Wednesday, January 30, 2013

Is It Spring Yet? And Other Totally Random Thoughts...


Daddy trying to clean up...
Mae Bae "helping..."
The high here yesterday was supposed to be 60 according to the little security system panel on the wall, and it felt downright warm when we left the house to go to the ice skating rink and then to the store.  At least it felt warm until the sky opened up and the downpour started, washing away most of what was left of the snow that fell on Sunday night (my car was completely covered while I was at Mass... it must have been about two inches over the course of the hour and a half that I was inside).

While today is supposed to be warm again, the snow starts on Friday, or at least it's supposed to, and carries us through the weekend.

The girls have been in fine form lately, likely because it's been so cold (or extremely wet and muddy like yesterday( that we've spent day after day inside.  I told Paul that I feel like I need to do school every. single. day. at this point because on the days when we don't do school they're whiny and decide to take on projects like climbing the walls and destroying the house.  When we do school they're slightly more sane.

Slightly.

Last night I heard a scream upstairs and an awful sliding/crashing sound and raced up the stairs to see what had happened.  Sadie had managed to open the door, but it was stuck on something and I quickly discovered what it was, and then used all of my body weight to move the giant object out of the way.

Longing to go in the kitchen,,,
Mae Bae, who shall (or at least should be) henceforth be known as Super Mae, had moved her giant wooden bed across the room and left it in front of the door.  Now to be clear, this isn't some little toddler bed.  It's a big wooden twin bed with drawers under it.  Sadie had screamed when she saw that the door was blocked and was likely imagining spending an eternity with Mae Bae locked in a small (ish) room.

"Maggie is very strong!" Sadie said, after I moved the bed back (with Super Mae grinning the whole time) and tucked them both back into bed.  Yes.  Yes, she is.  Especially with her bulldozer like low center of gravity.

My favorite moment of the day came earlier, when Sadie was attempting to force her little sister to twirl around the room with her.  As you can imagine, it's pretty difficult to make Mae do anything that she doesn't want to do.  However I had to shake my head when I heard Sadie's latest strategy which began with:  "Maggie, God really wants you to..." she trailed off as she saw me looking at her.  I might have said:  "What?" in a trying not to laugh sort of voice.

In other totally random news, I've spent the last two days obsessing over these.  Although apparently I'm not obsessed enough to spend $21 dollars on chocolate chips.  Even if they are Gluten, Diary, Nut and Soy Free (although that's really not that bad for 6 bags, right?).

On a I'm-trying-really-really-hard-not-to-think-about-that-allergy-free-chocolate note I did discover two new foods that I had hoped Patrick would tolerate and I felt like dancing around the living room when he went all day without a reaction and the foods were confirmed "safe."  The first was organic rice milk (with vanilla) and the second was goat cheese.

Now I have to say, I had an attitude about goat cheese, even when I was buying it, because for some reason I was pretty sure that I would hate it and I thought I'd had it at some point (maybe that was goat milk?  I have milked a goat before...) and hadn't liked it, but oh, I was so, so very wrong.

She doesn't want to let me touch her hair...
Or wear clothes...
There were two packs of plain goat cheese at the store.  One was tiny and $5.  On was big and $7.  And so, while I wasn't sure I wouldn't hate it, I resolved to try to stomach it, because, let's face it, I don't have a lot of choices at the moment.  And it was wonderful.  Especially on top of pears.

Sadie loves it.  Paul loves it.  Mae Bae won't accept that it's food and I'm not giving her more because I'm pretty sure she'd use it to finger paint on the walls.

This made it slightly more bearable when I found that the allergist's next available appointment is in the first week of April, by which time I feel like I might have returned to my college dress size of "teeny tiny" if I haven't died from missing pizza and ice cream, which seem to be my only two (occasional) remaining cravings.  Oh well.  It is, without a doubt, worth it.  Seeing my little guy happy and free from tummy aches shows me that every single day.

And now for a Patrick picture:

We love our big sister!

6 comments:

  1. I would totally buy those chocolate chips. That's not a bad price at all, and we've gotten Enjoy Life chips before. They are good..not as good as regular chocolate, but still good. Specialized allergen free food is always more expensive, but you just do what you have to do.

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  2. I've found those chocolate chips at both the grocery store and local health food store. Around here they're about $4.50-$5/pack, so the bulk price on Amazon is a much better deal! But if you want to try them before buying a large amount, check out the GF section of your grocery store.

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  3. Goat Cheese is a great safe food for most people with allergies. Check out this list of reactive foods here: http://lyngenet.com/how-the-plan-works/ The reactive food list is at the bottom of the page. May help you figure out some other safe foods

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  4. Glad the elimination diet is working for both of you. Just be aware of the milk sources for cheeses. For example, peccorino/romano is usually from sheep's milk (he's unlikely to be allergic to that), as is real roquefort(at least traditionally - it would need to be the imported stuff, unless you can find locally sourced sheep's milk cheese). Around here we can sometimes find buffalo milk mozzarella so if you can figure out some sort of crust alternative pizza isn't necessarily off the menu. My daughter's friend is on a paleo diet and I recall that a few weeks ago she made some sort of paleo pizza, but I don't remember what the crust was made with. You might find that goat's milk is not so objectionable as you remember. The flavor really does vary, and it's only really randy if they keep the does with a buck. You could even try making goat's milk yogurt and subbing that out for your ice cream craving.

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  5. You could try rice milk ice cream. Also, avocado and olives are two high-calorie foods that don't seem allergenic--can't remember if you're eating those right now.

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  6. ah, milking goats, that brings back wonderful memories.

    Goat cheese is marvelous isn't it? My mother gets a soft version that she uses as a spread instead of butter.mmmmm!

    I'm glad you found two more foods that aren't hurting him. Are you keeping a list of the OK foods to give to the allergist? Both safe foods and known unsafe foods lists may help them to determine which of the many chemicals in food are the culprits and that way make choosing a food to try adding easier-- but that depends a lot on the allergist.

    Enjoy the new waistline.

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