Tuesday, January 6, 2009

Fire, Family

We have had a couple fires in the fireplace the last week or so. It had been a little cool (lately it seems warmer, though). We used the four-wheeler and the trailer to get the wood and I had Kayla and Lou come with me. They liked the ride.


Our dog, Oreo, was in front of the fireplace the whole time it was burning.


In addition to the wood playground equipment (which is now going to take the form of a fort for kids), we have built a teeter-totter. It's about two days from being completed and I'll take pictures (we need to cement it in). The kids are going to love it and it will be a lot of fun to see the Haitian kids play on it, too.

Tina and the kids are doing well. Finding the right thing to do for Lou is tough. His stomach is rarely in good shape. Tina has been trying to find the right foods and trying to diagnose what his issue is (celiac, reflux, etc...). This is almost a full time job in itself. Lou is doing great in training pants. The only problem is still existing - he doesn't tell us when he has to go - we have to ask. He hasn't had any accidents lately.

Kayla has been helping Tina a lot in the house and it's been great for both of them.

Carter has been coming to the shop with me lately - he got a small chainsaw working with a little of my help (no, I am not letting him use it quite yet).

Boring car stuff...

I have been doing mostly basic maintenance stuff lately. The Ford Ranger needed a new battery, the Canter supposedly needed battery work (one was bad) but it really needs starter work (whenever battery terminal connectors don't fit well [because they over tighten them the first time which stretches them out] they then try to hammer in nails and screw in screws to make it a tight fit - this ruins the batter terminal itself and the connector - this is something I really want to teach them because it causes so many problems), I replaced the glow plugs and plugged a tire in the Montero (will be doing the fuel filter soon), and various other things. Being able to work on the teeter-totter and other things like that is really nice because it gives me a nice break (my knees mostly).

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey. I read your blog via Reeces Rainbow. Just wanted to say, my son is 4, has Down Syndrome and wears training pants. NEVER tells me he has to go to the potty. IF I remember to take him every 2 hours or so, we never have an accident. Otherwise, he holds it until he can hold it no more and then he wets his pants. They call it 'trip trained'. They tell me it can take a while to go from being 'trip trained' to being fully potty trained.

As for the tummy issues, not sure. Have you tested for giardia or other parasites? My other son from Ethiopia has issues. They tell me prolonged giardia exposure can cause issues such as lactose intolerance. (We have him on Rice Milk right now and try to curb the milk products) He's been home 4 months and we've seem some change but not a lot. He's been treated once for giardia plus the rice milk.

Good luck. Just thought I'd share what was happening with our family to let you know you are not alone in your plight.

Jan

Ken Schlorf said...

Thank you so much Jan, for your comments! It is nice to know that Lou's potty issue is typical or normal. He tells us (mostly Tina) when he has to go by doing his little, barely noticeable potty-dance. As you mentioned, we'll prepare to be in this stage for a little while.

We haven't tested for parasite in a while and perhaps we should. My wife says that he hasn't had the other symptoms of giardia, so she doesn't think that is the issue. We have to find out how (and if - I would think we could) we can get him tested here. He is doing better than he was with careful monitoring (and painful cooking - it's tough to get meals planned with limited known-good foods).

Thank you again, Jan!