Cookie Thief

This afternoon, right after AJ got home from work, I discovered Lil with a cookie in her hand. I instantly got annoyed with AJ - why would he give her a cookie right before dinner??? Then I went into the kitchen and found a chair pushed all the way across the room and over to the counter where the plate of cookies sat. This is what I found:
Note the pieces out of THREE of the cookies -

And here is my cookie monster - who ran right over to the chair to pose when she spotted me with my camera . . .

Rating: 3 and 1/2 and 1/2 and 1/2 chocolate chip cookies

Highlights of the Day

Well all three girls were in a mood today but we still had two highlights! Because they were all so grumpy I made a joke to AJ about how *I* get to go to work tomorrow instead! Emmaline heard this and told me that I couldn't go to work because then who would stay home with her and make her lunch, because she doesn't know how to do it herself yet! I thought it was pretty funny.

The other highlight of the day is that we made safe chocolate chip cookies! I used chocolate chips from Enjoy Life foods that are safe for all of Emmaline's allergies and I used this recipe:

Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe

Ingredients:
2 cups flour
1/2 cup sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 cup vanilla soymilk (I used regular rice milk)
1/4 cup canola oil
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup vegan chocolate chips (or to taste) (they could have used twice as much!)
How to make the cookies:
Mix the flour, sugar, baking powder, and baking soda together in a large bowl.
Mix the soymilk, oil, and vanilla together in a small bowl or measuring cup.
Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir until the mixture forms a thick batter.
Stir in the chocolate chips.
Place spoonfuls of batter on a cookie sheet. (Make sure to space them far enough apart to give them room to expand.)
Bake at 350 degrees for 10-15 minutes, or until the cookies start to turn lightly golden and a toothpick inserted in a cookie comes out clean.
Makes one dozen large cookies.
Serve warm or cooled.

Overall they were a good soft cookie. I think they could have used some sort of spice - cinnamon maybe. But the kids enjoyed them!

Rating: 12 Chocolate Chip Cookies

Milk in the Eye

I went to a baby shower yesterday and AJ stayed home with Emmaline and Liliana. Liliana was drinking milk out of her sippy cup (she has the straw style ones). Well she managed to "flip" the straw when it still had milk in it and it sprayed in Emmaline's face - including into her eye! She broke out in hives on her face and complained of her eyes being itchy. AJ gave her a good dose of benedryl - which helped quickly (thank goodness). Even after a good nap and the hives had gone away, you could still see around her eye that it was still swollen. It scares me to think that if milk can do that to her face, then what would it do to her insides if she drank it?
Anyway - we promptly threw away all the straw sippy cups and went to the store and got Lil some standard valve style ones.

Rating: 3 Fireballs

Clothes for Every Season

The good part about having three girls is that at this stage in the game I rarely have to buy new clothes. Liliana and Imogene both get hand-me-downs from Emmaline and Emmaline gets hand-me-downs from cousins and a couple of families at church. Liliana is quickly outgrowing her summer clothes, so finally last night I sorted out all of their summer clothes and got out the long pants for winter. I have the clothes sorted out into tubs by size. I went through each appropriate tub, and pulled out two weeks worth of clothes for each girl (gives me time to slack on laundry!) including matching up everything into outfits. The smartest thing I ever did was start to fold everything into outfits. It makes it easy for anyone in the family to grab a matching outfit out of the drawer, and there aren't any random pieces floating around in the drawers that don't match anything!
Anyway - I am glad to have that daunting task out of the way for another 6 months or so. It can now get cold outside!

Rating: 2 Lollipops

10 Things Every Child with Food Allergies Wishes You Knew!

I came across this list today and I really liked it. Lately Emmaline talks a lot about "hating food allergies." A couple of weeks ago at a primary activity they handed out ice cream bars for the kids and it was the first time Emmaline has ever cried when she couldn't have a treat everyone else was having.


10 Things Every Child with Food Allergies Wishes You Knew!
By Gina Clowes


1. I long to be included. I would like to look, act and eat like everyone else. I’d like to buy my lunch and sit wherever I want. I know I can’t, but I am so happy inside when someone cares enough to provide a safe potato chip, cookie or Popsicle for me. It’s nice when I can have something similar to what others are eating but I love it when I can eat the same thing as everyone else. Whenever it’s possible, please think to include me!

