We’re back from our summer break, and now on to school and more…!

Wow, I can’t believe a whole school year/summer has already gone and finished. My big boy is about to start 1st grade in just a few days. Where does time go? I miss my itty bitty baby! Oh, on that note, we have a little BIG announcement to make. Baby boy #3 will be joining our family in December. We are super happy and excited for this brand new adventure in the world of 3 kids. Sam is just in love with his baby brother already and he remembers all the kicks he used to feel when I was pregnant with Eli back in 2012. Now he asks all the time if baby is moving… As for Eli, well, he’s very loving towards him, but I wonder if it’ll be an adjustment for him to go from baby of the house, to middle child. He will have just turned 3… What are your experiences with this? How did your children react to a new baby?

We are also pretty much all ready for him, except a new bucket seat (infant carseat) and some cute little extra cloth diapers. My newborn stash is very limited. By the way, after cloth diapering 2 kiddos from birth to potty training (although, Eli is still not completely there yet at 34months old), I still cannot wait to do it all over again in about 4 months. All those cute fluffy big bums and designs. Yay! What are your favorites? With Sam I was all about simplicity in the beginning, until he turned 6months old, when I started going crazy about all those choices and bought TONS of different diapers to try. I had them all, I tell ya. Now, a lot of those have gone to diaper heaven, and we need to rebuild a stash. I have a few Flips, some Pianissimo Cloth minky diapers, Gen-Y covers, flats and prefolds. That is what our major rotation diapers consist of. I want to explore more options though with all the new ones that came out recently.

Oh, right, I started off this post with a mention of Sam going back to school this week. Well, he is so ready to go start his learning. He’s been doing workbooks all summer and upping his game. He loves to read. Heck, my boy taught himself to read at the ripe ol’ age of 4. Now he wants more challenging things as he goes into Elementary school and we have started looking into chapter book series that he would like. Any ideas for a 7 year old boy? I am not too well knowing in the department of children’s chapter books lately.

It’s time for breakfast now, and I shall leave you with a few pictures of our summer fun… ’til next time. Have a good day!

Boy sure loves him some veggie sushi!

On vacation visiting the in-laws

My cutie pie with a new big boy hair cut

Doing it all on his own now!

Playing with his girlfriend in the kiddie pool

We are moving…

…but don’t worry. I am staying right here. Okay, now you’re confused, right? Well, my blog isn’t going anywhere. And I’m not literally moving out of this house either. We’re just moving forward with our family’s health into a new Paleo and Essential Oils journey. Through my time of being a Feingold mom, I have slowly discovered what works for us and what doesn’t. We have already eliminated all major allergens, and my boy was begging for some of those stage 2 fruits and veggies he couldn’t have. So, it just made sense to go completely Paleo and make his little 6 year old body feel better. Which means also eliminating yeast and sugars. We are just starting towards this transition, but already I can see a big difference in our bodies. I want to blog about this whole journey for you to live it with me. I’ve also discovered the wonderful world of Essential Oils through Spark Naturals and have been using them religiously for many aches, pains and even helping with ADHD/Anxiety. I will get more into that later as I blog on… So come along for the ride, it will be tons of fun!

2 months into Kindergarten and…

He’s been home more days than not. I don’t like the spread of viruses in public places. It started off with a bad cold in early Sept, then he caught Hand Foot Mouth Disease a month later, and now he has what seems like bronchio and a stomach bug. It never ends! My poor guy is so miserable! Let’s not also forget that his 2yo brother has been catching all this too. So I’ve got 2 sick kiddos on my hands now.

Talking about the littlest, he celebrated being TWO yesterday! CRAY-ZAY! Where has time gone? It seems like just yesterday I was taking him home from the hospital to meet his crazy family.

He is full of energy. My toddler tornado. He loves trains, especially anything related to Thomas, and wants to watch episodes every waking moment. Silly boy! He talks nonstop and even surprises us with what he knows. His latest additions include “No, I can’t” and “Ah-jah-jah (Elijah) do it. Own.”

He weighs about 28lbs (65th centile) and is 35.75in tall (85th centile). A bit shorter than his brother Sam was at this age, but chunkier. Gotta love nursing for that. Ohh, by the way, we’ve reached my 2yr goal of breastfeeding. YAY! Now I get to slowly wean this child who demands nonstop at night. I need my sleep again! Any tips?

Fettuccine Alfredo

When we first went vegan 2 years ago, the most difficult thing to give up was cheese. If you are like me and really miss your white sauce pasta on a very limited allergen-free diet, here’s your answer…Alfredo sauce that is free of all Top 11 Allergens!! Ain’t that fabulous? We love this one here, so I’m ready to share it with you…

FETTUCCINE ALFREDO (Feingold Stage 1, Vegan, Soy-Free, Gluten-Free)
Servings: 4-6

• 1 lb gluten-free fettuccine pasta
• 3 Tbsp soy-free dairy-free butter spread (Earth Balance is a good one)
• 3 Tbsp brown rice flour
• 4 Tbsp vegetable stock
• 2 cups Unsweetened Rice milk
• 1 tsp onion powder
• 2 tsp garlic powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp white pepper
• 1/4 tsp nutmeg (optional, gives it a little kick)
• Fresh chopped parsley (for garnish)

1. Cook the pasta according to package directions.
2. While pasta is boiling, heat butter spread in a medium sauce pan. Add flour and stock and stir for 2 minutes.
3. Slowly stir in milk and add remaining ingredients (not parsley). Stir until thickened, about 3 minutes.
4. Remove from heat. Drain pasta and toss with sauce. Sprinkle parsley on individual servings and voila!

