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First steps, ish!

Today Vivienne has been standing on her own a lot more, by her own choice. Previously, I’d put her in a stand and if she was distracted by something, she’d hold it there for a few moments. Once she realized she had just been standing there with nothing holding her up, she’d often sit down. Probably thought, “I’m just a baby!”

More likely, she didn’t want to fall down and get a bonk.

But today at a playdate (!), she stood a lot more while holding a toy with two hands so she could get a better look.

Tonight, she took 5-6 steps toward Shane. Yay!

She has taken a half or two steps before but it was not really intentional. I think she still prefers crawling because it’s so much faster and less dangerous for her, but I’m glad she is taking some steps.

She is 9 days away from being 11 months old, so this is roughly the same age that Johnny started to walk. I think he has her beat by a week or two. That’s ok, Vivie — just get potty-trained way sooner and we’ll call it fair. K? kthx.

Also in Vivie news, she likes to wave “hi” and sorta says it. If I say “hi!” she starts waving. It’s entertaining.

I know some people love the newborn stage, but truthfully that stage kicks my butt. I really enjoy toddlers. Keep it coming, baby girl!

My pill popping regimen

I’m taking a slew of pills lately to help my body heal and get the nutrients it needs. Here’s what I’ve got going on:

- Vitamin D supplement (my blood level was very low, and I expect I’ll need to make sure to supplement through winter and then maybe I can just use sunlight and my regular vitamin next summer?)
- A probiotic pill to restore healthy bacteria to my gut. Bacteria. Flora. Yummy.
- Cod liver oil. Flavored in strawberry. Um, strawberry-flavored fish isn’t tasty, but I gulp it down and chase it with water. When this bottle is out, I’ll look into getting the fermented cod liver stuff, since it’s supposed to be even better for you.
- A whole foods based multivitamin. I had recently run out of another whole foods vitamin made by New Chapter, but that one contained soy. This one is safe and is made from food rather than synthetically made. I don’t know if it’s hype, but it makes sense to me that a foods-based vitamin would be much easier absorbed by the body.
- A calcium supplement that also contains magnesium, which is important. This stuff tastes decent, too. Don’t know if this was my best pick for a calcium supplement, but I like it.

Whoosh. In addition to that, I’m trying to make sure I drink plenty of water. Sometimes I forget. No good.

I’m also drinking tea, which has dandelion leaves, nettles, and burdock root. All are ok for breastfeeding mothers (of course, double-check me if you are nursing and want this tea) and they are supposed to help kidney function, clean the body, and just supply lots of good nutrients and stuff.

It hasn’t even been a full week with me avoiding my sensitive foods list (wheat, gluten, soy, dairy, eggs, baker’s yeast) and I’m already feeling different. Those foods really were screwing with me, and I had no idea! No digestive upset or anything tell-tale to suggest I had a food issue.

Getting off the refined sugars and wheat was trying, but once I got past the initial hurdle my cravings went away and I even sat by a bowl full of chocolate and wasn’t tempted to cheat.

My 30-days will be up near Thanksgiving and I might cheat just a little — maybe something that has cheese in it or something. I dunno. I also have time to come up with some recipes of Kacie-safe foods that are also appealing to other people.

I’m eating a lot of meat and fish, as well as produce. It’s helpful that I can still have other grains, so I’ve enjoyed gluten-free oats (soaked for better digestion) and quinoa and rice.

I’ve experienced a little bit of what I think is a “healing crisis” or Herxheimer Reaction, that is when you remove certain foods and your body is able to clean out and detox, sometimes your body is pushing those old toxins through your system faster than your body can eliminate them.

I’ve never to my knowledge had eczema, but I now have a rash on one of my hands. My skin is also pretty dry there, so it could be coincidence.

I’m going to keep up with my fluids and take it easy and hope it all clears up soon.

I spoke too soon

So Vivienne was up last night around 2. She thought there was a party or something, because she was up and ready to play for 2.5 hours. Thanks, kid!

That’s what I get for telling people that she slept for a big long stretch. Probably had nothing to do with anything I did or didn’t do. Whateverrrr kthxbai

Day 2-3 of my new ‘diet’

I’m on my full third day of my new diet, avoiding all wheat, gluten, soy, eggs, dairy, baker’s yeast, and refined sugar. And caffeine.

It is going a LOT better than I expected. The first full day stunk. I was ok for parts, but I hit a few hours where I was feeling stabby and crabby and just wanted a cookie or seven and a glass of milk. I got through it, thanks to some distraction and good suggestions from my friends Susan and Beth.

Day 2 went really well and I was already starting to feel…different. Not sure how to really describe it. And now we’re on Day 3.

