Blueberry Picking '09

Last summer, we went blueberry picking a few times and though Amelia always had fun, she never ate the blueberries. She'd only have them baked in a blueberry muffin, or once in a while, eat two or three frozen blueberries (no clue why).

But today we went blueberry picking, and she was doing the total "one for the bucket, one for my mouth" thing, then she got home and had about four more bowls. Her grandmother was super thrilled, since we'd all spent quite some time being tense about Amelia's appetite, and seeing how great she's doing is a relief to all of us.

Oh, and grandma (aka Lela) made Amelia a special allergy-free cake today, too. I tend to be very anxious when Lela cooks for Amelia, because she is one of those casual cooks who throws in a dash of this, splash of that, and she never, ever ever reads labels. She and I have had some slightly awkward moments around Amelia's food allergies but it's just one of those things I've held firm on. Anyway, total credit is due to Lela, because she's really working hard on this. She found a zucchini cake recipe, and read all the ingredients to me. Other than eggs, it was all totally safe for Amelia (flour, sugar, vanilla, cinnamon, zucchini, oil). So we gave Lela our box of Ener-G Egg Replacer, and she made the cake. It was really, really good. Amelia had a few bites and seemed to enjoy it. She was definitely cautious about it but for a first time with a new food, she did great. Uh, the bad news is that the rest of us devoured like 1/2 the pan. My baby weight isn't going anywhere, I am sorry to report.

Food chaining

I started doing some reading about "food chaining," a technique to help expand a child's diet by making small, incremental steps from one food they like to new foods. For instance, if a kid will only eat a chicken nugget from McDonald's, maybe you start by trying a new brand of nuggets. Once they start eating those, then you move on to a homemade nugget, then on to offering chicken without the breading, and so on. Or if a child will only eat potato chips, you can see if they might enjoy salt & vinegar chips, BBQ chips, and so on. I believe with this technique, you stick with the same texture but try to expand with flavors. It sounds like something that is used with kids with serious eating issues, with the guidance of medical professionals who specialize in pediatric feeding disorders.

Though we certainly don't have anything remotely like a feeding disorder happening over here, something about this strategy seems like it could make sense no matter what kind of eater you have, and I've been thinking about it a bit lately as I watch Amelia slowly expand her diet at (what sometimes feel like) random moments. When Amelia was younger she LOVED sliced apples. She lived on them. Then at some point she got sick of them and wouldn't eat them in any shape or form, which sucked because we live in Upstate New York and it's apple country from September through November. A few months ago, her nanny diced one up with cinnamon, brown sugar, and raisins, and sold it as a treat. She may have even called it "apple pie without the crust." Big. Hit. Total smash. Yahoo.

So Amelia's been enjoying that for a while now (c'mon, who wouldn't?). A few weeks ago I was rushing to get her dinner on the table and I peeled and sliced up an apple just to have a fruit to offer her, not expecting her to eat it, but at least wanting her plate to have something besides a protein and a carb. But she was hungry enough, or comfortable enough, so she did eat it. Saaaaaay. Last night she chowed down on the Red Delicious slices I gave her (it was a particularly good apple, by the way) and asked for more. The peeler was in a sink of dirty dishes and frankly I was still mad at her for her earlier temper tantrum (I sound mature, don't I?) so I cut up a new one without peeling it and gave it to her with no discussion -- in other words, no "Oh, do you mind the peel? Blah blah if you don't like it, eat around it, sorry about the skin, yadda yadda..." which of course would lead to her being oppositional (ah, the mind of a three-and-three-quarters-year-old) and not eating it in the first place. But with no big talk about it, and her being super hungry, she ate another 1/4 or so of an apple, peel and all. At first I saw her kind of trying to avoid the peel, but then she just started munching away.

I am not sure but I think that might be an example of food chaining, where a child expands he diet in small, steady steps. Whatever you call it, I'm excited! It's an interesting technique and seems to be non-pressured or particularly stressful for anyone at the table. And from my point out view, I know I can always find her an apple no matter where we are, and how handy is it to slice up an apple as a snack on-the-go? Yay!

Quaker Oats Company: FAIL!

Two of Amelia's friends are big fans of the tasty (albeit sugary and not-so-great-for you) Quaker Oatmeal Squares cereal, so their moms serve them at playgroup now and then.



