*I apologize for not being able to keep up lately. This month has been pure chaos with one thing after the other.*

Yesterday, Alysa was eating a little bag of pretzels in the car in between errands. She then piped up from the back seat:

Alysa - "Mommy, these pretzels are safe for Kayla."
Me - "Yes, honey they are."
Alysa - "I'm going to read the ingredients to make sure they are safe".

When I looked in the back seat, this is what I saw (please note I took this photo while stopped at a light) :)





In other happenings, I had a nice little trip up to Rhode Island with my Mom last weekend. My Dad watched the girls for me since J was working. We drove up Friday night and arrived around 9:30. Saturday we got up and had a lazy dairy-filled breakfast. I don't remember the last time I had eggs with cheese! Boy was it delicious. Then we went to the mall with my Aunt and cousins (18 & 21) for some shopping before we had a yummy dinner (again filled with dairy). We came home Sunday to 2 girls who missed me tons. Just another part I love about being a Mom - the unconditional love. I had a great time, but missed them so much. Kayla, as usual had fun with my Dad, but each time she talked to me got all whiny with the "Are you coming home now?" and "I miss you Mommy."

This coming Saturday is my last trip for a while (for a few weeks anyway when I head out to Ohio after Easter). I am heading down to Baltimore for FAAN's Annual Food Allergy Conference. I'm going with a friend of mine who I met in my support group. I've been anxiously waiting for this trip and can not wait to go. My friend's daughter is in 2nd grade and is allergic to peanuts and tree nuts. Her and I get along really well and have a bit too much in common. Both our husbands are Cancer survivors, her and I both battled Infertility (we even used the same doctor) and our daughters have a food allergy. The conference is from 8:30 am to 5:00 pm. It will be a long day and even longer since we're driving there and back in 1 day. We'll be leaving my house bright and early at 5:30 am. I would go to bed now if I could get away with it. I'm always looking for more information and ways to teach others about food allergies and I'm expecting to get so much out of the conference.

I will definitely find the time after to post what I learn here. I have more to share and other happenings, but...I must get a few things done around here. Blogging is not the only thing that I've been behind on.

My month of chaos is almost over. Had a great trip this past weekend and slowly getting back to normal (more on that later). Of course I do have one more trip coming up (again more on that exciting trip later).

I heard this song on the radio today and had to share.



I also was able to find the lyrics at Fox News:

American Tea Party Anthem

written and performed by Lloyd Marcus

Mr. President!
Your stimulus is sure to bust.
It's just a socialistic scheme,
The only thing it will do
Is kill the American Dream.

You wanna take from achievers
Somehow you think that's fair.
And redistribute to those folks
Who won't get out of their easy chair.

We're havin' a tea party across this land.
If you love this country,
Come on and join our band.
We're standin' up for freedom and liberty,
'Cause patriots have shown us freedom ain't free.

So when they call you a racist cause you disagree,
It's just another of their dirty tricks to silence you and me.
I believe in the Constitution and all it stands for.
Anyone who tramples it should be booted out the door.

We're havin' a tea party across this land.
If you love this country,
Come on and join our band.
We're standin' up for freedom and liberty,
'Cause patriots have shown us freedom ain't free.

Now we're not advocating violence,
That's what the so-called peace crowd do.
We're talkin' peaceful protest to defend the red, white and blue.

We gotta vote out these clowns who don't love the USA.
Who stay up late losing sleep, fearing what the French might say.

We're havin' a tea party across this land.
If you love this country,
Come on and join our band.
We're standin' up for freedom and liberty,
'Cause patriots have shown us freedom ain't free.

We're havin' a tea party across this land.
If you love this country,
Come on and join our band.
We're standin' up for freedom and liberty,
'Cause patriots have shown us freedom ain't free.

Freedom ain't free,
(Stand up for America)
Freedom ain't free,
(Gotta take a stand)
Freedom ain't free,
(Mr. Obama)
Freedom ain't free,
(We work hard for our money)
Freedom ain't free,
(Don't give it away)
Freedom ain't free,
(Save the day)
Freedom ain't free,
(Don't go givin' it away)
Freedom ain't free,
(It ain't gonna work)
Freedom ain't free,
(Give back our freedom)
Freedom ain't free,
(Give back our liberty)
Freedom ain't free,
(I love my country)

I do not watch ABC's Brothers and Sisters and now I know I'll never want to. Allergy Moms linked to Terri Mauro's Special Needs Blog post about Sunday night's Brother's and Sister's episode. In the very first scene, only seconds into the show, one of the character's (Sarah) daughter walks in the kitchen and asks her Mom what she's making her for lunch. Sarah answered peanut butter and jelly. With that the daughter, Paige reminds her Mom that her school is peanut-free. In response Sarah tells her daughter to tell her teacher that it is soy butter.

You can watch the episode here. The moment in question is really in the first few seconds of the show.

This is really disturbing to me. I do not, nor have I ever support food bans. But that aside, this line in the show is very damaging. As an allergy parent, I work really hard, as I know my fellow food allergy moms do too in getting the word out about the seriousness of food allergies. Things like this undermine us and hurt our children. I can't fathom what the point was of this line. I will admit I did not watch the entire show, but I did read that the topic never came up again in the rest of the show - no lesson learned. So what was the point? Why even put that in there unless the point was to undermine our cause and make us look ridiculous? What kind of lesson is in there when we teach our children to lie, specially at the expense of another? I also wonder, is it really worth it? Even putting aside the danger you are placing the allergic child in, why would you put your own, non-allergic child in the position to feel responsible for making her classmate or friend sick or worse?

