Those Meddling Kids

I really want to blog. Really I do. But Harrison is in a phase right now where TV isn't good enough for him. No. He wants attention! He wants me to draw things for him. He wants me to read books to him. He wants me to talk to him. Doesn't he understand that I have important blogging to do? Jeez, these kids.

Yes, that was totally sarcastic. Well, 99% sarcastic. I really do have things I'd love to do if Harrison would play nicely by himself for a few minutes. Showering is nice. I like to wash every day, believe it or not.

"Let's play football!" is Harrison's idea. Hmmm. Showering is not going to happen anytime soon.



(Yes, my son got a bad haircut the other day. The place Hubby took him really does a crappy job cutting kids' hair. Well, actually, we were going for a diagonal bangs look.)

ehhhhhhhhhh

That is how I currently feel this evening.

I slept late this morning. THANK YOU BOYS! Can you believe they kept themselves entertained until 10 a.m.? Wow! After a leisurely breakfast and late shower, I went outside to get some yard work done.

We still have lots of tree branches everywhere from the big windstorm in December. The front yard and driveway are picked up, but the front beds and the side and back yards are very messy. I fixed the plastic border stuff that keeps the dirt contained in the front beds, which involved pounding plastic stakes in the ground with a mallet. Then I raked up leaves. We have these ginormous maple leaves that are about the size of dinner plates, and they get wet and are so...ughhh. Not fun to clean those up. I wish Hubby would mow them in the fall before it starts raining. Guess I should add that to the do it myself list.

After clearing big maple leaves, my leather gloves were soaked through, so I found a single rubber gardening glove and started picking up fir branches, trimming ferns back, and other assorted things. I came in after three hours, when I realized I was starving from not having had lunch and feeling like I might pass out in a pile of wet leaves or branches. After I stuffed my face, I noticed my back feels sore and I really want to go to sleep, but have to go make dinner and help Hutton with homework.

Yawn. So, that's how my Sunday was. Yesterday Hutton and I went to a school friend's birthday party which was crazed, but fun. Then I headed to my friend's birthday lunch at a restaurant without kids.

School starts again tomorrow, which will be nice, because it seems like Hutton has been playing too many video games lately. I have to start researching school for next year. The special education director wants Hutton to repeat Transition Kindergarten next year, and there's no way in hell I want him in the same class with his current teacher, AKA Mega Bitch.

Oh, I ran into a mom I recognized from Hutton's preschool at the doctor on Friday, and come to find out, her son was in Mega Bitch's class last year. They switched him out at spring break after dealing with over six months of mean emails and hearing about how immature and not good for her class he was. I'll be calling her to discuss her situation and hopefully, her research in the school district and private schools will help me save some time!

Off to make dinner. Curry chicken with quinoa. Let's see if the boys will eat it!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Oh yeah, Carmen asked if I watched American Idol - the ladies. I did watch some of it, and liked Lakisha and Melinda. Melinda lives in Brentwood, TN, where my Mom and Stepdad live, so that wins her points in the Laura grading system, plus she has a great voice. Lakisha has a kick ass voice. But, then, neither one makes me squee, so we're just going on voices for the ladies.

Let's see if I can get back to posting more than twice a week now that late winter break is over! Oh, and I also have to start going to the gym so I can get in shape for soccer. Did I mention, ehhhhhhhhhhhhh?

Laura - Music Critic

I watched American Idol last night. I hadn't watched it last week, so this was my first look at the weeded down pile of potential icons. I fast-forwarded through most of the men. If they didn't hook me immediately, I went to 30 seconds in, then to the end of the song. Most of them were "eh" in my professional opinion. Oh wait. I can't sing and am tone deaf. So, not so professional opinion. The ones who did stand out to me weren't that great according to the judges.

I liked: Brandon. His beautiful smile made me "Squeee!" and I immediately started tapping my foot when he picked up the tempo. Yes, Brandon, I would Rock With You Allll Niighttt. I loved that song when Michael Jackson still had a nose and non-transparent skin.

I also liked: Sanjaya.
He is a cutie who also made me "squee" to a lesser extent. I think he has a lovely voice, too, but agreed with the judges that he didn't pick the best song.

Note - "squee" is an often involuntary girly squeal sound I make when witnessing something very cute or precious, like a baby, puppy or kitten.

