Embracing Fall

Evelyn and a giant pile of leaves were just made for each other. 

She declared it to be snowing.

You can make a complete mess of them.  Go into full-on destruction mode...and that's the objective of leaf pile play.  

Fits her perfectly. 

Annie was all about the leaves too. 

We'll call this sisterly love.  Evelyn called it a hat.

 

Abraham even got in on it.  He was clearly thrilled.  He tried to eat the leaves which the girls found hilarious. 

Oh my little chickens.  I love you all so much.  Now stop making mommy crazy, okay?

Negative

Thank you to all who prayed with us, cried with us, spoke truth into our lives, and walked this road alongside us. 

Abraham's doctor called this morning to say his test results came back negative.  They were perfect.  He's healthy.

Tears of relief flowed.  We are so thankful for our beautiful son and were preparing our hearts to walk a hard road with him.  We don't know what his future holds, but we rejoice knowing that Schwachman-Diamond, or any other pancreatic disorder, does not appear to be part of it. 

Take This Cup, Please?

I've been vacant from this space for a while, and it's because I just haven't known how to explain the current place we are in right now.  Here's the facts of the last few weeks.

When Abraham was readmitted to the hospital after being discharged the first time, he had a whole workup done of labs to figure out why the redness was returning to his rash.  After ruling out antibiotic resistant staph, it was found that he had a zinc deficiency.  Easily treatable.  It was also found that he had fat in his stool, but that could be explained away by the antibiotics he was on at the time.  We were told to repeat the test in a month and all would probably be fine.

We got a call last week though that they weren't fine.  In fact, they were not fine enough that we needed to meet with a gastroenterologist. 

We went to the appointment last Thursday.  The doctor (whom I really like), threw out two possible causes.  Neither were good.  One was Cystic Fibrosis - which he tested negative for on Monday.  The other was Shwachman-Diamond Syndrome.  He fits several of the symptoms including fat in his stool, not growing in length (he's not even a percentile right now), having a low white blood cell count, and being prone to bacterial infections and skin infections.  So he had x-rays done of all his bones and we are waiting on more stool sample tests to come back.  We won't hear back until next Monday.  A loooong 6 days from now. 

Our emotional state varies greatly.  We've both had several full-on break downs over this.  Most the time we just feel like we're getting by.  I don't even know how to pray right now, but have found much comfort in listening to hymns. 

The one prayer we keep repeating is one that mirrors what Christ prayed in the garden preceding his death. 

Lord, please take this cup from us.  We don't want to drink it.  It's bitter.  It's hard.  It feels like too much to bear.  Not our will though Father, but yours be done. 

Evelyn: 4

 Evelyn turned 4 at the end of September, and it was one big, pink, sparkly princess kind of day. 

My oldest is really growing up.  She's leaving toddlerhood behind and becoming quite the little girl.

She requested pancakes with berry sauce for breakfast.  Peanut butter and jelly for lunch.  And bacon wrapped dates, cold chicken bones, and french fries for supper.

A strawberry cake with a crown on top was also requested. 


I asked her the same set of questions I asked her last year with a few new ones at the end. 

Who is your best friend?  Pela

What is your favorite color? Pink

What is your favorite animal? cheetah (not sure why she said that, it's usually horses and elephants)

What is your favorite thing to do?  playing at the park

What is your favorite thing to wear?  my dandelion dress (although I would argue that she prefers pajamas or her swimsuit as that is what she is in most days)

What is your favorite food?  hot dogs

What is your favorite TV show?  Calliou and Angelina Ballerina

What is your favorite thing to do in Iowa?  play with Max

What is your favorite thing to do with daddy?  go to work with him

What is your favorite thing to do with mommy?  take care of Abraham

What do you want to be when you grow up?  doctor

What should I tell people about you on my blog?   That I like flowers.  And rainbows.  And bracelets.

She was able to blow out her own candles for the first time ever!  Yay for speech therapy and overcoming some of her fine motor mouth difficulties.  I teared up.  Over candles.  She's pretty special.

