Living with Jekyll and Hyde

aka. the salicylate challenge

It is two weeks since we finished the salicylate challenge and we have recovered.

It is a funny thing when you start a venture such as the RPAH elimination diet part of you worries it isn't going to make a difference and part of you worries it is.

Well for 8 days we ate our selves silly on pumpkin ginger soup, tinned peaches, carrots, corn, bok choy and choy sum and cinimon baked apples and we even did molasses-on-snow candy out of the Little House cookbook. It was delicious and disasterous.

I had planned to do the full 10 days, so I could gorge myself on cinnimon. but at the begining of day 8 Stuart called a halt to the trial. Unfortuantely I had already packed our lunch and we were already leaving the group so we had to finish out day 8. Though Stuart suggested I just don't feed her.

So what was the big deal? It couldn't have been that bad, could it?

It could and it couldn't.

There was no reaction for the first three days. Samantha caught a cold from the assembly but actually seemed to be doing better than usual. On Tuesday she was talking a lot more than one would expect a person with a sore throat to talk. I mean from 8:30am till 11:30 am she did not stop talking (I timed her). 

Then came Wednesday and introducing Miss Jekyll and Miss Hyde.

In the morning she was anxious to be helpful despite coughing and having massive yellow sneezes. She did all her chores and marked them off without being asked and was a little germy ball of helpfulness.

In the avo we made a library run for emergency book supplies, it was on the return home. You see I made the fatal error of opening the  back seat door to take out my purse and library bag. She wanted to open the door.

Then I made the mistake  of shutting the door.

Then came the crowning act of presumptuousness, the final insult, I opened the door to the house while she sat screaming in the car.

After deciphering from the shrieks what my sins were, and much bodily persuasion I got her in the house and timed her out to her room. I remained calm(ish) and said very little, though I did explain the time would not begin until she stopped screaming.

I wont bore you with a blow by blow description, but only the aftermath.

Samantha tore apart her art gallery as far up as she could reach, including the glass framed pictures (thankfully they didn't break). She shredded all her drawings, emptied out every single, bin box, bag of anything in the room, tore apart her bed, and I caught her in the act of trying to pull over her book case.

 Her hair was sticking out wildly and she looked like a child possessed.

Clarification: Samantha has never been a room-wrecker. She has been moody, difficult to discipline,  secretly written on walls and many other things but never overtly destructive. During the course of this challenge she destroyed her room 3 times. Plus a mild over turning of stuffed animals and barricading of the door on the second day of recovery.

Some may argue it couldn't possibly be pumpkin-ginger soup and baked apples.

For yea who doubt!

After returning to my lovely sunny girl for more than a week this Friday morning, Samantha had an unexpected melt down, refusing to come to breakfast then when carried to the table refused to eat her now cold porridge. Leading to a long drawn out battle of wills.

 I couldn't understand it.

Was there a preservative in the minced lamb?

Was it too much vanilla in the pudding?

Nope. The culprit turned out to be Ahma's soup. Ahma bought the veggie label Swede (rutabaga) but it was not he yellow and purple root but a white, veiny, purple topped cousin. Yep, two helpings of stew containing turnip led to a major tantrum.

You may doubt all you like but anyone who feeds my child apples and carrots behind my back can take  Jekyll and Hyde home with them until my darling returns.



Chinese Special Assembly Day

This is the only decent photo from our assembly since I forgot to charge my camera.

This is Stuart baptizing Gaoliang, you can see Xioazhuan at the edge of the pool.

I had a sudden fear as Stu went to dunk him. "Oh my goodness Stu's never done this before what if he drops him?"

But he didn't. Though Gaoliang did almost hit his  head on the marble edge.

We had 132 at the assembly, and it was our first time in the main hall.

Lots of fun and all went smoothly thanks to Stuart's hard work.