Change the Face of Cold and Flu Season

If you've read any of my previous posts you'd; note two things. 1. I have not written a blog post in a very long time. 2. My previous posts had A LOT to do with the health of my children.

 Part of the reason I have not posted in so long is because we are past the season of life where routines are changing every day and week and my notes to self have become needed less often. The other part is that my family has discovered a way to boost our immune systems and our sicknesses have not been nearly as dramatic as they have been in the past ("Hallelujah Chorus" in the background).

This is my youngest daughter, posing for a poster I made the other day. She's not really sick, but isn't she adorable?

 Here's a little bit of the story of how we changed Cold and Flu Season and our overall health in our home for good.




 In the summer of 2011 my family moved to Colorado.

 That fall my oldest boy (who was 5 at the time) started to get severe migraine headaches that would wake him out of his sleep and he'd immediately begin vomiting. We got a CAT scan to rule out things like tumors. Thank the Lord that he did NOT have any tumors or the like. However, he did see a neurologist and was diagnosed with migraines. Luckily the doctor did not prescribe medications, but recommended supplements we could buy at the store.

 Enter my good friend from college who told us about a high quality nutritional supplement that is like none other on the market.

I listened politely.

Then, I ignored her.

Then on December 21st my middle child got sick despite our best efforts to have a healthy diet, good hygiene and supplementing with store bought vitamins and probiotics. We were in the airport on the way to family for the holidays administering albeuterol treatments and giving him steroids. Then we got to family and everyone got sick ... as usual. Except this time my kids remained sick (even after traveling back home) for AN ENTIRE MONTH!!!

 I was exhausted!

 I was emotional!!

 My kids were a wreck and I felt so bad for them and so helpless.

I was beginning to doubt whether or not it was worth it to go and see family over the holiday season and desperately wished our Christmas was in the summer.

Not seeing family was not an option ... especially for my husband, but he knew I was exhausted too.

I called my friend back and asked her if this would help my kids' immune systems. She said, "Absolutely!"

We started on the supplement in February of 2012 as a family and we committed to trying it for three months because the human body has a cell turnover rate of every 90 days.

Within the FIRST WEEK I was sleeping better, my mood had improved, my muscle aches (which had been progressively getting worse over the last several months) were a none issue which meant my headaches were gone and I had a lot more energy throughout the day even if I had to get up with my kids in the night.

Within the FIRST MONTH my kids' digestive systems were better.  80% of the immune system is in the digestive system, so their immune systems were greatly improved.  When they got sick the symptoms were so much more mild and the viruses were short lived!!!!! YAY!!!  My chronic constipation (which I had dealt with from infancy) was no longer an issue.  My husband's back is stronger and he'd regularly throw out his back and be down for a week without being able to exercise or function normally.

My oldest started kindergarten after he'd been using these nutritional supplements for 6 months.  He'd never gone to daycare or preschool.  But (despite what nightmares I'd heard from other parents in a similar boat with their first in school catching every virus under the sun), he missed only 3 days due to sickness.  And none of those viruses lasted more than a couple of days.  Not to mention that he has not had ANY migraines since starting this nutritional supplement.

More recently my husband unexpectedly herniated a disk in his back, but was able to avoid surgery and healed in half the time the doctors predicted.

A bonus result that I never anticipated is that my life long skin allergy to nickel is gone.  Earrings I could not wear for more than a few hours without them itching and hurting I can actually wear over night. My husbands pretty happy about that.

I've also been able to help other people,like my mom, but that's a whole other blog.  Yeah, I know ...

This is only the tip of the ice burg as to what this nutritional supplement has helped people with. There are SO MANY people's stories I'd love for you to hear. They are INCREDIBLE!!  Allergies, asthma, back injuries, fibromyalgia, digestive issues, migraines, kidney failure, acid reflux, chronic sinus infections, tendinitis, arthritis, cancer, diabetes, etc.  This company does not claim to be a cure or to diagnose.  The real miracle is the human body and this is just its high quality fuel.  What I'm mentioning here are purely people's personal indisputable health results.

I'm more confident than ever that EVERYONE can benefit from taking these safe and all natural supplements. I'm not using the name of the product or company here because this blog is not connected directly to the company and I have not sought for approval to write this blog.  I'm sharing this information with you ... my story ... purely out of genuine excitement and passion.  If you are interested you can contact me through my business website  (Corinne Fanning Doughan) so that we can set up a time to teach you more.

