A weekend of firsts!

On Friday Elise had ice cream for the first time, and on Saturday she got to try strawberry shortcake! You should have seen her chow down, it was so cute!

Some friends had a 4th of July barbeque, and were sweet enough to plan it around Elise's meal schedule (I LOVE people who do this for us - the husband is a PA, so her "gets" the medical stuff). I volunteered to bring the dessert so I would know exactly what was in it and Elise could have some.

She also had hamburger for the first time (we usually make turkey burgers), but she wasn't a huge fan. In fact, she liked the steamed broccoli a lot better!

It was a little sad to see her watch the other kids eat whatever they wanted, especially when she would turn to us and say, "want some?" We'd try to offer her some meat or cheese, but she'd refuse and start getting upset.

If you had a child that was dx very young, how did you deal with this? Obviously, she doesn't understand that she can't eat whatever, whenever. And she's too young for us to explain it to her. I've started to not eat in front of her at home, or only eat when she is, but out in the "real world", it doesn't work that way. Any tips on how to handle this?

And I know I forgot to say it yesterday, but Happy 4th to my American friends!

The Disease that hates holidays

When I think of Christmas, yummy gingerbread men cookies come to mind. Thanksgiving equals pumpkin pie. Easter conjures up images of chocolate bunnies, and you can't have Hallowe'en without mountains of teeny-tiny chocolate bars. For most of these holidays, food is not the primary thing, but it is one of the things that brings everyone together.

And I'm learning just how difficult diabetes makes celebrating these holidays. There isn't much that you can put inside those little plastic eggs besides candy or food. When putting Elise's Easter basket together, I racked my brains trying to think of fun little presents that weren't edible. I wanted to set up a good, ol' fashioned egg hunt for Elise, but the problem is, I couldn't find anything that was small enough, but not dangerous or edible to fit inside the eggs.

Of course, even if Elise didn't have diabetes, I don't think I'd be putting candy inside those eggs just yet. After all, she's 19 months old and only has 4 teeth. But it would have been fun to put little goldfish crackers, or grapes; both of which she loves. Unfortunately, Elise doesn't quite get the concept of saving things for later yet.

What I ended up doing is buying her a bunch of fun presents (toy keys that make sounds, bubbles, a stuffed animal, some toy musical instruments and a few other things), and quasi-hid them. And by each item, I put a plastic egg to lure Elise over to the gift. In the days leading up to Easter, we practised hunting for eggs, and she's pretty good at it! She had fun, and I enjoyed watching her discover all her new presents.

But at the same time, it made me sad. And I don't really know why. I think it's for the same reasons that the other holidays make me sad. When I'm making gingerbread men cookies for Christmas, will Elise ever know the fun of eating the candy instead of using it to decorate? Will she ever anticipate all the candy she's going to get this Hallowe'en? What about licking the bowl after I make a cake? How do you dose for that?

I think above all, I'm angry that Elise never got to experience any of these things. I feel like part of her childhood was ripped away from her. Maybe these things are a big deal to me because they were a part of my childhood, but it won't really matter to her. I hope that's the case, and Elise never feels like she's missing out as she grows up.