Chance 7 1/2

So my baby is not a baby anymore. He has his first loose tooth! This is just crazy! He's a smart kid who loves to invent things. He even draws up blueprints for his inventions. He builds things out of random things he finds in the garage, out of knex, legos, marble maze and anything else he can get his hands on. He is SO HONEST! He tells on himself. It's so funny.

Homeschooling is going so great. I love being able to write that! Chance really likes Sonlight. He begs for the read alouds. I can see progress in his math skills. And we are now doing Sing, Spell, Read, and Write. He LOVES it!!! I was worried about how he would take it because it's a lot of work. But no he begs to do it. In fact today after doing his math, history, and literature he asked if he could go outside. I told him sure if he would make a deal with me. If I let him go out than we would have to do his reading when he came back in and it would probably be dark outside when he came back in. Told him if we did this than he couldn't complain about coming in. He looked at me SO serious and told me he would never complain, that he LIKES doing the program. I was floating on air! He gets sad sometimes on the weekends that has no school. After looking through the program that is a combo Kindergarten/ 1st grade I decided to jump in with the first grade work. He's flying, so exciting. At the begining of this school year I was concerned that we were so far behind. I thought we didn't do enough last year(his kindergarten yr) and I was kicking myself for it. Turns out when you child is ready things really do just start clicking just like all the books said.

For Halloween Chance was Optimums Prime. Keith surprised him with a costume. He bought it too small to fit over a snowsuit so this year we had to do our trick-or-treating at the mall. That was fine. Last year he wasn't home for Halloween, he went with my In-laws to visit his cousins. So having him home was even more special. He did a great job cleaning out his pumpkin, really didn't need any mom help at the end, I was impressed.

Chance has been talking about Jesus a lot lately is the sweetest ways. He was at the library the other day and there was a boy who wanted to play with the legos in his area. He wanted the space to himself. The boys mother asked if Chance could let him play with him. Chance then said. Well Jesus would want me to share. So yes he can play. Another time we finished playing his reading games. Chance won both games so he was in line to get 2 prizes from the treasure box(things like stickers in there). Braxton was sad he wasn't getting a prize. I told Chance how happy it would make Braxton if he would let him have the 2nd prize. That Braxton was sad. Chance asked if Jesus would like it if he shared. I told him yes but that this was his choice. His face got bright and he told Braxton he could have the prize. It was so sweet! Chance is becoming a fine young boy.

Another thing of recent happenings has been something sad. My brother Chance and his fiance broke up. Lauren the fiance has a little boy Landon that my boys thought of as a cousin already. The boys were very upset when I explained to them that Landon wouldn't be around anymore. I explained the best I could what breaking up was. They wanted to know if they would ever see Landon again, I told them no. Chance struggled with this. Chance had also seen me watching a show on the computer where there is a divorced couple. So over the weekend he came to me and asked if our family would ever break up. Poor kid! I promised him that would never happen. That mom and dad love each other very much and that we were sealed in the temple and we were a forever family. We are LDS, temple sealings are a part of our faith. I gave him a big hug and he felt better, just needed some reassurance.

To end I will tell you about my little geraphobe. The kid is nuts about germs. 2 weeks ago Braxton had a cough. Chance was so concerned that Braxton had sick germs that he baricaded himself in a fort. He is washing his hands a lot. He is so parinoid. So Keith decided to pick on him. The other day he gave Chance a bowl of chips and he licked some of the outside edge of the bowl!!! Chance about died but hey he still took the chips. I guess somethings are more important than germs. I am trying to work with Chance to help him relax about germs a little. My reason is my future daughter-in-law. I can't imagine what it would be like to live with a germaphobe, it would drive a person nuts! So yeah we are working on it. That said today we took Onaleigh in for her 9mo check-up. I totally took advantage of Chance's phobia. So many sick people at the clinic! We brought our own books and things and I had my bottle of hand sanitizer out anytime we touched anything. I pretty much acted like everyone had the plague. No we didn't wear masks, but the thought did cross my mind. To be honest I didn't want to touch the face masks knowing people with the flu had touched those boxes.

Braxton (soon to be 4yrs)

Braxton is such a fun kid! For Halloween he decided he wanted to be a bat. I have no idea why, maybe he got the idea from Magic School Bus. Had to make his costume. So I bought him a black coat, pants, and shirt. Some black polar fleece and black cat ears. Halloween was a busy day to say the least. Keith was working from home so he was here but busy. I carved pumpkins with the boys and then I tried to work on his costume. But of course I couldn't find my sewing kit when I needed it. Eventually after getting frustrated I came up with a plan. I would cut out the wings and then on the way to the mall we would pick up a sewing kit at Walgreen's. So I ran and gave Onaleigh her bath and then got to work. I had no pins to cold it together so I grabed clothes pins off the line and measured and cut them. I also took chalk to color on the boning you see on bat wings. Got us all dressed, Keith finished work and off we went. I found it funny to be sewing his costume in the parking lot at the mall but hey it worked! Braxton was thrilled about his costume and the great part of it is besides the ears the rest of the costume is all clothes he can wear. I just did a slip stitch on the wings so they will come off really easy and then we have a spring coat. Rock on.

