Open Thread

Since I probably won't be posting much if at all for the next few days, I'll leave you with this:



I'm going to be doing some blogroll maintenance soon. If you consider yourself a regular reader here (or semi-regular, anyway--meaning you at least check in every now and then and plan to continue doing so in the future), please leave a comment here and I'll make sure you don't get culled from the blogroll. If you're a (semi)regular who's not in the blogroll, leave your link in the comments and I'll most likely add it.

If you don't have a blog, feel free to leave a comment just to say hi anyway, if you want to. I enjoy knowing who's reading on the occasions when I'm not actually just talking to myself.

Speaking of talking to myself, I do that a lot. I talk to inanimate objects like cars and frying pans, too. I'm going to make myself a t-shirt that says, "I'm not talking to myself . . . I'm having a parent-teacher conference."

My sister Amy talks to herself, too . . . in sign language. You think it's funny to hear someone talking away to themselves--and DH will have pretty hilarious animated conversations with himself when he doesn't think anyone is listening. But watching someone talk to herself in sign language is even funnier--hands waving, lips moving, facial expressions and all.

(Speaking of Amy, check out her post about their dinner at our house this week . . . it's a fun read.)

Some of the talking not-to-self incidents can be funny, too, though. Last time we saw our nephew FreeThinking Philosopher (who is actually our age--DH is actually younger than some of his siblings' kids) he got a call on his cell phone during our family gathering.

We heard him say, "Hello? Who were you wanting to talk to? I'm sorry, you must have a wrong number. [pause] You sound nice though . . . what's your name?"

He talked to the girl for another 10 minutes or so while we all laughed unbelievingly in the background. Later he said he once kept a telemarketer on the phone for an hour, and she eventually gave him her phone number.

Now that's taking those generally unwanted phone calls to a whole new level.

Do you talk to yourself or have a unique way of handling telemarketers and wrong numbers?

Hypoallergenic Baking Powder

Corn-Free Baking Powder
from "The Complete Allergy Cookbook" by Marilyn Gioannini

"It is easy and economical to make your own baking powder. The basic ingredients are cream of tartar and baking soda. Cream of tartar is an acid, and baking soda is a base, and when they are mixed with liquid, bubbles form. Arrowroot powder is added to help keep it free-flowing. If the mixture cakes, mash it with your finger in the measuring spoon.

"To make your own corn=free baking powder, mix together 2 parts cream of tartar, 1 part baking soda, and 2 parts arrowroot powder. Store in an airtight container, and substitute in any recipe calling for baking powder. It is more econimical to buy cream of tartar and arrowroot powder at a natural foods store, especially if they are sold in bulk.

"This is a single-acting baking powder. That is, all of the rising occurs as soon as the liquid is added to the dry ingredients. For best results, mix all of the dry ingredients well, mix the wet ingredients separately, and have the pan and oven ready to go before mixing them together. Keep mixing to a minimum."

I believe you can also use tapioca flour, potato flour, or another kind of starch instead of the arrowroot. Or you can just leave out the starch altogether and substitute 1/2 tsp. cream of tartar and 1/4 tsp. baking soda for each teaspoon of baking power called for in the recipe.

If you are allergic to grapes or glutamates, you should be aware that cream of tartar (a.k.a tartaric acid) is a grape-derived acid salt that is a byproduct of the fermentation in wine-making. You can often substitute vinegar (but not white vinegar if you're allergic to corn) or lemon juice for cream of tartar in recipes, or any other edible acid.

You'd use 3 parts vinegar or fresh lemon juice to substitute for 1 part cream of tartar, and would probably need to lessen the amount of other liquids in the recipe accordingly.

First Steps

My parents and sisters came over for dinner last night, and we had a really great time. AJ and M&M helped pick up and did most of the vaccuuming in preparation for the visit. They love to run the vaccuum cleaners and they take the responsibility so seriously.

AJ walked into the kitchen a little later and said, "Mommy, is there anything I can do to help you prepare dinner?" DH and I grinned at her word choice and gave her some yams to peel. She liked that: "Oh, thank you! That's great!"

We all have different food allergies, so that makes it really challenging to cook for the group. Adding wheat, oats, grapes, all nightshades, sulfites, pork and all preservatives to our family's already restrictive dietary limitations (many of which are shared between both branches of the family) doesn't leave much besides chicken and brown rice that we can all eat. Thankfully we all like chicken and brown rice.

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I made oven-fried chicken cooked in a little olive oil with a breading of rice and amaranth flours, unrefined sea salt, black pepper, cinnamon and a touch of unrefined cane sugar. We had a green salad and brown rice cooked with olive oil, sea salt, basil and thyme. For dessert, we had a yam puff made with mashed yams, eggs, salt, turbinado sugar and homemade corn-free baking powder (I'll share the recipe in another post).

Baby E loved the chicken and rice--she ate a whole big chicken thigh all by herself, and kept asking for more. AJ pronounced it "the yummiest dinner ever" and M&M agreed. Everyone seemed to enjoy the food, and nobody had an allergic reaction from it.

After dinner the kids had a blast playing with Grandpa, Grandma, Aunt J and Aunt Amy while we all visited. It was so much fun to have the whole family together again.



Baby E delighted us all by taking her first steps while they were here. She finally decided she was going to start walking, and Aunt Amy had the honor of being the first person she took a real step toward. She also tried to walk toward Aunt J, Grandma and Grandpa. She's wobbly, but she can usually get one or two steps before she falls down.

The older girls learned how to do the wheelbarrow by walking on their hands while someone held up their feet, and M&M impressed us all by wheelbarrowing all the way up the stairs to get ready for bed. Of course, DH ended up holding her by the waist and carrying most of her weight that way so her arms didn't get so tired. :)



After they left I ate some Lindt dark chocolate. I thought it was dairy, soy and corn free, but when it seemed to bother both me and Baby E I realized that the sugar and vanilla were probably contaminated, and it was also processed on equipment used for soy and other allergens.

I'm pretty sure that something else I ate during the day bothered us, too, because we both had pretty severe intestinal discomfort and itchy ears and mouth again later in the evening, after the discomfort from the chocolate wore off. I don't think it was the chocolate itself, though, because plain cocoa powder doesn't seem to bother either of us.

I'm thinking that a lot of the issues I've been having could be actually caused by more unidentified food allergies. I'm going to make an appointment for myself to see the allergist and get some testing done, too.

I gave her simethicone drops, and they only seemed to make the situation worse. Later I looked it up and realized they're made from corn. I didn't dare give her any Tylenol or anything like that, because apparently nearly every medication of any kind has corn in it in some form or another.

Baby E had a lot of her classic food reaction symptoms all night. She was crying, flailing around, pulling at her ears, digging at her mouth. She kept fussing and pulling away while nursing, then cried off and on for a long time, fell asleep briefly, woke up again, finally went fitfully to sleep close to 2 a.m. and woke up every few minutes crying until I finally just took her into our bed after 4 a.m., where she dozed and fidgeted for the rest of the night with both hands wrapped around my elbows.

I'm pretty sure I didn't eat anything containing soy, and neither did she. We were very careful about avoiding most sources of corn. But we did try some foods with added vitamins to see if they bothered her, since many corn-sensitive people can eat them without a problem.

I'm starting to record everything we eat and each reaction or symptom we have now, to try to pinpoint what foods might be problems. For instance, I noticed that my fingers started itching while cutting up a melon yesterday, so I wrote that down. I've had a blistery rash on my scalp for about a week now, too and I think it's from my shampoo or conditioner. I'm going to have to start paying even more attention to topical products, I guess.

I've been reading that most canned or frozen and even fresh fruits and vegetables (baby-cut carrots in particular) can have corn products added to them in the form of waxes, sprays or whatnot. Even corn-fed meat or eggs from soy-fed chickens can be a problem for some highly-sensitive people. Some fertilizers, even organic ones, contain soy or MSG that ends up in the food being grown. How do people manage this type of food allergy? I really hope none of us are THAT sensitive.

Even if it's just a moderate sensitiviey, this is all so frustrating. I finally realized today that, at least for the time being, it's going to be less overwhelming and easier if I make a short list of things we are pretty sure we can eat, and stick to those things.

Meanwhile, Baby E is being excessively cute even when she's not feeling so great. This morning she figured out all by herself (with very close supervision, of course) how to crawl down the stairs backwards. She's repeating so many words and phrases, and learning so many new things each day.

Tonight is an exciting occasion because we're meeting my family for dinner with J's Special Friend from college, who is visiting for a week to meet us all. We're going to attempt to eat at a Sweet Tomatoes restaurant.

This coming week all but one of DH's siblings will be in town. We'll be having a lot of fun with his side of the family (his parents, their 12 children, and well over 50 grandchildren) for the next few days. We're stockpiling food Baby E and I can eat to take along. The girls are especially excited about getting to play with lots of cousins their ages.

I may not get a chance to post again for a few days, so have a great week, everyone.

No more white rice

Now that we know Baby E is allergic to corn, a lot of things are making sense in hindsight. For instance, no wonder the cornstarch-based baby powder I used a few times always seemed to make Baby E's bottom worse. No wonder Cheerios didn't seem to settle well. And most of those evenings I had something with caffeine or dairy in it that I was wondering if bothered Baby E, but couldn't quite pinpoint, I'd also eaten corn.

I'm interested to see if cutting out corn in both my diet and hers will make a difference in her sleep habits and frequent fussiness. I know going through a tantrum stage is normal for this age, but is it too much to hope for that she might not have quite such a short fuse if she's not constantly eating foods she's allergic to? Maybe she'll even gain some weight. She weighs only one pound more at a year old than she did around the age of 6 months, although she's considerably taller.

