Cristian ~ results are in

Last week, we got the results back from Cristian's blood work. The good news is his allergy panel came back free and clear! So he has no food allergies, which is a huge blessing! His Celiac panel; however, did not come back normal. This did not come as a huge surprise... given his chronic stomach irritation and ear pain that was unrelated to an infection. There were 2 things that showed up in his blood work that led my doctor to say, "Cristian's results are suggestive of Celiac's disease." In order to get a negative Celiac panel, it was explained to me that Cristian's IGA # would have to be under 10 (0-9 range). In order to have a positive test for Celiac, his number would have to be above 16 (17+ range). Anything in between 10-16 they consider "equivocal," usually meaning that there's a strong possibility, but further testing would need to be done to get an official diagnosis. Cristian's IGA # was 14. (so, on the higher end of the "equivocal" range). The other thing his doctor mentioned was that his gliadin antibodies were elevated, and statistics show that 80% of patients who have an equivocal blood test AND this elevated gliadin antibody have Celiac's Disease. So, the doctor he was seeing (who happens to be a pediatric ear specialist at his pediatric clinic), thought it best to treat his symptoms instead of putting him through much more invasive testing. (80% chance of having Celiac's Disease was positive enough in his opinion). So, he said for now, Cristian is to be put on a gluten free diet, and we are supposed to follow up with him again in 2-3 months to see if his stomach has had any relief.
After getting this news, I spent the next 4 days doing a lot of research on Celiac's Disease, reading Gluten Free websites and blogs, and grocery shopping. I visited 6 different grocery stores in 4 days just trying to get an idea of who had what, and where the best prices/deals were. Here are some of the things I came home with...
It is amazing how many gluten free things are available!
I went to Marlene's, Trader Joe's, Winco, Fred Meyer, Safeway, and Costco! A big thank you to my mom and sister who also did a lot of research and went shopping with me!!
The bread is great for toasting, but not so much for sandwiches. It just crumbles too easily.

I had to completely reorganize my pantry and make each of my kiddos their own food shelves. This is Ava and Carter's side...
Cristian can still have popcorn, but no more of his favorite Annie's crackers, graham crackers, or soda crackers.
He will also have to give up his favorite cereals. (Ava and Carter's Soy Nut butter and honey)
There are very few soups/chilis that are gluten free. Fortunately, I make most of mine from scratch anyway so instead of noodles I can substitute those with quinoa or rice. I also found some gluten free cream of mushroom soup, gluten free cream of chicken soup, and gluten free creamy tomato soup... since a couple of our family favorite recipes call for those!
Here is Cristian's side of the pantry (minus the oatmeal)
and tucked way up on the "forbidden" top shelf is a jar of death, aka peanut butter. Two of the staples Cristian will be eating with gluten free crackers, vegetables, and rice cakes are peanut butter and tuna fish. It's the only way I can conveniently get him some protein in his school lunch. Of course this makes me panic with Ava and Carter's allergies (especially Ava since she is HIGHLY allergic to both Fin Fish and Nuts... to my knowledge, Carter's only allergy is Peanuts). But I have a good system in place to make sure that my house is not cross contaminated.
Cristian giving me the thumbs up, posing by his new food selections. He has been such a trooper, trying new foods, and eliminating all the others that he's used to. And I'm very happy to report that after being gluten free for just a week, his stomach is feeling MUCH MUCH BETTER!! I've only heard him mention his stomach being upset ONCE in the past several days, and before he was mentioning it several times a day. YAY!!
Some more gluten free purchases.
Sorry for all the pictures of my pantry, I'm just so happy with how organized and clean it looks :)
We also had to get him his very own toaster to avoid cross contamination.
That's a lot of GLUTEN FREE!!
I was also given a recipe to make my own gluten free all purpose flour mix using all of the above flours.
My recipe and gluten free flour mix.
I also made my very first gluten free zucchini bread which was a huge hit!
It tasted just like the non-gluten free version, just a tad bit more crumbly. Hopefully I'll be able to perfect it.

So, there you have it. So far it's been a smooth transition... it just takes a lot more planning ahead on my part, because there are no more quick/on the go meals that we can eat anymore. And a lot of recipes require an extra step or two, making meal prep time longer. But, we will definitely be a healthy household! I'll give you all another update in a couple months after he goes back to the doctor! But so far, so good!! One week down, and perhaps a lifetime to go?? Consider it All Joy!!

Snow Much Fun!