The moms nicely asked if Amelia could have some, so I read the label and as you can clearly see, the only top-8 allergen is wheat, which Amelia can, and does, eat. Can't miss it, it says CONTAINS WHEAT INGREDIENTS in big bold letters, nicely calling out their allergen for people who are reading labels. Excellent work, you guys.



So... all systems go, right? Not so fast! A quick perusal of the front of the box shows a Kosher OU symbol (standing for the Orthodox Union, the world's largest kosher certifying agency) as well as D right next to it. About.com's Guide to Popular Kosher Symbols says that "'Dairy' or 'D' printed near the kosher symbol on the food package indicates the product is kosher and contains some milk or milk derivative."



Weird, right? So I call Quaker Oats and get a nice but SUPER dippy customer service rep who clearly didn't know anything at all. She just said that the "D" is KOSHER. Ya think, Golda Meir? Then she "accidentally" hangs up on me. Charming. So I call back and get another perfectly nice but also unhelpful guy, who also says that Quaker labels for all allergens (great) and that if there is a risk of even cross-contamination they would label for that, too (also great). He even gets a bit frosty with me and tells me they "go above and beyond" at Quaker with labeling. Listen, guys, that is swell, but what up with the D? He also tells me that the "D" on the front of the box is "something Kosher." Oh, I see. Toda Moshe Dayan. (Yeah, that's thank you in Hebrew, folks. I heart the interweb.)

So, in closing, I have no clue why there is a D on the front of this cereal, other than some representative of the Kosher certification agency felt that the food wasn't Pareve -- which means contains neither milk NOR meat. I won't be feeding the food to Amelia, at least not yet, but I would like to get to the bottom of this, just out of curiosity. Maybe a call to the Orthodox Union is in order? Stay tuned... But for now, a big FAIL to you folks over at Quaker Oats. Listen, no shame in having milk in a food, just freakin' label for it.

Label confusion

We were all set to make Amelia some Bell & Evans chicken nuggets (which she'd had ages and ages ago and which we hope could be an appealing way for her to try chicken again) when I noticed on the package a weird discrepancy. The ingredient statement had all the expected stuff (chicken, wheat, salt, cane juice, etc.) but then elsewhere on the package, it listed Allergen Information: Contains milk, wheat.

After a call to Bell & Evans (very nice people, btw) I was told that there'd been an error in the labeling, and that there was no dairy in the nuggets all. They'd noticed the typo a few months ago and tried to put a sticker on all packages leaving the factory but I guess they missed mine. So we're all clear for nuggets, if she'll go for them. We'll see.

Anyway, it is crazy what you see when you start reading food labels. Soy in Life Savers (yuck)! Or my personal gross-out favorite: fish in microwave popcorn. Blech. Or when something does not list dairy in the ingredients but has a D (kosher symbol) on the front of the package. What's that about?

You say tomato, I say annatto, let's call the whole thing off

Other than to-mah-toe and po-tah-toe, I'm not sure what else rhymes with annatto. But when I read Amelia's allergist Dr. Sicherer's book, he devoted a section to a patient who had a mystery allergy and after some detective work, they realized it was annatto, the seed often used as a food coloring.

When we had our appointment last month, I asked if they would test Amelia for annatto allergy, and Dr. Sicherer looked at me like I had two heads. Apparently my careful reading of his text wasn't careful enough, because he told me having an allergy to annatto is quite rare. (Dude, you may be the Dr. House of food allergies but I am an editor, and "rare" did not come up in your chapter, but hey, whatever.... .) I'd avoided foods that otherwise seemed safe because annatto was listed as an ingredient, but once we got the okay, I figured it was okay to feed it to her. So Amelia got to enjoy a tropical fruit Edy's popsicle, with pineapple, passion fruit, peace, and a bunch of other stuff including annatto. She was fine. Yay, another ingredient we don't have to worry about.

Bread and Jam for Frances

Lately we've been reading a lot of Russell & Lillian Hoban's Frances books around here. They are awesome, and I actually semi-remember them from when I was a kid. Frances (a badger, in case you were curious) is cute, full of attitude, and of particular appeal to Amelia, is often annoyed about having to be a big sister. In Frances' defense, she tries very hard, though. My favorite right now is Bread and Jam for Amelia Frances because Frances goes through a picky eating phase, and her parents handle it so well. It's nice for me to read books to Amelia about other kids and food, so that she knows, at least at some level, that all kids have their own weird food preferences.

