Where Dreams Come True

We just got back from our family trip to Disneyland. Kendra was finally able to meet some of the princesses and fairies.

This is Kendra's face as we approached Pixie Hollow.

TinkerBell


Kendra actually talked to her!

Kendra loved Fawn. Fawn is one of the fairies in Tinkerbell's movie.

We saw the princesses first - although Kendra was completely excited, she was somewhat hesitant to meet them and I had to walk up there with her.

Snow White

Sleeping Beauty (my least favorite character that we met). You can tell Kendra wasn't that fond of her either.

Belle - Kenrdra's favorite. Belle did a great job with Kendra!

Kendra was so excited to meet Cinderella!

We took a ton of pictures so I'm still sorting through them. More to come...

Autism Spectrum Disorder

In the 1990s Autism had a rate of 1 in 1400 kids. When I taught school (2003-2006) 1 in every 150 kids had autism. Do you know what it is now? Three years later it is now 1 in 91! The CDC has said the rising rate in autism is because pediatricians, psychologists, etc are able to detect it earlier. So, that's it. Autism is on the rise because it is easier to diagnose.



Why then in 2002 did MERK take out mercury from vaccines after their own researchers in 1991 found that mercury caused neurological damage? And why isn't there any research on aluminum in vaccines? And why is it that chelation can help children with autism?



These are the questions that race through my mind as I debate what shots to give my daughter. Is the risk of pertussis (1 in 50,000) greater than autism (1 in 91)?



Kendra had what I call an autistic regression. I only worked with school aged children who had autism so I wasn't aware of the regression that can take place between 12 and 15 months. I don't know if Kendra truly had autism - I never had her tested and I refused to do so. I didn't want a child with autism. I was taught that autism was a life sentence - there is no cure. It was also the most difficult disorder for me to work with because of the severe behavior.



At 14 months Kendra stopped sleeping, cried all the time, became incredibly irritable, lost her language ability (according to our journal she stopped saying words she previously could say), and became exhausting to me. Her behavior was so outlandish I didn't know what to do. At her 18 month check up her pediatrician suggested she be tested for autism. She acted like a frantic caged monkey. I had already decided that she had sensory processing disorder and decided to go that route first. Each day became a sensory experience for her. Although it was a nightmare, I challenged her constantly - I had to pull her out. Each day we went to new places with new people and new experiences, she hated this, but it had to be done. I did behavior modification with her which broke my heart. It's so much easier to do on someone who isn't your own kid! Four months later her improvement was remarkable. She finally had her evaluation with an occupational therapist - I didn't think she'd qualify but she did. Her therapist was amazing and I watched and replicated everything she did. Four months after therapy began she was a different kid. Everyone could see it.

I found this on a website - I didn't know that sensory integration was one of the basic therapies that could help reverse autism.

The facts are:

√ Children showing remarkable improvements on the gluten and casein free diet.

√ Children show incrediable improvements with chelation (the process of removing heavy metals from the body.)

√ Children are greatly helped by sensory intergration.

√ Children are greatly helped by auditory intergation.

√ Children make good progress in leaving autism behind by doing intensive behavior modification.

Here is a video (it's 30 minutes, but very good) about children who are recovering from autism.

http://www.autismyesterday.com/trailer.html

THE MOST WONDERFUL SOUND

The most wonderful sound to me is listening to Kendra after she is put to bed. She sings, talks, plays with her stuffed animals, and has a great time. I love it. I love listening to her over the monitor. Why is this the most wonderful sound to me? Between 14 and 19 months roughly, Kendra completely wore me out. After being put to bed she would cry and vomit within 10 seconds of crying. It became so awful that Mark and I took turns laying on the floor in her room until she would fall asleep. Then we would sneak out. Looking back I'm not sure how we made it. Kendra is such a delight now - it's wonderful.

I'd Like To Bear My Testimonies

I shot this early on Sunday before Conference began. That is why Kendra is in her pjs and her hair isn't done. :)

The love/hate relationship

Kendra at 4 months

Megan at 3 months

Everyone tells us how similar our girls look. Well, they are sisters! These two pictures show just how much they do look alike.