Baby E is finally napping, and the girls are happily playing while I take a moment to catch my breath. I've spent the morning doing housework while on hold, mostly.

All morning I've been trying to contact different food manufacturers to find out whether "iffy" products in their foods are derived from corn and/or soy. So far they all have been.

Here's the clincher: You know those vitamins and minerals that are added to everything? Vitamin A and D in milk, Vitamin C in baby food and canned goods, Vitamin E in everything from cereal to hand cream, the calcium added to rice milk, and so forth? Not to mention the multivitamins you take? Almost without exception, those vitamin additives are usually derived from corn and/or soy.

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The Enriched Rice Dream we've been using has corn-derived ingredients in it. It's the only brand of rice milk I've been able to find that doesn't have soy lethicin in it. Thankfully the original non-enriched Rice Dream doesn't have corn or soy. But it certainly isn't anything close to a nutritional equivalent to milk. Can a baby live on unenriched rice alone?

The baby cereal I'd been giving Baby E--the one brand that actually makes a whole-grain rice cereal with no soy added--has corn-derived vitamins added. All brands of applesauce I've ever seen have Vitamin C added, as do most kinds of juice--Vitamin C which is almost always made from corn.

It's not as easy as just making everything from scratch, either. That bag of flour in your pantry? It probably contains corn. Even if not listed on the label (and it doesn't have to be), bleached flour is almost sure to have some cornstarch, and of course any enriched product is probably going to have vitamins derived from corn. Anything enriched or bleached, such as white rice, probably has undeclared corn in it. So does sugar, baking powder, and salt. Even the cheese and milk in your refrigerator and any alcohol or white vinegar in your cupboard will most likely contain corn in some form. Depending on the sensitivity of the allergic person, these things can be a problem with the corn allergy sufferer, or not. Let's hope for Baby E it's not.

I have a call in to the allergist to ask just how obsessive we need to be about completely avoiding corn, but I'm guessing we'll probably need to try to avoid all traces as much as possible for a few weeks, to let it clear her system and to see if it makes any difference. Then maybe we can start adding some enriched foods back into my diet and see if it makes any difference before deciding whether to add them directly into Baby E's diet or not.

Allergy Testing and Shopping

Baby E is squirming wildy in my lap at the moment, trying to get the camera on the desk. She alternates between hopeful cries of "Dat? Dat? Dot it? Dat?" and then flailing around grunting and screaming because I won't give her "that" and she hasn't "got it" yet.

Despite Baby E's last-minute frolic of pulling her diaper halfway off and smearing the contents around, we did manage to get to the allergy clinic almost on time this morning. Thankfully, DH arrived early to fill out the paperwork, since we were about 5 minutes late for the appointment, much less the "be there about 15 minutes early" time.

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To my surprise, after asking lots of questions and talking to us for a while, they did an allergy test right there on the spot. No waiting, no having to schedule an appointment at another clinic or for another time. We just decided what to test her for, and they did.

usually they test for milk, wheat, egg white, soy, peanut, pecan, dust mite, cat, dog, grasses, tree (pollen?), mold and ragweed, along with controls of histamine (allergic) and saline (non-allergenic). We added corn, because DH and I thought she might be reacting to that.



The way they test is to put a row of tiny pinpricks in her skin, with the allergens on top of that. They do it all at once with a little instrument that does 8 pricks at a time--it took 2 nurses to do baby E's test. After 20 minutes they measure the welt and the red area around the prick for the control (saline), and then for the other items. Anything that measures 3mm or more larger than the control for both wheal and redness is a positive result. The saline was 0/3 (no welt, 3mm of redness).

Her results were positive for soy and corn, and she also reacted somewhat to mold. Those three things were the only ones besides the histamine that got raised welts. Soy was 3/6, corn 5/14, and mold 2/5. There were several other items that had red areas of 5 or 6, but they didn't have the raised wheals. I was surprised that the corn reaction was more severe than the soy. No wonder she reacted so badly to the corndog stick the other day; it almost certainly had both corn and soy in it.

Interestingly enough, Baby E immediately got a diaper rash (even though she hadn't had a bowel movement) and started scratching at her ears. Apparently my calculations that those two issues are related to her allergies were correct.

It was a relief to know that the foods we suspected were indeed foods Baby E was allergic to, but that there weren't any more (at least of the ones we tested). It should be safe to introduce her to foods like wheat and dairy products now--although because of the family history of dairy issues she won't get much exposure to that, anyway. I think we'll stick with goat milk products at first just to be on the safe side.

I had been wondering if there was something else I was eating that was bothering Baby E, and it must have been the corn. Corn chips with hummus and mango salsa have become one of my staple foods, with the difficulty of finding soy-free items that don't take a lot of preparation time. Sigh.

The allergist told us, of course, to avoid those foods, and to follow up in 3-6 months (or sooner if something else comes up). He gave us a prescription for a twin-pack epi-pen to keep with us, and also for an oral antihistamine that should help any non-emergency reactions feel better more quickly.

The good news is that she has a good chance of growing out of the soy and corn allergies by age 3 or so. The bad news is that it's rather unusual for a baby this age to already be showing reactivity to airborne allergens like mold, and the allergist said she's likely to have increased reactions to more airborne allergens as she gets older. We need to keep an eye out for asthma and hay-fever type reactions with those.

The girls and I went shopping after the appointment. One of our favorite places to shop has not only a great health/nutrition/allergy section and a pharmacy, but also has free childcare (up to an hour) for children from age 2 through preschool.

I rarely take the girls grocery shopping any more; usually DH goes on his way home from work or takes the girls with him on Saturday. They're a bit out of practice at behaving in stores. So I found it necessary to remind the girls several times we were there that no, they could not ride on or in the cart (they're too big for me to lift that high), they could not hang on the edge of the cart (front, back or side) or sit on the edge of the basket under the cart, no they could not run up and down the aisles shrieking, and no they could not take things off the shelves without permission.

I, of course, got the "But Moooommeeee, Daddy lets us do it! Daddy says we can!" argument on several of these items. Cart-riding is one of the many recreational activities which just serves to prove that, while Daddy is a super-fantastic all-around fun guy, Mommy is a just a mean spoilsport. Yessirree. (After a recent getting-on-the-same-page talk between parents, Daddy is no longer allowing them to ride on the outside of the cart either, but that hasn't quite sunk in yet.)

We dropped off Baby E's prescriptions in the pharmacy, then made a trip to the restroom before going to find some food.

We wanted to eat lunch in the deli, but the only thing they had that Baby E and I could eat was white rice. So I ordered chicken fingers for the girls and rice for Baby E and myself, and turned around just in time to see the empty cart tipping on two wheels with AJ hanging on one side.

I yelled "No!" and grabbed her arm just in time to keep cart and kid from toppling over. She didn't seem to even realize how close she'd come to a tumble, so I informed her of that and reminded her (still in my frightened, loud-but-not-actually-yelling tone) that I had just told her three times NOT to climb on the cart, and that she could have gotten hurt very badly if I hadn't caught her!

Realizing I had an audience of several shoppers (who probably hadn't seen the tipping cart) looking sympathetically at AJ rubbing her arm, and scowling at me as if wondering what I was doing to the poor child, I softened my tone a little.

I paid and we took our food over to a table, where the girls proclaimed the chicken "delicious" and happily devoured it, along with some of the rice. We chatted happily while we ate, and the girls enjoyed themselves.

Baby E ate a little bit of rice, but wasn't all that interested in it. Instead she started fussing loudly to nurse. I didn't have a blanket or anything with me, so had to stretch my comfort zone a little by nursing in public with nothing to drape around Baby E's head, while just wearing a normal T-shirt. It was that or drag all the kids out to the parking lot to sit in the broiling hot car, or have her screaming in hunger the whole time we were in the store. She was cooperative, though, and didn't make it too difficult to be discreet. A store employee even spoke with me and got me a spoon without giving any sign that he noticed I was nursing. When she got too wiggly, I decided she was done.

Next we headed to the childcare area and checked in the girls. Then back to the bathroom with M&M, who at the last minute decided she needed to go potty again. There was a woman in there curling her hair and explaining to everyone who came in that she wasn't really crazy to be curling her hair in the store restroom; her hair had just looked so bad that she absolutely had to curl it before she could go pick up her son from school. I don't think anyone cared, really, except that she was blocking one of the two sinks and forcing everyone to line up at the sink that didn't work as well.

Then I took M&M back to the childcare area and went to pick up Bay E's prescriptions. It always makes me want to laugh out loud when the pharmacist who is supposed to be explaining the medications does nothing other than read the label to me. I suppose he must sometimes get customers who can't read, but it always seems like a bit of a waste of time to me since I actually can read.

Baby E was so tired and fussy, and ended up nursing again and then falling asleep in my arms while I attempted to find some cereal to buy. I thought trying to find food with no soy (and no hidden soy ingredients like mono-dyglycerides, glycerin, lethicin, tocopherols, Vitamin E and xanthan gum, etc. ) in it was hard. Trying to find food with no soy AND no corn (corn syrup, cornstarch, dextrose, maltodextrin, etc.) is much worse.

After an hour of examining labels and finding very few things we could have, I was about ready to tear out my hair. Baby E was awake and fussing again, and I had to go pick the girls up. Then the no-climbing-on-the-cart-no-running-no-gleeful-shrieking-no-grabbing-things-off-the-shelves fun started all over again. I had to be able to concentrate on reading labels, so I wasn't able to keep them occupied with a running chatter and having them help me shop like I normally do.

After AJ ran full-tilt into me about 30 seconds after being reminded not to run up and down the aisles, I finally ended up telling the girls to stand right next to the cart and not touch the cart and not move, while I tried to finish getting the most urgent things as quickly as possible.

