Disassembly

You might remember my post about Michael's redecoration of his room and my regret at overreacting to what was actually a pretty creative effort on his part. Well, I did slightly better this time when I discovered his efforts at disassembly.

I walked into the basement playroom and was astounded to discover our beautiful wooden dollhouse in pieces. I couldn't even figure out what I was looking at at first. The garage had been completely taken apart. The roof had been removed and disassembled. The screws holding the floors in place had been removed on one side so that they had fallen making it look like the dollhouse had been the victim of an earthquake.

The words that escaped my mouth in a tone of shocked horror were, "Who did that to our dollhouse?!?" Michael's instant response was, "I don't know!" At this point I was saved from another overreaction by the fact that I was still trying to figure out what on earth had happened exactly. I thought perhaps someone had fallen into the dollhouse and broken it? I was silent for several moments while I just tried to mentally process the scene.

Michael apparently interpreted my silence as evidence that I wasn't too upset about it and volunteered something to the effect of, "I used Daddy's screwdriver." At that point my brain went, "Ohhh....I get it now." (Inside my head a voice was still babbling, "Oh no, look. Look! Look what he did to the dollhouse. When? When did this happen? Wow!")

I took a deep breath and said, "First of all, wow Michael. That was a lot of really impressive screwdriver work. You have to be really, really good with a screwdriver to take all of that apart. But.... Well, some toys are take-apart toys. Toys like your crane truck, or your airplane, or your toolbench - those are take-apart toys. And some toys are stay-together toys. Some toys mommy and daddy work really hard to assemble and they are supposed to stay together and not ever be taken apart. Our dollhouse is a stay-together toy. From now on, we should only use screwdrivers to work on take-apart toys. You and Daddy are going to need to make a special project of reassembling this dollhouse later."

I felt pretty good about how I handled the situation. Michael is obviously really good with a screwdriver. I wonder if you can buy some sort of woodworking sets that involve assembling things (a simple dollhouse or birdhouse or car....) with wood and screws that we could get him that it would be all right for him to assemble and disassemble himself. I should look into it.

The True Problem with being Sick

It is true, I suppose, that you can adjust to just about anything. I've been sick so often this winter that I've adjusted to the actual symptoms of being sick. They just don't bother me as much as they did at first. So I go another few days with sinus congestion or a cough or a sore throat. Post nasal drip, body aches, runny nose, and sneezing all get to be old hat. I'm certainly not saying I enjoy it. I'd much rather be healthy. I'm just saying that it's hard to get all worked up and self-pitying about it after the 15th time.

The thing that bothers me about being sick it the effect it has on my parenting. My children are actually at a pretty great age these days. When I am healthy, I sleep well and wake up energized. I look forward to spending the day with my children. The time flies by and we do all of our regular activities and some bonus ones too just because we are all enjoying our time together. There's a positive feedback loop. The kids are in a good mood because I'm in a good mood and I am in a good mood because they are in a good mood. When small conflicts crop up, they stay small because no one (mama) over-reacts and blows things out of proportion.

All of that seems to disappear when I'm sick. I am tired and cranky. Waking up and facing the day with the children seems more like a chore than a pleasure and privilege. The hours creep by. I pass the time by letting them watch television more than I'd like. They are cranky because I am cranky. I get even more cranky because they are cranky. We do hardly any fun activities and just get through the day as best as we can. That's what I regret most about all the time I've spent sick this winter. I feel like the illnesses are stealing some of my quality time with my children. That is the true problem with being sick.

Here's hoping for a healthy spring and summer.

NutriiVeda Achieve - Reformulation of NutriiVeda

NutriiVeda has been reformulated. The claim is that it is richer and smoother with better flavor. They are now calling the flavors French Vanilla and Dutch Chocolate instead of Vanilla and Chocolate. They have also changed the packaging. Now it will come in a single 30-serving resealable pouch rather than the two 15-serving canisters.

I cannot find much information on the specifics of the reformulation. So far the company has not released the new nutrition panel. The website looks exactly the same to me except that they have changed the pictures to show the new packaging rather than the old packaging. I should get my first shipment of the new formula by the end of next week. I'll let you know more then.

We have been using the original NutriiVeda for about 5 weeks now. Originally Ava was getting about one scoop a day. We're now using closer to one and a half to two scoops per day. I continue to see improvement in Ava's speech. She is continuing to talk more frequently. She's using longer sentences and trying to string several sentences together to tell a single story. All of that is new. It is possible that she would be making these same improvements without the NutriiVeda, there is no way to tell. It certainly isn't hurting though. As always, I also take comfort in the nutritional boost that the NutriiVeda provides for my picky eater too.