Yay for A&P

My local A&P is now carrying quite a collection of GFCF friendly foods and I'm so excited. They started carrying soy chips a bit ago but today I found "rice krispy treats" and "cheese". The "cheese" is going to take quite a bit of getting used to but I made Emma pizza tonight (a slice of french roll that we get from Trader Joe's, tomatoe sauce and then a slice of the cheese) and she liked it. When I took her up to bed she looked at me and said "i had pizza" with a hugh smile. I was so excited that I could make her that happy with such a small task.

Em's special ed teacher said to me this morning how happy she was with the changes she's been seeing. Emma is having less tantrums and transitioning has become very easy. Emma is actually becoming a hands on helper with some of the other kids if they don't understand the directions (she will go and actually show them how to do whatever it is that needs to be done). She is also much more vocal especially during the tantrums so even though she's screaming, she will tell why as best she can why she's screaming.

I found a Whole Foods in Princeton last weekend and think I've found heaven. They had so many baking products I spent almost 2 hours looking at everything without blinking. I finally found Xanthan Gum without having to buy it online. And now I'm on a muffin baking kick. The only baking item that is still giving me issues is the bread but I will figure it out!!

Going to go make a cup of tea and watch Stay Tuned.

Well the new year has started off with a bang. Emma and I are now off gluten and casein and doing pretty well. I've been making her lunches similar to what is being served at her school and with the exception of once she hasn't had a problem with it.

She started back at her special ed program on Monday and her teacher told me yesterday that she's noticed some big improvements. Her transitioning is better, shes now focusing for longer periods of time and following directions better. Shes also become a "class helper" in that when one of the other kids aren't understanding what they need to do, she will show them. Needless to say her teacher is very very happy with her progress.

With the exception of two nights ago (1/7/09) still no night terrors. On the 7th she had 2 foods that she's never had before. A canned tomatoe sauce and frozen french fries. Both the ingredient labels were ok except that the french fries had "artificial colors" but it didn't list if it was dyes or a food based color. So in a week or so I'm going to give her each of the foods a number of days apart and see if we could pinpoint if the food was the cause or if the terrors are unrelated to her diet.

Need to go make Emma's lunch and get ready for the day.....

Update....and stuff

Went to the store today and found a section with gf/cf mixes :-) Got a couple to try. Used the "all purpose baking flour" to make fried chicked nuggets and it came out almost identical to the ones I would make with regular flour. I danced for joy in my kitchen because I love my nuggets. I need to play with the salt and seasonings but it took years to perfect the old nuggets so I'm not worried about it.

I also made my smushed taters again (I tried to use Yukon Gold potatoes instead of the regular baking potatoes and I don't think they tasted as good but everyone else really liked them). Lastly I made a Corn Chowder from the new cookbook I have. It needs to be tweeked and played with but it was good and even better a great starting point to build on and make better.

Emma's been under the weather today. Slight fever and general blah but she perked up in the afternoon and our two other housemates are sick so I'm sure she's fighting getting the cold they have.

I realized today after thinking about it that there has been another improvement (knock on wood I don't jinx it). For months, Emma would have what I believe to be night terrors...she would scream like someone was killing her, her eyes would be open but she wouldn't be focusing or seeing anything, if someone tried to touch her she would scream louder and physically attack who ever was touching her. It was heartbreaking but all we could do was sit in the room with her to make sure she didn't really hurt herself (for example she would punch the wall hard enough to bruise her knuckles) and wait for it to pass so we could then hold her and give her water, etc.

The episodes usually lasted about 15 minutes plus or minus and she would have one per night (but afterwards she would cry out and wimper for the rest of the night but never go back into a full fledge terror) but they happened every night or on a good week every other night for a month or two and then in the morning she was sluggish and tempermental and the slightest thing would send her into a tantrum.

What I realized is that in the past week she has not had a single episode. She's slept peacefully through the night and woken up in a very good mood. Even the mornings have been a breeze which is weird because the special ed program she goes to is off for winter break and normally the adjustment to the morning routine would send her into a tantrum but for the first time she's just rolled with it.

I have to say as each day passes I'm getting more and more excited as to whats to come.