No pictures today

Since finding out for sure that Emily has Celiac disease, people send me websites and tips and suggestions and answers to questions all the time. I read them. I try to process them. I keep them in my e-mail so I can pull them out later and re-read them. Most things say things like " Food is wonderful, food can be the best thing ever, food is sensual." WHAT!?!?!?
I do not see food, more importantly, COOKING food, in this light at all. It makes me feel stress. I rarely feel stress. I feel like a pretty balanced person and sure, there are moments at night when both kiddos are screaming that my blood pressure rises a tad, but overall, I'm calm, cool and collected.
The thought of cooking meals, that are wonderful and "sensual" makes me sweat though. When I read the safe list and the forbidden list, most things I don't even recognize. I've never seen these letters put together, and I would never think they would make a word. But it's a word...it's a thing, an additive, a seasoning, a something...and now I have to know about it.
Some might say I've been naive, not reading labels all along, to know what additives and perservatives are in our food. But really, I read labels for fat and calories, carbs and sometimes sodium, but 20 letter preservatives - nope, not so much.
I wish I was organic.
I wish I was more earthy.
I wish I could have a garden and grow food and really eat it.
But...it's really not me. I wish it was me, sometimes, but it's not. I'm not sure it ever will be.
So I am going to figure out this gluten thing for me and my family the best way I know how. Yes, I will try some recipes, that don't take 1 hour of prep time and require chopping 4 different vegetables. I don't like to chop. Yes, call me lazy, but I'm not good at chopping and it takes FOREVER.
I don't do recipes that take more than 20 mins prep time. Lazy again, yes.
I mop several times a week, but chopping and preparing food, ugh. I'd rather be on my hands and knees scrubbing grout. Or scrubbing bathroom gunk. Anything and anywhere than in the kitchen.
Maybe if I had more time. Maybe if my kitchen was big and beautiful, and could be the true " heart of our home." Maybe if my husband was home at night with us. Maybe if my attitude changed a bit. Maybe....
But for right now, I am going to continue to scour shelves for gluten free products. I will buy gluten free mixes and mix them up. I will not buy potato flour and learn what " thickeners and stabilizers" are gluten free...what the heck are those anyway!?!?!?
I will buy gluten free chicken nuggets. And buy boxed gluten free cookie mix.
I will do my best.
The end.

TOGA TOGA!

The pictures speak for themselves, lol....



P.S. I can't keep that picture from being at the very top, I give up!

Who needs gluten anyway?!

Well, we got our confirmatory call today, our baby girl has Celiac disease. I hate that word " disease." But, it is what it is. We have an appt the end of next week with a dietitian and then the real fun begins. We know the basics, but apparently there is a lot of hidden gluten in lots of things. Celiac also causes your body not to absorb nutrients as well, so I need to know what kind of vitamins to give, these are formative years you know, and I need to make sure she's getting all of the adequate "stuff" she needs.
This is especially hard for ME because I'm not good with food stuff. I mean I know the basic food groups, I know we need some of it all, but when I think about %'s and Vitamin A and E and zinc and folate, etc...I get stressed. When I quit nursing that was my one big fear - Holy cow, now what in the world will they eat?!?!?!
Eating times are still probably my least favorite times of day. I think about what to feed them constantly. Is it good enough? Nutritious? Are they getting the vitamins and minerals they need? I guess at least now I'll have someone to work with, just not in the way I wanted it.
Oh well, such is life. And honestly, I look around and I know it could be worse. Our girl is healthy by most accounts, and we are so blessed for that. So bring it on Celiac, we're ready for you!!!

We went to a family reunion in Waycross on Saturday at the Okefenokee Swamp. We did the train ride, walked some trailed and saw a snake show. I can't tell you how many people said " You better watch those babies, an alligator might get them." Lol, I couldn't help but laugh. Somehow the thought of a mad alligator on the loose, in the midst of bunches of people, only having eyes for one of our babies, just made me chuckle. Lol, still does!

I'm playing SAHM today and tomorrow, our sitter is on vacation. I'm not sure I could do this full-time. I'd like to think I could...but deep down, I'm not so sure. I highly admire you SAHM's, I don't know how you spend the day. Learning? Cleaning? Going places? Resting? Playing? It's tough and anyone who says that moms don't really " work" ought to be shot. Or at least made to stay at home with toddlers, babies and other young children for a week straight. Morning and night, no breaks. THEN see what they say. Here's to all you SAHM's, cheers!

Happy Monday!

Waiting for that alligator to come get her!

William decided he was gonna face that alligator head on!

Kicking Myself...

After I don't blog for a while, I always kick myself. I think about blogging, I wanna do it...but then I don't. I have no excuse, it's pure laziness. Anyway, just to keep somewhat on track, I'll blog about our experience yesterday. After 2 months of diarrhea, bloating and general malaise with Emily, I decided to take her to a GI specialist. We are fairly certain that she has Celiac disease. But in order to diagnose that, you have to do a biopsy of the intestinal area, through an endoscopy. So that's what we did yesterday. We did it at Wolfson's, which is where William had his eyes done, so we'd been through the routine before. Everything went well, they put her to sleep, did the procedure, and it only took about 15 mins, just as expected. She did well with everything, but she hated the IV and couldn't wait to get it out. Normally she likes bracelets, but she didn't care for this one! We should get the results on Tuesday. I'm hoping we get something to confirm our suspicions, if not...I'm not sure how we'll proceed, but we have our fingers crossed we'll know one way or the other.

