First Week Back in China... Year 5

The first week has been okay, although the weather has been really lame. The first Sunday we were back (August 2nd) it was gorgeous, albeit hot and humid but I'm used to that. Ever since it has been overcast and rainy (as i wrote this the sun came out and there are blue skies now). I love the lush green but I want a summer too dang it! The two stores we shop from aren't carrying Gabby's meat- A.K.A. Hormel Natural Choice. It's the only lunch meat that she likes AND it says "gluten free," which makes me warm and fuzzy inside (If you had a Celiac kid then you'd get that). AND, there are no over-priced pull-up diapers! Crap. So I may hang-on to the pull-up diapers I have now until later and use regular diapers. I also really miss my friends from last year. We had a breakfast today and it was so weird not to see them... The overseas life... a lot of hellos and goodbyes.

Gabby is getting use to the sleep patterns now- it usually takes a week. She is now running and giving Travis and I these huge squeeze-type hugs when we get home. It's awesome how happy she is to see us. Now I know how "dog people" (people who own and care for dogs) feel when they come home and their dogs are happy to see them. She is reading or trying to read all the time. She also loves to count, and goes from 1-14) but still keeps forgetting 5. It's so funny. We had six rocks laying in a row and she counted them and pointed to each rock and said the corresponding. She skipped over the fifth rock and said "six." I think she just hates the number five. She's also quite sensitive like me... whenever she seems someone cry, she always points it out and wonders why. In her books, if she sees someone cry, she'll say "he's crying, he's sad. Owie mommy?" She thinks if you cry it's because you have an owie so I've been telling her that people cry for different reasons. It's interesting to see the emotional intelligence side come out. She asks me all the time, "What you doing, momma?" She's a little human figuring out her world.

I made my first gluten free pizza crust yesterday. I used to LOVE making yeast breads and made the yummiest cinnamon rolls but the last three attempts (about 7 years ago) I killed the yeast and swore off attempting to make a yeast bread again. Anyway, last night Travis and I made a pizza and froze the leftover crust. I'm getting lots of good tips from these books I got about making and storing gluten free food and how to deal with parties, school, etc. We bought a foodsaver too so we can store cereal and other items. That will be really helpful.

Potty training update... she has pooped and peed for about 3 days in a row. Yippee! Trav sat with her all yesterday and kept asking if she had to pee or poop. She is so proud of herself. Now if we could just get her to start wiping her own bum...

The Nabisco shipment is in! I now have Triscuits and Wheat Thins! Yay!