Posts from — February 2012

Yesterday was J’s first day attending school since the Rash Incident. She’s been improving, so I gave her a non-drowsy allergy medicine and sent an email to the nurse telling her that my doctor swears it’s poison ivy or poison oak, as unlikely as it seems, and that it’s absolutely, definitely not chicken pox. J managed pretty well all day yesterday.

Today, something wonderful happened. J arrived home with no trace of rash. Completely itch-free. I’d been worried, too, because I’d forgotten her medicine in the morning. She was back to her perfect sweet little J self. In fact, she’s in a bit of an exhibitionist phase, so when she saw how delighted I was with her lovely face and smooth porcelain arms, she offered a full display of her non-rashy perfection. Gor-geous!

Seriously, she’d looked so awful for so long that I almost didn’t believe that she’d be able to get back to normal.

I freakin’ love normal. Normal is beautiful.

And then, about 2 hours later, she had itchy splotches on her face and arms.

OMG.

She’d been playing outside around the playhouse, just like before. Why did I think that this would be fine?

1. I am not allowed to say that I’m an idiot. It’s a New Year’s Resolution.
2. The area isn’t exactly wild. In fact, it’s paved. The previous owners couldn’t get enough asphalt. And, besides,
3. The girls play there all the time and nothing has ever bothered her before.
4. What the heck vegetation is even alive? Well, maybe dead poison ivy would still bother her?
5. J had a rash all over her entire body, which is partly why I’d thought that there was some sort of poison ivy-ness on the blanket she’d been snuggling before the rash outbreak and why the doctor thought that it could have been burning poison ivy. It was spread everywhere, which didn’t seem to line up with direct contact.

Needless to say, I freaked out. First I had J walk me over to wherever she and M had been playing, so that I could inspect it. I couldn’t see anything that looked like leaves-of-three, but it was already getting dark. Then I rushed her to the shower, where I scrubbed her myself in the hopes that at least I’d stop the rash from spreading farther. And I gave her medicine. Again. Just when she thought she’d be done.

Tomorrow, if it’s not covered in snow, I’ll head out to Shop Vac the area, scrub the playhouse, and hack away at any vegetation. I guess it’s at least good to know, right? And maybe I caught it quickly enough that it will go away faster this time.

Speaking of allergies, here’s a really great Robyn O’Brien TEDxAustin Talk about food allergies and the US food industry.

And here’s a very sweet and funny essay by Michael Ian Black about how terrifying and emotional it is to become a parent.

Cute W specializes in tasty breakfast carbs, so we just had to impulse-buy the Mini Donut Maker that was at Target the week before his birthday.

Over the weekend, Cute W made our first donuts. He just used the basic recipe in the instruction manual. The donuts are so little that each one is just a tablespoon of batter.

They emerged cute and tasty:

For a basic glaze,  I tried this Food Network recipe (from Alton Brown, not that I know who he is since I don’t even have cable), and it didn’t work out too well. It had great reviews, but mine came out gritty, even though I started with powdered sugar. Maybe I wasn’t patient enough about stirring it slowly?

Whatever, man. I’ve got a life to live. I can’t stir all freaking day. I threw in some butter, which improved it, but not enough. Next time we’re going to try the Krispy Kreme recipe. I was going to link to an official recipe, but their website is acting funky. Here’s another one, though.

Cute W also bought Nutella to use as our chocolate frosting, and we had sprinkles, too. I know, I know: I was just talking about how I am such a Good Mother because I refuse to allow my children to eat sugar cereal for breakfast, and here I’m touting Nutella and sprinkles! What can I say? I’m a Woman Of Contradictions. . . .

Plain, chocolate-sprinkles, & gritty-glazed

The donuts were tasty and charming. The girls are already scheming to set up a Donut Stand on Niska-Day.

The girls and I watched the red carpet a bit. Lots of pretty dresses. Their most common criticism was, as M put it, “Too boobish.”

For example, regarding Jennifer Lopez, M said, “The dress is pretty, but I’d like it better if she had an undershirt. . . Maybe a light blue undershirt, so she wasn’t so . . . exposed?”

Of course, over-dressing was not appreciated, either. Glenn Close was wearing a blazer sort of thing, and J immediately pounced, “I don’t like the coat.” But M defended her with: “Well, she’s an old lady, so for an old lady that’s pretty good.” Ugh. That’s a painful compliment.