2. I’m scared I could die from my food allergies. I’ve heard my parents and teachers mention “life-threatening” food allergies and I remember having some reactions where I felt very sick and really scared. I could see how frightened my parents were too. Sometimes, I could use a little reassurance that I will be okay.

3. I feel like I’m the only one sometimes. If you have a support group or another way to arrange for me to meet other children who have food allergies, I would really like to know that I am not the only kid who has food allergies. Having another friend with food allergies in my classroom or at lunch time helps too.

4. I get confused when grown-ups offer me food. I know I’m supposed to be polite and listen to grown-ups, but my parents have told me I am only supposed to take food from them. When you offer me food or especially candy, I’d like to take it but I’m not sure about what I am supposed to do.

5. I get itchy spots sometimes when grown-ups kiss me after they’ve eaten something I’m allergic to. I get itchy spots when your dog licks me too. I’m not quite brave enough to tell you this so I’m hoping you will remember that if you have just eaten something that I’m allergic to, I may get hives if you kiss me soon afterward.

6. I’m embarrassed when people fuss over what I’m eating. I know I have to eat my own safe food, but it’s easier for me when I’m not singled out. Sometimes, it’s embarrassing when grown-ups ask lots of questions. I love to fit in more than anything.

7. I hear all adult conversations about my food allergies. My ears perk up when I hear grown-ups mention my name or food allergies, so don’t pity me or act terrified because then I get scared. Food allergies are just one part of me. Let me overhear you talk about all the other wonderful things about me!

8.Sometimes I’m sad about having food allergies. It’s hard to be the only kid in class not having a cupcake and eating something different from my box of “safe treats” especially when there are about 20 other birthdays in my class. I know it’s not the end of the world, but from my perspective, it’s tough at times.

9. I’m watching you—Mom and Dad! You may think that I’m too little to notice, but I see that you went back home to get my Epi-Pen® when you forgot it. I see that you read the ingredients on the Smarties every time. You are my role models and I am learning how to manage my food allergies from you!

10. I will do about as well as you do. My parents “can-do” attitude will help me cope with the challenges of living with allergies and ensure that food allergies don’t stop me from being everything I was meant to be!


Rating: 5 Lollipops

2 weeks dairy and egg free

Today I have been dairy and egg free for 2 weeks. That means that I am halfway done! Imogene seems to be doing well. She hasn't spit up except for a few times (though she wasn't spitting up a ton before either). The big noticeable difference is that she no longer sounds congested all the time. Now - that could have been from any number of things - so it is hard to say at this point if it is from being dairy and egg free or not. The true test will be in another 2 weeks. I'm keeping a list of all the dairy things I miss and I plan to consume tons of it so that if she reacts - there is not doubt about it. The bad news is that when I did this with Emmaline - I lost a ton of weight (of course I had to avoid more things too). However, this time around I'm already pretty knowledgeable about what the safe products are so I haven't had to resort to not eating at all!

For fun I have added a very old scrapbook page I did once of Emmaline. It reads: "Did you know that between 1% and 7.5% of infants like me are allergic to dairy? That's why I choose Rice Milk. It keeps from from getting eczema, blood in my GI tract, or even from dying. Staying this cute has never been easier. Got Rice Milk?"




Rating: 1 Lollipop (a nice dairy free one of course)

Talking and Climbing

Liliana doesn't talk much. Probably because she can't get a word in with Emmaline around. Lately Lil has finally been saying recognizable words instead of just her cute babbles that she does. My favorite is when she says "Uh-oh!" and THEN drops something on the floor (on purpose!). I've been trying to push some signing as well because she gets really frustrated not being able to communicate and so usually resorts to screeching.

I think Lil is a bit slower with the talking because she works more on her physical development. She is such an observer. She will watch you do something, and follow right behind and do the same later on. Her favorite new trick is using anything she can find to stand on in order to reach things in drawers or on counters. Just when we think we have her beat - she finds a new way to get into something! I caught her in the silverware drawer today with a huge handful of forks. Thank goodness she hasn't found the knife drawer yet!

Rating: 2 Pixie Dust with a side of 1 sour patch kid

Telephone Game

Have you ever played The Telephone Game? It's the one where a sentence gets whispered down the line and at the end you see how it has changed. Well today Emmaline got to recite this month's scripture theme in Primary. I helped her by whispering in her ear and then she said it outloud in the microphone. I couldn't contain my laughter when the part that said: "if ye walk uprightly and remember the covenant..." came out of her mouth as: "if I walk right and remember the elephant..."

