Child With a Sensitive Sense of Smell

Extreme sensitivity to smells may be caused by a zinc deficiency.

I cursorily Googled child with a sensitive smell a while ago and did not come up with anything meaningful.  Selena's sense of smell was highly sensitive.  Almost all food smelled bad to her.  Bananas were the worst.  Every time Allie wanted to eat a banana she would freak out and run away (which of course Allie thought was hilarious and would proceed to chase her), but lots of other food caused problems as well.  She would frequently eat a different dinner at a different table than us.  Sometimes I would think she was overreacting and making it up, but she would smell stuff from another room, while not being able to see the food, that led me to believe she was not, so I tried to accommodate her.  Sometimes I wondered if something was wrong with her, but doctor Google didn't come up with anything, and I had forgot to mention it at her last doctor appointment.

Then I happened to come across a book called What's Eating Your Child?: The Hidden Connection Between Food and Childhood Ailments recommended via a blog I read.  (There is a new edition of the book coming out on April 23, 2013 renamed  Cure Your Child With Food.)  I had been looking for a book that might explain the prevalence of food intolerance's that seems to be going on. The title mentions picky eating as well, and I thought that might have some useful ideas, but honestly I didn't think it would say more than, "Make your child eat more variety."  Boy was I wrong!  This book goes into picky eating and identifies CAUSES for the picky eating.  If you fix the cause then the pickiness is easier to abate.

She tells you to not skip ahead to the chapters relevant to your child, and I tried not to, but she kept referring to chapter seven and I couldn't help myself (though I did go back and read the book in it's entirety).  Chapter seven is called "The Case of the Boy Who Wouldn't Grow" and is about ZINC DEFICIENCY.

The symptoms she notes are:

• Fifth percentile or lower for weight or height?  Selena is currently in the third.
• Growth trend going down?  For Selena she went from about 10th percentile to roughly 5th, gradually from age zero to two, so it wasn't a dramatic drop, but she was also born 3 weeks early and started off fairly short.
• Does your child rarely seem to be hungry?  Selena is hungry often, but hardly eats much.  A couple bites often fill her up.
• Is your child a picky eater? Yes!!
• Does your child complain frequently that foods smell or taste funny?  Yes, yes, yes!!
• Does your underweight child get full after a few bites (not counting dessert)?  How did you know?
• Has a bone-age test found that your small child's bone age is close to her chronological age?  Have not had this test done.

At this point I felt like I was really onto something.  Selena is very short (or little as she prefers to be called), and sometimes I worried about it, but at the same time I was always THE smallest kid compared to my peers, and Floyd was the same way.  Someone has to be at the bottom of the charts, and I figured that me and my progeny were destined to be the ones  (excepting Allie who is about 50th percentile for height.). Yet sometimes I would wonder if she was still even smaller than either my husband or I at that age.

The book mentions a solution you can take to test for zinc deficiency.  Apparently there are solutions you can get that taste like water if you are deficient and taste awful if you are not.  I was on vacation and couldn't order it, but I was pretty sure this is what was going on anyway, so I immediately went to the store and got a supplement.  She recommends 20mg for younger children 30mg for older ones.  (Note:  The multi-vitamin I have tried giving her, but which she wouldn't eat because it smelled and tasted funny, only had 2mg).  I could only find 15mg or 30mg so I went with 15mg.  Unfortunately it came in a capsule and has to swallow it, but so far she's managed.  *Update: Here is a 23mg chewable zinc lozenge that is similar to the one we use now. 

I told Selena that the vitamin should help her sense of smell so that food wouldn't smell bad, and that she wouldn't have to run away from Allie's bananas.  I also told her it would help her taste buds and make other food taste better.  She was as excited as I was. In four days we started noticing a difference.  Allie was eating a banana and Selena had preemptively plugged her nose.  I asked her to unplug it and just see if the vitamin was working yet.  She was so surprised, she couldn't smell the banana!  A few seconds later she is asking if she could try eating the banana.  I handed the rest of Allie's uneaten banana to her nonchalantly, internally my jaw hitting the floor, and she scarfs down the whole thing, AND asks for more!  Amazing.

