2nd Swallow Study

A few weeks ago Brianne had her second swallow study. This time the milk was thickened to a honey consistency--which is what she's been eating for a few weeks prior to the study. I was hoping that this simple trick of thickening the milk would cure the problem of her asperating. Yep!! it did the trick! however, another problem presented itself.... She has reflux--only the milk doesn't come all the way up her esphogus and out her mouth so I never saw or knew about it. I'm now giving her Previcid solutabs (mixed in with her cereal)

With all this knowledge, we still don't know why Brianne isn't able to maintain normal oxygen saturation rates. She's still in the high 70's low 80's with out oxygen; although, I sometimes do take her off oxygen (as per pulminologist doc's orders) and sometime she does breathe well on her own with rates in the low 90's. I guess that is some improvement---but I'll sure be glad to give back all the oxygen support equipment when she's able to breathe well on her own.
Till then I'm very grateful for xantham gum (what I use to thicken her milk with) as it's virtually calorie free. The thickener I used for a few weeks added 200+ calories each day. The speech therapist that administered the swallow study was the same one that gave the first study. She was thrilled to see Brianne so chunky and full of rolls in all the right places. Hopefully she'll not recommend a g-tube this time.

A Sweet Day

The email was titled--Chocolate Fun--and it was from a friend who is an awesome cook, so I was intrigued. I read...."my girls and I are going to Nancy's Candy factory to see how candy is made join us if you can."

Mmmm, I'm in! I asked "Is there a cost to the tour?" she replied "it's a candy store, so
the cost is the candy your children make you buy!"

Once we arrive, the kids wait eagerly to enter the store ( we were there with the Paxton's, Walker's, Brame's and Taylor's).....I give my kids a 2 dollar spending limit--unless they brought some of their own, which Connor and Cailin did.

The choices were endless. Nancy's specialties were various kinds of fudge, dipped pretzels and truffles. Connor picks out some candy apple truffles along with some fudge. I get more fudge--grasshopper, white caramel, german chocolate, and raspberry cheesecake fudge.
With candy choices in hand we all go out and enjoy our sugary treats!

What a super idea, Thanks Toni for a sweet escape from the normal day....but wait, the day didn't end there, not far from the candy factory was Mabry Mill along the Blue Ridge Parkway.

So we all hopped in our vans--and enjoy more time with our friends.

Here's the group of kids

A sleeping beauty

There were various exhibits showing how some things were made or done in yester year. I'm so glad that I can run down to Kroger or Walmart to get my soap now!

okay, a random thought here-- I've recently finished reading a wonderful book--"The Gurnsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society" it about the German occupation of the Gurnsey Island in the English Channel during WW2. At one point in the story a woman cried over receiving a homemade bar of soap of lard and ashes. Seeing this recipe reminded me of this. I need to check my long term storage of cleaning supplies! okay random-wierd thought over.

Climbing in the wagon

Connor found an animal trap. He had fun trying to get it to 'trap' a long stick he found to play with.

And this is the sight of a sweet face having a sweet dream.

Cailin's Art Show

During the 1st and 3rd Thursday afternoons this past school year you would have found Cailin and Delaney at another homeschooling friend's home taking art classes.

Cailin had a great time learning about different mediums, perspectives and other art related information (can you tell I'm not versed in the proper grammar of art).

I asked Cailin what her favorite part of art class....what she enjoyed learning about the most...and she tells me "I liked it because my great friend Elsie was in it."

Well there you have it, all the time, effort and money put into a great learning experience, and simple playdates would have sufficed. I'm sure she got more than just that, but, I'm glad she had a great time none the less.

Delaney's Art Show

Delaney also took an art class this past school year.
She had a great time experimenting with different art mediums, expressing herself artistically and of course, spending time with friends.

Here are some of her more favorite paintings.....

Planting our Garden

This was last years garden....

Hopefully our garden this year will be better!!

Clearing the beds this year was quite a chore as they were a tangled mess of dead weeds.

Helping deliver the tomato plants. He sure has loved playing and helping Daddy with yard work using his tonka truck. If you didn't give him something to move around using it...mulch, plants, gravel or the such, he'd get very upset.

Gotta have lots of flowers!

On "Peanut Butter"

I have often wondered if any serious physiological studies have been conducted on the age group of humans known as "Toddlers". They are a group unto themselves. Their way of communicating, interacting, and thinking can be quite bewildering.


I do not think that they are the innocent little beings that they would pass themselves off as.


I have noticed that only moms ( and occasionally primary workers who have been tragically left in nursery too long), can get a look into their world. A few months ago I came face to face with the world of two year old. I think that I am scarred for life.


It stated out rather mundane. I volunteered, or I was voluntold, I forget which, to keep Liam and his best friend Amber Matson, while their mothers were out doing something. I rather foolishly thought that there could not be much trouble. After all, that Amber has the most winning smile.



