Halloween Hang Over!

As you all know, Halloween is so fun! Love it all but the reality is that candy is horrible evil to our household. Mean to my boy W....not to mention my tuckas!

We are a refined sugar-free household. So, what the heck do we do with Halloween, the holiday of all candy-infused holidays!

We purchased pre-approved treats....plain chips & gum, stickers, Halloween pencils, balloons....and delivered them to specific homes that we would be trick & treating at. Our boys were thrilled to go trick or treating as it was their first time and they loved it! I would hate to deny this for them as it is such a passage of childhood. One year, we'll have to think up a new method, but it worked this year. Yay!

A super-mom I know, created the Candy Man. The Candy Man comes a couple of days after Halloween and takes all the candy away. In return, he leaves a little something that includes toothbrushes. How brilliant is this! This momma is awesome! I am so adopting this fellow into our household, pre-approved treats or not.

One other option, if you live in Calgary, is throwing it all out....for money. There is a dentist in the NW who pays by the pound, for children's Halloween candy, pays the kids or a service club and then all the candy is tossed in the dumpster. Again...pretty innovative. Two young boys made $500+ for their school and had set up candy donation boxes at their school. Cool hey?

What's your trick for getting through the Halloween hangover?

PS: The sad little bunny up top...that's my favorite husband!

Halloween Hang Over!

As you all know, Halloween is so fun! Love it all but the reality is that candy is horrible evil to our household. Mean to my boy W....not to mention my tuckas!

We are a refined sugar-free household. So, what the heck do we do with Halloween, the holiday of all candy-infused holidays!

We purchased pre-approved treats....plain chips & gum, stickers, Halloween pencils, balloons....and delivered them to specific homes that we would be trick & treating at. Our boys were thrilled to go trick or treating as it was their first time and they loved it! I would hate to deny this for them as it is such a passage of childhood. One year, we'll have to think up a new method, but it worked this year. Yay!

A super-mom I know, created the Candy Man. The Candy Man comes a couple of days after Halloween and takes all the candy away. In return, he leaves a little something that includes toothbrushes. How brilliant is this! This momma is awesome! I am so adopting this fellow into our household, pre-approved treats or not.

One other option, if you live in Calgary, is throwing it all out....for money. There is a dentist in the NW who pays by the pound, for children's Halloween candy, pays the kids or a service club and then all the candy is tossed in the dumpster. Again...pretty innovative. Two young boys made $500+ for their school and had set up candy donation boxes at their school. Cool hey?

What's your trick for getting through the Halloween hangover?

PS: The sad little bunny up top...that's my favorite husband!

T'is The Season

Cold and flu that is.
I'm so not ready for the Christmas season.
We've all been sick over the past week or so. Feels like months already.
First, it started with Bup having the stomach flu...off and on for three days.
Then, W & B started vomitting. It was a sleepless night laying in bed between these two while B is vomitting in the bathroom and W likewise into a fuschia tupperware container beside me. Then to top all that goodness off I was hit by a harsh chest cold, which is always hard for me, always lung oriented. Add to this work, parenting, and sleep deprivation results in an exhausted family. Finally the spilling has long ended. I am on the mend but all the men (big & little) in our household now have a cold which brought us a night in emerg at Children's because Bup keeps spiking a fever at night...230am to be exact....which isn't really emerg material except due to his seizure history. Fevers are a little troublesome as it makes him at risk for those seizures to come back especially when he's not eating or drinking and therefore not getting his meds.
Ah, it's been a wonderful couple of weeks.
Now, after all that whining and complaining, I should add that we are on the mend! Bup hasn't had a fever for two nights now. I feel human tonight. B is taking Buckley's with the fear that I am trying to kill him by making him drink a balsam tree in a bottle. W is a little drippy and has a little cough as does Bup. Wuhoo....we are on the mend!
Maybe it has something to do with the scent of Lysol as I spray down the house every morning? Or bleach as toys are bleached? Or maybe the doses of Kick It, Vitamin C, and Multi vitamins that I am forcing on all of us. (Can I just ask one thing though...why is it necessary to put sugar and dye in children's vitamins?!? Argh! My local favorite health store was all out of children's vitamins today....a two month supply sold in a week!)
Or maybe it's the scent of Vicks Vapo Rub wafting from W as he rubbed himself down from head to toe while I was tucking in Bup this morning. W's face is still shiny & his hair greasy! That's why his eyes were watering...not due to the cold!
So, what are you doing to ward off the Cold & Flu beasties this season? You know, besides living in a bubble.

T'is The Season

Cold and flu that is.
I'm so not ready for the Christmas season.
We've all been sick over the past week or so. Feels like months already.
First, it started with Bup having the stomach flu...off and on for three days.
Then, W & B started vomitting. It was a sleepless night laying in bed between these two while B is vomitting in the bathroom and W likewise into a fuschia tupperware container beside me. Then to top all that goodness off I was hit by a harsh chest cold, which is always hard for me, always lung oriented. Add to this work, parenting, and sleep deprivation results in an exhausted family. Finally the spilling has long ended. I am on the mend but all the men (big & little) in our household now have a cold which brought us a night in emerg at Children's because Bup keeps spiking a fever at night...230am to be exact....which isn't really emerg material except due to his seizure history. Fevers are a little troublesome as it makes him at risk for those seizures to come back especially when he's not eating or drinking and therefore not getting his meds.
Ah, it's been a wonderful couple of weeks.
Now, after all that whining and complaining, I should add that we are on the mend! Bup hasn't had a fever for two nights now. I feel human tonight. B is taking Buckley's with the fear that I am trying to kill him by making him drink a balsam tree in a bottle. W is a little drippy and has a little cough as does Bup. Wuhoo....we are on the mend!
Maybe it has something to do with the scent of Lysol as I spray down the house every morning? Or bleach as toys are bleached? Or maybe the doses of Kick It, Vitamin C, and Multi vitamins that I am forcing on all of us. (Can I just ask one thing though...why is it necessary to put sugar and dye in children's vitamins?!? Argh! My local favorite health store was all out of children's vitamins today....a two month supply sold in a week!)
Or maybe it's the scent of Vicks Vapo Rub wafting from W as he rubbed himself down from head to toe while I was tucking in Bup this morning. W's face is still shiny & his hair greasy! That's why his eyes were watering...not due to the cold!
So, what are you doing to ward off the Cold & Flu beasties this season? You know, besides living in a bubble.

Hallowed Photos

Hallowed Photos

Tuberous Sclerosis - The Mutant Gene

It's been a long time coming, approximately 14 months, and we finally have results from genetic testing for TSC.
It appears that R's Tuberous Sclerosis is the result of a gene mutation. Not genetic!
As I've said before, it doesn't matter to B & me, how Bup developed TSC. I didn't want there to be any guilt on either of our parts...and there would have been as that's just the way our hearts work....if it had been handed down by either parent. The only reasons we wanted the genetic testing was for the boys futures and for family members who haven't had their own babies yet. There's a little relief in knowing that new babies born into this family will not have TSC!

As I write this our little Bup is napping on the loveseat in front of me. A quick, cat nap before we are scheduled to pick his brother up at pre-school. I watch him sleep, those long thick lashes against his fluffy cheeks and admire how perfect he looks; how bizarre it is that there are
"mutant genes" in his make-up, tubers/tumors growing on his organs, and weird electrical activity spiking throughout his brain. Our sweet, little, perfect Bup...happily living seizure free thanks to meds....while watching him sleep I know the TSC is invisible and I'm grateful for that. Hopefully, it'll keep sleeping too....long, long after Bup has woken up.