Balch Family Blog

Camden has almost completed one quarter of his first year of school. I even noticed that not once last week did he say he doesn’t like school or doesn’t want to go. So that is a big step for him! Mark and I both volunteered in his class last week. Mark was a guest reader and got to go to lunch with him and I got to go to his Discovery Science class to help them with a paper making project. It was a lot of fun. We’ve got a handle on the homework thing too. We do a couple of the assignments over the weekend so we don’t have to do one on Wed and Thur night. Those are still rough evening for us. Camden is tired after 3 days of school and it shows when he gets home.

Carsten is doing well. His poor voice is almost gone. He had allergy induced croup this last week. We got right on top of it with steroids and he was feeling better pretty quickly, but since Sat afternoon his voice comes and goes. He is doing great with his vocabulary. He has too many words to count now. He has started to combine a few to make 2 word phrases but one of the words is always Mom, Dad, or Camden.

We are getting very excited about Fall Break and heading to New York. It is going to be a great trip. Our only concern at the moment is for Ken (my stepdad). He has been in the hospital for the last few days with acute pancreatitis. They have him eating again but he has developed a fever so they are watching him. We hope that he may come home tomorrow on a new low fat/fat free diet and a follow up appointment with the GI doctor 4 weeks later. We are praying for a quick and thorough recovery so that both of them can still go. Neither mom or Ken has ever been to NYC. It will be my first time too. Any prayers for Ken would be very much appreciated.

UPDATE: Ken came home from the hospital this afternoon. He gets to make the call about New York depending on how he feels.

I have many food allergies, most of which I either deal with the effects or I avoid the food. Bananas bother me at times but not often and I love avocados so much that I will put up with the itching to eat those. I avoid all melons, their taste doesn’t outweigh the allergic reaction.

I now have to add kiwi to the list. I went shopping this weekend and I thought the boys might like kiwi since it is so different and has such a sweet taste. I took one slice before giving it to them. The reaction happened so quickly it was overwhelming. No sooner had I swallowed the piece of kiwi then my throat started to itch all the way up into my ears. I felt a slight swelling and it was difficult and painful to swallow. I took children’s benadryl and a choltrimatron.

I made it through dinner and at 7:00 I was so sleepy Mark said to go lay down in bed. I woke up 11 hours later. Crazy! Needless to say, but I am not eating KIWI again! Or taking that much allergy medicine.

Mark came home on Friday night and we set up our big family tent up in our living room. Carsten had gone to bed already, but Camden and Mark hung out in the tent. They ate grahams with chocolate frosting (indoor S’mores) and watch science stuff on TV. Camden and Carsten played in it on Saturday as well. Lots of fun!

It didn’t feel much like a weekend. We mostly stayed home and cared for Camden. He did well Sunday morning and then crashed in the afternoon with high fevers again. Fortunately, that was the last of it. He made it all day yesterday without a fever. Yeah! He also took care of the constipation issue last night. He is going to school today, although he is not very happy about it.

I went to bed last night with a slight tickle in my throat and now have a big sore throat! I have one more day off before I go back to work tomorrow. I hope to be able to rest and get healthy. I guess it is that time of year.

I hope all of you are feeling well!