Refinding Our Rhythm

My elderly father hadn't been well for quite a while. My parents had been planning on flying us up to spend some time with them in July, however in early January my dad's health took a turn for the worse.

Toward the end of January we got the call we'd been half expecting and with less than a week of last minute planning, booking and packing, we flew north for a 2 week stay.

We got to spend 10 days with my dad before he finally passed away; it was lovely to see his joy in seeing all his grandkids again. Since it was so close to our departure date and the funeral had to wait for international relatives, we decided to extend our stay by a week. REX were great and waived the flight change fees when we faxed our travel agent the death certificate but Virgin wouldn't budge and we had to fork out nearly $1500.

Our stay in far north Queensland was hot, humid, wet and exhausting. The mosquitoes just about ate Beanie alive when he spent 10 minutes outside. There were cyclone threats. Due to my dad's ill health and death and the hot, wet weather, we didn't venture far from my parents' home. The boys got bored, watched far too much TV and ate far too much junk food. We stayed indoors and enjoyed the air conditioning. The boys enjoyed a nearby child-friendly shopping centre.

While we were away from home Beanie celebrated his 4th birthday and both toilet trained and finished breastfeeding. Big moments! Baby Bear celebrated his 1st birthday and started really cruising, even taking 3 unassisted steps! 

It was lovely to catch up with some old friends and family again (and to have some yummy nem chua again for the first time in over a decade) but we are so glad to be home. In the last couple of days of our stay, Shmoo and Beanie came down with a nasty cold and Loo had an allergic reaction so our journey home wasn't particularly pleasant and the rest of us have since caught the cold too.

We are still unpacking (having gone up with 2 half full suitcases and returned with 3 overloaded ones), recovering, and trying to settle down into some kind of rhythm again.

   

Ugh...

Poor Loo. We went to a little Christmas party yesterday and as soon as we got there the boys were offered a gumball. They were keen to try them as they've never had gumballs before (and unless we're aware of specific allergens, like raw egg, then we generally don't make them refuse these things if they're offered when we're out, we're just fairly selective when it comes to what we buy for the kids ourselves). So, each of the boys accepted a gumball.

Shmoo didn't like his and chose to discreetly spit the remains into a serviette (I must admit, I was quite pleased when he did!). Both Loo and Beanie happily consumed theirs. Unfortunately, within minutes Loo had rashed up around his mouth, over his chest, neck and behind his ears; and his behaviour quickly became aggressive. One gumball, that's all it took. No doubt those gumballs contained all manner of nasty colours, flavours and preservatives. As to what was different compared to the stuff he ate a few days ago - who knows. When they were offered more gumballs later in the evening I did say no thanks and luckily none of the boys minded at all.

The poor boy is still rashy and itchy today. And I'm trying not to let the mama-guilt get too out of control *sigh* :(

And I really do need to get a fresh bottle of Phenergan to carry around with us. It's been so long since we've needed it.

Oh, Thank Goodness For That...

The OH took Loo Bear to the doctor this afternoon. The GP seems to think it's just upper respiratory stuff, a bad attack of hayfever rather than asthma.

Asthma?

*Sigh* Apparently Loo had some difficulties breathing at his performing arts class this afternoon.
Eczema, allergies, hayfever... will asthma be added to the list?

ETA - When they got home I asked Loo to describe what it felt like and he said that it felt like his chest was blocked... hmm.

Water Kefir

Four or five years ago I started hearing about the amazing health benefits milk kefir. It sounded good but, having a child anaphylactic to dairy at the time, I wasn't about to start experimenting with milk. A couple of years ago I noticed that people were talking about water kefir, a non-dairy alternative that still provided the great probiotic benefits. I toyed with the idea of having a go at making water kefir but never seemed to get around to it.

Until now. A number of things, including an annoying bout of pregnancy-induced thrush, finally motivated me to order some water kefir grains (I got them from Tumbletree). And I'm really excited to see what those little grains do, especially after stumbling across some great info at Delicious Obsessions and Divine Health... even more so after I realised that the cute and really cheap Fido jars and swing top bottles I'd managed to score online last week are the same ones that Jessica from Delicious Obsessions uses to make her water kefir in.

So I'm just going to do a couple of batches to let the WKG grow until my lovely new jars/bottles arrive next week and then I'll start doing it properly with the whole second ferment and everything. I can't stop going to the pantry to gaze in awe at the WKG bubbling away and doing their thing in the jar of sugar water. They're actually doing it and looking all perky and happy, and it was only just over 24 hours (when I took the above pic). Very cool. And the boys are fascinated with how the grains eat the sugar and produce all those bubbles (which they have hereby called kefir farts *sigh*).

For the basic sugar water recipe I ended up kind of combining the instructions that came with my WKG and the recipe I found on Delicious Obsessions. I used 2 scant tablespoons of jaggery dissolved in a bit of hot water, topped it it up with cold water (total of 2 cups); mixed in 1 teaspoon of pure maple syrup, a tiny pinch of bicarb soda; and then tipped in the 2 tablespoons of WKG. I've never been a fan of dried fruit so I'm bit reluctant to add any at this stage, will see how it goes; and, as aforementioned child also used to be anaphylactic to egg, I still find myself being a bit cautious and reluctant to add the eggshell (I figure I can always add a bit to later batches if the grains seem to need something extra).

