Major Milestone!!!

Malia was brave enough to eat hot lunch at school today!

Futball

Matthew has not played organized sports for a while. He used to be all about football, but that waned after a bit and over the past year or so his interests have diversified. He has tried volleyball (a set of beginning techniques class as well as a round of tournament style games) and really enjoyed that. He would really like to try fencing but the beginners class that both Daniel and Nathan did has not been offered for quite some time. This fall he decided he wanted to give soccer a try. I think he really enjoyed himself. He loves to be active and outside and soccer filled both those needs. He said he would be interested in playing soccer again.

Some Unexpected News

The past few years have brought some welcome additions to Matthew’s diet. Due to the creation of a better blood test, he was able to do a food challenge for milk and eggs in breads and has been eating bread, rolls, and doughnuts with milk and eggs in them successfully for the past few years. He still can’t eat either milk or eggs raw or in things like cookies (they don’t bake long enough for the proteins in the milk and egg to break down enough to prevent a reaction) but the new foods he has been able to eat have definitely added some variety to his plate.

Today was his yearly appointment with the allergist and based on our past experiences, I didn’t expect much to change. There haven’t been any new breakthroughs in testing or treatment, so I thought today would be another “stay the course” appointment. In some ways I was right, but there was one big surprise. Due to the fact that Matthew’s IgE for milk is still low (around 10-it was around 26 three years ago) and his reaction to the skin prick testing was minimal, she wants him to do a food challenge with baked cheese. We’re talking pizza here. Well baked cheese is a must, it can’t be just gooey, but pizza! This is something I honestly never thought Matthew would be able to do. After ten years of being taught that milk could kill him, Matthew is understandably freaked out. I’m kind of freaked out too. It is completely scary. But it is also very exciting. It would make fast food pizza ok for him since he already tolerates milk and eggs in breads (the crust) just fine. It would mean that he can eat goldfish crackers. Even more than that, it might mean that the risk of cross contamination by milk wouldn’t be such a big deal and that alone would give him a bunch more food options.

Matthew isn’t ready to do the food challenge yet. Like I said, it is very scary. We’ll encourage him to do the challenge but like we have in the past, we won’t push him to do it before he is ready. He has to make the choice. It is his life and he knows the risks as well as the benefits. He will get there, but it is going to take some time. And it is even a bit scarier for him right now because his allergist is retiring this December. His first reaction was when he was 5 months old so he literally does not remember a time when she was not his doctor. She would like to see him do the challenge before she quits, but I’m not sure that is going to happen. But we’ll see. This could be a life-changing event for him.

Princess for a Week

It has been princess central around here for the past ten days. Malia has had a birthday and this year was the year we threw a princess party. In fact, we invited her friends to come to princess school so they could all learn to be royalty and earn their tiaras. We practiced waving a wand, dancing, making a bracelet, kissing a frog and defending ourselves (against a piñata). The girls wore their fancy gowns and they did, in fact, all earn their tiaras. Malia’s cake of choice was a super simple strawberry cupcake cake, but she was very pleased with how it turned out.

This month’s birthday table day at the elementary was on Malia’s actual birthday which made it even more exciting for her. School had not started for Nathan (though it had for everyone else), so he got to attend as well. We took her a lunch from Carl’s Jr. and even though she was totally hyped, she managed to eat up all her food.

After lunch, Nathan helped me pick out some balloons for her, and I think she was pleased with our selection:

Her presents from us were given that evening. She was happy about the princess Lego from Daniel and Nathan.

She was spazy about the tiara from Kevin and I.

(Yup, that’s my girl-equal parts girly girl, tom boy and spaz.)

The musical jewelry box from us was also entrancing.

But Matthew totally won the “who can choose the best present for Malia” award with his selection of a scooter of her very own.

This past Sunday was her cake day at my parents’ house. She opted for the blueberry cupcake cake for this one. She was also excited to be able to celebrate with her cousin Kate since Kate had been out of town for her princess party.

Even Jolly has had an opportunity to be royalty for a day.

I’ve about had my fill of princess stuff for now, but Malia has loved all of it. She’s such a perfect blend of interests that I’m happy to indulge her inner princess from time to time knowing that she’s going to alternate princess time with baseball time or football time or scooter time…she’s well rounded and a perfect fit for our crazy family.

