Science Night is DONE, people! Veni, vedi, vixi. I came, I saw, I survived. I should never be in charge of things. Seriously. I'm all about the ideas. The execution? Not so much with that. Thank the deity of your choice that Mistress Dave Matthews was in charge of *everything* except the activities. Because honestly - if it was up to me? Let's just say the science projects would have been propped up on some cardboard boxes I found in a dumpster. Five minutes after people started arriving. Assuming you even knew when to arrive because I probably would have forgotten to send an email on that. I might have remembered to make some certificates of recognition - but they probably would be written on post-its. Are you getting the idea here? If you want something done in a timely fashion or to have some semblance of order, I am *not* your go-to person. I used to be that person. I also used to have defined abs, a clean house, and a job description that didn't require cleaning up another person's shit. Well, not literally at least.
Have a good weekend, people. Thanks for coming for a visit and I'll see you next Monday.
Thursday, March 29, 2007
Monday, March 19, 2007
Sleep
I am too stressed out about co-chairing Science Night to even think about blogging, eating, breathing, etc. Hopefully I will emerge unscathed and may live to blog again. Maybe not. Thanks for the comments, though. It was nice to know I wasn't alone.
Wednesday, March 14, 2007
Yet More Allergy
It's a good thing that Drama Princess came along for the elimination ride because she is rocking the allergens with her sister. Fizzgig is weighing in at 2 major and 2 minor OAS (oral allergy syndrome) inducing foods. Kiwi and raw cabbage = scream, rash, and cry. Peaches and lamb = I have a rash? I hadn't noticed. Drama Princess is climbing the ranks with 1 major reaction and 2 minor OAS. Macademia nuts = eye swollen shut. Peaches and mangoes make her tongue itch and mouth rash. Me? It's all good at Zendra central.
I feel very unclever and tired and have nothing interesting to say. Except that my sister-in-law looks like Bettie Page now. It's a very cool look for her. All zexy 50's-gothy kinda style. And she has an 18 month old running all around. How can one do that? I think my style is the 'it smells clean enough' couture.
I feel very unclever and tired and have nothing interesting to say. Except that my sister-in-law looks like Bettie Page now. It's a very cool look for her. All zexy 50's-gothy kinda style. And she has an 18 month old running all around. How can one do that? I think my style is the 'it smells clean enough' couture.
Monday, March 12, 2007
Hand me that peashooter, wouldja?
Oh. My. God. If I don't stop coughing soon I'm going to lose it. Enough said.
Friday, March 9, 2007
Allergy Elimination Diet Day 5
Drama Princess, Fizzgig, and I are on day 5 of our allergy elimination diet. DP and I are pretty much along for the ride. We're doing this in solidarity for Fizzgig. Well, I am at least. DP doesn't have much choice in the matter. There are only so many separate meals mama zen can make before splattering her grey matter across the cork floor with a pea shooter. Now there's imagery for you.
Fizzgig has had digestive issues since she weaned herself at 3 months. DP nursed till just past a year. Fizz decided at 3 months to have a hunger strike that lasted around 48 hours. I pumped and she rejected that too. I caved and gave her some formula. She reacted to all the formulas, though. Projectile vomiting! Ultrasounds to test for GERD! Are! we! having! fun! yet?! But at least she drank something, because she still refused to nurse. We ended up using the super hypoallergenic formula they make - the name eludes me probably because of the trauma of paying that much for anything that doesn't taste like chocolate or do my laundry.
When she eventually went on to solid foods, a special little place in hell opened up just for us. Because all that other stuff? Foreplay. I think we chose bananas as her first food. What a nice, wholesome food. Until your baby's lower face turns bright red like she's a Ronald McDonald clown. And she cries. And she claws at her throat. Good times, good times. So we tried avocado and pears and all those other 'firsts'. Same reaction. Can a child react to freakin *everything*? Apparently, the answer is yes.
