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Toxic Toothpaste

Mar 11

Posted by Matt Wigdahl in Family | No Comments

OK, maybe not “toxic”.  How about “allergenic”?

I always used to wonder why in the world I got canker sores all the time.  They got particularly bad when I was sick or stressed, but even when I was well-rested and stress-free I would often get them.  As soon as one would heal I’d get another, and it really was unpleasant.

It turns out I’m sensitive to Sodium Lauryl Sulfate (SLS) an “inactive ingredient” in most toothpastes that causes it to foam up nicely when you brush.  Apparently a small but nonzero percentage of the population react poorly to SLS, and canker sores are one of the more common reactions.

It’s difficult to find commercial toothpaste brands that don’t use SLS (although you have to look very closely at the packaging to find it listed) but there are a couple of brands that are SLS-free.  I use a Tom’s of Maine brand that has fluoride (don’t tell the Fiendish Fluoridators)…

… but no SLS.  Ever since I’ve switched to that brand, I haven’t had any problems.  Recently I ran out and had to switch to an SLS-containing brand.  Immediately the canker sores returned.  As soon as I switched back, they went away.

So if you have problems with canker sores or mouth ulcers, try switching to SLS-free toothpaste and see if that helps.  It sure did for me!

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Close Dog

Mar 3

Posted by Matt Wigdahl in Family, Humor | No Comments

I’ve already written about Katherine’s reaction to having her four lower teeth extracted (“I want glue teeth“).  Lately she’s been a bit more OCD than usual — it comes and goes, but at the moment she really wants cupboard doors closed and pots centered on their trivets, etc.

Robin was privileged to see the newest manifestation of this yesterday.  Katherine was in the office with one of her teachers, working on programs, while Robin was working on the computer.  Also, Aurora (Rora), our female Sheltie, was in the office as well.  And she was panting — likely due to the fact that with all the floor lamps on in that room as well as the computers it turns into a reasonable facsimile of an Easy Bake oven.

This canine behavior, though, was apparently unacceptable to Katherine, so she expressed her objections forcefully:  “Close dog!”  “I want close dog!”  “Yes close dog!”

I’m not sure whether Robin took the dog out of the room or if Rora just settled down and stopped panting, but apparently the problem was solved without the use of duct tape, so all was once again well.

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So I Rewired It…

Mar 1

Posted by Matt Wigdahl in Computer, Family, Humor | No Comments

One of Katherine’s more annoying recent habits is to flip off the light switch in our office.  That wouldn’t be so bad, except that the switch is a half-hot that controls some, but not all, of the outlets in the room.  My webserver and my own computer are not on it (although the monitor is) but the main email computer and the one Robin uses for her work are on it.

So after about the fifth time Katherine killed power to Robin’s computer this past week I decided to rewire the switch to a flat plate and remove the control over the outlets.  This was a pretty trivial change compared to some of the work I’ve done in our basement over the past couple of years, but it was pretty satisfying.

So far Katherine hasn’t made any comments about the lack of the switch — we were out of the house enough yesterday that I’m not sure she noticed.  I’ll be interested to see her reaction when she finally figures it out — I hope it won’t be to go over and shut down the computers manually…

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Upgrayedd

Feb 14

Posted by Matt Wigdahl in C++/C#/SQL/Web Programming, Computer, Family | No Comments

He spells it with two D's, for a double dose of his pimping...

Over the last couple of days I’ve been upgrading my computer system at home.  The impetus is twofold:

  1. I got a version of Windows 7 as a prize in the 2009 Interactive Fiction Competition, and finally decided to use it to do a full reinstall on our primary email machine.  It’s an old Dell XPS, and we’ve had it for 5 or 6 years.  It’ll run Windows 7, and it’s gotten so encrusted with remnants of old software over the years that it isn’t particularly reliable any more, so I backed up all our photos, videos, music, and email, made a list of the apps we absolutely need to reinstall, and took the plunge.
  2. Thomas has been relentlessly hounding me for his own website.  It’s a huge hassle to administer my webserver, though, because I have to reconnect mouse and keyboard and monitor cables.  When I finally got around to it, I discovered the webserver was over 6 months behind on recommended updates, so I spent a good amount of time bringing it up to date.  I also added Mozy remote backup to it, since it handles all my web content and my Perforce source code control depot.  I recommend Mozy very highly; I’ve used it for years and it’s cheap, fast, and reliable.

