Josh age 5 health update

I haven't given a Joshua health update in awhile, and the reason is:  he's doing great!  Since moving to Reno, we haven't had any sickness, he's been able to drop a few meds, and he really likes his new preschool / teacher / therapists.  He's adjusting to all our life changes well and he's getting along well with cousins and other friends.  Honestly, this move (both in general and for Josh in particular) is going better than I dared to hope it would.  This blog post has some recent updates at the top and then a more overview type update below.

Recent Updates:

• We took his G-button out last month and it closed in less than 4 hours - isn't the human body amazing?!  This is a great outcome.  Also, he is handling it well psychologically - he doesn't seem to be freaked out that it's gone, he's eating and drinking fine, etc.
• The move to Reno has been great for Joshua's seasonal allergies / asthma, which were getting so bad in Virginia that we weren't able to control them even with a mix of 6 meds, and the next step would have been seeing an allergist.  Because Reno is so dry, we've been able to drop about half those meds and manage things much better, which is a positive quality of life improvement for J.  
• I was a little worried how the school transfer was going to go, since Nevada is a low tax state (great when you're the tax payer, less great when you need government services).  Josh's new school has been great, and I want to give a special shout out to the principal, who seems to approach IEP meetings with the attitude of "what does this kid need to succeed and what can I do to help him get there", rather than starting with the attitude that there are limited resources and only the most dire situations will be reason to loosen the purse strings.  I don't know how she manages the money side of things, but i so appreciate that it feels like we're working together.  
• Our "new" doctors in Reno are actually a mix of mostly his old providers (who are encouraged at how well he's doing now) and a couple new (so far, so good).  The new docs often want to do their own tests for their records (such as hearing tests, VEEG, etc.), so it's taking some extra time and energy to get through this most recent round of doctor visits.  There are a few docs we will eventually need to see in either Vegas, Salt Lake City, or northern California, but fortunately those appointments should occur less than one a year.   
• Josh has a minor urology surgery coming up next week - it's called an inguinal hernia repair.  It's outpatient but under general anesthesia - we would love prayers for no complications and a quick and easy recovery.

Overview Update:
It's got to be a little confusing when I write about how great Josh is doing, or for those of you who see him at church and playdates and family get togethers and in many ways he seems like a "normal" (as in medically and developmentally typical) kid -- but then I also do tons of posts about doctor visits, medical stuff, IEPs, and therapies.  One day he's tearing through the maze at the pumpkin patch, and the next day we're having our Katie Beckett home visit.

So which is it - is he doing great or does he still have a lot going on?

The anwer is:  it's both, at the same time.  (I think many parents of kids with mild to medium affect chromosome disorders would agree with this.)  His scariest and most complicated health issues were all caused by birth defects, and those have been surgically repaired.  His life largely consists of enjoying regular childhood activities like going to the park, playing with friends, etc.  Thanks to the grace of God, really good care from teams of doctors and therapists, and medical interventions like oxygen and the feeding tube and all the surgeries, he's doing really well now.  And while we're very grateful that he is where he is, we still depend on regular help from the doctors and therapists to keep him doing as well as he is.

Why does he still go to doctors so often?