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Megan handled her shots much better than I had anticipated. I knew for sure she would get sick because I infected her with 5 live rotavirus strains, (not to mention cow blood serum and monkey kidney cells). I was surprised that she didn't get a fever or severe irritability. She did wake up in the middle of the night for the first time in weeks and her cheeks got a little pink, but that was it.

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I have decided that Walmart and I have a love/hate relationship. I love Walmart. I enjoy shopping there for many items, especially baby items because of their great prices. Yet at the same time I hate Walmart. I never can park closer than 100 yards from the door. This is only difficult since one hand carries the carseat while the other hand is holding Kendra's. When I finally make it to the entrance my arm is dying and I can't wait to find a cart. Seems easy enought right? Well, because my little infant will take a ride in the cart I like to have one that has all wheels working properly. This is difficult to find. After the third or fourth cart I give in and decide that all carts at Walmart go bump...bump...bump throughout the store. Megan hates this and eventually protests as I hurry through the shopping. The last time I went to Walmart I needed diapers. I only buy Pampers Swaddlers and to my dismay thay were all out of size 2! They even checked the back for me. I grabbed the other items and walked discouragedly to the check out. I like to use the garden checkout because, even though it doesn't have a sign stating it, the garden checkout is a "20 item or less" checkout. It's just an unspoken rule. Apparently not everyone knows this. I pulled up behind two people in line. No problem. The person checking out handed the cashier the last box of Pampers Swaddlers size 2 diapers! And she obviously didn't care what brand to use because she bought the Parent's Choice diapers as well. Seriously? Couldn't I have that box? And then this person had a cart that reminded me of a clown car. You know that car that is tiny but can hold 20 plus clowns? They just keep coming and coming and you wonder where in the world they fit in there? Her cart didn't look full but she just kept pulling more and more items from there. After ten or so minutes the line at this checkout was so long that the cashier called for backup. When the next cashier came everyone beat me to the next line, so I watched, almost entertained by how much she could fit in that cart. Finally she was done - the bill was almost $300. She took her government card out to pay for it but it didn't work. The cashier tried again and again to help the customer but the card just wouldn't work. So she pulled out three 100 dollar bills! And you are on welfare why? By this time the other line was empty so I trotted over there to check out my ten items. Walmart and I have a love/hate relationship that will probably continue and never be solved.

Poison

So I took my healthy daughter to the doctor today just to inject her with a substance that will make her sick. Does this make sense to anyone? I have studied and researched vaccine safety for 3 years now and I still wonder if I have made the right decision for Megan. At two months Kendra was given 6 vaccines. It was down hill from there and I vowed never to do that again. Today Megan was given (at three months) the Rotateq for the rotavirus and the HIB (Act HIB with no aluminum). I'm smarter this time around and hope her body can handle it. I eat really healthy and I've given her probiotics. I'll write in a few days to let you know how she is.

Two or three weeks ago I came down with the flu. It began with a severe sore throat, fever, body aches, chills, and then it traveled to my lungs. I hoped for the swine flu because then - hey- natural immunity! I worried that Megan would get it and that it would go into RSV. The little stinker took all my antibodies which made it more difficult for my body to feel better but she never got sick. Amazing.

Kendra now attends preschool once a week. She absolutely loves it. I had time to do her hair cute this week.

Megan's Blessing

During the Labor Day weekend my parents and sister came down to bless Meggie. It's great whenever my dad comes because he can fix everything in our house. The first thing he found was a black widow underneath Kenrdra's outdoor slide!! I'm so glad he found that!

We bought a pool for Kendra because, now that summer is over, they are on sale. Kendra LOVES to swim and it has just killed her that I haven't taken her swimming this year.

This is the pool Kendra picked out.

I love this picture because Mark is in the background still playing in the pool even after Kendra left to come inside!!