Can't wait to see how it all turns out and to start experimenting with different flavours during the secondary ferment!

Chia Bread Rolls

 

It has been a long search for a simple, quick, tasty, gluten/dairy/soy free bread substitute that works well as toast and bread rolls. I think I've finally found it! I've been musing over this recipe for chia pan bread for a while now and finally made a small batch the other day. I followed the recipe fairly closely the first time (except I cooked them in the oven as there's no way I'm going to stand there cooking dozens of these things in a pan!). The dough turned out to be rather wet and I added just enough extra potato flour so that it wasn't so sticky but the final product ended up about the size and shape of profiteroles and very dense and moist on the inside. However, the outside was nice and crispy and the taste was great and got the thumbs up from all 4 males, with the kids begging me to make more. The all-'round approval is a rare thing so I was determined to tweak the recipe and make it work.

Today I made another batch, aiming for something like an English muffin in size and shape. I decided to omit the onion but added a little salt. I mixed the ground chia seeds, potato flour and baking powder in the food processor. I then gradually poured in enough of the lightly beaten eggs so that the mixture came together into a ball (probably worked out to be < 2 eggs for every 6 Tbsp of flour). I let the mixture sit for 5-10 minutes while I cleared up and prepped the trays etc. I kneaded the dough on a lightly floured surface for another 5-10 minutes, adding a small amount more of the beaten eggs, until it felt like the dough had a good texture - reasonably firm, moist but not sticky. I then rolled the dough out to just under 1cm thick and used a container to cut out shapes. When I had to re-roll the dough I added a tiny bit more egg as the chia kept absorbing and dried out the dough a little. Into a moderately hot oven for 20 minutes or so, flipping halfway.

They turned out pretty good! Could probably still do with some minor tweaking but, overall, I'm happy with them. They were still a bit dense inside but we don't mind that (we've been doing very simple homemade breads for so long now that the air-filled, barely there slices of store-bought bread seem so insubstantial). Next time I might go back to free form shaping the rolls and see how they go. I have some in the fridge and we'll see what the kids think of them as a toast replacement tomorrow morning. The real test, however, will be the ones I have in the freezer. Cooking in bulk and freezing is something we do a lot of so hopefully they freeze well (or maybe that should be defrost well!).

Ice Blocks

The boys love ice cream but, as they've had dairy allergies and intolerances in the past, I make them a coconut cream based ice cream. They also don't mind an avocado/pear/banana 'ice cream' that I make. A little while ago I thought we'd give ice blocks a go. Except, with winter approaching, it was impossible to find any molds in the local shops. I found some really great looking ones online that were on sale so I got those and the boys have been enjoying ice blocks ever since.

I've been gradually working through the boys' list of flavour suggestions, depending on what's on sale and in season. Shmoo has been asking for orange ice blocks and it just so happened that the fruit and veg shop had big bags of oranges on sale during the week.

This morning we set about juicing the oranges. The kids eagerly hovered around, having their first taste of toffee (I got distracted and cooked some sugar syrup a little too long). Shmoo enjoyed examining the plump, shiny orange juice vesicles (he's remembered what they're called ever since nagging me to find out when he was 3.5). He watched the juice drip down into the jug, keeping track of how many millilitres we'd squeezed out. He managed to work out that if we'd gotten about 500ml from 6 oranges, we then needed to juice another 6 oranges to get to our target of 1000ml/1L. We even manged to do some skip counting with oranges and Shmoo got in a bit more practise with odds and evens.

I then sent the kids out of the room on the pretext of getting them to see how The OH was going with building a worm house (compost bin), and quickly stirred some carrot juice into the orange juice. :-$ Yeah, sneaky, I know. We tend to hide veg wherever we can here so that if the kids don't eat the undisguised veg on their plate (as often happens), we know that they're still getting a decent range of vegetables. I saved the carrot juice from last night when I finely processed a whole bunch of veg. We made a mega batch of wontons, 240 of them, for wonton soup (I often cook in bulk and freeze in small portions for quick and easy future meals). Whenever I used to make the soup the boys would pick out the wontons and leave the veg. So I told them I wouldn't put veg in the stock anymore and they were happy. Instead, I put it all into the wontons themselves :-"

Australia Day 2012

 

Australia Day celebrations in our little town. The boys (well, mostly Loo) stuffed themselves silly on sausages. Loo must be having a growth spurt - it was "I'm hungry" all day. He was a bit disappointed that they didn't have a jumping castle this year but both he and Shmoo had fun joining in the other games (gumboot throwing, tug-of-war etc). We left when they did the egg throwing game though. I was a bit surprised that anyone would do a game that involved throwing raw eggs around when so many kids these days have allergies. We just couldn't risk Loo coming into contact with the raw egg white that inevitably ended up all over the grass and probably on a lot of the people who participated in the game (particularly as we no longer have the epipens). Poor kid. After all these years of dealing with his allergies he was quite understanding but I could see that he was awfully disappointed that he could no longer run around and play and it made him feel very different and isolated from the other kids there.

