She Ate the Ears First

When I was a kid, I got a chocolate bunny in my Easter basket every year. It was something I always looked forward to so it is a tradition I’ve continued with my own kids. Malia dug into her chocolate princess bunny this evening. Not unexpectedly, her hot little hands wreaked havoc with those bunny ears.

Her response to the whole thing? “Shmoly shmoly, I’m messy.”

Seriously, how could anyone not love this little smart aleck?

Further Proof That I’ve Messed Up My Kids

Tonight as part of our family home evening lesson, Kev sent the boys to locate a pencil and notebook. All the boys jumped up and dashed out to get their supplies. Malia watched them go and then the following conversation occurred:

Malia :“Where’d everybody go?”

Me: “Crazy. Are you coming?”

Malia: “Allll-righty.”

I’m Seeing the World Through Rose-Colored Glasses

Several posts ago I mentioned that I’ve been seeing a new doctor. The wife of one of Kev’s coworkers gave us the name of a neurologist who specializes in headaches. And she practices here in the valley. I’ve looked for such a specialist on a number of occasions over the years and was never able to find one, so this tidbit of info was a pretty propitious find. After a particularly rough headache week in February (a migraine that completely incapacitated me for two full days was only part of that week’s drama), I made an appointment.

The doctor asked me a million questions, some I expected (symptoms, family history of headaches, personal history of headaches, if I eat chocolate or drink caffeinated beverages, etc.) and some that surprised me (if I get carsick, if I can read in a moving vehicle). After a neurological exam and all the questions, she told me that I have chronic migraines. This was not news to me. I’ve know that for a good long while now. She also told me that I won the genetic lottery for headaches…not really the kind of lottery anyone wants to win, but there’s really not much I can do about it. I’ve been doing the headache think for so long that most of the lifestyle changes she could have recommended have been a part of my daily existence for a couple of decades now. She did, however, take the time to talk about sleep. I know that not sleeping enough triggers headaches for me, and she said that she could not overemphasize how important it is to get enough sleep. She also said that headache prone brains do not like change. Huh. Even my gray matter has OCD. Aren’t I the lucky one! (Be sure the read that last bit with the appropriate sarcasm.)

Right off the bat, she changed the dosage of my maintenance medication and took me off the rescue meds I was taking. Apparently one of the ones I was taking was pretty bad for causing rebound headaches. And the triptan I was taking (triptans are the class of drugs that treat migraines) was so short lasting that by the time my body metabolized it and I started to feel relief, it was already wearing off. She also prescribed some tinted lenses for my glasses to help with the light sensitivity bit.

Here’s a bit of background on the whole light issue. I’ve been getting headaches on grocery shopping day for years and I could not figure out why. About a year ago I happened to read somewhere that fluorescent lighting can trigger migraines. I mentioned it to Kev and he suggested I try wearing my sunglasses in the store to see if it made a difference. It did. I was able to considerably improve my odds of getting the shopping done without having a headache and over the past year, I’ve learned to recognize the earliest symptoms of the light triggered migraines and head them off with my sunglasses. So I was intrigued by the tinted lenses idea.

It took a few weeks to get the lenses made and longer than normal to get used to them (because they are filtering out light, when I’m in a particularly funky lighting situation I can see the light refracting and get a bit of the “pencil in a glass of water” effect when I move around), but I’ve already noticed an improvement. In the very worst of the stores-Walmart (which is only a small part of the reason I hate Walmart so much) and Joann’s (bad for me but good for my budget)-I still need to wear my sunglasses. I think the tint would need to be considerably darker to make everything hunky dory in those places. But in other stores I don’t seem to have any problems. And it seems to really help when I’m sitting at the computer. I had gotten to the point where I could only look at the computer screen for five or ten minutes before I started to feel a headache coming on and things are significantly better now. (Seriously, there is a really good reason why I’ve had such a hard time keeping up on my blog in the past year.)

So literally having a rosy outlook on life is helping. Changing up the meds seems to be helping as well. I’m not having a headache nearly every day anymore. Things aren’t as good as I’d like them to be, but I seem to be on an upward climb. Hopefully that will continue.

It's Easter For Peep's Sake!

My kids happened to have spring break the same weekend as Easter, so we’ve had a little extra time for our holiday activities. Thursday afternoon we colored our eggs. We only spilled one bowl of dye and only cracked one egg. That’s a pretty successful dye session if you ask me.

Everyone’s schedules were extra crazy this year, so instead of doing an extended family egg hunt we did it here at home with just our little posse. That meant that all the plastic eggs were Matthew friendly which is highly unusual. Matthew thought it was just about the best thing ever. He was so excited that he barreled out the door as soon as it opened, not allowing Malia the couple minutes head start she deserved due to her age. After a few minutes we had to tell him to slow down because he wasn’t leaving any eggs for Nathan and Malia. He was pretty bummed, but by then he had nearly all the plastic eggs in his basket and Nathan and Malia only had a couple each. We made him share.

 Remember way back at Christmas when I found some fabric that would be great for Malia’s Easter dress? The previously mentioned dress has been completed and Malia loves it. I tried it on her at various stages in its completion and the first time she tried it on after the skirt was attached, she immediately started spinning and exclaimed, “It turns!” When I took the dress off her to put in the finishing touches, she came to snuggle me and said, “I love you.” I responded with an “I love you to.” Then she had to clarify: “I love you making my dress!” That kind of appreciation makes me glad to do it. And working with a little bit of tulle is just fun and makes the dress “turn.” Plus then we had to shop for shoes that matched and Malia was in little girl heaven. And I was in big girl heaven. What can I say? I have a thing for cute shoes. And apparently it is a genetic trait that I've passed on to my daughter.