Our Little Girls

Kendra loves to be a helper. Last week she asked if she could change Megan's diaper. So I let her take it off and I then put the new diaper on. Just after that Megan pooped and Kendra said, "I don't want to change THAT one!"

Kendra is very sweet and loving to Megan. I haven't seen the jealousy that most mature moms warned us about. As she holds Megan she often says, "it's okay, sister's got ya."

At the last doctor appointment Megan weighed 10 lbs. and 10 oz. and was 23 1/2 inches long. She is larger than Kendra was at two months. And here I thought Meggie would be my petite one.

When Meggie has hard days I often hold her most of the time. On one of these occasions I was upstairs rocking her when I could no longer hear Kendra downstairs. That's a bad sign. She then came upstairs and very excitedly told me that she had put play doh on all of her toys! Can you see the blobs of play doh? Yep, it was on everything...she sure had fun.

Oh Boy

Meggie at 6 weeks

Sometimes when I feed Meggie Kendra grabs her baby doll and bottle and pretends to feed her too. Then she'll grab a burp rag and burp her. Meggie has the tendency to spit up a ton and a few times as Kendra burped her baby she has said, "oh no! you spit up all over me!" She then scrubs her shoulder, the couch, the floor, and where ever else the spit up fell.



Mark warned me that one of these days Kendra would try to breast feed her baby. The day came earlier this week. As I fed Megan Kendra grabbed her baby...but not the bottle.



By some miracle on Tuesday both of my girls took a nap at the same time. I can't remember if this ever has happened. My excitement was too much and I was unable to fall asleep! Oh the irony.



Meggie often has a difficult time staying asleep during nap times. For instance, she will nap for 4-5 minutes, with the longest nap being 20 minutes. This results in a very sleep deprived baby. This has occurred since she was a week old. She has her doctor appointment next week and I'm hoping her doctor can shed some light on this. She really isn't a cranky baby since she's been on the prevacid unless she's overly tired. Any ideas on how to get a baby to stay asleep?!?!

Our little nerdy girl

Learn to Laugh

The other night Megan decided she wanted to eat every hour for the first four hours of her night time sleep. Then, after sleeping for two hours - in her waking up mode - she pooped. I got up, put her on the changing table, and upon hearing that she was gassy decided I would wait a bit longer to change her. I left her on the changing table (it has railings - she wasn't going to fall) and went to the bathroom to give her some time. In the mean time Mark - seeing that Megan needed to be changed decided he would be the heroic husband and change her for me.

Just then Megan pooped while Mark wiped her. He was able to catch it in the diaper and felt very proud of himself. This victory was short lived. He lifted her legs to wipe her again when all of a sudden the largest force known to nature exploded all over the table, Mark, and the floor.

That is exactly why I was waiting! Upon looking at the disgusting mess that I now would need to clean I mumbled, "thanks for helping and creating more work for me." Then I remembered a talk by I think Elder Wirthlin where he said, "learn to laugh." I then looked at Mark's shocked face, poop covering his arm from his wrist to his elbow and all over his shirt and bottoms and I couldn't help but bust up. It was the funniest sight I had ever seen! I only wish I had a camera nearby. All the next day I couldn't help but laugh - it may have been the sleep deprivation but it truly was hilarious! I am so glad Mark changed that diaper! Although he's not so eager to help anymore. :(

Life is Full of Surprises

When we first moved to ABQ our swamp cooler was broken and we went without it for the two hottest weeks here. A couple of weeks ago I turned on the swamp cooler only to hear a loud thud. I knew something broke so turned it off and waited for Mark to come home. Funny that it always brakes in July. The wheel had fallen off of the axle of the motor. I told Mark just to buy a new motor, but Mark was determined to fix it. After alot of pounding he was able to get the wheel back on. AND it is still working!

Things break quite often with us. We bought a wheat grinder about a year ago - one that you crank and doesn't require electricity. My idea was to use it in case of an emergency. Well, now that I'm baking with oat flour I need to grind oats with my grinder. Mark set it up and cranked for about 30 seconds before it broke! Seriously? AND the really stinky part is that it has a warranty, BUT you have to send in the warranty card within 15 days of purchase for it to be valid. Well, at least it broke before we really needed it.

