Recovering from a gluten reaction...

Well, after a night of awful sleep I decided it would be a pj school day for sure! Poor Benjamin got his first cold and was really congested last night. :( We ran the humidifier and I had him sleep with us just to be safe so I could check on his breathing throughout the night.

Here's a pic of him this morning right after he'd knocked the cards off the wall again. I forgot to scoot him away from the wall, and he was quick to send those cards flyin' to the floor! :)

I was so tired when I rolled out of bed that I think I could've slept another full night. We all had our usual "oatmeal" breakfast (ground rice mixed with ground oats). I love that we all like it a different way. Benj has blueberries mashed in his, I have coconut mixed into mine with a little drizzle of maple syrup and the kids have maple syrup on theirs.

I love Jude's face here! :) He had a bowl of blueberries after his oatmeal and you can see the blue around his cute lips.

Jude had a gluten reaction that started last Friday. :( We had been on such an amazing streak, probably the best it's been in a couple years! I've almost grieved that it's gone... I feel like my boy went back into that distant place and it's been a rough few days! We went from amazing communication, no melt-downs, great interactions, wonderful eye contact, upbeat attitude each day (obviously a child that felt well!)... to this now... having trouble speaking a clear sentence, acting like an Eeyore, easily frustrated, loving to contradict and say "Pig!" (that's his word he says when he's angry)... Yesterday he pounded on the windows and cried when a (gf) playdough tower fell over and it took a good 25 mins to get over it because it "wasn't suppose to do that". This morning he woke up super grumpy saying, "don't talk to me!" as he hit the wall. So, I braced myself for a really bad day, but surprisingly by the time school started he was feeling a little better. And this afternoon he seems to be coping much better too. Maybe we're back on the path to recovery again and can start rebuilding. I often think of Jude's body as a tower of cards. We work carefully each and every day to build health, and one wrong card can make the whole thing come crashing down. But we just pick them all up and start building again. I love the good days and I will joyfully labor for those days! I know they'll be back. (And just to state the obvious, even though the gluten days are hard and exhausting and make me sad because I feel like they rob my child of his joyful, feel-good self, I love and embrace them too! Because any day with my Jude bug is a gift.)

Something wonderful did happen today at school! Jude wrote his name all my himself! He learned how to write his name last year at preschool but he's refused to do it so far this school year and today he said, "I can write my name" and did it!! Jude, you've been holding out on me, Bug! :) Just like his soft spoken voice, here's his soft-written name. I'm so proud of him.

Jude also loves to be teacher from time to time so he can show me the things he can do beyond what we're learning.

Today Selah drew a lady bug after working on her "L" letters and I thought it was really cute. :)

We also learned about different Oregon trees and what their leaves look like.

We were going to head to the park to collect leaves from each type of tree but Benj went down for his nap and I decided to cook and rest a little too! So maybe we'll do that tomorrow!