Just Another Mommy Blog

Textbooks have to be re-written. Mickey needs to get a new dog. Pluto has been demoted, and I am sad about it.

During the 7th grade, I clearly remember making a model of the solar system out of Styrofoam balls, a hanger, and some string. There were 9 planets. I remember picking a very small ball to illustrate the furthest planet from the sun. I believe I colored it purple. Earth had to be Blue, and the next best color to represent the cold atmosphere of Pluto was purple. When I studied for the test, I memorized the order of the planets by chanting M-VEM-JaSUN-P! M-VEM-JaSUN-P! The P was extra spirited with a fist in the air.

A Pluto Haiku:
Pluto how dare you
Too small, crossing Neptune's path
A dwarf: Demoted!

Chloe is not a breakfast person. Most mornings, we are lucky to get her to eat a couple bites of fruit, and a few pieces of rice cereal. The rest gets pelted at Maverick. He is not complaining. But...if we are going to ever get this kid off formula, she needs to eat.

So, I started searching for recipes for a yummy breakfast concoction that would be enticing enough to get Chloe to fulfill some key protein and fat requirements. The challenge: I cannot use any dairy, eggs, gluten containing grains (wheat, rye, barley, oats), or soy.

I found a recipe for rice/millet waffles a couple of days ago, and tried using it for pancakes. Ingredients: rice flour, millet flour, potato starch, applesauce, liquid (I used unfiltered apple juice), oil, more oil, baking powder, and xanthan gum. Wait, Xanthan Gum? Who cooks with that? I looked it up, and turns out it's pretty much required for gluten free baking. This cooking novice had no idea that gluten serves a key purpose in holding the dough together. Without that, you need something else to do the job -- Xanthan Gum.

Anyway...My first attempt wasn't very pretty. The pancakes burnt onto the pan, and then when I went to flip them, it was still liquid inside. I was pretty irritated at the xanthan gum for not doing its job. But, I persevered, and made scrambled pancake batter with half of it, and threw the rest in the oven to make pancake like biscuity things -- Not something I would serve to guests. The good news though, was that Chloe loved it! She ate the equivalent of an adult size pancake, as well as two biscuits. So, either she was having a major growth spurt, or I was on to something.

More searching...different pan...

Today I made a similar recipe, and it worked! Not only did the pancakes work, but they were tasty enough that we all sat down and ate them for breakfast. Next time I'll throw some blueberries in them, and I bet I could even serve them to guests. Woo hoo!

Next up: Zucchini bread.

I am constantly amazed at how Chloe grows, learns and changes so very quickly. Here are a few things she has been doing lately that make me smile.

- She is repeating words, and picking up new ones every day...up, cat, dog, meow, duck, no, balloon, tickle, what's that, etc etc...

- Both Mommy and Daddy are named "DA DA" unless it's in the middle of the night, and she doesn't want to take her medicine. Then she says Maaamaaammaaamaaa while shaking her head and nuzzling her head into that little spot on my shoulder that was made just for her. It's like she knows I will just hold her close and savor that moment, and might actually forget to give her the medicine.

- She loves to dance. She will stand using the coffee table for support and sway her hips, tap her right foot, and then bend her knees while bobbing her head. Then, she does it all again like it's her own little dance routine. Sometimes she even hits the right beat with the music.

- She asks for the song "Old McDonald had a Farm" by saying "E-I-E-I-E-I". When you start singing it, she smiles, and cuddles up with you, then busts out with a "duck", "cat" or "Meow" at the appropriate times.

- When you say "honk" she squeezes the nose of the closest person to her. If no one is within arms reach, she squeezes her own nose. HONK!

- She cracks herself up by tickling other people's feet.

- Kisses, kisses and more kisses. She will get a very serious look on her face (kissing is serious business) carefully lean forward, press her nose up against the object of choice (generally a stuffed animal, picture in a book, or a random body part), and will blow her nose just a teeny tiny bit.

You may remember my search for a cheese alternative earlier this year. Recently, we were at the store, and this time, it was Martin with the unsatisfied craving. I found him standing at the back of the store, staring at the "dairy-free" cheese, most of which actually does contain dairy. The only truly dairy-free dairy-free cheese is made out of rice. No matter how you mash it, color it, and label it, rice is still rice. For some things, there are no substitutions.

Every time Chloe has a sign of illness, I must first decide whether it is associated with her allergies, or whether it's just regular kid stuff. I got hit with that again today, and almost made a mistake that would have at best resulted in a wasted afternoon at the ER, and at worst, would have resulted in a very uncomfortable afternoon and unnecessary visit from the paramedics for the wee one.

Over the weekend, Chloe was very sick - high fever (103.7 - ACK!), not eating, clingy, grumpy, etc. She was feeling better yesterday, and this morning seemed back to her old self. Rose took the day off, so I packed up Chloe's things and decided to go shopping for an anniversary present for Martin (success, but more about that later!). We stopped by a few places downtown, and at one point, I decided to stop in Starbucks for a piece of lemon cake. I was very careful to eat this treat out of her reach, and then washed up really well before carrying on.

All was well. We headed home. But then as I pulled Chloe out of her car seat, I noticed something on her fingers. A closer look revealed hives. I rushed her in the house, and washed her hands, thinking back to the lemon cake, and kicking myself for it. I figured that some must have gotten onto my wallet which she was then playing with at one of the stores. She seemed OK at this point though, so I decided to give her lunch. She shook her head no at the food, and began scratching her chin and throat. I remembered that she was eating a snack I brought for her in the car, which meant that her fingers were in her mouth. I was sure she was having a serious allergic reaction and that whatever was causing hives on her hands was also causing her throat to itch and swell. So I get her out of the booster, call Martin, and he says, "go to the hospital." I think back to the allergist demonstration of the epi pen telling us to use it when in doubt. I was in doubt. OK, to the hospital we would go.

I grab the epi pens, and got ourselves together, and decided to make a quick pit stop before heading out. I took her in with me, sat her on the floor, and she immediately said, "Duck", stands up, looks over the side of the bathtub, reaches for her duck, and turns to smile at me. I am thinking, "Hmmm...this is not a kid going into anaphylaxis." I decided to stay put, and watch her. While she was playing, I managed to get her to eat her lunch. She seemed normal. But the hives were still very prominent on her fingers, and I was noticing some on her toes. I took her outside to look in the daylight.

Sunshine revealed that what looked like hives were actually blisters. So I call her pediatrician, go in, and get confirmation that she has hand, foot and mouth disease. It's a relatively common childhood illness, which you can Google if you are curious.

When the pediatrician confirmed the diagnosis, I was actually happy. Don't get me wrong - I don't want her to be sick. But I don't want her to have allergic reactions even more.

And to think I was going to stick her with the epi (ouch!) and dial 911. I am getting better about not taking everything as a sign of allergy, but this one got me - it was just regular kid stuff.

(oh, and I am not a complete nutjob -- Martin had a look when he got home, he said it looked like hives, too.)