12 Commandments of food

I just received an email news letter from a nutritionist we took Annabelle to see last year.In her news letter she quotes these great food commandments, I thought that with the new year coming up they could be incorporated as part of our new years resolutions.

Michael Pollan’s “12 Commandments of Food” from his 2008 book In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto.
1. "Don't eat anything your grandmother wouldn't recognize as food."
2. "Avoid foods containing ingredients you can't pronounce."
3. "Don't eat anything that won't eventually rot."
4. "Avoid food products that carry health claims."
5. "Shop the peripheries of the supermarket; stay out of the middle."
6. "Better yet, buy food somewhere else: the farmers' market or CSA."
7. "Pay more, eat less."
8. "Eat a wide variety of species."
9. "Eat food from animals that eat grass."
10. "Cook, and if you can, grow some of your own food."
11. "Eat meals and eat them only at tables."
12. "Eat deliberately, with other people whenever possible, and always with pleasure."

I particularly love no 10 and would love to have a little green house or vegetable patch in my back yard to grow all sorts of vegetables in, a person can dream!

Beach Therapy

Aloha from Hawaii.

We cashed in our American air miles we've been saving for the past 4,5 years to get 4 flights and we've rented a friends 1 bedroom condo at a special price, so that we can spend Christmas on Kauai Hawaii. We most probably won't get the chance again to come round to this part of the world any time soon.

It is a truly amazing place and I think Annabelle is in love with the beach, the sea, the sand and the waves. We have been visiting the beach most days and doing our own form of therapy that Annabelle seems to like very much - Beach Therapy we sit on the shore and wait for the waves to come up and splash us and then she giggles with delight. It fills my heart with joy to hear her laugh so much.

We have a small palm tree in the lounge and have made it our Christmas tree. As you would expect back in Bethlehem when Jesus was born they too only had palm trees, I bet!

We have been eating good food and detoxing with good clean sea air. Annabelle and I had a spa morning in, we rubbed our whole body with rhassoul clay and let it dry, we even put it in our hair, then we showered it off, this detoxes by drawing the toxins out through the skin.Your skin feels so smooth afterwards.

Only 1 day to Christmas, there is much excitement, we are having a very simple Christmas only a handful of presents (can you believe Amercan charges $25 for each bag you check) so we couldn't bring too much with us. But Christmas is not all about the presents it's about remembering Jesus's birthday and being with the people you love.(sorry Mom I wish you were here too I love you)

Wishing you all a Happy Christmas.

DME # 2 aka Wheelchair

It arrived! We started talking about wheelchairs with Annabelles PT in January after months of thinking about having my child in a wheelchair. As a mom you want to stay positive that your child will walk, and by getting a wheelchair I felt that I was giving up on that. But now I see that it's not the case, most typical children would be walking by a year old, 18 months at the latest, she was already 2 and not even sitting independently yet! I knew that she was soon going to outgrow all the "baby" equipment - highchairs, strollers that we use and we would need something that would suit her needs and grow with her. But a wheelchair is a hard pill to swallow for a mother.

 We got into the wheelchair clinic with CCS in April, and by May we had her measured and fitted and it was ordered. It was crazy they only had 2 styles of wheelchair to offer one with big wheels and one with small wheels that reclined I chose the big wheels because then there would possibly one day be a chance that she could propel herself with her arms, with small wheels there would be no chance for that. But there were 100 colours to choose from (as if that was the most important thing about a wheelchair?) I dont get it! Then came the wait getting insurance to cover it! After one denial and having to send more paperwork through they eventually approved it end of October. Then the supplier waits for all the pieces come from all over the country then they assembled it here. After many phone calls chasing everybody we went to the wheelchair clinic last week to go fetch it.

I decided to try it out when we got home and walk down to Matthews school to pick him up, I don't know why but I felt like I was walking down the street with no clothes on it was a strange feeling, not that people were staring at us, I guess its just something I will have to get used to. I can't hide anymore, the wheelchair shouts out to everybody that my child is disabled. A few children came up to us at Matthews school and asked us why Annabelle was in the wheelchair, it threw me off gaurd as I hadn't prepared for questions I just said "that she was in the wheelchair because she didn't walk" they asked why she couldn't walk, and I said that we weren't sure why she didn't walk which isn't entirely untrue I guess I need to prepare in my head what my response is going to be to people who ask questions, I'm not very good at thinking on the spot!

We have been try it out and I must say it did help us get through LAX a lot faster gates open where before we would have had to stand in line. We got let on the plane first. But there has been some cons too I bashed my lip on it getting it out of the boot (trunk), it weighs over 40lbs! It has no suspension and you can feel every bump if you are on a bumpy pavement. All in all I hope this will help provide Annabelle with more support and that she can be more mobile as she grows.