I also liked the beat-box guy who didn't beat box, whatever his name is. He didn't make me squee, but I did have the song he sung stuck in my head hours later, so he knows how to pick a song!

So, you may have think I pick my faves based on looks alone. Not true. Though the "squee" is good to have, I really thought Brandon's and Sanjaya's voices were very nice, and they didn't have those moments where I wondered how they managed to get on national television, like so many others did. (The ones I fast-forwarded through, for instance.) Of course, I won't be surprised if my choices are voted off first. As I said, I'm not exactly a professional musician. Even my kids don't let me sing.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Back to Michael Jackson. I remember hearing the duet he did with Paul McCartney, "The Girl is Mine" on the radio way back in the day. I was confused, wondering why a man and a woman were fighting over another woman. I didn't know about lesbians back then, so that wasn't an option. I quickly decided they were having a custody dispute. (Thanks to my worldly friend, Cindy, who watched soap operas, I did know all about divorce and other adult issues. Cindy also told me that you didn't need to take your shirt off to get pregnant, and I decided that that was definitely how I'd be getting pregnant as an adult - with shirt on, thank you very much. Today, after seeing what's happened to my "fun bags" after gestating and nursing two babies, I don't really think Hubby would miss much if I did leave my shirt on.) Later, I realized it was two men singing "The Girl is Mine." D'oh!

Today, I think whoever they were singing about would be like, "Excuse me? You don't own me! Who the hell do you think you are? Oh, yeah, you're both really fucking rich guys. Maybe...Oh yeah, you both look like victims of excessive plastic surgery. Hmm. Which should I go for? The really whacked out one, or the one going through the messy divorce?"

I also remember the first time I witnessed the moon walk dance. Was that the shit, or what? Oh, Michael, you had so much potential. Off to listen to "Off the Wall" and look at that cute little black kid on the cover.

How Much Money Did They Spend on This?

1: Pediatrics. 2007 Feb;119 Suppl 1:S114-21. Links
The relationship between autism and parenting stress.
Schieve LA,
Blumberg SJ,
Rice C,
Visser SN,
Boyle C.
National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Mailstop E-86, 1600 Clifton Rd, Atlanta, GA 30333. lschieve@cdc.gov.

OBJECTIVE. We assessed associations between parenting a child with autism and stress indicators.

METHODS. In the 2003 National Survey of Children's Health, parents or other knowledgeable adult respondents for children aged 4 to 17 years reported their recent feelings about their life sacrifices to care for their child, difficulty caring for their child, frustration with their child's actions, and anger toward their child. Responses were compiled in the Aggravation in Parenting Scale. Parents of children reported to have autism (N = 459) were compared with parents of: (1) children with special health care needs including emotional, developmental, or behavioral problems other than autism that necessitated treatment (children with other developmental problems [N = 4545]); (2) children with special health care needs without developmental problems (N = 11475); and (3) children without special health care needs (N = 61826). Weighted estimates are presented.

RESULTS. Parents of children with autism were more likely to score in the high aggravation range (55%) than parents of children with developmental problems other than autism (44%), parents of children with special health care needs without developmental problems (12%), and parents of children without special health care needs (11%). However, within the autism group, the proportion of parents with high aggravation was 66% for those whose child recently needed special services and 28% for those whose child did not. The parents of children with autism and recent special service needs were substantially more likely to have high aggravation than parents of children with recent special service needs in each of the 3 comparison groups. Conversely, parents of children with autism but without recent special service needs were not more likely to have high aggravation than parents of children with other developmental problems.

CONCLUSIONS. Parenting a child with autism with recent special service needs seems to be associated with unique stresses.
PMID: 17272578 [PubMed - in process]


Really? Who knew!

For The Next Visit to Disney

My sister sent this to me, as we are already discussing plans for Christmas. One idea is to go to Disney World. Em said she'd have to be "Mini" Mouse, and I told her my boobs wouldn't look like a mouse face -- more like a weasel. I think that would scare the kids, but then again, you have to have the villains, too!

Happy Valentine's Day!

From me and my man.

Don't I wish?

This is in answer to Gouda's post today. I think she may enjoy the picture as well.