When I had the Nutritional Response testing done on Onaleigh I had Braxton done at the same time. His results really surprised me. His big stressors are not food but instead preservatives, pesticides, and formaldehyde. Those are probably because of vaccinations(he is fully vaxed except the FLU shot). I ordered 2 inexpensive vitamins that are supposed to help his body ride himself of them. The hope is that one he gets this taken care off that he will stop wetting the bed. I sure hope so. Braxton potty trained at 21months. Chance didn't like going to the bathroom by himself so he would bring Braxton with him. And before I knew it he was potty trained way before I was ready! LOL.

Braxton tags along while I homeschool Chance. I ask Chance questions and Braxton loves to answer before his big brother can. It's funny. He really wants to do school too so I give him some spare workbooks we have. That makes him feel a part of things. He also plays our games from Chance's reading program with us. I'm not officially doing school with him but he is catching on just from being near us. We'll keep going like this with him for this year, real relaxed. He amazes me everyday with what he knows just from being there.

Braxton reminds me of pig pen from Charlie Brown. He is full of energy and loves to wrestle. When he gives you a hug he presses his cheek to yours. He is easily distracted, I swear his brain falls out every so often. It's part of his charm. I love the way he talks, laughs and gets so serious. He's my little boy!

Onaleigh 9 1/2 months old

Onaleigh is 9 1/2mo, with no teeth. She gets around a lot. Crawling like a pro. She loves to pull herself up on things but can't get down. That doesn't bother her, because she never wants to get down! That is unless she accidently starts doing the splits, then it's time for a rescue. She loves to explore so we have to be very careful to make sure all the doors are closed. The best is when you can see she's on a mission so you run to the door and shut it. She instantly puts her head down on the floor in her sad crumble, poor kid. She loves her brothers and in particular has a thing for Braxton. If he is on the floor than she is on top of him. He can get her giggling like no other.

For Halloween Onaleigh's first Halloween she was a fairy. We found wings and a tutu like thing at the dollar store. We went trick or treating at our local mall. She got lots of compliments. But no candy(I wouldn't allow it). She wasn't so sure of all the masks so she was pretty serious for most of it. Chance accidently scared the day lights out of her with his Optimus Prime mask.

Onaleigh has atopic dermatitis, in other words severe eczema. From the top of her head to her feet. I took her to a woman and had Nutrional Response Testing done. It came back that her stressors are sugar, brown sugar, cane sugar, eggs, whole wheat, sprouted whole grains, rye. She also needs to take daily probiotics. Much of those things I had already eliminated from my diet. She is a breastfeed baby. Sugar was new though and wow eliminating it from my diet has been an emotional process. Proud to say I made it through Halloween without a single bite of candy! I have been sugar free since her testing. Topically after trying a few different oils I am slathering her with avocado oil a few times a day and then putting California Baby Super Sensitive no fragrance lotion on her. For the laundy we use All Free &Clear and I double rinse all her clothes. No laundry softener. Her torso is red dry and flaky. But the welt like rash has toned way down. Today I took her in for her 9mo well baby check up. Her pediatrician wrote her a prescription for a steroid cream and told me to go buy Vanicream or CeraVa. Not Eucerin because it contains lanolin which some people are sensitive too(me for example!). I need to research these creams, they do not contain parabens but I want to know about petroleum and mineral oil. He also wants us to see a dermatologist, so he put Onaleigh on their cancellation list. It can take a log time to get into the derm so this way makes it go faster. I'm not sure how I feel about all this. I really do not want to do the steroid cream. What I want to do is handle this holistically. I am going to fill the prescription but I haven't decided if I am going to use it. Other than her skin she is in perfect health. She weighs 15lbs 2oz and is 26in long. Her head measures 43cm. She is a little thing :)

As for solids we aren't giving a whole lot. Mostly if I am eating something she can eat I give her a little. Like carrots, potatoes, apple sauce, etc. With the eczema I am leery to do many new foods. I want to clear up her skin more first.

She used to be a great sleeper but not so much anymore. I think part of that is because of the eczema. We'll see!

Last month was her baby blessing. It was very special. She smiled so big after, my heart just melted. I found her a pretty little white cotton dress at a local consignment shop for $8! She looked so sweet. Still can't believe I have a girl, it's a whole new world after 2 boys.