Oh, oh, oh! It’s off-topic, but have I ever told you my worst compliments ever? There were three, but I can only remember two:

• Once, when I was walking to the YMCA in Brooklyn, a random guy tried to hit on me with, “I need to lose some weight, too. Maybe we can work out together?” Umm, no.
• Back in college, Cute W once said, “Your elbows feel just like my Grandma’s.”  Yeah, I pointed out his error. But clearly it wasn’t a deal-breaker.

Just a reminder: click on the day for a list of several items, and I pulled out a few extras here and there just as a sample.

Monday, February 27th

• PJ Storytime at Clifton Park-Halfmoon Library

Tuesday, February 28th

Wednesday, February 29th

• ARTfull Afternoon at The Hyde Collection
• Soccer Circle with Capital Region Friendship Circle

Thursday, March 1st

• Preschool Open House at Niskayuna CoPreschool
• free Wind Orchestra Concert
• Legally Blond at Cohoes Music Hall (through the weekend)

Friday, March 2nd

• Movies: CELEBRATE SEUSS!-op Nursery School at Clifton Park-Halfmoon Public Library
• First Friday Hike: Spring is Coming! at Albany Pine Bush
• Homespun DELMAR Barn Dance

Hey, this Saturday, I’m going to be at Hannaford Kidz Expo 2012 at the Empire State Plaza with Deb and June from KidsOutAndAbout.com! Stop by and see us!

J is marginally less itchy, so that’s good. Cute W and I still are still feeling unwell.

Nevertheless, we had a date night. It was sort of unavoidable. We’d bought tickets a while back to see Mike Doughty at The Linda. I mean, I’m generally pro-date night, but 45 minutes before the babysitter was due to arrive, I was lying in  bed, moaning. An hour before she was due to arrive, Cute W was sleeping. But we rallied.

Okay, but here’s the bad part. Last night, I received an email asking if I could do a job at church on Sunday. We hadn’t planned to go to church on Sunday. No one except M feels good, and Cute W actually has to work at a big meeting on Sunday afternoon (I know that’s ridiculous. His organization always has a meeting on Oscar night. How stupid is that?).

So this morning I was looking at the email, and I composed something like, “We weren’t planning on being there on Sunday because 3 out of 4 of us don’t feel good. But if you’re really desperate, I could come.” I asked Cute W, “How’s this?” And Cute W said, “You don’t want to go. You should just say no.” And I took a big pause. Because the truth is, I just totally wasn’t up for going or doing the job. And if I said that I could possibly do it, of course I would end up doing it. So, against my better judgement, I dropped the if-you’re-desperate disclaimer and just said “Sorry.” And then I left to take M to ice skating.

Sometime during the day, I realized that the person asking me to do a church job was the mother of our babysitter for the date night. Which, of course, I had known all along. But I’ve been so foggy-brained that I did not put together these facts to formulate the complete concept. That I am a scumbag who is apparently well enough to go on a date but unwilling to do a job the following morning at church. This all came to me when I was mpt at jp,e not at home. I resolved to send an addendum to the previous email with the deleted “But if you’re really desperate, I could come” line.

I arrived home, and Cute W yelled, “Hey, babysitter’s mom called! She wants to know if we still need a babysitter since we’re so sick!”

I thought that he was yanking my chain. No, he wasn’t.

He explained to me about how he explained to her about our long-ago-purchased tickets.

I sat down and put my head between my knees. “And did you tell her that if she’s desperate I can do it?”

“Yes,” he said, laughing. And I didn’t email or call her.  For now, I have no plans to go tomorrow. Hopefully when I do show up, there will not be pointing and muttering.

I’m all talked out and sleepy. So let’s cut to the chase, shall we?

Here’s the weekly KidsOutAndAbout.com e-newsletter.

Friday, February 24th

• Science Around the House at East Greenbush Community Library
• The Puppet People presenting – The Legend of Sleepy Hollow at Saratoga Springs Public Library — These are just a couple of the library things going on. Lots of free stuff hither, thither, and yon.
• Scoop on Poop at Albany Pine Bush No getting around it. Kids love poop.

Saturday, February 25th Okay, it better be nice weather, because there are tons of outdoor events for Saturday.

