A big highlight was I got to have a mommy date with my friend Eryn, who has been following along with our arthritis journey and been sending so much encouragement. Today, we met up and along with hugs and iced tea, she had so thoughtfully prepared a bunch of info about following an anti-inflammatory diet. She printed me some articles, a ton of recipes (with cute notes added in the margins) and treated me to a whole sampling of healthy, gluten-free/dairy-free snack options as ideas to sub in. Just look at all these goodies, and this wasn't even everything in the bag!
Yum yum!
Thanks Eryn, you are such a sweetheart! I'm a happy mama!
Eryn's family deals with life-threatening nut allergies, so it was great to also bond with another person who also is familiar with a side of the whole medical world that most of us don't have to think about, except in passing, on a daily basis. A year ago, we couldn't even imagine it, but now with her allergy therapy, her daughter is eating a peanut M&M a day. It makes me hopeful for where we will be a year from now too!
Changing Phoebe's diet does sound daunting to me, but of course, I'm open to anything at this point. The struggle is with her pickiness and then, with how she is feeling on any given day, it obviously affects her appetite. Tonight, I made cauliflower for the first time, as Phoebe had picked it out while shopping. I hated cauliflower growing up, so this was new for me! I roasted it with salt and pepper and olive oil and some nice anti-inflammatory turmeric. It turned out pretty delicious. Cordelia was persuaded to try it and quickly announced "I LOVE it." Phoebe put it in her mouth (impressive in itself), but then spat it out and refused to try it again. ::eye roll:: Cordelia even tried to convince her to eat a bite, which was cute.
Phoebe has been congested the last couple weeks (getting better, at last!) so I have been giving her almond milk over cow's milk. Though I do wish it had more protein, as it is hard to get Phoebe to eat chicken or even egg daily. Eryn suggested a plant-based milk that has pea protein, which might be good... I'm definitely hesitant to do too much soy. But anyway, the main thing is to just keep Phoebe eating things and making healthy choices for her so she gets enough nutrition. She ate rice from our dinner, maybe 1 bite of chicken (I'm not sure if she actually ate it or not!) and turned down the cauliflower and asparagus. After we ate, I gave her vanilla greek yogurt (to put her crushed up folic acid in) and grapes. We just can't fight about food when she already has so much going on! I'm excited to pack her lunch with some of her new yummy snacks!
Anyway, after my lovely midday break, I went and picked up the girls who were both having really strong days, temperament-wise. Phoebe was having a very, very good day. She was very happy and so energetic!! When I came in she, she was also wearing a new adorable little Hawaiian dress from Papa, blue with white flowers. She looked so pretty! You can see her wearing it in this cute video I took later, where she tried to put her own rain boots on Cordelia's baby doll. She thought of it all on her own!! She then gives him adorable kisses. Ha ha, so cuuuuuute.....Cordelia was never into babies very much at all, but Phoebe loves baby dolls.
Phoebe was laughing and playing and walking around confidently all evening. Even when Jason got home he was impressed with her energy. She did have two solid naps today, so hopefully we are getting over the day light savings hurdle. I also hope that this is the methotrexate starting to kick in! She did protest about her eye drops more than yesterday, but still is not getting too worked up. If we have to keep doing this even after next Friday, I think at least we are setting into a good rhythm for it.
Phoebe is getting more into books. We read a book called "Eli, No." where a dog named Eli gets into all kinds of mischief, like eating too much or peeing where he shouldn't and on every page it says "Eli, no!". Phoebe read it for the first time yesterday and immediately pointed at it and started saying "No." Then she joined in saying "No!" on each part of the story. She LOVED it and it was so hilarious. I'm impressed that she picked up the premise of the book so quickly, after just one reading, and remembered it from the previous day! Yay Phoebe! We read the book many times tonight!
Tomorrow morning is PT! We're taking Cordelia with us, hopefully it will be fun for both of them!
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