Reminding Me Why

I was silent for a year for many, many reasons - the biggest of which was probably just exhaustion (ha!), but the words and ideas have been forming over the past several weeks. This move has created a renewed sense of wanting to invest time and energy into this corner of the internets, and a desire to push past my tiredness, laziness, and perfectionism, in order to actually publish posts. I think I initially felt that it would be a way to update friends and family back home on life and the goings on, but this morning I was reminded of the bigger picture, and it is one that I can't avoid or ignore.

Advocacy.
Education.

Understanding.

Down Syndrome.

One of my favorite sayings over the past several months has been: "You don't know what you don't know." I didn't know that I was going to have a baby with Down Syndrome. I didn't know that I was going to be ushered into this group of people who have been impacted by something so small as an extra chromosome. I didn't know that I would (whether I wanted to or not) become a walking billboard for what having a child with Down Syndrome would be like. And you know what? I actually didn't know very much about Down Syndrome. And that's okay! You don't know what you don't know until you realize there's a gap in knowledge and understanding that needs to be filled. 

Social media plays an important role in that awareness, and it impacted my process of grieving and acceptance in the beginning of our journey (a story I'll tell another time), but today I was reminded of the responsibility I have been given. One of my all time fave IG celebs is a 6 year old girl with Down Syndrome named Chloe (Coco for short) who's life is documented by her mom on the IG account @lilcocobea. She is sassy as all get out, and loves to sing, dance, cook, and shoot her own make-up tutorials (no I'm not joking). This morning's post on her account was dedicated to a couple that had viewed Coco's account while they were in the parking lot of an abortion clinic because they had received a diagnosis of Down Syndrome for their child and they had decided it was the best option for them. Lilcocobea showed them, just by being herself and living her life, that maybe DS wasn't so scary, and gave them the courage to choose life for their baby. 

This is profound on many levels, most of which, I am sure, are not lost on you, dear readers. However there is a component to this that I never considered before I was standing where I am now, and that is: relief that there will be one more person in this world who will be like my Mildred Pearl. This is one more step toward allowing Mildred to grow up in a world where she may actually be able to have friends with the same number of chromosomes that she has. There is more to say on this subject, but I'll leave it there for now.

So, here is my opportunity to teach myself (I still am learning EVERY DAY about Down Syndrome), and others, about my daughter, and others in our beloved Trisomy 21 Club.

There is a blogging challenge for the month of October to write (and publish) a post for every day of the month of October. October also happens to be Down Syndrome Awareness month. So I have decided to share something about Down Syndrome every day for the month of October. Now, I have some ideas (and pictures... I'm sure I can scrounge up some pictures ;) to share. And I have some subjects that I've been meaning to research about for my own personal growth (relating specifically to DS and awareness), but that covers about 6 posts. So, although I'm sure only a handful of people would complain about daily Mildred pics ("Millie Mail" as I call it when I send them to the grandparents), I want to know what you have questions about!

What do you want to know?

Are you wondering about anything as you've been following my posts?
Do you have questions about terminology/ability/delays/etc.?

Have you seen or heard something from somewhere and you're wondering if its true?

I want to know!
Don't be shy. Don't be worried about offending. Don't be embarassed.

We don't know what we don't know, until we do. And how will we know more if we don't have the courage to ask? ASK! You can leave questions in comments, or private message me, or text me, whatever works best for you.

You are Millie's tribe, she needs you too.

-M

GF Churro Pancakes

Gluten-Free Churro Pancakes

Oh,  I have your attention now, don't I?!

Since discovering my food sensitivities 4 years ago (yikes! Time flies!), there have been just a few foods (surprisingly) that I have missed - and pancakes are one of the few. Over the last 4 years there does seem to have been an explosion of restaurants offering gluten-free (and dairy-free substitutes) and that is most excellent! I am fortunate in that my "allergies" are not anaphylactic, but the foods that I am sensitive to do make me ill enough to interfere with everyday life. I digress, this is not the important stuffs.

Because I am also "allergic" to dairy (lactose AND casein), soy, and tapioca, I am typically still unable to eat the gluten-free pancakes at restaurants, or use the store bought mixes at home, because it is my experience that 95% of all gluten-free baking mixes contain tapioca starch, and many still contain milk and soy.

Coco's Restaurant and Bakery (which is like a Perkins, for anyone not familiar with Coco's) serves gluten-free pancakes that I can have and they are DELISH! And so began my search to discover the magic ingredients/mix that they use.

After searching and searching and searching (to no avail) I stumbled upon Bisquick's gluten free baking mix which is, surprisingly, free of all the things I can't have! The mix is pretty decent on its own (using the pancake recipe on the box), but I've played around with a few things and today....

EUREKA!

Gluten-Free Churro Pancakes.

I die. I can't think of anything pastry like that I have eaten in four years (that didn't have at least one ingredient in it that made me sick later) that tastes SO DELICIOUS.

Honestly, like walking along Disneyland's Main Street, delectable cinnamon and sugary treat in hand. It takes me back to better days!

Dramatic performance aside, here are the deets:

2 cups Bisquick Gluten-Free Baking Mix
2 cups original almond milk (or milk of your choice, we tried vanilla almond milk initially because that is what we had, but I wasn't a fan).
2 eggs
4 tablespoons canola oil (calls for veg. oil, tried with olive oil and like canola better)
1-2 tablespoons vanilla extract (I only used 1 this time, but think it would be better with 2)
Cinnamon and sugar mixture

Mix together: baking mix, milk, egg, oil until blended
Heat up canola oil in pan, pour approx 1/2 cup batter into hot oil to fry, flip when ready
Sprinkle cinnamon and sugar to taste when done



I made big and small "cakes" and found that we actually preferred the bigger size to the smaller ones. Silver dollar sized "cakes" ended up being mostly fried and more like a fritter while the large pancake size had crispy edges and soft dough in the center like a churro.

Let me know if you try it, and what you think! I'd also love to hear any other adaptations you may make. :)

Enjoy!

Picking Up Where I Left Off.

We made it to the Pacific North West! (Nothing like just jumping back into the blog-o-sphere, huh?)
In an effort to shake off the dust that has settled on this blog for the last year (yikes! what can I say? LIFE, man!) let me just do a quick recap of our biggest, most recent news:

We moved.
From Southern California to Eastern Washington (state).
We threw away a bunch of our crap (more on that later), and packed up what we could fit into our CR-V, and hit the road.
We didn't take nearly as many pictures of our journey as I would have liked, because my phone was full. Isn't that always the way? Don't worry, I fixed it, you won't be without pictures in the future.

For now, photo dump of some things from our trip to settling in:

Excited to hit the road! (Playing in the fountain at the mall while Mom and Dad say goodbye to family and friends)

We saw a lot of Heaven in the skies on this trip, a constant reminder of Grace (and Aunt Elaine).

This town was a last minute stop before the middle of nowhere, and it was itself also basically the middle of nowhere, but mexican food!!

Nothing like a little dose of happy along the road...

This sweet little pie was SUCH a trooper! So happy to be out of the car! 

Street art in Bend, OR.

Spent a night at Great Grandma's place on the way to our new home! Don't let Millie's face fool you...she LOVED it.

happy to be in our new town!

our  neighbors. free range cattle. no smell. i'm sliiightly obsessed.

trying to feed a busy busy toddler without a high chair is a disaster. this is making it work! play chair converted to high chair with a belt! eating off of the coffee table. just call me MacGyver Mama ;)

top knots and mocc boots and that sweetness... i can't handle her.

Grandpa spent our first two nights in our new place with us. More on that later because I don't want to cry.