 Let's change the face of Cold and Flu Season and the health of the world one person at a time together!  How about starting with you?

The "BOOGY MONSTER"!!

YIKES! I haven't blogged in awhile and things have changed on blogger. It's going to take me a bit to get used to it. I have a bunch more pictures and topics to blog about, but my time is really limited having 3 little ones at home (one of them being an infant who is still nursing). One of the topics I'd love to blog more about is the "schooling" we're doing at home. It's not officially homeschooling at this point, but it's been fun to do some structured things with the boys. This week the book we were reading was "Madeline" by Ludwig Bemelmans. It just so happened that on Thursday we were scheduled to talk about health (in the story Madeline gets her appendix taken out) and Micah also came down with a bad cold. It was a great opportunity to talk about hygiene as cold and flu season is just around the corner. Here is the visual lesson we did on spreading germs. The original lesson plan used cooking spray and glitter, but I didn't have glitter and I wasn't able to get out to buy it seeing as I had a crabby and sick child at home. So, I borrowed some green washable finger paint from my neighbor and I think it worked just the same. I put some clean objects on a tray.

Then I put GERMS (green finger paint) all over Jackson's hands. I figured Micah already had germs on his that he could keep for himself.

I had Micah leave the room and had Jackson touch several of the items. Micah then came back in and had to tell me which items had germs on them. I then asked Micah to pick up one of the objects with "germs" on it. He refused. (Perhaps that means he grasped the lesson a little). I picked up one of the objects to show how the germs then got on my hands.

We read a couple of books: "Germs Are Not For Sharing" by Elizabeth Verdick. There were a couple of other books on health that I found at our local library as well. We've also checked out this great book in the past: "Felicity Floo Visits the Zoo" by E.S. Redmond We colored signs to hang in the bathroom. The first one tells when to wash your hands and the other one tells you how to wash them.

Then later this week I found a project on Pinterst that we like to call "Boogy Monster Boxes" basically it's a discard box for used tissues with "boogies" in them. The boys had a blast, but ended up just wanting to play with the box instead of using it for it's intended purpose. Oh well.

Micah demonstrated how to use it once and then just played with it. :)

If only you could hear him saying "I LOVE BOOGIES!!!" in his monster voice.

Well ... gotta go feed the kiddos lunch and attend to my sick little baby. I'm hoping when they're all healthy again I'll have a few minutes to post some of the other fun things we've been up to lately.

Anora's 2 Month Check Up

She'll be 12 weeks old next week, so I thought I'd better get around to posting her 2 month check up... you can tell she's child #3!

Her 2 month stats:

Weight: 10lb 9oz (50%)
Height: 22 1/4 inches (50%)
HC: 38cm (40%)

She's got blue eyes so far and they seem to be getting lighter, so maybe they'll stay, but we won't know for several months yet. She's eating every 3 - 3 1/2 hours during the day and going 8 - 9 hours at night time.

It's a good thing she's been sleeping so well at night because her day time naps (up until about a week ago) were not going well at all. She'd sleep for 30 minutes to an hour and then wake up screaming. I'd usually get a few burps out, but then she'd have a hard time putting herself back to sleep.

We tried everything from propping her up for 30 minutes to an hour before we laid her down. Laying her on her side for naps. Letting her nap in the swing. Letting her nap in the wrap. What finally seems to be doing the trick is a combination of me cutting back on my dairy intake (I've been drinking almond milk instead of cow's milk) and consistently giving her Gripe Water and gas drops before her feedings. I also give another dose of gas drops right before I put her down for her naps. She can usually make it the full 1 1/2 to 2 hours for her naps, but sometimes wakes up early and I have to burp her, but then she'll go right back to sleep.

This past week we have been trying to give her a bottle more consistently as well. She seemed to take to the bottle really well around 6 weeks old, but then we didn't offer it enough for her to continue to take it, so it's been a challenge. In fact, Colin and I had a date night this past week to celebrate our anniversary and decided we needed to come back in the middle of it to nurse Anora, so that the babysitter didn't have to battle it out. I've given her a bottle once a day for the past three days and so far it gets better each time. I'm hoping that if we continue she'll be able to take the bottle easily for a babysitter in the future.

