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Our Journey with Eczema and Food Sensitivities

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Our Journey with Eczema and Food Sensitivities

We have been battling Alexie’s eczema since she was 4 weeks old. It’s been a long journey of trial and error, testing different medications and creams and ultimately getting blood tests and a diagnosis of food triggered eczema.

After almost 3 years of struggling, we finally have answers. Sixty-seven answers actually. Alexie has ultimately been diagnosed with 67 food sensitivities. And, it’s been an interesting journey to feed this kid ever since.

Eczema and Food Sensitivities

From balancing her sugars, to finding new protein options to learning how to budget all this new food, it’s been a steep learning curve. But it’s been good, because we have seen the results. Alexie has become almost entirely eczema free in only a few weeks. So obviously this diet is working. And we are so happy about that.

What’s in This Year’s Easter Baskets

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What’s in This Year’s Easter Baskets

The Easter Bunny is coming this weekend. The girls are very excited about his arrival, especially Alexie who really remembers the excitement of searching for eggs. But I’m sure Zoé will jump right in, gathering eggs as soon as she realizes what’s up.

This year is a little different because Alexie was recently diagnosed with some pretty severe food sensitivities, which includes dairy, grains, nuts, corn, oranges, and potatoes just to name a few. This makes finding chocolate and candy a little tricky. While I did manage to find some Enjoy Life Chocolate Chip packets and some organic jelly beans, the Easter candy will be very limited this year.

Instead, we put a little more effort into making really nice Easter baskets for the girls. Baskets filled with things they need and want for the upcoming spring and summer months. I’m sure they will love finding these on Easter Sunday morning.

We try to be practical with our baskets by including mostly things they need and then adding a few fun things in at the end.

Allergy-friendly Easter Basket Ideas

This year, both girls are getting:

It’s a nice balance of things they need and things that they want. But it’s also allergen-friendly which means we don’t have to worry about Alexie being itchy all day.

What are you putting in your Easter Baskets? We would love to know!

Decorating Easter Eggs

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Decorating Easter Eggs

Growing up, decorating Easter eggs was an annual tradition. We tried all kinds of different kits and techniques as kids.

This is the first year that Alexie is really old enough to decorate the eggs. We decided to start with the classic approach and do a more traditional technique.

Last year, a few weeks after Easter, I was wandering through my local Michael’s craft store when I noticed a bin of discount bags. Each bag was filled with random Easter stuff and cost $10. I sifted through the bin until I found a bag that was worth my money. It had 6 Easter egg decorating kits as well as 2 cake pans (a cross and a bunny). Well for $10, I couldn’t pass it up. I stored the kits in a cool dry place until we were ready to use them this year.

I hard-boiled a dozen and a half eggs earlier in the day so they would be cool enough to work with, especially for little hands. We used some regular crayons to decorate the eggs with our own special designs. Then, following the instructions, we made the dye. We placed an egg into each cup of dye and let it sit for 3-5 minutes. We pulled them out and let them dry. Then we added either the shiny paint or the glitter to the eggs. These were the bonus items in the kits.

Decorating Easter Eggs

Decorating eggs may seem like a strange thing to do, but it’s actually very educational. We counted eggs and cups of dye, learned about colours and how dyes work. And then there’s the artistic side of things. The kids got to express themselves on an egg. It’s really the perfect blend of tradition and art.

Flashback Friday: Winter Memories

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Flashback Friday: Winter Memories

In this Flashback Friday, we’re looking at our favourite winter memories. We live in northern Ontario where we have snow and cold for 6 months of the year.

In this video, you’ll see see the fox that visits Mémé and Papa’s house, our awesome horse-drawn sleigh ride and the EPIC sliding hill, we’re still trying to keep secret.

It’s important for us to get out and enjoy the snow and cold as much as we can. If you can’t beat it, then join it!

Our Learning Goals for 2019

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Our Learning Goals for 2019

New Year’s is a time for setting new goals and intentions for the year ahead. This year we decided as a family that we would make some learning goals, things we want to learn how to do by the end of the year.

