Hug Twice

Alexa’s been in speech therapy, an hour once a week, for a few months now.  And honestly, so far the progress she’s made isn’t really speech exactly.  She’s making a lot more eye contact.  She’s actually looking at you when you speak to her consistently instead of just when she feels like it.

But the biggest noticeable difference, to me, is that all animals no longer Baa by default.  When we started this, they all did.  Every animal baaaed like a sheep.  No matter what they were.

But now, we have a huge variety of appropriate animal sounds.  From cats to cows to horses to lions, and everything in between.

My favorite, and Alexa’s favorite at the moment, is the elephant.  “Rooooooooouuuuuu” is the best I can describe it.

It is good to be two.

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One of the things the allergist told us at Alexa’s appointment is that letting a child eat the same food all the time leads to food allergies (regarding the food they are overloading on).  That sounds odd.  But accept that as true - I am in So. Much. Trouble.

Both of my children (especially CJ, but Alexa to a big degree too) like to eat one food all the time.  Then after a few days, they want to eat another (different) food, all the time.  They are bingers.  they request the exact same snack (or meal) for days on end.

I blame Matt.  He is like this too, but he can be reasoned with.

Alexa is tiny.  She doesn’t eat enough in the first place.  Deny her her current favorite, she just goes on a hunger strike.  Right now, current favorite is South Beach High Protein Bars.  She stole one from Daddy a few days ago.  Deny her that as a snack, she just drinks water and pouts (or screeches, whichever).

CJ’s even worse.  Give him something he’s unsure of, he’ll just gag himself.  Sigh.  Sadly though, he can somewhat be reasoned with (as long as the thing you are trying to replace it with is something he accepts as edible).

Ah, it is a FUN time around here regarding food, let me tell you.

And hey - the allergist made a tape recording of fully 40 minutes of specialized instructions for what to do for the house, regarding the cats, food, etc etc etc….  yikes.  The idea just makes me cry.  Literally.

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A while back, Alexa had a severe allergic reaction to something.  Suspected an antibiotic (amoxicillin).  Because of that, and my own history of allergies, she was referred for an allergy screening.

Which was today.  And we learned that genetics is a powerful thing.  I have respiratory allergies, Matt has both that and asthma, and after testing Alexa’s mucus, the doctor told us she tests positive for respiratory allergies.  There’s something in her environment that’s bugging her, even though she isn’t constantly congested or anything.

So now I have to literally sterilize the house.  And assume that CJ is also positive for allergies with such a strong family history.

Her stuffed animals go in the freezer for 48 hours to kill mites.  I am sure she is going to LOVE that.  Heh.

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Today, the Monday after New Years, is basically the resumption of routine.  CJ starts school again today, the blasted car is finally back from its breaking down detour in New York, and I went grocery shopping yesterday to restock the house after our ice storm fiasco.

Oh yes.  The ice storm.  The day before we were to leave for a 10 day trip out east, we had a horrible ice storm here.  We lost several tree branches (including one that the tree people will come remove this week) and electric power.  For three days.  I’ve never had a power outage so long that I remember.  After one freezing day in our house (no electricity means no heat here) we packed the cats off to a kennel and packed the kids up and left for the east coast.  The house survived, we survived, the car barely survived (it died both on the way there and the way back, but is fixed now… for now) but everything just seems “off” ever since.  The cats are not eating as well as they used to, I’m jumpy every time I drive the car, and I just… I don’t know.  I feel off.  And not in a good way.

So I’ve got 5 lbs of chicken cooking in the oven, which will be split into recipe sized portions and double bagged into the freezer for meals for the next two weeks.  CJ is packed and ready to go to school in about 10 minutes.  The house is reasonably organized, and my desk is a mess (as always).  So why do I just want to crawl back into bed?

I start work tonight (both taekwondo and tutoring) - I better get over myself.  Quick.

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Or maybe resiliency.  Something like that.

I often think of CJ as being inflexible - he likes things a certain way and he gets very out of sorts when things are changed without warning.  And he’s so smart you can’t fool him at all - we tried to play Rock Band at my parents’ house and gave him an unplugged instrument and he knew it wasn’t hooked up at all and got very cranky.

But my kids are more flexible than I think.  On Sunday, our car broke down on the NY Thruway - twice.  (We thought it was fixed inbetween the first and second time).  Both times we had to wait for a tow truck to come and then get towed to a service station.  Both times, my kids did fine.  They were tired, they were cranky, but they held up better than I did.  And when we rented a car to get back home, they cheerfully were transferred to the new car and rode home without incident.  For 12 more hours.

Thank goodness.  At least two of us were calm. 

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