We had the chance to travel with Anora when we went to Colorado for a house hunting trip. She did great except for the fact that she does not like to nap in her car seat. Honestly she hadn't spent very much time in her car seat until then because we only have one car and I hardly get to use it because goes to work so early. I'm hoping she'll out grow that with age, but we'll see I guess.

Her personality is so sweet. She smiles with her whole body and loves to "talk" to anyone who will listen when she's awake. She has yet to giggle, but smiles all the time. She's such a doll. I love her curly little eyelashes ... we're all smitten with her and lover her more and more each day.

Big Brother Present

As I've been getting ready for our baby girl I've been preparing the house and the boys for being taken care of by church family while Colin and I are at the hospital.

One of the ideas I had was to wrap a present for the boys and put it out ahead of time and tell them they can open it when Mommy and Daddy go to the hospital.

I didn't want to spend a ton of money, but I wanted it to be a cool enough present that they would be distracted by it while we were away from them for a very short while.

As you know from my previous post, my boys love GeoTrax. I was able to to find THREE tunnels/bridges for the price of one on ebay the other day. I plan on giving one of them as a future present to their cousin in Iowa who shares the same passion for trains, but these two are wrapped and waiting for the day I go to the hospital to give birth to our little girl.




I really want to celebrate the life of our new little girl, but I also want to celebrate this new phase in the boys' life. Micah becoming a big brother for the very first time and Jackson taking another sibling under his wing.





Colin and I have been stressing the importance of their roles as big brothers to take care of their little sister. They are the princes and she is the princess. I believe they are up for the challenge and I can't wait to see what that looks like in reality.

Keeping Ourselves Busy

Here are a few things the boys and I have been keeping busy with lately:

Making Cards:
Ever since Valentine's Day and my birthday, Jackson has especially enjoyed making cards. Here's one he made with his babysitter for my birthday. I LOVE the picture of the two boys in it!!!



Here's the inside of a get well card Jackson made for his friend Patrick.


Inventions:
Jackson wants to be an inventor when he grows up. Here's one he made out of the "project bag" present I gave him for Christmas. It's Rodney Copper Bottom and Wonderbot from the movie "Robots." He assembled it all by himself.


Of course there are LOTS of Lego creations around here too and Jackson is getting REALLY good at coming up with some very creative designs ... he takes after his daddy!


Anything Musical:
Micah especially loves music. He walks around with his guitar and loves to sing songs. It isn't unusual to have pandora.com playing on my laptop throughout the day around the house.


"Animal Shelter"
It's a game both boys came up with that consists of getting out all of their stuffed animals and putting them in bed or on the couch with them. They pretend to take care of the animals ... Grandma Deb's got her genes in them for sure!



GeoTrax and Cars:
We got a few extra pieces of track for Christmas that allows for a bit more creativity and now the boys play trains almost every day. Jackson loves to build the track and Micah can watch the trains going around for hours ... well for a while anyay.



Getting Ready for a Sister:
Oh yeah ... and the boys have been getting ready for the arrival of their little sister. They are pretty excited to get to see her face to face and teach her all of the things they know and do everyday.

Lifeguarding Skills Applied to Parenting

No we did not have an incident at the pool that needed lifeguarding skills.

When I was in high school I worked as a lifeguard at the YMCA. One of their policies was to enforce rules with positive redirection. Instead of saying, "No running!" they encourage you to say, "Walk please!" Instead of "No diving!" say, "Feet first only!"

It took a little bit of getting used to, but it made complete sense, after all, "No running!" left open a variety of other options (skipping, sliding, dancing, jumping) and "Walk please!" was clear and to the point.

Positive redirection stayed with me and frankly kept me quite sane when I worked 40+ hours at my daycare job and now as a parent. I think it may have saved me from having 15 2 -3 year olds screaming "NO!" at me all day long because they were mimicking me. Here are a few phrases I've learned to switch in my daily interaction with my kids:

"No whining!" - "Happy heart please!"
"No hitting!" - "Be loving please!"
"No yelling!" - "Inside voice please!"

Even saying "No thank you" instead of "No!" I think has helped my kids minimize their "NO!" stage in life (notice I said "minimize").

I've been surprised by this lifeguarding skill's most recent application. As my boys get to the age where they are playing together instead of just next to each other I often hear:

"STOP! STOP! STOP!"
"NO!"
(SCREAM)
"DON'T, DON'T, DON'T"
"I HAD THAT FIRST!"