Family Summer Fun

I haven’t updated much lately as we’ve been super busy around here. Going to the pool, park, downtown, playing ball in the backyard, etc. My boys love being outside and so does this mama.

We’ve had a lot of fun this summer and the weather has been quite nice to us.

As I sit here finishing my lunch of dried mango slices, penne & peas, baby carrots and avocado, I am contemplating thoughts of time passing. How is it already almost August? My birthday is in 2wks, my big boy starts Kinder in a month, and lil one is TWO in October. WHOA!

Talking about growing, we are approaching the 21month mark with bebe boy and that is my big breastfeeding/weaning milestone with the big kid. I am soo happy to report that I will finally most probably be making it to 24months. He still feeds all the time and has been quite demanding lately, but these are our snuggle times and I love it no matter how tiring it might get at nighttime. He is growing like a weed, following in his tall brother’s footsteps.

Mama-mayo!

• ¾ cup coconut milk
• 2 tablespoons avocado
• 1½ tablespoons coconut vinegar (or Apple Cider Vinegar for FG Stage 2)
• ¾ teaspoon sea salt

Blend until smooth, then slowly add ¾ cup of Extra Virgin Olive oil while it is still running, through the hole on the cover of the blender.

It will make about 2cups and keep for 3 days in the fridge
FG Stage 1 with approved items

Foodie Upgrade

If you’ve noticed, I have changed up my site’s title to include that we are now an “allergy-friendly home”. What does that mean, you say? Basically we are Gluten/Soy/Corn/Almond-Peanut Free now. And still Vegan (no dairy, no eggs either). And no animal byproducts (meat, honey, silk, leather…). Ain’t that cool huh? It cuts down on a lot of choices, but I feel this is the right direction for us now. My husband has recently acquired a dairy and almond allergy so those were out anyway.

Now, you may wonder “where the heck do they get their protein then?” Well, here’s a short list of SOME of what we eat on a daily basis:

• Veggies & Fruits (Yes, they have protein! Avocado is a big deal in this house. We go through it like candy)
• Beans
• Quinoa, millet, GF oats
• Peas/lentils
• Brown rice
• Seeds (pumpkin, hemp, flax, etc)
• SunButter (made from sunflowers)
• Pea Butter (made from green peas)
• Cashews, Pistachios, and other tree nuts

And I’m sure there’s more and my brain just can’t think right now before having had my morning coffee haha

kiddo update

The little baby monkey

Age: 17months in 2 days
Weight: 24lbs 12oz
Height: 33in
Clothing: 18m and 18-24m depending on brand
Shoes: 6
Foods: Anything except most grains though. We are still working on that one. Or maybe we should just go complete Paleo instead of GFCF?? His favorites are raisins, carrots, broccoli, fries, chickpea nuggets, coconut yogurt, and black beans.
Activities: He is into trains, cars and airplanes right now. Watches Elmo like his life depends on it, and loves to bounce around all over the place. My baby is no baby anymore! *sniff*

The big-little monkey

Age: 5y 4m
Weight: 44lbs
Height: 4″ tall
Clothing: 6 slim fit
Shoes: 13
Foods: Banana, pumpkin, oatmeal, toast with sunbutter and jelly, Annie’s GFDFSF mac&cheese, broccoli, green beans, carrots, applesauce, chickpea nuggets, and chocolate coconut milk
Activities: Video games! Oh and he loves to play Sorry! with us. I think when the weather is nicer, I will really try to get him to go outside more. I don’t like him being indoors so much because all he does is screen watching (tv, ipad, gameboy, etc)

Our Feingold debut!

I have pretty much kept this whole thing secret, but we’ve been doing a lot of coming and goings to doctors’ offices and hospitals lately to get my oldest a diagnosis for his behaviour issues. Turns out it is classic ADHD symptoms and we are now being sent for a psych evaluation to get the official Dx. The thing is, it is a 1yr+ wait list for our public health system to see him, or we pay 1000$ out of pocket for a private clinic. Eeeek! So as we wait, I have decided to look into other alternative options to help him. I DO NOT want to medicate him. So I stumbled upon this awesome thing called the Feingold ADHD Diet. By removing artificial dyes/flavours/fragrances, preservatives, and salicylates (on stage 1 only), you embark on an elimination diet journey to get rid of the unwanted symptoms. I’ve already mostly de-crap’ed our house and we now use organic natural household items only (the ones approved by the diet) and we are starting the strict diet on Friday. YAY! I plan to go about it a bit differently though, being that we are already Vegan and Gluten-Free, we shall start off by going Stage 2 first. I cannot remove everything in my child’s diet. He would be surviving off of water lol. So he will enjoy his salycilate foods until we are well into this new diet journey. Once we have attained a good routine in a few months, I might consider going even further and removing those problematic foods IF needed. So here we go!

Happy New Year!

Wow! Can you believe it is already 2014? Where has 2013 gone? Geez! My kiddos are now 1 year older and the loves of my life right now. 

My NY’s Resolution? To blog so much more often. So this shall be a first of many posts by this vegan mama. Are you excited? I am! haha

So to update you all, we spent an awesome Christmas/Yule time with family. Kids got so much stuff, they haven’t even opened some of it yet (Sam got 2 big Playmobil kits from my parents). Now it is cold, and I mean VERY cold here, so we’re stuck inside while this -40 weather passes us by. What do you do on cold/rainy days??