Rating: 3 Pixie Dust

Mommy's Little Piggy

To quote A Christmas Story - it's Mommy's Little Piggy!

Rating: 3 Pixie Dust

Crib Wars

Okay so actually the title isn't really fitting to the content of this post - but I thought it sounded good!
Anyway, all I wanted to say is that Imogene got evicted from our room last night. She spent her first night sleeping in her crib in her room. She even slept from 8-5. Not bad!

Rating: 2 Pixie Dust

Allergist Follow-up

We went in to the allergist today to do the skin prick testing that we weren't able to do last week. Skin prick testing detects antibody/sensitization to an allergen. The results are not indicative of HOW a person will react - but measure the POTENTIAL to react - if that makes sense.
On to the results:

NO reaction to:
Peanut
Soy (she has never tested positive on the skin for this but it makes her vomit)
Walnut
Almond
Shrimp

POSITIVE reaction to:
Egg (10+)
Milk (10+)
Cashew (10+)
Pistachio (8)
Brazil Nut (5)
Hazel Nut (5)
Pecan (5)
Cod (7)
Halibut (8)
salmon (10)

So what do those numbers mean? Well that is the size of the wheal (or hive) that is produced. Beside the allergens, they also put a control and histamine on the skin. The control is always a zero. In Emmaline's case, the histamine was a five. Everyone should show a reaction to the histamine - whether you have allergies or not. So if the histamine is a 5 and something like egg is a 10 - that is indicative that the *potential* to react to egg is at least 2 times greater.
Another fun tidbit is that they put the egg and milk next to each other on her back, and the hives got so big that they grew together. That was an impressive hive. I regretted not bringing my camera!

Anyway, the game plan from here is to continue to avoid egg, milk, soy, tree nuts, peanuts (for now), and now fish too! He did say that *canned* tuna is usually safe - so give that a try and see what happens. Because Emmaline starts school next year, we will do her annual visit at the beginning of next summer so we can know what we are dealing with for the school year.

Rating: 1 Fireball (for adding in a new allergy!)

Primary Program

Today was the annual Primary program at church, and the first year Emmaline is old enough to participate. She had one little line and we have been practicing it with her for a few weeks. On Friday we went to a practice where she did very well, and then called out "I did it mom!!!" I was afraid she'd do that during the real program but I had nothing to worry about.

Today Emmaline was grumpy! She spent the beginning of church constantly whining "I'm huuuuunnnngry" or "I'm tiiiiiirrreeedddd". When it came time for the program, she bounced up to the front of the chapel to sit down. However, whenever Emmaline would spot us watching her, she'd give us the biggest sour expressions you've ever seen - pouty lip and all. She sure did make a show of being miserable up there! When it came time for her line - she did great saying it - and bounced down - all smiles. The second she saw us though - more frowns and pouting. It was actually pretty hilarious! I don't know what gets into that girl sometimes!

Rating: 1 Sour Lemonhead

The Pickled Beet Affair

Forty-five lbs. is a lot of beets. I know this because I spent all of Wednesday night and most of Thursday cooking, peeling, and chopping beets. I have never cooked beets before so there was quite a bit of trial and error. My mom assured me that the FUN part of beets is peeling them - that the skins just slip off - but that wasn't happening for me. I was getting really frustrated! Finally I figured out I simply wasn't cooking them long enough! Once I resolved that issue, peeling the beets WAS fun! Slip, slip slip. I even had a tiny beet that the skin slipped off and the beet shot across the room!


Finally last night after the kids were all in bed, I got to the point where I was ready to can. By the time I got everything prepped it was 11:00pm! I knew I had enough for three loads - but each load take 30 mins minimum! UGH! When I put the first jar into the water - I heard a CRACK. I lifted the jar back out of the water and discovered that the bottom had broken out. I know the jar and beets and everything were hot when I put them in the water - so I can only assume the jar was really old (I got a bunch of jars off of craigslist from an old lady). The jar was kinda of cloudy looking - so maybe that is what happens when a jar gets old? Anyway - I ended up having to process that lot of jars with a bunch of pickling brine and beets floating around in the water .

Suddenly though - I started feeling REALLY sick. Nauseated, stomach going crazy, all kinds of yuck. AJ was still up so I asked him to pull out the lot and just shut everything down for the night and I would finish everything in the morning. Then I went to bed and prayed I wouldn't vomit. Anyway - around 3 am AJ finally came upstairs - he had finished canning all the beets! How many people in the world have husbands that can and WILL can??? I sure am lucky!

