PKU-Friendly Christmas Treats

Even though Hadley can't have the "traditional" Christmas food that most people look forward to, I want her to be able to have some special treats to enjoy around the holidays. Here is a look at some of the low-protein treats she was able to enjoy this year. 

The weekend before Christmas, we made a PKU-friendly (and less messy!) alternative to a gingerbread house--waffle cone Christmas trees! The waffle cones themselves were not PKU approved, but I knew she wouldn't be interested in eating them anyway. I had a feeling she would only want to lick the icing and the skittles--and I was right. 

On Christmas Eve we made low-protein cookies for Santa and Hadley got to help cut them out and decorate them with sprinkles. Poor Santa didn't get to eat his cookie though, because Hadley assumed they were all for her. :)

On Christmas morning she got an extra special breakfast treat. She was very excited about her strawberry and banana candy cane!

She also got some phe-free cotton candy in her stocking. Overall, I think Hadley had a wonderful Christmas and I hope that I can continue to find fun ideas for her to do during the holidays so she never feels left out just because of her dietary restrictions.

DIY Car Play Mat

Hadley is VERY into cars right now so I thought she would enjoy a play mat where she could drive the cars on the roads. After looking at the prices of some play mats, I thought surely I could make her one for much less! I also needed one that I could roll up and put away instead of leaving it out on the floor all the time. 

Once again, Pinterest to the rescue! I found this one at While He Was Napping (http://www.whilehewasnapping.com/2011/03/felt-play-mat.html) and decided these instructions were the clearest that I had come across. Plus I really liked her layout of the buildings. 

Then it was off to Hobby Lobby for the supplies! I spent around $10 for all of the felt, which included a pack of green and a pack of black that come in roughly 3x3 foot squares. I already had plenty of hot glue sticks at home. 

The first step was to lay out the big black square which would be the road. I used pieces of paper to mark roughly where I wanted to put the various buildings.

Then I used a piece of white chalk to draw out my roads around the buildings. I drew very lightly with the chalk so that I could rub out any mistakes that I made. 

Then it was time to cut out the road. 

I flipped the cut out road over so that the chalk lines weren't visible. This meant all of my buildings needed to be flipped as well so it was a mirror image of how I first laid it out.

Then came the fun (but oh so time-consuming) part of cutting out the buildings. 

And more cutting...

I glued all of the roads and buildings to the large green piece of felt with hot glue. Lots and lots of hot glue. 

All total, it took me about 7 hours to complete this project, so it was more time-consuming than I anticipated. Hadley absolutely loves it though, so it was worth it. It probably wouldn't have taken as much time if I hadn't wanted to fill in with the little details like flowers, but I think it makes it much more colorful and fun. 

There are a couple of downsides to this mat. Felt attracts cat hair and little fuzzies which is annoying, but I figure I can just go over it with a lint roller periodically. Also, the durability factor is questionable, but only time will tell if it's able to withstand a toddler. I can touch up with more glue as needed. 

Here's a look at the finished product!