our gluten-casein-soy-free thanksgiving

in my family it is no secret that my favorite holiday is thanksgiving.  the spirit of the holiday, coupled with feeding my family and friends good food and wine, really allows me to reflect on how grateful i am to have wonderful people in my life.
we found ourselves in a unique situation: our lucy and her allergies prevented me from planning the typical turkey day menu.  not to be dissuaded from creating a fabulous meal that my little ma'm (and everyone else) could enjoy; i began seeking out flours, recipes, and friends with ideas to pull off a fantastic menu.  it turned out splendidly and all tummies were happy.  in fact, i think it was the best menu so far.  and next year:  bigger and better!  check out the recipe i developed for gfcf stuffing at my food blog:  http://gluten-casein-soy-free.blogspot.com/2012/01/best-stuffing-ive-ever-made-really-not.html

the pumpkin patch

10/16/11

farms dot the landscape everywhere you turn in humboldt county.  with our little gal in tow, we ventured out to one of the biggest pumpkin patches we'd ever seen; pumpkins, pumpkins everywhere!  before we even entered the vast patch, we agreed that we would buy, at most, 6 pumpkins.  lucy ran around to pumpkin after pumpkin saying 'this one, this one', 'is this a lucy-size pumpkin', and 'no like this one'.  needless to say, 15 pumpkins later (oh, and some gourds, hay, and indian corn) we finally tore ourselves away from one of the best days ever.

lucy go to library pick new book about cats, take pumpkin book back....

12/1/11
so our little bean is now, constantly, speaking in sentences (omitting the conjunctions most of the time) and it is amazing to see this development unfolding.

i really began thinking about cognitive development awhile back while using animal flash cards with lucy; she is an animal lover and obsessed with the cards.  there are several categories of animals from insects to mammals with many representations of most classes.  i noticed the errors that she was making demonstrated classification.  allow me to clarify:  lucy would confuse grasshopper and ant (insects); squirrel, chipmunk, and mouse (rodents); tiger, jaguar, and lion (cats).  i love witnessing cognitive mapping and watching lucy's mind grow and make connections.  tbc.

life in eureka

our lives changed dramatically once we relocated to eureka from jacksonville: we left great friends behind, lucy's diet was finally figured out, and we embraced our beautiful new surroundings.  we met some really nice people here and caught up with some old friends; we visited our much closer family and they visited us; we hiked, biked, visited the wonderful farmers' market, some farms, watched the cows go by and all in all spent our time enjoying our surroundings.  and then we found out:  we were going back to florida.  the  news came right about the time lucy made some new pals, i found some fantastic running routes, and we were settled.  so now, at this late date, i will update lucy's blog and tell of the adventures in eureka.  stay tuned.

who's a big girl?

"...she will never sleep in her own bed; she will never get out of your bed;  you are going to regret letting her sleep with you; you are crazy to allow her to sleep with you guys..."  

these are but a sampling of the comments from people, aka the naysayers, once finding out we were co-sleeping with lucy; and let me be clear people actually asked where she was sleeping. honestly, after hearing so many opinions what i should do, how i should do, when i should do, i became the jaded parent; the parent who deliberately follows their own path without concern of what others may think. i guess i cannot say this enough:  i really don't give a rat's patootie how others raise their young (with obvious exceptions, of course) and i give even less of a rat's patootie of others' opinions of how i raise mine.  except when i nay-say the naysayers. and, with glee,  perversely enjoy saying:  naysayers, you were wrong.

since little missy had turned the big oh-two and demonstrated confidence, self-assuredness, and independence, we decided it was time for her to try out her own room.  and the timing was perfect as we had just moved into our new house so the transition would likely be a natural extension of the changes we all were experiencing.  our plan was straightforward:  we would use shaping to make the transition easier as i just knew she would be reluctant to move out of our room.  lucy and i headed to target to pick out her sheets for her new big girl bed and jeff and i readied ourselves for the first step of who's-turn-will-it-be-to-sleep-in-a-single-bed-with-a-restless-toddler.  so 7 pm rolled around and i was off to lucy's room to help her to sleep. while lucy was excitedly chattering about her new sheets and big girl bed, i was anticipating the newborn-mommy-brain syndrome that soon would befall me.  after a few books and the trifecta (kiss, eskimo kiss, and huggy), lucy was ready for sleep and that she did.  until 6:30 the next morning.




 

my little bean is two plus a smidge (and we made it....)

so needless to say, we figured it all out:  lucille has grown significantly and she finally surpassed the 20lb mark!  not to mention her personality, while always wonderful, has blossomed.  she just feels so much better!  no more screaming, crying in pain.  no more sleepless nights because of tummy aches.  no more wondering.

even though i planned on weaning the bean at 2, i have continued to nurse.  mostly because she is so picky and i need to know she is receiving the nutrition she is lacking from her solid diet.  she is trying more foods but sticks to the staples:  eggs, avocados, potatoes, 'cheese sticks', and 'mac and cheese'.

i will be publishing a blog (per a good friend's suggestion) that will be two-fold:  allergy friendly info including recipes and preferred foods; and crafty stuff including scrapbooking stuff and home projects.

my little bean is two plus a smidge (part 3)

shock.  shock and angst and fear and anger swept over mommy and daddy; would they ever be able (or willing?) to forgive themselves for the poison that bean was ingesting at their very hands?  after regaining some semblance of composure the two distraught parents threw everything containing the offending ingredients into the garbage (save anything unopened as it was donated post haste to the nearest food bank).  panic washed over the two while staring blankly into the empty pantry and fridge, all that remained was a scant selection of spices, condiments, and of course produce; what in the world were they to feed the picky, picky little bean?!?  

one crucial bit of information recalled the the parents to the realm of rationality:  lucy had not reached age of majority (aka 2) and so was still relying on mommy for a main source of nutrition!  ohhhhh, ya, wait.  wait just one minute.  if lucy could no longer ingest gluten, casein, and soy.... then.  uh oh.