Night Wakings

For some unknown reason, Julia has been waking alot at night this week. Is she hungry? (sometimes she eats a small dinner) Is she cold? (it is the start of freezing temperatures) Does she miss Mommy? Hahaha. I wish she could say that to me. That will totally make my week.

She woke at 1am, screamed and screamed. The first couple of times this happened, I would go in and pick her up. As soon as I picked her up, she'd stop crying. She tells me to "cho cho", sit on the chair and read a book. Bad sign - don't want her to get used to that. So I spent an hour in her room, trying to get her sleepy again, which didn't work. So then I put her back into her crib and she screamed for 30 minutes before konking out. And then she wwoke again at 5am...Aiya!

Long night - sigh.

Jasmine's 4th Birthday (video)

Jasmine turns 4 today. What a big girl. She's grown so much over the past year (potty training, going to preschool, going to daycare...) I'm so proud of her. Here's Jasmine enjoying her minute of birthday fame.



As much as we wanted to have a large gathering to celebrate, we didn't have a birthday party this year. I did, however, make special eggless cupcakes for this special occassion and they turned out quite good. Julia even enjoyed her first chocolate cake experience, and she loved every bit of it.

Logan 4th Birthday Party

We celebrated Logan's 4th birthday today, at his new house. There were lots of food, pasta, fruit and cake. The theme this year was.... ANGRY BIRDS! They had both chocolate and vanilla cake, with angry birds on them. All the kids were so excited. Of course, since all the kids played that game, they were all screaming "angry birds, angry birds!"

In one area of the house, there were balloons all over the floor and hanging off of chairs. Julia kept on pulling on the helium balloons and letting go, the balloon bouncing away. Jasmine was running all over the place, kids everywhere. After we left the party, both girls would not let go of the balloon strings.

Thanks Logan for having us over again. We loved playing with all your toys and balloons. Hope we'll be invited over to play again.

Baby Shower for Win

I am expecting a nephew in the next 4 weeks. So exciting. Lisa and I went over to Victoria, to host Win's baby shower. It was a quick 1-day trip so we left on the 9am ferry, walked on as foot passenger and arrived at Win's place at 11:30am. The party started at noon so we had 30 minutes to prep the house (which we did nicely by the way).

People arrived promptly at noon and home-cooked food was served. I can't believe how much food Win and YJ had made! Around this time, my skin started acting up, getting all itchy and rashy. I suspect it was from the kitties they had. Didn't matter, a party was taking place!

We played lots of baby games like pin the sperm (that was a funny one), drawing a baby on your head, guessing how large Win's belly was and baby rhymes... Thanks Lisa for organizing all the games! It was very fun. After all the prizes were handed out, Win opened all the baby gifts. She has such awesome friends. Everyone gave such wonderful, generous presents. After that, we went back to the food (yes, we eat alot) and just chilled. By this time, my face and neck were practically swollen so I had to take a Benadryl. Within 20 minutes, the meds took effect, which calmed my skin but it also knocked me out. Literally. I fell asleep at the table! Must have been a funny sight but I just couldn't keep my eyes open.

I then moved over to the couch and took a snooze. When I woke up, the party was over. Everyone said their goodbyes and grabbed goody bags. YJ tore all the decorations down in - like - 2 minutes. I guess he really didn't like how the house looked with all the balloons and ruffly stuff.

All in all, it was a fun day. Thanks again Lisa for organizing everything!

Naturopath Allergy Sensitivity

We saw the naturopath today for Julia's food issues. He did a touch testing? which doesn't cause any pain. He had all these food items in tiny vials. This is the est up: Julia is sitting on my lap. My arm is pointed straight out, used as a lever to test the strength of Julia's body. So the doctor would put the vial (food to test) on Jules cheeks and then the doctor pushes down on my arm. From the way my arm reacts (stays up or pushes down), he can find out how Julia's body is reacting to the food.

He found several food items that Julia is senstive to: milk, soy, wheat/gluten, fish and apples. The ones that I was pretty sure she was sensitive to did not show up: egg, potato and corn. Very strange. I guess she can now safely eat these foods. Yay! We'll be back at the naturopath in about a month's time.

Peanut Allergy for Julia

We've been waiting to see the allergist for about 6 months and finally, the appointment date is today! It was an early morning appointment so we gave Julia her morning milk and then got her ready to leave the house.

We got to the doctor's office at 8:20am. This is usually when Julia has her breakfast so we brought lots of cereal snacks and rice cakes for her to munch on when she's hungry. Julia started asking for food around 8:30am so we gave her the container of snacks. Before we even saw the doctor, the container was empty! Julia ate everything in there.

When the doctor walked in, Jules did her usual scared don't-look-at-me face when she sees a stranger. She just freezes on the spot and looks down. It's as if she is thinking, ok if I can't see this person, this person will go away... Haha, kids. They are so funny.

We chatted with the doctor for a while and decided to do prick tests on a few food items, just to see whether the food sensitivities are correct. We tested for peanut, nuts, egg white, egg, yolk, soy, fish, coconut, corn. We should have tested for milk and wheat as well but forgot. The doctor drew little circles on Jules forearms and a little head on top, so it looks like a worm (see photo). Julia had no idea what was going on until the doctor pricked her arm 10 times (2 pricks were control pricks) and she burst into tears. Poor Julia.



As it turns out, all tests came back negative except for peanut. So now, we have to carry two epipens everywhere we go. I'm very skeptical about the results though because I know for sure that Jules reacts to some of the foods we tested. We will be seeing the naturopath tomorrow so we'll see what he has to say about the allergies.

Rice Bread - SUCCESS!

I recently found a recipe for rice bread and had to give it a try. With Julia's food allergies, I am constantly looking for good ones. It took 10 minutes to prep all the ingredients, another 3 hours in the breadmaker and ... voila, it turned out ok! Not like the breads we get at bakeries, but very decent, moist bread with a crunchie crust. Just hope that Julia can eat it without getting a rash. I guess we'll find out tomorrow morning. Here's the recipe:

Rice Muffin (米麵包食譜)

Ingredients (成份)
1 cup rice milk (米奶)
1 banana (香蕉)
1 TB lemon juice (柠檬汁)
4 TB oil (油)
4 TB sugar (糖)
1 tsp salt (鹽)
1 cup white rice flour (白米麵粉)
1 cup brown rice flour (糙米麵粉)
1 tsp baking soda (发面苏打)

Bake at 425 for about 17 minutes. Makes 12 muffins

Tantrums Galore (video)

Unfortunately, Julia is nearing her terrible two's (she's 20 months) and I guess she's found a way to get our attention. She cries LOUDLY! Whenever she wants something, she'll cry to get her way. Take a look at how she can turn on you (pun intended).