They followed instructions very well and stayed right where I told them to without moving, so in the next section I gave them a little more leeway, which they responded to by not-quite-running and squealing loudly (M&M does not seem to be able to talk at a normal volume or walk instead of skipping or running no matter where we are or what we're doing, even if she's truly trying) and putting a hand on a package of raw chicken (AJ wanted to read the label, of course). At that point I made them stand still next to the cart again, while M&M wailed at the top of her lungs and AJ asked me loudly why I was "being so mean."

When we finally arrived home, I had the girls take a brief quiet time even though it was late while I dealt with Baby E and did laundry.

Baby E was really grumpy after getting only a short nap, so to quell her series of tantrums I let her play with the closed bottle of teething tablets she grabbed at while I changed her diaper. I didn't have the energy for a battle at that point, so I let her hold them for a few more minutes while I washed my hands, took a few photos, put her in the playpen next to me, started writing this post, and evaluated what to do next.



The lid was screwed on tightly and I was right with her, but a few moments later I looked down to see her drooling madly while cramming little white tablets into her mouth, along with the lid to the bottle. I knew I shouldn't have let her use the bottle as a maraca. I was so mad at myself for letting my guard down.

By then it was time for the girls to get up from quiet time, so when they came in I asked them to pick up their toys and things while I dealt with the teething tablet mess.

A call to the 1-800 number listed on the bottle assured me that a baby would have to eat 6 entire bottles of the tablets before experiencing adverse effects; apparently it's very difficult to overdose on Hyland's teething tablets. That was a relief.

Just as I was finishing cleaning up the mush of white tablets, I heard a crash in the kitchen. Running toward the sound, I called, "Are you girls okay? What happened?"

"I'm okay, Mommy, but the handle came off this dish." AJ was standing next to a chair she'd dragged to the sink, holding what was left of a glass pot. I'd been in a hurry as we'd left that morning, and had left the pot I'd cooked breakfast in on the table. AJ thought she'd be helpful and put it on the counter for me.

She said, "I'm sorry, Mommy. I didn't mean to break it. Can we still wash it and cook in it without the handle?"

I reassured her that I was less worried about the pot than about her safety, and got her out of the way so she wouldn't step in any glass. She did have a little cut on one finger, but was otherwise okay. The application of a hug and a bandage made her feel better.

Then I turned my attention to the shards of glass peppering the floor.

DH wasn't going to be home for dinner, which was already late, and I hadn't started cooking anything yet anyway. Baby E screamed until I put her in her high chair with some food, and the older girls ended up getting peanut butter sandwiches and salad for dinner. DH got home in time to help with feeding the kids and putting them to bed, while I cleaned up broken glass and thoroughly swept/vaccuumed the kitchen floor.

I was in a frazzle by the end of the day, but somehow we all survived. Hopefully tomorrow will be a bit less chaotic.

Just rambling, but enjoying the trip . . .

At nearly the last minute last night, I was finally able to find a babysitter who was available. She's watched our kids once before and is comfortable with all three, and I was comfortable leaving them with her. She's expensive, but worth it.

I got to surprise DH by having a babysitter there when he got home from work, so we could go out for an anniversary dinner.

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DH had been doing some restaurant research and had found out that one of our favorite places to eat, a little authentic place run by a family from Jerusalem, could accommodate my dietary needs. I had lamb schwarma with mediterranean salad (cucumber, tomato and onion with lemon juice, I think), and homemade hummus on pita bread. They cooked everything in a separate pan for me with olive oil instead of vegetable oil (a.k.a. soybean oil) and made sure there was no soy in anything. It was really delicious.

DH and I had a fabulous time. It's been so long since we've been out anywhere by ourselves, that we almost felt like it was a first date or like we were getting away with something. We were enjoying talking and looking across the table at each other so much that the waiter teased us by making cutting motions between us with his hand and saying, "Hey! No staring contests, now!" He gave us complimentary baklava for our anniversary and felt badly that I couldn't eat it because it had shortening or margarine or something like that in it, that probably was soy-based. DH ate mine, though and we found a dessert I could have later.

After dinner we went for a walk in the mild evening. We talked, reminisced about each of our anniversaries, shared about our favorite dates we've been on together in the last 7 years, and basically just enjoyed each other's company.

The girls had a good time with the babysitter, and even Baby E didn't seem to miss me too much. The babysitter was impressed with all three girls, and thought it was especially cute the way Baby E holds a baby doll in her arms, rocking and kissing it and saying "dawh."

Baby E is getting so big. It's hard to believe she'll be a year old a week from Thursday. She's using more words and phrases (added "nana" for Grandma and "weh Daddy go?" tonight) and is so steady on her feet now. She can bend down and pick something up without losing her balance while standing unassisted and is starting to take a few tentative steps.

The older girls are enjoying their summer a lot so far, especially the times they get to play in the water. All three have been playing together so well, and enjoying each other's company a lot. AJ especially is developing quite a great sense of humor, and M&M is really blossoming in helpfulness. This morning Baby E threw all her cereal and her sippy cup on the floor, and M&M happily cleaned it up to earn a penny. She did a great job of it, too.

Baby E has been really grumpy in the mornings, but not quite tired enough to take a nap both mornings. I don't know if it's because her schedule is still off, or if she's transitioning from two naps to one. Today, though, she took two great naps. We'll see if she continues with that. She's still waking up one to three times in the night, but isn't staying awake for long periods and is usually asleep by 9, so that's quite manageable. My big goal at the moment is to get myself going to bed earlier consistently.

I called today to get an appointment with the allergist, and to my amazement was able to get an appointment with a pediatric allergist on Thursday morning. I was expecting to have to wait several weeks or a month to see the specialist. So I'm excited about that.

Here are some pictures of the girls looking at their chore charts and doing their evening routines tonight.

AJ and M&M often seem to end up arguing because M&M wants to look at AJ's chart instead of her own. Finally, tonight, I was able to get her to explain what it was she liked better about AJ's chart than her own. She's grown since I put the charts up, and her own chart was uncomfortably below eye level. So I moved both charts up, and then they were happy to each stand at their own chart again. I don't have a picture of the new level, but the lower charts are at eye level for each of them now, while the sticker charts are just high enough that they can still reach them. The girls like the side benefit that the charts are not so easily within Baby E's reach now, too.

Baby E loves the stepstool next to M&M's bed. Thankfully she hasn't made it very far up it yet. It's only a matter of time, though.

AJ and M&M are getting such long hair and bangs. I think I'm going to cut them this week. I'm trying to decide whether to get my hair cut also, or just continue braiding it or pulling it back as I've been doing.

7 Years

Happy anniversary to DH and me!

After 7 years I think even more that my husband is, next to God, the greatest blessing of my life.

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My husband is the kindest, most gentle and loving man I could ever ask for. He's a man who loves God and is concerned about growth and intimacy in his relationship with God.

He loves to ask questions and pursue the truth. He loves to think deeply, listen, and consider different ideas. One of the things I appreciate the most about him is that he knows he's not perfect and is constantly wanting to change and grow in the best ways.

DH loves people and cares about deep, healthy relationships. He maintains friendships and accountability with guy friends and between our family and other families. He makes a point to go to lunch and otherwise spend time with both of our dads, as well as with other family and friends.

My husband sees our marriage, and me, as something deeply precious. I feel loved, cared for and treasured by him. He makes our relationship a priority and it's important to him to maintain it. I love our times talking and connecting with each other.

He's a wonderful father and partner in parenting--I couldn't imagine a better father, and our kids are all definitely "daddy's girls" in that they adore their dad and love to be with him.

DH makes great sacrifices to make sure our family and home are well-equipped and running smoothly. He works hard to provide for us all, both financially and emotionally, and then works more when he gets home helping with things around the house. He often seems to put his own needs aside to attend to everyone else's . . . I have to remind him that it's okay for him to have needs too.

He's just plain a fun person to be with. I love talking to him, playing with him, working together and discussing things with each other. I love watching him interact with other people, enjoy relaxing, or work hard on a project.

I love my husband. Thank you, God, for giving him to me.

May our marriage continue to grow stronger, healthier and more intimate as long as we both shall live. And I hope we may live long lives together.

I love you, Mark. Happy Anniversary.

The monster in the bathroom

I got out of the shower to hear what I thought was an alarm going off. It was an ear-splitting sound so loud that, once I realized it wasn't an alarm, made me send the kids outside. I didn't want their ears getting damaged, and I certainly didn't want anything exploding with them nearby.

The horrible, incredibly loud skrieking noise was coming from the bathroom. Flipping the light and fan switches off and on did nothing, and the sound was too overwhelming to be able to pinpoint it.

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After moving things around in the garage and dragging everything out of several closets trying to find the main water shut-off, I vowed to make sure I knew where it was and that it's accessible in the future. Thankfully there wasn't water gushing into the house while I spent all that time looking for and trying to unbury it.

Once I found some earplugs so I could actually enter the bathroom, I discovered the sound was coming from the toilet. I eventually ended up just turning off the water directly to the toilet instead of to the whole house, and that stopped the sound.

DH came home from work and looked at it, pinpointing where the leak was--inside the toilet tank--but had to go back to work. He didn't know how to fix it, anyway, so he said we'd probably have to hire a plumber.

My dad showed up, though, and figured out exactly what piece needed to be replaced, and spent all afternoon tracking it down and installing it for us. It was so nice of him, and we had a nice time visiting as well.

So the monster in our bathroom has been banished.

Is teen pregnancy really a bad thing?

Here's a fascinating article titled, "Let's Have More Teen Pregnancy" which argues that teen pregnancy is not in itself a problem. REad the article to see why.

I'd love to see some discussion on the ideas presented there. Do you agree, disagree, or have thoughts to add?

