Everett Therapy Update – Walking with Upsee

February 13, 2015February 13, 2015 / thepantrybook / Leave a comment

Everett has been working on walking with his ABM physical therapist (using the Upsee). They have been trying it out without the shoe attachment (which would lift his foot when she lifts her foot). Everett has been lifting his own legs and feet really nicely — the Upsee supports his body at the pelvis so it’s not like he’s bearing much weight on his legs, but he’s getting the concept of the stepping motion.

The shocking thing is that he can count up to eighteen or nineteen now. Once Carla gets him started he will say the next number all the way up. He’s supposed to correlate one number with each step, but he just gets so excited he jumps ahead a few numbers to one step. Eight seems to be his favorite number – he shouts it with gusto!

DEPLOYMENT NO GO

February 11, 2015 / thepantrybook / 4 Comments

Just popping in to say that it seems that the deployment will be happening, but without my Handsome Hubby. It is still true that nothing is for sure, but at this point, it looks like God wants him here.

Ahhh, I can breathe now!

Want to see some art?

I just love those eyelashes. =)

This next one makes me cry. It’s a hummingbird that was intended as a Christmas gift for my Mom. I had some glitter (the fancy kind!) that I was going to add in around the neck. It’s not like it was completely done, but I had made a substantial start (i.e. I don’t get much free time and I had used a LOT of it on this project). Then, my lovely Eleanor, who just loves to pull up and “muck about” with whatever she finds there, somehow overturned my glass of water and, well, it’s just about ruined. I know it could probably be salvaged, but I just don’t even know if I could find the time to fix it. Anyway, my heart isn’t in it anymore. I think my painting hobby is getting put on hold for a bit. Sorry, Mom. Goodbye little beautiful birdie.

Eleanor’s nursery – sneak peak

February 7, 2015 / thepantrybook / Leave a comment

I am not finished with Eleanor’s quilt (remember the hexagons up on the design board MONTHS ago?) which really ties the whole room together, but I thought I’d share a few (grainy iPhone) pics of her room just to give you an idea. I took these pics so that I would know what size and orientation to get prints for the gallery wall. Just know that the room will look better with the quilt – you know, whenever I finish it.

P.S. See the wool knit blanket hanging over the side of the crib? I made that. Just so you don’t feel too sorry for my third kid who hasn’t got a finished quilt yet. Maybe by her first birthday???

I left them alone for one minute . . .

February 7, 2015 / thepantrybook / 1 Comment

I took Everett upstairs to change his poopy diaper and this is what I found upon my return:

And then, Adele (six years old) has the nerve to look me in the eye and tell me that Eleanor did this to herself!

My life is about to get a whole lot more complicated – DEPLOYMENT NEWS

February 7, 2015February 7, 2015 / thepantrybook / 3 Comments

Eleanor is cruising now – she went all the way around the table. She will pull up on anything and everything. The problem is when she pulls up on a moving object – like a person’s leg and the person doesn’t realize she’s there.

Adelie-wellie takes very good care of her babies

Everett got glasses. He actually got glasses about two years ago, but he never wore them. When a second eye exam yielded a drastically stronger prescription, we decided to try again. So far he is doing really well with keeping them on – as long as he is supervised. As soon as we turn our backs, however, they disappear. We are hoping that they will help him brain process what his eyes bring in and maybe even motivate Everett to be more mobile (i.e. be motivated to go over to something that he could never see before). Everett’s speech continues to improve each day. We are continuing to optimize his supplement regime (now we are starting glandulars!) and we are planning to start hyperbaric oxygen chamber sessions in a few weeks.

So, my big news is that Kent might be deploying for six months on a humanitarian mission – leaving in less than six weeks. It’s complicated, but we don’t know for sure – with the military nothing is really certain anyway. Kent and I have never been separated for more than two weeks in the eight years we’ve been married. And, our part-time nanny stopped working for us last week! Nothing bad happened — she was asked to work full-time for the other family she works for and they need her more than we do (we originally hired her to help me – and Everett – right after the baby was born, but it just worked so well for her to take Everett to therapy that we kept it up). It is tempting to try to feel bad for myself, but there are many things to be grateful for. One, that we haven’t had a deployment up to this point, which has allowed us to invest in our marriage while it was in its infancy. Two, that it is a relatively short deployment – many people we know have deployments of one year or more, not counting many months of out-of-town training before-hand. Third, the work should be interesting and enjoyable for Kent – Kent took a class on tropical medicine and he expects to see a lot of that on the deployment. Also, if God wants to use us on the mission field (and we hope He does) after Kent’s time in the Navy, this would be useful preparatory work. Finally, God has always been faithful, sufficient, and good in the past, so I know He will continue to be exactly what He is – even while Kent is away.

We’ll see how long I can keep up with Everett’s therapy intensives every week (2-4 days every week) – our nanny had been driving him since we had Eleanor. It is challenging for me to get all four of us out of the house by 7am with breakfast and snacks for everyone, diapers for two, changes of clothes for two, Everett’s therapy stuff (braces for ankles and elbow, restraint for left arm, etc.), books and baby dolls to keep Adele occupied, toys for Eleanor, etc., and then being out of the house for four to five hours each day (which sacrifices Eleanor’s morning nap). . . . I know other moms do even more than this regularly, but I really prefer to not leave the house during the day at all.

I’m looking forward to knowing and loving God more during this upcoming challenge!

A Turkish Get-Up and Turkish Delight

January 20, 2015 / thepantrybook / Leave a comment

It all started a few months ago when Kent was reading a children’s picture book version of The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, in which Edmund ate Turkish Delights from the evil queen. Then Kent got kettlebells for his birthday and started doing a whole body move called the Turkish Get-Up. Then we found out that the Turkish Get-Up could be done with a person instead of a kettlebell. When Adele made the connection between the two things with Turkish in the name, we were inspired to hunt down a recipe and make Turkish Delights. FYI, they are just gooey sugar water with powdered sugar on the outside. There is some flavor from rosewater, but when we saw a bottle named Adele, we decided to get that one instead, and the orange blossom was pretty tasty.

Christmas Here at The Pantry Book

December 28, 2014 / thepantrybook / Leave a comment

Adele LOVED her fort kit. And her fort has stayed up in the living room ever since Christmas Day.

Her fort is pretty awesome if I do say so myself. It has two separate rooms and a shelf for storage. Adele got a princess flashlight and a princess headlamp along with a large flashlight to go with her fort kit (flat sheet, clothespins, rope, and a polka dot bag to keep it all together). They were a real hit!

Mimi and Adele made a snowman cookie craft from pinterest. My mom is really an excellent grandma. She is always interacting with the kids, doing things that they enjoy, investing in relationship with them. My children are so blessed – and I am too!

I started reading Move Your DNA by Katy Bowman. It’s motivated me to do a lot more walking and on a variety of terrain. We took a “hike” through a nearby wooded park. Carmel had Everett in an Ergo backpack and I had Eleanor in another one. We even had lunch there in the open air. And it was lovely! The picture below is of the bottom of the roots of a tree that we assume fell over in a storm. Pretty cool!