For good measure, I’m putting Windows Live Mesh on all three of my machines.  This is a very nice, featureful, fire-and-forget RAS package for Windows and Mac computers, published by Microsoft.  It allows easy file sharing and remote access for XP, Vista, and Windows 7 machines.  I found it extremely easy to set up and get started with.

After I got the mesh set up, I was able to quickly install two new websites — one for Thomas, and one for Robin.  Right now they’re just skeletons, but we’ll be fleshing them out soon.  Thomas wants to host Flash video games on his site, which should be an interesting experience, and Robin has long wanted her own blog.  Now she has one!

The Windows 7 upgrade on our main machine is in progress as I type this; I’ll follow up soon and let you know how it worked.

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Ferb, I Know What We’re Going To Do Today

Feb 8

Posted by Matt Wigdahl in Family, Humor, Reviews | 2 Comments

I don’t really watch a lot of cartoons these days.  I’m pretty busy with 3 kids, plus I generally prefer to read or play on the computer rather than watch TV.  When we do watch TV it’s usually The Biggest Loser or American Idol — shows that Robin and I both like and that we watch together.

On weekend mornings, however, we usually turn the TV on for Thomas and Katherine, and what they generally watch are cartoons.  They watch a wide variety of different shows, but the one that always gets me to sit down and watch with them is Disney’s Phineas and Ferb.

This is a very cute show that combines kid-friendly situations and antics with humor that appeals to both kids and adults.  And unlike The Simpsons, the two aren’t really separate; there are not really two levels to the show.  If you’re laughing, your kid probably is too.

An episode of Phineas and Ferb is fairly structured.  The premise is that it is summer vacation, and the eponymous brothers are trying to find fun things to do to occupy the day.  Phineas (it’s almost always Phineas) comes up with a Big Idea, which they set about implementing.  This usually ends up being some mammoth construction or engineering project, such as building a giant car wash, rollercoaster, or day spa.  Phineas, the short redhead, is the “mouth” of the group and the idea man, and Ferb is the technical genius (although neither boy is a complete slouch in the other’s area of strength).

The major obstacle is almost always the boys’ older sister Candace, who plays Daffy Duck to the boys’ Bugs.  Early on, she catches on to their plan and tries (inevitably futilely) to “bust” them by dragging their mom over to see whatever giant construct the boys have put together in the backyard.

Depending on the episode, some of Phineas and Ferb’s friends might show up to participate in whatever the scheme might be.  The most commonly appearing are Isabella Garcia-Shapiro, the overachieving Fireside Girl and the ballerina to Phineas’s Harrison Bergeron; Baljeet Patel, an East Indian supergenius and geek; and Buford Van Stomm, a tough kid who oscillates between bullying and friendly behavior.

Candace, besides her obsession with “busting” the brothers, is even more obsessed with fawning over her boyfriend Jeremy, and she often ends up madly juggling these two imperatives (often failing amusingly) as the plot unfurls.

At the same time as this is happening, there is almost always a side plot involving the boys’ pet platypus Perry.  Perry is actually a secret agent known as “Agent P”, and gets summoned to his secret underground base under the kids’ backyard to receive a mission briefing from Major Monogram, the head of the Agency.  This mission always involves dealing with the nefarious schemes of Doctor Heinz Doofenshmirtz, a crazed evil genius who invariably hatches some grandiose plot rooted in one of his many childhood traumas.

In his agent persona, Perry sports a stylish fedora, and although he can’t talk, he communicates very effectively using eye rolls and other facial expressions.  As his struggle with Doctor Doofenshmirtz reaches its climax, whatever bizarre device the Doctor has created usually misfires and either inadvertently resolves whatever jam the kids are in, snatches victory away from Candace just as she’s about to bust the brothers, or saves the day for Candace just as she’s on the verge of doing something monumentally stupid in front of Jeremy.

It’s all put together with excellent comic timing, and the voice work is great.   Candace and Dr. D. in particular are excellently done — Candace constantly skates the edge of hysteria while still projecting a unique personality, and the Doctor delivers some incredibly bizarre dialog with feeling and humanity.  Another appealing thing about the show is that the animation is fairly normal-looking instead of the almost aggressively ugly drawings in some other kids’ shows.

But the thing that really makes the show shine is the message and the relationships between the characters.  Despite Candace always trying to bust the brothers, she really loves them and has worked hard to protect them when they needed it.  In turn, Phineas and Ferb always try to help Candace out when she’s distraught over something (usually Jeremy).  Likewise, Perry and Dr. D., even though they’re each other’s “nemesis”, have each gone out of the way to protect the other when something seriously threatening is happening, and in fact exchanged gifts during the Christmas special episode.

