diet update

Anne, speaking to Claire about the gum they were chewing: "Mine has artificial colors in it, and so does yours. Mine isn't good for me."

Claire: "And neither is mine." But they chew it very happily.

Over the Christmas break we reintroduced gluten into Claire's diet. For the first few days, everything seemed fine, but toward the end of the week, Claire's stomach was pretty bloated. Her behavior seemed less stable, which might have been the gluten, but was probably just the less routine nature of the holidays.

So now Claire's back off gluten, her stomach looks better, and I'm just going to have to resign myself to a gluten-free lifestyle and fend off insanity as best I can. I don't know why gluten makes her bloated--her bowel movements were normal, and she never complained of a stomach ache...I wish we had a good DAN! (Defeat Autism Now!) doctor around here, but we don't, so we'll muddle through as best we can on our own.

We haven't reintroduced dairy, and probably never will, because we know it makes her constipated, regardless of how much fiber she eats. I am letting her have soy, and I'm letting her chew gum, hence the dialogue about artificial colors above. If you know of an all natural chewing gum that kids would like, let me know.

She's still on her supplement regimen: a HUGE thanks to Scott J. for the fish oil and probiotics he donates to the cause.

Happy New Year

Is there anything quite like hearing the angelic giggles of little girls "playing so well together!" downstairs?

Is there anything quite like finding the bathroom covered in water that didn't come from the sink and a Barbie in the toilet when you go down to see what's so funny? "But Mom," said Claire, "Rapunzel was only trying to get her shoes back," (which Anne flushed down a few months ago).

And that pink dress is sopping wet. Apparently swimming in the buff was an afterthought.

Snowboarding

Jake's company sponsors an annual night skiing event up the canyon. This is the second year he and Damon have gone, which means Damon has gone snowboarding twice in his young life. Really wish I would have thought to send the camera with Jake. Anyhow, Damon had a good time. Jake was having a good time until he tried to regain his former glory by doing some jumps. "How high did I go off that one, Damon? Twenty feet?" "Maybe four," Damon answered.

Jake says he'll snowboard by himself from now on.

Thanksgiving

We spent Thanksgiving with Aunt Annette, Uncle Conan, and family. It was fabulous. The food was great, the company was even better, and Claire did reasonably well. Annette was so considerate and even set aside yams, potatoes, and corn for Claire that were GFCFSF.

Here's how Claire did: the closer we got to Annette and Eric's house, the more anxious she became, saying things like, "I will just stay in the car." "I don't go into new houses." "Why didn't we just stay at Grandma and Grandpa's?" Nothing I said made her feel better, so when we got there, I just carried her into the house. She didn't want to be put down, and only said 'hi' to people when I prompted her to, which is actually an improvement: she used to just cry in those situations. But I was hoping she would say hello spontaneously. Sigh. During dinner, she did lots better. Meals are structured, she knows what to do, and she did very well. She even had a good time. She sat across from Lex, and he made her laugh for 10 or 15 minutes playing with the turkey table decorations Kiersten had made.

After a few hours her behavior started to deteriorate, and I would make people repeat things they said to her so I could prompt her to respond appropriately. For example: Lex said, "Claire, can I hold you?" And Claire screamed "No" at him and started to cry. I picked her up, put her back in front of Lex, and had Lex repeat, "Claire, can I hold you?" Then I prompted Claire to say, "No, thanks," and praised her. I should have repeated that process until she said "No, thanks" unprompted, but I would like Annette and Eric to invite us over again, so I'll save fun things like that for our house or my parent's house.

Amarillo by morning

or night. They left SLC airport in the morning, I think.

In October my parents took Damon with them to Amarillo to visit my sister and her family. Damon had the time of his life. Nothing like a trip with people who aren't Jake and I to see how sweet life can be. For the record, Damon DID NOT drink MD. That picture was staged by cousin Wes. He thought it would be funny to give me a heart attack.

Uncle Marcus taught Damon to play Monopoly, Lynsey bought him his own board, and now he plays constantly--if Jake and I won't play, he plays with Anne and Claire kind of. He rolls the dice for them, moves their pieces, and then hollers, "Claire! Do you want to buy Mediterranean?" Claire, playing with Anne in the next room, says, "No." Then, "Anne! Do you want to buy Oriental Avenue?" Anne calls back, "Yes!" and so on.

Halloween tweaked for Claire

This was what Claire "bought" with her Halloween candy. After she handed over the candy, she cried for about a half-hour, sobbing "I don't like candy!" Eventually she convinced herself and was happy with the farm animals. (FYI: Claire isn't supposed to have high fructose corn syrup or artificial colors. She shouldn't be having any refined sugars, but I've decided that's impossible.)

I am really anxious to re-introduce gluten and other no-nos into Claire's diet next month. If she has a bad reaction, I think I might go insane. I AM SICK OF THIS GFCFSF MISERY. "Oh," you say, "but she's the only one who has to eat that $#!%. You can eat whatever you want." Yeah, well, I'm the one who has to find the food, make it, enforce the diet, and plan for events that want ruin it. It's a pain and I hate it.

See this nastiness? Nope, it's not Dijon mustard. It's my attempt to make frosting orange with turmeric and paprika instead of food coloring so Claire could decorate her sugar cookie (which I of course had to make myself--try finding a store-bought cookie that's GFCFSF) like a pumpkin if she wanted to during her kindergarten Halloween party.

I also had to make chocolate frosting in case she wanted to make a spider cookie instead, which of course she did, because who wants a yellow pumpkin cookie that smells like a deviled egg? All her classmates were going to have the spider vs. pumpkin option, so I had to try to give Claire the option too, okay? On the plus side, the sugar cookies were very good--they didn't taste GFCFSF at all. Maybe I'll publish a GFCFSF cookbook someday. Just kidding. I'd rather die.

Halloween