Our Christmas letter, in October

Isaac & Mom / Isaac in his high chair
Lisa loves arts & crafts / Kate loves watermelon (and being funny)
Kate on the couch







Where do I start in trying to summarize this past year? It all happened so fast it should be easy. Isaac was born a year ago, August 25, 2007. After two weeks of fussing, I knew something was wrong, but it took about nine months for us to totally(?) figure him out. He has silent reflux (still, as of 10 months old) but is fine when he is on medicine. He also has a food protein hypersensitivity to dairy and soy. That basically means he gets congested and a running nose and really poopy when he eats dairy or soy, or after I have eaten them and he nurses, and it doesn’t go away until a couple days after he and I stop eating it. (It is different from being allergic.) Because of that, he and I have been eating dairy- and soy-free, and since he was nine months old, Isaac has finally been the happy, sweet baby he was the first two days in the hospital!

A rare Isaac moment--asleep!

I am slowly recovering from the sleep deprivation. That was the other part of it—I didn’t know that my diet, or what in my diet, was bothering Isaac, and I think he was waking up four times a night because his tummy hurt. (I’d be so tired I’d nurse him back to sleep, and then his tummy would hurt two hours later, he’d wake up, and we’d go through the whole cycle three more times every night—for about seven months total. Yikes!) In March I was prompted on several occasions to check for soy in my diet. For a month or so I thought I had already been eating soy-free, but soy is everywhere—in shortening, vegetable oil, bouillon, almost every packaged product. By about mid-March I was finally really eating soy-free, and suddenly Isaac’s night wakings dropped from four times to just two!

That is where we are now. Isaac turned 1 year old this August. In mid-September, at his allergist’s suggestion, I tried to reintroduce dairy and soy into my diet (he still nurses), and he was again congested, poopy, and night waking four times. It may just be the soy, but I’m not sure yet. We will be introducing these new foods at a slower pace than originally planned. In the mean time, we bake everything from scratch using canola oil or soy-free shortening, and Isaac enjoys eating home-cooked meats, fruits, and veggies (he even loves tomatoes­!).

Kevin after Wood Badge

As for the rest of us, I/Mom am at home with Isaac, resting and playing after a hard year and still trying to organize the house. I’m also still pretty new at blogging. So far I can’t get past how ugly mine looks to post much. If you have HTML or blogging tips for me, please pass them along! Dad Kevin is super-duper busy, working full-time at BYU, camping and scouting with the Young Men at church, and picking up the slack around the house whenever he isn’t taking a moment to relax. Whew! He just got back (August) from a week-long camping trip for leaders called Wood Badge. He had quite the beard, so I had to get a picture. This past week (9/28) he was released as YM adviser but was called instead to work with the 14- to 16-year-old Scouts as Varsity Coach.

The girls have adjusted amazingly well to having a baby brother. They both love Isaac very much. Kate could not hug or kiss him enough. At times Mom and Dad couldn’t rescue him from Kate soon enough. Lisa has a wonderful talent for playing with him.

Lisa

Lisa, 9 in November, is in the third grade. She loves art, reading the Magic Tree House books, playing with her brother and sister and friends, watching TV, and playing computer games.

Kate

Kate, 6, is in the first grade. She is progressing well with her reading and is great at coming home and starting her homework right away. I love how she takes the effort to make her work cuter (as if her handwriting weren’t cute enough!) by coloring in all the pictures on her math homework. Kate had her adenoids and tonsils removed in June. She was very brave, and enjoyed all the post-op popsicles she got to eat!

Both girls love school, though it has been hard to get back into a schedule after the most lenient summer ever.

Kate with her cousin Amy

Lisa at the neighbor's pool party

Both girls took two weeks of swim lessons in June. Lisa’s level was a particularly hard one, and she passed! I am so proud of her. Kate was a bold fish in the water and only barely didn’t pass her level. The girls also had many lazy days of playing in our hot tub-turned swimming pool, enjoying every minute.

Our summer garden this year amounted to two potted tomato plants, planted I think in June or July, and which the girls faithfully watered as their summer chore. We are about to harvest our first ripe tomato from one of the plants! We’ll have to see how warm the weather keeps up—a few more are trying to make their entrance. We also planted Kate’s kindergarten pumpkin plant. We hope to harvest it for Halloween. (Update: The pumpkin died, so we are going to a local pumpkin patch!)

An unsuccessful attempt to photograph all three children.

We hope you are all well! Happy holidays, Merry Christmas, and know you are welcome in our home.

Love,
Kevin, Carmen, Lisa, Kate, Isaac