And here it goes!

Well it's official. We are going to put Austin on the gluten free diet. We've decided to wait to try the casein free diet since doing it all at once sounds so complicated. I've got enough to worry about without adding more!

This morning I had to run to the store (forgot to purchase ingredients for a meal) so I decided to keep my eye out for gluten free items. I was 3/4 of the way through the store and hadn't seen a thing til I saw the Rice Chex cereal. There were 3 kinds of Chex that said they were gluten free! Once I got the bread aisle, I found a relatively small section of nothing but gluten free items! I was soo delighted to see it but when I saw the prices, my heart sank. I'm going to have to take out a small loan to pay for this diet! I'm used to paying under $1 for spaghetti and the gluten free stuff was $3.99! Yes, this is the only store I've shopped at so I'm going to look around and check Aldi's, Super Walmart, and our local health food store and see who's cheapest but good grief! I stocked up on several gluten free foods (regardless of price, just to get started) and here is what I got:

Rice Chex cereal
semi-sweet chocolate chips
Betty Crocker brownie mix
Betty Crocker yellow cake mix
Betty Crocker chocolate chip cookie mix
Spaghetti noodles
Chocolate Caramel bite size cookies
Bread mix (thought it might be cheaper to make it myself but we'll see!)

I will be frequently blogging about my attempts at this diet for Austin and what changes we see since many are curious about it. I still have a ton of questions about what he can eat and what he can't so once I figure out a few days worth of gluten free meals we'll start Austin on it.

GFCF Diet

After hearing so much good stuff about the gluten free, casein free diet I think I may try it with Austin. He seems to be at a stand still learning-wise and a small amount of aggression has shown it's ugly face. Thankfully, I know several people who use the diet and can help me but the whole idea of making sure Austin eats ONLY GFCF foods sounds really hard. He's the kid that will go up to just about anybody and take food from them or beg them for it. And then there's the thought of 'what if he wants something he cannot have?'. It's all rather daunting. If you use the diet or know someone who does, let me know how they started! The cupboards are becoming bare so a grocery shopping trip is in the near future so any help would be appreciated!

Austin is toothless!

Pictures!

I just realized I forgot to add the pictures from Andrew's first day of soccer so here they are:


A couple of Andrew's coaches watching him while waiting for class to start


A recurring theme: the coaches making Andrew hold his hands behind his back to encourage him to keep his hands off the ball. =)

Andrew's first day of soccer, Austin swims!

Today was Andrew's first day of playing soccer with other 3 & 4 year olds at the Y. He did so good at following directions! He absolutely loved it and we're looking forward to it again next Tuesday. The video is of Andrew just playing around while we were waiting for class to start. Next week I'll share a video of him doing drills. It's just too cute!
Here's the video I promised of Austin swimming! Our next door neighbors are gracious enough to let us use their pool whenever we want! Just 3 visits ago to the pool, Austin would only sit on the stairs and occasionally make me hold him while I brought him around the pool. One day, Austin decided to swim! We didn't teach him anything! He treads water, pushes off the side of pool, keeps water out of his mouth, and floats on his back ALL BY HIMSELF!! This is huge for him since he is evaluated around the mental age of 2/3 yrs old. I'll make sure to get a video of him floating on his back, it's quite funny! So enjoy the video of Austin doing something he taught himself! (Can you tell I'm excited?!?)


Yes, that's Ben in the background with his leg propped up on a floatie. He broke his foot playing soccer 3 weeks ago. =)

Wordless Wednesday

So it's been a while

I haven't been in the mood to blog lately. Sure there is always plenty to say but frankly, sometimes I enjoy just reading everyone else's blogs! Our family just returned from a vacation to New Hampshire for a family reunion and of course I brought my camera. I just happened to leave the memory card at home. =( Boo! We visited the Boston Aquarium (not impressed I must say-Baltimore is much better) and the Clarks Trading Post in NH.

Summer is winding down and next week is Austin's last week of summer school. We'll then have 2 weeks of 'free time' and then school starts back up! I have some ideas in mind for a new routine to set up with Austin but haven't figured out a good time of day to impliment it. Hmmm. More about that later.