Bird and Little Bird

Alphabet Glue: Volume Four is Here!

 

I had originally aimed to have the new issue of Alphabet Glue go live tomorrow morning, mostly because December 1st seems like a more sensible time to launch the winter edition of something than November 30th does.  However, I think that since it is already dark here this evening and really, December 1st is only a few hours away, we might as well go for it.  Right? Goodness, I have a hard time keeping a secret. 

 

So, click on over to the Alphabet Glue page to check out the details of the newest issue of the magazine and to download a copy for your very own!  There are penguins, paper flowers, booklists, snowglobes and storytelling.  Plus, some bookmaking, book sharing, origami and a science experiment turned art project.  All good things, and I'm very happy to be sharing them with you!

 

Also, this time around I'm offering the first four issues of Alphabet Glue as a single PDF file at a discounted price.  So, if you haven't had a chance to check out the previous issues, this might be just the time.  And, if you want to send any of the issues to someone other than yourself as a gift this month, I'm more than happy to send the files via email to the recipient along with a nice note saying that they're from you.  Just send me an email at [email protected] and we can get it set up! 

The Shortest Snow.

So, we had some snow.  And then, just like that, we didn't.  Last Wednesday we got about five inches of wet, soft snow that turned everything white and was perfect for snowballs and snowmen and generally playing around in.  But then our weird, warm November weather returned and it all melted within a couple of days.  I guess this is a good thing, because it means that I never had to experience the joys of shoveling snow at nine months pregnant.  But I kind of wish that it had lasted longer.  Folks, I'm really ready for an excuse to stay indoors and nest.

In My Experimental Kitchen.

So, the verdict is officially in and indeed, Mariam's biopsy results were positive.  Kiddo has celiac disease, and life is going gluten-free from here on out.  Because of the possible (and significant) effects of cross-contamination, all three of us are giving up the gluten, and the last week or so has been all about clearing cupboards and auditing the refrigerator. 

Now, love of bread is not a trivial thing around here.  Dan often gets teased about the fact that he doesn't even write "bread" on the grocery list.  He calls it as he sees it and writes "toast."  I know that some families adapt to gluten-free living by giving up a lot of the grains they previously ate and taking a more paleo approach, but I think that isn't going to work for us.  At least not right off the bat.  We need replacement baking and we need it in an immediate way. 

So, I've been doing my best.  I managed a pretty good loaf of sandwich bread this weekend, from a recipe that I found in this book.  One of the things that the author recommends is finding a gluten-free flour blend that already includes xantham, and we've been experimenting with the Better Batter blend.  So far, it seems to work remarkably well.  I also think that it is very cool that the company makes a point of offering financial assistance for low-income families who need to go gluten-free.  Grassroots activism around making healthy food available for all is good, good stuff in my humble opinion.

 

Another great discovery that I made last week is Easy Eats, an online magazine that has a lot of great resources around gluten-free cooking and living.  I made a batch of cinnamon rolls from a recipe I got there over the weekend and they turned out very well, despite my relative ineptitude with the tricky/sticky nature of gluten-free flours.  I also used a bread recipe from there to make a basic bread for use in my stuffing on Thanksgiving, and from what I hear from the folks who ate said stuffing, it was indistinguishable from the real deal.  So that's kind of awesome.

 

Of course, as of tomorrow I will be thirty-eight weeks pregnant.  Which is a lot of weeks of pregnant.  Depending on how things go in the pretty immediate future, we could all be eating gluten-free cereal for every meal very, very soon.

A Thanksgiving Speech.

Yesterday afternoon Mariam found herself inspired and sat down to write a speech to be given at dinner this evening.  The best part? She didn't even write it for herself.  Apparently, she intends for our friend Mark to give the speech.  He has not been notified in advance, but she did include directions on the back for him to "read loudly" so at least he won't be without guidance. 

Anyhow, back to it.  There is some seriously weird gluten-free cooking experimentation going on around here this morning, the results of which I'm really, really hoping will be marginally edible.  If not, there are always mashed potatoes, right? 

Library Monday: Owen & Mzee.

There are a few books floating around our house that we have owned long enough and read enough times that I start to assume that everyone else has read them too, and I forget that I really should share them with you all.  Such is the case with Owen and Mzee, a true story about a very unlikely friendship between two very different animals. 

When Owen, a young hippopotamus, is left stranded and orphaned after a tsunami, he is taken to an animal refuge to live.  There he meets Mzee, an Aldabra Tortoise who is well over a century old and not the friendliest fellow. To the amusement (and slight dismay) of park staff, Owen decides that Mzee is going to be his new family, and his persistence eventually pays off.  The two become inseperable, and I've got to say, if you don't find the story of these two animals becoming buddies for life at least a little bit touching, you might be a robot. 

You can find out more about Owen and Mzee on their website, but if you haven't already, I'd recommend simply picking up the first volume of their story at your local library and getting acquainted the old fashioned way.  I think you'll be glad that you did.

The Week That Was.

This last week...

- The collective number of hours spent by members of our family at the hospital was probably unreasonably high.

- Weird Vermont fall continued.  It has been so unseasonably warm that I haven't even needed to get my coat out of the closet yet.  Which is good because I am officially one billion weeks pregnant now and it would never fit anyway.

