Lots Of Busy-Ness

Lots of busy has been going on. That's why it's so quiet on here. So here's bullet style update.

(Check out Liam's one-arm plank! That's my babe!)

Liam Updates
* Has tried 3 different rice cereals now (include one homemade with nothing but white rice and water). He has upchucked all of them. Total of 4x upchucking due to rice cereal. He has also upchucked yams 1x. With everything going on, we've decided to suspend his solids for now.
* Fell off the bed onto hardwood floor and hit his forehead. Poor kid had a huge bruise and lump. My fail. I was distracted by Emilia and turned away from him. Almost caught his legs as he was going down, but missed by a fraction of a second. =( He's okay now though.
* Craws (bunny-hop style) really fast now. He is going to be a climber! He loves climbing on top of everything. Also he has really good abs! He is always doing some plank or downward dog pose.
* Gets upset at Emilia now when she takes his toys away from him. Oh.. let the fighting begin!

Emilia Updates
* Starting to prep for potty training and we plan to follow the Potty Training in a Day method. Ryan has read the book (I'm next) and we have a potty training doll that drinks water and pees when the belly is full. Now we just need some time.
* She has lots of little friends around, though we cannot see them. She is always waiting for Julian and Perry to put on their seat belts before she'll drive them around in her invisible car.
* Occasionally I'll catch her dragging Liam around by the feet or by the hands.

Ryan Updates
* He's completely focused on our zombie fortification as things are underway really fast. Permits are approved and work is in full force.
* Old deck removed and certain areas repaired. We have workers, contractors, inspectors... and lots of activity going on. Retaining walls are also up!
* Ryan found another rattle snake a while back when he was moving rail ties around.
* Avocado season is over. Avocados were harvested a good while back and it turned out to be a decent season. Looking forward to when the Reeds start coming out, which will be around fall time.

Connie Updates
* Work - I have a new project and given full responsibility towards design, verification, implementation, and debug of our testboard FGPA development on an upcoming high-profile testchip. That's a whole cycle with a bunch of new things I am unfamiliar with. Excited to work on this and learn new skill sets, but also nervous as to time, family/work balance, and the consequences if I mess it up. (Essentially there can be no mess up.)
* Dealing with a painful hamstring/glut injury for the past 2 months. I am getting treatments with an ART specialist. Have gotten referrals from a friend in the local competitive elite running/tri-athlete community (thanks WK) and started seeing a PT. Good news is that the PT's analysis gave me an answer to why I sustained a hamstring injury and also the root cause for several other periodic issues I've always had. Now I am very hopeful there's a solution to resolve all of my ailments.
* Last attempt, I am up to 12 max pull-ups. 2 away from my goal that I set back at the beginning of the year.
* Crossfit and regular workouts are now suspended, and have been for the past 1.5 months. Bummed that I'm stopped, but silver-lining (2 bullets above) which will hopefully help me in the future to get stronger and better in the right way.
* Diet - Been doing a mix between keeping some Paleo ideas and Bob Harper's 20 rules. Re-incorporating limited whole grains. Mainly oatmeal, brown rice, or my latest find, SmartCarb bread (also comes in gluten-free and Paleo versions), high in protein and fiber! I am focusing on eating foods with high fiber and protein with each meal.

Family & Friends
* Lots of family visits lately, which the kids (esp Emilia) love.
* Visit from cousins Emily and Elizabeth, who was out here for a rock climbing competition.
* Grandma "poa-poa" came by to spend time with the kids for a week.
* Szeto cousins were out visiting (crazy, fun madhouse! Kids LOVED it.)
* Distant cousin Patty got married and we had the honor to take part and celebrate with them.
* We had a last Collective hoorah with the Chuckster before he headed off to Australia!
* And we found out that the Collective will be having a new addition at the end of this year. Congrats JL & Irma!

And, lastly, everyone here has been rotating being sick in one form or another.

Food Allergy Awareness

Ryan and I both have food allergies. Ryan is lactose-intolerant. Both of us have adverse reactions to certain high-fat content foods. My throat feels like it closes up and a sore throat occurs. In addition to the self-diagnosed allergies, I also have random skin sensitivity and rashes. Emilia and Liam also both have skin sensitivities. So given our background, I would think I should be more aware.

We recently started Liam on solids and went with the conventional rice cereal. Ryan fed Liam a few bites, and for the next hour, Liam kept burping and spitting up. Didn't think much of it since it was one of his first solids. We continued with solids here and there over the next month, trying some banana and avocado and sweet potato. Liam finally got the hang of opening his mouth, moving his tongue, and swallowing food. Yea! So one night, the sweet potato was too watery, and without really thinking about it, I mixed in some baby rice cereal. Liam was doing awesome and eating all of it. He had eaten sweet potato earlier and had no reaction, so I thought all was good. We put him to bed and he fell sound asleep quickly. A little after midnight, there were gurgling noises coming from his crib and I knew something was wrong. His body was heaving and he started vomiting. Needless to say, the next 1-2 hours were spent with Ryan and I cleaning his crib, giving him a bath, and checking up on him. He continued to have burpings and threw up (just a little) again.

While this is not conclusive for a rice cereal allergy (not common but does exist) and it may be his young system in development, it reminds me that there are food allergies and families that deal with severe food allergies on a daily basis. In fact, people may have minor food allergies and not even be aware of it. My knowledge and awareness has increased especially with going on the Paleo diet/lifestyle, which in short, is dairy-free, gluten-free/grain-free, and legume-free. I have become much more aware of how difficult (and also how easy with the right tools) it is to live with food restrictions in a non-allergic friendly and highly-processed-food society. Luckily for me, the food restrictions are by choice without any adverse effects. Imagine if it isn't!

I have been following a blog, getallergywise.blogspot.com, co-authored by some moms I went to high school with, that document life with severely allergic kids. It definitely sheds light on how different of a life one would have, as a parent, to add something that seems so benign as "eating food" to the list of things that could harm your kid and how one simple lapse is dangerous.

I had taken Emilia to a birthday party recently and with her toddler-ways and a baby boy to tend to, I did not 100% keep track of Emilia. Next thing you know, she's eaten half of a chocolate chip cookie that someone gave her. It happened twice, and while I was not happy that her first tastes of chocolate came from a stranger and she had an overdose of sugar high, Emilia does not have any known food allergies and therefore it was not a freakout moment. I really hope that Liam does not have food allergies. We have yet to see. This does remind me to be diligently cautious when introducing foods to him, and also how fortunate the rest of us without major food allergies are!

A note to end on, while I am not 100% Paleo anymore (that'll be a different post), I take away a lot of positive changes from it and stick with being mostly dairy-free and gluten-free (not grain free though). I do think there may be sensitivities to dairy and gluten, as since being off of them, I have found that my skin rashes occur much less. Could it be from the change in diet and eliminating certain foods?..maybe.. maybe not? Whatever it is, the current lifestyle is working and sure beats going to the docs and taking medication. Last note, please do not feed any kids without first checking with the parents!

50 mpg!

I noticed a few weeks ago that the VW was getting close to 50 mpg on my trip to the climbing gym.  So I've been trying to hit the magic 50 mpg mark ever since.  Well, tonight it finally happened.  Needed a little luck with hitting most of the signal lights green.  The route is 29 mi with 24% city and 76% hwy.