Looks Good in Polka Dots

LITTLE CRITTER (K4)

  K3 OUR GFCF GIRL

 K2 CURRENTLY KNOWN AS THE TOOTHLESS GIRL

K1- THE FROGGER

 WATCH OUT ABOVE!  THAT’S A 1000 GALLOONS OF WATER!

“I making you cooooooooooooofffeeeeeeeeeeee… mmmmmm.  With milk in it… no suga Mummy… I have no suga… so you get no suga… just milk in yu cooooffffeeeeeeeee.  Oh no… I have to stir more, not ready yet… okay you drink coofffeee now Mummy.  Yu like?   I like coooooooooffffeeeeee.”

Little Critter while sitting in Daddy’s recliner today with her pink plastic cup and spoon.

We give K3 four capsules of Nordic Naturals DHA Jr. every. single. day.   I have been awe struck by the changes I see in her.  At Church on Good Friday, she stood patiently in line… not freaking out or jumping all over.  She was one of the calmest children there.  This is not the child I know! 

A couple of days later, we forgot her DHA Jr. and it was painfully obvious.  That was a day when K3 couldn’t hear anything we said to her, she couldn’t focus and was all over the place. 

Maybe its just a fluke… but Oregon Dad and I both really feel this is helping!  K3 is well withing the “normal” range for a nearly six year old.  We will not be deviating from the her supplementation or from her diet. 

We have increased her calcium supplements to 4 a day (equal to 10 oz of milk) because I recently read that calcium from fortified sources (like rice or soy milk, oj, etc… ) is absorbed at only 75% of cows milk.  We definitely want to make sure her little bones are getting enough to stay strong.  We have also added a fruit and veggie supplement.  The kids only get 1 (1/2 a serving) a day… because they eat a well balanced diet, but we figure a little extra veggies never hurt anyone.

Of course, K2 eats her veggies without a complaint, but she was tossing her fruit and veggie bears out with the trash until we put a stop to it… Go figure!

Since I have been home with the crew fulltime, it has come to my attention that food seems to make Little Critter sick.  Our daycare provider had told me of a couple occassions when she randomly threw up, for no apparent reason.  She always is hungry and chants, “my tummy huuuuuuuuuuuuurts” about 50 times a day.  Now that I spend all my time with her, it is obvious that something is going on in her little body.  The first thing I did was take her completely off dairy… to see if that would make a difference.  Two weeks without dairy didn’t seem to affect the tummy aches, straining to go to the bathroom alternating with loose stools and constant “I’m hungry” cries.   Everything I have read about Celiac indicates that the tests are not reliable in kiddos under five… and heck, the first time K3 was tested at less than a year old she was negative.  So, for now I have opted to not test Little Critter and put her on  the diet to see how things go.  We started the GFCF diet on Monday and so far I think things are looking up.  I am hearing a lot less about tummy aches and she isn’t constantly asking for food.  I will give the diet a couple weeks, then put her back on a regular diet to see what happens.   Little Critter is a small child, coming in at the 5th percentile during her 3 year check up.  The Doctor said she is destined to be about 5 foot tall and she is definitely my smallest child… although all the kids are on the small side.  She didn’t go through a failure to thrive period like K3 did, but we also didn’t see signs of celiac or food intolerances until the last several months.  I believe that K3’s disease was set off during her VERY traumatic birth.   Little Critter came into the world via a peaceful c-section (because of the seriousness of my previous deliveries).  She has had some recent stressors in her life that seemed to correlate to when her symptoms began… like going from being at home with Grandma’s to starting a daycare.   For now, we are taking it one day at a time… but I am pretty confident we are on the right track.  And maybe its just me… but she seems a little less MANIC about everything since we changed her diet. 

A few weeks ago, Oregon Dad and I were taken in awe as we saw an advertisement on TV for The Great Wolf Lodge at Grand Mound, Washington.  It looked like such a blast and was only a couple hours away.  We rushed to visit the website and booked our 2 night/3 day visit for Spring Break. 

It was fabulously fun.  K2 on our first day there proclaimed, “This is the best day of my life!”.  Everyone is in agreement that this fun, family resort was tops in our book.

