Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Hello Summer...Hello Heat

Yay for cooler weather! It’s been hot here in the DC region. Really hot. So hot that Ella hasn’t been out of the house much. In fact, she stayed in the house all day every day Monday-Friday or last week. She did have a friend come over last Monday for a playdate, so she didn’t spend her week completely sheltered from the world. However, this heat is terrible and it means Ella can’t go outside. Yes, I could take her to the store or to a movie, and I could be sure to get the car nice and cool before I strap her in. The problem is leaving the store or theatre and having to strap her back into a hot car. I can’t just leave her inside the store while I go and get the car cooled off. She either has to sit outside in the heat and wait for the car to cool off, or she has to sit in the hot car waiting for the AC to kick in. Usually she’s crying the whole time.

Given the terrible heat and being cooped up inside, Ella developed a terrible case of cabin fever. During past summers she didn’t really know what she was missing. She was so used to playing inside that it didn’t really matter. Now that she’s been to school and played outside of the house several days a weel, she misses it. She talks about church school a lot, and about how she wants to see her friends. She even talks about her teachers and how she’s going to go see them soon.

All that to say, both Ella and I are so glad the weather cooled off. She got to go play with some of her friends at church yesterday and got to play outside! Today we’re going to the store to get some items for her special Princess birthday party. I would give anything to keep this cool weather all summer…it would definitely improve our quality of life.

The calorie counting is going ok. It’s really annoying to have to count every single thing that goes in her mouth. I was never good at dieting, and now I know why. It has been a daily struggle to reach my caloric goal for her. We probably hit the mark every other day, then on the off days we’re down by maybe 100 calories. When things are really bad we’re down by 500 calories, which happens about once a week. She still refuses to drink the calorie drinks (she won’t touch the smoothies, she won’t drink it with chocolate syrup in it, she won’t drink it plain…she won’t drink the stuff), so I just give her extra milk or juice throughout the day since she’ll drink those without a problem.

The good news is that the kid really likes high calorie foods. She ate 2 pop tarts yesterday morning (200 calories each) and she downed an entire hamburger happy meal Sunday night (about 500 calories). I will say that on the days where her caloric intake really drops, it’s because she’s so tired of us constantly shoving food at her. She’s better now that I’m not forcing her to drink those calorie drinks. Also, I try to give her a “day off” where she can eat whatever she wants, whenever she wants. I think those days make the other days more tolerable…for both of us.

Well, that’s all that’s happening around here (note first paragraph about the heat and us not leaving the house). Ella is feeling better and has gotten her voice back, thanks for your prayers. Hopefully I’ll have more exciting things to post about as the week progresses.

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