• For the known - Medically, he's got a lot of different things going on.  They are all pretty mild and well managed, thankfully.  We haven't had a hospital admission or ER visit or even so much as a school sick day for several months.  But to keep him healthy, we're checking in with 7 doctors, we're administering medicines and supplements throughout the day, and we're keeping a running list of anything going wrong.  
• For interactions when multiple systems are affected - There are two things to track when lots of systems are affected:
• Figuring out the problem - We notice a problem and have to consult multiple doctors and therapists to figure out what's going on and whether we can fix it.  Often it's more than one thing and nobody's sure exactly what to do, so we try different things until something works or he grows out of it.  (Some examples of this:  getting off the G-tube; falling / balance problems for years when he was learning to walk; looking sideways out of his eyes; severe monthly nausea attacks.)
•  Domino effect - If one problem develops, it can set off a chain of other problems, so doctors are more proactive when Josh gets sick than when medically typical kids get sick.  One example of this -- last year I took both Josh and Zoey in for a sick visit because they both had cough and cold.  It was one of those borderline sicknesses where it's bad enough that you want to get them checked just in case, but you know the doctor is probably not going to do anything.  For Zoey, who was the sicker of the two, that's exactly what happened - they checked her over for 10 seconds and said to call back the next week if she was still sick.  For Josh, presenting with the exact same symptoms of cough and cold, they gave him a nebulizer breathing treatment in the office, a steroid, prescribed an anti-nausea med and a high dose antibiotic, and made a change to his G-tube feeds.  He doesn't get sick too often these days, and he's not nearly as medically fragile as he used to be, but when he does get sick it's just treated differently.  
• For the unknown - With a chromosome disorder, we can expect new health issues to arise more often than for medically typical kids, so we need to do well checks with specialists more often to watch for certain things.  (This is the main reason we currently see neurology and ophthalmology.)

And why all the therapies?

Developmentally, he seems to eventually hit every milestone, but it usually takes extra help (from therapists), extra practice (with us), and just extra time.  Depending on what the skill is and how long it takes to master as compared to normal, this is sometimes a big deal and sometimes a small deal.  (Or, as is often the case, it feels like a big deal when you don't know if / when he's going to master a skill, and then once you see he's going to get it, it instantly turns into a small deal.)  Right now, his skill levels are all over the place -- there's some areas where he's very close to age level (academic skills like knowing his letters, gross motor skills), there's others where there's a significant delay (self-care, fine motor), and then others where it's a medium delay and it's somewhat context specific (speech, social skills).  (And if you're wondering how I know where he's at with all this stuff - it is unreal how often special needs kids get evaluated.  I could probably give you percentiles and paperwork for where he was at in every developmental area for every quarter of his life, starting at birth.)

This part of his care has gotten a lot easier for me now that he's school age and most of his therapies take place at school, but I still spend a chunk of my time communicating with teachers and therapists, trying to figure out if there are toys or activities or therapies or IEP goals that we could add to be helping him more, and figuring out our public and private insurance options to help pay for private therapies.  I wrote awhile back about how important therapists are, and I still can't say enough about how valuable the work of PTs, SLPs, and OTs is.

I write all of this out to give you a better picture of where we are and what Josh's life is like.  As I said above, I think this is a pretty typical situation for kids with mild to medium affect chromosome disorders - the details would be different for every kid, but this is the idea.

My Thoughts on "Daring Greatly"

Lately, I've been looking for ways to be more instrospective in understanding what's going on with my emotions, honest in communicating these things to my nearest and dearest, and courageous in finding ways to live out my ideas and desires.  Or, to put it in popular culture speak, i want to be more authentic.  Or, to put it in Brene Brown speak, more vulnerable and whole hearted.

Why do I want this?  Two things.  First, I think honesty leads to deeper and better relationships (in friendship, family, marriage - any important relationship), and who doesn't want that?  Second, I'm (possibly) at the cusp of a life change, as my kids rapidly approach school age, where I need to think about what I'm going to do with all the new hours of time - back to work, volunteering, working on other projects -- and I would like to be thinking about that from a place of honesty and whole heartedness.

This amazing quote is the inspiration for the title of the book.

One of the things I've done to learn more about how to achieve these goals is to read Brene Brown's wildly popular book, "Dare Greatly".  I usually steer clear of self-help books (for reasons explained below), but every once in awhile a book comes along that is so widely embraced by culture that you want to read it just to see what the big deal is.  Plus, it addresses all the stuff I just wrote about in the first two paragraphs.

I agree with the vast majority of "Daring Greatly".  I think Brene Brown is absolutely right that the big things holding us back from showing our true selves are shame and fear; that if we want to learn to be vulnerable and honest, and to produce things (like art, writing, a new business venture) that people might attack, we need to place our self worth somewhere other than what people think of us.  I think she's right that you need to have gratitude to experience joy.  I think she's right about a whole host of things, and this is why so many people love her book.

