It ain't easy being cheesy!...OR...Say cheese!...OR...The adventures of Coulby and the twisted cheese curls!

Cheese curls are not my thing. I am more of a Cheetos girl. But that does not matter when Coulby is in a cheese curls phase. 'Cheese curls phase' = Coulby WILLINGLY eating excessive amounts of cheese curls. And this means that he is getting not only protein to easily help meet his daily protein requirements, but also all of the calories that cheese curls have to offer...which are a lot. Coulby liking cheese curls makes life a lot easier because we have a sure thing to feed him that makes the job of meeting his dietary needs easier. MUCH easier, truth be told.



And these are no ordinary cheese curls. They are TWISTED cheese curls. These spiral things that look cool and take up a lot of room in the bag to make it look full even though it is not (one of the most annoying things about any bag of chips, really). 28g of cheese curls = 1.8g of protein and 160 calories. Coulby can eat about 75g or so in one sitting...about 429 calories! *Gasp* Guess most parents would be horrified that their child was consuming that many calories from cheese curls. But not parents of children with UCDs. The more calories the better. Kind of a foreign concept in this world of over-consumption and gluttony.



Not only does Coulby love cheese curls...twisted...but he makes sure he gets every last little bit of cheesy coating at the bottom of the bag. Kinda gross, but whatever works. Hence the above photo. That was Coulby post-empty-cheese-curl-bag. He had this cheesy beard and mustache going on that, while disgusting, was also very photo-worthy. I did not capture it well enough to do it justice, but the cheese was coated on his face, fingers and body pretty good. I could not be happier that there is something that I KNOW he will eat if nothing else. Until he gets tired of the twisted cheese curls, they will stock the pantry shelves.



On another note, Coulby had a Hopkins appointment yesterday. And his ammonia was...(drum roll)...29!! Yay! A number we can work with for sure! He has gained weight (thanks to twisted cheese curls, no doubt) and had an overall good check-up. Good news is always nice to report. A relief. A reminder of Coulby's miraculous life.

Life, Love and all things worth LOVING and LIVING for...

On LIFE:

"Look at life through the windshield, not the rear-view mirror."

~Byrd Baggett

On LOVE:

"You come to love not by finding the perfect person,but by seeing an imperfect person perfectly."

~Sam Keen

On FRIENDSHIP:

"A friend is one to whom one can pour out all the contents of one's heart, chaff and grain together, knowing that the gentlest of hands will take and sift it, keeping what is worth keeping, and, with the breath of kindness, blow the rest away."

~Arabian Proverb

On CHILDREN:

"While we try to teach our children all about life, our children teach us what life is all about."

~Angela Schwindt

On OPTIMISM:

"The average pencil is seven inches long, with just a half-inch eraser-in case you thought optimism was dead."

~Robert Brault

Let's hear it for RED, WHITE and BLUE!!

Coulby and Caroline were too cute decked out in their red, white and blue for the 4th. I had to torture them with a photo shoot...

Food for thought...

I love words. Mixing and matching words. Creating sentences. Organizing thoughts in writing. But what I love most is when words come together in just the right way to make a statement that leaves an impression. A quote. I LOVE great quotes. And when I came across this one, I felt like sharing. I find comfort in these words. Hope you will too!

"When we long for life without difficulties, remind us that oaks grow strong in contrary winds and diamonds are made under pressure."
~Peter Marshall

Where did the school year go? And how is it June already?

So Coulby is no longer a Kindergartner and will enter the world of a big first grader at the start of the next school year. Whew! First grade? And 6-years-old? I cannot believe that time has

gone by so quickly. Coulby woke up from sleep last night and came to lay beside me in bed. He slid into bed next to me and I swear when he stretched out alongside me he was as tall as me already. Guess that is really not too hard to fathom considering I am only 5'4". Or I thought I was until I was at the doctor's office the other day and the nurse declared me 5'3". Either I am shrinking or I have never, ever been 5'4" and have been under the misconceived notion that I was an inch closer to the sky than I really am. Whatever. So anyway, Coulby is tall and growing up and is not my little Kindergartner anymore. I say goodbye to yet another school year and wonder how I got left in the dust.

And now it is time to kick off summer break. It is a little different a kick off this year with me working full-time again and with...hmm...the upheaval of life. In so many ways. And speaking of working full-time again, this working mom thing takes a lot of getting used to. I still think being a stay-at-home mom is one of the toughest jobs in the world, but being a working mom is kinda hard too. Kinda really is not the word. It is damn hard! Difficult in different ways than staying at home with your kids is difficult. I am getting into a groove though, and really, I am finding that I am actually getting more done now than I did as a stay-at-home mom. How is that possible? I guess because I know I only have two days a week to get things done, along with a handful of hours each evening after work. I have to get it all done in that little bit of time, so even when I am dead tired, I push myself just a little bit more to do it. And I am exhausted. But I am also okay with that. Caroline is liking school. Coulby is looking forward to going to mommy's school this summer. And I am liking the paycheck. So it is a good change for all of us. Just a little different, that's all.

Coulby finished up the school year having had a pretty good go of things both academically and with his health. I mean, he did get sick a lot, and many of those times were back to back illnesses that almost drove us to our breaking points, but overall he was healthy. The fact that he did not end up hospitalized as a result of every illness is huge. Yeah, the February hospitalization was tough, but Coulby got through it and was not in and out of Hopkins as a result of every cold and cough that he encountered. I hope that his experience in first grade will be the same. He does have a scheduled Hopkins appointment on Tuesday, so he starts summer break off like that, which will hopefully yield good numbers. (*Fingers crossed*)

I am not sure what this summer will bring, but I hope for good things. Like swimming and ice cream and bumming it at the beach and cookouts and cold drinks (preferably of the adult kind, but whatever). This summer will be different, but I do know that "different" is not always bad. I hope that the kids, and myself for that matter, will find "different" to have positive implications.