[Edited to say, Oops! I intended to put the teen pregnancy post on the discussion blog over at Embracing the Risk and accidentally posted here instead. That's what I get for not paying attention. If you would like to join in the discussion, please feel free to add your comments over there.

For those few people who get my blog over e-mail and do not have internet access to read the link I posted, I e-mailed a copy of the article to them so they could see what I was talking about.]

Screw-Top Lids

I've always had a hard time with screw-on lids. They seem to go on crooked for me, or--especially with things like bottles and sippy cups--they leak. Half the time I just end up getting frustrated and handing them to DH to screw on for me, or just dealing with the leakage.

Finally, I asked DH how he always seems to get lids screwed on straight when I can't.

He said, "Well, here's what I do: I turn the lid backwards until it clicks down. Then I know it's at the beginning of the threading and I start screwing it on from there."

It's so simple. And it works beautifully every time.

So how did I manage to get through almost 30 years of life without figuring that out? LOL.

Doctor's Appointments

I'll have to make this post quickly, because Blogger has a scheduled outage soon.

Yesterday Baby E and I both had doctor's appointments. Hers was just to follow up on the reactions to soy she's had lately--she'll have her 1-year checkup the middle of August.

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Dr. B. checked Baby E over, ascertained that she does not have an ear infection and guessed (as I had thought) that her reaction to soy might include itchy ears, and recommended a couple of allergists he said were the best in the area. So that was good. I thought it was funny that he wrote down the two allergists' names on a paper towel.

My appointment was a little less satisfactory. After having to wait several weeks in order to get a longer appointment, I waited almost an hour to have maybe a 10-minute appointment. This "long appointment" was shorter and less involved than the "short" 15-minute appointments I'd had with the physician's assistant already.

The doctor seemed quite unconcerned about any of the symptoms I described, with what almost seemed to me like a "so WHY are you here taking up my time?" type of attitude. He said mostly "mmm-hmm," asked very few questions (and asked some of those multiple times because he forgot the answers), and basically rushed me out the door.

He did say that I was probably just having a fibromyalgia flare-up caused by the car accident. I know that's part of it, but as I reminded him, some of this was going on long before that. My weight does seem to have stabilized, so that's good.

His only suggestion was that I consider going on Prozac "just to see if it helped" the symptoms I've been having, even after I told him I didn't think depression was the issue. Just because I had a baby within the last year and am having problems with fatigue and difficulty sleeping doesn't automatically mean I'm suffering from postpartum depression--especially since (especially when I am well-rested and not sick) I'm generally pretty happy.

He did send me to the lab to have some tests done, including checking thyroid levels and kidney function. I'm not sure what else--he didn't explain what tests he was going to have done and I'm not sure if he would have done those two if I hadn't specifically asked for them. Oh, yes, he did say he was going to check for anemia also.

Anyway, that's that for now.

Baby E's sleep schedule has been disrupted again and she's not sleeping well at night or napping during the day. She seems miserable often, though she is doing better this week than she was last week. I don't know if it's teething, new food allergies cropping up, the fact that she's still not quite over her cold, or what.

Hopefully she'll start feeling better and we'll get back on track soon. She is eating much better the last few days, though.

The other two girls are doing great, and we got to spend some time with my Sis J last night, which was wonderful.

Colors and Crumbs

Baby E seemed to be feeling just fine yesterday morning. Her newest tooth finally seems to have made the initial break through the skin, and that's always a relief. The allergic reaction or whatever it was from the day before seemed to be completely gone.

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The girls and I hurried to get ready for the day this morning because we wanted to run a couple of errands before lunch. At Wal-Mart, I asked the girls to pick out fabric for skirts. We wandered the aisles, pointing out which fabrics we liked best.

It was really fascinating watching the girls look at fabric. They've reached the age now where they look not just at what characters are on the fabric, but at color, tone and print to decide what they like. And they're each developing their own very distinct style.

In every aisle M&M picked out very bright jewel tones and high-saturation colors--hot pink, royal purple, bright lime green, sunshine yellow. Those are the colors I tend to like as well, so much of their wardrobe reflects those tones, along with the denim blue, black and white pieces I consider basic.

To my surprise, though, invariably AJ went for the last piece of fabric I would have considered when sewing children's clothing. She liked the muted, earth-tone colors. Burnt orange, steel blue, moss green, brown ochre, wheat--the kinds of colors DH and our friend Morning like to wear. There are very few clothes in those colors in her wardrobe.

I asked the girls to each pick out three coordinating fabrics for a tiered skirt. I liked a set of three coordinating florals in butter yellow with coral and blue flowers for Baby E. I thought the older girls might like that, too, and all three could have matching skirts. But no. M&M picked out two bright hot pinks and a bright purple, all with subtle geometric tone-on-tone patterns. AJ picked out three coordinating florals with sort of a golden-brown background, and lots of brown, yellow and rust tones, along with some dark moss green and touches of cobalt blue and India red.

We only ended up getting the yellow for the time being, because the pattern called for making the skirt out of just one type of fabric and I wasn't sure how much of each I would need. So I'll have to go back and get the other two once I get out the pattern and measure up how much of each fabric to buy. But it was really revealing and fun to go through the aisles with the girls and see what they picked out. It's so much fun to see their tastes developing and changing over time. AJ has gone from liking pink and purple a lot (but in lighter tones than M&M likes), to choosing lots of greens and yellows in all different tints, to now preferring earth tones. It will be interesting to see if the girls tastes remain similar to what they like now as they get older.

It was getting to be snack time, so I let the two older girls buy boxes of animal crackers and got freeze-dried apples for Baby E. The crackers did have soybean oil in them, so I warned the girls not to let E get any, and they were quite good about keeping them from her.

As we were looking for patterns, I realized that one of the girls had finished her crackers and left the empty box on the floor. I picked it up, being careful to keep it in my other hand away from Baby E's reach. But as I opened the pattern drawer and tried to juggle Baby E and the cracker box while finding and pulling out a pattern, Baby E saw the moment of opportunity. She grabbed and the box and held it up over her head, showering crumbs over herself.

I felt like bad mommy of the year, letting her get hold of something containing soy two days in a row. I should have been more careful, especially after yesterday.

It didn't look like she'd gotten any in her mouth, so with some trepidation I brushed her off and hoped she wouldn't have a reaction. We finished our shopping quickly because M&M needed to use the restroom, and went out to the van where we keep a portable potty with disposable liners.

While M&M used the potty, I changed Baby E's diaper and noticed that she had a rash. It was an unusual rash--tiny pintpoints of slightly raised red bumps, not too dark but noticeable, all over her diaper area. I had a disposable diaper on her for our outing, so I figured I must have left it on too long between changes. That tends to irritate her skin, though hadn't seen a rash that looked quite like this before.

I made sure to change her diaper every hour or so for the rest of the day, and the rash faded a bit. She seemed really fussy and irritable, though. She had an unusually short nap, from which she woke up screaming. Then she spent the afternoon crying whenever I put her down and fussing frequently. It wasn't extreme, though, and she was happy most of the time as long as I was holding her or keeping her interested in something.

It didn't seem like her typical soy reaction, so I wondered if maybe she was cranky because she had barely napped or because of teething, her ears or something. She does still have a runny nose and a bit of a cough, so she probably doesn't feel good anyway. I put ear drops in her ears just in case that was the problem.

I was undressing her to get her ready for bed when I pulled off her onesie to reveal tiny little spots all over her tummy and back, just like what was under her diaper. Then I really felt like the bad mommy of the year. I hadn't even thought to check to see if the rash was elsewhere.

I don't know if the rash was from eating a crumb or if there were some in her clothes against her skin, but it apparently showed up within minutes of the cracker incident and laster for many hours afterwards. It could have been the wheat or something else in the ingredients, too--we haven't introduced her to wheat yet, either.

A call to the doctor reassured me that just watching her was all that was needed. But you can be sure I'll be asking for a referral to an allergist as soon as possible. With the escalating severity of reactions to even the most minute amounts of food, I'm concerned we may need to carry an epi-pen to ward off a potentially life-threatening reaction.

She still doesn't seem to be feeling well today, though, so I am wondering if she does also have an ear infection or something else going on.

Just a crumb

Today the girls and I had to run an urgent errand right at lunch time, so I bought the two older ones each a corndog at the grocery store deli. I let AJ and M&M sit in the back of the cart and eat while Baby E sat in front and I pushed the cart.

Everything was going along quite happily when M&M said, "I'm done, Mommy . . . hewe's my stick." I asked her to wait a moment until we could find a trash can.

A few minutes later I suddenly realized that Baby E was holding a corndog stick. Since corn seems to bother her when she eats it, I grabbed it away as quickly as I could--just as she was reaching to put it in her mouth.

M&M said, "I didn't realize it was Baby E, Mommy. A hand reached back to take the stick and I thought it was you."

By the time we got home, Baby E was miserable.

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At first I thought she was just tired and put her down for a nap. She fell asleep in my arms, but when she woke up some time later she was inconsolable. She cried and squirmed if I held her and cried even harder when I put her down. She screamed when I tried to feed her, and even trying to distract her with something interesting didn't help much. Nothing I did worked; she just flailed around and cried.

It was almost to the point that I was getting ready to call the doctor because it seemed so severe and went on for so long with no apparent reason.

I thought, "Wow, this is almost like she's had soy, but I know I haven't eaten anything with soy in it. I wonder what could be bothering her, or if she's sick?" Then it hit me. She must have managed to lick the corndog stick, probably ingesting minute amounts of soy along with the corn.

She's still not feeling well tonight, but she is better. It seems the reaction is longer-lasting and possibly (as I would expect) more severe when she actually ingests soy directly as opposed to when she gets it through my milk. E can't have gotten more than a crumb or two--M&M had eaten every bit of corndog she could get off the stick.