Adventures in Baking

Yesterday I decided to stop wallowing in self-pity about the evil diet and to attempt to do some allergen-free baking. While reading recipes, I checked Hutton's allergy test results for the fifteenth time and realized SORGHUM was on there as well. For most people, living without sorghum is a no-brainer, but if you happen to be a diet that limits most grains, it's hard, because it's a gluten-free grain that is present in many gluten-free substitutes and recipes. But then, nothing to freak over. I'll just use millet instead.

I decide to attempt two recipes: a cookie and a muffin. The first attempt: an almond cookie recipe from the allergy-free cookbook. I mixed together almond butter, almond oil, almond extract, and almond - oh yeah, millet, and then some brown sugar. (I was pretending that Hutton doesn't have a yeast-problem, and that cookies won't feed yeast. Hey, they're decorating cookies for Valentine's Day in his class! I don't want him to suffer because of yeast!) The resulting "dough" was very crumbly, but I managed to press it together and form cookies out of it.

They came out of the oven, hot, crumbly, and somewhat tasty, looking like this:

The boys liked them, though, even though most of the cookies crumbled before making it to their mouths. That was part of the experience, though. Eat cookie, spread crumbs around counter and get them all over clothes.

Before I made the second batch, I mixed in an egg white, and the dough became much more doughy and actually kept some cookie form. The boys like those, too, plus they didn't leave crumbs everywhere. Ding! Write that down in the allergy cookbook -- ADD EGG.

Second attempt: a muffin, made from millet, oil, other stuff I can't recall. I mixed everything together, and it made a lovely batter. Looked like it might work. I filled a muffin tin with batter, and popped it in the oven. Checked on them at 15 minutes. Eh. More time. Checked on them again. Hmm, they look done. I took them out of the muffin tins. Hmm, why is there all this moisture left in the muffin tin? Why does the paper not come off the muffins well? Why does this muffin taste like ass? (Well, that's a guess. I haven't tasted ass, but it probably tastes a lot like the muffins.)


I thought I'd keep the scraps of muffin to attempt to make bread crumbs, and called my friend, the home economist supreme, for advice and muffin trouble-shooting. I read her the recipe over the phone, and her comments were, "Why didn't you use baking powder?" Huh? "Maybe you should try shortening instead of oil." OK. And, "I'll come over tomorrow and help you bake." YAY! (After tasting the muffin scraps today, they still tasted like ass, so they were trashed. My friend and I figured out it was the oil. Note to self: never use canola oil again for baking. Or make sure it's very fresh.)

Today Culinary Master came, looked through my pantry, and whipped up two batches of baked goods, using the same basic mix of millet, tapioca flour, almond meal, potato milk, ghee and almond oil. And BAKING POWDER. One half of the mix went into muffin tins, with blueberries and some sugar added; the other half of the mix was "drop biscuits" with some herbs thrown on top.

After several minutes of baking, the experimental baked goods emerged. The verdict: the muffins weren't very puffy, but were very tasty. The "drop biscuits" didn't look like biscuits, unless you're using the British sense of the word. Essentially, they looked like giant herb cookies. They were tasty, too, though.

Although the doctored recipes won't win any food beauty pageants, I will definitely try them again! Thank you, L, my culinary master! Did I mention L doesn't have gluten-free baking experience? Yes, she's a master!

So Much to Say

And not much of it is good.

I've stayed away for a few days, as I was in the "if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all" frame of mind. No, I prefer to wallow in misery and let my depression stew for a few days before forcing it on my poor, undeserving (or is that underserving?) readers.

The misery and depression aren't so miserable and depressing today. Amazing what a day, and a double shot mocha (with whip) will do for you!

The pleasantly fading misery and depression stem from a few things, but they all involve a certain beloved first child. Yes, I love him unconditionally. No, it's nothing he did, but rather things involving him. See the difference?

Anyway, last week I received an email from Hutton's ABA consultant, who had emailed Hutton's primary megabitch er, teacher, wait, let's just say it's someone involved in Hutton's life several hours a week. This woman who shall remain nameless had emailed his ABA consultant about Hutton's behavior. ABA consultant had been in to observe Hutton's class a few times and recommend things to try for his bad behaviors. [That's what they do - Applied Behavioral Analysis. Kind of like a nicer version of Pavlovian conditioning. You show a child how to do something the right way, and give him lots of praise, or tokens, or treats, or he gets to play with a special toy, etc. if he does the "right" thing. For instance, if Hutton is working on a worksheet, and completes the worksheet, he may get a high five and a check mark on his chart, with the goal being after he gets five check marks, he gets to play with his trains. If he does something "wrong" -- tearing his worksheet and putting the paper in his mouth, let's say, very hypothetically. Cough. -- he is redirected to doing it the right way. The bad behaviors tend to be ignored, as if you punish them, that is often what the child is going for -- attention, and a chance to get out of what he doesn't want to do.]

