Hadassa's latest smile

Hadassa has recently been smiling for the camera - and this her "beautiful" smile :)

New Paint!

We did actually paint the inside of our house! We did it all in one day - we finally got started at about 11am and finished just after midnight.

We've got one really good shot that Jair took with the new camera!

New Camera...

So, my new camera should be coming soon.  And this is why I would like to try a better one - every picture I take of Hadassa the flash makes her close her eyes and if the flash isn't on it doesn't come out good...

Day by Day

This whole process is a day by day situation for us.  Each day seems to get a little easier and a little more hopeful for things for his menu. 

We have a number of different supplements to give Matthan - he even has a huge "old person" pill box with 4 times each day for a week.  It's a lot to keep straight :)  Some of his vitamins he does just fine with, but others particularly the newer ones he his having a hard time getting them down.  They come in a capsule form and we are supposed to break them open into applesauce, or a smoothie - well so far that hasn't worked.  So, we tried to put the entire pill in a spoonful of applesauce and it worked for the first couple of times, then he got "onto us" and began swallowing the applesauce and biting the capsule - yuck!  That's so gross I can't even imagine - and no wonder he doesn't want vitamins anymore.  Today I found a nice webiste that listed a number of ideas for how to get your child to take these things.  One, I tried this morning was to put the capsule contents in some frozen juice concentrate - that was good - although he was still so smart that he new there were vitamins in there and he didn't want it after a try or two.  But, I tasted it, it was good, cold, sweet.  Maybe too sweet actually - so we added some "pop" club soda and that made it a little better.  He did good and finished it all.  I rewarded with a little bit of candy.  I think candy reinforcements might work too.  So, day by day....

The other day Jair came up with a very good idea to prepare snack packs for him for the week.  So, that when we are on the go - it seems we are often headed somewhere.  I can just grab a snack for him and know that he has something to eat wherever we go.  So, I made up a couple of those today.

I've also read a lot about egg replacers and am hopeful to make pancakes soon - using some ground flaxseed and water.  I like the idea of the flaxseed because of it's fiber and nutrition.  As well as I'm hoping to make some bread for him in the coming week. 

We are gearing up to paint this weekend and are buying the no voc paint - no toxins.  I'm super excited to have color on our walls!

Matthan's Progress

We went yesterday to the Naturopath.  We have been on the GFCF diet now for 3 weeks and had in mind to go over with the dr. the changes we observed in Matthan (which in fact were not many) as well as go over his blood work results.

 Shall we do the good news first??  The good news is, he tested negative for celiac disease, as well as gilberts syndrome (gilberts syndrome is a low count of bilirubin and runs in Jair’s family – Jair has this as well as an aunt of his), his sugar levels were good.  His kidneys and liver are functioning properly. 

The “bad” news…Matthan has a low count of red and white blood cells.  His red blood cells are enlarged.  Before I go into more detail, the dr. said he overall looks healthy.  With a low count of red blood cells he is anemic and low on iron.  This could explain the circle under his eyes.  I had been watching for those to lessen in the last 3 weeks thinking they were due to food allergy, but it could be his iron levels.  So, hopefully in the coming 3 weeks those will begin to clear up.  With a low level of white blood cells it means he bruises easily – which is so true, he’s got bruises all over and sometimes I’m like “what did you do?” they look awful.  As well with his white blood cells usually your blood cells are in a 60/40 split, 60% is fighting with your immune system, like when you get a bug, a cold, flu, etc…and 40% fights chronic illness.  Well, his white blood cells are 30/70 split, 30% fight his immune system and 70% fight chronic illness – so he is constantly fighting something.  My poor baby!  I have to not weaken and feel sorry for him or me, I have to keep pressing on to try and help him feel better.  Lord, help me!  More, to the facts…Matthan also shows some pretty high levels of heavy metals in his body.  There are treatments for this known as chelation and over the course of time; you slowly draw out the metals in his body.  How does he get those heavy metals there?  It is from vaccines, some drinking waters (or tap waters), and I can’t remember if she said anywhere else – those were the 2 I recall. So, maybe in the future we will work with this, but first we will try to tackle the diet J  He also, may need to have some vitamin B12 shots.  I’m not entirely sure how this is helpful, although I have read that it often does help children with ASD (autism spectrum disorders).  I do think it’s to improve your overall red blood cells.  And you can often get it from food, but at this point with his diet his intake of B12 will be minimal.  So, that too is one of those things we may work on in the future.  Matthan was low in vitamin D and actually all my children probably are with living here!  He also showed low cholesterol, and while for us adults that sounds good, but cholesterol actually feeds the neurotransmitters and so he kind of needs “all he can get” so we won’t be shy with him in using the fats.  Now, to the food allergy testing….We had a food allergy test done for him, which was pretty expensive (we were blessed by a generous family member who paid for it) and I was pretty excited to see the results.  Although, they are not what I expected and I think my world of cooking just got a bit harder and more challenging!  He is allergic to:

Milk

Whey

Beef

Eggs

Cranberries

All Citrus Fruits

Gluten

Soy

Peanuts

The milk and the beef he reacts to immediately as with the others he will show a reaction later - a day to a week later.  I’m thankful that he didn’t show positive allergy to casein, cheese, yogurt, or goats milk.  And over time we will slowly add those things into hid diet one by one.  I’m bummed that he can’t have beef (he really likes it) especially steak!  And for me, I’m bummed that he can’t have eggs, or soy because really those are also in a lot of things!  So, cooking healthy and creative just got harder again!  And for peanuts – oh man he loves his peanut butter.  So, yesterday I picked up some almond butter and hope that he will like it.  One of the great things about Matthan is he really is pretty flexible. So, now for the next 3 weeks we will be cutting out his entire allergy foods and see how that goes.  Jair thinks he wants to do it too, because he is a lot like Matthan and maybe Jair will benefit from the diet change.  We’ll see.

We continue to pray for the Lord’s leading in all of this; His wisdom and His discernment on how best to help Matthan.  It has been a very expensive venture thus far and it will continue to be so we also pray for His provision.  The Lord is always faithful to provide for us.  

 Ma

Hot Cocoa & Popcorn

 They boys have both been asking for hot cocoa the last number of days.  I found a recipe in a book I checked out from the library and decided to give it a try today.  It turned out really good - especially since I haven't had chocolate for 3 weeks!  The boys liked it too and well for the popcorn - they decided that would be a good lunch and since I had little motivation, it sounded alright to me!

The recipe for the hot cocoa was:
1 T agave nectar
1 tsp of cocoa
1/2 tsp of vanilla
1 mug full of soy milk heated.

Basically you mix the heated milk with the other ingredients and voila!  Hot cocoa!

Hadrian-o-saurus Birthday

Hadrian has turned 3! I can hardly believe it.  We celebrated with a dinosaur birthday yesterday.  It was really fun and he totally loved all the aspects of his birthday, people, gifts, cake - it's so fun to see the excitement in your child's eyes.  Here are a few photos.  Oh, and the cake we made, Jair did the precise design work and I frosted, and baked.  It's also completely gluten & casein free!

It's been a week!

 We've done the diet now an entire week.  It's going really well!  Today, I made my first batch of GFCF pancakes for breakfast!  They were really great.  I also made some cornbread to go with chili tonight for dinner and turned out amazingly.  It was our first piece of "bread" in a week and we all really enjoyed it!  I actually had my parents over for dinner and the liked it too - so it really must have been good.

This past weekend I ventured out to get a bunch of GF flours to cook and bake with.  I think I spent like $30 on flour - $30!! That's so much money.  I'm not sure how long it will last - time will tell.  Hadrian is turning 3 in 2 days so we are having his birthday which I will be baking the first GFCF birthday cake.  I sure hope it turns out!