What you find:  a large resort with 8 floors of rooms with family friendly themes such as “Kids Camp”, “Kids Cabin” and “Wolf Den”.  We booked our family of 7 into the Kids Cabin Suite (it was one of the few that allowed 7 people).  Upon arrival, we gazed around us in awe at the large structure, giant wolves and… brightly colored water slides.   This resort houses a 60,000 square foot INDOOR water park (even better considering it snowed during our visit).

Our room was nice and quite family friendly.  When entering the Suite, we found a small closet to the right and bathroom to the left.  Just past the closet was the sink/vanity area and across from that was the “cabin”.  The cabin looks like a log cabin with two little cut out windows and a  door, on the inside there is a set of bunk beds and a daybed, a 15 inch flat screen TV and a small table.  The kids went beserk and started climbing all over the bunk and hanging out the windows.  It was a hit.

The main room was separated from the cabin by a full wall, we had a comfy queen size bed, a hide a bed couch, table w/ two chairs, a gas fireplace and a counter with a larger TV, microwave and small refrigerator. 

Our suite wasn’t small, but it wasn’t large.  There is a lot of “stuff” crammed into the space, but it was layed out quite well and functioned nicely for our family of seven.

What was missing?  A hang up area for all those wet swimsuits.  Seriously, its an indoor water park and we are in and out of our suits several times a day.  Having a nice place to hang them up to dry would be awesome.  Even better, a mini dryer in the room for those suits.   The bathroom was small, having limited space for a tub and toilet.  A little more space would be nice since our big family needed separate changing areas for boys and girls. 

The water park consisted of a large wave pool (the kids favorite), another pool for shooting hoops and walking on lilly pads, a giant water “fort”, a young kids pool, several large water slides and THE HOWLIN TORNADO.

I braved the Tornado once… Oregon Dad twice and TeenGirl… well she couldn’t get enough and hit 11 times over our 3 day visit.  This giant water “slide” is not for the faint of heart, or the small in stature.  Kiddos that didn’t meet the 48 inch height requirement where sent sloshing back down the stairs (and there were A LOT of stairs).  Of the little kids, K1 is the only one who wanted to do the Tornado and he braved it twice.

Fort MacKenzie was a hoot, although our KENZIE took a sliding fall when heading into the fort within the first few minutes of our visit.  She slid across the floor, scratching up her elbow, bootie and back all in one swoop.  She was upset for most of the day and didn’t want to do a whole lot. (Normally, she is our brave one who wants to do everything).  The floor is rough (in an attempt to prevent falls) and takes a real toll on feet and any other, unlucky body part that comes in contact with it.   Water Shoes are recommended.   The fort is tall, topped with a bucket containing 1,000 galloons of water that topples over and drenches everyone in its path every few minutes.  For the younger and brave crew, there are two water slides that come off Fort MacKenzie (big enough to entertain Mum and Dad).  These slides do not land in a pool, rather just several inches of water at the base so this is a great play area for less experienced swimmers.  (No life jackets required).

Most of my time was spent in the little kids play area with the younger two.  Little Critter is absolutely fearless and went like a mad-baby.  The toddler area (Bear Track Landing) is large, going from 6 inches to 1 foot 6 inches in depth.  The water felt warmer than in the other areas of the park.  It contains four “jet skis” which little ones can climb on and hose each other down with the water spray.  Everytime I stood by my Little Critter on these things… the boys on the other side always thought it was great fun to spray the Mom instead of the other kids.   The view is obscured by a large play structure in the middle of the kiddie area… it is  (much) smaller version of Fort MacKenzie.  On the other side, a banana boat, turnstiles that spray water and a kiddie sized water slide.  I would have loved to be able to sit in one spot and keep my eyes on the kiddos, but because of the layout I spent the entire time traipsing after them from side to side. 

The bigger kids kept Oregon Dad occuppied in the wave pool.  I don’t know what it is about a pool of splasing waves, perhaps its the inner surfer in all of us… but K1 and K2 wanted to spend the majority of their time in the wave pool.   It is a standard wave pool, going from nothing to 5 foot at its deepest point. The waves are on for 15 minutes or so and then take a break before starting up again.   Kids and adults alike float along on single or double clear inner tubes.  I REALLY like that the tubes are clear as in my mind, that makes it easier to see the kid stuck under the water.  (Paranoid Mommy).

