Wheat free

I've been wheat-free for nearly four weeks now, and I sure wish I had something exciting to report. I haven't noticed any particular physical changes, nor have I found it a mental or domestic challenge. Wheat has been extremely easy to give up.

I guess that itself is exciting news.

Probably the transition has been easy and the effects minimal because I've actually been transitioning away from wheat products for a long time now. No cereal for breakfast or sandwiches for lunch, and my junk foods of choice are dark chocolate and salty nuts. (Both of which remain firmly entrenched in my diet.) The key change has been that now I can't pop Tim's leftovers (grilled cheese or pb&j sandwiches) into my mouth when he runs from the table. Nor can I cave to a pb toast craving. But sandwich lunches for for Tim and toast for me were already less-than-daily occurences, so no big.

And, it turns out that some of the few substitutes I've had to find for, say, pizza crust, burger buns, and chocolate cake, are WAY BETTER than the wheaty versions. A fantastic discovery: socca bread, a flatbread made with chickpea flour and water. We've used it for pizza crusts and burger buns, and everyone in the family has declared it a superior product. Then Constance made a chocolate cake with three ingredients: chocolate (a blend of semi-sweet and unsweetened), butter, and eggs. It was amazing. Better than the flourless chocolate cake we had at Taylor's the previous weekend.

And these.

They may look like your standard peanut butter chocolate chip cookies, but no! They are flourless! (Also dairy-less). Just nut butter (in this case, a mix of natural peanut butter and sunflower seed butter), sugar, baking powder, an egg, and chocolate chips. Mix it up, throw 'em in the oven and OMFG. (Yes, I gave up on the sugar-coating partway through.)

Anyway, despite the lack of drama (or because of it?), I'm quite attached to this wheat-free diet. I think I'll keep it. I'm not foisting it on the rest of the family, but because I do most of the shopping and cooking, everyone benefits.

Pay liday git-a-car tennay rack

"Play little guitar tennis racquet."

The current obsession in our household (ie: the fixation of the toddler) is playing guitar. Air guitar will do in a pinch, but using one of the little tennis-racquet-type toys is the preferred mode. (Ben has squirreled away the paper jamz guitar in a bout of sibling rivalry, and I haven't snapped a picture yet of the tennis racquet guitar.)
The guitar fixation started with watching the live musical guests on Mamma Yamma, specifically Serena Ryder and Sloan. Tim has learned most of the words to the chorus of Little Bit of Red, and will dance around for ages just playing guitar and singing.

Today, this evolved into him having ME play "liday git-a-car tennay rack" while singing the Serena Ryder song, while he played piano.

Sitting on the Radio Flyer enables him to scoot from the high notes to the low notes easily. (The bench is missing in a failed attempt to keep him from climbing up onto the top of the piano.) Curiously, while Tim holds his tennis racquet guitar all low on his hips like a cool dude, he insists that I hold it like a ukelele. Seriously! I tried the hipster stance, and he's all "no Mommy! Up! Up!". So I get a cool kid, but don't get to be cool myself. Figures.

Ah, ben oui Gabby!

Constance is teaching Tim French by having him imitate her phone conversations. It's extremely cute; his intonation is dead-on. Tim's word for telephone: tadalome.

Elephant? Adalint.
Yogurt? Yo-yo baby (single-serve cup), or big yo-yo (from the carton)
Cat? Wawa ticky.
Museum? Meeyoom.
Juice? Toot.
Bus? Beep beep. (Usually "big beep beep".)

Today as we were cuddled up for naptime, we had this conversation:

Tim: "Meck in Mommy big boobie" [Milk in Mommy's boobie]
H: Where did the milk go?
Tim: "Tim gank meck" [Tim drank the milk]
H: "When did you drink Mommy's milk?"
Tim: "Beebee Tim." [Baby Tim]
H: "What did the milk do to you?"
Tim: "Make tong and hety." [Made me strong and healthy]

Aside from experimenting with hitting, refusing to eat at mealtime, and denying the existence of the potty, two is pretty awesome.

In the 'hood

Our neighbourhood is sketchy at best. We suspect the across-the-street neighbours of running a grow-op. I have been chased by pitbulls while jogging (and wasn't surprised at all). I've almost toppled the stroller in potholes and broken sidewalks. We are awakened nightly by the sound of either drunken shouting in the street, or muffler-less cars going from zero to sixty up our residential street.

But there are up-sides. Within a ten minute walk of our house (on quiet, residential, albeit potholed streets) are three grocery stores, a mall, a health food store, a butcher, a library, four playgrounds, two public outdoor pools, two splash pads and a wading pool, all three kids' schools, and this:

A lake!

Great for throwing

Great for hiking

Not to mention rock climbing!*

The Gatineau Park is practically in our yard. I go there several times a week either alone on a run or running or walking with Tim in the stroller -- or just playing at the lake. The lake is actually the closest part of the park to us, and it's perfectly hidden and lovely... right in the middle of the city!

