If you only could imagine...

Life can be pretty tough when you are 5 going on 18. Sometimes people just don't understand you. Like the other day, I wanted to take my umbrella to dance class. We had a hail-ish day yesterday, it rained and hailed and rained and hailed all day long, so my mom let me buy an umbrella at the store. Today, the ground is still wet and if you look way over at the mountains, I am pretty sure I see a rain cloud. Well, I tried and tried to convince my mom she needed to get it down for me, but she said NO. I begged and pleaded and even tried crying. Finally, I had to get my point across, so I crossed my arms and stamped my foot (this means I am SERIOUS) and I said "Mom, imagine that you were a little 5 year old girl who just wanted to take her umbrella to dance class and she had a mean mom that kept telling her NO! What would you do??" Well, that mean mom looked at me and said "Kenzie, imagine that you were the mom of a 5 year old girl who kept whining and begging to play with something that is not a toy. What would you do?"

That was it. I went to my room, put on a happy face and tried again. "Mom, may I please take my umbrella to dance class? I won't open it up if it is not raining!?" Then I gave her a hug and told her I was sorry for whining and guess what? She said yes!! By the end of the year, I am sure I will have this manipulation thing down.

PS. Upon walking out into the hail storm, Kenzie said "This has been a hailish day!!"

Getting Better

Well, things are getting a little easier with the corn allergy. I am figuring out what we can and can't have. I have learned alot and become an avid label reader. I have been shocked at some foods we now can't eat, and pleasantly surprised by some we can! The main shockers had to be hot dogs and sour cream. Hot dogs are processed enough, I wasn't shocked to find corn syrup in them, but I was shocked that it is the second ingredient in most brands!! We found one brand that is okay, so we can still have summer BBQ's when it finally warms up. Sour cream surprised me. At least they have an all natural sour cream that we can have.

Now the biggest hurdle is situations that I have no control over, like when the teacher gives them animal crackers at school or a kid brings in cookies/cupcakes for a birthday. Pretty much pre-made frosting is off limits, since powdered sugar has corn starch in it and cool whip pretty much is whipped corn syrup. She has had a rough couple days, but that I am wondering if it has something to do with treats being offered at school. I understand that the teacher has her hands full and can only do so much, but it still is hard.

The positive side to all of this is that overall she is feeling tons better! We have gone from getting two out of twelve right on a spelling test, to getting 100%!! Her reading is improving, she comes home and does her homework and seems happy. The tummy aches seem to be gone and other symptoms which I will spare you from having to know about. I still feel like it is to early to know how much corn she can have and how much it is going to help, but I am optimistic that this can finally help her feel good and be successful.

The Temper Tantrum

I went off on a tangent last post and forgot that Abby is also allergic to soy and cow's milk. Those ones are only a 2 out of 10, so hopefully as long as she doesn't have to much, she will be okay.

Anyway, the day we found out all of this, one of my friends brought me over a care package! Her kids can't have corn or wheat. It has been the hugest blessing. I don't think she will EVER know how much I appreciated that. I needed the support and I honestly didn't know where to start. The next day I tried grocery shopping. Her favorite food is a cheesy tortilla, no problem. ON the way to the cheese I checked out crackers, only to find they all have corn in them. Then we looked at potato chips (same row, we really don't buy these often) and they all had corn. Then I looked at hot dogs...corn. Yogurt...corn. Finally I get to the cheese. I wanted shredded cheese to make my life a LITTLE simpler...CORN. Serious!!?? The crazy lady in me came out. I wanted to shove my shopping cart as hard as I could, watch it destroy something, then take all the cheese and throw it as far as I could and then sit down and cry until my mommy came and told me it would be okay...but I am the mom...so that wasn't an option. Instead, I tossed the cheese back where it belonged and bought myself a brick of cheese that I can shred all by myself. No problem. Tantrum over, that is until I got to the tortillas and they have corn in them too. By this point, I was done. I bought some fresh fruit and vegetables and my cheese and left the store. I guess this is how we will be eating from now on!! Now, I need a bigger kitchen and a massive garden. Learning to enjoy cooking would be nice too.