Can you believe the ground hog predicted we'd all be enjoying an early Spring this year?? We sure can't. The last week of February brought with it record low temps and unusually late snow fall.
But, it's always nice to get an unexpected day off from school and activities...
And it's always fun to play in the snow!!
Cristian
Ava
and Carter Thomas

Valentine's Day

The kids both really enjoyed their Valentine's Day parties at their schools! They came home with cute, decorated bags full of valentine cards and goodies. Ava had her friend Ari over on Valentine's Day for a playdate after preschool. I thought it would be fun for the girls to do a bunch of crafts in honor of the holiday, so they made each person in their families a homemade Valentine :)
And they helped me make some yummy cupcakes
here they are frosting them :)

After we ate our delicious snack, we had just enough time to paint our nails... then it was off to the school to pick up Cristian. (Ari's older sister goes to the same school as Cristian, so it's convenient for us (Ari's Mom and me) to take turns having playdates and then just meet up at the school).

My mom then came over and delivered Valentine presents to each of us before Ava and I had to get to gymnastics and Cristian to play practice. Mondays are such busy days for us. But it was still a fun Valentine's Day!

Not Feeling Well

Poor guy! This is a very rare sight! Cristian has never been a sleeper and gave up naps right around his 2nd birthday. But Superbowl weekend and the Mon/Tues after, he took 3 naps in 4 days, and missed 2 1/2 days of school. He had been complaining all week that his ears were really bothering him. The Friday before Superbowl, his teacher called me during the kids' 2nd recess to tell me that his ears seemed to be getting worse (even after going to the doctor), and she could tell that it was really painful for him. So back to the doctor we went... but this time we saw the ear specialist at his pediatrician's office. Turns out his ear drums and ear canal were very red and extremely irritated, but it was not due to an infection. So he took a picture of his ear, thoroughly went over Cristian's medical history (Cristian has also suffered from chronic upset stomach, which we have assumed was due to a lactose intolerance) , and came to the conclusion that his ear problem was most likely related to an allergy. WHAT?? This "A" word keeps popping up in our house. He said he'd seen a couple of cases like Cristian's, and they were all allergy related as well. Cristian's pediatrician had done an allergy screening when he was 5 years old (when the stomach issues started), and everything came back normal. But he wanted to rerun the allergy and celiac panels to see if anything has changed. He said the allergy testing and screening they can do now with a blood draw has really advanced in the past 3 years, and he said he was fairly certain we would see some kind of food allergy show up in his results now. Probably not one that's major, but enough to be causing irritations to the lining of his stomach and ears. So, now we wait... we hope to get the results by this Monday (Feb 21). In the meantime, I can't help but look in my fridge and pantry and wonder what else might have to be eliminated?!

Happy (day before) Valentine's Day

We celebrated Valentine's Day as a family on Sunday the 13th because our Mondays are our most busy day of the week. (both kids have school, Carter has toddler gym class, Ava has gymnastics, I coach, and Cristian has play practice from 6:00-7:30). So, when they woke up, the table was set...
My beautiful valentine tulips
And Daddy made heart shaped waffles
and I sliced some berries and sprinkled powdered sugar on them... they were YUMMY!
and the fireplace was decorated
Carter was pretending to sleep

Still sleeping, hehe

Kyle opened his Valentine presents first. He got an Office (the tv show) rip off calendar that is full of Michael Scott quotes. (that's Kyle's favorite tv show). And his new Wii game he'd been wanting, The Michael Jackson Experience.
Cristian and Ava opening their presents
A case for their Nintendo DS
and a new DS game
Carter opening his presents
A green (his favorite color) toddler wii remote with buttons that are closer together for little hands
And an Elmo Wii game
Ava made me this cute heart valentine card and a key chain, and I also got a University of Washington hoodie and Gene Juarez gift card.
The kids had one last present to open together...
The kids each got a nerds rope, little activity book with dot to dot games, word searches, stickers, etc, and a coloring book.

and a pack of gum
all things they can use on an airplane ride...
To DISNEYLAND!! The kids found out that they are going to disneyland at the end of March with some friends.
and they each got a disney gift card so they can buy a souvenir (those are some very excited smiles!!)
Auntie came over and we gave her a Valentine present too
A chick flick and her favorite movie treats
Auntie got these two some accessories for their DSs and Carter got a buzz toy.
while Carter was napping, Cristian and Ava made valentine's day cards for their classmates. Ava chose Tangled cards and Cristian picked Star Wars.

Then the 5 of us went out to dinner at the HG Bistro. They were so polite and used their manners! We had a great time. Happy Valentine's Day to all my Valentines.