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Tuesday, July 22, 2008

the littlest star

Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star
Look at you, you've come so far! Baby Stella is six months old! Where has the time gone? I can't quite say "she's getting so big!" because she's still so small! At six months, Stella weighs 13 lbs 5oz. In contrast, Taylor was 20 lbs at six months and Sidney was 18 lbs 11 oz at six months.

'Stella' means Star.... And what a perfect name for this sweet baby! Her bright sparkling eyes and big smile brighten our lives every day.

We love our Little Star!

Wednesday, July 09, 2008

on going gluten-free

One of the many things that happened during my 9 month blogging hiatus was that Little Sister's health problems finally received a real diagnosis. If you've been a long time reader, you may remember my royal freak out in October of 2006 followed by the diagnosis. This diagnosis turned out to be wrong-- the medication didn't help and she continued to have trouble. When we moved to Arizona, we went to see a new pediatric gastroenterologist and he did another colonoscopy and endoscopy on Sidney. He mentioned Celiac Disease, but doubted that was really it since she does not fit the typical physical mold for a child with Celiac (small, thin, etc). We learned that this disease is difficult to diagnose in children under 2 (thus the reason for the wrong diagnosis the first go around).

My reaction was less than pretty. I called my mother-in-law to tell her the news and burst into tears and could barely speak. Going Gluten-Free seemed incredibly daunting and all but impossible. Little Sister existed on gluten foods! But we did it. And guess what? It hasn't been all that bad! I've learned to find hidden gluten by reading labels carefully and have learned to cook pretty well gluten-free (GF). I don't feel like Sidney misses out on much. I make delicious GF brownies, corn bread, cakes, muffins & cookies and I can buy delicious GF pretzels, cookies, bread, crackers, pastas, etc. In this day and age, going gluten-free isn't so bad. The hardest part is restaurants, but even then we've learned how and what to order and she can eat great meals.

Timing is everything, as they say, and this diagnosis couldn't have come at a better time. Twenty years ago, we would have struggled to make meals that we could all eat, eating out would probably have been next to impossible, and we certainly wouldn't have been able to buy any gluten-free baked goods. Now, Gluten-Free is practically the new Low-Carb. The LA Times is reporting that it's becoming a popular diet to try for various reasons. I don't care about the reasons, I'm just thrilled about this new trend and hope it continues because it improves Little Sister's (and selfishly, my own) quality of life with more gluten-free options available.

Go Gluten Free----It's the cool thing to do. *wink-wink*

Tuesday, July 01, 2008

another big idea from Little Boy

Merry Christmas!
Happy Birthday!

Little Boy asked if he could have a Christmas Party for his birthday.

"No, Taylor, that's silly."

"Please mom? It would be so cool! We could wear Santa hats instead of birthday hats and we could have stockings and my friends could put my presents underneath the Christmas tree!"

He had a good point...so the Christmas Birthday Party plans got underway:

Twas the morning of the party and all through the kitchen every creature was stirring and momma's a.... complaining. The stockings were ready to be decorated with care, in hopes that friends soon would be there.The children were bouncing all over in their beds,While visions of brownie sundaes danced in their heads. And Sidney in her elf ears and me in my cap, had just declared, "We need a Nap!"
When out at the front door there arose such a clatter, we sprang from the kitchen to see what was the matter. Away to the door Taylor flew like a bat, tore open the front door and handed out hats.
He blew out his candle, and got more toys than he could handle, And away they all flew full of sugar and candy. I heard him exclaim, with his 6th year complete, "Happy Birthday to me, this party was sweet!"