But for me, there's one big piece missing in the book.  Brene Brown's suggestion for where to get your self worth from is to believe that "I am enough."  This ties to my problem with self-help books in general:  they nail a problem, but then give a sort of fuzzy solution.  For example, this idea that "i am enough".  Brene Brown makes an excellent, compelling argument that so much in our culture makes us feel like we're not enough, that feeling like we're not enough steals our happiness, and that if we could just believe that we are enough without attaching our self worth to our abilities / accomplishments / other people's views of us, then it would allow us to dare greatly and live whole-heartedly.  The problem is, why should I believe that I'm enough?

There are a number of different reasons you could believe that you're enough, some philosophically stronger than others, but the Christian faith addresses these same things and gives reasons outside of yourself that offer this same freedom that Brene Brown is saying is the key to joy.  The difference is, in Christianity, you look to Jesus for your self worth rather than yourself.  If we believe that we are fully, forever forgiven and justified for every bad thing we have done and every bad part of our selves, and that we've been adopted and embraced into God's family -- that offers exactly the sort of freedom and joy and chance at vulnerable and whole hearted living that Brene Brown talks about.  One one hand, it's similar to the "Dare Greatly" idea, because it's all about getting rid of our shame and living a life not tied to our accomplishments and others' opinions.  But on the other hand, it's totally different, because our worth rests completely outside of ourself.  This is good news!

I imagine that some people who read this might disagree with me, as it seems like I'm one of the very very few people who have read the book and didn't love every single thing about it.  So in the spirit of both Daring Greatly and Christian freedom, please feel free to give me your opinion about the book, especially about the "I am enough" stuff.

{Post script:  Even though I just wrote a blog post about how i'm trying to increase "authentic living", this change is aimed at real life relationships, not my Internet persona - so this blog is going to stay the same.  One of the dilemmas of keeping a blog is balancing transparency with the privacy / protection of those you love.  It can be a real gift when people open up and share the messy, difficult parts of their lives; but it's hard (for me) to figure out how to do that in a way that is respectful and loving towards those who are walking through those experiences with you.  So I try not to talk in detail about my bad days on the Internet.  I am going to stick with this practice, but let me just say, in a very general way:  My life is not perfect.  I fail at being the ideal parent and spouse every day,  my house is never up to Pinterest standards in any way, my kids misbehave, and we have plenty of moments around here of frustration and boredom and messiness in every sense of the word.  I take it for granted that it's commonly understood that *everyone* has bad days, and also that (most) everyone tends to present their highlight reel on the Internet rather than laying out the details of their bad days.  But please know that bad days happen to me, and to everyone else in the history of the world.}

The Top 5 Benefit of Children's Hospitals from a Parent's Perspective

Children's hospitals are a popular cause to support, whether it's rounding up your change at the grocery store or writing a six figure check.  (Or a pro-athlete photo op?  But I digress.)  If you're anything like I was six years ago -- meaning, someone who never had a reason to spend time in a children's hospital - you have a generally warm and fuzzy feeling about children's hospitals, but probably have never stopped to think about why they exist, or what benefit they provide that is any different from a regular hospital.  So for those who are curious, I am writing a top 5 post about the benefits of a children's hospital from the perspective of a special needs parent:

1.  Expertise - Joshua's two main diagnoses (4q deletion syndrome and Pierre Robin Sequence) are extremely rare - when we tell them to residents or new doctors, the docs often whip out their Smart phones to give themselves a quick refresher.  For kids with rare conditions or complicated health needs, it is better to be at the place that is a magnet (often for hundreds of miles around) for other kids with these same complicated health needs, because then the doctors will have a much better idea of what's going on and what to do for you.  When Josh was born, the Reno docs decided to fly Josh 500 miles away to a children's hospital for this very reason.  On vacation, when we have occasion to visit an ER or Urgent Care, they almost always ask me why I didn't just take him to the Children's hospital - even when there isn't a children's hospital in the same town.  Both parents and doctors feel better having medically complex kids cared for by pediatric experts, and these docs are usually housed at children's hospitals.

