Peanut Moving Inside Belly

I was finally able to piece together all of the different film I had of Mckenna moving inside of mommy...



Pretty crazy right?!?!?

Thankful Thursday: Cow's Milk & Blow Torches

It's thankful Thursday time! We all have so much to be thankful for and we love to take this opportunity just to write down each and everything that comes to mind. Please take this time to share with us what you're thankful for as well. If you have a blog expressing your thankfulness, please share the link! Without further ado, here's what we're thankful for:

Mandi's List:

I'm thankful for grocery stores. We are so blessed to be able to jump in a car, and after a 5 minute drive, get to a central location that has any food or drink or toiletry, etc we want. That's a luxury I rarely give thanks for.

I'm thankful for breakfast for dinner. Last night we had breakfast quesadilla's for dinner. Why is it that breakfast tastes better at dinner time?

Speaking of breakfast quesadillas, I'm thankful for cow's milk products. Mckenna didn't do so well with cow's milk, we think, so I cut it out of my diet when she was 3 weeks old. I didn't go crazy and read labels of packaged foods, but I cut out all big sources, milk, yogurt, cheese, butter, ice cream, and the like. Well this last week I have tried adding a little cow's milk back here and there, and she's been totally fine! Man oh man have I missed cheese! There are so many tasty foods with cheese, I have discovered. Ha! I'm just so thankful that she's been ok with a little cow's milk, and I'm excited to expand my culinary horizons again!

Ronnie's List:

I'm thankful for homemade tortillas. We had a quick trip down to Mexico recently, and one of my favorite parts about being down there is picking up some piping hot, freshly made tortillas. It is also pretty cool that they're only $1 a dozen. We used some of them to make some "breakfast quesadillas" that were pretty darn awesome if I must say so myself!

I'm thankful for my home. After so much travel, it's just good to be home. It's nice to sit on my couch. It's nice to sit at my desk. It's nice to sleep in my bed. It's nice to be in my element. Don't get me wrong, I love being in different places once in awhile, but my heart will always be here at home...assuming of course that Mandi and Mckenna are here as well :)

I'm thankful for black lights and blow torches. At about this time every year, scorpion hunting season begins. We live in an area known as "scorpion alley" since all homes in this area are known to have a few scorpions running around. We do the whole pest control thing, but something that I've been told, and that I truly believe is that the only way to get rid of the problem, is to "seek and destroy". We went out last night and torched about 10 of our friends and I won't stop until every last one of them is dead.

So, what are you thankful for today?

Toddlers and Treatments

I recently received a great (and very common) question from a momma in the CF community. I thought that many of you could relate to her question and I hope that some of you get something from my answer :)

I was curious to know when u were a child how did you feel about doing treatments?**** understands she does them to stay healthy but every now and again she will get upset while doing them and say things like "I wanna b like everyone else!" "none of my friends have to do this!"She is only 5, I know it's going to be hard to relate all this to her but I wondered how your parents helped u to understand. And if understanding even helped with the anger. And how to help with the anger they feel surrounding cf.Thank u for always answering these questions you are such a valuable resource to us parents!

That's a tough age and a common problem...

First piece of advice, always, like 100% of the time, follow through with the "law" you lay down. Even at a young age, if my mom said it was going to happen, it happened. She made it very clear that first came treatments, and then came whatever I wanted to do. She never backed down - not even once. I knew that if I fought treatments, my life would suck, and she would make sure of it 

My mom also made it clear that no one is "normal" - what is that anyway??  She said that some people have braces, some brown hair, some are tall, some are short, some are fast, some have glasses and some have cystic fibrosis. She also encouraged me to be very open about it as it's not something to be ashamed of or to hide from anyone.

Also, have you ever connected with Lisa Greene and read through any of her stuff. My mom, unknowingly, used many of the techniques that Lisa (mom with 2 kids with CF) teaches in her courses as well as writes about in her book. CysticLife also co-authored many of our materials with her that I would highly recommend that you read: http://www.cysticlife.org/cystic-fibrosis-reading-materials.php

Finally, there are many parents who make treatment time a great family bonding experience. They may only watch TV together during treatments, or play games, or braid each others hair, etc. In fact, I find myself doing that as an adult - only allowing myself to go on websites that I like IF I'm doing my treatment!

Hope I answered your question. Just remember - it's easier to start now and feel some short-term pain and angst then start later. Teach good habits before bad ones are developed.

Shoot, last thing - I promise that she'll thank you for it in the future. I've never heard a fellow "older" CFer say "I wish my parents didn't make me do so many treatments". I have however heard many CFers say "I WISH my parents would have made me do treatments". She may hate you for it now, but she'll love you for it later.

Nothing Left in the Tank

Game Face

Harumph! I feel like a sluggish lard! Getting back into town after a vacation always means struggling to fall back into a good routine for me. As Ronnie posted, we often feel like we need a vacation after our vacations (especially with a little one who keeps mommy up a lot in the night while traveling). I'll be the first to admit, vacation doesn't bode well when it comes to exercise. I put it off. I'm on the go doing other things. I simply don't care enough to fit it in. I did run a bit while in Singapore, but I have yet to run since being home (yeah, bad, I know!)

But I'm putting my game face on. I'm gearing up. I'm getting psyched, and I'm telling myself from here on out, it's back into the exercise groove. Do you ever do that? Totally psych yourself up for getting into the groove? Part of it for me is that I am genuinely excited to get back into a groove. The other part of it I fake, so I can convince myself it won't be awful buckling down! Don't you just love being able to play mind games with yourself? Ha!

So here's my plan for getting back in the groove...

1. Get running - My goal is to run 3-4 miles 4 days this week. I don't care what pace, I just care about the distance. I'm hoping to get back into my 5AM run schedule that I was in last summer. It will luckily be a bit easier as it will be without my running buddy in my belly!

2. Get lifting - Ronnie and I will get to the gym to lift 3 times this week! This may be interesting for Mckenna. The last few weeks separation anxiety has started to set in...so it may mean some rough child care experience for Mckenna, but as my mom said, "if she cries when you're away, it just means you should go away more often." Ha!

3. Get walking - I want to get in some evening family strolls with Ronnie and Mckenna in the evenings. This is both for extra exercise, and family bonding time!

So there is it. I'll post next Monday on how I did. So here's to 4 runs, 3 gyms, 6 walks!