Milestones

Time goes to quickly. Days zip by in the blink of an eye. My first born is almost three and has taken to calling me Mom. This is only strange because I have always been Mama or Mamabear, as Wolf has always been Dada or Dadabear. He too has graduated to just Dad. This afternoon it was time for Mason's nap and he was frustrated because he couldn't get his "damn shoe" off. His vocabulary is growing in leaps and bounds and he says things every day that just put me in awe. I should be better about writing them down, I suppose, but again there is that issue of time. I'll get to it in a minute, I think, and before I know it, it is 10:00 and past my bedtime.

Morgan crawls and pulls himself up and is finally cutting his first tooth (the bottom left). Today Jess learned how sharp even the littlest sliver of tooth can be when she didn't pull her finger out of his mouth fast enough. Don't get in the way of a boy and his food. My nickname for Morgan is Hoover. There truly isn't anything he won't eat. It's crazy.

Mason's diet has been going well. We discovered, about 4 weeks ago, that he has major food allergies. We had suspected for some time but finally decided that we should go ahead and have him tested. These days they do blood tests and although they aren't fool proof, they do give us a good idea of what he shouldn't have. In Mason's case, it's pretty much everything. Grains, gluten, wheat, dairy, eggs, soy, and garlic are the big ones. And because we've worn his intestine and his immune system down, if we give him too much of one food he becomes allergic to that as well. I panicked when I first found out and wasn't sure how I was going to manage coming up with a diet that contained NONE of these things. But amazingly it has proven to be a most excellent thing. It has forced me to learn to cook better and to expand my repetoire of dishes. It has brought me back to the basics, to the idea of a simple dinner, with very few spices and very easy meals. Shopping can be hard, as I feel like I'm in one of 3 grocery stores every day, but we've managed so far. It's not cheap but it's been worth it.

The differences in Mason weren't apparent right away because we started this when he had a cold, but now that he is healthy I really can see how much he has improved. He is less whiny, less grumpy, less clingy and overall has a far better disposition. The dark purple circles under his eyes are still present but the doctor says that they are usually the last things to disappear. He eats more at each meal, even with the snacks, and it makes dinnertime so much nicer. I must say I was dreading those moments when he would ask me for some pretzels or a cookie or something else that he could no longer have, but all in all he has proven to be quite a champ. We just tell him that it will hurt his tummy if we give it to him, then we proceed to find something else that he can have and likes and it all works out. Tonight at our Sunday gathering we celebrated Bodhi's birthday and Jess had gotten some cupcakes. Mason immediately began to ask for them, of course, but it was very easy to persuade him that watermelon would be far better. Crazy.

I could keep writing and would love to, but it is 10:20, again with the time flying, so I must be off to bed. Wolf is playing a playstation game and and since he will probably be up for awhile, and since it is my turn tomorrow to get up with the kids, I must sign off. My writing has been a little scattered tonight but it felt good to write again.