Aevryn Aevryn

Aevryn turned three today. Hmmm. I could swear it was just yesterday that I woke up on that oft-predicted by Lily Sunday, certain in the knowledge that I was having a baby that day. Then just 13.5 fabulous hours later, Aevryn was here. One of my first memories of her, is scooping her out of the water and then looking down to see if she was a boy or a girl, but her umbilical cord was in the way. She was a bit snuffly and had to work some gunk out for a few minutes, and I remember feeling so certain that she was going to be a boy that I didn't really investigate. Dave said that as soon as he saw her face, he knew she was a girl. He was also certain that she was a girl the entire time.

The last few months, whenever you'd ask her when her birthday was or how old she was turning, she'd proudly declare "I'll be May in Three." All day today when I'd remind her it was her birthday, she'd grin and say, "I May!" I'd gently inform her that she was three because it was May now. Sometime in the early afternoon she said, "Oh! Is it May today? I THREE!" Heh. I love those little lightbulb moments.

She is also learning her letters quite stealthily -- much like she did with her colors, when one day last summer she spontaneously informed me of the color of every car we walked past in the parking lot. Today, when I was decorating her cake, she exclaimed, "Mama! You wrote a B on my cake!!" Maybe a half an hour earlier, she had handed me a piece of paper that she had written Bs all over. Her other favorite letters are A, K and T.



I made her quite an experimental cake. It turned out well. It reminded me of those huge "cookie cakes" you can get, since it was chewy and sweet and thin.

Aevryn's coconut-date cake:

2C (~8oz) dried coconut, unsweetened, no preservatives
1C water (maybe coconut milk next time?) + 1/4C
20 dried dates, pitted
1/4 C palm shortening
1 1/2 tsp GF/corn-free vanilla
1 Tbsp maple syrup (didn't need it)
1/2 tsp sea salt

Soak the dried coconut in water/liquid for at least 30 minutes. The coconut will start to rehydrate.

Chop the dates well.

In a food processor or good blender, buzz the rehydrated coconut flakes + dates. While it's running add remaining water, shortening, vanilla & salt. We don't do cinnamon or cloves or nutmeg at the moment, but those would be mighty tasty here, like a "spice cake".

I poured it all into a well-greased spring form pan and baked it for 75 minutes at 325*F. Next time I might bake it for longer at a lower temp.

Frosting was 1/4C (4Tbsp) palm shortening + 1 Tbsp maple syrup, whipped together. I could have used half as much, but I was using a piping kit and needed a larger amount. If you're doing the cutting the tip off a a baggie trick, you could make just what you need to use.

It was moist and sweet and delicious. You could pick it up with your hands. I think with some tweaking, it could easily become a nut-free, grain-free "granola" bar recipe.

And it was amazing with the coconut milk ice cream: 1 can of coconut milk + 1 tbsp maple syrup + 1/2 tsp vanilla. Mix well then chill in fridge until time to pour into ice cream maker. You could also freeze half of a can into ice cubes and then blend the frozen coconut milk cubes plus the remainder of the can, chilled, in a blender, with the syrup & vanilla.

Waiting is very hard.

I went ahead and appealed the selection results for University of Stockholm, Mastersprogramme in Social Work. Dave and I feel like it's a unique opportunity that we owe it to ourselves to explore fully. Plus, I really am qualified per all the application information, except for the fact that they didn't get my transcripts (though UofM confirmed they were sent.) I waited until the last minute to make my decision and then had to rush express everything across the ocean. Now I'm obsessively tracking via Fed Ex and UPS. What was that about putting things behind me?

UPDATE: Studera shows they received documents on the 25th and 26th of May. My appeals + transcript resend needed to get there by end of day on the 27th. So far, so good.

the weight of weight

So I worry. I am a worrier. I try to only worry about things within my sphere of control and let go of everything else, but I am by no means good at doing that. It's a life-long process and I'm working on it daily.

That said, I do worry about Lily's weight.

She was nearly 10lbs at birth and quite long as well. She grew rapidly, both in weight and height until sometime between her first and second birthday. As you would expect, her growth slowed down when she started getting more mobile. When my milk dried up in pregnancy with Aevryn, and she begrudgingly started eating more food, her weight stalled completely. She continued to grow steadily in height, however. I didn't worry about it then, though that was around the time of the beginning of the allergy adventure and the birth of Aevryn, so life was in flux. But I was aware of her health, for sure.

