Wow, am I a craptastic blogger, or what? So much has happened in the past two months I'm not even sure where I should begin the update! I guess I will go from oldest to youngest which would start with me!
What have I been up to? I have been working my usual two days a week in the office, helping with getting our house ready for the market (hopefully this weekend, but then again I've said that for several weeks now!), attempting to sleep for more than three hours per night, and baking a baby. Simply put, I am completely and utterly exhausted. All I want for Christmas is a weekend away in a hotel room alone and I can guarantee my butt would not leave the bed for two days. I would order takeout, watch cable tv, and nap at my leisure. Somehow, I don't think Santa will be delivering that. Oh well.
I have also been doing a lot of reading in preparation for my upcoming birth. I am very excited to have this baby, even though I am very nervous about the early days (weeks? months??) adjusting to three kids.
What has Ryan been up to? Working, snoring, procrastinating, creating messes, cultivating his underwear farm. You know, same ol', same ol'. Do I sound hormonal? Sorry 'bout that, can't be helped. On a positive note, he was recognized at work today for having the highest customer satisfaction scores in the local branch! That certainly can't hurt at his annual review next month!
What has Tucker been up to? We have been having quite a hard time with Tucker's behavior lately. He had been throwing tantrums that were downright concerning. They were much like a night terror, a vacant look in his eyes, inability to communicate other than screaming, crying, and jumping around flapping his hands (thoughts of autism surfaced a couple of times), triggered by nothing in particular, and over randomly at the blink of an eye. When the tantrums would end, he was always remorseful and would apologize for throwing a fit but he could never communicate what was wrong or why he was doing it. My heart was breaking. We had tried every method we could think of: ignoring, spanking, being calm and gentle, being firm and strict. Nothing worked, nothing. And sometimes they happened a few times per day, lasting an hour long on average. I was reduced to tears on many occasions...completely exhausted, wondering if something was mentally wrong with him, wishing I could figure it out, wanting to help him deal with his emotions, etc. We had discussed taking him to a play therapist, as we were at a complete loss on what to do next.
I had always been fairly careful with the foods I feed my children. I'm not perfect, certainly not all organic, but I am probably more picky and diligent than your average mom. It suddenly occurred to me that my parents had taken the kids to the Rose Hill Fall Festival in early October and they each got some candy at the parade. I had been allowing them to choose one piece per day (like the equivalent of a DumDum sucker, so we are talking about a minimal amount). At first I thought perhaps the sugar was a factor but when I really thought about that possibility, it didn't seem to fit because the small amount of sugar they were getting should not cause outbursts like he was having. And then the light bulb went off. FOOD DYES!!!
I decided that day, which happened to be Halloween, to take him off any foods that contained any artificial food dyes. That meant no trick-or-treating. He had already lost that privilege earlier in the day from throwing a couple of these "fits". We still let him dress up and go to see his Great Grandmas, but he was not allowed to eat any candy. I honestly felt terrible about the punishment I chose but it was not hard on him at all. He still got to play and dress up and the no candy rule didn't seem to negatively affect him at all.
As the week progressed, I noticed a dramatic improvement but was afraid I was jumping the gun and wanted to make sure it wasn't wishful thinking. By the time Friday rolled around, it was 1,000% clear to me food dyes were causing his behavior issues. My father-in-law, without knowing we made dietary changes, asked if we had medicated him...he was that different! My sweet boy was back! His happy moods are even different now! It makes me so sad that he truly didn't know why he was acting that way and that we had been disciplining him for it. It also makes me sad to think of all of the kiddos out there who are labeled "bad kids" or are even medicated when such a simple dietary change could alleviate their symptoms.
Is Tucker fit-free now? Puh-lease! He is 3, there are still tantrums but he is not going into psycho mode. He is easy to calm now and can be talked through his emotions without drama. I could cry (I am noticing a hormonal theme here with this post) I am so happy that we seem to have found our answer.
What has Chloe been up to? Being a stinker! A cute stinker! Chloe is on the verge of potty training. Actually, I think she's been ready for a while but with all that's been going on, I haven't had the opportunity to commit to being home bound to get-r-done properly. She has started taking her jammies and diaper off at night when she potties in her diaper so I have resorted to backward facing jammies for now and no more water close to bedtime.
Whew! That was a lot! I will try harder to post updates so I don't get so behind!