I'm really glad she didn't have a worse reaction than she did. I sure wouldn't want to see what would happen if she had more than a crumb of something with soy in it.

Last time she had a reaction we finally found out that the seasoning on the meat I'd eaten had MSG and soy as the last ingredients, and she had a pretty bad reaction to that even getting trace amounts in my milk. Most people who are allergic to soy don't react to the oil, so either her allergy is at even more of an unusual extreme than we had expected, or MSG (which can be soy-derived, also) was the problem that time.

As she gets older, it's harder to completely control everything that goes into her mouth. I'm wondering if we need to become a completely soy-free household rather than just buying the more expensive soy-free products for myself and Baby E to eat. At the moment, I don't let her down on the kitchen floor much, partly because I'm worried she might get a soy-containing bread crumb or something like that from something the older girls or DH ate.

On a somewhat related note, she has gotten quite a bit slimmer since she started crawling, and doesn't seem to be gaining weight at all, even though she's definitely growing. Last week the doctor said she's now at the 50th percentile for weight, down from 75th percentile at her last appointment and after being 98th percentile for most of her infancy.

I worry that it's because she's not eating enough. Since we're trying to introduce new foods systematically and cautiously to watch for allergies, and since we have detected apparent problems with several foods, her selection of foods is limited.

She's become quite picky about flavor, texture and types of foods, and also seems to crave variety. She'll eat something about 1 1/2 times before she's tired of it and wants something else, but there are so few things she can eat that I'm having trouble coming up with foods she doesn't refuse.

I think she's getting a bit tired of chicken and rice by this point, and just picks at them. She has recently refused to eat broccoli, sweet potatoes, applesauce, squash, blueberries and carrots, along with a number of other foods she once ate happily. Other things, like beef, green beans, millet and peas, she has never wanted to eat. The only thing she's been willing to eat with any great consistency or quantity the last few days is pears.

I don't know if it's just that she hasn't been feeling well and that's affecting her appetite, or what, but it's a bit disconcerting. I'm trying to come up with some new ideas for relatively hypoallergenic foods to try.

Up, Up, Down

I found some kids' books 5 for $1 at the Salvation Army's new store. I only had a few minutes, so I tried to look quickly and pick out some books that seemed appropriate. Since Baby E is so excited about the terms "up" and "down" lately, a book called Up, Up, Down by Robert Munsch seemed perfect.

When I got home, AJ and M&M immediately latched onto the book and started reading it. I was a bit chagrined when I realized that it depicts a little girl being quite naughty without much consequence. But hearing the two of them read it together was hilarious. They giggled and giggled, and then they wanted to read it to Daddy.

So we had a conversation about how the book shows what kids are NOT supposed to do, and that if the girls follow the book's example we will have to take away the book.

After they read the book to Daddy, I let them read it into my phone to post on Blogger. The file is the full 5 minutes long, but in my biased opinion very cute.

When Negative is Positive

The Pertussis swabs came back negative. I thought they probably would after the kids have been so much better this week. They only had a day or two of the severe coughing spells. Now they're back to occasional coughing. Everybody except Baby E seems to be almost over it.

PTL!

Eclectic Homeschooling

(Reposted from elsewhere)

I'm a homeschool graduate who is now homeschooling my own children. My dad was homeschooled for a few years in elementary school as well, so I guess that makes us third-generation homeschoolers.

My kids are now starting to reply to the question, "Are you in school yet?" with "We have school at home."

So far we've been doing mostly unschooling, just learning from games and conversations we have in daily life and letting the kids do workbooks and other materials when they want to.

This year we'll be moving into a slightly more structured eclectic approach (particularly with the 5yo), combining short periods of more formal text-type work with the kinds of things we already do--lots of projects, games, fingerpainting and play-dough, doing things around the house, and going on field trips and to the library.

We are technically doing K-5 with our 5-year-old and K-4/preschool with our 4-year-old. But they are both reading already (the 5-year-old was reading at a 4th grade level on her 5th birthday when we tested her, and is reading quite a bit better now a few months later), can write and can do fairly advanced math (4yo does simple addition and subtraction, 5yo is starting to play around with some concepts of multiplication and division). So we'll be using a hodgepodge of more advanced materials as needed.

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The 1yo, of course, won't be doing schoolwork per se. But I have a book of Montesorri activities and a wonderful book called "Slow and Steady Get Me Ready" with activities from birth to age 5. And Baby E will listen in on the older girls' studies and join us to do things like play with playdough, read books and color.

For the two older girls we're starting off with Singapore Math Early Bird Kindergarten 1A and 1B for the 4yo and 2A-2B for the 5yo, but I'm expecting that may only take them 2-3 months to get through the year's material. It's almost all stuff they are already proficient at.

So I need to decide whether to go ahead and start them on the next level of Singapore books, supplement with extra practice, or just play lots of math games and let them initiate questions and conversations (which is all we've really done so far) and see where that takes us.

My family used Saxon math when I was growing up, and DH used it in his traditional school as well. It's often considered sort of the gold standard for math. However, I've heard very good things about the Singapore math, and Singapore consistently is one of the highest scorers in the world in students' math proficiency. Although we may end up using something like Saxon later, I am really excited about the colorful, interesting and refreshingly different approach the Singapore match books take--at least in the early volumes we've looked at. The girls find the math books very appealing and can't wait to start them.

For the 4yo, I plan to use the A Beka Kindergarten science book, work on phonics (we have several phonics games, An Acorn in My Hand, lots of beginning reading books, and musical phonics tapes), and do lots of activities, reading and unit studies (we have Before 5 in a Row, which will be perfect), check out books from the library, and do lots of crafts, learning games and other preschool/kindergarten stuff.

For the 5yo we will use the Bob Jones Beginnings K5 program as a takeoff point, and probably add some things or pick and choose what to do from it. It seems perfect for giving her practice and filling in the gaps in things like understanding and reading comprehension, and I don't think she'll be bored with it.

It's such a varied and flexible approach that it's appropriate for both pre-reading and already-reading kids, and the stories and activities are age appropriate but not locked into one skill level. It covers all the subjects except math in one integrated curriculum, and it looks like it will be a lot of fun. It even comes with music tapes.

Having a curriculum designed for a 5-year-old is helpful for me, especially since sometimes it's easy to forget that just because AJ is gifted and doing work far above her age level, she is still 5 years old developmentally. The Home Teacher's manual really makes the point that in preschool and kindergarten, the goal is exposure more than mastery, not pushing them at all but just starting to whet their appetite for learning.

I'll supplement with some more advanced reading (Bob Jones first grade reading, library books, an old-fashioned primer, and other things), and the Christian Liberty science and history books. The CL Kindergarten science and history books are small and include a lot of Bible and tie in with what I want to do for Bible this year. For at least the first little while we'll be studying the creation story and learning about the different elements of the world--solar system, earth, sky, sea, plants, animals, etc. in general.

For Bible, we're going to use several different resources and do lots of reading and projects and some memory work. We'll also be doing Spanish with a beginning audiotape based program, and I'll make sure the kids spend some time being physically active every day too.

The structured or semi-structured schooling will probably take an hour and a half to two hours per day for AJ and less for M&M. As they get older that time will increase, but generally homeschooling takes far less time to accomplish more than classroom-based education, partly because the more one-on-one and individualized approach is so much more efficient.

As my mom did, I tend to lean toward a more eclectic approach, using a combination of methods from unit studies to textbooks to just learning as a part of daily life.

This past year we did mostly unschooling with a little workbook stuff when the kids wanted to, and they have learned a lot that way. We'll continue to do a lot of that no matter what approach we take, I'm sure.

For example, today we had a completely impromptu lesson on the water cycle and weather.

The girls were just finishing lunch when AJ thought up a riddle: "How can you hold water in your hand, like this?" She held up two fingers as though holding an object between them.

MM thought and made several guesses, and finally I guessed too: "You freeze it?"

"Yes! You can hold water in your hand if it's ice," AJ said. She was so delighted with herself for coming up with such a great riddle.

I said, "Do you know how to make water into ice?"

"You make it really cold?"

Both girls were so engaged and excited about the topic that it grew into a whole lesson, completely unplanned.

We poured water into an ice cube tray and put it into the freezer. Then we decided to try freezing juice, and made juice popsicles with paper cups and plastic spoons. Once the girls had put them into the freezer, we started talking about how ice can turn back into water when it gets warm again.

Next, we got some ice cubes in a glass and watched them melt, eventually helping them along a bit with a few seconds in the microwave. Once they had turned completely into water I heated a pot and we poured the water from the glass into it. The steam formed a cloud, and I held the empty cup over it to collect the condensation and turn it into rain.

Everything we did, the girls observed closely and we discussed in some detail. We talked about how snow, hail, sleet and freezing rain are formed, too. When DH got home that night, they recapped all they had learned about water and weather to him.

For their story before nap/quiet time, we read a book about "How Weather is Made." It went right along with the activities we'd just done, and helped reinforce what they had learned.

All this was after we'd already had a casual lesson in fractions by looking and and talking about the different ways our tangerine segments could be divided at lunch.

So much of our learning takes place like this; just taking advantage of the conversations, life experiences and opportunities that being together give us. If we're not playing rhyming and spelling games in the car, we're answering questions about vocabulary and science, or figuring how how many pieces of corn will be left on our plates if we eat a certain number of kernels.

It's so much fun to see the world fresh through the eyes of inquisitive youngsters. I know I'll learn a lot along with them.

July 9th weekend notes

Well, everyone here seems to be feeling significantly better. The kids are hardly coughing at all now.