Back to the story. So, the ABA consultant knew that this mystery woman (MW) didn't like having Hutton in her, uh, surroundings, and was not too keen on trying these ABA techniques for changing negative behaviors, but she still told MW that if she (ABA consultant) could help with any transitions to a new class she would. MW wrote back, in my best paraphrasing, with some of the choicest words in bold:

We are leaving Hutton's backpack in the bushes [he often throws his backpack in the bushes after he gets off the bus] so he doesn't get his snack for the day as a consequence. We reward all the other kids with crackers and telling them "Good job!" when they aren't ripping their papers, and ignore everything Hutton does unless it is harmful or affects other kids. Yesterday, Hutton was playing with the soap and got some in his eyes. I'm hoping he is smart enough to put the two together.

The rest of it mentions more of his bad behaviors, and how she knows I am weary of the school battle. Huh? I'm fine with school. Hutton is fine with school until he is treated like a dog, and worse than that, a very stupid dog.

Onto my mom bias. I know Hutton has challenging behaviors. Yeah, really. I deal with fights over getting him to drink his supplement-laced drinks every morning (damn, that TMG really smells bad, and Hutton sniffs everything before eating or drinking it! Guess he really doesn't need TMG that much today), his howls of protest when he doesn't want to do something he needs to do (get the bus, go to speech therapy, go downstairs for ABA therapy...), other assorted things here and there. But, I also know that Hutton is a very smart little boy who is perfectly capable of doing kindergarten level work. The trick is to make it enjoyable. Hmm. That's crazy, isn't it? Make kindergarten fun? You mean, so kids will like going to school for the next 12 years? Yeah, crazy.

And the point of Hutton being in kindergarten isn't to make him feel singled out as a stupid freak; strangely enough, he may get that idea when he's IGNORED and everyone else is rewarded for things he doesn't understand. Does he know they're getting crackers for not ripping papers? Maybe, but more likely he just sees other kids getting crackers, while he essentially sits ignored and hungry, because he doesn't get to have his snack, because his backpack is still in the bushes. But wait, how is he doing to make those connections if, as MW believes, he's not smart enough to realize that soap in your eyes hurts? GRRR.

I think his ABA consultant would point out that the whole idea is POSITIVE reinforcement of good behavior. Not punishment of bad behaviors. I realize punishment works to change behaviors, too, but that's not what we're looking for. I'm sure MW would love to be able to whip Hutton into submission, but that's just not going to happen in WA kindergarten. (I do remember being horrified when we moved to Tennessee and they had corporal punishment in the form of paddling at middle and high schools! No, I never was paddled. I was a good girl!) I've seen how well positive reinforcement works for Hutton. When I go crazy with praise after he writes his name on his homework sheet, the whole process goes so much more smoothly. Imagine that. Praise works better than my getting angry and frustrated. Who knew?

A few minutes after I got the forwarded email (e standing for EVIL), I got another email from MW, CCed to the ABA consultant and the director of special education at Hutton's school district.

Just to prove me wrong (or insane) Hutton has had much better days this week...He hasn't thrown his backpack since the day he missed out on snack. He has been willing to stay in his seat and do his work with a minimum of prompts. (And lots of crackers.) Let's stay on course and see how it goes!

So, right when I'm ready to get Hutton out this class ASAP, MW comes around to seeing how well he can behave. Of course, now I have to let her know we're doing a gluten, casein, corn, etc. free diet, and will have to provide them with some better reinforcers. I called the director of special education to discuss the situation, but haven't heard back from her yet. Needless to say, I still want Hutton out of crazy (hey, she said it herself!) Megabitch's class. But I don't know what his options are, and I've heard bad things about our neighborhood school from another parent. Sigh. It will all be fine. Eventually.

The other misery has been dietary. Hutton has been fine on the diet. I'm the one having trouble getting used to it. And Hubby (or Husband as I should call him, as Hubby sounds too cute and cheery for someone I'm still sorta pissed at) has problems with it as well.