All in all, the show presents kids using their imaginations and having good clean fun while displaying positive personality traits and resolving conflicts in a healthy way.  And it’s freaking hilarious!

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No Update Today

Feb 3

Posted by Matt Wigdahl in Family | No Comments

Sorry, no update today.  Too busy at work and home.  I’ll post more Friday!

Video-Enabled!

Jan 25

Posted by Matt Wigdahl in C++/C#/SQL/Web Programming, Computer, Family | No Comments

I’ve now figured out how to embed home video in the blog in a nice, streaming player.  The Wordpress “Stream Video Player” plugin is the core technology; once this is in place it’s a simple matter to extract the video from the digital video camera, format it up with Windows Movie Maker (or equivalent software), convert it to a .flv file (Flash-format video), and inject streaming metadata into it.  Then you just upload and embed it into the post!

The result is a very nice embedded video player that supports random access to the video and doesn’t give you the issues that come with using YouTube.  The video is hosted locally and I can freely remove it or change it if I need to.

So here’s the first video I made — Thomas demonstrating his expertly-constructed Bionicle vehicle, complete with functioning weapon.  The age range on the box is from 9 to 16 years old; he built the whole thing himself (with just a bit of guidance from me) at age 8.  Note the complexity and the sheer number of parts, including a functioning gear train!  Also included is bonus footage of Jonathan fussing.

Edit:  I’ve removed the self-hosted movie.  See the next entry for the Vimeo-hosted version.

I Want Glue Teeth

Jan 20

Posted by robin in Family | 1 Comment

Well, Katherine is now down to one set of bottom incisors.  Her adult teeth were coming in behind her baby teeth instead of replacing them.  In December one of Katherine’s home therapy implementors discovered that an adult tooth had come in behind her baby teeth and an x-ray confirmed that Katherine was well on her way to having a second row lower incisors. With full roots still in place, the baby teeth would not come out on their own.

See photos.  The “before” shot is pretty blurry because Katherine and a cell phone camera are not a good mix.

Katherine’s substantially delayed communication skills are completely inadequate to assure cooperation for four extractions so we opted for full intravenous sedation.  So with medical paperwork submitted, a copy of her last check-up, and an on-the-spot check of vitals and weight, Katherine was cleared for sedation.

All-in-all things went very well.  With her last bit of sustenance 16 hours behind her, Katherine arrived at the dentist office with a chip on her shoulder.  She waited, mostly patiently, for 45 minutes while the anaesthesia team finished with the child ahead of her, thanks to a novel waiting room and a couple of games on my Ipod Touch.  We only had two short rounds of high-pitched shrieking and mild self-injurious behavior.  The first when she didn’t want to cooperate with the nurse taking vital signs and the second when Katherine lost patience with my attempts to take “before” shots of her lower jaw.

When we went back to the procedure room, they started with a shot of ketamine in the tush while I distracted Katherine with the game she had been playing.  Needless to say, she was on to them after that! They tried to follow the shot by taping some gauze over the injection sight and Katherine was having none of it.  There was no way she was going to trust them anywhere near her buns a second time!

A few seconds later she returned her attention to the Ipod game, a very cute little app called Cookie Doodle where you roll out, cut, bake and then decorate a cookie.  She was in the sprinkles phase of the game and I watch with amusement while her little finger tapped the screen slower and slower until her finger just rested in place on her Christmas Tree cookie.  Then I laid her gently on the dentist chair and went to the waiting room.

The dentist made good use of the unconscious state of her patient and did a full set of x-rays, a cleaning and a fluoride treatment in addition to the four extractions.  Everything went well and it wasn’t long before they let me join her in the recovery room.  She was so groggy that I wasn’t sure if she was even aware of my presence.  Then, as I began to talk to her, she started to try to get up.  She wanted to blow that Popsicle stand!  This was comical in the extreme because she couldn’t even hold her head up!  Her eyes were still half closed!  But she repeatedly succeeded in dropping a foot off one side or other of the dentist chair.

To keep her from falling on the floor and because I thought it would be her preference, I slid her onto my lap.  She was more content there but asked for “car” and “coat” and then “I want saxophone” (don’t ask me where that last one came from but she said it very clearly).  After realizing that, at least for a short while, I would need to support her head like a newborn infant, I requested the use of the wheelchair that I had earlier declined.  I didn’t think I could adequately support her lanky 45 lbs all the way to the car plus I wanted the opportunity to get her booster in a reclined position so she wouldn’t fall out of it during the drive home.