2.  Electonic Doctor note sharing / Teams - When your child has multiple specialist doctors, it really helps if they can see each other's notes and talk face to face about the best way to handle a situation.  For example, it was helpful to have our ENT (who interpreted sleep study results) talk directly to the craniofacial surgeon (who repaired Josh's cleft palate) about how the palate repair would affect Josh's ability to breathe.  It was helpful when multiple surgeries needed to be done around the same time and the doctors could coordinate so we just had one anesthesia and one hospitalization.  When your child's pediatric specialists are not affiliated with a children's hospital, then they often rely on the parents to communicate what's going on with the child - and while special needs parents often become extremely knowledgeable about their child's condition and do an adequate job of filling the different doctors in on developments, we just can't communicate things the same way as two doctors talking directly to each other.

3.  Decor / Child Life -  For Josh, it makes a huge, positive difference in his anxiety level when as much as possible of the hospital sensory experience is designed to be child friendly and soothing.  When the lobby is decorated in child friendly colors, there are cartoon animals painted on the walls in the exam room, there are volunteers playing live music out in the corridor, and there is a train table in the pre-op waiting room.  When the TVs for admitted patients have multiple cartoon channels and the Child Life department has extensive toys and books available for kids of all ages and abilities.  Similarly, it makes a big difference when doctors are willing to take a minute to help make the kid comfortable - introduce themself, let them touch the stethoscope, explain what will happen next - before they dive into the exam.  And it seems like prioritizing the comfort of the kid over absolute maximum efficiency happens more often at children's hospitals than elsewhere.

4.  Convenience - Josh currently sees 7 doctors at least once per year (for those who are wondering:  ophthalmologist, neurologist, ENT, plastic surgeon, GI, pulmonologist, and pediatrician), and a few others from time to time as things come up (geneticist, orthopedist, dermatologist, urologist, developmental pediatrician, and pediatric surgeon).  This means we're going to the doctor dozens of times per year just for well checks.  If all the doctors are housed under the same roof of a children's hospital, I learn pretty quickly where I'm going and how long it will take to get there and what the parking situation is and how long to expect to wait and whether they have a coffee shop, etc.  If the practices are scattered all over town with different staffs and situations in each place, I have to spend a lot of extra time figuring out logistics and leaving buffer time (in case this is the office that runs right on time rather than consistenly an hour behind).

5.  Billing - That long list of doctors above means we run up a bill pretty quickly each time our health insurance year starts over, and children's hospitals do two things that are extremely helpful with this.  First, they consolidate all the expenses into two big bills - one from the hospital itself and one from the doctor's group - this simplifies (see #4) and it also gives them a good picture of your overall health expenses.  Second, they provide extremely generous, zero interest payment plans as you pay back this consolidated bill.  They are not non-profit in name only - they really do prioritize caring for kids and they don't want financial hardship to be a barrier to kids getting the care they need.  (At least that has been our experience with CHKD in Virginia.)

Those are my top 5.  I recognize that some of these are more compelling than others -- the expertise thing matters a whole lot more than the convenience thing -- but at the end of the day, they all matter, so they all make the list.  Friends, what would you add?

G-Button out!

It's official:  Joshua's G-button is out!

A recent picture of Josh that shows his G-button, at Lake Tahoe.  

We saw his GI doctor yesterday and got the "all clear".  The orginial plan was for me to take it out at home last night, where he could be comfortable, but unfortunately we had a button malfunction and I couldn't get it out.  It's kind of funny to spend 5 years doing everything you can to keep the button in, and then when you're finally ready to take it out, it won't budge.  (It's like ray-ee-ain, on your wedding day.)  So there was some frustration and frantic message boarding on my part (trying to figure out what was wrong with the button), and then resignation that we would need to go back in to the doctor's office.  And then, probably thanks to all my fiddling with it the night before, the balloon on the button burst and it came out on its own!  And bonus:  Josh thought he did it, so he's feeling very pleased about the whole situation.  (I thought the button coming out and not being replaced by a new one was going to be a hard moment for him.) Then, as planned, a gauze bandage went on, and we celebrated with cupcakes with green frosting and sprinkles (Josh's request).