Since then life has been so much easier.  When we go out, she doesn't refuse every available food item, which usually left us with nothing at least somewhat nutritious to feed her.  We have seen the following positive changes:

• She now eats and requests meat.  Before I could cajole her to eat a bit of chicken or a bite of homemade teriyaki beef maybe once every two months.  Now she requests it.  She chose to eat chicken strips over macaroni and cheese when were out for dinner!  I jokingly asked her if we should have chicken or steak for dinner and she said, "Both, that would be so yummy."  My eyes almost popped out of my head, and of course we did have both.  When we were eating the chicken, she complained about it being messy.  Normally this would have ended the meal right then.  This time, however, I wiped off the messiness and she ate it.
• She now will eat the multi-vitamins I had tried giving her before and is also taking spoonfuls of fish oil mixed with smoothie.  She says that it tastes bad, but she just grimaces and deals with it, instead of freaking out.
• I haven't heard one peep out of her about our food smelling bad.  She can sit near us while we are eating something she doesn't like and it doesn't bother her.
• She doesn't seem to have as much of an issue with different foods touching each other.
• Usually if a food didn't look "perfect" she wouldn't eat it. Any variance in color, texture, or seasoning would cause her to refuse the meal.  Now she will comment on it, perhaps out of habit, but she still eats it.
• I'm not positive, but it seems that her appetite is a bit larger and she is eating a bit more at each sitting.  Hopefully this continues.

I honestly did not expect to see such a vast improvement so quickly.  I love stories about how a change in diet can prove dramatic results, and this is an excellent example.  (When I stopped eating cereal was another.)   I am optimistic, and so is she, that she will continue to try and find new foods that she likes.  It will be interesting to see if her growth accelerates and she climbs the percentiles as far as height.

I highly, highly recommend this book (I have not been sponsored in this recommendation in any way though the links are Amazon affiliate links and I will get a small portion of the sale).  There is a wealth of information I have never heard of including how how to combat ear infections, ADHD, stomach aches, delays in speech, among other things.  If your child is a picky eater, this book may help point to a cause of the picky eating, because she notes other causes besides zinc deficiency.   I just wish she had an adult version of this book that had solutions to acne, headaches/migranes, etc.

Best Books Read in 2011 Part 2

Non-fiction

	This book goes into the housing crash, and who predicted it and invested in its inevitability. The book reads like a novel, but is true. The story about the investor who has Aspergers was particularly great. As well as the story is told, it did leave me frustrated in that pretty much nothing has been done to fix the problems that caused the crash and the people who caused it have not been held responsible.
	This is a book about a little girl from immigrant parents with uncontrollable epilepsy. It is about the trials Hmong refugees faced in the U.S. It is about the challenges two parents faced when getting treatment for their daughter's seizures. It is about the short-comings of western medicine and western medical attitudes. Having epilepsy myself I was very sympathetic to the family in this book.
	This was a great book that gives hope to activists and makes you fear marketers. It also convinced me to keep my house clean for a few weeks in trying to reduce the damage caused by the broken window effect. Unfortunately keeping a clean house really cuts into my reading time and I my house once again fell victim to the broken window effect.
	There is a roost of crows that gathers about 10 miles away.  Every evening in the fall and winter you can watch thousands of crows from as far as 15-20 miles away flying toward it.  It always makes me wonder why they go there every night and what are they doing?  I got in a theme of reading crow books (this one and Crow Planet: Essential Wisdom from the Urban Wilderness were my favorite). Crows are my new favorite animal.
	Another theme I got into was reading about people who lived in the Puget Sound area in the early 1900's. I came across a list of books in More Book Lust: Recommended Reading for Every Mood, Moment, and Reason about Cascadia and decided to read a few of them. I plan on reading more from the list as well. Did you know that octopus attacks were a problem back then? Granted in the two books that featured octopus attacks the octopi (wikipedia says its octopuses, but that just doesn't sound as cool) were provoked, but still--OCTOPUS ATTACKS! The accounts of these people using row boats for daily transportation between islands that are miles apart just boggles my mind. In the fall, winter, and spring that could not have been pleasant.

Historical Fiction

This was a book I came across for checkout on my Nook at the library. I had read some of Donnelly's books before and liked them, but felt that the plot devices she used were a little too cliche. But as this was what was available I read it and I was pleasantly surprised that I really liked it. It is a story that takes place in modern times and during the French Revolution.  The French Revolution is awful, and it makes you wonder how in the world people can be so crazy, but other than the disturbing history the book was good.

Having read the above book I decided to read the newest book in the prior series I had read.  I think this was the best of the three. I can definitely see improvement in her writing.

