There’s so many times I just want to complain, complain and complain some more about the difficulties of my daughter having Celiac Disease.  I’m typically a positive person so I don’t want to be like that.  So I will take the approach I take with my students (I’m a middle school teacher), if I am going to complain about something, I will make sure to share a triumph.

My daughter is in pre-k and she has an enrichment every day after school ends since I’m not there soon enough to pick her up.  On Monday she had Little Wizards where they made pretzel dough!  Yes, my Celiac daughter made pretzel dough.  She is so amazing and won’t eat anything without checking first that it’s safe (although sometimes she doesn’t realize all adults are not equal).  She isn’t as good at checking when working with supplies.  The dough baked, then they offered her a piece to which she asked if it’s gluten free.  Teachers then have the realization they messed up so they quickly wash her hands, twice, and apologize profusely.  As frustrating as it was, mistakes happen, and I’m just so thankful that my daughter is a mature 4.5 year old who has realized she feels better since becoming gluten free.

Other school activities drive me crazy.  All I ask is to be given notice when there will be a class-wide gluten treat or activity so we can provide a gluten free alternative.  Tomorrow marks 100 days of learning and they’re having a celebration.  We were given a week’s notice to make a cake – perfect, exactly what we’ve asked for!  My husband then asked if there were any other activities we needed to know about and was told no….until this morning.  They’re going to make Fruit Loop necklaces tomorrow.  After an exchange, her teacher agreed to buy Cheerios also.  My daughter is the girliest girl who loves drawing in bright colors and while the rest of the class could choose between Cheerios or Fruit Loops, she wouldn’t have a choice.  That made me so angry.  Thankfully, I found the fruity Cheerios in our supermarket (they don’t always have them) so she will never know my stress throughout today.  Anything to make my little angel happy.  (And just adding my son too – even though this blog isn’t about him.)

Here’s a picture of my daughter’s Pillsbury Funfetti Cake! Pink and Blue Frosting then mixed together to create purple as per my daughter’s request!