Wednesday, December 29, 2010

Classic Evelyn Moment

Evelyn brought her baby doll to me and asked me to feed it. I informed her that if her babies needed fed that it was her job to take care of them. She proceeded to lift up her shirt and say, "Ummmm, where did dey doh?" I just laughed while she continued to pull her skin around and look for "them". She then started talking to herself.

"Hmmmm... belly button... uhhh... dere dey are!" Feeding of the doll commenced.

Saturday, December 18, 2010

Headed to Iowa

Me and the girls are headed to Iowa tomorrow and won't be back in Kansas City until the new year. Here's a few photos of the girls over the last week.


Evelyn hiding inside her kitchen set.


Ready for the snow! Although she really doesn't like getting snow on her shoes.


Happy baby!

Wednesday, December 8, 2010

4 Months

Happy 4 month birthday Annabelle!

Weight: 15 lbs. 12 oz.
Length: 24 1/2 inches

Clothing Size: some 3-6 month, but she fills out her 6-12 month clothes as well

Favorite Activities: watching Evelyn, being held by mommy, smiling, napping, nursing

New Tricks: Rolling over both ways, holding toys and putting them in her mouth

Sleeping Habits: Taking 3 naps a day. Going to bed at 8, waking around 2 and 5 to eat, then at 7:30-8 for the day. No more swaddle!


More Allergy Problems

Evelyn is healing up from her latest allergic reaction.

Sunday night I thought her belly looked bloated. It hasn't looked like that since we took her off of gluten.

I noticed Monday morning that she had some blisters on the back of her thighs and bum and racked my brain to think of what she could have gotten into.

Then it clicked. I asked her what she had for snack at church. Her enthusiastic response..."fish"! Ugh. We pack a special snack for her, but apparently she found a goldfish cracker somewhere and decided to give it a try. The result was a day of blistery rash that seems to be healing up now. I knew they contained gluten, but when I looked up the ingredients online I discovered that they are cooked in sunflower oil as well.

We are currently having her tested for celiac. The traditional way to test for celiac if a child is displaying symptoms is to have them eat gluten every day for 2 weeks and then do a blood test. The results are not certain from this method though. So if they are positive at that point then you have them eat gluten for 6 weeks. Then you put them under general anesthesia and do a scope to take out a piece of their intestines for testing. I REALLY don't want to put her through all that. She would be a wreck the whole time while eating all that gluten and I would rather her not have to undergo anesthesia.

So we opted for another option. We sent in a swab of her cheek to Entero Labs to do a genetic test for celiac. It will tell us if she carries the gene that would make it possible for her to have celiac. If she has the gene, it will be assumed that she has developed celiac based on her symptoms. We get the results back in about a week from now.

Part of me is hoping beyond hope that she doesn't have it. It would be a radical lifestyle change for all of us. We would have to eradicate all gluten from our house. We already struggle to find restaurants where she doesn't react to the food, but we would have to be even more careful about this.

But on the other hand it would be nice to have an answer for why she has these problems. Her true allergy tests come back that she has no problems with any foods. It was only the ALCAT food sensitivities test that gave us any results. If she doesn't have celiac I will be on a quest to figure out how to heal her little body so that hopefully one day she can eat without worry!

Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Sweetened Pork Roast

This is one of my new favorite dinners. We had it last night and it was a hit with everyone.

Sweetened Pork Roast

1 pork shoulder roast (bone-in)
unfiltered apple juice
apricot spread
salt
pepper

Season all sides of the roast liberally with salt and pepper. Sear in a pan over medium-high heat on all sides (1-2 minutes per side). Pour 1/2 cup of water into the pan to loosen up the brown bits.

Place in a crock pot on low heat. Pour in apple juice to come 1/3-1/2 the way up the roast. Add 2 heaping tablespoons of apricot spread and whisk to combine. Pour the water from your searing pan over the roast. Roast on low for 1 hour, then reduce heat to warm for around 8 hours.

Remove the roast from the liquid and pour the liquid into a pan to make gravy.

Serve over egg noodles with roasted carrots.