In this video, we talk about our goals and what we want to accomplish in 2019.

Alexie decided that she would like to learn how to read a book by the end of the year, all by her self.

Zoé has begrudgingly agreed that she is going to learn how to use the potty.

Mom and Dad came up with a little challenge. While we both have learning goals of our own, we also challenged each other to learn a new skill.

Mom’s learning goal is to read 12 books (written for adults) by the end of the year. And, Mom challenged Dad to do the same.

Dad has decided to work on learning the ukulele so he can teach the girls. Dad had a challenge for Mom, too. Mom will be learning how to edit a video!

Our Learning goals for 2019

So, it’ll be a year of learning in our household and we are excited to get started on our goals.

Pasta Wreath Ornaments

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Pasta Wreath Ornaments

We have a little holiday tradition. Every year, since Alexie was only a few months old, we’ve made a special homemade ornament. We make three ornaments, give one to each set of grandparents and keep one for ourselves as a little memory. We’ve made a couple different ornaments over the years, including salt dough handprints, monogramed blocks and glitter footprint balls.

This year we made some cute little fusilli pasta wreaths with a photo in the centre. They turned out so cute and were really easy to make!

Using a glue gun (and adult supervision) we glued some pasta around the edge of mason jar lid. Really you could use any firm circle shape. Then, we used some green spray paint to paint the whole thing green. Next, we cut out a picture to fit the hole in the middle and glued it in. Add a hook, and you’re good to go.

Pasta wreath ornaments with photo

These ornaments were a hit with the grandparents this year. We know they loved the photo in the middle. And they’ll make a great keepsake on our own tree, year after year.

Watching the Lunar Eclipse

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Watching the Lunar Eclipse

One of the things that I love the most about homeschooling is allowing our kids to fully explore things that interest them. We aren’t restricted to what is grade-appropriate or to the schedule of a school day.

Take Alexie for example. She is facinated with space. Planets, stars, astronauts, rocket ships. She loves it all.

So when the 2019 Blood Moon Lunar Eclipse came around, we just knew that it was right up Alexie’s ally.

Lunar Eclipse and Blood Moon

Actually, being totally honest, this started with a mistake that we made. We told Alexie about a pink moon around her birthday back in July 2018. But, that particular lunar event was visible only to the other side of the world. We missed it and she was super disappointed. Oops!

We found out about the next one, double-checked that it would be visible in Ontario and then we told her. She was super excited this time.

Well the night came and it was freezing (-40C….yup). But, Alexie was so excited. We put her to bed and woke her up around 11:30pm. Dad bundled her up and they headed outside to see the Blood Moon Eclipse.

It was an incredible learning experience. And then she went right back to bed and fell asleep. The nice thing is, she got to sleep in the next morning.

Unboxing: Our Christmas Eve Pajama Boxes

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Unboxing: Our Christmas Eve Pajama Boxes

Every year, the pajama elves visit our home on Christmas Eve. They deliver a box with special, magical pajamas. It’s a great tradition that we started when Alexie was first born and I think it’s one of the kids’ favourites!

Christmas Eve Box Unbozing

If you want to see all the details about our Christmas Eve boxes, what’s inside them and how we do this particular tradition, you can find it here. We love searching for our boxes on Christmas Eve and it’s so much fun to put on the new magic PJs before bed! It’s just another element to a fun but simple Christmas.

DIY Cinnamon Christmas Tree Ornaments

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DIY Cinnamon Christmas Tree Ornaments

This Christmas, we decided to make a few homemade ornaments. And, we got the girls involved! Alexie was happy to get messy and Zoé thought the dough tasted pretty good.

Using a mix of applesauce, cinnamon, cloves and ginger, we mixed up a little spicy dough that smells wonderful. We rolled it out and cut it out with some cute cookie cutters. Baked in the oven until they are hard, we strung them up with some string and placed them all over our Christmas tree.

DIY Cinnamon Christmas Ornaments

This is a great hands-on activity for kids. It’s a great way to practise fine-motor skills, and baking is just real life chemistry! We love making our own ornaments as a little Christmas tradition and this was such a fun activity.