Gluten free: Three-month update

It's been three months of no gluten for me now! My reflections:

• Definitely my stomach problems are much, much better. I've had a couple days in the past three months where I was kind of sick, but it seems like each time it was from eating potatoes (odd since that food has usually agreed with me) or undercooked rice. Once it was from eating peanuts that were labeled as being processed with wheat products.
• I finally only weigh 6 or 7 pounds more than I did before becoming pregnant. I can't definitely attribute this to being gluten free, but it may have helped. Partly it's probably also that I can exercise again, whereas a lot of the year was spent recovering from the ankle surgery and the hernia surgery and before that the awful, awful joint pain.
• It's super easy to not eat gluten. 
• Biggest change: I'm not hungry all the time. It seems like it used to take way more food for me to not feel hungry anymore. Now it feels like I need way less bulk to feel full. Here's my typical daily menu: Breakfast of Chex cereal and coffee. Optional midmorning snack of a banana. Lunch of two small cheese quesadillas on corn tortillas with milk. Maybe a yogurt if I'm super hungry. Supper of some type of meat and vegetables and milk. Nighttime snack of popcorn. 

I keep thinking that what I need to do now is eat something glutenous and see how it works out before determining whether to stick with it. The problem is, I can't think of any food that I really, really miss. What's your favorite glutenous food?

Toddler hilarity

Matthew is doing a million things that make us giggle nowadays.

One day, I was doing something in the kitchen while Matt was playing in the living room after his nap, and it suddenly got quiet. I went to look for him and found him on the guest bed under a blanket, pretending to sleep. He giggled hysterically when I found him.

When we see friendly animals––recently a ferret and a small dog––Matthew has been putting his cheek right next to their mouths, like he's saying, "Okay, you can kiss me now!" He does this with stuffed animals at home, too.

I was eating breakfast one day when Jeff and Matthew came out of the back room. Jeff said to Matt, "Say 'boo' to Mom!" (a game we often play). Matt looked at him with derision then ran to hide behind the wall before saying boo! I guess you can't just say it when you're not sneaking up on someone.

This one makes all of our excursions more fun––when we go places, Matthew almost always points at guys and calls them Dad or Grandpa depending on how old he thinks they are. It really makes some guys nervous, which I find hilarious.

Climbing! Matt climbs something, and it's like the most exciting thing he's ever done! He's all like, "Pshhh, that was nothing! Look at me on top of this really high thing!"

Everything is a hat or a drum. Cars are hats. Books are hats. Cups are hats. The floor is a drum. The elephant is a drum. Blankets are drums. It's funny when Matthew manages to balance, say, his stuffed dog on his head and insists it's a hat.

Matthew's also a little mimic now. It's a funny age. He's super excited when he helps with laundry or mopping up spills or carrying his stuff to his room or putting toys away or flushing the toilet or, really, anything he's seen us do. If only he had a tiny, working vacuum... We'd be all set.

A new week

This week is a new week. Last week was one of the most challenging ever for me in regards to the daytime. It was pretty much the only time I've looked back on Matthew's newborn days and reminisced how easy that was in comparison (but so much less interesting). And I spent a lot of time thinking about how glad I am that at that time I realized how easy it was. But anyway. Last week, apart from sickness, was made up of a lot of random crying from Matt, lots of having my hair pulled, lots of being climbed on, lots of having to pick up and put down a toddler over and over because of his indecisiveness, and lots of complete exhaustion at the end of the day where I wanted hours (but settled for minutes) of not being touched or loudly jibber-jabbered at. Ugh.

The hardest thing for me about hanging out with this particular toddler all day is how very talkative and loud he is. It's pretty much nonstop. And not ignorable. I've never been a fan of lots of noise, and add that on top of the needs a kid has for near-constant physical contact and assistance, and it's overwhelming. Especially when I'm not feeling well. Especially when this toddler has been grabbing my neck really hard and those sore-throat lumps are taking the brunt of it.

But today has been pretty good. Matthew seems in better spirits. He's been less clingy, has had zero bouts of unexplainable/frustration crying, and is already taking a long nap. I'm still feeling kind of sick, but there's nothing to be done about that.

In other news, I've finally reached a weight loss goal I've been eyeing for a while. Whether it's a result of diet and exercise or sickness lack of appetite, I'm not sure, but either way... I'm also in a challenge at the gym to lose 8 pounds in 8 weeks. Weigh-in is after Thanksgiving. Everyone paid $10, and everyone who loses at least 8 pounds splits the money. So that's motivating. I think I only have like 2 pounds left to lose.

Insert spectacular conclusion here. 

