Gretta's 1st Grade Science Fair Project

Gretta was so excited to do a science fair project. I talked her into doing a project I was very curious about. I went to lunch with her for her birthday and realized that they go to recess right before lunch and don't get the opportunity to wash their hands with soap and water before lunch. In fact going to the bathroom at all during lunch is highly discouraged because they have a bathroom in their room. 

So we wanted to see which was the best way to wash hands before lunch with soap and water vs. hand sanitizer. 

I meet Gretta at her class. They usually have outside recess, but due to the cold they had indoor recess that day. First Gretta picked two sticks from her class stick jar. She randomly selected Greta F and Alexis. 

The samples we took were...

Hands before washing

washing hands with alcohol sanitizer

their hands after washing them. 

Then we also did Greta F's lunch sack and Alexis lunch card.

Plus the table and fork dispenser.

After they were done I took them home and put them over the hot air vent and covered them with a blanket to help them grow. Luckily it was only 15 degrees outside, so the heater was going most of the time, and there was a lot of growth in 24 hours. 

Most Germs to least germs.....

Alexis before, Alexis lunch card, Greta before, Alexis after sanitizer, Greta after sanitizer, Alexis after washing hands, Greta after washing hands, Greta’s lunch sack, fork dispenser, table

Conclusion & Future Direction

#1 Washing hands with soap and water is decreases germs better than using alcohol based hand sanitizer (Germ-X brand)

#2 Students hands are full of germs after recess

#3 Lunch cards have lots of germs on them

#4 The lunch table and fork dispenser don’t not have that many germs on them.

Washing hand with soap and water kills more germs than with an alcohol based hand sanitizer (Germ-X brand). After recess, students should be allowed and encouraged to wash their hands with soap and water before eating their lunch food. This may decrease the spread of germs and illness of the students.

Lunch Procedure

HOT LUNCH: Go to recess, line up to come inside, sit down at tables in gym, dismissed to lunch line, get lunch card, put lunch card in pocket, use alcohol based hand sanitizer provided by school, get lunch, put lunch card in the right container, get silverware, sit at the table.

SACK LUNCH: Go to recess, line up to come inside, grab lunch out of bucket on the way to sitting down for lunch, eat lunch

 (No hand sanitizer is on the table, but is available at the door as they come into the cafeteria. Students must ask to use the bathroom if they would like to wash their hands before lunch.)

If it were up to me they would all wash their hands with soap and water before lunch. I have noticed that Gretta has been a lot sicker this year and I think not washing her hands before lunch is part of the problem. Now if I could only get the principle to understand. 

They don't judge the science fair projects, but Gretta sure had a fun time participating and showing her class her project. 

Carli 10 months

Let's just say it is getting really hard to get a good picture of Carli because she is so active these days. 

Here's what Carli has been up to...

She has 6 teeth. Two on the top middle and four on bottom middle. 

She loves to clap.

Loves to look at books and tries to turn the pages.

Can go from siting to the floor by herself.

Army crawling or rolling to where ever she wants to go. I would say she is the best roller we've had!  (Her days of sitting quietly playing with toys in one place are over and so is my ability to take my eyes off her for more than 10 seconds at a time.)

Loves to play with her sisters.
Loves to make others smiles.

Likes to play peek a boo and laugh.

Loves to bang objects together and also drop objects on the floor. 

Loves to make her high chair rock.

Can eat cheerios, puffs and other small finger foods herself, 

and hasn't meet a baby food she doesn't like.

She is making more sounds. She likes to cough if no one is paying attention to her or grunt. She is still not making any constant sounds. Her speech therapist  Jeni, comes twice a month to work with her and teach me how to help her. 

Waiting for her pink and purple hearing aid molds to come. 

Still sleeps about 11-12 hours a night and takes 1-2 naps a day. She is supper flexible about her sleep during the day. Sometimes she wakes up and then goes right back to bed until around 10:30 am and then just takes an afternoon nap. I hate to wake her up when she is napping, but she is always happy and easy going. 

Carli is just a delight to be around and we all love her. We are so happy she came to our family.

Playing School

Gretta had her yearly eye exam at 7:30am this morning and they did a great job of dilating her eyes. Her pupils were almost as big as her irises,!!! So I let her stay home from school this morning. Eric went with her and when they were done he asked her to read something and of course she couldn't even see it because it was so blurry. They were doing testing in her class this morning and I didn't want her to get a bad score because she couldn't see the questions. The girls sure had a great time together playing school. I don't know why some days they play so much better together than others, but today they had a great time.  They even let Carli get in on the action. Gretta is the teacher and also the bus driver. The big picture frame is her computer screen,  and they even went to art class. 