I did find out for sure tonight that if I eat dairy products they give Baby E a bit of a stomachache--we had fondue made with sheep's milk cheese tonight. Nothing that some simethicone drops didn't quickly remedy, though.



I listed a couple of eBay auctions today, and will probably list a few more summer items this week before it gets too close to the fall selling season.

Now, to decide whether to sell the girls' flower girl dresses or keep them in case we need white dresses for another occasion?



I have, however, decided that after these Hanna Andersson clogs are gone I'm not going to bother with selling shoes any more--they're more difficult to pack up than they're worth, unless they're really something special. I prefer items like clothing that I can just put in a Tyvek envelope and drop in the mail box--no packing peanuts or bubble wrap to buy and no having to find the right size box.

I'm also pretty sure that I am going to go ahead and try to sell the Cavalli leather suit myself on eBay. I'll probably list it after labor day or sometime in September.

Yesterday I went back to the Goodwill outlet and got some things to recycle for making diapers and diaper covers.

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I'm going to experiment with using wool and polyester fleece as a waterproof layer and silk as a wicking stay-dry liner. I use fabric with high cotton content for the absorbent part of the diapers. At 99 cents a pound, I got some great finds--clothing items, bedding and fabric yardage. A few of them turned out to be too nice to cut up once I got home and looked up the brands to see what they were.

The mold and dust from the thrift store and the musty fabric really gets to me, so I'm trying to get everything washed up as quickly as possible. It's fun to see how much the wool shrinks when I felt it by washing and drying on hot.

Last night I had a fabulous time playing with fire, learning how to do a flame test to identify unknown fabric content. I picked the threads apart in some scraps and learned that one piece of fabric I had was a cotton/polyester blend, and another was cotton with what I think is a touch of spandex. Now I think I'll be able to at least tentatively recognize them by sight and feel if I can look at the slightly raveled edges of a piece of fabric in a store.

I can tell the difference pretty easily between natural and synthetic fibers, and between plant, petroleum, and animal fibers, but beyond that it gets a bit harder.

The girls, DH and I have been working on getting the school area set up. We have the girls' desks all cleaned up and arranged now, with their crayons, notebooks, etc. in them. The girls have been enjoying painting and doing little projects at their new desks. Even Baby E sits in her high chair and scribbles with crayons.

I have a physical therapy appointment in the morning, and then the receptionist said I should be able to get a walk-in appointment with the physician's assistant about my back. It is doing a little better yesterday and today, though.

Swabs

We're home. My physical therapy appointment was canceled today, but we saw the pediatrician. She swabbed all three girls' nostrils to test for pertussis, and gave me a prescription for an antibiotic for Baby E to fill if she seems to be getting worse. We'll find out next week what the test results say.

Now all three girls are resting, so I'm going to take a nap too!

The Little Communicator

Well, it's nearly 3 a.m. and since I've been up with Baby E for what's turning into half the night, I thought I'd write a post to record some of her 11-month cuteness.

E has been awake for quite some time, and I haven't been asleep yet. DH and I both tried to get her to calm down with no success. I did spend some time in bed, but since my back is keeping me awake anyway I figured I may as well be up with the baby.

Between the fireworks and other things messing up her sleep schedule and her not feeling well, she's having a hard time sleeping tonight. She napped only briefly today, so I'm sure she's overtired, but she is coughing, having a hard time breathing through her stuffy nose, and seems to be in pain--I think she's cutting a couple more teeth.

She was fussing even while dozing off and while nursing, so I gave her some Ibuprofen and let her rub my elbows for a while. For some reason, elbows are her chosen comfort object. Mine are preferable, but anyone's elbows will do if mine aren't available.

After she finally calmed down we both had a middle-of-the-night snack. Now she's wide awake and quite cheerful.

Baby E is getting so proficient at communication. One of the cutest things is her name for her sisters--she calls them both doll. She'll tilt her head to one side, smile into their faces, and coo, "Hi, doll!" Her version of doll, of course, sounds more like dawh, but we know what she means.

After she stopped crying tonight (which had been going on for an hour or two, off and (mostly) on, she started smiling and talking.

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First she asked for Daddy. But since he was asleep (and sick) and I wasn't about to wake him up for her to play with, she moved on to something else.

She asked for food with her newly-aquired approximation of the eat sign--pointing to her mouth with one finger. If that doesn't get the message across she exaggeratedly catches my eye, sticks her finger in her mouth, takes it out, and starts making wide-mouthed chewing motions. All this, of course, is generally accompanied by a broad grin.

She was very excited when her request bore results. After eating some banana/plum/grape mixture, she asked for more.

This was somewhat of a breakthrough, because for the first time she actually touched two fingertips together rather than touching her left pointer to her right palm as she usually does. I was excited to see her using the fingers of both hands together, and surprised at her having the fine motor coordination to touch the tips of her index fingers together so well.

The actual sign involves touching the tips of both hands together, but she does it with just her index fingers instead of a whole-hand motion. I would think that would be more complicated, but that's how she's doing it. It certainly works to get the idea across.

After she'd had some food, she started trying to communicate something else. She waved the next spoonful away and said, "dn."

I asked, "All done?" and she grinned and made the all done sign, saying "ah dn." Then she touched her mouth with one finger again. So I offered the food. She politely took a bite, then touched her two fists together and waved her open palms in the air. Just to make sure I got the idea, she put both hands over her mouth. No more food.

I wasn't understanding what she was trying to say, so she tried every motion and sound she could think of. When she patted the high chair tray, it reminded me of the way she's been patting the front of the potty when she uses it. So I asked, "Potty?" and made the potty sign--shaking a fisted "t." She grinned and looked toward the potty, so I took off her diaper and sat her down.

She was happy enough to get her diaper off for a while, but she didn't want to use the potty.

She tried again, saying "dn" and laying a finger on her mouth. Suddenly it dawned on me what she was trying to say. Drink. It was her first time using both the word and the sign. I got her a sippy cup of water and said, "Drink?" and she triumphantly replied, "dik!"

She happily sat on the potty drinking her water and saying "dik" for a while. Then she set the cup on the floor and said "dik. doh." She picked the cup up and said, "uh," then put it down and said "dow". She did that a few times.

"Up, down, up, down." I repeated the words with her. We'd been working on the words up, down, in and out over the last few days, but this was the first time she'd used them in a different context than our games. I hadn't been sure whether she understood what they meant or was just parroting sounds.

"Dik doh" she said again, and I replied, "The drink is down."

It would be hard to say which of us was more pleased.

Then she saw the girls' magnetic Disney Princess paper dolls on the little table and crawled over to grab one.

"Oh, you found a doll," I said. She said, "dawh" and kept repeating "dawh" among her jabbering as she played.

Then she said, "Dawh. Deh doo." (Doll. Thank you.) A few minutes later she laid the doll flat on the floor and said, "Dawh. Dawh dow." Then she picked it up and said "Dawh uh."

She was applying the up and down concepts to everything. How fun. It was also the first time she had said "thank you" in a context other than when someone had just handed her something. I'm not sure if she was playing with the doll and saying thank you to it, or if she was saying thank you to me for letting her play with the doll, but it was cute.

I put her diaper on and carried her upstairs with me, and let her alternate between sitting in my lap and playing in the playpen next to me while I typed most of this blog entry.

When she started fussing and trying to communicate something again, though, this time I couldn't figure out what it was. She emphatically didn't want anything I offered. No milk, no bed, no cuddling, no toys.

Finally I decided she must just be tired and took her back to bed, under her strong protest. She threw herself forward so hard that she made us both see stars when her head made contact with my chin, and screamed in anger. She eventually settled down restlessly when I rocked her--but only if she was scraping at my elbow with her sharp little fingernails.

Close to 4 a.m. she went back to sleep, so I'm going to attempt to do so as well.

I'm so excited at all the words--both signing and verbal--she is using. She uses so many now that I've lost count, and seems to add several new ones each day. The combination of signs and speech really seem to help us both understand each other better. It makes life so much easier when I can figure out what she wants.

One of my friends who used baby signs with her kids told me that it was really helpful when her baby would wake up in the middle of the night. My friend would respond to her child's cries only to have the baby sign "book" to her. Mommy would say and sign, "No. Sleep." Knowing that the baby didn't really need anything, and just wanted to get up and play, allowed her to put the child quickly back to sleep.

I'm loving the growing ability Baby E and I have to communicate with each other.

Oh, BTW, this is for KLee again, or any other teacher who is interested: I found a fascinating article on sign language use in a normal classroom setting.

Here's a quote from the article: Whaley said the idea for the program came from watching the occasional conflicts in the classroom. "When toddlers have a conflict, they often will push each other to communicate their displeasure. We wondered what would happen if we could give them another physical way to express their anger. Well, the sign for 'stop' is very physical -- one hand slamming into the other -- so we thought that might work."

I like that idea a lot . . . I might try that with my 4- and 5-year olds.

I ran a quick search engine query for "sign language classroom" and one of the first results that popped up was this article, Using Sign Language in the Classroom by Rick Morris, Creator of New Management. It starts, "Sign Language is one of the five things I would never teach without." I haven't read it thoroughly yet (I will tomorrow), but it looks interesting from a quick skim.

Illness and shopping and accidents, oh my!

The girls and I dropped DH off at work today so we could take the van to get groceries and school supplies.

They had hardly coughed at all this morning, so I thought we were over the worst of it. Now I regret taking them out and possibly spreading germs, even though we really needed to do some of that shopping and we had a great time.

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We met our friend "Morning" at Trader Joe's to pick up a few groceries, then headed to Wal-Mart and Goodwill to hunt for school supplies and a few other things we needed. We got all the important things like crayons, notebooks and pencil sharpeners, and the girls were so excited about getting to pick out those things (they chose Disney Princess folders, of course. For everything else we stuck to the cheap plain-colored things, but they still had fun choosing the colors.

