Squash Seeds?

So, we've had these squash seeds sitting in the fridge the past few days, and my amazing husband baked them--and the others we added to the pile today--up with oil and salt. We'd heard for years of people snacking on pumpkin seeds (which always made my stomach curl, as I've always abhorred the smell of cooking pumpkin) and finally thought we'd give it a try. If you walked into our house, you'd think we were baking bread--seriously. Oh, our house smelled lovely!

The first batch was acorn squash seeds. I could not believe it, but they tasted like a mix between sunflower seeds and popcorn. It was awesome! (Although, more like sunflower seeds with the hulls, but not quite that bad.) The second batch was butternut squash seeds, which were faster cooking as the seeds are smaller. Once again, I couldn't believe what I tasted. They were light and crispy, like bits of flavored corn chips! I can't describe the flavor, though. You'll just have to try them yourself. ;) They were much more rich than the acorn squash. The chef-with-the-fantastic-accent recommended using them in place of croutons on green salads, and I would totally agree. Too rich to just snack on, for my tastes, but using them as salad or soup toppers? That sounds yummy!

Here are the instructions S followed, except we didn't wait for them to "pop". We considered them done when they were lightly toasted as we simply couldn't wait anymore!

eye stuff p.s. re: Lil'S

At H's most recent appointment, when talking about scheduling H's next appointment, her doctor looked at busy Lil'S and said she could check his eyes then too. I was so relieved when she brought that up because I'd actually been wondering earlier that week what we needed to do to make sure his vision stayed strong--would she be willing to just check him out mid-H's appts or should we pay the $60 for an exam however frequently or what. Phew! With how strabismus is a genetic thing (ha, one we weren't even aware would be an issue, amongst all the things we knew could be!), I knew Lil'S was at risk, and it seemed to me that there have been times his eyes have been slightly misaligned--usually when he's tired--and it's mostly noticeable in pictures, when the light is reflecting off his eyes. However, I think I'm also so used to looking at family members with slightly mis-aligned eyes that I wonder if I really don't know what straight looks like anymore! ;) I did realize since the appt that Lil'S's eyes would go wall-eye when he was a young infant, like H's did. I'd read in a baby book that that was normal up to about 4 months, so I'd really have to ask about that further to see if that's really correct, if he's at higher risk, yada, yada, yada....all those things mothers worry about.

Pictures for Miss E!

Waiting for the bus Monday morning.

Well, I've already posted on H's new amblyopia treatment. However, I wanted to post a few pictures for a friend.

Matching Outfits!

We learned a college roommate of mine, her five-year-old girl also has strabismus, but in both eyes. I chatted with my old roommate on Facebook last week, and she said her daughter had just had surgery to try to keep her from losing her depth perception. I'm glad surgery went well and she's on the mend! We showed H their family blog, which she was so excited about. The girl wore an outfit very similar to this on her first day of kindergarten, and H was very excited to go match her. She wanted her hair in braids with ribbons tied on the ends, like Mary and Laura in the Little House on the Prairie series we've been reading with her. Too cute!

Getting her backpack ready

Heading out the door with Daddy

H's silly self portrait with our cell phone.

You can see her right eye is dilated from the atropine drop. We're grateful that at least getting the medication on her eyelids seems to blur her vision for a day, and maybe two. That will hopefully make it easier for her to adapt to having the drops full on.

We started atropine last week Tuesday. It really was pretty good timing as I was able to send her teacher a letter about it that morning and then meet with her briefly that evening at Back to School Night. Her teacher sent a note home the next day saying that she complained about the sun being too bright, a typical issue when you're eyes are dilated, so we headed off to Walmart's Vision Center to see what we could arrange for her for sunglasses. We couldn't grab just any old sunglasses since her vision would be compromised out on the playground, so I expected we'd have to pay out for Rx ones and just consider it a necessary medical expense. Price for prescription sunglasses: $80. Mr. Vision Center Employee put on his thinking cap for us and found that there was a pair of clip-on tinted lenses that just happened to fit her little glasses. Price we paid for clip-ons: $16.01 with tax. Thank you, Mr. VCE!

Mr. VCE taught H how to use them, and we laid out a plan with her to keep her clip-ons in their case in her lunchbox. After she was done eating her lunch, if it was sunny outside, she could put them on her glasses and go out to play. When she came back into the gym to grab her lunchbox, she could put them back in their case to keep them safe, and then she'd always have them.

Well, we never got to test out that plan, as that night H was lying in bed on her side and reached up with one hand to pull off her glasses. As she pulled, she broke off the ear piece she was lying on. Sigh. This was at least the third time her frames had been broken since she got them in March--the Vision Center employees know us very well, and of course H dresses up especially for them before each visit--but at least we didn't have to pay for replacements with Walmart's warranty. I'm wondering now if the frames are really $2 quality, so they figure they're getting a $7 profit, which would work if the frames didn't break so easily. Or maybe they're really 50c quality. The plastic isn't very strong--that or else I have strong kids, which is pretty true. Although I really couldn't compare them to other glasses outside of the reading ones I never broke as a 9 or 10 year old. (Lil'S broke her glasses twice by just pulling on them. I realized he was the culprit of a previous incident when one night he picked up her glasses off her nightstand and, before I could grab them from him, grinned up at me with his "Check this out, Mom!" smile and, without even a hard yank, pulled them apart. Talk about easy to break.) Unfortunately, this time around the Vision Center was out of those frames (imagine that), but at least they weren't discontinued and could be ordered. We're hoping for a phone call any day now, but at least by this Friday.

So, no more drops for the time being. At least we're not in an atropine study, eh? We were planning on still having her wear her patch each afternoon but eventually decided to just not even make an issue of it in order to focus on getting her to bed on time each evening. So far, so good. Her sleep needs to get under control, or when it's time to wear the patch or use the eye drops, her resistance will be seven-fold what it would be otherwise.

Another thing that might help H cooperate with her treatments is that she has met a girl who wears a patch to school: a fellow kindergartener who even shares her name! She said she first saw her at the library, but now she sees her at P.E. twice a week, which is combined with all the other kindergarten classes. I told her today to ask her who her doctor is. It would be fun if they went to the same place. :)