We only ventured to the other pool on one occassion, the two big kids bobbed around shooting hoops.  There is also a string of floating lilly pads that one can attempt to cross while holding onto a rope ladder above and a couple floating animals to climb upon. 

There were plenty of lifeguards about… always several in sight to answer questions.  They are very noticeable in their bright red shorts and white tee’s. 

Everyone we encountered during the stay was very friendly.  Walking the halls we encountered the cleaning crew and everyone said hi and asked the kids if they were having fun.  The restaurant staff was very helpful in going over ingredients and menus for our special diets.  The lifeguards were helpful in bandaging up K3’s scrapes (because a band-aide always makes it better).  The cleaning crew was in and out of our room with rapid speed, leaving plenty of clean towels (this is VASTLY important).

Some really cool things about The Great Wolf Lodge… we all were given plastic wristbands upon arrival.  We had to keep them on during our whole stay as without them we wouldn’t be able to get in the waterpark.  Mom and Dad’s bands had the capability to open our room door (NO KEYS to carry around!) and could be pre-loaded with money to pay for things (we had the option of giving the kids these bands as well, when they are older we will and give them spending money on the bands for things like the GR8 Space, snacks and arcade).   The free Wolf Walk in the morning and Story Time in the evenings.  Cub Club (which isn’t cheap!) provides fun crafts so the kiddos can take home a special souvenir.

We will definitely be going back… even at nearly $400 a night, this was well worth it.  We have checked out rates through the rest of the year and discovered that they are lowest during the summer.  I guess that makes sense as the need for an indoor water park isn’t as high during our warm months.

Some things I would love to see… a young kids daycare center.  Being able to check Little Critter in for a couple hours would have freed me up to spend more time with the big kids and Hubby instead of constantly looking out for a wild toddler who gets cranky with long days of play.  I would love to see a  play place that would allow us to check in the under 5 year old set… even if it had a 2 or 3 hour a day limit!  I would also love to see an indoor playground.  Sometimes the water is too much (at least for Mommy) and I would have loved to let the younger ones roam in a dry play area while the bigger kids continued to splash and swim.   A real adult bar/evening hang out.  A lot of families, like ours had children old enough to stay in the room once everyone was down for the night.  We would love if there was a bar for us to go relax in after a day full of kid busy!  Oregon Dad did make it to the Elements Spa for a relaxing massage on day two.  I was in dire need of a spa pedicure, but we didn’t think ahead and the spa was booked! 

Now the question lies in when we will visit again… and if we will take the whole crew or only the bigger kids.  I am also pondering allowing TeenGirl to invite a girlfriend or two for her birthday.  We would probably just do 1 night/2 days… but it would be lots of fun for her.  She had a blast this time even though she didn’t have anyone her age to play with.

Oh… and did I mention… there was NO GOOD COFFEE to be found.  I was in withdrawal for our entire stay.  The cafe boasted basic coffee/mochas… but their syrups where limited to three flavors and their espresso supply was limited to what a machine pre-made for them…. Thanks but NO Thanks (makes it a bit difficult to get a Venti, DeCaf, NonFat, Caramel, Hazelnut, Mocha with Whip).   A Starbucks will be coming soon… which is good, although I would much prefer to see a smaller, cozy coffee shop.

Of course, I cannot fail to mention that tax was only 3%.  Evidently… The Great Wolf Lodge is Tribal Owned (about time they branched out from family destroying casinos to a family friendly entity!).

I better add the restaurant prices here… as I see peeps are finding me while searching for that information!

The buffet is decent… a bit pricey.  Dinner runs $17.95 per adult and about $10 per kid age 4-10.  Breakfast was $13.95 per adult and $6.95 per kid.  I wasn’t overly impressed with the buffet… but hey, its a buffet and pretty standard in that regard.

The bar and grill… Critter Camp or something like that is average priced.  Kids meals ran between $4.95 and $6.95 (drinks were extra .99 to 2.00ish).  Adult meals start around $9 and went up to the $20 range.  The food was tasty and all the staff was wonderful about helping us with the menu and special diet needs.

