I am so extremely happy to report that I am eating dairy again!  Hooooorrraaaaay!  I’ve been slowly adding it into my diet over the past week and a half and Alethea seems to be completely unaffected by it.  In fact, adding in dairy has gone so well that yesterday Alethea had yogurt for breakfast for the first time.  She LOVED it!  It is the only food that I’ve ever given her where she was literally leaning forward with her mouth wide open waiting for the next bite.  It sort of reminded me of those scenes from nature shows where the little birds are all waiting for the mommy bird to feed them bits of worm, only it was yogurt… much tastier.  Speaking of tastier, this means yogurt has surpassed pureed chicken as Alethea’s favorite food (no, I am not joking, Alethea really likes pureed chicken.)

And on that note, I’m going to go have lunch!  Bon Appetit!

So I’ve been taking this clogging class at a local dance studio.  It’s a great work out and really a lot of fun.  As an added bonus I’ve lost 2 more pounds since the class started which means I’m now 6 pounds lighter than my pre-Alethea weight and only 2 pounds away from my wedding weight.  Fantastic!

Probably the best part of the class though has been coming home and practicing my dance moves for Alethea.  Boy, does she ever think it’s amusing!   As I clog my way around the kitchen while making her lunch, she just sits in her high chair and giggles at me.  “Look at Mommy!  Why in the world is she bouncing up and down like that?!  So funny!”  Well, I can’t really blame her, I’m sure I do look quite odd (especially when I throw some ‘jazz hands’ into the mix just for the fun of it) but I’m having a good time, so let the clogging continue!

I’m sick.  Got a bad head cold with sore throat.  I think I got it from Peter, who seems to have gotten it from Alethea.  I’m not exactly sure how she managed to be the one to bring the germs home, but she did.  I’m also surprised that Peter got sick from her first.  Peter doesn’t usually get sick at all.

Anyway, the head cold combined with the fact that Alethea has been sleeping worse than normal means that I’m dragging today.  The good news is that today Alethea is back to her exuberant self, so at least I’m not dealing with a whiny kid any more.  I had been wondering why she was being so difficult.  I mean, I knew she was stuffy and probably had a cold, but goodness, was she ever a trying child over the past few days.  But now that I have the same cold, I feel bad for being impatient with her.  It’s got to be tough to have a headache and a sore throat and not be able to say, “Hey mom, could you help me out here?”  Poor kid.  I’m feeling more than a bit whiny myself.

On the bright side, it’s a lovely day and I’m getting some stuff done around the house.  I even put pictures in two frames that have been sitting in my bedroom for months awaiting photos.  (Yes, I am one of those people who has empty picture frames displayed around the house.  But in my defense, there weren’t a lot of pictures to pick from when I was just framing photos of me and Peter.)  I framed these two:

Today for her second nap, Alethea fell asleep on her own, in her crib, without being swaddled, for the first time ever!  Way to go, Baby Girl!

Today I worked out on my treadmill for the first time since Alethea was born.  Alethea was watching me and laughed.  I won’t speculate as to why….

We’re nearing the end of week one of the dairy-free experiment.  So far not eating dairy hasn’t been as hard as I thought it might be as long as I stay at home.  Eating out provides a lot more temptation, but while eating at home I’ve got my “Almond Breeze Smooth and Creamy Non-dairy Beverage” in chocolate, which makes a pretty amazing hot chocolate.  Sort of like coffee-shop hot chocolate with a shot of almond syrup.  Yum!  Also the coconut milk frozen dessert is pretty addicting.

The big question everyone keeps asking me, “Is it working?”  Honestly, I’m not sure.  It kind of seems like Alethea is sleeping a little better on her back than she was before, but it’s a little hard to quantify.  She still seems pretty gassy.  However, she has gone from having burps and farts that any teenage boy could be proud of, to gassy sounds that are a little more in proportion to the size of her little body.  (And having revealed that, someday when Alethea can read, I will have to delete this post.)

Other than a reduction in gas, Alethea’s biggest accomplishments this past week were that she can now sit up by herself for 6 or 7 seconds without falling over.  She has also been exploring her vocal range, so now in addition to cooing, she has a variety of high-pitched screechy/whiny sounds.  I’m not really sure if or how to react to the whining, since it’s not really clear to me if this is just a “learning to use her voice” phase that she’ll grow out of or whether it could be the beginning of a “making annoying sounds to get her way” habit.  How do you tell the difference?

Today officially marks the first day of my two-week dairy-free experiment.  Peter and I have been noticing that any time I have a particularly large dairy intake (like a Brownie Batter Blizzard for example) Alethea gets pretty gassy and fussy.  I was reading online that dairy proteins are particularly hard for babies to digest and that for babies with reflux, it is often recommended that they try soy based formulas rather than ones with a cows milk base.  We’ve put this all together and decided that I will attempt to eat dairy-free and see if that helps Alethea with her gas and/or reflux.

I was reluctant to try a dairy-free diet simply because dairy is my all time favorite food group (yes, I know technically it’s only part of the protein food group, but as far as I’m concerned, it’s about the only thing worth eating in that group).  In fact, of my top 5 favorite things to eat, three of them are pretty much straight dairy and two of them often contain dairy:
1) Chocolate
2) Ice Cream
3) Milk
4) Cookies
5) Cheese

(I’m apparently a heart attack waiting to happen…. but that’s a post for another day.)

Today a very wonderful friend (who shall remain anonymous since I didn’t ask her if I could talk about her in my blog) took me shopping for non-dairy substitutes.  This friend eats dairy-free and took me to her favorite health food store to show me the ropes.  I came away with coconut milk, almond milk (in chocolate and vanilla), soy yogurt, coconut milk frozen non-dairy dessert, and a dairy free dark chocolate bar.

So far I have to give a so-so rating to the “So Delicious Original Coconut Milk Beverage” although since it has a fairly bland taste, it may be good for a substitute for milk when cooking.  The “Luna and Larry’s Coconut Bliss Non-dairy Frozen Dessert” in “Cherry Amaretto” gets two thumbs up.  I’m not sure it’s quite “Rapturously Creamy” as the label states, but definitely worth eating.  And the last thing I tried today, the “Green and Black’s Organic Dark Chocolate with Whole Cherries for a Bittersweet Flavor Delight” is so good that it would be gone right now if I weren’t afraid of gaining back the two pounds I lost last week.

I’ll keep you posted on how the experiment goes and in the mean time if you have any favorite non-dairy foods or recipes, I would love to hear about them.  I need all the food options I can get!

Well, actually Alethea wakes up much easier than I would like.  Today her longest nap was 1 hr long, so tonight she will either be too tired to go to sleep or she’ll crash and everyone will feel better in the morning.  I sure hope it’s the later.

On the topic of waking up though, Peter says Alethea and I have the exact same waking up face.

Thanks Honey…