Rice Rice Baby

I have stumped modern medicine.

For 6 months now, I have had out of control allergies. Stuffy nose, pressure in the ears, itchy eyes -- NONSTOP. I hate it.

I have gone to the doctor again and again, each time trying new medicines. Nothing has worked. Finally, a few days ago, I arrived at a full-blown sinus infection. Whoohooo!

So here is the deal. I am now on steroids (prednisone) and I am supposed to only eat rice and fruits/veggies for several days (just in case it is another food allergy. Obviously, mold and pollen are the likely culprits, but there might be a wheat allergy hiding in there, too. Good stuff.

Here is what I have eaten the last three days:

apples
bananas
oranges
orange juice
banana chips
avocado
dried peas
rice
rice
rice
rice
rice

I have never wanted a bowl of cereal or a freakin' bagel with cream cheese so badly in my life. But it gets worse, far, far worse...

I can't begin to eat any wheat, dairy, etc until my allergy clears. That way, I can start with a clean slate, add foods, and be able to pinpoint any problem food. The problem is that after three days I have yet to have an allergy-free day. I am still congested, and HUNGRY. Sooooo hungry. But here is the worst, the absolute WORST part. I have contiued to drink wine through all of this, never imagining that it might be the culprit. Then I just read last night that some people are allergic to alcohol, mostly because of the yeasts and molds involved in the fermenting process. NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!

I am not a religious person by any means, but just to be safe, those of you who are please keep me in your prayers. Please add this to your nightly kneeling: "Dear (Higher Being That I Believe In), Please let Callie not be allergic to wine. She loves it oh so much, and her children have a much higher chance of living to see their teenage years if she can have an adult beverage in her hand while she listens to fights about who sits in which chair or who gets which toy. Amen"

The one funny thing about all of this is that most people gain weight when they get on steroids. The doctor told me to expect to gain at least a pound. The thing is, though, that I am losing weight instead. I mean, there is only so many bowls of rice that a girl can take, hungry or not.

Well, I am off to cook dinner. I assume that I don't need to tell you what I am cooking.

Cheers! Oh wait. Nevermind.

Things Are Exploding Around Here (In A Good Way)

Henry is having a learning explosion. The child who was once my little barnacle of a baby is turning rapidly into an independent 5 year-old. Here is what he has done in the last three weeks:

Learned to ride his bike without training wheels (by his request)

Learned to (finally!) put his seatbelt on by himself (which is not easy with the armrest of his booster seat)

Learned to get things out of the oven and microwave with mitts (as mentioned in my last post)

Began learning to read (again, by his request)

Learned to get himself COMPLETELY dressed

Henry is also obssessed with learning Spanish and French, so we sing the French ABC's A LOT and look at our language picture dictionaries. It is hard to believe how quickly he is growing and changing.

He mastered the digital camera some time ago, but now wants to move on to the video camera (I am sure that is because of his sisters).

He has also begun setting and clearing the table, getting his own snacks, and cleaning up his toys without being asked !

Now if the kid will just learn to wipe himself....

Sweet Boys

My life used to be hard. Two crazy boys. Hitting, fighting, testing, etc. That's why I started this blog. It was a way for me to vent. I needed an outlet.

But I am just NEVER here (meaning in my blog) anymore. Life has just gotten so good lately, almost too good to blog about. I'll be damned if my two little guys (my crazy, hyper, destructive little guys) are not just the sweetest little buggers lately. Obviously we have our bad moments, too, but everything is mostly gravy.


Two examples:

Quinn is obsessed wth saying, "I wuv you mo-ohm." Like fifity times a day. Do you hear my heart melting?

Henry got Quinn dinner tonight. Here is what happened:

I put a waffle in the toaster for Quinn, but then smelled that he had a dirty diaper. I took Quinn to change his diaper, and then I brought him back to the kitchen. And here is what I saw ....

Henry had scooted a chair over to the toaster, put on my oven mitts, and was very gingerly removing the waffle from the oven. He then went to the cabinets, selected a plate, put the waffle on it, and put in on the table for Quinn. ALL without being asked. Whoah.

I feel like I have hit cruise control until we hit the teens. Then I am pretty sure that the shit will hit the fan!

Why You Should Never Answer Your Phone On Your Day Off

I am on Week 2 of my Spring Break. That's right, internet, my school has TWO weeks of Spring Break. Jealous much? I spent the last week in Texas with Henry, Quinn and my husband to see my little brother get hitched, so I have been looking forward to using this week to catch up on errands, relax and other such things.

I COULD keep the boys home with me all week (their Spring Break is next week), but I decided to send them to preschool/ daycare on MWF this week to allow me some time to run my errands WITHOUT CHILDREN and to just have some quiet time WITHOUT CHILDREN. I am keeping them home on Tuesday and Thursday to spend some quality mommy time with them.

I had some guilt about this, thinking that I should keep them home all week to spend time with them in order make up for the fact that I work (because even though I was going insane staying at home I still have tons of guilt about going back to work-- go figure), but ultimately I decided that MY time and my chance to get a few things done was important, too.

So on Monday morning I dropped both kids off at their schools and went home to bask in my whole morning at home WITHOUT CHILDREN. Do you notice how I keep emphasizing those two words "without children?" Can you guess what happened? Trust me, you can't. You may think you can, but you sooooo can't.

You MIGHT think that the school called and said that Henry was sick. Or that Quinn's school called. Or both. But, no, none of that happened. Instead, an acquaintance of ours called me as I returned from dropping off the boys. Let's call her Peg. I was going to call her Inconsiderate Woman Who Takes Way Too Much Advantage Of Me, but Peg seems nicer, no? Peg and her husband do tax returns for people, so they are really busy right now. Peg's boys are on Spring Break. Peg's boys are NOT nice boys. Actually the 5 year-old is okay, but the 9 year-old is a holy fucking terror. Their family is WAY dysfunctional. The parents yell, cuss and hit, and so do the kids. It is one ugly family to spend time with. They are not bad people, but they have no clue as to how to be good parents. I bet NOW you can begin to guess what happened, can't you?

Peg said that she couldn't get a sitter (gee, after a whole morning of trying to find a sitter ON THE DAY YOU NEEDED ONE -- shocking) and she was "desperate" to find somewhere for the boys to go so she could go to work. Oh, and what do you know, she was driving right by my house as she called. She had "no other options" and so wanted to know if she "could just drop them off for a couple of hours, just until lunch?" I was totally blindsided. And trapped. So the boys came in and I told Peg in no uncertain terms that I would help her this time, but that it is MY Spring Break and that I would NOT be available for the rest of the week. At all. I also told her that I would bring the boys to her office promptly at noon. Why? Well, because this same time last year she dropped the boys off for "a few hours" in the morning and did not return until 5:00 pm. Seriously.

So there was my day. I dropped off my OWN children to have a day WITHOUT CHILDREN, and ended up having a day WITH CHILDREN who are disgusting little booger eating ill-mannered children at that. Good times.

The good news is that after I spend any length of time around Peg's boys, all I want to do with my OWN boys is hug them and kiss then and tell them how wonderful they are for at least a solid week. So there's my silver lining.

And I am not answering my phone all week.


*Peg's boys have been mentioned here before. They were "Situation D."