There is also a Pizza Hut express… with mini pizzas around $5 or $6 and medium pizzas for $15.  An order of breadsticks will run you $5.

For breakfast your choices are the buffet or the deli/sweet shop.  The sweet shop has limited coffee choices (devastation), but has a wide variety of pastries and muffins.  They also have tasty treats throughout the day and ice cream.

The snack bar in the water park isn’t bad for lunch and snacks… burgers, nachos, pretzels, etc… for a few dollars.  There is also a bar in the water park for parents looking for something a bit stronger.  Prices were average.

I recommend packing some snack foods and possibly sandwhich fixings and breakfast with you if you want to save… there is a small fridge and microwave in the rooms.

“You can do it Daddy… You can do it… I know you can… turn… turn… turn… You can do it Daddy.”

Daddy’s little helper while he is tightening a screw.

At 6 am this morning I returned a call from my bank’s fraud department… they left me a voicemail late last night.   Evidently some heathens are trying to steal my money… luckily, this account doesn’t have much in it- although with the overdraft protection they could have done more than a grand in damage.  Evidently someone thought I needed tickets to Asia… so far, three charges have shown up- JetStar Asia, WWW.Fly12Go.com (could this site have been set up purely stolen charges?… I cannot read the site as it is in an Asian language) and www.bangkokaoooo which isn’t even a full address.  I am distressed that someone out there got a hold of my debit card so easily.  I have used it for 3 online purchases in the last few weeks… with 2 different companies online.  While speaking with the fraud deparment I asked if I should contact these retailers, they said it wasn’t necessary as that’s probably not how the theives obtained my information.  Evidently, some people have nothing better to do than run constant computer programs designed to test out credit card numbers until they get a hit.  Looking back through my bank statement, I see a $10 charge a couple weeks ago that I have no clue where it came from… now I am wondering if that was a “test”. 

This tells me a couple of things.  I need to watch my bank accounts daily… check for any discrepancy and question it NO MATTER HOW SMALL. 

It also makes me question online purchases.  How scary that someone has my debit card.  When I think about it… I haven’t been careless with my card.  I only used it at two trusted online retailers.  Could the kid at the coffee shop have stolen my information, did some online hacker access my shopping cart and steal it, or is it merely a random generator that landed on my card numbers?  Whatever it is I am freaked out.  Looking through my actual purchases over the past couple of weeks, there aren’t many on this account.  A few from one day at the mall… an ice cream shop, lunch & coffee… a trip to two large stores, a couple more coffee stops (I really need to quit the coffee)… and a visit to the dollar store for some bulletin board goods.  That’s it with the exception of my two online orders.  I don’t want to say who the retailers were because I am sure it had nothing to do with them after speaking with the fraud group. 

I am thankful this is only my pin money account and not the account we use for household bills and expenses.  We use different banks for the various accounts, and this one doesn’t require any extra online security…   Our household account, which is through a credit union prompts for a second security check before any online purchases are processed.  I don’t remember the exact information it asks for, but a screen pops up that says your financial institution requires further information for online charges.  I wish all banks did that… then maybe less of us would fall victim to stolen information.

This really hits home… it can happen to anyone.  Evidently I am naive, I had no clue peeps sat around testing out random number generators… we have all heard of the kid at the gas station taking pictures of a credit card with his cell phone, or a phishing email that links you to a fraudulent site. 

From now on I will be checking my bank accounts several times a day.  Thank goodness for bank fraud departments and their watchful eyes… but we can’t rely soley on them.