So that sums up my list for best books in 2011. I want to apologize if my writing is bad. I write these late at night and sometimes wonder about myself...

Best Books Read in 2011

2011 was great for reading books.  It has been a long time since I have read so many good books.   Because there are so many I'll separate them into categories, and probably spread them out in a couple posts.  You can see all the books I read in 2011 at librarything. Fantasy
	My brother gave me this book on my birthday and this was a very excellent fantasy series. What I most appreciated about these books was the fact that the series wasn't just one long story separated into three books. It was actually three stories about the same characters. Having a heroine as the main character is always a plus. ;) I will definitely be re-reading these as some point.
	Dave Duncan is by far my favorite author. He is very prolific (4 books coming out in 2012!!) and all his books are good, and many are all-time favorites of mine. This is the first book of a two part series, while on it's own it was good, but not great, but when the second book came out this year I had to re-read this one, and as a whole the series was great!
	My sister gave me this book a long time ago in revenge for me giving her Twilight. She wanted to give me a book that would prevent me from doing anything productive for an extended period of time. Fortunately this book draws you in, is well written, and isn't for teenage girls. BUT she did get her revenge in that the second book took years before it came out. But finally it did. Of course I had to re-read the first book and then read the second book. Both were excellent and very well written. Funnily my brother called me a few weeks ago aiming to tell me about these books, but I had already read them. ;)
	If you haven't heard about the Hunger Games then you might be living under a rock. Personally I felt the series started off strong and kind of fizzled at the end, but even so I recommend them.
Education and Learning
	This book has an amazing summary of knowledge about the benefits of exercise--all benefits taht do not have anything to do with weight loss or cardiovascular fitness. He starts the book discussing a protein called BDNF. It is nicknamed miracle grow, because if you sprinkle this protein on neurons in a petry dish they will grow and connect. Growing and connecting neurons signifies learning. BDNF floods the spot in your brain that handles memory when you exercise! Just think about the ramifications of this in regards to public schooling and their cutting of recess and PE. It has been common sense since schools were created that children need exercise, but recently we are ignoring that common sense, and this research points out that we are essentially shooting ourselves in the foot (or head as the case may be). This book also discusses how exercise is more effective at treating depression than medications. How it helps with anxiety, and even prevents aging and reduces your risk of Alzheimer's. Unfortunately it isn't written in the most entertaining fashion, but the information provided is fascinating and is something everyone needs to know.
	I read a handful of books by Paley this year and they were all wonderful. She has an interesting style in that her writing tends to be a journalistic account about the happenings in her classroom. Lots of it is simply descriptions of the stories the children tell, and the games they play. I found it fascinating that the games and stories her pupils played and told are exactly the same stuff that comes out of my own children's mouths despite them being a generation or two more recent then the children she wrote about. The universality of super hero and doll play is fascinating. But in this particular book she explores the success she has had in getting teaching children to include and not exclude. It is extremely touching, uplifting, and fills you will hope.

2011 in Review

I always feel like there is so much I want to do and so little time. With the girls running around I feel like it is hard to accomplish anything.  But, when I decided to summarize my year for a Facebook status I found out that I had ran 1085 miles, read 68 books, and sewed 25 items of clothing, except it was really 28 because I forgot a few things.  I really did get a lot done in 2011.  Shocking!

Last year I said I wanted to:

Sew a pair of jeans.  I've already done this, but my first pair had some mistakes.  I have more denim ordered and should get a perfect pair of jeans sewn within the next month.  

The denim I ordered ending up being lame, the stretch was length wise instead of across the selvedge.  They are wearable, but not perfect (thus why they never made it in a post).  I just bought some more denim.  Hopefully third time is a charm?

Sew a jacket.  

Yes!  It turned out really nice.  I was impressed with myself. Got to get a post up.

I am committed to running the Capital City Half Marathon in May.

I ended up running the Snoqualmie Half instead.  I ran a 1:41.  A bit slower than I was hoping, but considering I had pretty much taken four years off of running I was satisfied.  But training for that made me realize that always training to run faster and farther is exhausting (and a bit demoralizing since I am running so much slower than my PR's). Before I had kids I could do it and was able to relax while I wasn't running, but I do not have that luxury anymore.   I ended up slowing my pace down, and running a lot of trails, and running became really enjoyable, it felt good, and I ended up running even more than when I was training for the half(it helped that running was the only thing keeping me sane while weaning of anti-convulsants).  I ran a few trail races, and found out that I have finally mastered dominating the downhill portions.  My last race was a 10k with four huge hills and I actually passed people at the end!  I really can't think of any other races I've ran where that has happened.  Next year I am planning to do a lot of trail races!