The party was over once Eliza had to go to preschool, so I dropped Gretta off her the last 1/2 of the day too. 

Black beans

Carli eating black beans for the first time. She loved them, but what should we expect so do her sisters. Gretta even helped feed her. 

Doesn't she look so cute:)

Family History Fair

The Church had a Family History Fair activity yesterday and we attended as a family. It was well run and they had a lot of activities for the kids and lots of information for the adults. Here is our old time family photo we had taken. 

Medical Update on Carli

January 24, 2013 was a long day of many doctors appointments. We left around 6am in the morning to Drive to University of Michigan. Eric came with us and also Eliza. Gretta was suppose to stay and go to school, but school was cancelled due to the 12 inches of snow we received  so she spend the day with the Barfuss'. She actually spent the night at the Barfuss' because we were leaving so early    It took us over 3 hours but we made it to Ann Arbor safe and sound. Getting out the driveway, the neighborhood and then around Kalamazoo were the worst parts of the drive. After Battle creek it was pretty much clear and snow free. 

First Carli had another hearing test in the booth which confirmed what we already know that she has some hearing loss in both ears now due to the fluid and maybe permanent loss in the left ear.  Then we meet with Dr Marci Lesperance. I was very impressed with her. Her specific area of study is on hearing loss in children with congenital problems. She was very knowledgeable and I finally feel like we have someone who knows a lot about Sticklers and has had lots of patients like Carli. After many, many, many ENTs I think we have found one that is really going to help my kids and understands what she is dealing with. 

Carli has already been fitted for her hearing aids at the local county hearing impaired program and they should be here in a few weeks. She is going to have a sleep study test the night of Feb 19th to the morning of Feb 20th to test her airway and if she passes she will be released from her monitor.  

Then we saw Dr. Buckman and he scheduled her for her cleft palate repair on May 14th. That surgery will require at least an overnight stay. They seem very conservative in Michigan, so she might even have to stay two nights. I am so glad to have a date and something to plan around. Her jaw has grown a lot, so they thought at May would work. I am so glad. 

Then we meet with Genetics. That was a very long appointment and they ask tons of questions took a very detailed family history. I am excited to see the final report so we can share it with the rest of the family. 

We were finally done at 4pm and drove home. It was a long day with a lot of information to digest. After thinking about the pros and cons we decided to go ahead and have her get ear tubes before her cleft palate repair and also have another sedated hearing test at the same time. It wasn't my first choice. I would have rather had everything done May 14th, but that wasn't going to work, so it seems like the best option. Her ears are really her biggest problem right now and it will be good to know what she can hear after the tubes are placed. I am not a huge fan of tubes due to all the problems that Gretta had with them, but I also understand that they are a necessary evil and we should at least give it one shot. At least I now know about custom ear plugs. 

Gretta never had any fluid in her ears until around her 1st birthday, but with Carli we have been dealing with it for about 6 months with no resolution. So even though I have tried everything to prevent her from getting tubes so early I think it's the best thing for her hearing. I have tried essential oils, massage and taking her to the Chiropractor. It has helped, but as soon as she even gets a little runny noes she gets fluid again. The concern is that her hearing loss is affecting her speech which is delayed. 

So she is going to get tubes and a sedated hearing test on Feb 27th. 

Her speech continues to improve. The speech therapist comes to our house twice a month and gives me activities to do with her to help. It is called the Beckman method.  If her speech doesn't improve a lot after she can hear better she will get more intensive therapy. 

She is such a happy baby and we are so glad to have her in our family. She is really a joy to be around. I also see how much we have been able to share bits of the gospel with all of the people who come into our home to help her. When Grandfather Huff gave her a blessing he blessed her that she would be a light unto the World and a force for goodness. I already see the affect she has on the people that have come into our house to help her. I think it is part of that blessing already being fulfilled. Sometimes God has a greater plan than all of us. She truly  has a light about her. We are so glad she is part of our family. 

Snow day

We knew it was going to snow Wednesday night, but weren't sure exactly how much.  With lake effect snow some places can get a lot of snow and others not much. I wasn't so excited because we had to drive Carli to University of Michigan. We had Gretta spend the night at Maren Barfuss house because we knew we would need to leave really early for Ann Arbor. We left around 6am for our 9:30 appt. Getting out of the driveway and the neighborhood was the worst part. It also was really icy around Kalamazoo. Gretta ended up not having school and got to spend the whole day at the Barfuss.