At the Goodwill we found the perfect school desk for AJ, for only $4, and two child-sized desk chairs for $2 each. We also bought some bedding (including a Hello Kitty comforter, which M&M is overjoyed about) and some other things we needed, all at 99 cents a pound. I love the Goodwill outlet--so unpredictable, and we often make some really good finds.

I had to uninstall the older girls' car seats and shoehorn all three into the middle seat in order to get everything into the van. It's a tight fit, but it works. The girls were so patient and cooperative while we were shopping--I had several people tell me they were the most well-behaved kids they'd ever seen. That's always nice to remember next time one of them throws a tantrum in a public place. :)

Since we already had a desk for AJ, all we need now is to set up the Rubbermaid drawers for craft supplies and maybe a small shelf, and we'll have our school corner all arranged in the bay window attached to the kitchen eating area. I'll post photos when it's ready.

When we got home, my key got stuck in the front door. The lock has been sticking, but this time the key was so stuck that I couldn't get it out even after I took the deadbolt apart. My dad (bless him!) had to come over and fix it with some silicone spray so we could lock the door tonight.

I've been having a marvelous time reading teacher's manuals, buying curriculum, arranging the schoolbooks on a shelf and working out a daily school routine and lesson plans. I still have a lot of work to do, but it's coming along nicely and we should be ready to start by the end of August with no problem.

Meanwhile, the girls are so excited that they are begging to do school NOW. I'm having to come up with all kinds of pre-school activities and art projects for them to do. Yesterday we read quite a bit, played some games with numbers and phonics, did some pre-writing worksheets, and the girls memorized the first point of the Westminster Shorter Catechism, refreshed their memory on Gen. 1:1, started memorizing Gen. 1:2-3, and (at their request, after all that!) began learning a couple of poems and traditional prayers.

The girls both really enjoy memory work, and it seems to come so easily to them. I envy AJ's ability to remember things so well after going over them just a few times. Names, scientific facts, phonics rules, Bible passages, stories and songs alike, she seems to be rather gifted at grasping and retaining things she hears or sees.

So, those of you who read my blog and see us in real life, next time you see the kids you can ask them "What is the chief end of Man?" and they'll tell you, "Man's chief end is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever."

This afternoon and evening the girls' coughs have been worse again. They don't cough often, but when they do it's a long-drawn-out coughing spell that ends in sharp gasping and choking sounds. I was really worried about Baby E a couple of times, watching closely to see if she was turning blue when the coughing spells seemed to go on an especially long time. The older two girls are having pretty bad coughing spells in their sleep as I write, too.

I found out this afternoon that DH's sister's family (who thought they were having lung problems from being in a sandstorm just before leaving their home in an Arab country to come here for the summer) has pertussis. The one-month-old baby is very sick and has been hospitalized. We're quite concerned for them, especially the baby, and are keeping them in our prayers.

That makes two families we've spent time with recently that have been exposed to whooping cough--both of whom were at M&M's birthday party at the park. So I'm trying to give a heads-up to all the families who were there to be aware in case anyone in their family gets a persistent cough.

One of the families in our home group, who we spend a lot of time with, has a family member they are with almost daily who was sick for a month before he was confirmed as having pertussis, and our friends' kids have been coughing more mildly for some time. As is common, the people with possible and confirmed pertussis in their family have all been vaccinated--even the young children who should still have immunity from their vaccinations.

Everybody in these two families (whether vaccinated or not) and anyone they've had close indoor contact with for 6 hours or more is on antibiotics for the treatment and/or hopefully prevention of pertussis. SIL's family is under quarantine.

So I decided I'd better get my kids checked out. They have a doctor's appointment after my physical therapy appointment in the morning. It's a doctor in the practice that I don't think we've ever seen before, since our pediatrician isn't in the office tomorrow. I'm expecting that the doctor may pressure us about Baby E's vaccinations (the other two girls are fully vaccinated) and will probably suggest putting us all on preventative antibiotics.

I'm trying to find out if there are any effective options for treating pertussis other than antibiotics. My main concern with antibiotics is that I'm dangerously allergic to almost every antibiotic ever invented, and developed the allergies after being on antibiotics a lot as a kid. Since my kids (and especially Baby E) are allergy-prone, I don't want to put them on antibiotics unless it's absolutely necessary, and then we'll want to watch them closely for reactions.

I'm feeling quite a bit better today. I had quite a significant improvement yesterday afternoon. I think it's probably not a coincidence that I spent some time in focused prayer during the girls' naps, and also my women's pastor brought me before their prayer ministry yesterday afternoon. Almost immediately after that I noticed a significant improvement in my outlook and energy level, and especially in my ability to cope.

Also, though, I found out that the WP's family and a number of other people in the church have had the same symptoms, and now my DH is coming down with it. So I'm guessing it's probably some kind of virus that I've had.

Although I'm sorry that other people are getting it too, it's actually a relief to know it's something temporary that's not too serious. My back still hurts a lot (especially after lifting things in and out of the van and moving the kids' car seats to fit the desk in the back--that was probably a really dumb thing to do), but pain without so much fatigue I can handle. I'm feeling so much more clear-minded, energetic and functional. It's not debilitating any more.

As I was writing this post, an ambulance and fire truck pulled up to my neighbor's house. Mr. B two houses away had a seizure and will likely be in the hospital for a few days, but should be OK.

It's so nice to live in a neighborhood where when something happens everyone is immediately out in the street asking if there's anything they can do to help. The last neighborhood we were in, when an ambulance showed up at a house a couple of blocks away I think I was the only neighbor who went over to check on them. Here, everyone who was home was outside, concerned and wondering if they could help.

Among others, we're also keeping in our prayers my DH's mom, who is in severe pain with ankle and knee issues and my aunt (Dad's sister), who had a stroke a few days ago and is in the hospital. I hope everyone recovers quickly and fully.

Oh, also DH got his car back today with the new water pump and the new casing for the water pump installed. But now the engine is making funny noises and something seems off with the idle, so he'll have to take it back in tomorrow. His nearly brand-new computer also died--the power supply went out and apparently shorted out something in the hard drive as well.

We haven't heard back from the insurance company that's supposed to be covering the van's bumper repairs, so I need to remember to call them again in the morning.

What an unpredictable adventure is this thing we call life.

Welcome home, Sis

I almost forgot to post the best piece of news.

Sis J got home from summer school today! We weren't able to see her, because we don't want to get my parents and sisters sick, but we did get to talk to her on the phone. It sounds so much more loud and clear even on the phone talking to someone a few miles away in the same town, versus across 3,000 miles.

She's tired, but home safely and will be here for a couple of months. I really hope we all get well quickly so we can see her. We'd better be well by the end of July, when her friend from school will be here to meet us all. :)

Ahhh . . . peace and quiet.

DH came home from work this afternoon to watch the kids so I could take the van to the dentist. His car should be done getting fixed tomorrow--it ended up taking longer because they found another part that needed to be replaced.

With DH's new dental insurance, we have better coverage for more dental offices, so I was able to switch to the dentist my parents and sisters use. The dentist seemed very nice and took plenty of time to answer all my questions without making me feel rushed at all. He's the youngest of two sons that work with their father in this family dental practice. The hygienist turned out to know DH's brother's family in Africa, and is one of their supporters. It was fun to find that out.

Apparently I need five fillings, even though I brush and floss pretty well. I'm thinking I need to be getting more calcium in my diet. Hopefully these fillings will go more smoothly than my last set. I may get them all done at once to get it over with. I just have to decide whether to get the silver amalgam fillings or pay extra (a lot extra!) for the white ones.

Baby E's sleep schedule has gotten messed up because of the fireworks the last few nights waking her up, and because we had to wake her up every few hours Sunday night after she fell off the changing table and landed on her head. Even though DH had a hand on her, she managed to launch herself off when he turned to tell one of the other girls to get back into bed. He was able to break her fall, and she ended up being fine, but we had quite a scare and were worried for a while there.

She skipped her nap this morning, but when I got home DH said she'd been asleep for about 30 minutes. The older girls are having quiet time, too.

I'm afraid that if I try to take a nap I'll be groggy for the rest of the day, so I'm going to rest and write a blog entry and then spend some time reading and having devotional time before the kids get up. I need the extra mental/spiritual strength more than a nap right now, anyway. Besides, I slept for something like 18 hours yesterday, so I don't think lack of sleep is my problem.

I do have a little more energy this afternoon, and I called to ask my naturopath about getting a Bowen treatment. That seems to be a lot more effective more quickly than this physical therapy is so far.

I'm also going to see if I can make an appointment with the Physician's Assistant I saw after the car accident. I'm wondering if he'll want to x-ray the one spot in my middle back where I'm still having a sharp, localized pain directly over the spine. We talked about X-raying it earlier, but it didn't seem severe enough to warrant that. He said it should get better over the next few days, and if not to give him a call. So I'm off to make that call while the house is quiet.

The earliest I can get you in is next century, Ma'am . . .

Well, I'm not feeling a whole lot better today, so I called to make an appointment with my doctor. The earliest appointment she had available was well into August, so I asked if another doctor the PA had said was good had openings any sooner. Still, the earliest I could get an appointment was July 25th, since I hadn't been seen by anyone other than the PA at that office before and the receptionist said I needed to be scheduled for a physical slot, which is a longer appointment time.

I explained what was going on to the person making the appointment and asked if there was any way I could get in sooner, but she said that since I have so many different symptoms going on I needed a longer appointment slot.

I said, "Can't you just put me in for whatever kind of appointment you give when someone is sick and needs to be seen? I'd like to at least try to get some short-term relief and then we can deal with the rest of the stuff at a later appointment. I can barely take care of my three young children at this point, and that's a long time to wait."

