I have been reading a lot lately. There are piles and piles of books in this house. I am averaging about a book every two days. All part of my research quest to conquer food allergies and other health issues. When I am not reading I am cooking. Three meals a day. From scratch. We are talking grind-your-own-flour and soak-your-own-beans kind of scratch. I am really trying to put variety into our diet, which is excruciatingly challenging being that we have to avoid wheat, dairy, soy, corn, eggs, pork, peanuts, and nuts. Because life wasn't hard enough, I have decided to cut out all artificial colors, flavors, and preservatives. I am also trying to buy mostly organic.
And since organic applesauce is four dollars for a tiny little jar, I decided I would just make my own. So I bought a pressure canner. I have been canning fruit and beans and finally feel like an official grown-up. Canning has always intimidated me, but it really isn't hard at all.
Anyway, the point of this post is to say that I am using my dormant twitter account (I'm more of a facebook girl) as a widget on my new blog to tell the world what we are eating for dinner. Or lunch. Whichever sounds more appetizing. It seems like every day a new friend calls to say that they are going off of dairy or wheat (for everything from colicky babies to preventing miscarriages) and have no idea what to cook. I will also add tips, tricks, recipes, shopping guides, and my latest interesting research finds to the blog as I find time. Much easier than sending out emails. I have learned so many crazy/interesting things in the past month or two, and I will slowly add links/book reviews to the blog too.
And for those people that keep asking me how to get to the blog, click HERE (click on the word "here"). Sorry, i wasn't trying to be subtle before. I'll eventually get a button on here but I'm too busy cooking to do things like that. Cheers to healthy eating!
When I taught at an alternative jr high school on the west side of Salt Lake City, I was exposed to all of the current urban vernacular. Most of my students were straight out of jail, and all were gang members. I was in a one room school-house with 13 convicted criminals. By myself. My only instructions from the principal (who worked at the alternative high school downtown) were this: "if a gang fight breaks out, or if gang members show up with weapons, DO NOT call 911...we don't need the bad press."
We all had bus passes, and I was crazy enough to take the criminals on frequent field trips. By myself. They always managed to steal things from the library (think staplers and millions of mini pencils). On our weekly escapades I picked up on what I thought was the latest gangster lingo. I felt so hip. One day while riding in the car with my then boyfriend, I said "so, do you want to hear the latest word on the street for 'cops'?" "Sure", he responded very unenthusiastically. "Pigs", I replied as if I had unveiled some super secret code. He started laughing so hard that he had to pull over so we wouldn't crash. I felt really dumb. He relayed the story to any person we came in contact with for the next few days, and every time hysterical laughter ensued. The kind that causes people to double over and cry. I had no idea that word had been around for-ev-er. Anyway...the word back then for graffiti (my students had never heard that word) was "tagging". They always pointed out their "artwork" as we marauded around town.
Now I have two little criminals. Max and Ian have determined to deface every surface in our home and surrounding property with their own personal brand of "tagging". I am not kidding when I say that every surface in our home is covered in letters and scribbles. Walls, doors, floors, furniture, windows, cabinets, appliances, counter tops...even our patio and fence. J-P and I have spent most of the week cleaning, and they have spent most of the week strapped in time out. No matter where we hide the crayons, they always seem to find them. Sometimes they find an old crayon in the backyard or under a couch cushion and go to work. They can deface an entire room in the amount of time it takes for us to use the bathroom or change Ava's diaper.
I really love this kid. Between taking care of a new baby this past year and trying to figure out Max's allergy issues, he hasn't gotten the attention he should have. He has been doing a great job of drawing attention to himself lately...pulling every terrible-two tactic imaginable. Even permanent black marker on my white kitchen cabinets. Sigh. I'm now trying to make up for it by spending special time with him while Max is in preschool. He is so smart, and loves to figure things out. He can grab his dad's iphone, and pull up his favorite youtube bicycling video in just a few seconds. He has a great memory. If something is missing, I always go straight to him because he remembers where everything is...even if it is in a really obscure place. Right now he is trying to figure out familial titles. I was sitting on the couch talking to a friend the other day, and he came over, looked at her and said very matter-of-factly "Mary Ann is my mother...and that's Ava. She's my daughter". It caught me off guard. I had never heard him say my name, and only ever heard him refer to me as "mommy". Today when he was looking for Max he said "mommy, where's my daddy's other son?" And then at lunch he said "Mary Ann?...are you...mommy?" After I responded in the affirmative, he said "Your name is Mary Ann, but we just call you mommy." As if he was thinking out loud--putting it together.Yesterday he pointed to a word with two lower case "i's" in it. He said, "see these i's, they stand for Ian!" Which amazed me because I haven't started to teach him letters (bad mom, I know), and he has only seen his name with a capital "I". TV I'm guessing?I love to watch the wheels churn in his cute little head as he figures things out. Sometimes I forget that he is still two.