In the last 3 years, she has only gained around 11lbs, and recently we noticed that she has lost about 3 of those pounds. Again, she continues to grow steadily in height and is outgrowing clothing as well. Per the currently used growth charts, she's roughly 9th percentile for weight now, and 11th for height, so I guess she's at least proportional! She's strong and energetic most of the time - once you get her motivated and out of her own brain. Also, she eats like a thoroughbred race horse.

Which brings me to my other worry: she claims to be hungry quite a bit. I'm trying to help her discern if she is *hungry* like empty stomach churning or if she just feels like something to eat. I will feed her either way, of course, but if she is never truly satisfied and is experiencing gnawing hunger despite eating the same amount of food that fills *me* up in a day, then I would feel like I had true cause for alarm. Luckily, it would appear that she's just a growing girl who like to eat. Nothing wrong with that.

Just to assuage my curiosity, I entered in her food for the day into fitday, and online nutrition tracker. Her overall caloric intake was only 985 calories, however 70 of them came from (good) fat. Her nutrient intake breaks down into 64% fat (70g), 20% protein (48g), 17% carbs (45g). A good balance, in my well-researched opinion. However, seeing that amount of protein seems excessive. The RDI for protein for a girl her age is only ~25g/day. Perhaps I could experiment with giving her less protein and more fat and veggies. I realized that she and I got the same amount of protein today. Mine was the RDI for a woman of my age. That's something to think about for sure.

Egg-free Cabbage Slaw

Adapted from Dave's Grandma's recipe, which I just tried to recall on the fly...


1 head of cabbage, chopped or shredded
1/2 cup oil
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
1-2 tbsp maple syrup
salt to taste

combine oil, salt & syrup and pour over cabbage. salt. voila. instant yummy egg-free cole slaw.

actual review from my 5yo: "This is the best cole slaw I EVER tasted. You are the best cooker."

On squash & seaweed

After reading more about oral allergy syndrome and pollen cross-reactivity, we decided to stop eating squash for now. Within only a few days, her rash has cleared. The skin itself is still dry and healing, but she is not itchy. Hallelujah.

After reading about Zane's mama date with Amabel, I realized Lily needed a very similar outing. Lily and I went shopping. We both greatly dislike shopping, but it was a necessary errand. We needed a few things, plus Lily needed to pick out a birthday present for Aevryn. She ended up picking out a portable mini-horse stable and giving it to A today, despite her birthday not coming until Thursday.

I realize that this wasn't a stellar date activity, but it was just she and I, and she had my undivided attention the whole 2+ hours we were gone. She was a lot more snuggly with me after. I think we're going to try to get a one-on-one session for each kid with each parent, every week. That sounds complicated, but it doesn't have to be solo trips into town. Even just a walk in the woods alone together would accomplish the same thing.

Part of the "date" included lunch out. For a number of reasons due to what time we left, which store we went to, and Lily's lack of desire to go to a different store for lunch, our selection of "safe" foods was limited. We settled on Hormel's natural roasted turkey slices, rolled in fresh basil leaves, with blackberries for desert. I noticed that one of the ingredients was carrageenan, which is a seaweed. Seaweeds are usually fairly high in glutamates, which we are avoiding, as they seem to muck with her brain chemistry. I thought we'd eaten that brand without incident before, but we've never had an official "trial" where everything else was clear first, like today. Within a few hours, she escalated to a fit in her bedroom where she told Dave that she felt like hurting herself and he needed to leave the room so she could do so. Obviously, he did not. He stayed with her and helped her settle. Then we all just had a chill afternoon & early bedtime after a family bike ride/walk around the block.

I start to feel crazy about the food thing, and then this happens. Predictable, repeatedly observed results. I'm hopeful that the K + Mag + B vits are moving some calcium around and she will be less sensitive to things like glutamates when we aren't rebalancing mineral stores.

The next thing I'm looking into - for myself and my sad teeth, primarily - is phosphorus. I've been reading Weston A. Price's work for awhile now and I think it might be the missing key for me, and possibly her.

Chebe Crackers

I did another tapioca experiment, and it turned out fabulous, but in a different way than I intended. I've been trying to perfect my chebe recipe to get a nice, soft but not gummy flat bread. I'm really close. Today I tried using a bigger pan with the same amount of dough, and the result was a super thin, crisp flat bread - aka - crackers!

I think Dave will be happily surprised to find that he gets zucchini soup with onion crackers on the side for lunch today.