Celebration cupcake.

I've done some posts in the past about Joshua's feeding tube, including why he has a feeding tube, what I wish i would've known about the feeding tube from the beginning, how his eating is still very limited, and the excitement when we first found out that we could stop using the feeding tube.  These posts summarize how I feel about the whole situation:  grateful that Josh had the feeding tube while he needed it, and ecstatic that he got to the point where he no longer needed it.  Today I just want to post some pictures to memorialize the whole experience.

Joshua's first week, hooked up to all the machines in the NICU in Salt Lake City.

Christmas baby!  2 months old.  I got to change the NG tube while staying in a VRBO with the family in San Diego.

Love those little baby smiles.  

Big, beautiful eyes.  He still makes this expression with his mouth when he's unsure about something.  

We were living in Virginia Beach for most of Joshua's early life.  60 ML tube feeding syringes make excellent sand toys.  (This is supposed to be the Nebraska state capitol.)

First day post-op after getting a G-button placed, age 4 months.  No more tube coming out of the nose!

Kenny giving Josh a bath around age 6 months.  Plenty of baby fat, thanks to the feeding tube.

Josh was not orally eating by his first birthday, so mom overcompensated by getting him the biggest smash cupcake in all the land to get his hands and face dirty.  

First birthday bath following first birthday smash cupcake.  This is one of my very favorite pics of Joshua.

Lots of doctors visits, tests, and procedures as part of all of this.  Here is Joshua being a good sport during one of his nine sleep studies.

North Carolina, c'mon and raise up, take your shirt off, twist it round your head, spin it like a helicopter.

Lots of new pretend play ideas, too, including being a doctor...

...tube feeding stuffed animals (this bear had his own Mic-Key button - thanks Judy Corliss!)...

...and doing feeding therapy on the stuffed shark..

Josh proudly showing off his G-button, age 2.

All of us got very comfortable doing regular life activities with the button, including the important evening activity of wrestling with dad.  

Eating is still a challenge, but for the last year, Josh has been able to to eat (and drink) enough to keep growing and stay healthy, so now we get to take the tube out!

I do have 2 prayers requests:
1)  For healing of the stoma (that's the empty hole where the G-button used to be) - that there won't be infections, that if he needs surgery (he probably will) that it will be a smooth and uncomplicated process, etc.
2)  For Josh - he's handling it super well right now, but I think there might be some ups and downs this weekend.  Imagine telling a 4 year old that you're taking out their belly button - this is what it feels like to him.  He's had it for as long as he can remember and it seems to him like a body part.  Prayers for his adjustment to no G-button.

Thank you all for prayers and encouragement along the way.  I'll probably do another blog in a few weeks about how it's all going - but for today, signing off and celebrating with cupcakes!

Zoey turns 3!

Today is Zoey's 3rd birthday!  So often, my blog posts are updates about Joshua - today is Zoey's turn in the spotlight.

Zoey's personality:

• Zoey is extremely girly - she loves to put on tutus and necklaces, walk around in my ballet flats, call herself a princess, watch dance videos, and frequently express her preference for pink, purple, and sparkles.  (She also loves to splash through mud puddles, throw rocks, climb ladders, tackle Josh, read books, and play with cars and trains -- so there are some other interests besides princess stuff.)  The girly girl side is funny because she definitely did NOT get that from me (and it was one of the worries I wrote about two years ago), but it's easy enough to provide her with some  dress up clothes and books about ballerinas.  
• Zoey is very sweet, cuddly, and affectionate - she freely dishes out hugs and "I love you"s; she snuggles up when you read her a story or watch a show with her; she loves to be the "special helper" on chores and errands; and she basks in individual attention.  Which is all very endearing.  
• We sometimes describe her as our little nerve ending -- she feels things strongly and expresses these feelings equally strongly.  So when she's happy, which is most of the time, she'll dance around and give big smiles and make little animal noises.  And when she's upset, she can lose it like no other.  
• She's very shy but also very verbal - so in some settings, she won't say a word, but in other settings (like at home), she never stops talking.  She gets this from me.    
• It's like she received a playbook on how to act like a 3  year old:  In the last month, her favorite question is "why"and she repeats it ad nauseam.
• She is a good eater, which is something i totally would have taken for granted if she wasn't child #2.  She eats heartily all day long (she must get her metabolism from the Fickenscher family), and if I forget to feed her, she is not shy about reminding me.  She prefers the typical little kid foods (anything with sugar or carbs), but if I apply any of the hundred feeding techniques we've learned for Joshua, she will easily comply with eating veggies, meat, and at least a few bites of our table food. 