So all said and done - we got 21 quarts of pickled beets - but 1 quart was lost.


Rating: 3 Lollipops

Hello my name is...

Beep!

I was made in China and soon after, placed in a shelter in Colorado. A nice man from Utah came to Colorado on a business trip, rescued me, and took me home to his family. Just a short year later, I convinced them all that the whole family should return to the place of my infancy. Soon after moving here, my best friend joined the family - Lil. I remained nameless until Lil finally named me when she was 20 months old. I must say I like the name Beep - it certainly is original!

My favorite things to do are to follow Lil around, snuggle, swing around by my arm, be laid on, and receive overzealous hugs and kisses. I sure do love having a best friend!

Rating: 5 Bear Claw Donuts

Annual Allergist Appointment

Today Emmaline had her yearly allergist appointment, but I need to back up a bit.

Last night for dinner I gave the kids fish sticks. These are the same fish sticks that I have been giving them for a year now (since Emmaline was approved to try fish when she hit the age of three). Well the last few times I have given them to her, she complains that they make her throat hurt. Well last night, she started complaining about it, and got to the point where she was crying - so I knew she really meant it! Upon closer inspection she had some tiny little hives next to her mouth too! Looks like she might have developed a fish allergy! We gave her benedryl and put it on our list to talk to the doctor about today.

So today, the doctor did the usual exam of her skin to check for eczema, listened to her lungs, and we discussed her status in the last year. We also went over her blood test results. He said that the egg was three times the limit that he prefers to even attempt challenging it. Dairy was right at the limit, but basically unchanged from last year - when she failed a dairy challenge - so we won't be attempting that one again this year. Soy shows up quite low (almost zero) but of course her reaction for that is gastro-intestinal so blood tests don't mean much. So we elected to give soy one more year. Cashew and Pistachios were still high but peanuts were right at the limit as well. However, based on that info, I decided that we will wait one more year before we attempt challenging that one either. Peanuts, quite frankly, are the least of my worries and one of the easiest ones to avoid!

Usually we do the skin prick testing as well, however, since we had to give her benedryl last night because of the fish, the skin result will not be accurate (you have to be antihistamine free for 5 days before testing). So we have an appointment set up for next week to go and do that. Her doctor assured us that we did the right thing by giving her the benedryl and we are instructed to avoid fish now too. When we do the skin testing next week, he has the orders written to test fish and shrimp as well as the "usual" stuff.

Emmaline's TwinJects are expired so he gave us a new prescription for an EpiPen Jr. I find the TwinJect a bit more complicated to use than I'd prefer - especially when training other people to use it. Turns out he hates it too (the allergist in Utah was the one that had prescribed it before we ever moved to Colorado), so he was happy to switch us back to the EpiPen Jr. The fun part of course is that when a TwinJect or EpiPen expire, you get to practice with it (instead of the emptry trainer pen) and fire it off into a grapefruit. FUN!

In a side note - I did ask him about Imogene. He said they start seeing babies when they are 6 months old. Also later in the day, I got a call from the pediatrician with the results of Imogene's three day stool sample collection. It tested negative for blood which is great. However, her stools are still really green and mucousy so I am going to try eliminating dairy for a month to start with - and see how she does.

Rating: 5 Skittles (which happen to be allergen free!)

The Side Effects of Hard Work

Well it seems as though our time at the U-Pick farm has come back to bite us - but literally and figuratively! By the end of yesterday, I noticed that every single one of us has a sunburn. Whoops. Mommy forgot the sunblock! None of it is bad enough to hurt or be a bother, but I do feel particularly bad that Imogene has a bit of a pink nose. Bad Mommy.
Also this morning AJ and I have started discovering quite a few mosquito bites which are itchy and annoying.
To top it off though - AJ started feeling "off" yesterday evening, and by this morning, he was pretty miserable. We thought it was problem related to his ulcerative colitis, but it was bad enough that he wanted to go to the doctor right away. And when AJ *wants* to go to the doctor, you know it is bad! So, we skipped going to church and instead, AJ headed to the clinic. He returned home with a diagnosis of having a hernia and was told that it should heal itself in a few weeks. Mostly likely it happened due to all that heavy lifting he did yesterday. Whoops. I guess now is not the time to tell him that I need that 45 lbs. of beets back upstairs so I can start cleaning them tomorrow....

Rating: 4 Fireballs

Happy 4th Birthday Emmaline!