Yesterday, as I was making the boys waffles (yes, Kim, I got the Trader Joe's ones!) and bacon, I was trying to get Hutton to drink his supplement juice. I made the mistake of putting the vitamins that smell in there (super nu thera and TMG), and Hutton wasn't going to drink his juice, which had the last of the lemonade in it, which is the best beverage for disguising the grapefruit seed extract I'm currently using to treat his yeast overgrowth. I was trying everything. "Hutton, you need to drink this so it will kill the yeast monster!" "Sweetie, if you drink this, you can have maple syrup on your waffles!" then quickly degenerating to, "Hutton, you will not scream at me. Go to your room until you calm down!" followed by, "Sweetie, please drink this! You won't be able to have any bacon unless you drink this! These supplements are really frickin' expensive!" Finally, after Husband came downstairs and offered the helpful, "Hutton, please drink your juice so Mommy will shut up," I dumped the drink, found some oranges to make orange juice with, and hid the grapefruit seed extract and a few other non-smelly vitamins in the o.j., which was readily accepted as drinkable by super-nosed boy. I then attempted to show him how to swallow capsules. No, that didn't work. I think I'll be leaving the smelly stuff out indefinitely, and sticking with the yummy, though not as nutritious or good for a yeast problem, chewable vitamins.

So, I was pissed at Husband after that remark, plus when he tried to say that we weren't doing anything fun all weekend, not because he had work to do (which he did) but because we couldn't go out to eat because of the diet. I decided to take the boys to the park after a delightful GFCFetc. lunch to prove him wrong. Husband wheedled his way into going to the park with us, then went to work that afternoon.

Another incident at the park added to my weekend funk. We saw a boy from Hutton's class. I spoke to the mom briefly about our plans for school for next year, while avoiding talking about a certain teacher at all costs. The boy from class pointed out that Hutton didn't pump well on the swing. OK. A few minutes later, another boy from Hutton's class showed up. I attempted to talk to the moms, who are obviously better friends than I am with either of them, for a few minutes, while watching their sons come up with some super-imaginative play scheme involving the jungle gym as a submarine, and going into the boiler room to check for leaks, and spotting dolphins through the periscope, etc. Hutton preferred to just play on the jungle gym as a jungle gym, and I quickly excused myself to spot Harrison on another jungle gym, feeling left out and sorry for myself, and sad that Hutton wasn't playing "the right way" with two boys from his class.

Today, in my less-miserable state of mind, I realize that the two boys aren't autistic (well, I know one isn't, and I'm pretty sure if the other one is, he's super high-functioning, as he came up and asked me my name and proceeded to call me by name for several minutes), and they are friends outside of school, so probably play better together anyway. If Hutton's friends from school who have autism were there, it may have been a different story, or if his friend Amy were there...Who knows?

Oh, and I was just PMSing. A classic excuse for misery and depression!

Bye-Bye Betsy

This morning, as I was driving home from Hutton's speech therapy, I saw a flyer for "Betsy" - the dog we found last night. I called her owner, and he came right over. He only lives a few blocks away, and they just moved here, so Betsy probably didn't remember where she lived.

Oh, her real name is Willow. The boys seem to have taken her leaving in stride.

Never a Dull Moment

BetsySally

This evening, I decided I couldn't wait any longer, and had to make another grocery store run. I'm out of milk, which means I can't drink my double lattes in the morning. I substituted almond milk today, and let me just say...NO. Don't try that again.

So, I got the boys in the car. Well, first I disassembled Hutton's carseat, because he's 41 pounds now, and therefore too big for the harness on the carseat, so it was time to convert it to a booster. I didn't realize what all this entailed until I attempted to take the harness off the carseat. Thirty minutes, a screwdriver, and some baby wipes later, we were back in business. Off to get groceries.

I pulled up to the stop sign at the end of my street, and saw a dog run across the busy road, narrowly being missed by a car. I got out of my car, and the dog came running up, and very sweetly licked my hand. I checked its collar. No tags. After looking around for possible owners for a few minutes, I got the dog into the car, and headed off to the grocery store again. Spent an hour in the grocery store, looking at all the possible foods. Found some cereal, more rice tortillas, rice pasta, and even rice pizza crust! (Well, rice and potato.) I then came home, stopping by the stable across the street to see if anyone knew the dog in the back of my car. No luck.