Having oatmeal for breakfast was a nearly daily occurrence in our household prior to K3’s diagnosis.  Since then, we have avoided oats in our house and I hear about it nearly every day… “Mommy, when can I try oatmeal?”… “Mommy, I miss oatmeal.”… “Mommy, I want oatmeal.”  While I am complaining about her constant nagging… I can’t help but feel bad for this little girl who has had to give up most of the diet she was used to.  She doesn’t understand the reasons behind it… we keep it simple for her and say it’s allergies.  K3 is amazing at monitoring her diet and avoiding foods she can’t have, like in Sunday school this week when there was a treat made with spelt flour (she is reactive to spelt as well as wheat, gluten, barley, rye) that one of the Mommies had made… she spoke right up and said “I can’t have that”… she was sad, but she did good.  When we got home, I gave her an Enjoy Life Snickerdoodle cookie.  K3 is really a little trooper about her diet.  I have been to www.glutenfreeoats.com several times and ALMOST purchased a bag to try… but we are still in a world of frequent reactions and it scares me to try it.  And at her age, if she doesn’t react with the typical facial swelling/redness we notice right away when she has a food containing an allergen for her, how will we know for sure if she is having a reaction?  At nearly 6 years of age, I don’t monitor her bathroom habits and she is in school several hours a day where I couldn’t even if I wanted to.  I have read lots of suggestions about using these oats… but I haven’t been able to discover if any gluten free peeps have had good and/or bad experiences with them.  I want to give my angel oatmeal, but I fear making her sick.  This is one of those troubling times when I will have to decide the timing for testing them out… I wonder, is there ever a good time?

So, I am reposting this.  I know that some of you lurkers out there (oh, yes I know how many peeps secretly stop by this site) would like to receive a gift in the mail from me.  I promise it will be family friendly. :)  Go ahead… send me a message.  Let’s keep this moving.

Here’s a chance to get something in the mail from me. My gift is coming from Jenefur over at My Life in a Nutshell.

We did away with all things artificial long before we had fully uncovered all of K3’s health issues.  We saw improvements with the removal of preservatives, dyes, flavors and other additives like corn syrup.  We knew then that we were on the right track… for at least part of her health issues.  We later discovered she has some traditional food allergies and intolerances to things like wheat, gluten (Celiac anyone?), dairy, etc…   As you can imagine, finding candy that is safe is next to impossible.  But how do you tell your 5 year old that she can’t have any Halloween, Christmas or Easter Candy?  Yeah right.  Even after we became a NATURAL house… we still allowed the kids to have their Halloween indulgence and didn’t freak if the kids got some regular, junk filled candy when visiting family or friends.  Now that we know of a serious health reason for being cautious… we worry ALOT.  With Easter rapidly approaching I have been in search of safe candy for our Little Miss.  Here is what I have found (and please, please, please share if you know of anything else!).

The Natural Candy Store  www.naturalcandystore.com carries a mix of 80 pieces of GF and Vegan candies, including dark chocolate squares and lollipops.  We are ordering this mix, so I will post again in a few weeks to let you know how it goes over.  I intend to keep a couple lollipops in the car for those rare occassions we run through the bank window and are given Dum-Dums that K3 cannot have.  I hate not being able to give her a treat every once in a while.

Glee Gum www.gleegum.com.  While I don’t know if giving my almost 6 year old, gum is a great idea… I do know that she asks for it all time.  I found Glee Gum in Tangerine and Bubblegum flavors to be a big hit.  The caveat… ordering from their site requires buying a box of 12 packs… all the same flavor.  If you want to try it out first… check you local natural stores (our local Trader Joe’s carries it). 

Yummy Earth carries lollipops and hard candies www.yummyearth.com.  A tasty and natural alternative to Dum Dums.

Organic Surf Sweets www.surfsweets.com, offer several varieties of tasty gummy candies.  We have only tried the gummy swirls and they were a hit.  We found these locally at Whole Foods Market.

I have also discovered a few varieties of dark chocolate that are dairy free… this remains a must read the label everytime product.

We are still in search of a chocolate bunny that will be GFCF and free of all things artificial.  I haven’t found it yet… but am determined.  Worse case scenerio, I will track down a bunny mold at the baking shop, melt Enjoy Life Chocolate Chips and make my own bunny.   Who said the Easter Bunny can’t cook? 

In my search online today for yummy treats… I came across a blog I will be stopping by often.  The Candy Blog  http://www.typetive.com/candyblog/.  Of course, we have a few requirements for candy in addition to being natural, like also being gluten and dairy free… but I think this is a great blog to follow and use as a resource for our Natural Kids.

Happy Shopping.