Our neighbor plowed the driveway for us while we were gone, but he came before the snow plow came to the neighbor, so this is what we came home too. So Eric still got to put the snow blower to good use. 

Fun in the snow

We got a few inches of snow last night and today. Eliza was begging all day to go out and play in the snow. The wind chill factor was -10 most of the day, so I wouldn't let her outside. I said when Gretta came home from school they could go out for a few minutes. They lasted 3 minutes! Which was fine by me because it was way to cold to go out and play. So far this winter has been a bust for the kids because for so long we haven't had any snow and now we have some snow, but it is so cold they can't go outside. They just can't win. 

Carli's hearing aids

Eliza, Carli and I went and picked out Carli's hearing aids today. When I announced at dinner a few days ago that Carli was going to get hearing aids everyone cheered! I wasn't quite expecting that response  Then Gretta & Eliza started to fight over who got to pick out the color of her molds and hearing aids. Eliza said she did because Gretta got to pick out hers so now it was her turn. I tried to explain that maybe I should pick them out because I was the mom and they didn't like that answer. We compromised today and I picked out clear hearing aids and Eliza picked out pink/purple molds because they are both Gretta & Eliza's favorite colors. Carli will get new molds every 6 months to a year, so I figured it wasn't nearly as big of a commitment as her hearing aids. Plus if she is going to wear them she might as well make a fashion statement. I got clear hearing aids because the only other "girly" color is light pink and that is what Gretta has, and  I wanted to make sure I could tell them apart quickly. They did have brown ones with giraffe print, but I didn't want to impose my likes on her since she is going to have the same pair for 5 years. Carli did a great job letting Breena do the molds in her ears for the ear molds. I wish I had gotten a picture. It is going to take at least 4 weeks for the molds to come back and even longer for the real hearing aids. She might get loaner ones as soon as the molds come back. Our next step it to figure out how to keep them in her ears:)

Four Day weekend

It was so fun to have the girls both home from school one more day. Gretta had a four day weekend this week. On Friday the girls played in the morning and then we invited 3 of Gretta's friends over to use her "Spa Kit" she got for Christmas. I am sad I didn't take any pictures. I was to busy giving the girls pedicures. Gretta sure has some nice friends from school and I can see her being friends with these girls for a long time. After Grace and Cameron went home Maren stayed for 2 more hours and they had so much fun playing. It was nice to have some at home time since we spent most of our Christmas Vacation in California. The girls needed some time to play with their new toys. 

We sure had a great time at the Moms Club Little Scientists activity today at the library and learned about how to make fizzy water and bubbles. Both girls were amazed! 

This afternoon we all went over to Cameron's house. It was nice to get to know her mom better and fun for the kids to play some more. 

Having fun at home

It is always so much fun to see the girls play together nicely at home. Gretta & Eliza sure like to play with Carli. She is a real life doll.

Eliza helping me sew

I found little sewing kits at Walmart for $3 so I bought a pillow case and birthday banner for each child. Gretta got a toy sewing machine for Christmas and they were begging to sew something. Today Eliza helped me sew her pillow case. She pressed the pedal while I made sure the needle went straight.  Due to my poor reading of the instructions we haven't quite finished it yet. 

But we sure had a fun time sewing together. 

Sunday fun

Most Sunday's Eric has early church meetings. The girls were playing while I was finishing getting ready for church. This is what I found when I came out of the bathroom. They had put Carli in a fort with some toys so she couldn't get out and then they were watching a movie on the Ipad with their dolls all lined up too. 

Smart Eliza

I just have to brag a minute about Eliza. When I picked her up at peschool today this project was hanging in the hall. I noticed how carefully she had counted out each object to put it in the boxes. Then I looked around and noticed how most of the kids had the wrong number of objects in the box. When I asked Eliza about it she told me most of the kids needed help, but she did it all by herself. She is one smart kid! Of course I think that because I am her mom, but I am still amazed by what she is already able to do. It helps to have a smart older sister who is always teaching her something too. 

I know she is ready to go to kindergarten next year even if I am not ready for her to go. 

Eric & Rod's birthday party

Eric celebrating his birthday at Grandma and Grandpa Fors' house with Carli on his lap. 

Darron, Brittany and Allison sitting close to Rod as he blows out the candles of his birthday cake!