To dye for....

This weekend, we decided to dye Easter eggs with Ezra. I can remember the Easters past, dying eggs with my family...the weird vinegar smell...the impatience of waiting for the egg to color. I wanted Ezra to experience all the fun! Little did I know my boys didn't get the whole excitement thing like I did....oh well, here is the story!



here begins the coloring process...



ezra keeping a close eye on dad's egg dying skill

the boys checking out decoration ideas

charlie trying to be patient and hoping we would drop an egg for him!

why is the wait so long?!

ahhh....finally!

the boys with the newly dyed eggs...i think they were just happy to be done with mom's egg thing!

charlie still being patient....

this is the face you get when you take too many pictures of your husband and son while making them do silly crafts!

Good Resolutions Gone Awry

It's the first Monday of 2011...the day where it all begins. I had every intention of beginning the year with a fresh attitude with fresh resolutions. I wanted be more organized with running our home and be more purposeful with Ezra's therapy, for starters. Well, apparently Ezra didn't get the memo that Mom was ready to hit 2011 running!! He decided to do his own thing today and the dog tracked mud all over and the grocery list still isn't made. It's already approaching late afternoon and my head is reeling....where did my day go? The start to 2011 didn't exactly go as planned. I struggle with feeling defeated already...but I keep remembering what Anne Shirley always said, "Tomorrow is fresh....".

I will wake up tomorrow and begin again....maybe this time with two cups of coffee!!

 

this is not my own picture, but it brightened my day.



Adventures in G-Tube Feeding

Over the last few years we have embarked on a journey into the world of tube feeding. Since Ezra cannot swallow yet, we decided to get him a g-tube. This is a small device that is put directly into the stomach and sits on top of the skin. We have special tubes that fit into the device (button) to give Ezra his food. He was first on infant formula, then around six months we gave him a homemade formula. This worked great for him. Ezra got chunky, his eczema cleared up, and he looked healthy. The new formula was time consuming for Micah and myself, but the benefits outweighed all that! This last spring, however, we hit a problem with the homemade formula. Ezra got kidney stones!! After a few trips to the nephrologist, we decided the diet was to blame for the stones.

So now we were left with the decision of what to do next. Micah and I decided to keep Ezra's diet natural. We did some research and came up with a few recipes to give him. We wanted to keep his diet as close to a "normal" toddler diet as possible. After some trial and error (like discovering Ezra had many food allergies), we thought we had successfully transitioned to the new diet. At our last nephrologist visit, we discovered Ezra was losing weight. Great.......back to the drawing board!!!

This week we began some new diet ideas. Ezra needs more calories and protein according to his doctor. We also give him lots of good fats to help his brain development. So far things seem to be going well. I'm sure I'll be writing about this topic much more in the future.

This is a picture of a g-tube with the feeding tube attached for those of you curious as to what the tube looked like.