And the Mom of the Year Award goes to....me!

This morning while I was in my zombie-like state, I heard the sound of inevitability...or rather the thud of Ava falling off the bed. I heard a thump (or maybe two since she may have hit the ledge first) and I jumped out of bed and rushed over to my poor daughter, who was lying on her back and absolutely petrified. Of course she cried and whined for a while, but I think she is fine. I called the doctor's office and the nurse said she should be fine, as long as she doesn't vomit multiple times or act funny. David kept warning me that Ava was bound to fall off the bed one of these days, since she ends up sleeping with me half-way through the night. David's poignant warning words rang in my head all morning, so I dreaded telling David about this. Needless to say, he was furious with me. I guess my barricade of two or three pillows doesn't cut it. I just have to get my lazy butt out of bed next time Ava starts crawling around on the bed in four wheel drive...

Ava also fell down a couple of stairs the other day. And she bumped her face into the snack tray of her stroller when I hit a bump in the road during a walk. She was screaming wildly as people were walking by. It was embarrassing because she was also super crusty from her teething biscuit that she was working on during our walk (no doubt I was looking crusty too). I wanted to tell them we weren't homeless. So I need to work on protecting my little Ava a little better. Or maybe these bumps and bruises along the way are just an infant's rite of passage into toddlerhood.

Ava likes "Raisinets"

Just recently, I've started giving Ava chopped up raisins. She loves them. I think she has a sweet tooth, like her gluttonous parents. And to think she has barely tapped into the world of culinary delights. I haven't given her a lot of foods that other babies her age might be eating because I am still trying to figure out if her eczema is triggered by food allergies. But I've already determined that she prefers sweet food (well... duh, right?)

Likes:

-Prunes
-Pears
-Applesauce
-Plums
-Grapes
-pureed carrots
-Cheerios
-Gerber's puffs
-pureed sweet potatoes


Dislikes:

-most pureed green vegetables
-avocadoes
-pureed meat w/ vegetables (can't blame her-that stuff smells like vomit)

Trying to figure out if Ava has food allergies is not going very well. I am absolutely no closer to figuring it out than I was a month ago. I am on a ridiculously restrictive diet (have been for about a month) where I'm not eating any dairy products, nuts, seafood, eggs, tomatoes, or citrus fruits. Through all my hours of googling I've come to find that some people believe moms who breastfeed need to watch what they eat if their babies have eczema. So I decided to give this "maternal avoidance diet" or "elimination diet" a shot. I'm also trying to abstain from soy products but that is proving to be most difficult (read labels-soy in one form or another is in everything!). Wheat is considered another food that many are allergic to but I just can't cut it out. It would be a living hell. So I eat a lot of dairy-free pizza, rice cakes, rice milk, cheerios, and other other manner of carbs since I'm not a huge meat-eater. Sometimes I mess up and eat ice cream, or have some pasta with cheese, or eat a cupcake (baked with eggs). Sometimes I think I am torturing myself for no reason because she probably doesn't have any food allergies. Even when I'm being good and not eating the forbidden foods, her skin still flares up!

Anyway, I'm pretty close to giving up and maybe taking her to the allergist to see if her skin is just being difficult for no reason. I've already been to two different dermatologists and have all the creams I need. But in the mean time, Ava doesn't get a lot of variety in her diet. Perhaps she is pretty hungry for some new things to eat. Last Saturday, I decided to put her to sleep in just her diaper on the floor. Warning, this story gets a little gross. We hear her crying a little bit after a little while and David goes to check on her. "Louise, get up here quick!" David yelled. It turns out that Ava had ripped off her diaper and peed on the floor, and you guessed it, poo was everywhere. Now, Ava has some weird poo sometimes. Sometimes her diaper looks like a rabbit pooped in there. We have lovingly named these types of poop "turd nuggets". Ava had sampled some of the nuggets and hopefully spat it out. Perhaps she thought, "oh look, these raisins that mommy likes to feed me comes out of my butt too!" and tried it out. Ava was crying the whole time we were trying to clean the mess up. I think she figured out she was doing something naughty!!! I think the family has learned a few lessons here...Ava included.