In the book, Frances only eats bread and jam even though the rest of the family is busy enjoying an array of other foods (a lot of eggs in little egg cups, and some veal. Hey, they were written in the '60s, what do you want?). Instead of nagging her, Frances' parents finally stop serving her anything but bread and jam. Before long, she gets sick of it and starts eating other stuff.

This is a long build-up but for the past few months, I've periodically try to make Amelia a jelly sandwich, involing her as much as I can in the making of. We put a thin spread of grape jelly on the bread, then use this handy cut-'n'-seal sandwich maker thingee from The Pampered Chef to form a circle with crimped edges and no crust. It looks really pretty, if I do say so myself. Of course, Amelia will request one, then take nary a bite. Grrrr. It drives me nuts but I tried to go with the flow. The flow being 'say nothing and let this kid find her own way even if inside you're thinking, Eat the freakin' sandwich!.' Today I offered her one at snack time, naturally assuming she wouldn't eat it but that she could always make it up at dinner. Also I was sort of peckish and had my sights set on her leftovers. Either she was hungry, too spacey to realize this wasn't one of her usual foods, or the lesson of Frances finally won her over, because she ate the whole thing. Awesome!

Plus, in another not-par-for-the-course occurance, she nibbled on a few bites of carrot, and actually chewed and swallowed it, rather than take a bite, chew, spit it out, repeat. I think the carrot eating was due to the fact that Amelia spent a good 30 minutes helping me rinse the carrots we got at the CSA and maybe they started looking kind of appealing to her in their cute orange-y way. They were rather dainty and colorful.

Tip of the hat to you, Chef Ming Tsai

This month's Cookie magazine features a profile of Ming Tsai, owner of yummy-sounding restaurant Blue Ginger in Massachusetts (Rice Paper Wrapped Salmon with Lobster-Sake Sauce! Crispy Organic Coconut Shrimp and Baby Shrimp!) and host of Simply Ming on PBS. His David son was an infant when he was diagnosed with allergies to soy, wheat, dairy, shellfish, peanuts, tree nuts, and eggs, which, considering what his dad did for a living, was one heck of a cosmic joke. Har de har har. Ahem.

Anyway, the Chef has spent years helping make restaurants safer for people like David -- he became a spokesperson for the Food Allergy & Anaphylaxis Network and worked with Massachusetts government officials on a bill making restaurant kitchens more aware and accountable of patrons with food allergies. Check out the full feature here:

Father of Invention: Chef Ming Tsai: cookiemag.com

So from one parent of a food allergic child to another, thanks. (P.S. Hey, in more good news, David's outgrown almost all of his allergies.)

Sugar; Amelia's gateway drug

I can't believe how much kids like sugar. I realize that's the sort of comment experienced moms would respond with a "ya think?" and perhaps an eye roll.

But man, it blows me away how much it's the magic elixir for Amelia. Add it to some diced strawberries a few times, as I mentioned earlier, and now she loves the juicy red berries. Lately she's been on a blueberry strike (even avoiding her once-beloved blueberry muffins) but since we haven't been to the market in a few, today it was just about the only fresh fruit we had left in the house. So we let Amelia sprinkle some sugar on them (a tiny bit of sugar, mind you) and bang, two bowls emptied.

I know there must be a way to use this to my advantage with other foods, right?

Picky eaters in the news

This is a recent item from Parenting magazine:

BEYOND PICKY
A lot--a whole lot--of kids are fussy eaters. But as many as 20 percent of children have an actual pediatric feeding disorder, says Peter Girolami, Ph.D., with the Kennedy Krieger Institute Pediatric Feeding Disorders Program in Baltimore. In these kids, their pickiness leads to weight loss, slowed growth--and extreme stress for the whole family. Sound familiar? Talk to you doctor to find a specialist near you.

Makes me feel like I'm doing okay, since we're not having weight loss/growth issues over here. That said, we could be doing a whole lot better, too. This gives me some motivation to move forward!

Healthy!