• Family Fun Day at Gavin Park at Wilton Wildlife Preserve and Park
• Snapple Ridge Fest 2012 at Maple Ski Ridge
• Outdoor Day at Cherry Plain State Park

Sunday, February 26th

• Winter Botany Workshop at Thacher Nature Center
• Miracle 4 Maddie Memorial Fund Fundraising Event at Tiny Tots Tea Room

I haven’t been loving winter break this year.

M is a social butterfly. This morning she called me to ask if she could please stay at her sleepover friend’s house until 1 pm, when everyone was going to go roller skating, which would be followed by–you guessed it!–another sleepover. I insisted on a brief stay at our house, if only to rest up, take a shower, and repack her bags before heading to the rink.

Truth is, J and I miss her. J remains itchy and uncomfortable, and she’s just not up for doing anything. We’ve been housebound. If there’s something worse than hanging around the house all day with a raging rash, it’s knowing that your big sister is off having a fabulous time. No amount of story-reading or game-playing can quite measure up, really.

When I’m not entertaining poor J, I’m still pretty unproductive. Cute W and I have both been feeling sick, so I’m sleepy and headachey all the time. Twice this week I’ve started to work out, only to abort when my head began to pound. Writing and doing anything else that requires focus has been tough, and I’m get increasingly ragged around the edges.

I was thinking, actually, that this week has felt almost like new motherhood felt. Last night. due to a combination of itchiness and pharmaceuticals, J didn’t get to sleep until after midnight.  When I wasn’t trying to get together the KidsOutAndAbout.com newsletter, I was reading or singing to J, trying to talk her through relaxation exercises, and even gently scratching her because I’d run out of creams and medicines to administer, and I figured that my gentle scratches would be better than her scritch-scratch scrapes. When she finally fell asleep, it was while I was finding mellow classical music to add to my MP3. I knew I wouldn’t last much longer and I didn’t want her lonesome in her itchy insomnia. Then I made the mistake of trying to remove the earbuds and woke her up. By the time she’d finally fallen asleep for good,  I was keyed-up and hungry, so it took a snack and some reading before I was asleep, too.

Today, after getting frustrated that I hadn’t made any progress on my To Do list, I reminded myself that I couldn’t get a damn thing done when the kids were little, either, and that was okay.So I’ve given up on this week. If I can bring the girls through it fed and relatively healthy, that’s going to have to be enough. And all by itself, surrendering to just care-taking was a relief.

I suggested to J that we make some chocolately Rice Krispies treats  with those leftover Cocoa Krispies from the cupid cupcakes. Because, what the heck else am I going to do with them? On the few occasions that my kids have ventured to ask for sugar cereal at the grocery store, I always answer, “We can buy it, but that will be a dessert, because it sure isn’t a breakfast.” In fact, I take a bit of a loud-and-snotty mommy tone when I say, it too, and I’m sure that drives them crazy. I don’t mean to; I think it’s a  subconscious attempt to 1) shame them for even asking and 2) declare to the world that I am a Good Mother. I’m not proud of this tendency. But I’ve noticed it. Anyway, we rarely buy sugar cereal, because while I won’t approve it for breakfast, the girls can think of better desserts.

Of course, when you throw in butter, marshmallows, and, in our case, some chocolate chips, even cereal is a worthy dessert.

J wanted to make the treats all by herself and I had a dishwasher to unload, so we put on some music and got began some companionable, parallel work. The slow cooker smelled good, light was flooding in the windows, the song was catchy, and my little-big girl was singing and dancing along as she measured and poured.

And there it was, something else from the new motherhood days, a moment of sheer grace.

I took pictures, and it doesn’t capture it at all. But it’s a little something to hold onto, while I sweep the floor and wash the sticky pots, and dab Calamine lotion.

And, yes, come up with links for the weekend for you. I’ll get to that, too.

We got the game Set for Christmas, and I’ve been meaning to post about it, because it’s a good one.

Set is a strange game. We heard about it from my niece, whose math teacher would let the kids play it in class sometimes. Of course, that gives you the vague impression that it’s educational, and it feels weirdly educational. But not in a bad way. We’d have a whole group of us staring at the cards, and I’d swear I could feel wheels turning somewhere in my brain. New neural pathways developing.

Basically, you lay down 12 cards like this:

And then you look for a set. There are four different categories: color (purple, green, or red), shading (solid, half-shaded, or white), number, and shape (diamond, over, or squiggle).  In order to create a set, you have to find three cards that are, for each of the four categories, all the same or all different. If you find a set before the other players, you collect those cards.

