November 29

We had a wonderful and relaxing Thanksgiving. I am so grateful for all of the blessings in my life and that includes all of you dear readers.

A week ago, Amy was eating muenster cheese. Sarah tried to say the word and had a tiny bit of difficulty. Amy said “muenster. try it, Sarah.” Amy meant to try saying the word. Sarah thought Amy was offering her the cheese to try. Sarah responded, “I am allergic to muenster.” Amy was upset at the misunderstanding. I was thrilled that Sarah answered as she did because that means in other situations where I might not be present she may answer correctly and safely. 

For our Thanksgiving feast I found coconut milk ice cream that Sarah can have. From a store!! That I didn’t make!! I enjoy making my own foods from scratch but I also enjoy the freedom and flexibility of being able to purchase things already made.

On Friday I made whole wheat bread so that Sarah could try it. Using my own (my mom’s) recipe allowed for the most control so the wheat was the only new ingredient. Sarah had one piece Friday night. She hasn’t had any more and I think she hasn’t had a bad reaction. Not that we need to go crazy with the wheat and the gluten now, but it opens up more freedom in our life and in Sarah’s food options, especially when traveling. 

I continue to learn how much I don’t know or understand about the ingredients in various soaps and lotions. Since the Rodan + Fields lotion that seems to work is also rather expensive, I wanted to try a different option just in case. I tried Curel Fragrance Free lotion. After a couple of days Sarah had finger blisters so no more Curel. Then I made the mistake of trying a new lotion and a new soap in short order. I wanted to add another component to the Rodan + Fields since their products are designed to be layered for the best results. So I tried Soothe 2. A couple days later I changed our hand soaps to Kiss My Face Olive Oil, which only has about 4 ingredients (because while the Vanicream seems pretty good it does seem to still dry Sarah’s hands more than I want). More new blisters! I’m not sure if it was the Soothe 2 or the soap. I switched back to Vanicream and Soothe 3 only  until we are back to a relatively neutral state. Then I will try a soap that I found online that only has 3 ingredients! I actually found many soaps that seem like good candidates. 

I made a huge spreadsheet and put in all of the ingredients in the soaps and lotions we have tried. I have realized that I don’t know what most of the ingredients are. I also realize that an overlap in ingredients in products that don’t work doesn’t necessarily mean those are the offending ingredients. Almost every product also has some ingredients that don’t overlap and maybe some of those are the problem. That said, I did notice a high correlation between the 365 fragrance-free foaming soap and the Kiss My Face Olive Oil soap, both of which are suspect. While at times this feels overwhelming and frustrating, I mostly feel very excited to have realized that I need to research and control what Sarah uses for soap and lotion. This could be a game changer once I figure it out. I may travel with a bar of soap in my purse and an extra tube of special lotion so maybe I will need a bigger purse, but if that means we can mostly avoid blisters then that would be amaaaazing. And if this means that all the times I thought foods were causing the blisters and they weren’t then that means we can retry so many foods!! BANANAS here we come!!!! (but not right away).

Sarah made a turkey at school where each feather had something she was grateful for. One of her feathers had the word “Amy.” When Amy and I saw this we were very excited and Amy repeated several times “that means Sarah likes me!” I think it really meant a lot to Amy. Sarah was also thankful for her mom, dad, food, and ipods. :)

Yesterday Carl and Sarah were looking at family photos on the computer and listening to her favorite music. Carl also had his work laptop open. Sarah was trying to close the laptop. Here is their conversation:

Carl: No Sarah - you need to leave my laptop alone

Sarah: (mad whimper)

(time passes)

Sarah: When Sarah gets older, be Dad. When Sarah grow up, be Dad.

Carl: Oh - really? You want to be like me when you grow up?

Sarah: Yeah

Carl: Oh - that’s great. What would you like to do when you grow up?

Sarah: Shut the lid.