Not much else has been going on. We have been very busy. We were out of town 2 weekends ago. The babies went to the fair for the first time, rode rides, even a mini roller coaster, which was much faster than expected. Everyone is still talking, playing, doing everything like a normal 22 month old does! Emily counts to 10! Lol, not really, she can do it with help, doing every other number, but I'm pleased. William counts to 2, lol, and sometimes 3. It's so funny to see how they learn things at different speeds, and at different times. He is still much more agile than she is. When they chase each other, he runs full speed, and she kind of plods along...somehow I doubt she'll be breaking any world records. Anyway, we are full of life and love at our house and I wouldn't want it any other way. Please don't ask why this is all underlined, I have no idea, and I don't care to figure it out! Happy Thursday!

21 months and counting…

Yesterday our babies turned 21 months old. Holy cow!!!

William:

26.2 pounds

33 inches tall

Emily:

26.4 pounds

33 3/4 inches tall

These are just my measurements and are not 100% accurate, but they’re the best I could do. Days are fun in this house and can also be very trying at times. Emily is still going thru her '”phase.” The I need to be held every single second by my Mama phase…it’s endearing…but it’s exhausting. We have started doing time-out with her when she’s pitching a fit for no real reason and that is hard, just hearing her scream and kick her legs but I also want her to learn she doesn’t get her way just because she acts like that. If she goes to time-out for any other reason, hitting or throwing which she has recently started doing, she immediately says “sorry” and continues to say it over and over…it’s SO funny.

Miss Emily also continues to have stomach issues. Without going into too much gross graphic detail, we have been having some diarrhea issues with her for the last….6-7weeks I guess? We have been to the doctor several times, we thought she might be slightly lactose intolerant, but now…I’m not so sure. I’m trying to debate on whether or not to take her to a GI doctor. I don’t want to overreact, but I also want to make sure her tummy and “insides” are Ok. Verdict is still out on what Ill do about that one.

I guess that’s it for now! Happy Monday!

Knock, knock…

So last night we were playing, having a regular night. Typically we keep all of the doors shut in the hallway, and I thought they were all shut last night. So I’m piddling around in the living room with Emily and I knew that William was in the hall and I kept hearing him knock on the wall. This went on for a wall, me not paying too much attention, and so I wandered down the hall to see what he was doing. Lol – well apparently he had gotten himself into their bedroom, in the dark, and closed the door behind him, and he was knocking so someone would let him out! Lol – it was sooooo funny, I went and got the video camera and got a little of it on tape, him knocking, every so often, I guess he was seeing if anyone would come! He wasn’t crying or upset at all, just knocking….so funny.

Tonight was another ordinary night, which is just fine by me!

Emily looking at Jag

They really like to take timer pictures, even though you can’t tell from William’s face in this one!

And yes, we all look slightly homely in these pictures, BUT – it’s the end of the day. Emily’s hair had been in crazy pigtails that she’d taken out, so her hair was WILD! And – since they were getting a bath anyway, I didn’t bother to clean their faces off AS clean as they could have been…so sue me! ;-)

Happy Tuesday!

At 20.5 months

I'm a terrible blogger, I can admit it. I think about it, I think of witty things to write...but then I never take the time to sit down and actually do it. Not sure why, I guess there's no excuse really.
Anyway, just a short post to get some tidbits about what these babies are doing at 20.5 months:

1) William still loves doggies - imagine that. He says Doggie alllll the time, but it's very hard to tell between that and Daddy, they sound almost identical.

2) He is all boy, he climbs, gets into things, sits in time out every day and is also so sweet. He is the one that likes to hug Emily and rubs her back when she's crying. He will also bring her her blanket or kitty when she's crying, to make her feel better. It's so cute.

3) He loves to help do stuff. He helps Billy cook on the weekends. He helps me with the dryer and loves to help pull clothes in the laundry basket. He still loves to vaccum.

4) Emily is going thru a very....NEEDY phase right now. Only with me, only when it's just us 3 at home. It's pretty terrible. She wants to be held and carted around constantly. And while it's endearing, yes she loves her Mama....I cannot hold her all the time! She pitches fits and cries constantly if she's in one of her moods and I can't have her with me all the time. Nighttimes are a bit more challenging right now because of this. If anyone else is around, this doesn't happen, only when it's just us 3.

5) She still loves books and will sit and look at books for a long time. She likes to take all of them out and loves to sit in your lap and read. She still backs up and plops down, only now she says "sit."

6) Emily talks more than William. She can say pretty much anything. She is just learnign the word NO here in the last few days and has been saying it constantly. Anything you ask her, she says No.

7) Both love to brush their teeth themselves, but when I do it, they hate it! With a passion. They get so upset each night when I do their teeth first, and once they get the brush, they're fine. My friend that's a hygienist said we should do it that way, so that's what I'm going with for now.

8) Please don't ask about potty training. We'll do it. When the time is right. It's not right yet.

9) Emily has been having something going on with her GI tract, not sure what. I won't get into too much graphic details, but her poopy diapers have been very distinct for a few weeks now, and we can't figure out why. We are thinking it might have something to do with dairy products, so we are trying to take away yogurt and milk and see if that helps. So far we've had mixed results.

10) We now have a fish named Jag thanks to Aunt Christie and Uncle Chris. The babies love fish, and they like looking at Jag while they eat ( he lives on our kitchen table for now).

That's all I have time for now! Happy Thursday!