She said it definitely sounded like I needed to get in sooner than the end of the month, but she really thought I needed a longer appointment and that was the earliest she had available. She'll keep an eye on the doctor's schedule and call me if there's a cancellation so I can get in sooner.

By that point I was in tears, so I said thank you and goodbye as quickly as possible and hung up. Because, you know, I didn't want her to know I was crying. I hate it when I start crying in front of people.

I guess it serves me right for waiting until I can barely function to call for an appointment.

July 4th, 2006

Happy Independence Day, everyone.

I've spent the day sleeping. I'm not sure what the problem is, but whatever has been increasingly making me feel sick and fatigued has been a lot worse the last couple of days.

Today I've been barely able to drag myself out of bed. It's not the most fabulous way to spend a holiday, but I'm really thankful it's happening on a day DH was able to stay home for most of the day. He did have to go in to work for a couple of hours, and left after putting the kids down for their naps.

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When AJ came in to ask if it was time to get up (it was), I scared both AJ and myself by leaping up and gasping. I was sleeping so hard I didn't know she was in the room until she touched me and spoke to me. Her eyes were huge as we both recovered ourselves and I explained that I was just startled because I'd been asleep. I told the older girls they could play their computer game in the playroom while I dozed off again, figuring I could at least rest until Baby E woke up.

I was awakened a while later by the vague awareness that Baby E had been fussing for some time. I staggered out of bed and went in to get her. I was going to lie down to nurse her right away and then change her diaper later, but then she said "die-pew" with such clarity that it pierced even my foggy brain.

Sure enough, she had a dirty diaper. That's my girl.

I've been sleeping with only brief wakings since last night, and still don't feel any better than when I first went to sleep. I'm thankful for spell-check, because my typing looks dyslexic at best today and I'm having to retype each sentence at least once. It's really a good thing I don't have to drive anywhere.

I need to fix the kids and myself something to eat, and then DH will be home soon and I can crash in bed again.

I seriously thought about calling my mom to see if she could come over until DH got home, but then I remembered that she can't be around anyone who even might be sick, because of her kidney transplant and immune-suppresant drugs. Most other people (including MIL, who I know would be glad to help if she could) are probably busy with celebrations today, or live so far away that DH would be back by the time they got here anyway. Thankfully, DH called a little while ago to say he's stopping at the store and then will be home.

I hate feeling so non-functional. If I don't feel better tomorrow I'll make a doctor's appointment. The kids are still coughing and DH says he feels like he's fighting something too, so it's probably just whatever the rest of the family has. Still, I don't have a cough, so you never know.

Mostly I just hurt all over with achy joints and muscles and am bone-wrenching tired, with a headache and a bit of a sore throat. I don't know if the almost burning sensation in my neck muscles and ears is my muscles reacting to the physical therapy yesterday or something else.

It could even be just a FMS/CFS flare-up caused by the accident, but I'm thinking it's probably wise to get it checked out anyway if it's not better by tomorrow. Combined with the fatigue, weight loss and other issues I was having even before the accident, it's a bit worrisome. I want to at least get my thyroid checked.

I'm sure DH will take the kids out to see the neighborhood fireworks tonight. Me, I'll probably just listen to them from bed.

I'm just so thankful DH was here most of the day today and was willing to take over everything and even bring me something to eat in bed. Thanks, Dear.

Baby Signs

Baby E is 11 months old today.

In the last month, with finally getting our family on a basic schedule, she's finally started sleeping well at night, usually waking only once if at all. She's also napping much better during the day now that I've started putting her down for naps a little earlier--about 2 hours after waking up in the morning, and then about 3 hours after waking from her first nap.

We are so grateful that we're finally able to get somewhat predictable sleep. I can't believe how much easier it makes my days just to have 2-3 hours when the baby is napping to focus on spending time with the older girls and accomplishing household tasks.

Baby E is adding more words and baby signs to her vocabulary steadily. KLee asked about the baby signs we're using, so I'll talk a little about that today.

Essentially, most babies are able to understand and want to communicate before they are able to make themselves understood verbally. They develop fine motor skills before developing verbal skills, so using gestures to communicate is something most babies do to some extent even without being specifically taught to do so.

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As is common, I've noticed that a lot of my girls' tantrums in late infancy through the preschool years have stemmed from not being able to communicate adequately what they want to say. Having signs has helped significantly in minimizing their frustration--especially with Baby E, who knew what she wanted and wanted so deperately to communicate long before we could understand any of her words.

Learning signs can also help a child's language understanding and development, as it helps develop the brain's language and learning centers. I would guess that using her hands to communicate helps Baby E develop motor skills as well. Using baby signs may be one of the easier ways to give a child the benefit of a second language early in life.

As soon as a child is able to start using gestures to communicate by waving, pointing at things, shaking their head yes/no, etc, he or she is capable of learning and using simple signs to communicate.

Most people start with one or two of the most important verbs and nouns. We started with milk, more, and all done. We're gradually adding more signs such as book, potty, sleep, drink, eat, no, mommy and daddy as we have need of them and feel ready to add new signs.

Baby E fairly consistently uses the signs for milk, more, and all done and is starting to use others. Sometimes she picks up the sign or approximates it on her own, and other times we need to help her shape the sign with her hand quite a few times before she figures out how to do it.

I feel that, even if she's not using the signs, seeing us use them enhances her understanding of language. Sometimes I will say a word to her and she won't seem to understand it, and then when I use the sign she will visibly brighten and begin responding to both the gesture and the spoken word as if she understands them.

When I trained dogs I always tried to use both a hand gesture and a word together. Although children are certainly different from dogs, I do think that in both cases having both the visual and auditory cue is helpful in developing understanding and holding attention.

There are basically a couple of different approaches to baby signing. One uses modified or made-up signs along with ASL, with the only real goal being that the parent and child understand what's being communicated. The other focuses on actual sign language (in our case, ASL--American Sign Language) words, although a few made-up gestures may be used also.

This is a minor, but relevant, difference, since a language like ASL is truly a language of its own spoken by many people, while non-ASL baby signs are more an extension of communication in spoken English than a language of their own. Theoretically, the approach may be different, but practically the results are very similar.

ASL, like other foreign languages, has a different syntax, sentence structure, and way of communicating things than English does, but you don't really run into that when just teaching basic nouns and verbs to your baby. You're not trying to carry on a whole conversation in ASL, after all--just communicating some key words and concepts to enhance your communication in spoken English.

(BTW, my sister Amy is getting her ASL interpreter's license--I wonder if I could talk her into doing a guest post on ASL language and culture for the uninitiated? I think that would be interesting.)

Probably the most definitive work on baby signing is by Drs. Linda Acredolo and Susan Goodwyn, whose first book, Baby Signs: How to Talk to Your Baby Before Your Baby Can Talk, was published in 1996. They started noticing in 1982 that pre-verbal babies often made up gestures to communicate, and spent 20 years researching what would happen if parents tried to help babies to communicate that way even more. You can read more about their research and their programs at http://www.babysigns.com

The Baby Signs program uses a combination of ASL and parent-invented signs. Their idea is that some of the actual ASL signs are rather complicated and difficult for babies to shape with their hands. So, in the interest of making it easier for infants to communicate rather than with the goal of teaching a second language, they do use signs that are not "real" ASL sign language. From what I've read, though, the more recent edition of the book uses a larger percentage of actual ASL signs than the original version did.

If you're interested in learning actual ASL baby signs, I found a great website at http://www.mybabycantalk.com with an online video dictionary which actually plays clips of the signs being acted out in Windows Media Player. It's so much easier to follow and understand how to make the sign that way than just trying to figure it out from pictures.

The website http://signingbaby.com has quite a bit of information about Baby Signing, including updates about baby signing in the news, helpful articles, and a fairly extensive list of links and resources, including more online signing dictionaries. They have an interesting article examining the debate about ASL versus non-ASL baby signing, arguing that just as we don't teach baby talk instead of properly-spoken English, there's no need to use non-ASL signs with babies.

I like the idea of using actual ASL with Baby E because, for one thing, if I'm going to teach her to communicate in another language I may as well choose one that she'll be able to use and expand on more as she gets older. Especially with an aunt who is fluent in ASL, my kids are interested in learning to "talk with hands", and this way they'll have a head-start at being able to communicate with the Deaf community. I like the idea that the signs Baby E is using are signs that anyone who knows sign language would understand.

I know that a lot of camp counselors and school teachers like to use hand signs of one type or another to communicate with kids. Visual communication can have many advantages. It can be a great way to communicate in a noisy area, or when quiet is needed. It appeals to more senses than just hearing, it's more physically active for little wigglers, and I'm guessing it may be particularly helpful for visual or kinesthetic learners. Also, it is simply a beautiful and highly communicative language, and could add a whole new dimension to anyone's appreciation and expression of language in general.

You could, of course, easily combine it with some lessons about the cultures in which it is used to add understanding of a specific language and culture that is foreign to most hearing people. I think the very fact of having more than one way to communicate an idea lays important foundations for kids' development, communication skills and even worldview.

At this point, though, our goal isn't really to teach Baby E a second language. We just want to communicate better with her. The other benefits are just bonuses to that.

I never attempted to use more than one or two signs with AJ, although I think she would have benefitted from it a lot, being a later talker. M&M was walking and talking pretty well very shortly after she started seeming to really WANT to do so (she'd walk up to someone and say "hi" quite clearly at 11 months), so we only ended up using a few signs with her because she could quickly say almost anything she wanted to communicate.

We've used signs a little more extensively with Baby E, and she seems to be enjoying and understanding them well so far. As a side benefit, the older girls have fun learning and using them with her too.