Here is a translation of Malia’s birthday interview in case your reading of phonetic writing is rusty:

My nicknames are: Squeaker Pants
If I could change my name, it would be: Dot
When I grow up I want to be: a mom
My best friend is: Raylee
My favorite thing to do with my family is: Play games
This is what makes me happy: Playing house
This is what makes me sad: Falling
My favorite thing about school is: recess
The thing I’m best at is: the weed (??? When I asked Malia about this, she couldn’t even remember what it was supposed to mean. She decided her new answer was “to read” which is probably a better answer because I’m pretty sure child protective services would take her away if she was really doing weed. 😉)
If I had a million dollars I would: cheer
If I could go anywhere, I would go: To Space
If I had one wish, I would wish for: I want to be anything
For breakfast, I like to eat: cereal
My favorite thing to do outside is: ride my scooter
My favorite thing to wear is: dresses
Before I fall asleep, I think about: is I read books
My favorite birthday present was: a singing bird

My Favorites
Food: spaghetti
Holiday: Christmas
Book: Another Monster at the End of This Book
Toy: doll
Treat: cookies
Song: I Am a Child of God
Animal: tiger
Movie: Narnia
Color: red
Sport: football
T.V. Show: Sophia

“Totality” Cool

As I’m sure you all know, today was a total solar eclipse that was visible across the entire United States. Kevin and the boys, my dad and my sister Rachael and her family drove north into the path of totality. I would have liked to go, but August heat=migraine for me and I knew I would end up feeling miserable so I stayed home with Malia. Malia had school, but I went and checked her out for awhile so she could experience the 93% eclipse we got here. We went to the park next to the elementary school and Malia alternated between playing on the playground and checking in to see how the eclipse was coming along. It was actually pretty disconcerting to know it was the middle of the day and yet have no cloud cover and nearly no light.

The men folk had a great time and took a million pictures to share when they got home. Kevin had a sun filter for his camera and took so many pictures that he actually ran completely out of battery power.

Sprinkled in with the pictures of heavenly bodies were a few of the earthly bodies.

  (Nathan always comments on how I put the dorky pictures of him on the blog, but honestly what choice do I have? These are not staged by me. He just gets his dork on pretty regularly. 😉)

The boys were all completely awed by the marvelous show, and hopefully I’ll be around to see a repeat performance when it happens in our neck of the woods in 2045.

Who's the Leader?

Our elementary school uses the “Leader in Me” program to teach citizenship and character development. They teach seven habits (things like “put first things first” and “begin with the end in mind”) and each week they choose one child from each grade who has been living the seven habits as the Leader of the Week. Today Malia came home from school, showed me a bunch of prizes and said that during the announcements they announced her name for her birthday. However, Matthew said they announce birthdays every day and not just on Fridays so I was kind of confused but figured it wasn’t worth dwelling on. While we were eating dinner this evening, the assistant principal called to let us know that Malia had been chosen as the leader of the week for the whole first grade. She told us that Malia is such a cute girl and she is already showing leadership skills. Malia had her picture taken this morning and it will be posted on the leader wall which stays the same for the entire school year. Matthew said they announce the grade leaders each day and then we heard the following exchange:

Matthew: “I didn’t hear it. I didn’t know.”
Malia: “Me either!”

We laughed. She’s awesome. 😊

Proof That I Make My Young’uns Walk to School

 (They have also inherited my skin which is a huge blessing because they tan rather than burn.)

Artistic Endeavors

Nathan is one of those kids who gets super stir crazy if he doesn’t have something to do. He can only binge watch shows on Netflix for so long before he has to get up and do something else. Once his summer stage crew stint ended, he needed something to do so he decided to make a quilt. He learned the basics of sewing in his seventh grade CTE class and he actually enjoyed it. So he selected a simple pattern, dug through my scrap boxes and got to work. With some basic instructions from me and questions asked along the way, he completed the entire quilt on his own. He chose a pattern that made the quilt top on the bias and handled the extra stretchiness very well.

He quilted it freehand on the quilting machine and even snuck in a few words that describe him.

And then he took a very artful picture of the finished product. (He has become quite interested in photography as well.) The quilt looks great. He’s totally proud of himself, as well he should be.

And he didn’t even make a dent in my scrap stash so he’s welcome to dive in again whenever he wants.