A discerning palate

Matthew has, apparently, decided to expand his range of foods today. He has quite the discerning palate. This morning he ate most of a sticker of a train. Then he kept saying "boo boo" (his version of "choo choo").

Later, I handed him part of a leaf and said, "Trash," which usually would make him get really excited and throw the object into the trash can. Today––in the mouth. He chewed it up pretty good before I fished out the pieces. It didn't appear to be delicious, just nice and crunchy.

At lunch, I was eating uncooked spinach while Matt was eating chicken, one of his favorites. He started lunging at my plate from his high chair, so I gave him a piece of spinach. It was gone in a fraction of a second, and he was still lunging and fussing and grabbing! He chowed down like half my salad, just plain spinach, before returning to delicious chicken.

What will be next?

Chatty Matty, potty fun, tough times hopefully ending

Chatty Matty

Chatty Matty is a pretty funny guy. He's learning words like crazy; he can probably identify a hundred things or more by name (we test this all the time by saying, "Where's the flag? Where's the attic? Where's the basket?" You get the point). I'm constantly amused by how quickly he learns new words, which words he thinks are hilarious, and which words he thinks are different words.

For example, the other day I told someone that I hoped something wouldn't collapse. Matt started clapping. I was so confused. Then I thought, "Oh, right. Claps." Yesterday, I told him he could "go ahead and play with the blocks" and he started hitting himself in the head. I thought, "Huh, must not want to play with blocks." Then later I said he could go ahead and play outside. He started hitting his head again. Yeah, that time I figured it out.

The other thing that's so entertaining to me is how Matthew makes connections between things. For example, he makes a noise with his tongue when he sees a clock, like a clock-ticking noise. He tries to make a buzzing noise when he sees flying insects, or when he's apparently thinking about them (complete with spastic arm motions; I may have accidentally taught him that). Today Matt was playing with a kazoo and making noise through it, so I said, “Hey, play me a song with your kazoo.” Matthew got all excited, ran into the living room, and started using the kazoo to play notes on the piano. That’s one way to play a song with a kazoo, I suppose.

Some words cause Mattoddler to ROFL when he first hears them. It usually lasts a couple days before they just become regular, non-hilarious words, but it's so funny when he falls over laughing at them at first. If you're feeling a little sad, just say these words out loud, and soon you'll be rolling around laughing: pony, ponytail, tickle, mohawk, fauxhawk, zipper, peaches, buzz, kazoo. Hee hee hee. 

The one thing I'm not loving all the time is how Matthew is so very, very talkative. But not only talkative––aggressively talkative. How did we get such a loud guy? It doesn't make sense. I watched some videos of Matt when he was a baby, and, sure enough, he was still making noise all the time. When he says a word, he will keep saying a word until I confirm that I know what he's saying. Which is fine and all, but my goodness, the talking never stops. Must take after Jeff.

Potty fun

We've been having potty fun here this week! One of my friends posted on Facebook that her daughter has been using the potty a lot, and she's only a couple months older than Matt, so I thought, "Hmm, Matthew loves toilets. Maybe he'd like to use his potty now." Success so far! He's good at using it for solids, but I'm not sure he quite understands peeing right now. As much as changing diapers doesn't bother me, having Matthew use the potty is still way better.

In the past, I haven't had any views on potty training, but I've been reading some stuff and thinking about some stuff, and we're pretty much going to continue on with it. It's crazy how in other countries kids are potty trained way, way earlier than in the US, like by a year or 18 months. And that's how it used to be here, I guess, before 1950, when disposable diapers got popular. It makes sense to potty train younger, though, before the headstrong "terrible twos" get started. And one thing that really made sense to me is the comparison between teaching a toddler what's expected at mealtime or in social settings and what's expected for toilet hygiene. But in spite of how much sense it makes for us to be potty training now, I don't really have expectations for Matthew to be totally out of diapers by a certain point. We'll just see how it goes.

Tough times hopefully ending

It's been a challenging two years for me, physically. Here's the rough rundown: 

·      pregnancy (felt pretty good throughout)

·      terrible, terrible postpartum joint pain (and accompanying lack of weight loss)

·      umbilical hernia requiring surgery

·      joint pain subsiding and weight loss beginning as apparent result of stopping breastfeeding

·      working out more, playing roller derby, feeling good again

·      broken ankle requiring surgery

·      rapid weight loss as result of my broken-ankle workout plan (hopping and crawling everywhere)

And now, two full years later, I'm finally starting to feel good again. I'm almost my normal weight, and I can do some amount of exercise without being in terrible pain (though my ankle does still ache quite a bit). It's crazy how much I've taken for granted my formidable physical fitness and health my whole life until I didn't have it anymore. And it's crazy that I've had to have two surgeries this year for bad things that happened as a result of working out. Ugh. I have high hopes that now I can just be my normal self again, but we'll see what God's plans are.