- Gluten-free baking experiments continued with semi-decent results.  I still have a few kinks to work out with turning my favorite cupcake recipe gluten-free, but I also have optimism.  I think it can be done, and when it is, I'll let you know how I did it...

- I finally approached the mending pile.  This is a hard, hard thing for me to do, although I don't know why.  I only mended a couple of holes in one (favorite) shirt, but it felt like a pretty big accomplishment all the same. 

- My heart broke when I read Alicia's post today.  She and I have exchanged emails and a couple of letters over the last year or two, and as someone who was myself adopted as a baby, I've always persisted in promising her that the right baby will come along at the right time and make her family complete.  I vote that we all send her all the love and well wishing we can muster right now. 

 

Procedural Concerns.

Mariam had her endoscopy yesterday morning, and thankfully, it all went smoothly.  As much as having your child go through an invasive medical procedure is obviously a stressful situation, there were a couple of moments when I just couldn't help but laugh a little.  For one, I always seem to forget that Mariam has a funny habit of expressing her negative feelings about things in a really understated way.  For example, while we were waiting for the nurses to put in her i.v. she kept looking around and saying "I'm really not looking forward to this." And let me tell you, she uses her serious tone of voice when she says these things.

A little while later, once she had the i.v. placed and was ready to head up to the actual room for the procedure, I snapped this photo of Dan and Mariam in their matching hospital scrubs  (Dan had to go straight from the endoscopy to a 24 hour surgery shift).  I have no idea why, but something about the two of them walking down the empty hallway through pre-op in their coordinating hospital outfits kind of cracked me up. 

If it wasn't clear before, I think we can now be pretty sure that I manage my anxiety by laughing at it.  For better or worse.

Excuses.

I tried really hard to come up with a legitimate and compelling reason to post this photo.  Alas, I've got nothing.  Honestly, I just couldn't help myself. 

Sparkle Snow Dough.

We haven't actually had much in the way of snow here in Vermont just yet.  A few flakes here and there, but nothing like what the rest of the east coast has had.  Still, I like a snowy winter as much as the next girl (well, for the first few months anyway) and I'm starting to feel a little itchy for snowman building season to start in earnest.  In the meantime, working on the winter issue of Alphabet Glue has me thinking about winter crafts and activities, particularly the sort that are good for keeping small hands busy.  This afternoon, I decided that in honor of the last couple of days of dark skies and cold wind, I would whip up a batch of snow colored sparkly playdough. 

I used my favorite no-cook playdough recipe, which you can find in the archives here.  But instead of adding food coloring, we added in about a quarter cup of silver glitter.  Honestly, I think next time we'll add even more, but I wanted to conserve my glitter resources a bit because they are needed for a couple of Alphabet Glue projects that I haven't photographed yet.  Even with the rationed glitter, sparkle dough turned out to be a big hit with Mariam.  I'm always kind of amazed at how she can outgrow winter coats, shoes and even once favorite picture books, but a fresh batch of playdough always seems to fit just right. 

In the Meantime.

I was hoping to show you some finished projects this afternoon, but a sudden change in the weather here has resulted in a day so dark that it is almost as if it has been night since about two this afternoon.  Not the best conditions for snapping a decent photo.  So, since I received so many supportive and helpful comments and emails from you all about this post, I thought that I would share a bit about where we're at with things now.

We did have an appointment with a pediatric gastroenterologist last Friday (we got in quickly because of a cancellation) and it was really helpful.  The doctor was very, very good with Mariam, and with us as well, and in the end, we decided to follow his recommendation to schedule her for an endoscopy.  The procedure is scheduled for this coming Tuesday.  I realize that it is a bit of a stretch to go from additional blood work to an intestinal biopsy in such a short time, but I think that the reasoning behind the decision is pretty solid.  Essentially, it comes down to a couple of things.

First, we had to consider the important difference between celiac disease and a wheat or gluten allergy.  While many people confuse the two (I will admit to having previously been one of them) celiac is very different from a gluten allergy in some pretty important ways.  The biggest of which is the fact that celiac is actually not a food allergy at all.  It is an autoimmune disease which, if left untreated, can result in some really scary long term effects.  Such as lymphoma or colon cancer.  Obviously, I want none of that around here.  The other consideration was the fact that celiac can only be definitively diagnosed by intestinal biopsy.  We could do a hundred blood tests, but in order to be certain, we would need to do the biopsy at some point.  And if we make dietary shifts ahead of time, we render the results of any future biopsy inaccurate.  It made the most sense to all of us to just keep her on her current diet, and to schedule the endoscopy for as soon as possible.  If we were just looking at an allergy, I might have made different choices here.  But celiac is not something that you grow out of, or that gets better if you don't make the necessary changes and make them permanent.  Knowing as much as possible now can only make life healthier and better for her later.

So, that's where we are now.  Kind of a strange place to be, honestly.  For lack of a better word, it feels a little bit creepy to be feeding her things like pancakes knowing that the gluten in them could be making her sick.  But, it would be even crazier to take her off gluten now and risk compromising the test that could tell us what is actually going on and allow us to make informed decisions about the rest of her life.  There is, of course, the possibility that the initial blood test was a false positive, but I haven't been able to determine just how likely that is.  I suspect it is because no one really knows.

Whatever the outcome of all of this, I'm certainly looking forward to having some answers soon.