Nicola's Baby Blog
Ignoring Halloween
It's Halloween today and I've done nothing about it. I usually like the idea of getting the kids dressed up, buying loads of candy and really enjoying the holiday. But this year, I let it go for 3 good reasons:
- we're all getting over colds (Jake is still under the weather)
- every adult in the house was at work tonight other than me and I couldn't handle it all by myself
- we live in the last house on a cul-de-sac, so I wasn't very confident about getting many visitors anyway
So, I'm slightly embarrassed to report that around 6pm, when the trick-or-treat-ing normally starts, I turned off the lights in the kitchen (at the front of the house) and closed the blinds.
I am pleased to report that I didn't have to ignore any knocks on the door because no one came. In fact, when Stephen arrive home from around 6:30pm, he reported that there were loads of kids out on the next block but that our whole block was dark and quiet.
What can I say? We're grumps among grumps.
Madeleine McCann - 6 months on
Earlier today, I received comment number 39 to my blog entry entitled Madeleine McCann. I wrote that post back on May 11th, a few days after the little girl disappeared from her family's holiday apartment in Portugal and I am amazed that it is still drawing attention and comments.
That comment, number 39, lead me to reply with comment 40. I don't apologize for perhaps seeming a bit curt with my reply because I am sick of people suggesting that we should not be discussing newsworthy issues in a public arena such as this unless our opinions are all warm and cushy. I understand if someone has the opinion that the McCanns were right to leave the children sleeping in the apartment while they ate some 100 metres away, but that is not my opinion.
The Daily Mail has release an editorial article entitled Are we trying to kill the McCanns?. It suggests that the McCanns are being unfairly attacked and that we, the attackers, may simply be looking to push the McCanns over the edge to satisfy our need for a dramatic ending. We could be, it says, looking for guilt that just isn't there.
But if the McCanns had started this huge Maddie campaign by saying "we should never have left them alone, but please help us find our daughter", I imagine that a lot of these 'attackers' would feel much more sympathetic toward them. I realize, of course, that their legal team along with their PR specialists have surely advised them to not admit any guilt, I feel that they would have come across in a more positive light if only they'd said what a lot of people where thinking.
I know that I would be seeing them differently now if they would just admit that they were wrong.
Abby can walk!
Big news from Abby!! The little girl is walking. Well, sometimes. She still spends a lot of her time on her hands and knees, and generally only walks when she is encouraged to do so. It started last night with me sitting on the kitchen floor and standing her in front of me. I shimmied my butt backwards as she took each step toward me. That just made her giggle like crazy, but she kept walking!
By the time Stephen got home and took out the camera, Abby was tired and only took about 3 steps. But here they are, in all their glory:
We are also seeing a big urge from Abby to communicate. You'd swear that she was trying to walk and mimic the sounds we make. When we come downstairs and see Jake, she shouts something that sounds like the letter A. Very similar to his name. We say, "Yes, it's Jake" and she grins from ear to ear.
My difficulty with her right now is that she seems to really want to feed herself and is no longer satisfied with mush. The problem is that she still only has 4 teeth and cannot manage harder food. She stares longingly as Jake eats his dinner and I feel bad for her.
Ah well, all in good time.
Grandfather Clocks: a warm childhood memory
I remember as a little girl of about twelve sleeping over at a close friends house. She lived two doors down from us so it was easy for me to end up there pretty every weekend.
Right outside her bedroom door, stood this beautiful grandfather clock. It stood much taller than I did and I remember being really taken by its size and grandeur. Every hour, on the hour, it let out this regal and deep chime that echoed throughout the whole house. You could hear it from the basement and even from the back deck, but you could most definitely hear from the bedroom where I spent quite a few of my nights.
Did it disturb me? At first, it woke me every hour. I lay still and listened until it had finished its chime and then I drift off to sleep again. But I do remember being a bit surprised that my friend slept right through it. When I mentioned it to her, she just shrugged and told me that she liked the sound.
And then I got used to it. I started sleeping right through it. The sound was comforting and strong.
Now that I’m all grown up with a family of my own, I’d love to get a grandfather clock for our house. I imagine that our kids would look at it fondly as well.
After a little online research, I’ve come to realize that there is more than one chime available. You can even buy grandfather clocks that are described as Triple Chime Clocks and they play the Westminster Chimes, the Whittington Chimes, and the Saint Michael’s Chimes. I just wish I knew which chime my friend’s clock had played. And did it play more than one? I just can’t remember.
