Thought of the day

I am always in the right place at the right time.

"Eating Disorder Mentality" Part 1

That's what the dietitian said was wrong with me.

Rewind...

When Little C (now 3.5) was very young, around 3 or 4 weeks old he developed a nasty rash on his face. Yeah, I know lots of babies get the hormonal rash thing around that age and it goes away, but Little C's didn't go away. It just got worse and worse. Around the same time he developed nasty reflux and I quickly became a human advertisement for baby vomit-scented clothing.

So being the good mum I am, I thought I'd try giving up a few foods to see if that helped him at all. I started by getting rid of dairy and wheat, then removed egg, and then gradually got rid of almost everything from my diet until I was eating only chicken and rice and drinking water. Little C improved a bit, but not much, and I lost around 30kg in 4 months. Woohoo, you might think, but it was not a healthy or fun way to lose weight.

Now the logical thing at this point would be to say "Stuff it, this isn't working. I'm going to start eating again". Unfortunately, every time I tried to reintroduce foods back into my diet Little C and I would both have bad reactions. It seemed as though excluding foods had actually made us more sensitive.

After many tears on the phone to the allergy clinic they eventually decided they could fit us in, so off we toddled expecting at least a plan of action to get us back on track and to stop me from losing any more weight. After five and a half hours of tests and lectures they sent us home with two tins of elemental (protein-free) formula. I cried and cried and cried. I had breastfed Mr T until he was nearly four and was a former NMAA (ABA) Counsellor for goodness sake. How could I give up on Little C at only five months?

So I weaned Little C... then I unweaned him the following day. I drank the revolting elemental formula myself, and continued on with my chicken and rice, gradually introducing a few other things along the way. If you've never tried elemental formula it tastes absolutely disgusting but is also bizarrely filling. I continued to give Little C a small bottle of formula every day or so. The allergy clinic people and some online *friends* had scared me enough with stories of kids who couldn't eat anything but refused to drink elemental formula because of the taste, so had to be tube fed. Ugh. Anyway, that's why I continued with the one bottle a day thing for Little C. I preferred for him to have a bit of the formula so that he would cope with the taste later if he was unable to tolerate solid food.

Stay tuned for Part 2.

Good stuff

It's Sunday so I thought I'd take a moment to take note of some good stuff that's happened in the last week.

I finally got around to cutting Little C's hair. It had grown to the length where people had begun assuming he was a girl... not that there's anything wrong with girls... I was one once.

Until now Little C has be terrified of having his hair cut so I've been cutting it in his sleep, which as you can imagine gets a little messy. This time ANM somehow managed to bribe him with some time on the Playstation, so there Little C sat while we cut his hair. ANM started the haircut, probably because he knew I'd never get around to it, and I finished it off. It's very short and looks a bit raggedy and moth-eaten, but not too bad for a couple of parents who have no clue about haircutting.

I saved a slater out of the bathroom sink rather than just swooshing it down the drain and didn't insist on the removal of a baby huntsman spider that has taken up residence in our hallway.

I have huntsman-phobia, which I'm attempting to overcome. It all began one day when I was a kid, probably around ten years old, as I was running my bath. Just for something a bit different on this particular day I decided to get undressed, then hop in the bath and then turn on the water. The only problem with my plan was that unbeknown to my small self there was a huntsman spider as big as a dinner plate hiding up inside the tap. Okay, perhaps I exaggerate but it certainly seemed like that big as it jumped all over my naked body after the massive fright it got when I turned on the tap.

*shudder*

I cooked a few nice meals for my family and actually enjoyed it. The cooking I mean. For the last few years I have detested even thinking about food, so this is a big thing for me. Must remember to blog about my "eating disorder mentality" sometime.

I babysat a friend's 2 year old daughter so she could go to an exercise class. It's been ages since I've looked after small kids other than my own. Her mum was so worried that she'd be all tantrummy and difficult for me but she was fine. She's such a sweet little girl.

I tidied the study, which for the last few months has been rather overwhelmed
with junk. We can now see the floor, and possibly even swing a cat.

Little V grew his first fang.

I'm sure there are lots of other things but I really must... extract... fingers... from... keyboard...

Flickr Friday - Trees

1. Carpeted path, 2. Lemons, 3. Canopy, 4. little bit paranoic, 5. Palm trees San Pedro Belize, 6. kaleidoscope, 7. metamorphosis, 8. Redbud leaves, 9. Ghost

A day late. Oh well. I'm a bit slow. It was most enjoyable!

Find out what Flickr Friday is all about over at Lazy Cow Designs.

Get a job

That's what Little C just said to me. Actually, it was more like "Get a jahb" with an American accent. I think he watches too much telly. Perhaps I should do something about that.

Dollhouse

I think this is my all time favourite Sesame Street clip. Such pure, innocent, screen-free fun. When my sister and I were littles we had a really cool dollhouse that I think my dad made and mum decked out with curtains and things. We definitely had teeny little plates and spoons like in this video. I don't remember having any actual little dolls, but maybe we did... The plates and spoons stick in my head more than anything else. Erm, not literally of course.



I love the cats. I love the laughter. I love how the destruction is all part of the fun.

Preferred pumpkin

For Sister Suffragette...

These galeux d'eysines pumpkins are so funky. Warty and weird on the outside, but beautifully bright orange inside and wonderfully easy to peel and cut. They taste pretty darn good too!

Kudos to Dab for growing this little rippa!

Passion riddle

I've managed to reinvent my blog and get rid of the bizarro formatting problem... for now... I think... so I'm back. (Ya think I used enough of those dots?)

While I've been absent I've been contemplating the randomness of my blog, thinking perhaps it should have a theme. I look at Sherrin's crafty, creative blog and Sister Suffragette's delicious, foody blog and Dawn's wet-pants-laughing parenting blog and and and I wonder what my passion is, or even what I'm good at.

It bothers me sometimes that I can't think of anything that I'm truly passionate about. There are things I like, things that are important to me and things I enjoy dabbling in, but passion is something I don't seem to have. Does that mean I'm really boring and unfocused? I guess I'm someone who knows a little bit about a lot of things, not a lot about a select few things. Is that bad? Does it mean I'll float along in life doing nothing particularly worthwhile or interesting because I can't be bothered putting in the effort to be passionate about anything? Aaargh, I've gone all angsty again. Okay, enough! *SLAP*

So, I've decided my task in the next few weeks is to explore a possible hobby. I have something in mind.

Anyone want to play a guessing game? Here's a liddle riddle to start you off.

Eighteen forty-two was the year of my birth
New system so simple and cheap
Light is the key
Russian with a P
Under shade, I am bright
In developing excitement
The inverse is true
Blue herrings splash in the lake
Perhaps...

For those of you who read my blog but haven't yet got around to commenting, c'mon!

Blogging hiatus

I've been a smidge grumpy with blogger for changing the formatting of my posts, which is why I haven't posted for a week or so. Pathetic excuse, huh? And while I'm at it, why am I such a doofus at getting photos to be nicely formatted? Ugh.

Rain, rain, don't go away... but

it's been so long I've forgotten how to deal with you. How does Mr T walk to school in the rain? How do I walk to playgroup on the rain? How on earth do I use an umbrella with a stroller? Do little kids use umbrellas or should Little C have some waterproof gear? Do I even own an umbrella?

I'm sure rain was no big deal when Mr T was small and we didn't have a car but I can't remember what we used to do... Where has my rain brain gone?

3 year old + swollen eyelid

Me: "What happened to your eye?"
Him: "It nippled and jiggled and hurt and hurt a lot and a lot and a lot."

3 year old + camera