I want to work on having less waste.  I buy lots of bulk items at the grocery store, but don't bring my own containers.

Didn't do too great at this one.  I'm too forgetful.

I want to eat more fish, preferably at least 3 times a week

Sometimes I did this.  But I haven't had fish in at least a month.

Be more ethically minded in my purchases.  Everything we consume has ethical ramifications.  Usually the cheaper something is, the more unethically it was produced.  I want to limit my purchases to only things we need, and I want them to be of good quality.  I want to make more of our clothes and buy more things used (I am going to have to overcome a snobbish attitude for buying used).  I don't want to be swayed by advertising, and I don't want to buy random crap. Sadly this is a hard goal.

I did pretty good at this.  I started shopping at thrift stores and have been impressed with what I find.  Getting great deals is cool too.

I am going to have a garden this year!  I thought I would be able to start a late one after we moved, but wasn't able to make it happen.  This year I will. 

My garden was amazing.  I have never been able to grow anything in my life, but I planted stuff and it was a jungle of food!  Hopefully I can have success again.

• Climbed Mt Dickerman with my sister.  Which was super hard due to all the snow on the trail, but really amazing.  
• Floyd and I took a trip to Vegas.  I had very low expectations for Vegas, but it was better than I thought.  We had a lot of fun.
• We went camping as a family at Padilla Bay.
• We did our annual golf/massage weekend at my uncles cabin where my aunt has the absolute best massage therapist ever come and give us massages by the river.
• Floyd's first complete year of being a professional poker player was great.  
• The girls are growing and learning and doing all sorts of amazing things.  

2011 was a good year!

I'll do a recap of my favorite books from last year in a separate post.

Ski Trip To Sunriver/Mount Bachelor

One of my good friend, a former x-country teammate in college, invited us to go on a ski trip in Sunriver, Oregon.  Lisa lives in Texas now, and had been living in Germany for a couple years, so I don't get to see her too often.  I've always thought it would be fun if our family's went on vacation together, but when she mentioned this trip I was hesitant.  It involved an 8+ hour car ride, and skiing, which neither of us have done in over 15 years.  But I wanted to see Lisa and her family (our kids are the same ages), and skiing could be fun, so I told Floyd I really wanted to go, so we did.

We borrowed my parents Suburu Outback for the trip and headed down.  It took us about eight hours to get there.  We stayed in a nice vacation rental in Sunriver, with Lisa's family and three other families (relatives and friends of relatives of Lisa).  There were seven kids running around, plus all the adults, but it was a good size house and didn't get overwhelming.  Sunriver is a funny town.  It is primarily a resort town, and the roads there seemed to be designed to be as confusing as possible.  There are no straight roads, and there are 10+ roundabouts.  But, it is really nice, with lots of trees, trails, pools, shops, etc.

Unfortunately the weather wasn't cooperating too much.  While it was nice to not have to deal with driving in the snow, when we headed up to Mount Bachelor for our first day of skiing it was pouring rain.  The good thing  was that no one was there, so it wasn't crowded at all.  The bad thing was that it was miserably cold and wet.  Selena was super excited about skiing and maintained her enthusiasm.  Allie was excited, but tended to get cold when she was actually outside.  We only got one pair of skis for the two of them to share.  Their foot sizes are only one size different, we figured Allie wouldn't want to ski that much, and I wasn't very confident in my ability to ski with either of the girls.

Selena had a blast, didn't seem to get cold, and didn't want to stop.  She caught on fairly quickly and was able to ski while holding onto a ski pole.  Lisa was amazing in helping Selena learn and showing us how to ski with her.  I did end up taking Selena once myself.  I was just happy that we didn't fall getting off the lift.  Selena claims responsibility for that feat.  She says she helped me keep my balance.  Selena did graduate and go down the Marshmallow run once with Floyd after she found out her friend, Lisa's daughter, did as well.

Allie liked skiing, but apparently did not like taxing up to the lift.  There was a slight uphill, and she did not like Floyd squeezing her between his legs and nudging her up.  But while she was actually skiing she liked it and she told everyone that she went on the lifter.