Homeless

We had our final garage sale on the weekend and God found good homes for most of our worldly possessions. Phone and internet get cut off tomorrow so I am now relying on 3G and our iPad to do posts. The few possessions that are left get packed up and shipped to England on Wednesday - this will take 6-8 weeks to get there, in the mean time we are living in hotels and furnished apartments till we leave for England on January 29th.


So before we get cut off here's some great photos of Annabelle on the beach on thanksgiving day.

So Thankful

This thanksgiving week we have been in Morro Bay it was a vacation we planned long before we knew we were moving back to England. I was annoyed before going away that we had so much to do and going away would stop us getting things done, and that it wasn't good timing just before moving! It was planned to celebrate my father-in-law 70th birthday and Thanksgiving, together in Morro bay.

The Boys went fishing and caught a fish.

But this week has not been what I expected, it was great to get away from it all. My stomach has been in a knot with all the things that have to be done, things we still have to sell or give away and doing budgets figuring out if we can afford to get through it all without bankrupting ourselves. So to get away and take a step back from it all has really helped us see things clearer and relax about everything, things don't seem as bad as they did a week ago.

Annabelle sitting more and more

Having a special needs child is a bit like this, you constantly have this knot in your stomach about what the future holds for your child. You are so close to the everyday problems, in the thick of things, that you can't see an image of your child progressing, and seeing other children progressing can really make you sad and overwhelmed, such as when I saw Charlie from Bird on the street sitting up, the thoughts running through my head was real happiness for Charlie that he was sitting but sadness that Annabelle wasn't. I just couldn't picture her sitting up, it just seemed impossible at the time! I knew that we were doing similar therapies but that doesn't mean that your child will follow the same path. Sometimes you have to take a step back, and accept we are not in control ( even if you would like to be) away from all the therapies, the supplements, the doctors and relax! Then that image of your child progressing can form in your head. Your child can relax too.

Very happy to be on holiday with Nanna and Grandad

I have been exhausted constantly on the go from therapy to doctors to more therapy sometimes we just need a break.
I am so thankful for the time to relax and spend time with our family to create our future together and when you relax, and leave the things that are out of your control, the plan becomes clear.
Happy Thanksgiving everybody.

Banana love affair

Yes my child is in love with bananas she will eat them for breakfast, lunch and dinner. She will even take her medicine with no complaints when its mixed with .. yes you guessed it.....bananas. This morning it was like she was in heaven eating her banana. Rolling it around her mouth even getting good lip closure (for those of you who don't know the world of special needs terminology - kiddo's with oral motor issues usually have trouble closing their lips hence a lot of kiddo's drool a lot.) Because Annabelle has oral motor issues and swallowing issues she battles with movement of her tongue and movement of her lips and coordinating it all so that she can eat - But it seems not when it comes to bananas.
So bananas will be on the menu for the foreseeable future.

Well you are probably thinking, if you have been following our blog, what happened to the swallow study that we were supposed to do? If you want to catch up here and here .
We were due to do a repeat swallow study to see if there was any regression after having stopped doing the Vitalstim therapy for 3 months.  To see if she has started to aspirate again. Well it has been 5 months since we stopped Vitalstim she has not had a chest infection, bronchitis, pneumonia in this time ( this would definitely indicate that food/liquids when swallowed was going into the lungs, meaning she was still aspirating) and she hasn't so that's good news. Also since we left our previous house the vomiting has been minimal and she is still eating and drinking well.

So I emailed the therapist that used to see Annabelle for Vital Stim and we have decided to put the swallow study on hold for now because Annabelle is going through this detoxing of the mold toxins and to subject her body to unnecessary test which includes X-rays (radiation) would be silly, when we can see clinically that she is doing a lot better. Just in time to eat all that turkey next week for Thanksgiving.

"Get me out of these pumpkins and give me a BANANA!"Said Miss Lip

If only we knew....

This ones for you Sharna - a Purple Couch

Caramel Macchiato mmmmm

Tonight I was chatting with an old friend on FB, we used to work together in England. We became friends because of our love of coffee, we used to go to Starbucks in our lunch break order Caramel Macchiato's and sip them and lounge on these wonderful purple couches they had there, until it was time to go back to work. Sometimes we used to moan about work, well actually all of the time we used to moan about work, little did we know how good we had it back then!

We said that we longed for those days and would love to have the freedom we had back then, we have fond memories of those days. We both said that every time we pass a Starbucks we try recreate those times and remember each other. But it's just not the same now.  There are no Starbucks in Perth Australia where she lives now, and the Starbucks here in California don't have couches and you don't get coffee in proper mugs only in paper cups. And of course we both have 2 children now and there is always something on the To do list and there certainly is no time for lounging. 

The fond memories need to stay in the past.

You need to appreciate the moment you are in now. Back then we didn't really appreciate those moments, where you bond with friends and they leave a mark on your heart forever.