November 22

Sarah’s hands are much much much better. I have been using Rodan + Fields Soothe #3 on them. This is not a cheap solution, but it is the only lotion (so far) where Sarah doesn’t say “it stings” when we put it on and the only one where she doesn’t seem to get new blisters while healing the dryness. They still aren’t 100% and I still don’t know if that is a contact allergy or winter dryness or possibly a reaction to eggs. We are still doing eggs. There is no overt reaction against them, there may be no reaction against them, and I certainly don’t want to admit to noticing any reaction to them if there is one. This hand skin sensitivity makes it much harder to just go by skin reaction as a monitor of how Sarah tolerates various foods. I think her body will just have to speak through other venues if there is a problem with eggs. I haven’t tried any new food beyond eggs because I want to give her body plenty of time around any new adjustment. I am still chomping at the bit to try new foods, but fortunately my trusty advisors (Sonia and Carl) hold me in check to go sloooowly and not do anything to jeopardize our Thanksgiving experience.

Speaking of eggs… I so love being able to give Sarah scrambled eggs! She loves cooking them. It is fast, fresh, easy, healthy protein. I love being able to cook light, fluffy pancakes with eggs! The recipe I use (grain-free, dairy-free) was one of the few that just couldn’t make the transition to no-eggs. I had invented a different kind of pancake with zucchini and sunflower seed butter that didn’t need eggs and was delicious, but you did have to slightly stretch your definition of a pancake. The coconut pancakes with eggs are so pancakey. Sarah ate one, asked for another, ate it, and then declared that she didn’t like them. I think that was a response to her belly still recovering from a tummy bug rather than her not liking the pancakes.

Carl and I decided yesterday to change how we are doing the word packs for Sarah’s reading practice. We are retiring all the word cards made on poster board. The new packs are on index cards and we are back to single words. Originally, I didn’t do words that were similar (hat, cat, sat) because the program we were following advised against it. Now, Sarah is so amazing with getting things from their context that we want to have words that are similar so she has to focus on the letters she sees. We want to help her a bit with the phonics aspect so she can figure out new words. Did you know there are a ton of words that sound like I? aye, by, buy, bye, cry, die, dry, dye, eye, fie, guy, hi, high, lie, lye, my, nigh, pie, rye, sigh, tie, vie, why. Tell me if I am missing any. I also did a few packs of fruit and vegetable themes. I am amazed at how far Sarah’s reading has come in less than a year. I am so very grateful to the friends who introduced me to How to Teach Your Baby to Read. 

The girls went with me to Bed, Bath, and Beyond to get a soap dish. On our way through the store I paused when I saw a nesting set of kitchen bowls in pretty colors. I exclaimed delightedly, “these are so fun!” The girls then stopped at just about every item to exclaim, “this is so fun!” If I was going to say something so memorable I’m glad it was benign. :)

I hope your weekends are so fun!