Coping with a new sibling

Having a new little brother can make you feel a bit out of focus.
It definitely makes you feel like you're not getting your proportional allotment of attention.


Mommy says that someday Calvin and I will get along just fine. I hope it's soon because I want someone to play with!

Quote from Autumn (shyly--like she knows it's not something she should say) "I hate you. What does hate mean?"

More Pics

Just can't stay awake... (unless it's 3am!)

1st Bath at home!

1 Week Old!

Calvin is here!

9 pounds 4 ounces

7:52 am

11/7/11

happy halloween!

Fill all three bags with candy and Nobody gets hurt!

A Neighborhood Predicament

One of my sisters begged me to post about this, and another sister really helped out with this project, so I will give you the scoop. It goes something like this...

Adjacent to the LDS stake center that is just south of us is an empty field. It is hidden behind the houses that line the east side of 600 E and the north side of 1000 N. Back in February, the city planner, who was about to retire and go on a mission, submitted a 460 page document containing changes to the city "code" or master plan. On advice from a forward-thinking, property manager, he changed the zoning of that field and all the houses around it from the lowest density (single family) to the highest density (university student housing). The city council who approved the document didn't even notice the change because it was only indicated on one tiny map on one page of the document. The neighbors who would normally have been sent letters about the zoning change before it happened were given a tiny classified ad in the local paper that said there was a "code change" being discussed at a meeting. Needless to say, the 30 days to appeal the zoning change expired and several months later signs were posted on the lot showing a new 6 story high rise with room for 800 students and retail space.

At this point the neighborhood got together and tried to see what they could do about it. The most concerned became leaders of a group that hired a lawyer, organized neighborhood meetings, and talked to every city leader possible to figure out what had happened and what could be done about it now. In the end it was decided that ultimately we couldn't stop them from building, but we could try to mitigate the impact on our neighborhood. Our biggest concerns were not enough parking, 1.5 spots per 6 students (limiting parking is a city ordinance for high density, not the developers idea), traffic congestion, and having one of the tallest buildings in Cache Valley bordering houses and a residential neighborhood. Goodbye mountains, and goodbye to the Sister Fisk's pear and apricot trees. Her backyard is 5 feet from a 20 feet tall parking garage. The developer decided to reduce it to 5 stories and only house 500 students. That helps a little bit.

So here's how I got involved. At one of the neighborhood meetings I suggested that a visual would go a long way to prove our point with the planning and zoning committee. Everyone agreed and there were no other volunteers, so I got the job. One of my neighbors had a great camera (12mm fish-eye lens). We walked around and he took pictures of the angles I wanted of the lot. He also had the PDF document submitted by the developer which I superimposed on my pictures of the neighborhood. It took until 3am to complete but I was happy with the result. The wife of the man that took our wedding pictures printed the pictures on 3x4 ft signs and we displayed them at the planning meeting.

At the meeting about 20 of the 150 neighbors in attendance had been assigned various topics to address in their 3 minute allotment. I ended up speaking about the poster. That is Sister Fisk's home in front of the high rise. It is 10 ft tall and green part of the building is 20 ft tall. After I spoke, she got up grabbed the poster and said to the committee, "This is my house!" Sister Fisk told me later that one of the members of the council started crying. Sister Fisk is 85 years old and this housing project has been very hard on her. Oh, did I mention that all of the architectural drawings provided by the developer show a road going through her living room? The developer is assuming that the city will buy her home to straighten out the intersection near there. The next day the above picture was on the top of the front page of the Herald Journal with a photo credit to me.

My opinion is this, if the project were scaled back to 3 stories or less, and all of the homes were bought fairly before the project started, without upsetting the immediate neighbors and old people, it could make our neighborhood look nice.

Hindsight and Food Allergies

This is a picture of Autumn at 3 3/4 Months. We were visiting my in-laws for Christmas. At this time we were just figuring out that Autumn might have some food allergies. We never solved all of her food allergies until I stopped nursing her at 13 months. This meant that she never slept through the night for the first year. In fact, for the first 10 months or so, she was up every 2 or 3 hours wanting to nurse because her tummy hurt. We didn't know this was the reason at the time. I could never even start an exercise program because I was always sleep deprived. Autumn also had extremely bad eczema until we got rid of most of the offending foods (from my diet).

Here is what we learned, mostly through trial and error. Autumn has a milk protein allergy, which she should grow out of eventually. 50% of kids with milk allergy are also allergic to soy. This is the case for Autumn. Additionally, Autumn is allergic to tree nuts including almonds as well as another member of the soy family, namely peanuts. For now, that leaves us to use rice milk. The interesting thing is that Autumn was getting these allergens through my milk. When she started on solids like rice cereal, we found that most brands contain soy as a filler. We caught onto this slowly. Now we read labels for everything. It also helps to have a neighbor with a similar problem to trade information with.

I've learned to keep a bottle of children's' Benedryl in the medicine cabinet and I remember to ask the doctor for the correct dosage by Autumn's current weight when we go for check-ups. Autumn's had a few food reactions that required Benedryl. Sometimes doctors forget about our sensitive children. Autumn's doctor said "Now she's one. You can give her peanut butter!" After a teeny, tiny sliver of peanut butter and a huge reaction later, I am more cautious about advice like that.

The good news is that Autumn, at age 2, is starting to be able to tolerate small amounts of dairy including yogurt. The other good news is that I'm going to make every effort to have my next child sleep through the night and be pain and eczema-free. I'm going off dairy, soy, and nuts next week so that I can help Calvin be a happier baby when he arrives. All mothers with milk allergy babies that I have spoken with, improved their emotional health tremendously by stopping nursing and using special soy-free, dairy-free formula. At $25 a can, this is a decision that we can make after we figure out what if any allergies Calvin has.

The latest...

If you can't get out to the swimming pool, bring the swimming pool to you! It makes for modest bathtub pictures too. In preparation for Calvin, Autumn inherited Jonathan's twin-size bed. As you can see, she likes to use as little of it as possible.

On Saturday Autumn got to go through her first corn maze. It was Jon's company party at the American West H.C. Quote from Autumn throughout maze, "I'm thirsty."

At the party, they had plenty of things for the children to do. Autumn and Jon made an "alpine" hat.

Also in preparation for Calvin we got a little chest freezer. It fits nicely in our basement and I can freeze meals for us to eat when I don't feel like cooking. I wish it was a Star Trek replicator and could produce meals on demand. That would be nice.