Katherine was in much better shape after the 25 minute trip home.  Although still quite wobbly, she was able to stand and walk on her own.  Chelsea — who had stayed with Jonathan and was secured for the entire afternoon — or I followed inches away from her for another 30 minutes to prevent any falls.  Despite the residual meds and being awake from 2:30 to 5:30 AM the previous night Katherine did not have much interest in resting and none at all in sleeping.  She was obviously hungry and thirsty but was unable to find anything to her liking until she was cleared for ice cream around 2:30.  Up to that point she had tried and rejected my soft drink and Chelsea’s (we got another chuckle when it took her three tries to get a straw in her mouth) and rejected outright two flavors of jello and two flavors of popsicle.  Fortunately a little ice cream broke the ice and she was more open to other foods after that.

With motor skills recovered and eating back on track, the missing teeth are now the only problem.  She is definitely still in pain without analgesic but that is easily handled.  The main problem is that she wants her teeth back.  She is legitimately sad that they are missing and is sporadically upset about their loss.  She is also trying out various requests to get them back.  She is most persistent with “I want glue teeth” (she asks us to glue or tape anything that is broken) but she also pleads “I want help teeth”, “I want teeth” and “Oh no, teeth”.  We just keep telling her “teeth all gone” and showing her some pictures of other kids with missing teeth.  Hopefully acceptance will come soon and we’ll be able to put the whole experience behind us!

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Update Delayed

Jan 20

Posted by Matt Wigdahl in Family | No Comments

Sorry, due to lots of other stuff going on today the update will be delayed.  I’ll try to make it tonight.

Baby Eat Ham

Jan 18

Posted by Matt Wigdahl in Family, Humor | 2 Comments

Katherine has been doing very well verbally lately since Christmas break.  Whether the cause is the reduction in stress from not having school for three weeks or just the increased time at home with people who (mostly) understand her, she is doing substantially more spontaneous commenting and complex requesting.  Rather than just fall back on her stock “I want help” phrase, which can be maddening when she won’t specify what it is that she wants, she’s now using complex and sometimes synthetic terms for things she wants.

For example, the Baby Einstein Meet the Orchestra movie for a long time was “white baby movie”, which is a good description but doesn’t narrow it down from the other Baby Einstein videos, which also come in white cases.  Just recently she further specified it as “orchestra movie” which is much more clear to us.

She also got a new Littlest Pet Shop playset for Christmas, and has been referring to it as “animal playground”, which is a description she’s definitely synthesized herself, since we just recently opened that toy up for her and I’m sure she hasn’t heard it before.  In addition to that, she’s also getting mad if Thomas tries to horn in on her new toys, which is pretty developmentally appropriate even if it does cause more friction between them at times.

Along with this increased verbosity, however, is coming some willfulness when it comes to diet.  She’s almost completely given up orange juice, and she’s balking at certain types of meat that she’s liked just fine in the not-so-distant past.  This last time it was ham.

We had a very nice little boneless ham that we were serving up for supper.  It was very tasty and tender, and Katherine ate the first bite just fine.  After that, however, the response every time we tried to get her to go for a piece was “no ham!”  We tried most of the usual incentives to get her to eat it, such as offering a chocolate chip cookie for dessert if she finished the ham, and then sweetening the deal with potato chips.  Usually that will work to get her started, but not this time.  Every gambit was met with “no ham!” and strong resistance.

Finally, after several rounds of this, Katherine took the fork and held it up to Robin’s lips and said “Mom eat ham!”  So Robin did.  This, of course, caused a light to go on in Katherine’s mind and she tried it again, only to be rebuffed.  Only one “get out of ham free” card per person.  So she turned to me, with “Dad eat ham!”  This was then followed with “Thomas eat ham!”, but that still left several pieces left on her plate.  The dogs would have volunteered to help, but they were disqualified on the grounds of inhumanity, so she got creative.  She scanned the room, and noticed that I was holding Jonathan.  She got a big smile on her face.

“Baby eat ham!”

Unfortunately, we had to make it clear that Jonathan doesn’t eat food yet, and so he was unable to help her dispose of the rest of her meat.  But it was certainly fun watching her use her brain and creativity to solve her “problem”.

We did, by the way, get her to eat the rest of the ham.  I was able to convince her that by coating it in Parmesan cheese, ordinary ham is transubstantiated into a foodstuff known as “cheese ham”, and this was acceptable to her where plain ham was not.  She ate the cheese ham, moved on, and that was the last of it.

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