Amazing Eating Machine

Toddlerness has been awake for three hours. She has eaten:

10 graham crackers (yeah, the whole, rectangular ones)
1/2c tomato soup
8 saltine crackers
12 macadamia nuts
3 1/2" cubes of cheese
1 plum
1 banana
and she has nursed approximately 1 million times (OK more like 8 times but still).

OMG I can't keep up! She HEAD-BUTTED me when I couldn't peel the banana fast enough for her!

As if that wasn't enough, she is sitting on my lap right now and JUST asked for a BURGER!!! "BURGAH? Burgah? BURGAH!!!! BURGUUUUUUUURRRRHHHHH!!!!!!! WAHACHU?" (where are you).

What. The. Fuck.

She is NOT a teenager. She is a toddler. OMG she is driving me nuts.

I woke up this morning looking like the living dead and sooooo terribly hungry, because she'd nursed all night.

She has not given up on the burger. *Sigh* maybe I really will make her one.

She is now standing on a stool watching her burger cook.

AAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHH

More Thoughts on Boy

I thought that Tony's dairy allergy was fairly recent, but more and more I'm finding that I was actually pretty obtuse about realizing there was anything wrong at all.

While we were on vacation, my mom and I got to talking about Tony's allergy. See, I still held that while he had some symptoms coming on before I recognized it, it wasn't that bad nor was it for that long. But she reminded me about Tony's "chocolate dance." After he ate chocolate, he would go running and dancing around the room in this insanely funny routine that we actually named "the chocolate dance," it was so predictable. I always thought that it was just a kid quirk, because I mean really, sounds like fun, eh? And he wasn't hurting anything or looking all that upset himself. I'd forgotten about it entirely, actually, until my mom mentioned it. And then suddenly, the going-off about chocolate but not about other forms of sugar MADE SENSE.

And then it was one of those "come to think of it..." kinds of things...followed by another "come to think of it..." and another...as I realized, he's been congested most of his life, ear infection after ear infection, he was a trouble toddler and this was probably WHY. His allergy manifests for him mainly in a general level of pissed-offedness, hyperactiveness, and lack of impulse control that is only a little beyond the 'crazy toddler' level, so I thought he was just, well, harder to deal with than his big sister (who admittedly, was a PERFECT toddler).

And now I'm bummed that it took me so frigging long to realize that there was anything wrong AT ALL. Not so much that it took so long to figure out the allergy thing, I'm not beating myself up over that, I'm just upset that I lalalalalala'd my way through so many signs that there was SOMETHING up, and even after we had that SOMETHING pinned down, I didn't just trace it all the way back to toddlerhood in one "aha" moment.

I'm just feeling slow about it all.

OMG GROSS

While we were gone, the washing machine broke...or so DH thought. He didn't have enough duct tape to patch the hose he thought was leaking, so when I got back I bought some while he was at work and went ahead and did it. Turned on the washing machine...WATER EVERYWHERE. It was backing up from the pipe that carries water away from the washer, not the hose.

Got liquid plumber. Two applications. No luck.

Couldn't locate a place to disassemble the pipe. Went down to ask NeighborB if he had a plumbing snake. He did but it was broken...he came up to take a look anyway (he is the landlord after all...) and found a joint he could take apart near where the pipe entered the house. A joint I had neglected even looking at because I figured it was too far from where I thought the blockage would be.

Takes it apart, sees something. Asks for some pliers to take it out, so I run to the shed to oblidge, and come back like 30 seconds later to find him pulling it out with a stick (he's just impatient like that). And then yelling "AAAH, I CAN'T BELIEVE I TOUCHED THAT, AAAAAH...can you get me plastic bags *cough* *cough* *sputter*" as he pulls out...a squirrel. Looking none the better for the liquid plumber and a week in the pipe.

As I ran to get the bags I heard something that sounded a little like someone vomitting...

"OMG," he tells me as I come back, "I can't believe I TOUCHED it...I was thinking...what is this, it is kind of smooth, a little squishy...and then I smelled it."

Fran tells me later "thank GOD it was Bernie, that must have SUCKED! I would have lost my lunch!" Er, Fran, so did he, so did he.

And yes, we did secure a screen over the pipe it probably came in through, an air venting pipe that was just open before.

Leaving/Coming Home

We spent our last Hawaii day as busily as possible. We went to the aquarium in the AM, the tide pools in the afternoon. I got one last snorkelling trip in (even though the ocean was VERY rough that day) and a turtle let me touch it. We brought very tired kids back to my parents' in time to pack, and then left Hawaii as the sun was setting.

The kids slept through the flight, with the exception of the 20 minutes Naomi spent SCREAMING HER FUCKING HEAD OFF on descent. She was congested and it must have hurt; she was inconsolable. She is also a wimp, so whatever, she's not permanently damaged, although I'm not sure about the eardrums of the passengers around us (who were surprisingly good about it, I got way more sympathy than irritation).

And we arrived in Seattle as the sun was rising.

We got home and slept for hours, went to MIL's for dinner, went home and slept again.

We are SO, SO very happy to be home. I knew it as soon as we got here from the airport, but with even more certainty when I stepped in my house. I remember that we used to feel something of a let-down when we got home from vacations, a sense of "aw, man, now we're back in our lives..." but this time it was "YAY, back in OUR LIVES!" And I feel absolutely GREAT about that!