letter from Tu-lu's

Awhile ago I sent a letter to tu-lu's tell them how good their bakery is. Tu-lu's is my favorite gluten-free bakery I've ever been to. One of my good friends had given a card to me and we went there. That's how we found out about it.

It's a small bakery with trees, cupcakes, pink dots and an owl sticker on the wall. When I walk in, it makes me feel like I'm in a bright forest but there are all these treats around me. When I sent the letter I didn't get a response for a long time. Then, I went to the bakery again and we figured out that they did write me back but it got sent back in the mail.

That's how we met Tully. She opened tu-lu's because she has celiac disease too. I also sent her stickers and she sent me a tu-lu's bakery card. I"m going to bring it next time I go there. Their foods taste just like regular treats with wheat and things in them. But they're gluten-free. Even treats that I don't really like, like oatmeal raison cookies, I still like at tu-lu's. Last time we went we got four mint chocolate chip cupcakes. They're delicious! And I think they're my favorite ones yet. Would you like to try it yourself? If you do, tell them Gluten Free Rocks sent you!

celiac levels down!

Hi! guess what. my celiac levels went down! first they were at 37. now they are at 16!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  only 6 away until having  normal celiac levels! but it took a long time to figure it out. first I had a blooId test. then some dumb people sent it to the wrong lab so I needed a nother blood test! after that the people said my celiac levels went up which made my mom upset because she thought that she was doing a bad job of keeping me safe. then we had to ANOTHER blood test to make sure I did not have anemia. my mommy thought there was enough blood tests going on so she decided they would do a finger prick. my doctor was so excited he decided he would do it himself. after the finger prick they decided my levels wen down. the whole family was happy. and that is the story of how they figured the levels went down to 16.Some times i wish there was a robot that could scan me and automaticaly know what would be happening in my body.

Trick or treat

Yeah it's Halloween! You're so excited to go trick or treating. But when you get home you find out that most of your candy has gluten.

But what me and my mom do, is look through the candies and see if it's gluten free or not. There are different apps on your iPhone that you can download and you can look it up. If it's not gluten free you can give it to a friend because that would make your friend happy. Then if you were giving out candy on Halloween too, or your parents were, then if you have left-overs, you can get have that type of gluten free candy instead. That way you'll still get lots of candy BUT the only difference is it'll all be gluten free.

After Halloween night, you'll probably feel very tempted to eat all the candy in your basket because it's right there in front of you. What I do to keep myself away from the candy is that I pretend the candy has gluten in it. Because I do not want to eat candy with gluten in it. I do not want to hurt my body.

One time I was at a friend's house and they had lots of non-gluten free candy. They brought up one of their pieces of candy to me and said a statement of how good the candy was. That made me feel upset, angry, disappointed and sad all at the same time. But what I would do is take a deep breath and tell them that it is really yummy, but you don't have to mention that it's not gluten-free but that might make them feel a little embarrassed. Then they'll probably talk about something else.

Mama Mondays: Can someone explain THIS?

Quick post:

Last night we had some friends over for dinner and with the pork and hominy stew (so good! gluten free!) I decided to whip up some homemade cornbread. I used the recipe on the back of Bob's Red Mill gluten-free Cornmeal and this is what happened:

Thoughts on why I produced a sponge with some corn meal on top? The Prince pronounced it delicious as well as my thoughtful (THOUGHTFUL) friends. I however understand that it's unacceptable and vile. And can't tell you how frustrated I still am with all this gluten-free baking. Sigh.....

Interview With My Best Friend

Today I am with my best friend and she is going to answer some questions about what she thinks about celiac. I'm going to call her BFF. She's in my class, and 8-years-old but she is shorter than me. We met each other when we were both 2-years-old. Her favorite color is green, and her favorite food is soup, not any specific soup.

Me: Are you awesome?
BFF: Yes.

Me: What did you feel like when I heard I had celiac?
BFF: All your food is going to be different when I come to your house except for fruit. But one of the things that wouldn't change is we are still best friends.

Me: Now that you've had some, does the gluten-free food taste different?
BFF: I don't really think it tastes different but your muffins do. But I don't really taste the difference because your mom is a good cook.

Me: Do you feel like I'm different in any way?
BFF: Not really, except for the fact that you have celiac. The food at lunch at school is still the mac and cheese, and you used to have that anyway. And you just changed it a little bit so you can have rice pasta.

Me: Do you still have as much fun as before I had celiac?
BFF: Yes. Nothing will change. except that you have a disease.

BFF: How does it feel to have that disease?
Me: It's easy to ignore. But when I'm thinking about it I kind of feel upset. And not like all of my other friends.

BFF: Huh?
Me: That I'm not like all of my other friends.

BFF: Bye people of the world who like this blog!

More Gluten-free please

After camp or on a walk if you get hungry why can't there be more gluten-free places? Or at least be signs that say it is or it's not?

For example there's a place in Little Italy, an ice cream place, that we walk by every day after camp on Grand Street. It's not gluten-free, or we don't know because nobody knows when we ask them. It makes me feel like they aren't careful. We used to go there everyday after camp and it made the long walks seem a lot faster. Now that we can't get the ice cream, it's like a long and lonely walk home. Except my mama is a very good buddy.

But closer to our house/apartment is another ice cream place called il laboratorio del gelato and a lot of their ice cream is gluten-free. We know because my mama called them and asked. Thanks to that we still get a nice cold treat after the long walk, just not during it.

Mama Mondays - Vitamins

The Kid had her 6 months celiac serology test two weeks ago. We're not down to zero on the antibodies, but we're heading in the right direction by A LOT.

However, the growth spurt plus some results on her vitamin levels led docs to put her on calcium and iron. Oh what fun it is to find vitamin supplements gluten-free!

But we did. Not everyone has a Whole Foods in their neighborhood, but at ours I picked up their 365 Everyday Value Calcium D Kids Gummy Pectin Swirl (Say that 3 times fast) which is gluten free and dairy free. And at the CVS I found Enfamil Fer-In-Sol. While usually given to infants, both her docs recommended it since she's low on iron but not anemic. (Are we having fun yet?)

As for The Kid and how she likes these new morning "treats?" The iron brings on great dramatic gagging. We follow with the gummy calcium -- she gets 2 -- a candy chaser which seems to cut the "super sweet then okay, but then terrible aftertaste like the worst you've ever had." Awesome.