[We didn't deliberately try and make Loo and Beanie all matchy with their outfits by the way. I got Beanie dressed in the morning and Loo chose his own clothes. It just so happened that they both ended up wearing the exact same shade of pink. And the hats are the same because they're great hats with a wide brim all around plus a neck flap and we have several of them.]

Updates

Don't know why but I haven't been able to get the blog to load for days. In the last few days we have:

- Had another paed appt for Shmoo. Usual paed was away so we had a fill-in. Upped Shmoo's meds to 1/2 a tablet 3 times per day. And he agreed that we were doing the right thing by keeping Shmoo out of undies and pants as much as possible (at home) to try and break the behavioural pattern. (Oh how I hate the walk from the Specialists Clinics to the pharmacy, going past the day surgery and operating theatres... flashbacks to my D&Cs every time. Ugh).

- Taken advantage of the nice, warm weather and had a nice afternoon at the beach in Penguin, exploring the rock pools at low tide.

- Over a few days, tried both Loo and Beanie on cheese. Both seemed to do okay, although hard to tell with Beanie as he didn't seem to like it and so didn't eat much.

- Beanie is very confident at sitting independently and also at standing holding on to things (sometimes only with one hand to steady himself, no more wobbly legs!). He has also made some small attempts at cruising!

- Shmoo is doing so well at swimming... huge improvements. He is now happy to wear his goggles and he will even put his face in the water and blow bubbles. So awesome to see him kicking around the pool holding on to a pool noodle and trying to coordinate all the things he has to do.

- We've also done a lot of 'nature studies', aka digging in the dirt. Shmoo that is. Loo doesn't like getting his hands dirty and is petrified of bugs. Shmoo, on the other hand, loves all things nature and has no problems making friends with worms, snails, millipedes or slaters.

- Baby wearing. Thank goodness for the Storch. I'd never get anything done otherwise. I even managed to get the bathroom, toilet & laundry cleaned the other day whilst he napped on my back.

- The boys are loving the activity trays and I've been having fun trying crafty things like using rubbing alcohol and food dye to colour pasta.

- Homeschool preparation. Trying to get our program organised and outline ready to submit with the registration form.

Cooking. As usual, always lots of cooking!

21w4d

Is it too early to be nesting? Maybe I've just been bitten by the spring cleaning bug. Either way, I have been a little preoccupied with cleaning lately - vacuuming, scrubbing, mopping; cleaning and reorgansing the pantry and kitchen cupboards etc etc. It's not doing my aching back and hips any good but oh well. And at least the OH knows enough now not to argue with the obsessed pregnant woman LOL.

Shmoo and Loo's snowpeas are coming up well with all the sun we've had lately. I think the parsley seeds are just sprouting too... there's a wonky line of little green shoots anyway, so I'll wait and see if they're weeds or parsely before pulling them out. We've forgotten to water them lately after not having to water them at all because we had so much rain (I'd actually worried that the seeds might have washed away!) so the soil's a bit compacted and dry. I snuck out when Loo was asleep to pull out the weeds but didn't have much luck because it was so dry. Will have to wait a couple of days until we've gotten it all moist again. (Didn't want Loo to see me pulling the weeds out as he's too young to understand the difference between weeds & plants - turn my back for a second and he'd be ripping up the snowpeas LOL).

Hoping to get back into playgroups and homeschooling groups soon, now that the pregnancy's going well and hopfully there's not so much swine flu about. There was a homeschooling meet-up today 2 mins up the road from us and we'd been looking forward to going but Loo woke up all croaky and coughing, snot everywhere. Typical LOL. He doesn't seem so bad now but we didn't want to pass it on to all the other kids.

Speaking of homeschooling, Shmoo's doing pretty well. We do need to focus on numeracy a little more though. His reading is coming along well. He does well with all his letter sounds (phonics stuff) and we've just started on some sight words. He can read short sentences when he wants to too (bit of a daydreamer and a short attention span so it's all done in short bursts). The other day he read: 'a frog on a log', 'a baby cat is a kitten', and 'a drink of milk'.

Loo has an appointment with the allergist in Launceston in just over a week (the 19th). He'll be restested and we need to get another prescription for epipens. The eczema around his mouth has been clearing up well with the reduction in salicylates. This has also made it obvious that he is still reacting to something in his diet. The common factor seems to be soy products so we'll try to cut those out and see how he goes. I know he did react to soy when he was a baby. I thought he'd outgrown the intolerance but perhaps his tolerance for it had just increased a little. Anyway, we'll cut it out and then re-introduce it slowly at a later date. It's going to be a PITA though as I can't stand the taste of rice milk. Anything that requires milk I'll have to cook separately, use rice milk for the kids and soy milk for us.