Siblings:

I will do a post down the road about what it's like raising a medically typical kid when you have a special needs kid, but the biggest and most important thing (in our situation) is this:  Josh and Zoey are great for each other.  (This was one of my hopes from an old post.)  They are best friends, developmentally helpful to each other, and partners in crime.  They help each other with speech because they are talking back and forth all day long.  They help each other with fine and gross motor because if one climbs the ladder at the park or starts coloring a picture, the other follows.  They love to pretend play together and they each spur on the other's imagination.  Josh is the natural leader, but they have a really nice back and forth when they play.  Of course they fight sometimes, but even this provides opportunities to learn about how to handle conflict in a safe environment.  (And it helps me learn the outer limits of my sanity.)  They are both very shy and cautious by nature, but they are able to learn many of the basics of socialization by interacting with each other, and they feel more socially confident around other kids when they have the sibling by their side.  You never know how siblings are going to relate to each other, and there's only so much you as a parent can do to make siblings become BFFs, so I'm very grateful that things have turned out this way.

 How I'm feeling about my baby becoming a little girl:
 There is something about my kids' birthdays that brings out my inner sentimental sap in full force.  I'm feeling a mix of happiness and sadness today.  Looking at the picture above, there is no denying that Zoey is no longer a baby, not even really a toddler - she's a girl.  It's funny because I spent so much of the first few years of my kids' life eagerly anticipating the age when they get at least a little independence - when they don't need me to wake up every few hours to feed them and change diapers and be hovering every single second they're awake.  And then, just as I've fully adjusted to the being-needed-every-second thing, they do start to grow up, and it's bittersweet because I know that they've started on this trajectory and they will only get more independent and need me less every year.  It's good, it's a blessing...but it's also a little sad.  Zoey is still hugely dependent on us, and it makes me so happy every time she learns to do a new skill for herself, but birthdays remind me that these young years are a special stage of life, not to be taken for granted.  I cringed as I wrote that last sentence because I hate to hear the impossible advice to "cherish every moment" - as if that were even possible, as if there aren't some moments better forgotten - but these years really are special, and birthdays help me remember it.  Happy birthday, Zoey!

Lincoln trip summer 2015

The kids and I just returned from our annual summer trip to Nebraska.  We had a great time!  Here are the highlights:

Kenny Chesney knows how to make Nebraskans cheer.

