Picnic Day

I have been out of commission lately and I sincerely apologize to all my readers for slacking. Last week, I had come down with a stomach flu. I was pretty useless for a total of 5 days, having to be within 15 feet of a bathroom for the duration, and had to have my mom take over Lucy duties for almost 3 days. I did, however, continue to breastfeed Lucy through my flu and I truly believe that breastfeeding was the sole reason why she never got sick! My mom ended up getting a milder version of my flu but Lucy came out unscathed! Hooray for mommy's milk!

Lucy is doing incredibly well these days. Her health is good despite a snotty nose that I blame on the dry air in our house in combination with the cold air outside. We placed a humidifier upstairs to help with the moisture while we sleep but our noses don't seem to get any moister! Lucy is currently getting in a second molar, her 2 year molars, which can make for a grumpy toddler that bites her fingers when her mouth hurts.

She seems to be doing well since the switch from the Creon enzyme to the Pancreasacrb enzyme. Because I was sick, I was not able to get her to her dietician weight check-up last week but I am certain that things in the weight gain department are beginning to look up. The symptoms that she was having with her stomach seemed to have lessened. I don't think the bloating and smelly, bulky, greasy stools will ever go away completely but the medication switch and adding probiotics to her diet have seemed to help. She doesn't "go" as often anymore, she is not as bloated and they are not as greasy as they were. She also has not complained of her "tummy hurting" since we did the switch.



Now get this, just because the poop situation has gotten a little better as of late doesn't make me any less excited to get that girl on the toilet! If I never have to change another CF diaper again...



Lucy's appetite has been very good lately, too. She must be going through a growth spurt again because she can eat a lot in one sitting. She has become really good at telling me when she needs a snack and tells me exactly what she wants to eat. I have become a professional sandwich maker... she likes ham and cheese with extra mayo and mustard. I am now a short order cook and will make anything she asks for even if it is at midnight. A CF mama never denies her child food no matter the time.



Here are a couple of cute pictures we took this afternoon when Lucy insisted that she have a picnic on the floor of the living room. She sat on her pink Cinderella couch and ate her lunch, occasionally giving Elmo a bite!

Decked The Halls

This evening we finished up with our holiday decorating around the house. We put up my mom's super fake fir with the white lights already installed for "easy" decorating. I think "easy" is a little white Christmas lie brought to you by plastic tree makers. It is so much easier to throw a real tree into a stand with some water than it was putting this plastic tree together. I do think the fake tree looks a lot prettier and by prettier I mean more evenly covered with branches, no spaces or holes that need to be covered or rotated to the back by the wall.

I really do like the experience and childhood memories of having a real Charlie Brown, unique tree in my living room with all it's imperfections. The experience of going up to the Sierra Nevada's with the whole family and hiking all day with a thermos of cocoa and hot turkey soup to find the most perfect imperfect evergreen we could find, cut it down with our rusty hand saw, drag it to the car and realize that we have no idea if it will fit into the car, shove it in the car oh-so-gently without breaking a single branch, get it home and set it in the garage for at least a week in a bucket of water until we actually have time to get it set up in the living room, finally get it set up, cover it in strings of lights that may or may not light up, rotate the tree so the bare spot is toward the back and place strategically all the ornaments we have. Then it's 3, 2, 1, Oh Tennenbaum!

After all was said and done tonight, the decorating was finished with only one broken glass ornament. Lucy, my mom and I had a wonderful evening trimming our beautiful fake fir. We listened to Christmas music on the radio and Lucy helped trim her very first tree (last year we didn't have one, Bah Humbug) and topped the tree herself with a star. Whether we have a fake fir or a true timber was really beside the point of this evening. We three ladies created a memory together that will last a lifetime.

Lucy helps place the red beaded garland on the tree. What a good helper.

Our new found "two finger" trick works with everything fragile and in grocery stores. She uses two fingers when she wants to touch something. This allows her free reign, most of the time, to touch anything without my fear of the item breaking unless, of course, she is using her two fingers in a stabbing, jabbing, jousting motion just to knock the item over, then the trick is deemed useless.

This photo turned out blurry but it really shows her true character. I had her stand on the coffee table so I could get most of the tree in the picture. She says cheese so cheesily!

Last but not least is a little video filled with Lucy's own holiday cheer. She sings, she screams and she owns it!

Enzymes For Breakfast

Here a video we made this morning of Lucy's breakfast routine. She takes 6 enzymes to aid in the digestion of her pancakes and sausage, a chewable vitamin made especially for CF kids that are usually deficient in vitamins A, D, E and K and a probiotic (same live culture found in yogurt but in higher doses) that helps with her overall stomach health.

With reminders not to use her teeth, she is able to take all her pills and swallow them whole. I was nervous when we switched her from the Creon enzyme to the Pancreacarb. The Pancreacarb is slightly larger than the Creon pills that we have grown to know and love in the last year and a half but Lucy was able to swallow the new Pancreacarb pills without a problem. I was dreading the day that we might have to go back to opening every single pill into applesauce!

Along with the taking of enzymes, a vitamin and a probiotic you will also see a little Lucy CF cough, a little Lucy sneeze, the ABC song with a mouthful of pancake and a botched version of Twinkle Little Star.