Wednesday, December 14, 2011

When we go grocery shopping, I always let Riley get a piece of meat from her deli bag. When she was a baby that's how I would make it through the trip. We would start out in the deli section, she would eat some cold cuts, move on to grapes, then finish it off with a donut. Well, Sunday she was w/ me and she grabbed a piece of meat - her million $ filler free, chemical free, allergen free meat. Within minutes she was complaining of being dizzy, then BOOM her chest broke out. While I was shoving Benadryl down her throat Evan was at the deli asking to see the meat to read the ingred list. It was ham, water and 3 chemicals, the only one I can recall is sodium phosphate. We've thought from the beginning that chemicals have more to do with her EE than anything and this just adds more evidence to our case. She had some GI problems later that night, not sure if the 2 are related or not, but it went in my "to be discussed w/ Dr" notebook". 

What i'm finding out in the cooking area is I can make her just about anything she wants (thanks for teaching me to cook Mom) but I suck at writing down recipes. I've made a chicken pot pie which she loves and has requested multiple times. I made a tortilla for a burrito, it was pretty good. It took a few tries, needs improvement, but did the job. The Nutritionalist we work with asked me to keep up w/ the recipes we have success with, b/c they don't have much to give to patients that require this Elimination Diet. Hopefully after Christmas is over i'll be better at this. Here's a few pics to satisfy you:








Tuesday, December 6, 2011

Getting ready for Christmas!

I love Christmas - the lights, decorations, family and the smell of the tree. This is our first year to not go to Bradbury Christmas Tree Farm and cut one down. Evan and I were doing that before Riley was even born. The allergist said to avoid the tree and fireplace so we are. We want to turn our wood burning fireplace into a gas one but it's REDONKULOUSLY expensive! Yes, I use redonkulous. I was sad about not being able to smell pine so Evan and Riley got me a pine scented candle. Our tree is huge! We got a black friday deal so it only cost $50 + free shipping. Sweet!!! 


Goofball 

Riley's Christmas Tree


Not much new on the EE issue. We miss cheese really bad. Gouda, swiss, american, cheddar, monterey jack, pepperjack....sigh. She is losing weight, she weighed in at 52 yesterday, which means she's lost 4 lbs in 3 or 4 weeks. I talked with the Dietitian yesterday and we can't give her the weight gain stuff b/c it has pea or coconut in it and she's allergic to those. Soo....steak, margarine (which we don't use b/c it's seriously 1 ingredient away from being plastic) bologna, cakes, cupcakes, cookies (which I have to make since she can't eat anything and i don't want to pay $397 for a cookie) have been increased. We're down with the steaks, I was pleased to hear that. I made her some cupcakes yesterday JUST LIKE THE CAKE from Thanksgiving that she couldn't get enough of. Well, turns out she only liked it in cake form. It took my whole $8 box of flour :(

She spent the night with her bff Kayla - 1st sleep away since the diet went into effect. It went very smoothly. I sent some food and Tricia is her 2nd mama so I wasn't worried about.

Adoption wise - nothing :(  but I did get to see S & S a few days ago. We only stayed for a minute, it killed me to leave but.....

Thursday, December 1, 2011

Giving Thanks...

The past 10 days have been pretty weird - lots of happy times with family, but also lots of sad times missing S & S. I find myself still putting their favorite snacks in my cart at the store and wanting to make bottles at bedtime. These little mishaps are getting further in between, thank God. Those kids changed me forever and I hope they have an amazing life. Now happy times! Thanksgiving was great! We had it at our house so I was able to keep Riley allergen free. I made the Red Velvet Cake - minus the red. I used a recipe I got from http://www.cybelepascal.com and it was amazing. Riley ate 4 HUGE pieces the first day. You couldn't tell it was a specialty cake. My mother in law took these pics. I've got to step it up and start taking more pics.
                                                   


                                                         
Me and my Daddy


Me and my amazing husband/bff Evan

I look tired don't I? I was..still am...

Evan, Gayle aka Hunny, Blake, Ali