So, "Betsy," as Hutton has dubbed her, made herself at home, had some dog food with Sally and Fergus, and is currently being chased around by the boys. For some reason, a strange, new dog is very much more exciting than the dogs we already have. Betsy has been getting many pats.

I made the new pizza crust, with marinara sauce, spinach, basil and grated carrots on top. (No dairy in the new diet, remember?) The boys both ate it, and I found it acceptable. Not the best fake pizza I've ever had, but not any worse than the regular crappy frozen pizza Hubby likes!

Now, I'll try to make a "Found Dog" flyer, but our printer is pretty crappy, so I don't know if they'll turn out OK. We'll see!



Betsy and Fergus waiting for dropped food
"Pizza"
Hutton
Harrison and Tully

I May Get Myself a Cane, or Carry An Umbrella at All Times

This morning on the news, I heard that the Seattle Police Department were going to give an old guy a new cane. Not too newsworthy, unless you read this.

So, some crazy guy tries to light an old man on fire, and ends up getting whacked with a cane! Guess he didn't see that coming. Now if only the two women he lit on fire had had canes or umbrellas. Watch out!

Good job, Gus! Enjoy your new cane, and feel free to beat the whippersnappers when they try to attack. I think I'll pass this on to my 82-year-old great-uncle who nearly broke a hip after Christmas. See how useful canes can be?

Update on Evil Diets

I started to write this in response to Allie's comment on the previous post, then it got long I decided to add it as its own post!

So, the gist is, we're trying to continue the gluten and casein-free (GFCF) diet with Hutton. It's a common treatment for kids with Autism, as they tend to have digestive issues with the proteins in gluten and casein, as is the case with Hutton! We've been on the diet off and on for several years. I know Hutton has problems with milk, but I've tried adding back gluten, and he seemed to be fine, but his test results prove otherwise. Now we have the added challenge of avoiding yeast-feeding foods (sugar, fruit and fruit juices, simple carbs, vinegar, etc.) due to the discovery of Hutton's yeast overgrowth (he had this before, so I guess the Nystatin he took for several months a year ago did nothing) AND we also have to avoid some newly discovered food allergies -- the big ones being CORN and EGG YOLK. Hey, at least it's not the whites, too, as I thought yesterday! Phew. That give me one more thing to work with now that the a world of cook books and restaurants are closed to me.

Today I went grocery shopping by myself, so I could spend over an hour scouring the store for possible foods. This was after doing research on many online groups for food ideas. Pretty much anything that involves packaging is a no-go for some reason or another! I did find some potato chips (though probably not too great for a yeast-fighting diet, as it's a simple carb), rice spaghetti, rice cakes, frozen waffles and an Indian lentil dish that were free of everything we need to avoid. The rest of the cart was meat, vegetables, some nuts and seeds, and some chocolate for myself that I'll hide somewhere. I'm going to go to another store tomorrow and see if I can find more.

I'm feeling much better after reading up today. It just seems very overwhelming at first, and then there are many foods I think are OK, until I read some new reason to avoid it. I'm worried that Hutton will be getting too much rice now and will develop problems with it. I think that's what happened with corn -- no gluten, but if it's the go-to food of choice in nearly every meal and snack (Ting's and Pirate Booty, I'll miss you!) it's too much. If it's not corn itself (sob - we love Mexican food, but won't be going out for it anytime!), so many things are sweetened with corn syrup, or have corn starch, or have dextrose. That was true for many packaged and even frozen items. Things would look great, until I'd see corn starch or dextrose listed as the last ingredient. I try to avoid soy as well, which is present in many foods.

The bright side is that it's possible for the gut to heal and for foods that were once problematic to be added back into the diet, so I'll hope that will be the case down the road for us with corn.

