I've kind of given up when it comes to the holidays. Olivia's pretty good about not going nuts with the junk, but it's there and I'm not going to tell her she can't have something. I will ration, to a certain extent, but we talk about it and work out a compromise.

It's really hard sometimes, though, especially with the homemade baked goods. I SWAG bolus a lot and I must admit, I'm pretty good at it. Olivia does stay away from things like Hello Dollies and fudge, but she does like cookies and pies and such.

She can tend to overdo it at times, though, especially if I'm distracted with guests or the two little girls. I've come up with a strategy to side step it a little bit. She's becoming more body-conscious (ugh - that's another post and probably not for this blog) and worries about gaining weight. I have her fill up on the main meal, leaning heavily on the salad (which she likes, thank goodness) and veggies so that she doesn't really have room for huge amounts of dessert. She tends to graze the dessert offerings, which is ok, and she's really good about telling me what she's having.

When we arrive at wherever we're going, I usually do a quick calculation of carb counts in my head. It's almost unconscious at this point, I've been doing it so long. Olivia and I will discuss it and she'll usually tell me what she thinks she'll eat. I'll look over her plate really quickly and give her the carbs to put into her pump. Pumping has made holiday meals a heck of a lot easier, let me tell you. There's no schedule, no rigid amount of carbs, it's almost like eating the way everyone else does. Almost.

Thus far, this has worked out well for us. Today, Olivia was put to the test at school because they had a party this afternoon. She told me that she figured about 10g for each cookie she ate and that she counted the cookies before she started wolfing them down. She was pretty good about it and had about 60g of carbs. Not bad, considering there was a ton of food. I'm glad she's getting the hang of this. It takes a bit of pressure off me and means she can be a little more independent.

I'm sure there will be times that she makes mistakes - she has in the past, over- or under-bolusing for things - but we always talk about it. And I always stress that she's only human, that she's going to make mistakes now and then. That what she needs to be concerned with is staying in tune with how she feels when she's SWAG bolusing, so that she can feel a low and head it off before it becomes a problem. So far, she's doing pretty well. I can't ask for much more than that.