Thanks to allergen-friendly restaurants and their websites, we are slowly exposing Ellie to more and more eateries in our area. Today we took her for her first meal at Friendly's, which she loved!
The sugar rush began with a cotton candy drink. For the girl who is allowed juice once or twice a week, this was a very big deal!
After dinner of a hot dog and fries, she had a cone head. She thought this was the neatest thing ever!
Audrey started eating solid foods several weeks ago and has quickly progressed to eating the entire jar of her fruit/vegetable. In addition to rice cereal and oatmeal, she's eating applesauce, pears, and peas. Today she tried carrots and loved them! We had a little hiatus on the solid foods due to some concerns about a food allergy but we're trying them again and she's doing well.
I'm not sure if you can count rice cereal as real food for the rest of us, but I think it counts when you've only had one other food choice your whole life! Yesterday I took both girls to the allergist and then to the pediatrician for routine follow-up visits. We learned that Ellie is still very allergic to egg, but her skin is looking great with little evidence of eczema. She is also developing well and on target with her abilities. She is now 38 inches tall and weighs 33 pounds (75th percentile for both). Both doctors gave us the go-ahead to start giving Audrey solid food. She's been grabbing our plates and trying to take food from Ellie for a few weeks so she's definitely ready! We wanted to make sure that starting now wouldn't raise her risk for allergies any more than it is already is, but our allergist didn't seem concerned about that. We got the approval to give her soy formula if needed in the future, too. She is now 26 inches long and weighs 18 pounds 6 ounces (95th percentile for both).
Ready for some food!
Audrey's first taste of rice cereal...
Mmmmmmm!
"More please!" After the first few bites, Audrey started opening her mouth for more whenever I put the spoon near her!
Ellie was very excited about Audrey eating food! She took these two pictures...
Next week, applesauce! hold on tight, little Audrey, your world is about the expand!
Last weekend, Ellie was introduced to two special treats, croutons and canned whipped cream. She loved the croutons - after she ate every one from her salad, she then proceeded to suck the dressing off of each spinach leaf. She liked the whipped cream less than we had anticipated, but you can see that she definitely had fun playing with it....
Mommy puts a dollop on Ellie's nose
and Ellie spends a long time trying to lick it off once Mommy gives her that suggestion!
I don't think that she ate a single strawberry after she finished the whipped cream!
Making her "silly face"
After dinner, Ellie entertained us with her acting skills. Here she's playing one of our favorite games "Happy, Mad".
on a Saturday morning after a long night with a 104 fever than chocolate chip pancakes shaped like Mickey Mouse? They work better than Motrin for our sick little girl!
Ellie loves to help out in the kitchen so I try to bake a special treat at least once a week with her. Something that she can help with but also enjoy. Usually I measure everything out, she pours it into the bowl, and mixes everything up (making for flour everywhere!). Today we made delicious cinnamon rolls and she loved both parts, the making and the eating!
She starts asking to eat the batter/dough the minute we begin stirring.
The best thing about the egg-free diet is no worries about raw eggs in the batter!
For those of you who don't know this, Ellie loves bagels. And I mean LOVES bagels. Some bagels contain eggs so she can't always have them, but we've managed to find a few places in our area where she can have the plain bagel. Part of our routine is that each weekend when we go to grocery store, Ellie gets a bagel to munch while we shop. It may take her an hour, but she can generally eat an entire bagel (also I mean a real bagel, not one of those fake bagels you can buy in a pack at the grocery store!). This morning we adventured to a new bagel store for breakfast. Ellie had it toasted and with jelly and you can see here how much she enjoyed it! This was 30 minutes after a big bowl of oatmeal, too!
Today Ellie enjoyed her first ice cream cone. She has soy ice cream every once in a while, but we thought we'd spice it up by adding a cone this time. In the second video you'll see that she quickly mastered the correct way to eat it!
(and yes, we do understand that no one finds this as interesting as her parents!)
During Ellie's afternoon snack of orange slices and a banana yesterday, I was eating an apple. I realized that she had never had an apple slice so I cut a few very thin slices for her. She loved them! As you can hear on the video, she quickly mastered saying the word "apple". She said it for the next few hours while pointing at the kitchen. We are glad that our little girl loves fruit so much! Next on the list to try is spinach...
Ellie is 4 years old. She is a sweet, playful girl with a heart of gold. She loves to read books, do arts and crafts, and use her imagination in all sorts of ways. She also loves to do puzzles and play board games. She takes dance and karate classes, which she looks forward to every week. Ellie is the greatest big sister and friend one could ask for. She is a joy to be around!
Audrey
Audrey is eighteen months old. She is a strong-willed girl who let's you know what she wants and will attempt to get it herself if you're too slow. She is our big talker and loves to mimic her sister. She enjoys being read to and spends a lot of time playing with her babies.