We started out the day with waffles Hubby made from a GFCF mix we had buried in the back of the cabinet, and some bacon. No syrup. We lied and told Hutton we ran out. He ate more bacon than waffles, and Hubby didn't even taste the waffles, but I did and found them acceptable. They would have been better with maple syrup, but what can you do? Lunch was chicken nuggets (not really acceptable because of the corn in the coating, but I figured I'd get them out of the house faster this way, and it's not like we need to go cold turkey, right?). Hutton asked for honey. Hmm. Sorry, Bud, it looks like we're out of honey, too! Mommy is a bad, bad person, lying again. This was upsetting to Hutton, who told me we need to go buy honey and syrup. OK, kid, I'll get right on that! I double-checked everything in the fridge and cabinets for acceptable nugget dips. Mustard? Nope - vinegar. Ketchup? Ditto, plus the Heinz has corn syrup. Soy sauce we've had in the fridge for several years? Wrong on many fronts. I finally gave the boys some of my squash soup to dip their nuggets in. Hey, I thought it tasted good, and it was dietarily acceptable!

Tomorrow I'll do a roast with vegetables in the crock pot for dinner. I have to come up with some sort of stock or seasoning to add. And I don't have any cereal for the boys - Trader Joe's did not have any rice cereal! Could be a sign Hutton is already getting too much rice, huh? Guess we'll have waffles again, or I'll try to get Hutton to eat an egg white omelet. Who knows? Sometimes he surprises me.

One of Those Days

I woke up late, and scrambled to get the boys fed and myself dressed in time to get to ABA therapy on time. I was about 5 minutes late. Not too bad.

After a long discussion with the ABA consultant about Hutton's school situation (she observed him in class last week) we're going to go with the approach of my calling the Special Education Director of the school district, who also observed Hutton in class last week. Whatever the director wants to do, I'm going to push for it to be done as quickly as possible, then the ABA consultant can meet with teachers and come up with methods for them to use with Hutton. We'll see...

After that, we had lunch, then drove south to see Hutton's doctor to go over test results from his latest round of many, many tests of various bodily fluids. The results: Hutton has yeast (uggh), bacteria dysbiosis, and allergies to things I feared, namely corn. So, in addition to using various new supplements to fight yeast and help heal his gut, he's going on a yeast-free diet, as well as cutting corn and eggs, which are in addition to the gluten and casein (basically wheat and dairy) he can't have, which we already have been working on. The yeast-free diet wipes out the other mainstays of Hutton's diet - fruit, and condiments or sauces that make it possible for him to eat the meats I give him. He loves honey on his chicken nuggets. Well, both of those are out - I haven't found any gluten and corn-free nuggets, and I've heard that they're very difficult to make from scratch (well, if you want them to be edible, that is). The honey feeds yeast. Hotdogs? He likes the nitrate-free hotdogs, but loves them with ketchup. We'll see if he'll still eat them, condiment-free. They have gluten-free waffles Hutton likes, but will he eat them without syrup? We'll see! If not, he can have bacon. He will eat some salad, but he's never had it sans dressing. He does like carrots. So, we can feed him all the carrots, potatoes and meat he'll eat. Yee-haw.

Basically, I'm wallowing in self-pity because this means no more eating out for four months. Eating out is the highlight of my weekend. Oh well. I'll have plenty of time now to enjoy cooking in the kitchen. Wait, I hate cooking. The only things I like to cook are cookies and other things Hutton won't be able to eat. I also hate going to the grocery store, which will now be a much more frequent occurrence, since Hutton will essentially be on a cave-man diet of fresh vegetables and meat for the next four months. Did I mention I hate cooking? So, if Hutton's going to be on the diet, the rest of us will, too, cause I sure as hell am not going to make two of every meal for four months.

Hutton also has some mercury, arsenic and lead according to the special porphyrins test we did. So, after four months of yeast-killing and gut-healing, we'll re-test and then do some chelation.

Sigh. One day at a time, right?

Oh, and Sally, the evil bitch sweet dog had gone several days without any accidents, so I put the rugs back down. See, she slides all over the hardwood floors when there are no rugs to provide traction, since her hind legs are still a bit unstable, so I put the rugs (or what's left of them, after being washed a hundred times) back down. Tonight as I was stressing out about Hutton while making a meal we won't be able to eat again for the next several months (a last supper, if you will) I noticed one of the rugs was reflecting the light in a peculiar way. Because Sally had peed on it. Less than an hour after going outside to do her business. Of course, she managed to high-tail it up the stairs, part dragging her hindlegs, to get away from me and hide when she realized I was yelling, "Sally! Goddammit!" I half-carried/half dragged her downstairs and put her in her crate, then threw the rug in the wash. Deep breaths. Lots of deep breaths, Laura.