Gluten free: One-month update

I've been avoiding gluten for a whole month already! I've found that it hasn't been that difficult to cut out gluten-containing foods.

The main challenge was when we were in Wyoming visiting my sister; the ranch kitchen cooked all our food and they did a great job of letting me know what was supposed to not have gluten in it, but some days I wasn't feeling so great, so who knows if I ate some crouton dust or soup thickened with flour or whatever.

The biggest lifestyle change was not eating Shredded Wheat for breakfast, which I've had nearly every day for probably five years or so (with the idea that eating more fiber would cure my stomach problems. Oops). I DO NOT like trying to cook something in the morning, especially since Matt's at this stage where he acts like I must pick him up or he will just die every time I go in the kitchen, sit at the table, or have a piece of food or a cup in my hand. Thankfully Jeff's cooked me Cream of Rice (just like Cream of Wheat - mmm!) some days, or I've had scrambled eggs or a banana and yogurt and milk.

The biggest physical change is a tie: 1) I've had only two incidents of immediate, terrible sickness, and I think that was from eating peanuts. Usually we get Planters or Emerald, but we have Kroger brand right now, and Jeff later saw that the label said it may contain wheat. So overall my stomach has been experiencing at least moderate improvement. I find gradual improvement difficult to measure. 2) The other thing is that I am sleeping way, way better. I've only been waking up about twice per night, when usually I've woken up many more times than that for years. And when I wake up, I've been falling back asleep much easier. Now that I think about it, my trouble sleeping started at about the same time as the stomach problems. I was a pro sleeper my whole life through college; when I moved to Auburn was when both my sleeping habits and digestive health declined rapidly.

The biggest surprise is how easy it has been to make changes. I don't miss bread products at all. Jeff and I used to eat muffins as snacks sometimes at night, but other than the first week, I haven't eyed the muffins with jealousy at all. Suppers have remained the same. The only real change is that now if I make something in the crockpot, I can't dump cream-of-whatever soup in there. I've gone out to eat twice and didn't feel limited at all by the selection (though I will probably cry if I go to Cracker Barrel again - biscuits and gravy is my favorite thing there).

So we'll see. Two more months to go before I decide whether to stick with the gluten-free way of eating.

Brigitte says it's really weird to talk in third person

Through all my eavesdropping at playgrounds and stores and anywhere else Matthew and I run into other moms and kids, I've noticed something that both perplexes and inexplicably annoys me.

Wait, let Brigitte Mommy start over: Through all her eavesdropping at playgrounds and stores and anywhere else Matthew and Mommy run into other moms and kids, Mommy has noticed something that both perplexes and inexplicably annoys her.

Yeesh. Even in writing it's weird.

I've noticed that a lot of moms refer to themselves in third person when talking to their kids. A few examples:

"Joe, you know Mommy said we'd only be at the playground for a little while. It's time to go home."
"Get over here! Mommy told you no! Get off the picnic table!"
"Mommy's thirsty. Are you thirsty? Mommy's going to have a drink now."
"Mommy is busy. Please stop trying to bite her leg."

In each of these cases, the lady is clearly the mom of the kids. So... she's not some babysitter or friend or relative passing on instructions from the mom. Also, it strikes me every time that the person referring to herself in third person is always "mommy," not "mom" or "mama" or any other name by which moms are commonly called.

I just don't get it. People almost never use third person with their actual names, and when they do, other people find it odd and cause for mockery. I'm guessing these same ladies don't use third person with their husband or other acquaintances. So why do so many "mommies" do it?

Possible guesses:

• It sounds less authoritative to tell your kids "Mommy said" instead of "I said." It may make the mom feel less like she's bossing with that slight linguistic separation. (Though here, I'm the boss. I make the decisions. I'm in charge. I don't mind being bossy.) (Though here, Mommy's the boss. Mommy makes the decisions. Mommy's in charge. Mommy doesn't mind being bossy.)
• It's a holdover from when the kids were babies, e.g., "Mommy loves you so much!" *smooch, smooch, smooch baby face*, when the kid probably didn't yet know what to call that nice cuddly lady because the verbal skills hadn't developed yet.

That's all I've got. If you call yourself Mommy, and you call yourself Mommy TO your kids––why? Please solve this mystery for me!

Postscript: I am NOT a "mommy." I am definitely a "mom." And "mama" is only okay from Matthew, and only for probably another year.