Strangely, we haven't taken up cross-country skiing yet, even though we could practically carry our skis (if we had them) to the trailhead. Maybe this year. (That is what we say every year.)

* The whole time Tim was climbing this steep rocky path, he was singing "Bo on the go! Bo on the go!" (Theme song from a kids show that's about moving and being active. Tim thought he was a superhero!)

Vroom vroom

Although it appears his hair is blowing in the wind, it's actually just bedhead. (To be fair, I had bedhead, too.)

We scored a cheap deal on a membership to the Children's Museum last Christmas, and we visit every few weeks. Tim is learning and growing so quickly that each time we go, his experience of the activities are totally different. Today was the first time he engaged with focus on activities for extended periods of time (10 or 15 minutes in one place!): making onion tortillas in the Mexican hut, shingling and patching the doghouse, cooking and serving food in the café. Previously, he'd mostly just run around enjoying the varied and colourful environment, poking his head in here and there. (Though the cafe has always been a hit. For a long time now he's enjoying pouring me a pretend coffee, clinking "cheers!", and pretend-sipping vigorously.) Now, he's finally getting the hang of playing.

The time, it's certainly zooming by.

Oh Natural

On Labour Day, we drove out to a farm near Carleton Place to pick up a side of pork. Or, as we've been calling him, Our Happy Pig.

I didn't get any pictures of the fairly cute and gregarious Yorkshires, from which herd Our Happy Pig was culled. Nor did I get any pictures of the beef cattle roaming in the open fields behind the barn (whom we will revisit with less innocent intention next year.)

But we all enjoyed getting a tour of the farm, seeing the other animals, and chatting with Farmer Dave (who left Nortel half a dozen years ago to take up farming on his fantastic 150 year old farm.)

So the pork? Is amazing. We've only dug into a couple packages of loin chops, but they are just amazing. tender, juicy, flavourful. And guilt-free. This pig, it lived the way pigs are meant to. In a big open pen, running around in the mud and grass, being fed delicious real-food-slops.  

We'd been avoiding grocery store meat for some time, and even alternating meating-eating and vegetarian/vegan-eating dinners in order to minimize the amount of unhealthy (in the broadest sense). Now we have a freezer full of loin chops, smoked hams, sausages (the guy from the Sausage Kitchen makes the sausages!), bacon, and ground pork, which we can enjoy knowing we are supporting natural agriculture.

Next year, beef.

Also! I had my first taste of fresh, unpasteurized milk the other night. Not at the farm; at bookclub. (Bookclub is made up of many midwives - there was bound to be a granola or two in the bunch.) OMG, fresh milk tastes amazing, AND I got the contact info for the farmer who supplies it. We'll see where this leads...

From the list of "Don'ts"

Um, no Tim. That's NOT allowed.

I love naptime

One of the best things about staying home with my "baby" is getting to put him down for his naps. It used to be a dreaded time of the day: will he go down? How much will we fight? Will he stay asleep?

Since we consolidated into one nap a day (a year ago?), and in particular since we stopped nursing (March 18), afternoon naps have been predictable and the routine for going to sleep pretty straightforward -- though time consuming. The thing about it taking a long time is: is doesn't matter! We don't have anything else to do but wash hands, choose stories, read stories, one more story Mommy, cuddle up, chat, toss and turn, wata  [water] Mommy, again wata, cuddle up, toss a bit more, cuddle, Zzzzzz.... It can take an hour from the time we start up the stairs until I come back down to eat a quiet lunch by myself.

But whatever. It's so cozy, up there lying on the bed reading stories. Tim's starting to read along, filling in the words to his favourite stories, pointing out things in the pictures, telling me the ending. It's actually... fun.

And lately, when we've turned out the light and I lay down to cuddle up, Tim (sometimes after a bit of tossing and turning) squirms right into my chest, puts his cheek on my cheek, wraps both arms around my neck, sighs quietly and falls asleep like that. It's heaven.

Hack, hack

I've had a terrible cough for two weeks now. It's not so bad during the day, but has been keeping me up at night. I'm skeptical of cough medicine, but have been taking it before bed anyway. Still, the up-at-all-hours. I'm exhausted, and have given up exercise. (Coinciding with Tim's break from nursery school, at least.)

At least the kids are back to school: McPie enjoys mornings with them, so I've been sleeping in.

Since my cough started, Tim caught and recovered from croup. (Heck, he probably caught it from me.) In three days! Kid has a killer immune system.

Last night, in a last ditch effort, Sweetie McPie stayed up late to whip up a batch of homemade soup (carrot & fennel), and instructed me to drink it all day today. He insists it's the cure we've been waiting for.

At any rate, the soup is delicious.