I want my children to grow up and look back on their childhoods with vivid memories of all the things that remind them of home and made them feel safe. I’d put the clock right at the bottom of the stairs so that they could hear it from their beds.
1-800-4clocks.com have a large selection of grandfather clocks as well as wall clocks and mantel clocks, which I love too.
Day - GFCF
Since writing one of my recent entries about Jake's diet, I've come to realize that soy sauce does indeed contain gluten unless specified as gluten-free. So I messed up in giving it to him but I'm convinced that this diet is going to take some getting used to. It's a pretty steep learning curve for us when all we've ever worried about before is staying away from foods with transfat!
I've cooked him some meals that have now been frozen so that a good, healthy, GFCF dinner is ready for him at any time. Stephen picked up some dairy-free margarine. Jake seems pretty pleased to be back on buttered toasted bagels again. He likes jam, but I think he prefers margarine.
We saw Jake's Speech Language Pathologist, J, yesterday. Stephen and I discussed ahead of time that I wouldn't tell her about the diet and first see if she noticed any changes in Jake. This would help alleviates our fear that we were making it all up.
Firstly, I should point out that Jake does a specific 'stimming' behaviour: he stomps his feet and runs around for a few seconds. He tends to do that every once in a while. He gets it out of his system and then goes back to what he was doing. This is very common among children with autism. They often have repetitive actions that stimulate them in a way that feels good to them. For Jake, it seems to be deep pressure in his hips, knees or ankles.
Anyway, forty minutes into our hour session, Jake finally got up and did his little stomping routine. J commented that it was odd that he’d gone so long without doing it. Then I showed J Jake’s new trick. I put my hand to my mouth, opened my mouth into an ‘O’ shape and started humming. I tapped my mouth over and over, making an echo-y sound. Jake looked up at me (making great eye contact), lifted his hand to his mouth and, get this, he copied me!
This is a brand new trick and it gives me goose bumps every time he does it now.
J looked shocked. She squealed with delight and insisted on high-five-ing me.
And then I told her about the diet. I told her the changes we’d noticed and how we were so surprised. J begged me to document everything. What he eats, what he can do and can’t do, what he’s learned.
So this blog isn’t just for fun anymore. I need to keep a detailed diary of Jake’s dietary progress.
Here’s the new trick in action:
7 to 8 hours of sleep? Nah.
It's 9:36pm and the kiddies have been in bed for about an hour. Since then, I've washed a bottle or two and did a little tidy round. Then I sat down right where I am now and watched a YouTube episode of PayPerPost's most recent Rock Startup. From there, I followed those enticing link down the right hand side of the YouTube website that suggests other videos that are related.
It's way too addictive.
So it's been about an hour, when I have so many other things that I need to do. Once the kids are in bed, I have the best opportunity to get a move on with a few things, but I simply lack the drive. I feel tired and on edge about the night ahead.
Will Abby wake 4 times tonight, as she did last night? Will Jake wake at 4am, like he did the previous night? When will I get 7 to 8 hours of straight sleep ever again?!
Maybe when they're 10 and 8 respectively. Yeah, maybe.
Barracuda Networks shows their support for open source
I could never fathom paying over $500 for some photo editing software or website designing software. It just doesn’t seem right. And although I realize that a lot of hard work went into the creation of these masterpieces (and I don’t use that word lightly), firstly, I can’t afford them and secondly, I know of a whole world out there on the internet made up of quality free software. I’m talking about open source software.
I use open source software as a replacement to all the big names, like email, photo editing, website creation, written documents, spreadsheets and more. I also use the open source option in the design of various websites of mine, making set-up not only quicker, but a whole lot easier too.
And finally, my handheld computer runs on Linux, the open source operating system. I find it very reliable and much less bulky and slow than its more popular counterpart.
I do my best to support the creators and distributors of these programs by making donations and sending messages of thanks.
So I was pleased to read that Barracuda Networks, the worldwide leader in email and web security, had recently signed a license agreement with Open Invention Network (or OIN), the company formed to spur innovation and protect the Linux System. By becoming a licensee, Barracuda Networks are helping to secure the future of the Linux operating system by building a legally protected environment where developers can innovate freely.
Well-known companies like L’Oreal, Coca-Cola, NASA, and many more, are protecting their networks with Barracuda Networks solutions. They offer the Barracuda Spam Firewall and, from what I can see on their website and also through a marketing video on YouTube, it is really easy to set up and maintain.
So, kudos to Barracuda Networks to Open Invention Network, for supporting developers and end-users of open source software.
