The Whidden Family: 1 week to go...

One week until Christmas! Time sure has zoomed on by this year. I've completed all of my shopping, thank goodness. If I don't have it by now, it's not going to get bought :) I do have some things being shipped, so hopefully they'll arrive this week.

The girls are out of school until Jan. 3, so we'll get lots of time together over the next few weeks. They had a great week of school, which was filled with lots of fun Christmas activities. I was at the school on Wednesday when Santa came to visit, and then on Thursday at the girls' class parties. They got to go shopping at school on Tuesday (at Santa's Workshop), but I missed that event because we had our follow-up appointment with the wholistic pediatrician in Tampa. We received the results of the girls' urine & stool samples. I was really nervous and expecting scary results; however, there was nothing alarming found at all! What a relief! Since the girls have been on antibiotics multiple times in their lives, the doctor was concerned that they may have had a big build-up of yeast, but they didn't.

Reese and Paige both had no "bad" bacteria in their systems. Reese was missing a lot of the "good" bacteria. They both are now on a Pro-Biotic vitamin that helps with this issue. Paige also had a low Vitamin C reading, whereas Reese's was high. He added some Vitamin C to Paige's vitamin schedule. So now, both girls are taking Speak (a fish oil high in Vitamin E & K and Omega 3 fatty acids), Super Nu Thera (all kinds of vitamins included here) and the Pro-Biotic. The worst part is if the fish oil...it stinks REALLY bad and makes everything greasy. Reese will only drink it through her cup, and the oil is causing the valve to slide out. At least she's taking it! I sure wouldn't want to...it makes me gag just smelling it.

Paige has just started making more consonant sounds...she now runs around the house saying, "Mamamamamamamamama" and "Babababababababa"...which is brand new! I don't know if it's the vitamins or what, but something is changing for the better! Reese is doing lots of new things...not all good, but still different. She's becoming more aware of her body and the toilet. She likes to strip her pants off now...quite entertaining! She is also into pulling ornaments from our tree. So even though these aren't necessarily "good" things, they ARE good things because it means she is changing and learning! So YAY!

Alright...here are our pictures. Paige couldn't have cared less about Santa! The kids wore their pajamas to school on Santa day.

Reese didn't want any part of this Santa person!

Paige swinging at school...

I didn't get any pictures of Reese at school...her class was outside and they were running all over the place. She kept running away from me, like I was embarrassing her...haha. So I left her alone and took this pic of her later. I love this little penguin shirt!