After a while we became desensitized to it and started feeding her the foods that made her rash the least amount. There is only so much hand wringing that can be done. If she didn't try to scratch out her esophagus it was a winner. And as time plodded slooowly by, she did rash less and less. Buddha Butt was watching both girls one afternoon and one year old Fizzgig managed to snatch big sister's peanut butter sandwich. She ate all of it. And she didn't react. The one food that is supposed to send up the red alert flags to watch for and *that* is the one thing her system likes. My mind? Boggled.
So now, she is almost 4 and hasn't really gained any weight since she was 2. The doctors have done allergy tests and she tested negative for everything except egg whites. And that barely even registered. Bullshit. She rashes and doubles over in pain many, many times a week. And she's anemic. My red meat, spinach, black eyed peas eating child. WTF?
I've been reading a lot and talking to a lot of moms with kids with allergies. My homespun diagnosis? Celiacs. Big time gluten allergy (which is in everything). It destroys your small intestines bit by bit and the nutrients you eat will pass on by the damaged parts w/o being absorbed back into your bloodstream. Celiacs would explain the cramping, the anemia, the 'failure to thrive', the rashing and the eczema. If you stop the gluten, the intestines will repair themselves.
Buddha Butt just finished his 28 day allergy elimination diet and discovered he was gluten intolerant. (among many other things) Celiacs is supposed to have a pass-me-on-down to the lucky offspring component. We discovered, when partaking of the Dada's food, that when Dahl went wheat free for around a week she gained two pounds! Coincidence? Probably. But we are doing the full elim diet to see what unfolds. It doesn't require vials and vials of blood or terror for the itty bitty.
The first four days are an alternative to fasting. It's water, rice, lentils, pears, and lamb. I am doing all but the lamb, of course. I like Mary's little pet to keep on frolicking in the pasture, thankyouverymuch. The babies? All about the lamb. They salivate if they hear the nursery rhyme. Beasts. Summary of first four days: whining, lots and lots of whining. But no cramps or rashes.
Today is day 5. Now we start adding things in food family by food family. So far? Nasty reaction to kiwi. Clawing at her gums and tongue, running in circles. How sad is that? She has had kiwi before and never reacted that badly. Supposedly, when your system is more allergen free you tend to react more 'vehemently' to newly reintroduced allergens. Fun way to start the 'let's try this now' phase.
Cross your fingers and toes for me, this is going to be a long ride.
Fizzgig has had digestive issues since she weaned herself at 3 months. DP nursed till just past a year. Fizz decided at 3 months to have a hunger strike that lasted around 48 hours. I pumped and she rejected that too. I caved and gave her some formula. She reacted to all the formulas, though. Projectile vomiting! Ultrasounds to test for GERD! Are! we! having! fun! yet?! But at least she drank something, because she still refused to nurse. We ended up using the super hypoallergenic formula they make - the name eludes me probably because of the trauma of paying that much for anything that doesn't taste like chocolate or do my laundry.
When she eventually went on to solid foods, a special little place in hell opened up just for us. Because all that other stuff? Foreplay. I think we chose bananas as her first food. What a nice, wholesome food. Until your baby's lower face turns bright red like she's a Ronald McDonald clown. And she cries. And she claws at her throat. Good times, good times. So we tried avocado and pears and all those other 'firsts'. Same reaction. Can a child react to freakin *everything*? Apparently, the answer is yes.
After a while we became desensitized to it and started feeding her the foods that made her rash the least amount. There is only so much hand wringing that can be done. If she didn't try to scratch out her esophagus it was a winner. And as time plodded slooowly by, she did rash less and less. Buddha Butt was watching both girls one afternoon and one year old Fizzgig managed to snatch big sister's peanut butter sandwich. She ate all of it. And she didn't react. The one food that is supposed to send up the red alert flags to watch for and *that* is the one thing her system likes. My mind? Boggled.
So now, she is almost 4 and hasn't really gained any weight since she was 2. The doctors have done allergy tests and she tested negative for everything except egg whites. And that barely even registered. Bullshit. She rashes and doubles over in pain many, many times a week. And she's anemic. My red meat, spinach, black eyed peas eating child. WTF?