OK, not really. Tonight's dinner: a bite of corn on the cob, a large handful of potato chips, one lick of beef hot dog, and most of a Edy's fruit bar. Why so nutritious, you ask? Because we didn't make Amelia her turkey or her bagel or her noodles, the only things she'll consistently eat (other than fruit, sweets, or muffins), so she had to make do with the other stuff. Is she the only child in the world who doesn't want to eat a hot dog?

Also, I had one of those awkward etiquette moments, because Amelia's cousins weren't allowed to have potato chips until they ate their broccoli, whereas I served Amelia her chips along with the rest of her meal. I'm not sure how I feel about the "eat your broccoli and you'll get your chips" as a strategy. I go back and forth on it. I know Ellyn Satter says not to do it, but rather to lay out all the food and let the kid pick what, how much, and which. But as a parent, it is almost impossible to for me to keep my mouth shut when my kid chows down on potato chips (which she almost never gets to eat) over the healthier fare. That said, tonight's dinner was unhealthy all around so I am clearly overthinking this.

I am going to have to steel myself when it comes time to move to "family meals" because it'll probably be six months of her not eating dinner. I'm going to have to go Method acting on her and pretend I'm not freaking out. I'd like to thank the academy.... .

Kraft-y

Last week I picked Amelia up from camp and her teacher told me Amelia really enjoyed her pasta salad. Me -- > shocked. They gave her Good Seasonings salad dressing mix and she loved it. I was a bit %*$*!! whoa because I never ever give her mixes/packaged stuff because I'm so paranoid, but Josephine called them and they said there were no allergens and to forge ahead, so they did. I guess that's how Amelia will expand her diet, if she's offered new things and I loosen up a bit.

I made a call to Kraft, who owns Good Seasonings, and the customer service rep was very nice, and told me if there was any chance of cross-contamination, they'd label for it, and when I asked if mustard was in the mix, she said they'd research that and call me back within 7-10 days. After 24 hours, someone called me back (impressive) and said they actually label for all seeds: sesame, celery, poppy, mustard. You name it, they will label for it in the ingredients. This is why I heart big corporate food giants. I mean, yes, I love little mom & pop companies and local this and that, but when it comes to food allergies and labeling, the big guys have it covered in a way smaller places just can't. In fact, Amelia's allergist says that kids with nut allergies shouldn't eat in bakeries because there is just too mix risk of cross contamination.

So, I salute you, Kraft foods! Thanks for being so great about labeling, and for having such nice customer service.

P.S. Of course we made pasta salad at home on Friday with the mix and it was a bust. Went over like a lead balloon. Onwards!

Crapola

Well, it's not a huge shock, but it's a bummer nonetheless. We sent Amelia's three-day food log to her dietitian (who works out of Mt. Sinai, dealing with kids with food allergies). The good news is that Amelia gets enough protein and seems to be eating enough calories. The bad? "She has a very limited repertoire of foods and the older she gets, the more difficult it will be to introduce foods."

Crap. Crap. Crap. I know it's the truth, and I know I am going to have to bite the bullet and get her to eat "family meals" instead of her very own beloved turkey turkey turkey every lunch and dinner, but ugh. I may not have the heart for it.

The dietitian (Marion) said we just have to make allergen-free meals (obviously) and assume it may take 10 or more times before she'll try a new food. That's pretty much the same advice that Ellyn Satter gives in her books, and it sounds so sane and reasonable. But ugh. I can't imagine pulling this off.

Also, I know this is stupid but my ego is bruised. I tend to think that with a kid with all these food allergies plus the reflux, the fact that she comes to the table, eats enough to grow, and enjoys some foods (OK, not a lot but still, there's some variety there) is a total success story. Sigh. I realize this is not about me, this is about being a good parent and finding ways to help my child grow and develop, but still, come on, a little credit here?

Actually in all fairness to me, the last time I met with Marion she did give a compliment -- she said a lot of families where the kid has had some growth issues due to health reasons wind up in power struggles with their child over food, so the fact that Amelia was eating a good amount of food and not battling with us at the dinner table was great. Couldn't she have given some "rah rah" with her constructive criticism this time around? Sheesh!

Poor Amelia has some sort of bug (with fever) right now so there will be no "family meals" for the next little while, but it's on the horizon. Stay tuned... .