Max: Look mom, my arms are black!
Me: So that's where my mascara went!
Max: (uncontrollable giggling)
Me: Uh oh. You can't go to preschool looking like that.
Max: (wide-eyed, panicked) Don't worry mom, I'll wash it off before it starts...I promise!
I have been very overwhelmed lately. I am on a mission to do the impossible: cure my family's allergies. I have been spending every spare second I have (and some I don't) reading, researching, scouring the internet, joining online discussion groups, looking into alternative treatments.
My conclusion: something is making us sick. The explosion of food allergies, ASD (austism, asperger's, ADD/ADHD), autoimmune disease (M.S., fibromyalgia, celiac, crohn's, u.c., diabetes, arthritis, asthma), cancer, infertility, etc. is making my head spin.
My friend's 3-year-old son is going in for a colonoscopy because they suspect ulcerative colitis/celiac. Three years old! --My sweet little 3-month-old nephew had to be hospitalized due to complication of eczema. --Way too many of my friends have only been able to get pregnant with the help of medical intervention. --My sister-in-law teaches the 3-year-olds at church and has two children with autism in her small class (It amazes me how inspiration in our church works...nobody knew she has a masters in special ed and more patience for children than anyone I know).--I lost track of how many of my relatives have asthma.Just the other day I was in the waiting area at our ped's office, and glanced over to the "sick" side. I saw a girl whose face was red and swollen like a tomato, and her entire body was covered with hives. It was the worst allergic reaction I had ever seen. I rushed over to her, ready to pull out my epi-pen and save the day. "Honey, can you breath ok?" She couldn't talk, just glared at me and continued to itch furiously. Her mom was clueless (like I used to be when I told our ped. that Max's hives were flea bites--he had to hold in the laughter as he explained allergic reactions to me).In short: something is wrong! Something has to be causing all of this, and I am determined to find the root cause. I will do anything I can to prevent my family from acquiring these illnesses (since we seem to be genetically susceptible). I started a blog to organize my finds (with tabs). And so I don't have to email them all to my mom, she can just check the blog (are reading this mom?). I will try to post recipes (or links to recipes) for those out there that are struggling with the same issues that we are.
Ava is ten months old. Already. I can't believe it. I completely forgot about her 9 month appointment (the first doctor's appointment I have ever missed). They couldn't fit her in until she was 10 months. So, we have 10 month stats instead of the traditional 9 month stats.height: 30 1/4 in. (96%)
weight: 20 lbs 5 oz (57%)
head: 18 in. (82 %)
At ten months she is: speed crawling, cruising around the furniture, walking with her push toy, waving, clapping, pointing, saying "bah, bah, bah" when she waves to us (bye-bye), calling me "ma ma ma" (although not as often). She "sings" when we sing to her or when she hears music.
She LOVES her brothers. She follows them around the house and tries to get in the middle of whatever they are doing. Her development has skyrocketed since I changed my diet, which makes me both happy and sad. I really hope food allergies are not in her future. We are doing everything we can right now to prevent them.
She is my best snuggler and gives the sweetest, tightest, longest hugs. They melt my heart. And she basically gets anything she wants because of aforementioned melted heart. The other day she crawled over to me, pulled on my shorts and grunted (she does this when she wants to be picked up). I picked her up and she gave me the sweetest, tightest hug. Then she wanted me to put her back on the floor so she could continue playing.
She got her first two teeth at 9 months, and is currently cutting her first top tooth. Which makes me super sad. No more gummy smiles. She is growing up so fast.
I have been reading a lot lately. There are piles and piles of books in this house. I am averaging about a book every two days. All part of my research quest to conquer food allergies and other health issues. When I am not reading I am cooking. Three meals a day. From scratch. We are talking grind-your-own-flour and soak-your-own-beans kind of scratch. I am really trying to put variety into our diet, which is excruciatingly challenging being that we have to avoid wheat, dairy, soy, corn, eggs, pork, peanuts, and nuts. Because life wasn't hard enough, I have decided to cut out all artificial colors, flavors, and preservatives. I am also trying to buy mostly organic.