My choir sang in Sacrament Meeting, I planned a kind of rowdy activity for singing time knowing that the primary kids would be all sugared up, and since we have 9 o’clock church we even had plenty of time to make our hot cross buns after church was over. It was a nice change from the hectic pace that happens when I try to get a nice dinner ready after getting home from church at 4 o’clock. So we had a nice day. Hopefully y'all enjoyed your holiday as well.

Another Zoo-pendous Excursion

My boys were out of school today for spring break, so we decided to break out of your normal routine and head to the zoo. Although none of them complained when I took Malia a few weeks ago, I knew that they would enjoy a visit as well. The weather was overcast and cool, just perfect. I know many of you would dispute that (as evidenced by the complete lack of crowds at the zoo minus the dozen elementary schools and one old folks’ home fields trips we crossed paths with), but for me it was ideal. Even when it is cool, sunny is problematic for me. The sun beating down on my very dark head=migraine=craptastic day. So overcast means no crap…apart from the copious amounts produced by the occupants of the zoo, that is.

I won’t bore you with long descriptions of how clever the elephants were or how bad the small animal house smelled, I’ll just share a few pictures.

  This girl seems to have a thing for monkeys…her Auntie Esther would be proud. :-)

 You would think Matthew would look more excited considering he is close enough to his favorite animal that we got a face full of shedding tiger fur, but at least his eyes are open.

The Birds

A couple of weeks ago whenever she happened to notice a bird, Malia started holding out her hand, palm up, and telling me she wanted the bird to land in her hand. I was a bit perplexed by this seemingly random desire until I started thinking about her fascination with all things princess. As I began to recall some of the movies we’ve watched recently, I began to notice a theme. Cinderella: birds singing, washing, sewing, etc. Beauty and the Beast: a handful of birdseed=bird in the hand. Mirror, Mirror: a bird hops in the window and eats a seed right out of Snow White’s hand. Enchanted: yup, birds all over this one. So it seems that Malia’s innate desire to be a princess has led to an intense desire to hold a bird. However, I’m pretty sure that if the seagull or crow that she thinks she wants to land on her hand actually did so, the result would be more Hitchcock than Disney.

In other news, Malia is terrified of spiders and I swear I did not teach it to her in spite of the fact that spiders rank right up there with mice on my loathing scale. She does the whole girly shrieking with terror thing. If I didn’t find spiders so off putting myself, it would be kind of funny.

Two At the Zoo

I've been seeing a new doctor for my headaches and since her office is only five minutes from the zoo, after my appointment last week Malia and I spent a couple of hours checking out the animals. I didn't tell her we were going and she was so excited when we arrived that she jumped up and down and said, "Thank you, thank you for coming to the zoo!"

We have never been to the zoo without the boys and it was really great to be able to go at Malia's pace, seeing the things she wanted to see. That means we saw elephants, monkeys (neither of which surprised me) and snakes (which did). There was one particular monkey that came right up to the glass and just stared at Malia. She, of course, stared right back. We stood at that particular cage for a good five minutes or so as she studied that funny little monkey.

(I know the picture is a little blurry. It was dim inside the monkey house and taking great pics with my iPod camera is still a work in progress.)

She was brave enough to sit on the metal elephant's trunk for a picture, something she has never done before and didn't look all that pleased about this time even though it was her idea.

And because the crowds were not overwhelming and the line was not ridiculously long, she got to ride the carousel. She was so excited once she had her ticket in her hand and was waiting for her turn that she simply could not get close enough.

She stood just like that the entire time we were waiting in line. Her response when the carousel started to spin was, "This is awesome!!" Needless to say, she was pretty bummed when her turn was over. She really loved it. 

 
When we were done at the zoo we ate lunch at Wendy’s. We don’t eat out all that often and when we do, most of the time we do take out so that we can cook something for Matthew at home. So eating in the restaurant is a treat for Malia.

Because of all Matthew's food allergies, spur of the moment trips like this are always hard with him because we have to plan in advance or be home by mealtimes since he can't safely eat out. So being able to just go on an outing on a whim and stay as long as we want is nice. I'll have to take advantage of it before Malia gets old enough for school. And she is so grateful about our excursion (she mentioned it in her prayers for days afterward) that it makes me perfectly willing to take her again.

Vroom! Vroom!

When I bought a box of diapers this morning, I had no idea that I was also buying an entire afternoon's entertainment for my three youngest kids as well. Once the box was emptied, Nathan and Matthew (who are on the very last day of their off-track) looked at it and saw great potential.

Before long, a few paper plates, several plastic cups and a handful of brads have transformed the box into a classic convertible for Malia, complete with steering wheel and tires that turn, head lights, a windshield and a place for Malia to insert her key. Once the auto was complete, Nathan and Matthew spent the next two hours pushing Malia around the house. They went shopping for books in the living room, bought groceries from Malia's kitchen and even watched a movie ("Tangled," of course) at the back-of-the-couch drive-in.

I love that I have creative offspring. I can even overlook the enormous pig sty they left in Malia's room (an entire shelf of books left on the floor as well as all the contents of her kitchen) because they played so well together all afternoon.