• My sister and I attended the Kenny Chesney concert.  It was refreshing to have a night out with my sister,  it was interesting to see the impressive Pinnacle Bank Arena from the inside for the first time (my little hometown is all grown up!), and Chesney is a born entertainer who put on a great show.  Two thoughts on the concert:
• Kenny's 2 main themes are 1) Celebrating small town institutions: home, church, traditional values, high school football; and 2) Party on the beach.  At first, these two themes seem contradictory.  But a wise friend pointed out to me that many of us (myself included) like to think that we have elements of both of these things in our personality.  So maybe this partially explains Chesney's wild popularity.  
• I am starting to experience glimpses of being "too old" for a certain kind of concert experience.  Like noticing, judgmentally, that everyone around you is drunk (although it made for some excellent people watching); thinking about strategies the artist is using to try to engage the crowd (see picture above) rather than just relaxing and enjoying the theatrics; and not being willing to stand for the entire 2 hour set (on the flip side, it's enjoyable to get to the point where you don't mind being the stick-in-the-mud who sits when everyone else is standing, and you can enjoy the music rather than thinking about how your legs ache).  
• We hit up all our favorite Nebraska kid hot spots: Omaha Henry Doorly Zoo, Lincoln Zoo, and Lincoln Children's Museum.  Our kids are at a great age to visit zoos and children's museums.  They are old enough to understand their surroundings, but young enough to be filled with wonder.  So, for example, when Zoey sees a monkey flying towards her, her jaw literally drops.  When Josh sees a life-sized train, he gets that it's a train and he fully imagines that he's driving it over real train tracks.  Very cool.   
• Unfortunately, we did not continue the streak of no-kid-sickness-while-on-vacation (both kids had small rounds of sickness), but my mom (who is a nurse practitioner and a very caring woman) is a huge help with this.  
• My best friend from high school, who now lives in Des Moines, visited Lincoln during the weekend we were in town.  We had a nice afternoon catching up and a fun night out exploring the Railyard and Haymarket area.  It's great to hang out with old friends because it's equal parts reminiscing about old memories and catching up on all the new stuff happening in your life.  And it's nice for me to spend time with someone who knows me primarily as someone other than a mom, because it helps me remember and feel the other parts of my identity.
• One of my very favorite things about visiting Nebraska is just being part of the regular, day-to-day stuff that we would do all the time if we lived here - such as attending niece Jayla's soccer game (and watching brother Eric be a soccer dad), hanging out at my sister's house with her 3 kids (including meeting her youngest, Charlie!  The happiest baby you will ever meet), being around for a visit from Grandma and Grandpa Fickenscher, and attending regular family dinners.
• This is not a highlight per se, but I want to drop it in because it's cool - we only saw my youngest brother Mitchell briefly, because the day after we arrived, he departed for a 2 week tour across the eastern United States doing a series of concerts with his friends from college.  #freespirit
• My parents just moved into a beautiful new house.  It was a little emotional to visit a brand new house rather than the house where we grew up.  I don't want to over-sentimentalize this, because I only actually lived in their previous house for 4 of the 20 years they resided there.  But there's a small sadness in not returning to Pheasant Run, home of so many memories.  I'm very happy for my parents - I think their new home and location will be terrific for them, and they thoughtfully included expansive guest accomodations that will be great for us - but I wanted to give one last shout-out to Pheasant Run.  
• No trip to Lincoln is complete without hitting up some of my favorite Nebraska restaurants.  This summer's trip included food from Valentino's, Lazlo's, and Amigo's.  (Which means Runza and La Paz will be at the top of the list for our winter trip.)  I also had my first experience eating Vietnamese food.  My mom and I shared an order of pho (which, I learned, is pronounced "fuh"), spring rolls, and some delicious Vietnamese fried rice.  Nebraska might seem like an unusual place for a first exposure to ethnic food of any kind, but Lincoln has a thriving Vietnamese community

Thanks for a great visit, Nebraska!  I look forward to seeing you again around Christmas!

Toddler Muffin Recipe

Yesterday, I put up this status on Facebook:  "Josh is eating a homemade muffin with veggies and wheat germ! I've been trying this hide-good-food-in-kid-friendly-snacks trick for years and it never works because he won't do mixed textures or homemade food, but today: SUCCESS!!"

Here is the recipe for the muffins:

Ingredients:
2 bananas, mashed
2 grated carrots
1/2 cup pureed squash (would strongly recommend pre-packaged baby food for this one)
1/2 cup butter (softened)
1 cup brown sugar (could do less if concerned about sugar)
2 eggs, beaten
1 cup flour
1/2 cup wheat germ
1 tspn. baking soda
1/2 tspn. salt
1/2 tspn. each of cinnaomon, nutmeg, and ginger

Directions:
1.  Preheat oven to 375 and grease muffin pan.
2.  Mix butter and brown sugar.  Then mix in banana, squash, carrot, and eggs. Then stir in dry ingredients.  
3.  Put batter in muffin pan.  Should make 12 regular sized muffins.
3.  Bake 15-20 minutes.

Enjoy!