Green Enough Thumb

I thought I would share the teeny tiny beginnings of our vegetable garden...  We purchased a slew of veggie seeds and Andy and I planted lettuce, cucumber, fennel, peppers, squash and marigold seeds (to keep the bunnies away!) in egg cartons.  We've kept them next to the kitchen window for optimal sunlight and watered them every day.  Today we discovered the slightest sign of success... The lettuce seedlings are just beginning to peek through :)  We're hoping to get the outside garden started this weekend so we can get the rest of the seeds planted before the last frost.  A little surfing on almanac.com goes a long way :)

The beginning of our vegetable garden

Soon-to-be lettuce!

UTI Follow Up Appointment

Knowing what I know now, I am relieved that we went into the ER on Monday.  Today, we sat down with our pediatrician to go over the lab results.  Apparently the strain of bacteria in the urine sample requires different antibiotics than the original prescription we were given.  After visiting three different pharmacies, I found one that actually had it on hand.  Hopefully the meds will finally fight off the infection, get rid of her fever, and help her appetite get back on track...

I asked Dr. Boyce about possible causes for a UTI in a baby. He said that while it is most likely nothing significant, studies have shown that it could be attributed to an anatomical abnormality.  Just to make absolute sure that is not the case, we've got an appointment with a urologist on the morning of April 6th.  The urologist will do an ultrasound and  VCUG (they will inject special dye into Claire's bladder and then see, via X-Ray, which direction it travels) to make sure that she doesn't have Vesicoureteral Reflux (VUR).  VUR basically means there is an abnormal urine flow. There are varying degrees of VUR, the most mild cases can self-correct and the most severe require medical attention. 

The chances are decent that she'll get over this UTI and we won't think any more about it.  However, like everything else that we've been through in the last 8 months with Claire, we're erring on the side of caution.  I am grateful to the ER doctor and Dr. Boyce for acting quickly and appropriately for Claire's symptoms.  April 6th can't come soon enough-- Claire's nasty antibiotics will be completed and we'll figure out our next direction. 

P.S. In the last number of weeks, Andy taught Claire how to "shriek" and she figured out her "d", "t" and "m" consonant sounds.  She has been putting her happy little lungs and vocal chords to the test!  This morning at 4am, she had a lengthy NOISY conversation with herself.   I got to eavesdrop over the monitor...  I think she was trying to say something like, "don't worry, be happy" :)

A Day of Firsts

While my husband was getting the hang of things at his first day of work, I was re-learning my job as a stay-at-home-mommy-without-any-help-from-daddy :) Of all days to go it alone, yesterday wouldn't have been my first choice...


Claire woke up with a fever. From the moment I picked her up from her crib, her smile was noticeably missing. A smileless Claire is a rare sight, especially first thing in the morning. She was quite warm as I changed her, so I left her in a onesie and gave her Tylenol. After popping three teeth in three weeks, I figured another was on the way. She started broccoli yesterday morning and (surprisingly!) didn't fight it--something had to be wrong...

She was cranky for the better part of an hour, so I put her down for a nap. By the time she woke up from her nap, it became very clear that she wasn't feeling any better. She cried most of the time that Andy and I spent planting our seeds in egg cartons, and calmed down a bit when I held her. At about 11:00, I felt her start to shiver. I thought she might be cold, so I held her close and watched her closer. Her shivers turned into all-out shakes and I got really worried. I scheduled an afternoon appointment at the pediatrician's office. By the time I hung up with the Triage nurse, she was shaking, the color in her face was draining, and her hands were starting to turn purple. I called the Triage nurse back and told her the developments and asked if I should take her to the ER... Yep...

I was frantically zig-zagging across the house grabbing jackets, snacks, toys for each kid, and all of my FPIES material. We were out the door in under 10, and Claire was still pale and shaking. We got to the ER in 5 minutes, at which time Claire's color started coming back and the shaking had subsided. There was a split second when I thought about turning for home, but my gut said, "stay", so that's what we did. The nurses took Claire's medical history and her vitals and a sample of her urine. That baby girl is tough as nails--even as they inserted a catheter. Andy sat on the other side of the room and said, "It's awight Cwaiwy..."

After three hours of reading the same book repeatedly, playing cars, and keeping Andy as far away as possible from all plugs, computers, buttons, and Bio hazard waste cans, we saw the doctor. During our wait, Claire had recovered from all previous symptoms and a quick exam revealed nothing of concern. I felt like an idiot. I was about to acknowledge that my fear of another "episode" landed Clairey in the ER for teething pain, when the doctor returned with some preliminary results from her urine sample. Clairey has a bladder infection. I guess my motherly instincts can be trusted after all :)

As we were waiting for Claire's antibiotic prescription to be filled, I treated Andy (for the first time since September!) to a hamburger and apple slices from McDonald's for being an angel at the hospital. If Claire could drink it, I would have given her a super-sized milkshake. Instead, she got a bottle of antibiotics and her first taste of broccoli. She deserves pears for dessert :)

A Small World

My husband got a new job!   As a stay-at-home mom, we rely heavily on my husband's job and his career satisfaction is of the utmost importance to our family.  I believe our new direction is going to lead us to just that.  Of course, new jobs aren't as simple as showing up and learning the ropes.  At least ours never are.  After a training period lasting six to twelve months, we'll be packing up and heading to the Gateway To The West, St. Louis, Missouri.  As an adopted Midwesterner (whose roots are still firmly planted in California), I know very little about St. Louis.  Let's just say, when the words "Saint Louis" s-l-o-w-l-y came out of my husband's mouth, my imagination cooked up a horrific scene of us living in some soon-to-be-condemned house with bars on the windows and doors, in the slums of a gang-ridden wasteland.  He must have seen the horror on my face because he then informed me that we wouldn't be living in EAST St. Louis.  Phew. (I certainly don't mean any disrespect by saying this.  It just shows that I know almost nothing about Missouri...)