One Potato, Two Potato

Last night we made "sweet potato chips" which is basically sliced sweet potatoes, tossed with canola oil and a bit of salt, and then baked in the oven. They are not crispy, though, more like a soft slice of potato. Amelia goes through phases on these. She likes them, she avoids them like they've got swine flu, then she likes them again. We've had a bad run of it lately but since Len and I like them, it's no biggie. Last night she asked for ketchup and I suggested she try a bite plain first, since the last time she decided she liked them more without ketchup than with. She actually did try a bite (shocker) and remembered how much she liked them. So that was a big hit, which is nice since sweet potatoes are decent for you and the dish is easy to make.

Tonight, we made baked potatoes and she was huffy because I actually put one on her plate (split, and mashed up with margarine). Sheesh. Suffice it to say she didn't go near hers, except to stab at it half-heartedly with a fork. For some reason as a kid I didn't like mashed potatoes so maybe it's a texture issue? Who knows? I realized how much I like baked and mashed potatoes, though, so that's good.

Riddle me this

OK, so just out of curiosity, can anyone explain why my kid won't eat a bite of her dinner until she gets ALL the stuff that is being served? Like tonight -- for dinner, I made her beef, crackers & pretzels (yeah, yeah, I know. I'm out of carb ideas. So sue me), raisins, and grapes. I served it all up except the grapes. She asked for the grapes. I told her in a minute. She got upset and refused to eat anything else. I told her to get started on the rest of the stuff and the grapes would be on their way. Fussing ensued until I gave her her grapes. At which point she ate everything in front of her and asked for seconds, and thirds, on the grapes.

Is this a 3-and-a-half year old thing, or just my kid?

Enquiring minds want to know.

P.S. The grapes were tasty, I admit. We're on a roll over here. Do grapes actually have any nutritional value, or are they just nice sweet cold treats? Either way I'll keep serving them to her, and I'm glad she likes them, but I'm curious. Grape research underway, I'll report back.

Strawberry Success

So, for some reason, I really wanted Amelia to like strawberries. I'm not sure why, maybe because most kids like them and I always want her to have experiences like her friends when she can, considering how much stuff she can't have, but the whole "try them, you'll like them" goes over like a gondola full of shit around here, so... in the spirit of Ellyn Satter and her tip that it can take a kid MANY times before they'll like a food, I kept offering them and trying not to talk them up too much. Of course, nada.

Finally I hit upon a great idea: SUGAR! Sugar is Amelia's gateway drug. Sprinkle it on anything and she'll at least give the item a try ... or a lick. Brown sugar is her absolute fave but in a pinch she'll go for the white stuff.

Long story short, she is now enjoying her strawberries (not as much as her beloved grapes, though) and I can either a) pat myself on the back for getting her to like a new food or b) kick myself for making her such a sugar junkie. Ah, motherhood!




In less fun news, tonight Amelia had a full-on tantrum and was screaming and sobbing while eating her oatmeal raisin cookie. If it were me I might not have continued chowing down, but nothing was going to pry that cookie out of her little hands. She's asleep now so can someone pour me a margarita, please?

The first recipe I ever memorized

I feel like a old-fashioned cook because I can now easily make biscuits from scratch without consulting the recipe.

Baking Powder Biscuits
2 cups flour
1 Tbsp. sugar
1 Tbsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
2/3 cup water
1/3 cup oil (I use Crisco Canola oil)

Preheat oven to 450. Mix together flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl. In a separate bowl, mix together oil and water, then add to the dry mixture. Stir just until all the ingredients are blended, then remove the dough from the bowl and place on a floured surface. Knead about 20 (approx.) times, added more flour if it gets too sticky. Then roll out (I just pat with my hands) and use a small cup to cut out biscuits. Place on a ungreased baking pan and bake about 10-12 minutes, until the biscuits are slightly browned.

Easy! Yummy! Someday Amelia will love these (hopefully). Come on, what's not to like? But for now she may just have a nibble or two only when her favorite stuff (turkey, raisins, grapes) are all done and she is still hungry. That's okay, though; I like these, as does Len. As Len once joked, how come we're trying to fatten up our daughter and instead we're the ones getting big?

Picnic festivites & blueberry muffins

Today I took Amelia and Baby John to a playdate at Sophie's house. Sophie has a baby sister, Isolde, who is only a month older than John so that makes it fun for everyone -- me included. I am giving myself a pat on the back for going out with two kids, as I'm still kind of nervous about that, and for not having a heart attack during our picnic lunch when Sophie, hands all sticky with cream cheese, kept trying to hand Amelia blueberries. Luckily no cross-contamination occurred, only because Amelia didn't want the blueberries in the first place.