I've been reading a lot and talking to a lot of moms with kids with allergies. My homespun diagnosis? Celiacs. Big time gluten allergy (which is in everything). It destroys your small intestines bit by bit and the nutrients you eat will pass on by the damaged parts w/o being absorbed back into your bloodstream. Celiacs would explain the cramping, the anemia, the 'failure to thrive', the rashing and the eczema. If you stop the gluten, the intestines will repair themselves.
Buddha Butt just finished his 28 day allergy elimination diet and discovered he was gluten intolerant. (among many other things) Celiacs is supposed to have a pass-me-on-down to the lucky offspring component. We discovered, when partaking of the Dada's food, that when Dahl went wheat free for around a week she gained two pounds! Coincidence? Probably. But we are doing the full elim diet to see what unfolds. It doesn't require vials and vials of blood or terror for the itty bitty.
The first four days are an alternative to fasting. It's water, rice, lentils, pears, and lamb. I am doing all but the lamb, of course. I like Mary's little pet to keep on frolicking in the pasture, thankyouverymuch. The babies? All about the lamb. They salivate if they hear the nursery rhyme. Beasts. Summary of first four days: whining, lots and lots of whining. But no cramps or rashes.
Today is day 5. Now we start adding things in food family by food family. So far? Nasty reaction to kiwi. Clawing at her gums and tongue, running in circles. How sad is that? She has had kiwi before and never reacted that badly. Supposedly, when your system is more allergen free you tend to react more 'vehemently' to newly reintroduced allergens. Fun way to start the 'let's try this now' phase.
Cross your fingers and toes for me, this is going to be a long ride.
Thursday, March 8, 2007
Ink
Mistress Nightengale and Mistress Urban stepped up and subjected themselves to the permanence of ink during Palooza 2007. I cannot even begin to tell you how much I enjoyed being in the tattoo parlor. There is something about the artsy decor and the sound of the needles humming in the background that really speak to me. It took a lot of self control to not get another tattoo while I was there.
After I got my first tattoo, and I now say first because I most definitely will ink again, I thought I would never get one again. I got one for the experience of it. I had no idea of what I wanted and spent a few hours looking through all the books to figure out what it would be. I have an egyptian protection symbol, the eye of horus, on my lower back. It has no significance to me, other than it is a tattoo that I thought looked cool. My neighbors and I all got one together, back when I turned 30. For the hell of it.
Coworkers I had at the time, who were inked all up and down their bodies, said it was addictive and that I would get another. I laughed and said it would never happen. I wasn't one of "those kind of people". But maybe I am.
The permanence of it appeals to me. In this day and age, everything is set up to be so easily disposable and temporary. Marriages, electronics, appliances, games, friendships. It seems that people are so eager to try new things, but not commit to them for the long haul. Go ahead and buy that, but don't get too attached because a better one will be available next year. Go ahead and get married, if you don't like it you can get it annulled later. A lack of commitment? I don't know. It kind of harshes my mellow.
I suppose a tattoo, in its small way, is a reminder to me that there are things that are permanent and that we can choose to commit to them. A symbol. And I like that.
After I got my first tattoo, and I now say first because I most definitely will ink again, I thought I would never get one again. I got one for the experience of it. I had no idea of what I wanted and spent a few hours looking through all the books to figure out what it would be. I have an egyptian protection symbol, the eye of horus, on my lower back. It has no significance to me, other than it is a tattoo that I thought looked cool. My neighbors and I all got one together, back when I turned 30. For the hell of it.
Coworkers I had at the time, who were inked all up and down their bodies, said it was addictive and that I would get another. I laughed and said it would never happen. I wasn't one of "those kind of people". But maybe I am.
The permanence of it appeals to me. In this day and age, everything is set up to be so easily disposable and temporary. Marriages, electronics, appliances, games, friendships. It seems that people are so eager to try new things, but not commit to them for the long haul. Go ahead and buy that, but don't get too attached because a better one will be available next year. Go ahead and get married, if you don't like it you can get it annulled later. A lack of commitment? I don't know. It kind of harshes my mellow.
I suppose a tattoo, in its small way, is a reminder to me that there are things that are permanent and that we can choose to commit to them. A symbol. And I like that.
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