I don't remember what I was doing at the time. I knew that Liam and Amber were upstairs playing quietly. I guess that should of been my biggest clue that things were going very wrong. I had the impression that I should go and check on them. I unwisely decided that there was not much that they could get into. By the time I realized my mistake, my day had taken a big hit, and two innocent guinea pigs would never be the same.



The Day the Guinea Pigs Cried!



I don't remember just what caught my attention to the front hall. Looking back, I believe it was the soft laughter, like maybe Leprechauns make. I went into the front hallway, and there they stood, hand in hand and smiling. It was kind of like they were going on stage to accept an award.



What caught my eye was what was behind them. A trail of guinea pig poop, shredded paper, held together by guinea Pig urine. It was like some type of demonic yellow brick road, leading up the stairs into the upper bedrooms. I didn't think that Cailin used so much paper for the guinea pigs. Come to think of it, I didn't know that guinea pigs could eat so much.



It took me a lot of time to get things cleaned up. It was the guinea pigs that suffered the most. Little did I understand the trauma they underwent as the toddlers reached into the cage and pulled out all of the...................stuff. I think that the only thing that saved them from leaving the cage was the plastic bottom.



Anyway, the poor things had burrowed down as much as they could to escape the little hands. It took several nights of intense negotiations by the County Hostage Rescue Teams for them to surface at least long enough to determine that they were still in the cage. The poor little things, to this day, when they hear Liam's voice, they just fall apart. It is a heart wrenching thing to see ginny pigs have nervous breakdowns.



I thought that I had the perfect punishment for them. I put them down for a nap. Oh yeah, I showed them-- when they woke up it was too late for me to realized that I had just given them a chance to recharge.



You may ask what all of this had to do with Peanut Butter, well, Liam loves the stuff. He could eat his weight in it. There are times that you ask him a question, and instead of answering you, with a glint in his eye and a cheesey smile he says,"Peanut Butter". At this point he usually laughs and thinks that he is so funny. You may think that it is only toddler nonsense, but I think it is some type of code.

Egg-stronauts and the Space Race

We are coming to the end of our history presentations group gatherings. The last one for this year was on the Space Race...who could fly to the moon first? USA or Russia?
Our presentations were all about space flight, rockets and space, it's self.

We've had quite a year--traveling from the 1850's on through to the present time. Next year, we'll be going back to the beginning--ancient world history.

During most of the presentations Liam was able to listen....however, a little two year old body and sit still for only so long, and he found the toys set aside little hands in the other room. Aaahhh, I have the world in my hands!

Connor's presentations was on the space shuttle--(Connor do you remember the amazing deal for the legos space shuttle you found on line--only to be disappointed when it came?!)

Ryan's presentation was on black holes.

-------------------------

Cailin's presentations was on animals....(of course,) Did you know that animals were the first mammals in space. She talked about Ham the chimpanzee and Lakia the dog plus other little animals--squirrels, fruit flies (okay, not a mammal) and other live creatures.

-------------------------

A seredipitious moment--or should that be, a moment of serendipity came when we got to watch the takeoff of the Space Shuttle Atlantis.

Who knew, that when we had planned our calendar for the year that our unit on the space race would coincide with the launch of the Atlantis.

What an amazing sight.

Enjoying a favorite treat of the astronauts--pudding in a bag.

Place pudding mix and dry milk in a zip lock bag. Add water. Close the bag and gently mix the contents together. Open the bag slightly--just enough to insert a straw. Suck on the straw to eat the yummy pudding inside.
Delaney's presentation was to show the kids how to make a rocket salad. Take a lettuce leaf, top with a pineapple slice. Insert a half of a banana in the center of the pineapple and top with a cherry.
Everyone seemed to enjoy making their own rocket salad...and eat it too!

Refreshments after the presentations are a favorite part of the day. I especially enjoy getting to chat with my friends while the kids go out to play.

At home, we took one morning to have fun with one space related project. I had so many I wanted to do.....alkaseltzer bottle rockets, making comets with dry ice, building our own rockets with various crafting materials...the one we did do was parachuting eggs from the window down to the ground.

Scientist have to find the best way to get 'stuff' or payloads, from the rockets to a destination--like the Eagle to the surface of the moon.
We used an egg as our payload. We then created 3 parachutes of plastic, cloth and paper and experimented with them to see which would safely land our payload--a raw egg from the upstairs window to the ground below.

All three parachutes took 5 seconds to descend and they all got the raw egg to the ground without cracking the egg, but the kids all thought that the paper parachute did the job with more ease.

A quick 5 second travel down......
"Houston, the egg has landed" and not one crack to be had. A sucessful trip!
Yeah, our egg-stronaunts have safely landed.

We also enjoyed watching a few movies related to this time period--October Sky and on netflix one night, we found a silly movie about 3 flies who went a board Apollo 11 for the famous flight to the moon--it was called "Fly Me to the Moon".