People never cease to amaze me.

I walked in the playrom on Friday and saw Kayla sitting at her tool bench. I mean - correction - her computer.







Now I head back to my sick kids. Yes, again! Alysa is still recovering, although she's doing really well, but Kayla has a virus again - fever, headache...you know, her normal!

Calgon, take me away!!!

J took Kayla to gymnastics tonight while I stayed home with our little one still on pain meds. I had told J to be sure to pay our monthly tuition which he did, but... I got a call to say the girl who processed the payment typed in a 0 in place of the decimal place. So instead of paying $99.75 for their two classes we paid $990.75!!! OUCH! The system would not let them reverse it because why would it be that easy? I had a bit of a freak-out imagining all the potential bouncing and fees that could have hit us. Thankfully my bank was very helpful and once the gymnastics place faxed them a letter notifying them of the error it was fixed. Nothing like having my relaxing night filled with anxiety.

It's been a rough few days around here. Thurday was the roughest with Alysa totally lethargic and miserable. She was pretty doped up and really didn't move off the couch. She was not very pleased about leaving the house to take Kayla to and from school, but she was a trooper and kept falling asleep in the car.

Yesterday, towards the end of the day she began to venture off the couch. She's a bit unsteady on her feet from the pain meds, but she's too cute wobbling around the house. Her voice is a little higher in pitch and she sounds all garbled. She's a bit difficult to understand right now but it's so adorable.

I was able to catch her on video a bit.


She still is getting tired easily but she is playing in between laying on the couch. I feel bad seeing her in pain and so "out of it", but I can't help but think how cute she is.

Here are some photos of the past few days...


I hope everyone is having a relaxing weekend. I know I will be continuing to enjoy the warm weather we are having.

It is a beautiful spring day here in NJ with a high of 67. It took somework, but I was able to convince Kayla to leave the TV and head outside. I even convinced Alysa to get out of her pajama’s and join us for a little while.

It always brings a smile to my face to see these signs of spring...
me bulbs poking up from the ground


fresh, new rose buds


The girls got to do some artwork on the driveway.






Alysa even mustered up some energy to play some hopscotch.


And here I will embarass myself and show you my pathetic attempt at drawing my car (at Kayla's request)

I'm glad to say we are home from Alysa's tonsillectomy and adenoidectomy. Our arrival time was 6:30 am which put us as one of the first surgeries. She was actually the 2nd in her OR. Everything went very smoothly. Alysa was not very thrilled with the poking and prodding, but she was a trooper, until it was time to take the "giggle juice". I had to force it on her and she spit some of it out because she did not like the taste of it. But once she was tipsy all was well. Once they were ready to take her the nurse told us where the waiting room was and she looked at me, all wobbly and said, "Where are you guys going?"

Once they wheeled her off to the OR, she was only gone for 35 minutes. Just enough time for J and I to grab some breakfast sandwiches. Her surgery went really well and her doctor told us her tonsils were larger than he expected from what he could see prior to her surgery. So we're hoping that it will make a big difference.

Typical for Alysa, when she was waking up she was freaking out, which I've learned has an official name, because what is a behavior without a name? It's called emergence delirium. So she had that, then fell asleep on me after she calmed down. then she threw up, but thankfully not on me this time. They gave her more Zofran (the miracle anti-vomiting drug) and she slept some more. Within an hour of her surgery, she was eating cheerio's, drinking apple juice, still looking stoned medicated, and were were headed for home.

Since the medication they gave her tasted bad, she fought me on the pain meds, so I had to give her a suppository - this should be a fun 2 weeks. And...I have to give her the pain meds every 4-6 hours even through the night. Ah, the joys of a newborn in the house.

She did take a 2 1/2 hour nap today and devoured a bananana when she woke up. I'll take it.

I am glad her surgery is over and I hope her recovery is not too bad. She is a trooper and now I hope once her recovery is over she can begin the path to a full recovery with better eating. Keep your fingers crossed for us that this helps her.

Here is a glimpse of our morning at the hospital.

We've all heard of seeing eye dogs and dogs that sniff out drugs. Tonight, on the news I saw an 8 year old girl who has a dog that sniffs out peanut residue for her. She has a history of being hospitalized for touching an item with peanut residue. In the clips they showed, she wears gloves and the dog accompanies her everywhere, even to school and sniffs items and areas (like the lunchroom) before she uses them.

I found it really interesting and this dog is only 1 of 12 in the country. It's an interesting resource for those kids with extremely severe and sensitive allergic reactions to foods.

You can read about it here.

We are 3 days from Alysa's surgery to remove her tonsils and adenoids. And of course she got sick. She has a stomach virus and a fever. I was told if she has a fever surgery will be cancelled (a cold would not necessarily cancel it). I wasn't told how close to the surgery it has to be to have an impact. I can hope she will be well enough by Wednesday, but I won't hold my breath. And I figure, the way things tend to happen, if she's OK for surgery, I will be the one sick which would put me at staying home.

Oh and to make matters worse, she got sick at the bowling alley. And not just there, but all over me. Her and I were both covered. What a pleasant experience that was! Please let this pass quickly and with minimal collateral damage for the rest of us in this house...