Four months down! We are now ⅓ of the way done! Every month creeps a little closer to the end.
C decided to finish ballet and participate in the recital at the beginning of the month. She did great and enjoyed it enough but is set on not taking ballet ever again. She has her heart set on a different type of activity for the next school year and will be continuing swimming as well. I’m so proud of her for sticking with ballet when she wanted to quit and finishing her commitment!
The second week of the month started tummy troubles for me. I had a nauseous stomach ache every time I ate anything and this went on for almost three weeks. At first, I really thought that it was just a physical manifestation of stress, but then C started complaining of a tummy ache after eating, which ended up lasting for weeks as well. Dulce apparently didn’t want to be left out of the fun so she threw up multiple times on two separate days. That finally convinced me that it wasn’t just stress and that there really was something actually wrong with us. All of us were pretty much back to normal by the end of the month. I have no idea what it was but I’m glad it wasn’t worse!
With the tummy troubles we were having, we stuck to mostly smoothies, fresh fruit/vegetable juice, and homemade soups for the month. Despite feeling ill physically, I quickly started feeling better mentally. I feel less anxious and the panic went away which is a big improvement. I realized that I started eating a lot of wheat/gluten during our spring break trip at the end of March and throughout April… a big change from my normal completely gluten-free eating. I am actually allergic to wheat, gluten, and egg whites (diagnosed via blood test) and although I show no physical reaction to those things, I’m sure they cause an internal inflammatory response at the very least. There is research linking gluten to anxiety and depression, and also research linking inflammation and gut health to anxiety and depression. I don’t doubt that returning to gluten-free eating caused my mental shift. I firmly believe that the food you eat affects your entire well-being.
12 Shocking Symptoms of Gluten Sensitivity
The Link between Inflammation and Mental Health
C finished another school year! During our first year here she went to a morning preschool program at a local daycare but it was much more of a daycare than a preschool. This year she was in a real school that has PreK classes taught by certified teachers… it was such a huge difference! We love her school, her teachers, the staff, the curriculum, and her fellow students. She grew and learned so much this year and had a great time doing it! She went from knowing and writing only a few letters, to knowing and writing all of the letters in lowercase and uppercase, as well as spelling and writing her name and mine. C misses the birthday cutoff for Kindergarten here in the state of GA so she will be doing another year of PreK next year.
C was very emotional on the last day of school that concluded with a little ceremony. She cried that her daddy wasn’t there to see it and she cried that she has to wait two months to return to school. Any activities and events where there are other fathers present makes her aware and sad that her own father is away. We are glad that he will be here next year to see her graduate from PreK to Kindergarten.
C is taking a break from swimming lessons until school starts again in August. She loves swimming because she feels like Princess Ariel in the pool. She has been taking swimming lessons for 10.5 months and has blown me away with her progress! When she first started, she hated getting her face wet even in the bathtub. Within a week she was swimming face-down in the water. Now she can swim free-style, breaststroke, and beginning backstroke. She rolls over and floats when she needs to breathe and rest. She has an awesome set of lungs and can hold her breath while swimming the entire 40 foot length of the pool! I am so insanely proud of her efforts and I’m glad that she enjoys it as much as she does.
Month 4 Events:
- end of ballet (for good)
- Nana was visiting and left the day after the recital
- end of the school year
- end of swimming lessons (until after summer)
Month 4 Accomplishments:
- C finished a year of ballet and participated in the recital
- I ran an off-road 5k running race
- C finished a successful year of PreK
On to month 5!
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“Loving a military man is not hard. The distance is hard, the worry is hard, and the sacrifices are hard, but loving him… that’s the easiest thing I’ve ever done.”