Life with a 2 Year Old

When you live with a two year old life is ALWAYS interesting...and messy it seems.  Without going into too much detail (you would wonder about my mothering skills)  I'll just let you know that this mess happened within about 5 minutes. I received a quick phone call from a friend and this is what occurred when I took my eyes off of Happy Feet momentarily.

It included crawling in the bathtub for a little hair washing, jumping into the dryer to clean the lent out (yes, I know that's not really safe) and then getting into the refrigerator to grab a pop.  No, I didn't let her have the pop.    Whew, this girl can wear me out! I sure do love her though! 

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Ina Garten's Tomato & Feta Salad

Ingredients:

3 pints cherry tomatoes, halved, or you could just slice up whatever tomatoes you have available.  That's what I did.
12 oz. feta cheese
1 small red onion, diced
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
3 T. white wine vinegar
2 T. minced fresh basil
2 T. minced fresh parsley
3/4 t. salt
1/2 t. freshly ground pepper

Directions: In a serving bowl, gently toss together all ingredients.  Serve immediately or chill, covered until ready to serve.  Makes 8 servings.  Pin It

Red Shoes' FFVN

Red Shoes really struggles with his speech.  He is 4 1/2 right now and has been working with his Speech Therapist since shortly after he turned 2.  He works SO hard during therapy.  To back-up a little, when Red Shoes was a baby he was born with Bilateral Choanal Atresia.

According to Wikipedia.org: "Bilateral choanal atresia is a very serious life-threatening condition because the baby will then be unable to breathe directly after birth as babies are obligate nasal breathers (they must use their noses to breathe). In some cases, this may present as cyanosis while the baby is feeding, because the oral air passages are blocked by the tongue, further restricting the airway. The cyanosis may improve when the baby cries, as the oral airway is used at this time. These babies may require airway resuscitation soon after birth."

Red Shoes did have to be resuscitated.  After he was released from the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (2 months after his birth) at our local Children's Hospital, I started to notice that it took FOREVER for him to take his feeds.  Sometimes around 30-45 minutes.  Then, we noticed that often times he would lose milk out of his nose.

As I began looking for answers, I came across information on the Haberman Feeder.

 It was designed for babies with a poor suck.  I ordered it that day.  Red Shoes and I had to learn together and get into a rhythm.  I was literally squirting the milk into his mouth.  I was glad to find something, but feeding him was so difficult.  If we were anywhere but home, he wouldn't eat like he needed too.  Let alone let many other people try to feed him.

I only mention all of this, because it leads up to his difficulty with speech.  We really felt like Red Shoes needed to be scoped so that we could see what was truly going on.  We felt like there was a physical reason for a lot of what was occurring.  After much waiting, we had our first appointment with the Cleft Palate Clinic.  That morning was busy meeting with a Speech Therapist, nutritionist, pediatric Dentist, Plastic Surgeon and Ears, Nose and Throat Specialist.  I left the hospital that morning ready to scream and cry both.  The Speech Therapist refused to let Red Shoes be scoped because he didn't have enough speech.  Aghhhhh!  We knew his speech was very limited, but she wouldn't budge at all.  After more research and growing more of a backbone, I went back to the drawing board.  I decided I would email the ENT Doctor that did Red Shoes' Choanal Atresia surgeries.  She had become very special to us and I thought she might be able to give us some direction.  She's the kind of doctor that gave me her cell phone number and email address!  There's not too many of those around. 

She spoke with one of her colleagues and we met with her (another ENT) a month or two later.  From there we got Red Shoes scheduled for his scope (FFVN) with a different Speech Therapist (I demanded) and this ENT Doctor.  Thank you Jesus! 

If you're wondering how the FFVN works... below is a picture of the camera that is used.  It's about the size of a strand of spaghetti.  Red Shoes' nose was numbed and then the camera was inserted. After it was positioned correctly they asked Red Shoes to say certain words/phrases. 

Here's some pictures of Red Shoes during his FFVN procedure in October of 2009:

From this procedure we learned that our suspicions were right on.  Red Shoes' palate was hardly moving at all.  It wasn't completely paralyzed, but pretty close.  We were so glad to finally have some information.