I didn't say anything (as in, "Sophie, if you have cream cheese on your hands don't touch something Amelia might eat because she's allergic") because I was sure Amelia wouldn't eat them in the first place, although in hindsight I should have said something after all. Hm. Next time I need to be ready if that happens again!

Regardless, we all had fun and there were no problems. Highlight: the girls playing on the slip 'n' slide. So fun!

Also I made some more blueberry muffins (from my cooking bible, the FAAN Allergy-Free Cookbook). Finally fresh blueberries are in season and not obscenely costly. Frozen ones taste fine but when you mix the batter it turns it all purple, whereas that doesn't happen with the fresh ones.

Blueberry Muffins
1/2 cup milk-free, soy-free margarine at room temperature (note: I took ours out of the freezer and therefore had to microwave it to get it soft enough, which I think makes for a slightly less successful muffin)
1 cup plus 2 Tbsp. sugar
3 Tbsp. water, 3 Tbsp. oil, 2 tsp. baking powder; mixed together
1 tsp. vanilla extract
2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
2 cups flour
1/2 cup water
2 1/2 cups blueberries (frozen are fine but let them defrost first)
1 Tbsp. sugar mixed with 1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg (I don't do this step btw!!)

Preheat oven to 375. Line muffin tin with paper liners. In a medium-size bowl, beat margarine until creamy. Beat in the sugar until pale and fluffy. Beat in water, oil, and baking powder. Add vanilla, remaining baking powder, and salt.

Fold in half the flour and half the water with a spatula. Add remaining flour and water. Fold in blueberries. Scoop batter into muffin cups. Sprinkle with nutmeg-sugar (if you are doing this step). Bake 25 to 30 minutes or until golden brown. Let muffins cool slightly before serving.

Tidy!

Amelia likes a project, so she and her beloved nanny Lena organized the shelf in the pantry that has all of Amelia's safe (aka non-allergenic) foods on it. Also we found a box of Golden Raisins Amelia and I had bought on a shopping trip a while ago but forgot all about. So today for snack she had golden raisins (to me they are kind of weird but I'm not sure why) with her pretzels.

In case you're wondering, yes, she's still freaked out about the fire and even woke up last night at around 1 AM screaming and scared. Poor thing!

Photo of nice neat shelf:


PS Why does Amelia love the little corn on the cob holders that you stick in each end of the corn but won't actually eat the darn corn? Munch, what is going on in that little brain of yours?

We didn't start a fire....

Well, actually, we did. Tonight, Len was cooking dinner when all of a sudden, the oil from the salmon dripped on to the coils of the (STUPID) electric oven, and as you can imagine, what occured was fire. Amelia--> terrified. She is scared of fire and all things fire (fire alarms, the red button in the elevator to call for firemen, fireplaces, talking about fire, smoke, etc.)

I once started a fire in the microwave while attemping to sanitize my sponges. (Don't ask.) She didn't stop talking about it for weeks. So tonight, the dinner conversation was 100% all about the fire. Was the fire gone? Where did it go? How did it start? What happened? Would it come back? What happens if there is a fire? Is the oven still on? What caught fire? Is the turkey okay? Can I see the fish? Is it ruined? Is that smoke? Is it still hot?




Not much eating was done, as you can imagine. I actually tried to bribe her ("eat a bite of your turkey and I'll tell you about the fire for the 97th time") which I realize is a bad idea on so many levels, but man I was tired of talking flames and I knew she was hungry. On the upside, though, now Len is the firestarter, not me!

Oh, and she got her appetite back for a cookie before bed, so never fear.

As an aside, why is fish so freakin' expensive? It was like 10 bucks for just enough salmon for me and Len. I am annoyed that eating healthy costs way more than eating junky. I guess I have to think long-term health rather than short-term cost cutting. Annoying, though. Amelia can actually have fish, says her allergist, but I have yet to feed it to her because I am hella neurotic and scared to introduce a highly-allergenic food even if I'm told it is okay. I have offered her some of ours but I am always confident she'll say "No, thanks" and so far she has. Stay tuned, though, we'll get there!