I can't believe my first baby is now 4 years old! She has grown so quickly!
We started the day with present opening. Emmaline was thrilled with all her gifts of course. Then we went to a local U-pick farm. We scored 180 lbs of various veggies (beets, potatoes, onions, carrots, tomatoes, cabbage) plus 4 small pumpkins. The girls had a great time getting muddy and yucky. We were home by lunchtime but had to put them all in the bath since they were so grimy. For dinner Emmaline picked pizza and was thrilled with her monkey birthday cake!

Another fun fact is that we moved to Colorado on Emmaline's 2nd birthday - so we've officially lived here for two years. It sure doesn't seem like it. Time has absolutely flown by!


Happy Birthday Emmaline!

Evolution of the Birthday Cake

As mentioned in my last post, Emmaline's birthday cakes have been a real struggle for me. I hate baking anyway (love to cook, hate to bake!) so add in the complicated side of cooking a cake without milk or egg, and you have a disaster on your hands! Every year it gets a little bit better though!

1st Birthday:

I intended to make a really cute ladybug cake I saw in a magazine. I ordered a special cake mix but when I baked it - it was a huge crumbly mess. It wasn't even in a state that we could frost it. We dug out some chunks of it for Emmaline to enjoy but there wasn't even anything worth really taking a picture of.

2nd Birthday:

I had a safe brownie mix. I decided that I could just cook up the brownie mix and use Ener-G egg replacer in it. Turns out it didn't work. Brownie Mix + Ener-G Egg replacer = BRICK. I know this is a true fact because I tried it again another time and it was still a brick. At the last minute I mixed up a batch of safe muffin mix that turned out "so-so" and I frosted that I served it as cake.

3rd Birthday:

I discovered the joy of safe cake mix + 10 oz Sprite = YAY! This trick really does work well. But works *best* on cupcakes and the cake is still kind of dry and crumbly. At least there was something worth taking a picture of!

4th Birthday:

This year I googled around for a vegan cake recipe and found a chocolate one. I was skeptical but I gave it a try. It actually turned out well!!!

Rating: 4 birthday cakes (plus a brownie mix and a muffin mix)

Three - 3 and under.

Today is the last day that I will have three kids that are 3-years-old and under. We survived!

Emmaline had her very first ballet and tumbling class today and she thoroughly enjoyed it. I was outside the room and I could hear her chattering away and having something to say about everything. Poor teacher!

Then this afternoon, Emmaline helped me bake her birthday cake! She didn't get to frost it - but she did get to help me mix ingredients. I found a recipe for a Vegan Chocolate Cake (read that: no eggs or dairy!) and surprisingly it turned out well. I fight every year with her birthday cake so that was a relief. I did however attempt a vegan frosting that turned out WAY too runny and not good at all. Luckily, Pillsbury makes a safe frosting so at 9:30pm I ran to the store and grabbed some. Got home, started to decorate - and RAN OUT with about 1/8 of the cake left to go. DOH! Back to the store....

Rating: 1 birthday cake!

2 months

Imogene is officially 2 months old. I can't believe how time as flown! I have a few concerns about her - I am starting to think she either has mild reflux or the beginning symptoms of food allergies. So I expressed those concerns to the doctor. Imogene happened to poop while we were there so the doctor tested it for blood (an early sign for Emmaline). Turns out it *might* have been positive. I say *might* because it was really hard to tell. We both sat there staring at it trying to figure out if we saw blue or not (the chemical turns blue with blood and we maybe saw speckles of blue). So anyway, she instructed us to collect a few samples the next few days and to bring it to the lab for testing. On one hand, I'll be sad if she has allergies. But on the other hand, at least we caught it early and I already know what I'm doing - most of the time!
The doctor also said Imogene's belly button is a little bit herniated but that it was nothing to worry about and should go away by the time she is 2 or 3.

As for her stats:

Weight: 11 lbs. (up 2 pounds in a month)
Height 22.75 inches (up 1.25 inches in month)

Why my kids are cute:

Emmaline put two cardboard paper towel tubes on her arms today and declared that "I AM A ROBOT" (said in a robot voice of course). Also Louie has been replaced with an imaginary dog named Sparkles.

Liliana can now sign "please" when encouraged to (she isn't polite on her own yet!) and when I go get her up from her nap, she pops out from around her door and says "BOO!"

Imogene smiles at me after she eats and is a great sleeper.

Rating: 5 Pixie Dust