State of Household.

We have been dairy free here for eleven days. BOY is that a long time in some ways. I never thought I'd be able to cope with a lack of cheese.

Anyhow. I'm making more and healthier foods, canning more, and we're eating better in general. The improvement I've seen... Well, my dermatitis is no longer in flare-up. Otherwise, I feel pretty good, and have only one side-effect so far - I have wicked heartburn at night, which I think is trying to make me cave and get a glass of milk.

Skeeve doesn't think he's seeing a lot of difference. But I am. He's going longer stretches between days he feels like he's all "durrr..." and there haven't been any "Look! It's GEESE!!" days since we went DF. (yeah, he actually shouted, full voice, in the car, "LOOK! IT'S GEESE!!" when we saw geese in the parking lot of a Barnes and Noble) There is improvement there, and I think it's hard for him to see so far, probably because he's been "on" dairy for so much longer than LP has been.

The changes in LP... are incredible. The issues I took to the pediatrician are in plain type. The ones that have been solved since going dairy free are struck out, and any notes or new things are in italics:

Spitting up clear (2-5 times in any given "affected" day, not all days are affected) Typically he would have at least three "affected" days per week. He has spit/vomited once, and only once, since the 10th.
Hair pulling
Head banging
Biting tables (wooden/glass, non-specific)
Flapping (when excited, typically in the evening) This remains, but the point of excitement is define-able. He flaps when he sees a dog. When he sees Daddy after a long day. When he finds a favourite toy.
Perpetual motion (including while sitting) This is linked to "focus" below.
Runny nose (not severe, but constantly snotty) Still ongoing, but I think LP is currently teething, so... That has always had runny noses.
Gagging self (multiple times per day) He still does this, but... Not the same way. It used to be that he'd gag himself on *something* and if nothing was there, he'd shove his fingers down his throat. This has diminished to the point that he occasionally gags (like 2-3 times in a day instead of 10-12), but not typically on his own hands.
General discontent (when up, wants down. When down, wants up)
Zero attention span (no focus on singe task, even when task is loud and interesting) This is completely changed. LP has never had a favourite toy. He would demolish them all, then fling the pieces, then wander away, only to come back, throw pieces, leave... over and over again. Now he actually sits and plays with toys, and I can see the little mind behind his actions going as he's trying to figure things out... It's a HUGE change. Given that Skeeve's main problem with dairy is ALSO lack of focus (he was put on ritalin as a kid because his dairy allergy mimicked ADD!!), I am incredibly unsurprised to see this change... but very surprised at how "deep" it went.
Losing language development (gaining new sounds, losing established words - no Mama, no good, no {exclusive} Dada) This could just be a maturity issue, but he's using his full words again as he was... and has added new ones as well - like dog, duck, door, all done, thank you, hi, stairs (he's trying, anyhow)...
Biting self (typically this will be his own clothes, but it's *bite* and not release, but *pull* until it's out of his mouth, then *bite* and repeat) This still remains, but it seems to be an "I don't WANNA sleep!!!" behaviour when he's overtired, or trying to wake himself up if he's already asleep. Also, seems to be common in teething kids, which he is.

All in all, HUGE changes for the Little Man. I'm so thrilled with how this worked out. And it's a hell of a lot better than "cut his hair short and we'll see him in three months." -_-;;

Needing a "notes" function

So my scheduler is wonderful, but has two problems thus far. First, it's designed to let you print off a transcript at a moment's notice. This is all well and good, but this means there's a spot for the student's SSN/SIN in addition to first/last name. So the whole thing is password protected via SSL - like you find on bank websites. Also, in and of itself, not a bad thing. However, the SSL expires approximately every hour. Therefore if I want to mark down completing activities... I have to log in again. So I can't leave the scheduler up, mark completion, then save... as the day goes on. Nope, have to log back in (losing any changes made since last time, BTW) every time I turn around. Not digging that at all. I'm figuring to print out the schedule, mark completion on the paper, and add it to the program at the end of the day. Save myself some sanity.

Problem two? There seems to be no notes function. So I can do activities with LP all day long... but I have nowhere to make notes on how it went, or any changes to lessons I want to make to keep the whole thing effective and fun for him. Just great.

See, while yesterday was spatial awareness via stacking cups, today was spatial awareness via shape sorter. Yesterday was a great time for both of us, and 15 minutes was easy. Today... not so much at all. Fifteen minutes was too long, some of the shapes (we have a somplex sorter that was sort of a "best to be done" option) - like the pentagon, the plus and the star - are difficult for him, and it just wasn't a good run today. I would like to note that in the planner, but I can't. So now I debate getting a school-type planner for expressly this purpose and seeing what we get from there. Maybe I just don't know where to look in the tracker, though. More poking about to be done.

Anyhow, I think today's lessons are going to be poor, and I think that's for two reasons. First, I'm exhausted - because second, LP did NOT sleep well. Bad combination. Add to that the fact that I'm distracted (we need to try a new recipe for rice milk, the one we have is just too thick!), and... It's just not going all that well today. Happily, it's just a preschool thing, so we can mix and match and rearrange to suit our needs.

