Easter Bunny

Felix with his haul

These plastic eggs were a hit!

The Easter bunny had a bit more of a challenging time, trying to find little gifts for Felix this Easter. In the many months break I had from writing my blog, Felix has had a lot of issues with his bowel. He was diagnosed with SIBO (Small Intestinal Bacterial Overgrowth). This was treated with an aggressive course of antibiotics twice, but is still causing him issues. Also, after a series of hydrogen breath tests, we discovered he had malabsorption issues to lactose, lactulose, sucrose and fructose (as well as gluten for other reasons). We have had many appointments with Gastroenterology and with a Dietician, As a result, Felix has been taken off all sugars. The hardest sugar to remove from his diet has been fructose because it's in pretty much all fruit and vegetables, limiting his diet quite drastically. Felix has always LOVED his fruit, especially grapes, bananas, strawberries and apples, so it has been really tough. There have been days when he has sat by the fridge crying because he couldn't have fruit. We stuck to the new diet very strictly for a couple of months and, since then, have been able to slowly introduce a few basic things. We seem to have struck the balance now. A banana a day seems to be OK, and he seems to be tolerating some veggies like spinach, mushroom and zucchini. Fingers crossed!! We're currently waiting on results from yet another bowel test, and some blood tests so, hopefully, nothing new rears its head over the coming couple of weeks.

Anyway....back to the Easter bunny.....
Due to all of the above, Felix can't eat chocolate. Thankfully he's not too much of a sweet tooth anyway, but he has always enjoyed the few little chocolate eggs he has found on Easter Sunday. This year, the bunny had to be a bit more creative, and come up with some different ideas. He did well because Felix absolutely loved his little Easter stash!

Easter bunny was here!

He got some plastic eggs filled with little plastic animals, miniature toy trains and cars, which he thought were great. All day he has been putting the toys back inside, and then opening them up again (the gift that keeps on giving). There were two stretchy plastic rabbits with lights inside that flashed when they were dropped on the floor. These have been thrown around the house and haven't managed to break anything yet. He got a plastic egg which, after sitting in water all day, hatched and a little bunny came out. There were new socks and a pair of firefighter pajamas. He even got a few small toy dinosaurs, because every occasion calls for a dinosaur!! Incredibly, the Easter bunny even found a few little chocolate bunnies which were sugar, lactose, and gluten free. Even more amazing is that they actually taste just like regular chocolate!!

The rest of the day was a pretty lazy one. Felix and I went to the park and he played on the playground for a while. He loves swings at the moment, so it went a bit like this...."Mum, push, high, please", so I obediently pushed him as high as I could while he laughed and laughed. Then it was, "Mum, stop!" I grabbed the swing and stopped it. He gave me a grin and, "Mum, push, high, please", followed a few minutes later by, "Mum, stop!" This repeated itself over and over until I finally told him that Mum was worn out, and maybe he should go on the slide for a while instead.

Be quiet Mum!

I'm a bit of an Australian Rules Football fan. My team had their first game of the season today so Felix and I dressed up in our team colours and sat to watch the game on TV.  Felix loves kicking the footy around and is getting really good at it. He often does it while we watch the game. What he doesn't like, though, is me yelling at the TV while the game is on. It was a close game, so I got louder as the game went on. Felix kept saying, "Mum stop!" or "Mum, noisy!" while covering his ears. He ended up deciding that wearing his earphones (which he uses in places that are too loud), was the best option. Oops!! I'll have to work on my volume control!

I hope you have all had a safe and relaxing Easter!  Thinking of my family and loved ones today!