There is always love

So, yes, mama bud was sick.  Blood pressure was playing tricks again and I got a very lovely (NOT) nurse that was extremely mean and was very rude when drawing blood from my arm.  A few weeks later, I still have the bruise, but this is how it looks this morning.  It actually have the shape of a heart. Makes me want to go back to the hospital and show it to her.  It means that there is always love always, even when people try to harm you (and please, ignore my hairy arms).

Family Day at School

The girls had their family day at school and we all had a great time. Sun was shinning like there was no tomorrow and we ended up with sun tans.

The girls have been looking for this day since it was first announced and they enjoyed themselves a lot.

I also met lots of their friends and it was nice to see them interacting with them.  But, of course, they were more interested on spending the time with me and showing me everything they were doing.

I love how all my three girls a mama's girls.  It wasn't always like that, but it really feels amazing.  They have an special love for my mom, my brother and one of my uncles, but it is a different love.  When they look at my eyes, they spark in a way that goes directly to my soul.  I can't really describe it, but I can feel it and other people can see it.

Just a few more pictures of our day... The first two are Mia and Mimi with their main teachers and then the girls going down one of the slides.

How Gaby got fit

Since Gaby lost her baby fat, she has always been very slim. Her weight has always been in correct proportion with her height.

She has always been a picky eater and food never was a priority for her. She would still eat which is why her weight was always average... not thin, not fat. On the picture from the right, you can see how you looked up to 7 years old.

But then, something changed. Suddenly, she started having an extreme interest in food and she would eat and eat and eat some more. It was refreshing for me to see, and I was very pleased that my very picky eater, it's now eating like there is no tomorrow. Also, as her father and I separated, I though it was normal for her to have some kind of anxiety because of that.

Months went by and I started noticing that she was looking a little chubby. At this moment, I tried to decrease the amount of carbs a little bit, and increase the amount of proteins. Still within a healthy range for her age, but just a bit less. I also cut down the starches and sugars.

My girls have never been sugar crazy and for that reason, I have never been worried about it. For example, they don't eat much ice cream, but if one day I treat them with ice cream, I would let them eat as much as they want. With this being said, if we go out to eat ice cream, Gaby would be allowed to eat, but just a moderate amount.

At this moment, I didn't anticipate what was about to happen. One hour after having a very good lunch, she would ask the maid for more rice. Then, before AND after the mid afternoon snack, she would ask her for one or two sandwiches.  This means that she was having breakfast, snack, lunch, extra lunch (more rice), extra meal (1 or 2 sandwiches), snack, extra meal (1 or 2 sandwiches), dinner, and then milk. I have NO IDEA how she was able to fit all this on her stomach, but she WAS doing that from Monday through Friday (when the maid was home).

For this reason, she gained A LOT but A LOT of weight. Her weight was not in proportion with her height anymore. Trying to understand the reason for that, I asked the maid if she was giving her candies or something like that, and she told me everything. It never occurred to her to mention it before, because for her there was nothing bad with giving food to a "hungry" child.

I was extremely concerned and I sat down with her pediatrician to design a plan of action. We both agree that she was not going to have a "diet to lose weight", but she needed a very healthy menu to get rid of the extra fat while she kept getting taller. The goal was to bring her back to proportion between her weight and her height.

I sat down with Gaby and talked to her like if I was talking to an adult. She is very smart and I knew she was going to understand better this way. I talked to her about diabetes and all the possible diseases. I talked to her how I was also going to work myself on getting fit and that it will be a goal for both of us.

As she still needed many carbs on her diet, I knew it was going to be a long road but SHE DID IT. Here are the changes she made:
- She started eating 3 meals and two snacks only
- She stopped eating "kids cereals", and started eating Honey Bunches of oats instead
- She started using skim milk and whole wheat bread
- She started eating more veggies than carbs.  She was still eating her carbs, but just the right amount. This was not a hard task because she have always eat her veggies. She simply started getting full on them instead of a bunch of rice.
- She would only drink juice with her school snack at mid morning (4 ounces)... then she would drink water at every other moment on a normal day (and lots of it)
- Sweets and sodas were down to almost nothing. She would only eat sweets and drink soda at a party or a special day
- She would play outside for at least 1 hour every day and putting extra effort on her gym class at school

After a year and a half, Gaby is back to complete proportion between her height and weight... not thin, not fat.... and I'm just really proud of her.