We based ourselves at the Sunrise lodge.  There is a free lift called Carousel that goes up a beginner hill.  Kids 5 and under ski free.  There was a web special a few weeks before we went that we got 3 day passes for $99/person (regularly lift tickets are $75/day).  In retrospect I wouldn't have bought the passes and just bought a half day ticket for me one day, and for Floyd the other day.  In having to take turns taking the girls out and taking turns watching the girls neither Floyd or I got to ski a whole bunch.  Lisa, her husband, her sister, and her parents were awesome and helped us out watching the girls so we got to ski more than we would have if they weren't there and willing, but still we didn't get that many runs.  We were both impressed, that even though it had been so long, and neither of us were that great to begin with, we still remembered how to ski, and it all came back fairly easily.

The second day of skiing, the conditions started out better with snow, but by the time we left it was switching between rain and snow.  We decided to go to the Mavericks recreation center and go swimming on the last day, instead of hitting the mountain again.  We were tired, and didn't really feel like getting all wet, and then driving straight home.  There was also reports that conditions wouldn't be good over Mount Hood pass and we figured leaving earlier rather than later would be better.  We ended up driving north to Yakima and going over Snoqualmie instead.  But we got unlucky it snowed some on our way to Yakima, and it started snowing right before we got to Snoqualmie pass, so it was a bit hairy going over.  But we made it safely thanks to Floyd's excellent driving and being able to take advantage of all-wheel-drive.

For the drive we packed lots of snacks, and had the iTouch and Nook Color for entertainment.  Books on "tape" are a big hit with Selena.  I had downloaded a Magic School Bus story from the library that Selena really liked plus our standard Robert Munsch and library mp3 downloads.  I was just bummed that most of the library downloads are in WMA format and I couldn't get them transferred to any device.  They are supposed to work on the iTouch, but I was trying to do it at the last minute and kept on getting errors.

Brachiosaurus aka Long Neck Dinosaur Costume

Yes, this is belated Halloween post, but that is how I work around here. :)  The girls wanted to be long-neck dinosaurs, specifically Little Foot from The Land Before Time.  I had already made monster/dinosaur costumes twice before, but adding in a long neck would be a bit of a challenge, but I was happy with the way they turned out.


While this won't really be a tutorial per se I will explain how I made it in case you want to tackle something similar yourself.

Fabric
I used fleece fabric, since I needed quite a bit and it is relatively cheap.  In the past costumes I used a more furry fabric.  I used a cotton/polyester interlock from Joanns for the lining of the sweatshirt, and to make some of the bumps on the back.

Pants
I used the Willow Wayfarer Hipster for Slimster pattern.  I LOVE this pattern.  I think this is my number one most used pattern.  They fit great, seem to be comfortable and I can sew up a pair of these in less than an hour.

Sweatshirt
I used the Heidi and Finn Urban Unisex Hoodie pattern for this.  I LOVE this pattern.  This is my number two most used pattern.  The fit is great, it is fully lined, and the style is uber cute.  I made the sweatshirts with the hoodies, but after I finished I realized I shouldn't have.  The hoodies hung over the bumps on the back so we ended up just tucking them in.  The bumps were simply circles cut out and sewn on the back piece before assembly.  I stuffed them with the fuzz you use for stuffed animals or pillows.  I can't remember exactly what its called at the moment.   The tail was made by cutting out two big triangles, sewing some bumps on, sewing them together, turn inside out, and stuffing with fuzz.  I basted the tail between the band and the back piece of the shirt and then sewed the band on.

Head

I made a pattern for the head that roughly looks like the above.  I cut two of the head pieces out and then sewed the rectangle around the edges.  Then I got a rectangle of 1/2" thick craft foam and looped it into a circle and stuffed it up the head to give shape and support.  I stuffed fuzz behind the foam into the nose.  I sewed a small "pillow" filled with fuzz and just stuffed it into the top of the head.  I didn't secure it at all but it seemed to stay propped up by the foam.  I folded the bottom of the fabric over the foam and sewed around the whole thing, not at all neatly.  I should have done that a little nicer. ;)  Selena drew mouths with a permanent marker, and we sewed buttons on for the eyes and the nostrils.   I did make Allie's hat slightly shorter as she had a harder time keeping the hat balanced on her head.

If that isn't clear, please feel free to ask me questions.

You're the best mom ever!

Allie tells me every night when we snuggle up for bed, "You're the best mom ever."  It makes me smile and feel good.

