2nd Annual Larsen Halloween Dinner!

So Proud of my Owen!

Owen was up at 6:30 in the morning the day he was baptized.  He was very excited!  So proud of this good decision he made. 

Meet Skorpy

Because Chase had a compound fracture, the Canadian doctors had to go in and clean inside his arm before they could set the bones.   According to Chase's local orthopedic surgeon, they did a good job up there.  However, they really didn't think twice about how his scar was going to look.  When he had his cast taken off a few weeks ago, we finally got a good look at it.

It is a doozy.  And, to Chase's delight it looks like a bug.  He actually thinks it looks like a scorpion and started to affectionately call it Skorpy.  So the name has stuck.  And now when we ask how his arm is feeling we also ask how Skorpy is doing as well.  Pretty cool for a boy.

It took him about a week to start using it again and now, you wouldn't even know that he had broken his arm.

Behind the Scenes

Turning in all his schoolwork and homework. Yep

Keeping his socializing to a minimum at school. Yep

Coming home from school and doing his homework without complaint. Yep

Having a good attitude about what he needs to do.  Yep

So proud of this kid.

Italian Vegetable Stew

"The more a child is exposed to new foods the more likely he/she seems to try and become familiar with them.  A child may need 10–15 tastes of a new food to develop a liking for it so giving up after a few attempts will generally fail to introduce the new food."

10-15 times.  Really?  Is that all.  I would like to challenge that.

 Yesterday I picked another recipe from my favorite recipe website, America's Test Kitchen.  I thought it looked good and when I pick out new recipes to try, I rarely think about what my kids would like to eat.  I know that is totally selfish of me.  But hey, since I'm the one cookin' I get to pick out what we eat.

I bought all the ingredients and chopped them all up.  It wasn't until this stage in the recipe, that the thought occurred to me "My kids are going to hate this." Bell peppers, zucchini, potatoes, eggplant, garlic, tomatoes and onions just to name a few.  Seriously good stuff. 

 Once I finished making it, I knew I was going to like it.  It smelled heavenly.

And sure enough. I set it on the table and immediately got grimmaces all around.

One child tried it and said it was o.k. I'm thinking he was just being nice. 

One child decided he could eat the potatoes and the soup part. The only parts he liked. He then reluctantly admitted that the soup part tasted o.k., but it made his mouth hot.

One child wouldn't even touch it and then decided he would strain everything out except for the soup part and potatoes when I told him no more rolls until he ate some soup.

And a fourth child watched the three other ones and copied their behavior.

They either filled up on the Rustic Dinner Rolls that I also made from this website. Dairy free I might add and quite delicious.  Or they just picked at their soup and pretended to eat it, knowing that was all they were getting for dinner.

Scott and I both thought the soup tasted great. But sadly, with this kind of reaction from my boys I may have to shelf that recipe for awhile.

Which brings me back to my first statement.  Only 10-15 times? No way. I have made countless recipes with the same vegetables over and over and over, hoping that they would start to like them. And still, they refuse to eat peppers, tomatoes and onions and anything that is green or leafy or different in any way whatsoever.  So whoever makes these kind of statements is living in a dream land as far as I'm concerned.

As for me, I will continue to make recipes that include these ingredients with the hope that someday they will like them.  Someday......

Saying No No to Dairy.

Owen is a tough little guy.  Ever since he was a little one he has struggled with eczema.  I have taken him to many doctors only to get told the same thing.  "We don't know what causes it.  Your best bet is to just put a lot of lotion on him and keep chemicals off his clothes."

And so I have. You name it, I have tried it.  After going to see another allergist this past spring, I have been vigilant in making sure he bathes daily and gets lotioned up twice a day.  His skin has never looked better, but the eczema is still there, just waiting for me to miss a day.

Not only is he itchy most of the time, he has some allergies as well.  Juniper, weeds, grass, sagebrush and cats are the ones we know about.  If I give him a Zyrtec, that helps the runny nose, but he is still very congested and ends up snuffling all day.  And speaking of a runny nose, if you look closely at his nose you will see a white line.  I have learned from several doctors that that is a sure sign of allergies in children.  Their nose is constantly running and they are constantly wiping it. 

A few weeks ago, I decided to take him to an ear, nose and throat doctor. When I told her his symptoms and problems, she was not at all surprised that he had allergies and eczema.  She is having some more in-depth tests done right now to see if she can find any more allergies, but until those findings come back, she has recommended that he not have any dairy for a month to see if that helps.

No dairy?  That is terrible.  Life is not happy without dairy, I can tell you that.  Even though I doubt that is going to be the magic bullet, I feel like I have to give it a dry.  I nicely volunteered Scott to abstain with him so he isn't alone, with the agreement that I come up with dairy-free meals for all of us.  Scott has eczema as well, so they might as well try it together. 

So that is what I am doing.  Checking labels, making substitutes, leaving things out and hoping this month will fly by.  If nothing comes of the dairy, I'm just hoping the tests will show something that can help this kid.

It's off

After 9 1/2 weeks, Chase finally got his cast off. 

Does he look excited that it is off?

Does he look ready to use his brand new arm?

Nope. 

He came home from the Dr. with a splint to wear during the day and he does not like it when we take it off.  He is scared to death to move it.

Right now we are trying to convince him to get in the shower.  It desperately needs to be washed.

It will be interesting see how long it takes for him to realize that his arm is healed and it no longer hurts.