Thursday, August 23, 2007

For all that those that still believe that Eric's Eating Habits are MY Fault

It's genetic you f*ckers. It has NOTHING to do with my parenting style. So take your judgmental comments and blow them out your ignorant butts.

Not that I'm defensive or anything about the fact that my son lives on:

Cereal
Milk
cheese
fruit (apples, grapes and strawberries)
pasta with butter

No, I'm not defensive at all.

OK, maybe a little.

8/30 Edit.

I was referring to this post I did a few weeks ago.

Anatomy of a Frankenstein Week

I'm not having a good day. It's not a terrible one, as these things go. But my children are short tempered and whiny. Eric threw a complete fit because I wouldn't play legos with him. I have this theory that he should be able to entertain himself for part of the day. "Playing legos" with Eric, means that I build something according to his specs. I'm willing to actually help if he's working on something and genuinely having trouble, but I'm not willing to play legos whilst he watches and runs around the house, generally leaping, knocking things over and requesting juice boxes.

Kaylee had about ten post-nap melt downs. I finally grokked that something was really wrong and gave her a hit of Ye Old Ibuprofen, and 20 minutes later, I had a cheerful kid. DAMN YOU TEETH! You are the BANE of my existence.

I am short on sleep, patience and I am actually quite hungry. But mostly I'm just grateful that the babysitter is downstairs with them while I hide in my bedroom and play with the computer.

Yesterday was a great day. Eric vegged a bit during k's nap and then we did some errands and ended up at Raymond Park. It's a huge, grassy area with 2 climbing structures and lots of slides. There were tons of kids there, including some from E's school. Then we made a pit stop at my parent's/sister's house and Eric and my niece played for about a half hour and we went home and I made dinner. Rich was home by then, so I had a little peace in the kitchen.

That was a pretty good day. But it's 4:29, and I'm crying uncle.

So tired... So very tired.

Monday, August 20, 2007

Dreaming in Sync

Eric made his way into our bed again in the wee hours of the morning. Probably it was around 2 or 3 AM when he soundlessly slipped into our bed, threw his small arm over me and went back to sleep. He does this every time a dream awakens him. He's in a developmental phase where he believes with all his heart that his dreams really happen.

One night he came in because 'an orange line came out of his night light and poked him.' Another night there was milk pouring from the ceiling near his eyes. On a different night it was round shower heads pouring water into his room. One night there were football signs growing out of his rug. (the football signs were a manifestation of a tribute they did during the first pre-season Patriots to a player that had died earlier this year.)

This morning Rich asked him what it was that brought him into our bed. He said that there were billy goats that came from one of the train stations near hour house. The billy goats were climbing up to his bed. "That is a very weird dream, because the train doesn't come from under my bed!"

Then I realized that I too had had a billy goat dream as well. Only mine involved an airplane stranded near a snowy chasm. We had to get the goats across the chasm and get rid of the troll before the plane could take off.

We did not read Three Billy Goats Gruff last night, so I'm not sure where these dreams came from. I've never had a goat dream before last night.

Strange dreams.. Strange synchronous dreams indeed.

Switchen' the Kitchen

My kitchen has been gluten free since the middle of June. To tell the truth, I really don't miss it at all. I could probably keep bread safely away from other ingredients, but I haven't missed it. I use corn tortillas for most things that I would have used bread for. And the dinners I make tend to be a meat a starch and a vegetable. The starch is almost always rice or potatoes and occasionally gluten free pasta.

I make 99% of the sauces that go on the food from fairly basic ingredients. I've never used spice packs, (which frequently contain gluten) so they're not something that I'd really miss.

If I had to give up dairy or eggs, I would be very sad.

It's kind of silly because Eric wouldn't touch anything I cook for the rest of the family with a ten foot pole. But Kaylee really likes my cooking. She likes curries and things with lots of flavor. And Then the food falls off of her clothes around the house. (K's inherited her brother's disdain for all things bibs. She screams until she has removed the offending garment.) So, it's nice to have a safe place for him to be. Even if it's messy, it's still safe for him.

Yesterday, my friend and I played a game of "If we had unlimited money, how would life change?"

My changes would be:
  • A house keeper about three times per week to make the house really clean and shiny.
  • I'd finish the master bath, which is a roughed in shell that we deliberately didn't finish to save $$ when we renovated our house.
  • I'd probably put Kaylee in the toddler room at Eric's school half time.
  • I'd get a horse
  • Work more on my writing.

At this point, those are about the only things I'd change about my life if money weren't an issue. They're all pretty superficial. So, I think I'm pretty lucky.

Sunday, August 19, 2007

An Absurdly Nice Weekend

It was not raining and it wasn't hot. The gluten from the play dough roller that Eric licked on Tuesday had worked its way through his system by Saturday morning. So, he was feeling good. Yesterday we went to a party and then Rich took the kids out while I cooked a fabulous meal that our friends came over and ate.

I even made a gluten free chocolate cream pie from my new favorite cook book. It was a successful experiment. Even the crust was delicious. Four adults and one baby ate two and a half pounds of coconut curry chicken.

Today we spent the morning at Revere Beach with the same family that we had dinner with last night. Then Eric and Rich went to the Construction Site Waltham on the commuter rail to buy birthday presents while Kaylee napped. When they got back we went to a new park in Cambridge. It was a newfangled park with an elaborate sprinkler that filled up swaying buckets that would eventually tip and gush water onto the asphalt. The ladder up to the big kid structure twisted and curved. The swings looked like saucers that could accommodate about five kids. Eric was stymied by the straight-up climbing wall. But he found lots of stuff to do.

The park abutted a ball field with unbelievably thick grass. Eric flew a kite and Kaylee chased around the myriad dogs that galumphed around. She's a dog person, apparently.

It was one of those days where my heart lurched and felt so full of love that I thought I would fall over from the weight of it.

But that is not a bad feeling.