There are at least two sets in the group above. Scroll down for the sets.

It takes some time to get the hang of it, and frequently you’ll be sure you have a set until someone points out that you’ve got 2 out of 3 of something.  In my limited experience, young kids often perform better than their elders. So it’s a nice equalizer. It can also be played as solitaire, and everyone plays simultaneously, so there’s no need to negotiate turns. All of this makes it fun.

Anyway, we liked it, and when I just set up that link, I noticed that Amazon has 319 reviews with an average review of 5 stars. In other words, pretty good. But then I noticed that there was one 1-star review, so I just had to check it out:

 Yeah, spending time staring at cards until your brain hurts. It’s not fun. I can’t imagine making your kids do this. You are terrible parents if you buy this for your children.

Doesn’t he so sound like someone who doesn’t have children yet? Gosh, weren’t we good at telling people how to parent back then? The review made me laugh and feel nostalgic all at the same time.

Here are two sets from the group above:

The J update: She’s in misery. It’s 10:30 pm and she’s been lying in bed for two hours not sleeping because I thought that I’d get clever and try a medicine this afternoon that wouldn’t knock her out like Benadryl. She doesn’t look so bad, but she’s itching and I’ve already hit her with every cream and oral medicine that I can, so she’s out of luck. It’s definitely not insect bites or chicken pox, the doctor feels absolutely certain that it’s an allergic reaction to something and remains pretty firmly in the poison ivy camp. Interesting since Jennifer in my neighborhood’s been suffering the exact same symptoms. . . maybe there really was something floating in the air recently. Whatever. I want it gone. Doc says poison ivy stuff lasts a week. Ugh. Thanks for all the healthful wishes.

My poor little J is suffering from an allergic reaction to something. Or she’s suffering from something. I don’t know what it is, but the poor child is a mess. She is red and bumpy and splotchy all over her entire body. She looks almost normal if she’s all drugged up on Benadryl, except that, of course, that she’s passed out on the bed when she’s all drugged up on Benadryl. And then she gets about half an hour of waking up and seeming sort of perky before she descends into itchy redness and we have to give her more medicine.  We went to the doctor, who was playing zydeco music and handing out beads for Fat Tuesday. Knowing that J has sensitive skin, the doctor was alarmed-yet-baffled, and said that it looked like J had walked through vaporized poison ivy while naked. But since none of us could recall anyone burning weeds in the neighborhood and we couldn’t come up with any other new clothes/drug/food exposures, she did a throat culture (in case it was an unbelievably severe strep-related rash) and then sent me to a lab to get poor J’s blood drawn.

I got in the car to drive straight to the lab with my miserable, itchy girl who was still sobbing quietly over the throat swab, and I figured, it doesn’t help to tell her what’s next. So we continued until I pass edour normal turn, and she asked, “Where are we going now?” I explained that we were headed to the lab, and then I asked her something completely off topic to try to throw her off. A minute or two later, she asked me to tell her more about the lab, and I managed to offer substantive information while avoiding the whole drawing-J’s-blood issue. She interrupted, “But Mommy, once we get there, what are we going to do?” And I said, “Oh, sweetie, one second, please let me focus; I know it’s up on the left somewhere.” So it was not until we’ve actually parked that I broke it to her that we were there to get her blood drawn.

More sorrow, bravery, tears, fear, pain. She made it through, and we were sent away with a butterfly sticker and a certificate. We decided that we both deserved  lunch at the Chinese buffet and M, who’d been having a grand old time playing at a friend’s house, got to come along, too.

Anyway, please send your healthy karma/prayers/non-itchy skin energy J’s way.

Here’s some other stuff I thought you might want to know about:

• The folks at the TU Your Day blog share a coupon for kids to eat free at Chili’s on Tuesday and Wednesday.
• They also shared that the Albany Institute is offering reduced rate admission–$2.21 per person–on Wednesday. The toys exhibit is still there, but not for long, so go.
• Reel Girl’s 5-your-old daughter was inspired by a picture book to learn to read a bike.
• If you love A Wrinkle in Time like I do, you might enjoy reading a whole bunch of blog posts about it.

We’ve decided to relax this weekend and not do too much of anything. Good idea. Except that when the girls appear to be playing contentedly on their own, it often means that they are Up To No Good.