Right now Allie is into coloring, drawing and painting.  We are rapidly going through printer paper printing out coloring sheets from the internet.  When we go to the Y, she proudly brings me between three and eight papers she colored while we were working out.  Markers are her preferred medium, but she forgets to put the caps back on and they dry out.  She enjoys watercolors as well.  I have some artist grade water colors I bought when I decided I wanted to learn how to paint.  That was short-lived, but the girls love using them, mixing their own colors, and they are easy to get out and clean up (as long as I keep the tubes away from them).   She has also started drawing recognizable shapes and people.  I like watching her discuss all the details of the picture while she is creating it.  She's started writing some letters too.  One day she had a paper and she says, "A for Allie", and then proceeds to write an A, but the tops didn't quite get connected, and she looked kind of confused then says, "that's an H."

She is still into computer games as well-on the Nook, the iTouch, and the computer.  She can't use the mouse on the computer so she has to convince me, Selena or Floyd to do them for her, but she is a master at the touch devices.

Her and Selena seem to be getting along better.  I think Allie is grasping Selena's imaginative play better and is more willing to play the roles Selena assigns, or offer up alternatives.  A few months ago she just seemed to cry if Selena told her to do something she didn't want to, or she'd ignore Selena and somehow "ruin" Selena's game, which made Selena cry.   There is still plenty of fighting and peskiness between the two, but there also seems to be longer periods of playing happily.  :)

Allie is a great eater.  She cheers when I make soup and begs to eat more eggs in the morning.

The sun came out today (amazing!)  and she says, "It's so beautiful."  I laughed and she says, "Don't laugh.  I just said it's beautiful."  I told her I agreed with her and I was laughing because what she said made me happy.

I had a first recently.  It was the first time I had to deal with a child who cut their own hair.  Allie decided to feather her bangs.  Fortunately she left enough that it did sort of blend in.  Her hair is kind of all over the place anyway.  Oh well.

 Allie drew this picture of me.  Then she asked Selena to help, so Selena drew the small head and smiley face. But I think Allie's original intent, based on what she described to me while she was drawing, was that the big circle is my head and the line across it is my mouth.

Reindeer Are Not Filled With Hot Air

Fall has come and winter is almost here, and thus it is cold, windy and dark much of the time.  We're getting outside less than I'd like, but we've got a good routine of all of us going to the Y.  Both girls enjoy going in the child watch and so it works out for all of us.

Selena is always planning and plotting and implementing projects.  She writes songs, stories, and letters.  Paints pictures and coloring pages.  She designs new fashions and has me implement--lots of dinosaur applique.  But she has been doing a bit of sewing herself.  She has a good handle on the pedal while I help guide the fabric.  She is even able to stop sewing right when the needle is up.  I can't do that.

Christmas is coming up and we're working on delayed gratification by having her create her Christmas list.  A few months ago she was grilling me on the realities of Santa and his reindeer.  "How do they fly?  They don't have wings."  "Hot air baloons don't have wings," I reply.  "They are not filled with hot air."  Hmmm.  The last I heard she decided Santa was a real man who gave presents, but he didn't really arrive on reindeer.  But now that the magic of the season is here, she is very involved in the story and hasn't asked any questions, reindeer or otherwise.  She is ready to leave the reindeer two carrots on Christmas Eve, just as Santa requested when she talked to him at the Santa Brunch.

Selena's been more into games.  She invents her own games, making the game pieces out of paper.  But we've also played some checkers, chess and poker as well.  It is fun to see her start to develop some strategy.  She made up a game of colors the other day.  It is like rock-paper-scissors, but you use colors instead.  She had all the rules worked out so each color beat another color.  She didn't quite understand the simultaneous of rock-paper-scissors however.  In her game each person stated a color, of course whoever was last won.

.

It's fun to read good stories to her.  When she hears a joke or story she likes.  Her eyes light up and she gets all giggly. Per the recommendation of a friend we checked out a bunch of Chris Van Allsburg books. Her eyes really lit up at the end of The Sweetest Fig.

We experimented with dairy free for a week to try to resolve some issues that are a little too-much-information.  But she really missed her macaroni and cheese and there was no immediate noticeable difference so the experiment was abandoned after only a week and a half.  I did try a vegan macaroni and cheese that was very tasty, though not really like mac and cheese, and very authentic looking.  Selena was so excited about the thought of it, but when it was served she refused to take even one bite.  She said she could taste it through her sense of smell and it did not taste good. :S