Once I learned that there are TWO Whole Foods in the St. Louis Metro area, I cooled my jets.  Sounds silly, I know, but when you've moved four times in the last six years, you've got to start someplace.  The more I think about our new future, the more excited I get... Here's what I've come up with so far:

- We will still be only four and a half hours (driving) from my twin sister's family
- We will be on central time zone so I don't have to wait until lunchtime to talk to my Cali-based family AND I won't lose sleep over my favorite television programming.
- The winters will be easier on my thin-ish (I mean this only in the figurative sense) skin
- There will be both water and mature trees, two crucial characteristics in my vision of "Utopia"
- My kiddoes have no trouble making new friends
- My husband will be happy

(I'm choosing to ignore the fact that it was included on Forbes' "20 Most Miserable Cities" list, an unfortunate find in my early research)

There's one more thing...  The morning after we learned about Clairey's diagnosis, I spent an hour on the phone with a woman I'd never met, Kimberly, the mother of a little boy with severe FPIES.  She gave me a unique perspective, helpful advice and ideas, questions to ask our doctors, and hope that Claire will enjoy her early childhood like every other little munchkin.  She energized me to get to the heart of the matter and inducted me into a sisterhood of mom's that do the same for their own children, everyday.  Kimberly lives in St. Louis.  I know that with a little help from our friends, Claire will have top-notch care there, too :)

St. Louis will surely be another fantastic adventure in this small, small world...

Bread Making 101

In going with my promise of limiting prepackaged foods in our house, I decided to channel my Italian grandmother, roll up my sleeves and start "kneading".  Much like brownies last week, our house has been lousy with batches of bread the last number of days... And I mean that in the best way possible (except for one failed attempt at sourdough, created from my week-long experiment at culturing sourdough starter.  It tasted like a cross between malty-beer and chewy pumpernickel.  Total bust). 

My grandmother came to America when she was a teen, speaking no English, and knowing only a couple of relatives.  She eventually married my grandfather, a Navy seaman, and raised four children on a shoestring, all by herself, for nine months out of every year.  While she spent the vast majority of her life on American soil, she never lost her Italian accent or her passion from homemade, organic and delicious foods.  Grandma cooked "organic" before "organic" was trendy.  While grandma passed on a few years ago, she left me with memories of punching dough, cranking the handle of her pasta maker and picking grandiose zucchini squash from her gigantic backyard garden.  She and my brother picked a small branch from a fig tree near our house and with a whole lot of love, she grew it until it produced more figs than she knew what to do with. 

I distinctly remember her tuna boat (that's what we called her beast of a truck.  It was big, old, green, and actually sounded like a boat), coming to pick us up from school a couple of times a week.  She always brought fresh rolls of bread (this all began when she realized my hungry little brother stopped eating his lunch at school because he was so grossed out by other kids eating with their mouths open.  His hunger strike was met with such gratifying rewards :).  Her bread delivery was so fresh that we'd rip open the rolls and both steam and melted butter oozed out.  I wish she were still alive so that I could steal all her secrets... And so she could deliver her bread to me again.

I may not have all of her tricks of the trade, but I do share my grandma's passion for food.  In today's bustling society, we hardly have time to sit down to eat, much less make something from scratch, or smell the...bread.   Thanks to Clairey, I'm a born again foodie. 

Hello, Lover.

Claire's first lesson in bread making

In case you'd like to give bread making a shot, here is the recipe that I've been working with for Classic White Bread .  We also approve of the Cinnamon Raisin variation :)

Prunes, Prunes the Musical Fruit...

I am in love with Whole Foods.  I think my cholesterol and blood pressure actually lower when I pull into the parking lot.  I like to go on dates with myself to Whole Foods and stroll up and down the aisles until there isn't anything new to look at.   I like to smell things, ask dumb questions of the staff, see where produce is grown, and read ingredient labels.  I daydream about how lovely it would be to have the entire bulk section in my pantry.  Since the store has earned the nickname "Whole Paycheck" among our circle of friends, I rarely buy much.  I do, however, like to "surprise" my husband and kiddoes with little treats.  Last time, my husband got an apple turnover, my son got a blueberry bagel (he'd had a hankering for one, of all things), I got organic popcorn kernels for myself and Clairey got prunes. You may be thinking that Clairey got the short end of the stick, but I beg to differ.   Her taste buds are totally sold on prunes and so long as her prune puree continues to pass the FPIES test, then her insides will continue to thank me, too.