Chebe Crackers

1 lg egg
1 tbsp EVOO
1 tsp balsamic vinegar
2/3 C tapioca starch
1/2 tsp onion powder
1/4 tsp sea salt
1/4 tsp baking soda
3 tbsp water

1. Mix egg, oil & vinegar.
2. In a separate bowl, mix tapioca, salt, soda & onion powder.
3. Mix dry into wet ingredients, a little at a time. It might be a little clumpy.
4. Add water. It will thin out tremendously.
5. Pour onto well-oiled jelly roll pan (cookie sheet with sides).
6. Bake at 375*F for 10 minutes.
7. Turn off oven. Allow it to sit in warm oven to crisp up.

It will probably break when you try to remove it from the pan, but that's okay, because you're trying to make crackers anyway. They remind me of toasted pita bread. Get yourself some raw veggies and some guacamole or hummus and you've got a great lunch.

If you wanted them sweet, you could do apple cider vinegar instead of balsamic and cinnamon instead of onion powder... Maybe mix a little vanilla extract and maple syrup into the batter. Or sprinkle some succanat over the top.

You could make texmex crackers with onion powder, garlic powder (or finely minced fresh garlic), cumin, coriander, black pepper & paprika.

You could make italian crackers with rosemary, garlic, oregano, basil & thyme. Or just rosemary. Yum.

You could make honey mustard crackers.

The possibilities stretch before you. Enjoy!

Pollen Cross Reactivity

(AKA Oral Allergy Syndrome)

For as long as I can remember, certain foods have tasted "tingly". I suppose in retrospect I can identify the sensation as tingly, or even itchy, but at the time I would have just said it was just the unique flavor of certain foods, for example: oranges, apples, peaches, nectarines, tomatoes, celery, cherries and especially pineapple & kiwi. Those last two I can't even get past my lips without intense itching. Though I have not been tested, I assume I have some environmental (read: pollen) allergies. Poor Dave. How often do I turn to him and say, for example, "What? You mean you DON'T get numb lips when you eat granny smith apples?" The assumptions I've made about my own life experiences being universal are constantly revealed to me. This is both amusing and humbling.

The reason I starting thinking about this again, is because I went for a run tonight. I haven't gone running on my own in quite awhile, so I was actually able to experience a real workout, without distraction or interruption. It was fabulous. I feel great and had a nice, intense run without overdoing it. However, about 15 minutes after I got home, I started wheezing. And I remembered the phenomenon of "allergy induced asthma", which I have experienced in the past. I did some online research, as I am wont to do, and I stumbled upon the connection between apparently exercise induced asthma and pollen-induced asthma.

If you are allergic to a pollen, you can have a cross-reaction to foods in that family.

If you are allergic to ragweed, you can have problems with any or all of the following: raw bananas, the gourd family (melons, squashes), chamomile, sunflower & echinacea.

If you are allergic to grasses, you can have problems with any or all of the following: oranges, melons, tomatoes, kiwi & peanuts.

If you are allergic to various tress, you can have problems with any or all of the following: apple family (apples, pears), plum family (plum, peach, nectarine, apricot, cherry), kiwi, parsley family (carrot, celery, dill, anise, cumin, coriander, caraway), potato family (potato, pepper, tomato), tree nuts, peas, peanuts, beans & sunflowers.

If you are allergic to latex, you can have problems with and or all of the following: banana, avocado, kiwi, chestnut, and per some sources, papaya, fig, potatoes & tomatoes.

Additionally, honey and honey products often cause issues depending on the pollen the bees were collecting.

It is often reported that if you experience OAS symptoms, it will usually be when the food is raw (with the exclusion of nuts, which are reactive in all states), and gets worse as they ripen. Many people are able to tolerate these foods cooked, despite major symptoms raw. Like salicylates, the allergic compounds are usually concentrated in the peel and the underlying tissue.

We've been feeding Lily a pretty steady diet of apples & squash on this elimination diet. We haven't really hit baseline with the skin, though this experiment has been useful in helping us figure out vitamin & supplement dosages and has revealed a hive-reaction to shea butter. So, I wonder if we were to swap out a different fruit for apples -- I think our options are berries & coconut -- and drop the squash to focus on the veggies we're already eating -- kale, brussels sprouts, cauliflower, broccoli, cabbage, and perhaps lettuce -- maybe we'll see that last bit of improvement that we've been waiting for.

I'm not claiming to have all the answers. I'm not totally sold on every new theory I run across or discuss here. But I am open-minded and willing to shuffle things around and find what seems to make sense for us. Looking forward to seeing what the next week brings.

Tomorrow I will call our allergist and see if we (Lily and I) can both be scratch-tested for pollens and go from there.