We left that day with a list of "To Do's"

1.  Get a Tonsillectomy (Completed December 2009)
2.  Follow-up with Genetics Clinic (Completed November 2009)
3. Schedule Sleep Study (Completed March 2010)
4.  Heal from Tonsillectomy
5.Consider Pharyngeal Flap Surgery
6. Make another appointment to meet with ENT to discuss options (Completed April 2010)

We completed this "to do" list and met with the ENT, then had just a little bit more to do:

7.  Schedule another FFVN b/c Red Shoes was stronger and saying more (Completed July 2010)
8.  Pharyngeal Flap Surgery.....................Yay!!!!! Scheduled for August 2010!
More on that later... Pin It

Grandma's Cucumber Salad

This is a salad that has been made in my family for many, many years.  Maybe it's not that uncommon, I don't know.  It always reminds me of my precious grandma though. You will always find this on her dinner table during the summer time.  It's a very simple and good recipe. I'll give you the recipe that makes a lot, but I would say a family of four would probably want to half-it. 

 All you need:
7-8 Cucumbers, peeled and sliced
1 Small Onion, preferably red, sliced
1 Cup Miracle Whip
1/2 Cup Sugar
1/4 Cup White Vinegar

Just slice up your cucumbers and onions.  Notice the edges on the cucumbers pictured below.  Grandma taught me how to do this when I was very young.  All you do is peel the cucumber, then take a fork and score it all the way down the length of the cucumber.  It just gives it a little pizazz.

In a separate bowl combine the Miracle Whip, sugar and vinegar.  Mix it well and then pour it on top of the cucumbers and onions.  Stir.  That's all there is to it!

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Blessings

Last week there were two different ladies who really blessed me.  One of them was a woman who called because she knew that Red Shoes would probably be having surgery soon, and she remembered that our baby was due soon too.  She left a message saying that she had been remembering our family during this time.  When I called her back we had a nice conversation.  She's such an amazing woman.  She broke her hip last winter and could choose to focus her attention on herself, or her needs, but instead she wanted to make sure we knew she was thinking of us. 

The other was an elderly woman that my husband and kids ran into at breakfast on Saturday morning.  She gave the kids M&M's.  Whenever she sees them she always asks if they can have them.  Anyway, I had errands to run that morning & my husband knew I needed some "alone" time.  When I arrived home there was a message from her wondering when Red Shoes' birthday was and how old he is.  She wanted to be able to send him a card for his birthday when it comes around.  When I called her back we talked about Red Shoes' upcoming surgery.  She had asked my husband earlier that morning if she could put him on the prayer chain at her church.  He was happy to agree.  When I talked to her she said that Red Shoes was on the prayer chain at three different church's.  We will gladly take all the prayers we can get. 

It is so cool when people step out in faith to lift you or your family/situation up to God.  I want to strive to do the same.  It really doesn't even take that much.  I think many times I talk myself out of doing anything, because I try to turn it into too much.  It doesn't take a lot to make people feel loved and cared for.  Phone calls in this situation...and I'm still thinking of those women who really moved me, and how they have cared for me and my family. Pin It

Margherita Pizza

You must try this!  Wow, one of the best new recipes I've made recently.  You can find the recipe for the pizza crust here.  This has become my "go to" recipe for a quick and easy crust. 

Margherita Pizza Ingredients:
1/4 cup olive oil
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
8 Roma tomatoes, sliced (or just use what ever kind you have available)
pizza crust (see above)
8 ounces shredded Mozzarella cheese
10 fresh basil leaves, washed, dried, minced
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese, grated
1/2 cup Feta cheese, crumbled

Directions:

• Mix together olive oil, garlic and salt; toss with tomatoes, let sit for 15 minutes.  Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

• Brush pizza crust with some of the tomato marinade.

• 
  
  Sprinkle pizza with Mozzarella cheese

• Place tomato slices on top of pizza, then sprinkle with basil, Parmesan and Feta cheeses.

• Bake in a preheated oven for about 10 minutes, or until cheese is melted and bubbly.

Enjoy!

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Summer Goodness

The kids and I went out and picked some tomatoes this morning.  This was the first day that all of our varieties were ready. Up to this point, all we were getting were Cherry tomatoes and Lemon Boy tomatoes.  I was so excited to pick our first Black Krim. 
Here's a picture of all of them.  Beautiful!

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