Meggie has reflux and takes prevacid each day. I hate giving my little tiny infant medicine, but I hope it helps her. Along with the prevacid I have had to completely change my diet. I have taken all allergens out, (thus the oat flour). I can eat meat, rice, oatmeal, potatoes, etc. No dairy, eggs, wheat, etc. I have learned that dieting really isn't hard if you find something that is motivating enough. But then again, it's only been 4 days since I've cut everything!

Most people who have young infants nap when their baby naps. I'm amazed at how functional I am without naps because I really am tired. If Kendra takes a nap (which she usually doesn't) then Meggie's awake. If Meggie is asleep Kendra is awake! AND on the off chance that they are both asleep (like once a week) I usually only get 10-15 minutes before one wakes up crying!

I decided that Kendra no longer needs a paci to sleep. I told her that when she threw away her pacis that we could go to the disney store and buy whatever princess dress she wanted. She was so excited that she immediately got rid of them. The paci fairies came and picked them up and took them to paci land while she napped that day. This is the dress she picked out:

This is the only time she wore the dress! It was too scratchy and she didn't like it! I am so glad I left the tags on! We took it back the next day and she decided she wanted a Jasmine doll instead. Which was fine with me because it was significantly cheaper!

Meggie is now 8lbs 9 oz and 21 1/2 inches long. Do you see how ginormous she is compared to me? I am so glad my babies are small! A larger baby would not fit in me. Kendra is giving her sister kisses in this picture. She is so sweet to her.

Doctors and Diets

For the first time in three years there were no tears at the doctor's office!! Meggie had her two week appointment and Kendra had her three year check-up on Tuesday. There were no tears, no gagging, no vomiting, screaming, etc. This was a historic day!! Kendra has always hated the doctor. And I do mean always - ever since she was two weeks old. She would be fine until we went into the exam room and the screams would begin. Her pediatrician couldn't believe how well behaved Kendra was! Mark was surprised that with all of her patients she remembered Kendra. Trust me, with a kid acting like a hysterical caged monkey, you would remember. As soon as her doctor was finished examining her, Kendra asked, "can I have a sucker now?" Meggie hasn't had any shots yet - maybe that's why she likes to see the doctor.

I'm still on a diet! I was so happy after I gave birth because that meant I could have more fats in my diet. Well, Meggie might have reflux. She spits up a ton. So I can no longer eat dairy products or ethnic food - including pizza. Her pediatrician put it this way, "eat steak and potatoes." So I'm going back to my up bringing and eating what I did as a kid - except this time I will not have butchered it.

3 Years Ago

Three years ago today we moved to Albuquerque, New Mexico and into our first home. *sniff* Before we left Provo, Utah the air conditioning in our '94 Camry was temperamental. Sometimes it worked, other times it didn't. We decided to add a can of freon to see if that would help. We drove around for awhile and enjoyed the cool air. But just in case it stopped working on our journey Mark bought water bottles with motorized fans on them.

Somewhere between Green River and Moab the a/c became warmer and warmer until finally it didn't work at all. At this time it was noon and about 100 degrees in Moab, not a cloud in sight, and no breeze. We were each hot and sweaty. Mark and I both worried about baby Kendra who was three weeks old at the time. I used the motorized spray bottles on everyone trying to keep us cool. It was just too hot and the water seemed to evaporate before it hit us. Mark and I both said a prayer and pleaded with our Father in Heaven to help us.

As we drove out of Moab a slight breeze picked up and clouds began to fill the sky. By the time we hit Cortez it was cloudy and rainy. We were able to make the rest of our trip without worrying about our little girl.

This was a testimony to us that we are watched over, that God hears and answers our prayers, and that if something matters to us, it matters to Him. We have often felt his hand in our lives before and after this. How grateful we are for his matchless love.