Day 3 of GFCF
We went shopping again today and spent another $30 on food for Jake. We got more yoghurts, some gluten-free cereal and a few other items. I tell ya, it's an expensive diet to be on!
And it's frustrating too because I can find non-dairy items and I can find gluten-free items, but try to find them combined. It's not easy. We finally found gluten-free cookies and then realized that they had milk products in them. So we put them back.
Finally, we visited a local health/specialty foods shop and bought soy flour to bake raisin cookies for Jake. I'll leave that up to Stephen though because I pretty much suck at baking.
Around suppertime last night, I started cooking. I not only made a meal for dinner, but I also made some extra meals. I packaged them seperately and put them in the freezer.
For lunch today, Jake had GFCF shepherd's pie and for dinner tonight, he'll have GFCF sausages, made only of meat and spices. They are more expensive but I'm hoping that they're worth it.
Jake has been slightly more withdrawn today and we haven't seen anything extraordinary in his behaviour. I feel like his eye contact is good and he's quite smiley. We go to see his Speech Language Pathologist tomorrow so I'm really hoping to wow her.
Fingers crossed!
LiveHuman.com Support Chat
A little while ago, I was signing up to a business website as an affiliate and came upon an issue that I could not resolve. I really wanted to get things fixed as soon as possible but imagined a few days going by before anyone answered my email. As I ummed and ahhed about my dilemma, I realized that the company offered a live chat for member support. I had never tried anything like it before and was super-impressed when I got an immediate response to my query. And voila, problem solved.
Now, if only all companies would jump on the bandwagon and treat their customers/members so well!
To any business owners who may be reading this, I would recommend LiveHuman.com. They offer support chat software so that you can answer simple queries from your customers in real time. For as little as $13 per month, you could keep customers like me happy and, to that end, make more sales. As LiveHuman.com points out on their website, in most cases, that one extra sale each month would pay the tab for their great software.
Signing up is easy:
1. Enrol on the LiveHuman.com website
2. Download their software
3. Insert one line of HTML code into your website
You’ll be up and running within minutes. And in case you have any troubles with their 3-step set-up, they have, of course, live chat support available on their website to help you out.
LiveHuman.com are also a 7-day free trial so that you can try before you buy.
48 hours into GFCF diet...
We're over 48 hours in!
Jake had a toasted gluten-free bagel for breakfast, with jam instead of margarine, a banana and half of a non-dairy yoghurt. For lunch, he had rice mixed with vegetables and soy sauce. And for dinner, Jake had gluten-free pasta with a bolognese sauce and chopped cucumber. In between, he's had his usual drink of apple juice or soy milk.
Have we noticed any difference? Well, the straight answer is yes.
Is it all just wishful thinking? Are we seeing what we want to see rather than what's really there? Well, we're very aware of that possibility and Stephen and I keep figuratively pinching each other to make sure that our feet are firmly planted on the ground. Obviously, the last thing we want is to dream it all up!
Firstly, Jake woke at 4am this morning. He was wide awake and cheerful. I brought him downstairs and he watched TV while I lay on the couch.
Why was he up so early? Could it be that the new soy milk is making him more alert than the cow's milk did? And I don't mean that it's pumping him full of sugar or anything. What I mean is that the theory behind the diet is that some autistic children cannot process these foods and they get backed up in their bodies. Omitting them altogether can sometimes lead to a more alert child.
When I got home from work at noon, I went to see Jake while he played with his cars in the dollhouse (his favorite place to be). He looked up, made eye contact and smiled. Not completely unusual, but off to a good start. And then Stephen started telling me how affectionate Jake was with him again and how he seems to be attempting to mimic him.
As I watched Stephen blow raspberries at Jake, I was blown away to see Jake watch his Daddy's mouth intently and then attempt to pucker his lips. He has never done this before.
Then I got down on the floor with him and started giving him kisses. I'd say 'kisses' as I looked into his eyes and then I'd lean in and plant one on his cheek. After about 10 kisses, Jake stopped me by planting a big wet kiss full on my lips. Shocked, I just held still while he kept his lips on mine. Then he released and did it again and again.
I almost cried. Jake's lips weren't puckered, like for a kiss, but he certainly got the fact that a kiss happens with the lips and that, yay, he wanted to give me a kiss!
Coincidence? I don't know. I don't know what to think. I'm terrified of putting too much credance in this diet, but how can I not?
Eye contact has increased. Alertness too. He sat on the couch and watched TV (several times and for extended periods) instead of standing on the low stool behind the couch. I got kisses and Stephen got Jake to copy his raspberies.
I wonder what tomorrow will bring.