Exhibit A:

I was taking out the recycling when I noticed that my good stock pot was outside holding a very large rock. There was anger, my friends. Deep anger.

I stormed into the house and demanded an explanation. It was only when M explained (while J moaned and sobbed) what they’d been doing that I realized that the rock was stuck in the pot. In fact, they had used a quantity of butter to ease it out, to no avail. There was a heated review of:

• The primary problem. They frequently use items that don’t belong to them without prior permission (with some discussion of my scissors, their father’s brush, and, frankly, just about everything in the house);
• Scenarios involving a potential alternate universe in which Everything Would Have Gone Just Fine If They Had Only Come To Me First (in which I would have gladly offered a bucket or my back-up, chipped enamel stock pot from college days);
• Their lack of respect and utter ignorance of the cost and consequences of their actions (this because M said, and I quote, “If we can’t get the rock out you can just buy another one”); and
• The possible dire consequences (in which I offered an off-the-cuff estimate of an approximate cash penalty of $50 to $60 for replacing the pot.

As it turns out, I was able to remove the rock almost immediately, using a tool that remains far more effective than smears of grimey butter: gravity. I came back in, announced a reprieve from the cash penalty, and sent them into the kitchen to wash, dry, and polish the pot. This was accomplished with more sobbing from J, eye-rolling from M, and bickering between them.

Then I felt compelled to review the ground rules again: 1) Ask me first, and 2) When you don’t ask me first, tell me immediately before I am left to discover something myself, which leads to Great Maternal Wrath.

So, what the heck are we all going to do for the next week to keep our kids from getting up to no good? There’s a ton going on.

• Winter Break Activities
• Winter Break Camps

Day by day:

• Monday, February 20th
• Tuesday, February 21st
• Wednesday, February 22nd
• Thursday, February 23rd
• Friday, February 24th

Or you can always take a mini-vacation in the form of a day trip or a one- or two-nighter somewhere nearby. Cute W and I are big last-minute Priceline-a-hotel fans). Some posts about places to consider:

• New York City (the public library, a spring trip there
• Jiminy Peak 
• Cooperstown (a review of the Farmers Museum at KidsOutAndAbout.com)
• Some short trip suggestions (Boston, Rochester, and New York City again)

Right now Monday and Tuesday look like the best weather days.

If you’ve got younger kids, I’m a huge fan of Steamer 10 Theatre. Their shows are selling out, so act soon if you want to go to something. And (broken record here) consider the Steamer 10 Pass.

Plenty of libraries have free activities planned. Here are a few: at Guilderland Public Library, East Greenbush Community Library, and Clifton Park-Halfmoon Public Library.

There’s always a movie, and The Secret World of Arietty is out.

So, what are we going to do?

Umm, I don’t know. We’ll probably ice skate at least once, we’re trying out a new gymnastics class, the girls have dental appointments, and we might try a day trip somewhere. And in between, my children will do their best to destroy the house and everything in it.

Look! Here’s our sweet neighbor Kira:

Kira with hair

Kira and the rest of her family are some of our favorite neighbors. And let me tell you: in this delightful neighborhood, the competition is fierce. Our cat Isis came to us through Kira’s family, their family hosts the annual Christmas caroling party, and Kira and her older brother and sister are always extraordinarily loving, kind, and patient with my girls and any other little kids they happen to meet.

And I’m telling you about her because on Saturday, March 24th at 1 pm, Kira will be shaving her head as part of the St. Baldrick’s Shaving Event at Proctors.

St. Baldrick’s is a volunteer-driven fundraising organization in which volunteers raise money for children’s cancer research by shaving their heads in a show of solidarity with kids in treatment for cancer. You can read more about it here. Sometimes “shavees” are raising money in honor of someone, and Kira’s shaving as part of “Team Audrey.” Audrey is another neighbor and student at our local middle school who completed treatment in April 2011 for Acute lymphocytic leukemia and is now cancer-free!

Anyway, when I first found out that Kira was shaving her head (on Facebook, of course), I yelled it over to Cute W and he said, “Wow, that’s ballsy!” First, YES. But second, we need a gender-neutral version of ballsy. Gutsy is close but not quite strong enough. Ponder that, please, and let me know what you come up with.

I thought she deserved a little promotion, so you can make a donation here.