almost 2 . . .

I can't believe Kaiden's gonna be two soon!  How did THAT happen??

In the last couple days, he's really been working hard on figuring out where to put his feet/legs to stand up.  He still needs assistance; I hold out my hands, he lifts his arms, I give him minimal support under his arms - just to steady him, not to pick him up.  Then he stands!  And once he's standing, we give him our fingers to hold onto and while we walk backward, he takes steps forward!  He's making so much progress . . . he has nodded yes appropriately a few times and I *think* he's trying to repeat some simple words, like "hi".  But the giggles . . . after those 8 long seizure filled months, the giggles are just the BEST to hear!!

I think Kaiden's got a sensitivity to horseradish.  Outside of a food source, horseradish is commonly used to alleviate swelling . . . and in individuals sensitive to it, for most of them the reaction is for their throat/tongue to swell up.  However, in Kaiden, his little fingers swell up.  The first time it happened, I did not connect it with food.  One of his pinky fingers swelled up a little, but not too bad.  I thought he banged it on something, and in a few days it cleared up.  The second time, his pinky and middle fingers swelled up, and then a few days later, those fingers were worse and the back of his hand swelled up.  We went through the list of possibilities - thyroid disorder (no other symptoms), blood disorder (no other symptoms), staph infection (possible, so I treated him for it with grapefruit seed extract which has been proven to kill staph), or allergic reaction.  When the GSE didn't do anything (and it didn't get any worse) I went to allergic reaction and looked at his environment, then his diet.  And it made sense . . . the first time I made the dish (pork roast with a horseradish/currant sauce - totally yummy!!!!) the horseradish was old, and I cooked it further.  It was about the same time frame as the first pinky swelling.  The next time I made the dish, I used fresh horseradish and didn't cook it, and it was that night his fingers swelled.  Two days later, he had the leftovers and the next day is when we noticed the back of his hand was now swollen. 

He wasn't in any pain; he used the fingers just like he normally would.  Skin color remained good, finger temperature remained good.  I kept checking for edema, but there wasn't any.  It's now been one week since he last ate horseradish . . . the swelling is going down and the bruising (from burst capillaries) has come in.  It looks terrible!  But, he's still not showing any signs of pain and has been giggling quite a lot these last few days so I'm betting he feels just fine.

To make absolutely sure it was the horseradish, I probably should try it once more . . . but I will cook that darn horseradish almost to death first before he eats it.  If his fingers are going to swell, I want as little discomfort as possible.  Dang . . . that was one tasty dish too.  So simple, just pork roast, and the sauce was currants and chopped horseradish.  Made for a delicious sweet/sour dish.  If you cook the sauce, you lose the sweetness from the currants, which is why I made it raw last time (having learned the first time, tasting it before and after cooking).

Now on to pumping . . . yes, I'm still doing it!  2 years of pumping milk.  The last time I calculated - last spring sometime . . . I estimated I'd produced approximately 95 gallons.  I should do the calculations again and see what I'm up to now!  I didn't make my latest goal though.  I wanted him on my milk for 3 meals per day until he turned two.  I almost made it . . . had to cut out one meal a month early.  Emotional stress will decrease the milk supply and it is difficult to get back unless you really want to work at it.  Being so close to my goal, I let it go.  He's okay with it.  I use his lunch as his one meal with juice or water and it's been a good opportunity to get him to try out different sippy cups.  I want to move him to a straw cup, but the only one I've found I like valve-wise, the stem of the straw stops about an inch from the bottom of the cup!  What a waste of liquid!  Somebody in the design department wasn't too bright there.

I'd like to go another 6 months with him having milk twice per day - but he doesn't always want it at breakfast so it will be easy to cut that one out.  I'm really letting him decide.  He's very particular about the amount of milk he wants to drink anyway!  He will only take 1 oz at breakfast, and 2 oz at supper.  When he had it for lunch too, he would only take 1.25 oz.  That doesn't look like a lot of liquid during the day . . . he does drink water in the evenings and at night, but you have to remember that he gets most of his liquid intake from his food.  And since there is no grain soaking it all up, he gets what he needs.

Two years down . . . one to go . . . hopefully my supply will be able to keep up with what I want him to have.  My goal - at three years, I shut off the tap and he gets frozen until it's gone, which should last about 6 months.  I wanted to follow (from Jean M. Auel's Earth Children series of books) the neolithic era - birth year, nursing year, walking year, weaning year - which would put a child at about 3.5 years old to be done with breastmilk.  I bet all the doctors would tell me that exclusively pumping for 2 years is impossible . . . let alone 3!  Me & Kaiden, proving the western medical industry wrong day after day!