I know, I know

It's been a while. So long in fact, that probably no one even checks this site anymore! That is okay. I am really writing for myself, about my family's journey with allergies. Seem silly to blog about? It is and I know it, but this is such a huge lifestyle change for me, I need to have somewhere to talk about it, even if it is to myself on a blog that no one reads! Anyway, my husband found out he can't eat wheat about two years ago. That has been hard, but now we have gotten to where we can manage it and most of the time it isn't a big deal. I have found new easy to fix meals and recipes, so life is okay. About a month ago I took my oldest in to see if we could figure out the rashes she keeps getting. We figured it out alright! She is allergic to all the grass around here (already figured that), most of the weeds (not a big deal), some of the trees (so the kid needs allergy medicine everyday...still not a big deal), broccoli(my other kids are jealous), wheat (what!! nooooo), peanuts (no more reese's, she will be sad), and EGGS (this is a huge deal!) Combine them all together, and it is hard to feed her. I was told that since she wasn't having any bad reactions so far, she could go ahead and eat these things in moderation. That isn't so bad! We can handle this. Except, fast forward three weeks and her rash has gotten terrible! I put her prescription cream on it and it is still getting worse. Dang, that means that I probably need to cut some of the offending foods from her diet. Sigh.

Now for my 2nd daughter. I haven't been able to pinpoint what is going on with her. I have spent the last year reading parenting books and trying to figure out if she just has a difficult personality or if there is something going on. When I talk to people the response is always "she is a middle child AND a girl. What do you expect?" So, I let it go, at least until the next episode. After a convo with a good friend, I decided I owed it to her to make sure nothing is wrong, so we started with an allergy test and found that she is HIGHLY allergic to CORN...including corn syrup, corn starch, pretty much if it says corn, she can't have it. I always thought that if you were allergic to a food, your throat swelled, and you got hives. I was shocked when the allergist handed me a list of symptoms:

Chronic fatigue, general malaise, sleep disorders, migraine, tension, sinus,

sinusitus, abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, constipation, gas, bloating, nervous stomach, rectal itching, bedwetting, fluid retention, arthritis, growing pains, eczema, unusual rashes, pale skin color, dark circles around the eyes, depression, anxiety, insomnia, hyperactivity of children, behavior problems, difficulty concentrating, panic attacks, moodiness

Over half of the things on this symptom list are problems we have been dealing with. The switch to no corn has been very hard. So far, in a week we have not successfully gone a day without corn yet. I will keep trying. The hope is that if corn is eliminated from her diet 98% of the time, then if she has a little bit her body will be able to tolerate it. She knows she can't have corn, but I am trying very hard not to let her know when she has had some and when she hasn't. I want to see if this is REALLY the answer or not and if she knows, we get some placebo going on and I am afraid it will just make it harder for me to monitor her reactions.

Shine on Now

Little girls are such an asset to our community! I am always amazed at how willing my girls are to jump in and help and put others needs above their own. They are still kids and aren't always sweet, but I have enjoyed watching them blossom over the past few years and grow into the neat girls they are!

I am really excited that from the 13th of July until the 31st, American Girl is going to be having an opportunity for girls to make a difference! When they go to this website, they will be able to sign up to be an "ambassador" and earn stars. On July 31st they will be able to donate these stars and help raise money for different charities and organizations!

Another great place to get information about it is on this blog....she know alot more about it than I do! I am just excited to find something positive going on for young girls!! Just in case the link doesn't work, the website is keeperofthecheerios.com and she is giving away a FREE doll!! Check it out!!

SPIDER!!!

Kenzie has this phobia of spiders. I think it is inborn, Ryan thinks I taught her. Anyway, a couple days ago there was a spider crawling on the ceiling of the kitchen. She screamed and ran to the couch, because spiders apparently can't get you if you are on the couch. I told her that it wasn't a scary spider but a good friendly spider that eats flies and mosquitoes. Since it wasn't scary she decided to take a closer look. She cautiously went into the kitchen and decided that it was "cute" and could be her friend. Then I hear this "hello friendly spider! You can live in our house. What is your favorite color? Yellow? Green? Mine is green, but you probably like yellow because the kitchen is yellow..." I thought we had made progress....until yesterday when she saw a spider outside and came running and SCREAMING in the house saying "everyone run for your lives!!! There is a spider out there!!!" She pretty much doesn't go near the spot of the spider siting anymore.

Crazy Hair day!!

Today was spirit week at school. The girls participated with crazy sock day (for once they happily wore mismatched socks...it happens all the time, but today they were excited about it!!), they didn't have anything sporty for sports day, loved the idea of pink day, and went all out for crazy hair day!! I was surprised at their ideas for this event. I was thinking 20 pony tails, messy hair or something along those lines. They were thinking.....well, I will just show you what they had in mind!!

As we walked into the school I said "now your sure it is crazy hair day because it would be embarrassing if it wasn't!" I know, I win the mean mom of the year award!! Hope you like the pictures!!

Speaking of mean mom....when Kenz is mad at me, she says "Your a mean mommy!" as she pouts and folds her arms. I told her it hurt my feelings and wasn't nice to say that so now she just says "your a mommy!" pouting and folding her arms. It makes me laugh every time......which just makes her more mad......................