I'm wondering if there's ever a time when one of my children will have a problem I can't seem to fix that it DOESN'T cause me to buckle under the weight of crushing guilt at my inefficacy. Maybe when they're 18? 20? 40?? (Don't answer that. I suspect I won't like the answer.) So I thought we were doing everything right as regards Chickadee's mysterious skin affliction; we followed the steroid shot with all of the dermatologist's recommendations---stronger allergy meds, scent-free, chemical-free, additive-free shampoo, soap, and detergents, as well as an afternoon spent painting every metal...
So. Um. Yesterday was interesting. Chickadee spent the afternoon playing at a friend's house, and when I picked her up, the girls---who had apparently spent the afternoon hiding in Pixie's room, giggling, as tweens are wont to do---emerged and I actually gasped. While Chickadee has been rashy for several weeks, now, something happened yesterday. We still have no idea what. But the child who reluctantly emerged to be taken home looked as though she'd been burned over most of her body. The rash had spread to her face. Her arms were lumpy and sandpapery and bright red. There were lesions inside...
When I was a kid I went to camp. Always. And I loved it---don't get me wrong---but I feel like the proper reward for everyone in the family for surviving another year of getting up at o'dark thirty five days a week to get to school is a summer full of... relaxing. At home. Where Mom is not required to drive anyone anywhere. It's a wonderful thing, having children old enough that they can more or less entertain themselves. We have some very simple daily goals here at Casa Mir. We take care of the garden. Both kids are enrolled in the summer reading program at our library. Piano lessons...
Sometimes I keep waiting for a big cohesive story to come along before I sit down and write, and then I realize that actually, I'll be waiting a long time. And there are little tidbits I want to remember, in the meantime. Things I Have Learned While Gardening Cabbages like coffee grounds. Sometimes tomato plants fall over for no reason (but will stand up and grow again if you use a couple of supports). The same children who sometimes push store-bought beans around on their plates at dinnertime will argue over whose turn it is to go pick beans, and then eat half the haul en route. Watermelons...
Last year my daughter was misdiagnosed with Molloscum Contagiosum. Then we went to a dermatologist who told us she was surely allergic to berries and citrus. Then we went to an allergist who said no, actually, she was she was allergic to peanuts. And then her rash cleared up when she stopped eating peanut butter. That was back in September. A few weeks ago she started being all rashy, again, and because I'd had some success going wheat-free for some skin issues, we decided to take her off wheat as well to see if it helped. It seemed to help, though it wasn't the solution. So we went to the...
Otto: So I was thinking, when we go camping this summer, we should go to Dearborn, Michigan. Chickadee: [blank stare] Otto: There's some really cool stuff there. Like, Greenfield Village, which is set up like it was in olden times. And there's a Ford factory tour, where you can see them putting trucks together! Chickadee: [dripping with sarcasm] Oh. Boy. That sounds. So. Exciting. Otto: No, really, it's really interesting. I think you'll like it. Chickadee: [suddenly inspired] I have an idea! You and Monkey can go watch them put trucks together, and Mom and I can go get a pedicure! Otto: [to...
So, as I mentioned in passing, before, I went on this weird restrictive diet to try to clear up some issues I was having with my skin. (And by "issues" I of course mean "leprosy-like eruptions." Gosh, I hope you weren't eating anything when you read that.) For two entire weeks I eliminated a host of foods I love dearly, and I went heavy on the fruits, veggies, nuts (though not peanuts, because I already suspect I've developed a sensitivity to those, on account of my being a delicate flower and everything), and lean meats. My skin cleared up. It was a thing of beauty. At that point I...
School is now officially out for the summer, and something wonderful has happened. I'm positively THRILLED. It's not that I didn't like summers, before, but this is the first summer I find myself really looking forward to in, well, certainly in my tenure as a parent. I'm aware that that sounds bad, but hear me out. When the kids were little and I stayed home with them, summer was no different than the rest of the year. When the kids were a bit older but I was divorced and working, summer was rife with guilt over not being able to take time off and relax with them, and then further guilt over...
It came as a total shock to me, yesterday, when we filed into the school for Chickadee's "moving on ceremony" and I found myself tearing up a little. I am not a terribly sentimental person under the best of circumstances. And as we already know, Monkey's moving on ceremony didn't exactly set me up to expect great things. But MAN OH MAN they put on the Ritz for the fifth graders, and it was impossible to stand there and not think about how my firstborn---who was once a baby with bright blue eyes and a cloud of hair standing up every which way with static---is now a young lady with piercing...
