in the next few months!