A few other favorites in her life are Strawberry Shortcake, unicorns, puzzles, riding her bike, doing crafts, pretending she's a princess, and writing letters to daddy.  She will color a picture and then dictate the words to me.  My favorite one is on the fridge and says this:

Dear Daddy,

I love your for shorts.  For porch.

Like bracelets, I love you.

But I don't know what.

Love, Evelyn

We  love you for shorts too, Evelyn.

Abraham: 3 Months

I never got a two month post up for sweet babes because this was happening.  But, he's healthy now!

So here we go.  3 months.

You've almost reached 12 pounds little peanut.

You still love being worn by mom above all else.  Although eating comes in a close second. 

You hold yourself up on your tummy really well.

You giggle, and I completely turn to mush inside. 

Smiles are pretty easy to come by.

Sleep, however, is not quite as easy.  You are king of the 45 minute nap silly boy.  You're only up 2-3 times a night after a long stretch of sleep at the beginning.  You still prefer to swaddled. 

I love you more than I thought possible.  You fit so beautifully into our family that I can't imagine my days without you.

When We Weren't Dealing With Staph and Zinc

...summer happened.  Here's a glance back at all things non-illness that happened over the last few months.

Scott started doing date night with the girls.  It's a big hit.

These two became really good buddies.  They have a really amazing bond.

We went to Iowa and Abraham got to meet some more family.

We managed to get all of our children, niece, and nephews all in one photo.

This one turned two.

We hosted lots of get togethers.

Learned how unexciting it is to travel with three children in the car for hours.

Visited the KC acquarium.

Some lovely friends hosted a baby shower for me.  Much appreciated.

Four generations of Behrens men got into one photo.

We went to Adventureland.

Annie learned she doesn't like rides in general, particularly water ones.

Abraham discovered that there are animals above his head in his swing.

We managed to have a date night.

We figured out how to get us all dressed and out the door for church and I got to dress Abraham like his daddy.

The girls started sharing a bed and room and therefore started getting up REALLY early.

This beautiful girl turned four!

She got her first two-wheeler.

And convinced mommy to drop her prior non-Disney princess house convictions.

We will miss summer, but I will try to embrace my sweaters. 

End of Summer Pie

I mourn the end of summer.  While I really do enjoy fall weather, as the air turns colder that means winter is on it's way and there's really nothing about winter I like.  Except Christmas.

In fact, we've clung to summer so much that one cool morning when the girls wanted to swim in the pool, I warmed up stock pots full of water to pour in so that we could get one more use out of it.

So as a new way to refuse to accept the end of summer, I bring you gluten-free Key Lime Pie.  Delish.  It's gluten-free, but not healthy.  You can pretend it is though when you realize you've eaten half of it in one sitting.

Unfortunately I have no photos of it to share with you.  Blog fail.

Key Lime Pie

Crust:
1 box Smoreables gluten-free graham crackers
1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup sugar

Filling:
 2 cans sweetened condensed milk
1/2 cup sour cream
3/4 cup key lime juice

Topping:
cream
sugar

Directions:

1) In your food processor, turn those graham crackers into crumbs.  Combine with sugar and butter and press into a pie plate.  Bake for 5 min. at 350.

2) Whisk together filling ingredients.  Pour into baked crust.  Bake for 8-9 minutes at 350.  No longer!  You don't want browning.  You just want to set the filling.

3) With your mixer (or if you have arms of steel with a whisk), beat the cream and sugar until you get it nice and fluffy.  This is not an exact science.  If you like just a little whipped cream on each piece, don't make much.  If you like to slather the top of your pie, plan accordingly.  Some like their whipped cream sweeter than others, just keep adding sugar and taste testing until it's how you like it.

4) Chill in the fridge for 6 hours.

Voila.

That's really it.  Super easy and amazingly delicious.

Looking for more pie inspiration?  My friend Leslie is an amazing baker and has a pie blog.  She lives down the street from me so I get to sample these delights.  I'm getting chubbier just thinking about it.