Disclaimer: This post has mostly food photos. And that is because I was in the kitchen constantly. This new diet for Luke that began July 1st, required me to prepare everything. Here are my 'ferments': pickles, kimchi and saurkraut.
I knew we wouldn't last long if I couldn't find something to use for sandwich bread. These coconut pancakes proved to be our saving grace. Elliott and Luke always had peanut butter honey and Alex peanut butter banana. I made a fresh batch of chicken and veggie soup for Lily each week to eat for lunch. Adam and I ate lots of salads and leftovers for lunch. Amazingly, I lost 12 pounds in the first week and a half. I felt so much better and my energy went way up! I also felt really calm. I have since discovered that my level of irritation/anger is directly correlated to the amount of sugar I've consumed.
These kebabs were a fail but represents that we had some form of meat every night. Lots of meat and veggies for dinner.
On July 4th we did our annual '1 mile memorial run for Jordan' (Adam's brother). He's been gone 4 years. Crazy to think it's been that long. Jenna and Austin's families joined ours. We ran around our loop twice. Elliott and AnnMarie tripped over one another. Can't do these things without at least one casualty. I opted out this year, being hugely pregnant.
Later on that evening, our family went to the Sachse City 4th of July fireworks. I was really proud of the kids. They were offered free candy, gum and popsicles, but turned them all down since we were going sugar free. I did bring our own 'smoothie popsicles' from home. I think the kids were grateful to have something. We found a really great parking spot inside the neighborhood that proved to be great when we were leaving. In previous years we've been stuck in the parking lot for more than an hour (which is miserable with tired kids). Sneaky spot for the win!
The food pictured was a defining moment for our family. Up until this time, my children have been the most picky kids on the planet. Alex refusing to eat eggs, Lily refusing to eat beef and Elliott refusing to eat chicken, not to mention the stink they would make if something looked or smelled funny. Well, by day 3 into the diet, we had already had 2 episodes of kids not wanting to eat, then eating and forcing themselves to throw up. Yes, my kids know how to do that. It's a big-time trigger for me and one major reason I resented/ developed a form of PTSD cooking for my family.
Well, on this particular day (when I cooked the above food), the kids again refused to eat. I was losing it because I had no idea how we were going to make it through the month of July and keep everyone fed and me not going insane. I finally looked my kids in the eye and gave each of them a small bowl with about 1/4 cup of food in it. I set a timer for 15 minutes and said, "My food will always taste better than your throw up. If you throw up, I will feed it to you. You have 15 minutes to eat this. Figure it out." They were crying, but they did it. We then talked about it afterwards how eating food is mental. Food is meant to nourish us, not be fun or entertain us. It CAN do those things, but that's not what it was made for. This month we were going to be eating lots of new things and we were doing it for Luke to see if it would help him. At this point we had already heard Luke start talking again. He had resurrected several old words and was much more 'present'. They could see that.
For the next week or so, I always had a 'puke bowl' on the table. A few people got close to needing it, but I can happily say (even now in September as I write this) that no one has been fed their own puke. Hooray for a mental exercise that worked and my kids are WAY better at trying/eating new food or food that they don't like. Woot!
This is french toast on coconut bread with a special homemade honey syrup and homemade fresh strawberry jam. An instant hit! We like it better than regular french toast. We've had this weekly ever since.
I feel like most of my month was spent at the grocery store and then preparing said food that I bought, and then documenting what we ate and Luke's behavior for that day. We had a few interesting breakthroughs. First, I had the thought/impression that I needed to take Luke back to the chiropractor for his jaw and also see the dentist who 'released' his tongue tie to see if it was still fine. I wasn't able to get into the dentist for a few more weeks, but I was able to set an appt for the Chiropractor the next day.
The day we went into the Chiro, he mentioned off hand how his ears/ area behind his ears was really swollen. He asked if he recently had an ear infection. I said no, and that I took Luke into an ENT in May to check on his ears and have a tympannogram done. The ENT said his ears looked fine and the results of the tympannogram came back normal. Our visit with the Chiropractor went on as normal and we scheduled a few more appointments. The day of our first appointment, I decided that we needed to take Luke off of all dairy. I had done some reading and felt impressed that this was something we needed to try.
A week after we implemented this, we had another Chiro appointment. He remarked how the swelling was completely gone. One of Luke's 'stims' (or so we thought it was)- tapping his ear- had also disappeared. I looked up reactions to milk and one was 'swelling of the eustachian tube'. I was floored. His little ears had been inflamed for who knows how long and he was trying to tell us that it bugged him by tapping his ears. I had no idea! AND it's entirely possible that because they were swollen, he wasn't able to hear us very well, which could contribute to his ability to talk! This was a real break through moment for me.
Did you know you can homemake your own chicken bullion cubes?!
Other things that happened this month: I had a few sisters in my ward throw me a baby shower. I really, REALLY didn't want one. In fact, I had turned people down 3 times when they asked if I wanted one. Well, one Wednesday evening, a sister came up to me and said, "Hey, a few of us are getting together Friday night for a baby shower for you. It's at 7pm. It'd be great if you came." I just laughed, because she knew me well enough to just not ask. She said- this is happening, you better come. It was fun. People were so nice to bring anything. I still felt embarrassed as this was my 5th child and I really didn't need anything, but people were kind and brought diapers, gift cards and a few adorable outfits. I used to gift cards to buy a bouncer and a moby wrap. It was perfect.
Homemade Yogurt. It's super cheap and easy.
In other news, the kids did loads of summer camps. Alex did three different coding camps at UTD. One with a basic programming language called scratch, another class using scratch to make games and a third that used scratch to program robots. Alex loved all of them. It was a ton of driving for me, but I was glad to see him happy. It really kept him on track with doing school, chores and his behavior in check. Lily and Elliott did a gymnastics camp and an art camp. The art camp was amazing! They did the coolest stuff! I signed all three of them up for a weekly class with the same teacher during the school year. I'm very excited for them. All the kids did the Physics camp that I mentioned in my previous post. They thought it was cool and loved all the hands on experiments that they got to try. It also helps that Dr. Reid is a really funny guy.
Here's a picture of me giving Luke a hard boiled egg during his nursery snack time. We now have to go in during every snack time, take him to a different room and feed him his snack. They give the kids crackers, pretzels and fruit snacks....which are all things that he can't eat. It's kind of a pain, but we will be doing it for the rest of the year.
Here's a picture of one of our standard treats- orange juice popsicles. When you're not allowed to have sugar, it's amazing how something like this can taste so good. They haven't gotten old for the kids (or for me!)
Alex had a birthday at the end of July! Nine years, come and gone in a flash. This kid has given us a run for our money on so many things, but honestly, I wouldn't change a thing. He's becoming a really cool human being. He's so compassionate, creative and curious. I think he's going to do great things with his life.
Here he is opening a card from Grandma and Grandpa Fowles. He was one happy camper to be holding so much money! Alex was also a really good sport because I made a gluten-free/dairy free cupcake. I made frosting that wasn't dairy free, but I didn't put any on Luke's. I also got real icecream! Everyone loved it (truthfully, I felt sick after eating the icecream but have since found that dairy doesn't sit great with me either....sigh)
Comments