Day 1 of "pre-school"

It's "pre-school" because it's not really preschool at all. It's using the Earthschooling curriculum as a guide, scaling it to what LP is ready for, and going from there. Our days are going to be spent on things with wonderful and complicated names like "spatial awareness" and "phys ed; body awareness"... that are really just wonderfully overcomplicated ways of saying "today we play with stacking cups," and "we're going to learn about 'up'!" Today is our very first day. It starts off well, waking up a little late because someone was up too late last night... then breakfast. We get all set, and play a little, then go play specifically with the stacking cups, exploring what fits in which cup, how they stack, how they fall down, and the noise they make when you smack them together. Fabulous time! Then, I got up to get a drink. Now, my entire first floor (where we are 90% of the time) is laid out in a circle. There's a wall between the kitchen and the living room that is full of cabinets and countertops, but both sides of the kitchen are open. I come back out of the kitchen, and LP is clinging to me like I'd left him, gone to the store, purchased my drink, walked back - the long way - and then stood outside drinkng the drink before I came in. Odd. Okay, fine. Much love and hugs for LP. Next... he starts trying to nom on me. Not biting hard, but still. Okay, this is usually hungry behaviour... we just ate, but why not? So I put him in his high chair with the last of his breakfast that he didn't eat. He eats a few pieces of cereal, then falls asleep. He has been sleeping for about half an hour now, which shoots the rest of the schedule right to hell, but... That's okay. We'll go for our nature walk when we pick Skeeve up from work - we can take a little walk through the park! Then when we get home, we can work on "up" (or do up while we're at the park doing our walk!) and he can draw (I've hung kraft paper on the wall for him, and Auntie S bought him washable crayons!), we can explore cooking, and then Skeeve can help him with his words if he's not too burnt from a long day, then a walk, after four hours of sleep. Otherwise, I can read aloud to him, and we can work on his words after dinner. It'll be kinda nice, I think. Good thing this isn't the kind of school that has strict timelines!

Once a month updating gone... awry?

I was planning to update this more. Honest. Maybe going forward...

LP and I have come and gone from visiting Gramma and Grampa in Chicago. We brought four pounds of plum tomatoes from the Angus Family Backyard Garden with us. Gramma was nice enough to spring for a canning pot, and so... Four pounds of tomatoes became five pints of sauce. I only had pint jars on hand, so you take what you can get. Plus, a pint is enough for a meal for 3.5 around here, so there's little waste. I like very little waste. I don't like the whole "only use the lid once" part of canning, but the rest of it is suiting me just fine.

I took part in a focus group today, about federal politics and perceptions of the major political parties. I got paid $35/hour to sit around and talk politics with a bunch of strangers. Sweet. That's the sort of thing I usually do for free! We'll see how it goes from here forward, maybe I can get some more of those gigs. That'd be really nice.

Skeeve and I, with LP underfoot, have started a great big pot of peach butter. We blanched peaches, we've cut up peaches, we've un-stoned peaches, we've blended peaches, we've spiced peaches, and now the peaches are in the crock pot cooking down. It smells wonderful, and I'm so excited to try the end result tomorrow. Yum. And then after that will be the less-volatile apples turning into apple butter. Many, MANY jars of yumminess for this winter. I'm very excited, obviously.

I've been putting together my ideas for homeschool. Scheduling a routine tells me that we're looking at 2.5 hours of "school" (pre-k) daily, all things like "read aloud" and "up." I like getting it started now, as it means there's less crazy for me when I actually need to be keeping records. In the meantime, it also helps me feel like I'm making sure LP is learning things he should know. I've also been toying around with the idea of reading learning. Early, yes, but I figure exposing him to letters and numbers early with no pressure is worlds better than just letting it go until he's older and then pushing him. We'll see what happens, if he takes to it or just lets it drop, but either way, it's waiting until the new year.

I'm also looking into making my own fitted diapers. I have a wonderful source for prefolds, fitteds would be nice. Plus, I'm making my own covers, so it's not like I don't have them around. It would save a TON of money as LP grows to not have to buy new diapers every time I turn around. I'm looking forward to getting him back into his cloth diapers - he's been in disposables FAR too long now. Yes, we were controlling a rash, then traveling, then removing yeast and build-up, but... Still too long. I have a new detergent (I'm trying this Rockin' Green that I heard of) that I'm looking forward to trying on the diapers, so it's very odd. Looking forward to a load of diaper wash... Very odd indeed.

In the ongoing battle of LP versus Spit-Up, we have gone dairy-free. The food is fabulous, though we miss cheese. I'm hoping this helps LP's issues, as it seems taking matters into our own hands is the only way to get anything done about all this.

Really, that's about all we have going on right now, though that's quite enough for me. I have things to do, things to look forward to, and people that I feel the need to thwap. Situation normal, and life as usual.