There have been many opportunities to teach both my four year old and two year old the old lesson "you can catch more flies with honey than you can with vinegar." They're still learning, but everyday it seems to get better as they realize that yelling at each other is extremely unproductive.

Jackson is learning to tell Micah what he wants instead of yelling about what he doesn't want him to do. Instead of, "Micah, don't do that!" I'm hearing "Micah how about you play with this toy instead of taking mine away?"

Christmas Letter 2010 by Colin

Click on the image below twice to enlarge and read:

Disneyland & Ridemax Review

We don't normally do huge, extravagant and eventful things to celebrate a birthday, BUUUUT ... This past August when Colin's parents were out here visiting we planned a trip to Disneyland.

However, Micah got sick with Roseolla and had high fevers off and on and the temperature was supposed to be in the hundreds, so I was planning on staying home with him. I got online the day Colin, Jackson and his parents were heading out for L.A. and bought 1 child and 3 adult tickets to Disneyland.

Minutes after I printed them out Colin's dad hurt his back somethin' fierce and we all ended up staying home. Instead of a wonderful and memorable trip to Disneyland, my in-laws got a wonderful and memorable trip to the local chiropractor.

Of course time with family is still precious time with family whether you're at Disneyland or not and we made the most of it. But, the tickets are non-refundable.

So, our next trip down to L.A. was planned for Micah's birthday and that's why we decided to go to Disneyland then. We had one extra adult ticket, so we invited my sister and her husband along too. It was a special time seeing as our families won't be geographically close for much longer. (Side note: we'll be staying in California until this coming summer. I'm hoping our little girl will be around 3 months old when we move ... or at least sleeping through the night.)

Anyway, while I was planning the trip to Disneyland in August I knew that it was going to be crowded (1. because it was the last weekend before school started and 2. we were going on a Saturday) and I began researching tips on making the most of your Disneyland trip. That's when I came across Ridemax (a download-able software program that helps you make an itinerary for your Disneyland and/or Disney World trip so that you avoid long lines, most large crowds and spending an exuberant amount of money). I want to say it was about $15.00 for a 90 day software download and I think it was well worth it.

Although we ended up going on a day when it was not very crowded at all (it being the Friday after Halloween weekend) the tips from Ridemax were still very helpful. We arrived at the park around 9:30am and left a little before 8pm. Even with a 2 year old, a 4 year old and two pregnant ladies we were able to hit at least half a dozen rides (if not more), see the parade and a show. All at a somewhat leisurely pace with plenty of potty breaks and time to sit and eat our meals.

Anyway, enough of the commercial ... I promise Ridemax didn't pay me anything to mention them in my blog ... here are a few pictures from our trip:




Ridemax recommended doing either the "Nemo" ride or "Peter Pan" but not both because they tend to have the longest lines and they recommended riding them first. It was our longest wait in line (about 20 minutes)all day.


The armada of strollers outside of "Peter Pan."


Micah loved all of the rides (with the exception of "Winnie the Pooh"). Here we're on "Casey Jr. Circus Train."




Oh yeah! I forgot to mention above that we were first in line to see Winnie the Pooh, Tigger and Eeyore and it wasn't even a part of my itinerary ... extra BONUS and the boys LOVED it!!!



Jackson steered the whole way on "Autopia."


We planned "Tom Sawyer's Island" during Micah's nap time because we knew all of the walking may put him to sleep. SUCCESS!



"Tom Sawyer's Island" was definitely one of Jackson's favorite places. So many things to explore including caves. He was very adventurous! However, if he was at all apprehensive about a dark cave he'd say, "Dad, can you go in there and check it out?" As soon as Colin gave the all clear sign he was off to the races.




The two times we've been to Disneyland we've always gotten Mickey ice cream bars, so it's sort of become a tradition.


We didn't have the best seats in the house for the parade, but that was by choice and we didn't have to stand behind anyone either. The boys loved all of the music and dancing.



If you ask the boys what their favorite ride was that we went on they'd say "Buzz Lighyear," hands down. It had a laser gun you could use to shoot Zurg and all of the aliens and it had a joy-stick for moving the car around in circles. Even though it was near the parade route and the parade had just ended so there were crowds headed toward the line we used FAST PASSES to get through the line in about 7 minutes.


Here's the birthday boy at Grandma and Grandpa K's house. Notice the Mickey Mouse cake pop. ;)