I’m optimistic for the next 30 days, now that I seem to have gotten past the big cravings and I have a plan to work with.

The other thing that wants me to keep on plugging away — and this could be a coincidence — but Vivienne slept for 12 hours last night. What.

It could be because she’s coming out of a growth spurt, or because her cold is starting to finally go away, or because she actually ate a solid dinner (she had split pea soup with the rest of us and said mmm for every bite). Could be that she’s finally getting old enough to hack it.

Perhaps it has nothing to do with my diet. But the timing of it all makes me wonder.

I don’t know if she has sensitivities herself to the foods on my ban list, or if perhaps she was reacting to the immune response in my own body…I don’t know.

She may not sleep for that long again for awhile. She still is toothless, after all, and teething can throw sleep out the window.

But still. Wow. I didn’t get a big stretch like that with Johnny until he was I think 17 months. And speaking of Johnny, he did wake me up last night so I didn’t get a totally uninterrupted night’s sleep myself.

But still. Wow. I’m optimistic for the future!

Someday projects for our house

Inspired by my friend Ashley’s blog, I thought I’d put

together a post sharing some of the projects we’d like to do in our house someday, as budget and inspiration allows.

I would like to identify some low-cost, but high-impact changes I can do in the next few months. I’d also like to price out some of our more expensive projects so we can prioritize and have a target for our savings.

Here are some things that I’d like to finish by spring:

Laundry room:

- Paint! Scuffed walls make it look like a really beat-up room. Not sure on color. The room has no windows. I’d like a cheerful color, so maybe a yellow? Yellow seems to be a difficult color to put on walls well, so I’m not totally sure.
- Shelves. I think we might already own some shelves that we could hang in this room but I need to measure to be sure. We *need* a place to organize our stuff. The laundry room feeds into the garage, and this is where we come in and out of the house. Perhaps a few hooks for coats, a place to put shoes as we kick them off, and maybe a shelf to hold things that need to go out, such as library books or paperwork or who knows. I need to figure out my exact storage solution.
- Perhaps baskets or something to organize the cleaning supplies on the exposed shelf above the washer/dryer.
- The flooring is scuffed and not attractive, but it works and I don’t think it’s crucial that we do anything for it any time soon. It is a laundry room, after all.

Half bath:

This is the only toilet room on our first floor and so it is used frequently.

- Paint! Turns out, the “paint” on the walls right now is just dark-tinted primer. It looks kinda silly. Shane tried to touch up some dings with the leftovers in the garage, and it doesn’t blend well. It’s not supposed to. It’s PRIMER. He likes the dark color so we’ll try and find a similar paint color and make it nice and finished.
- Wall decor — I think I can do this inexpensively. I have a few photographs that I’d like to use from when we were in Alaska several years ago on our honeymoon. Get those prints and some frames for ‘em, and tada.
- Basket for atop the commode to hold toilet paper and maybe a book to flip through for if I need to hide away for a few minutes. lolz.
- Maybe a candle or a pretty knick-knack for the countertop. Nothing expensive, but just a finishing touch.
- Probably a new floor mat, since the one we have is a shade of blue that doesn’t really go with anything, but that could change depending on the wall color we choose.

Office:

Really looking forward to finishing this room so we can actually use it! Right now, we just have a bookshelf, lamp and some pictures in there. So bare. So much potential!

- Computer desk and chair
- Cozy reading chair
- Possibly a small table to go next to the reading chair
- Area rug, perhaps 8×10 feet, to go on top of the laminate to really finish off the room

Play room:

This room is pretty well set actually, but there are a few more tweaks I’d like to do to make it an even more inviting place for the kids.

- Foam floor covering thing so it’s not just them and the laminate. Not so cozy.
- A cozy, toddler-sized pair of chairs/bean bag/floor pillow
- Maybe a magnet board or something at the wall. I don’t think I’d want to do a chalkboard at this age — too messy.
- Some wall art. Perhaps I can put some of their own creations on the wall!

Family room:

- Slip cover for pink rocker/recliner. Probably tan or brown.
- Stuff to make the mantel look finished. Probably a mirror, maybe a small clock, and other decorative things.
- End table and lamp
- Flat screen TV? I dunno. Maybe not.

Master bedroom:

King size bed. Definitely. I wish a good bed wasn’t so expensive, but when you are on it for as many hours as people sleep, then I guess it makes sense to have a good one.

Also want to paint in here. Two walls are an intense shade of red. I really need a calmer color for my bedroom! Not sure which color yet.

There’s more rooms and more projects that need attention, but this post is getting long. These projects can hopefully be tackled within the next year, in addition to whatever maintenance issues crop up.