The croci came and went this year in a day or two. While that is a little sad, daffodils that have only been leaving since 余艾蕾 and I moved in bloomed this year! One fairly large bunch too.
Last summer when Zoë started day care I would sometime bring her a flower to put in her crib. I tried taking her a daffodil this spring, but she ripped it apart before we got there. No flowers for Zoë, I guess.
Though 余艾蕾 noticed it first, I went outside today and heard birds. It’s the first time this year my ears where full of them. Though four inches of snow on the ground, and more comming Monday, it sounded like spring.
About a week age we got a good foot of snow, since then the temperature has been well below freezing. Yesterday morning we got another inch, just enough to cover up the the dirty snow. A heat wave has just started hitting the area, and temperatures are getting just above freezing. Perfect for a walk.
My Mother, Zoë and I left on a walk along the Delaware Canal leaving 余艾蕾 home painting the powder room green. Zoë was nestled all snug in her jogging perambulator. Along the canal the snow was firmly packed and all was well. The few bridges we had to use where a little perilous, but we had few problems. Until the last bridge.
We had to go up a steep ice and snow covered mound to reach the bridge. On a bike in the summer I usually get off and walk up it. Today I went first pulling Zoë in her perambulator behind followed by my Mom. Most of the way up the mount I slipped forward, Zoë’s perambulator sliped forward fell on it’s back. Worried I quickly slid down to check Zoë’s status. She was laughing having the time of her life, I could almost hear her saying “again, again!” I didn’t do it again, and we are all lived to tell about it.
I just got my Irish passport in the post! Whoo hoo! It has these neat security features in it…no, not drop of blood for DNA testing. My pic and signature have been digitally engraved into a hard plastic page. And then, the clear plastic coating on top of it has my pic digitally engraved into that (just seen from an angle-type), and the other side has it too. It’s really neat.
Now fingers crossed that P’s passport arrives before we leave…
Dad’s quoted in this article…pretty neat.
And for other zen bloggers, I used the bookmarklet function that’s on the bottom of the create post page. Quite nice and easy to use….
Most people reading this will know that our son, P, has food allergies. Not severe, thank heavens, but present and uncomfortable for him. Once he was diagnosed, his doc said that we had to be incredibly strict about what he eats, and that he has a good chance of outgrowing the allergies. What we had to do was be vigilant about what he eats. No dairy of any type, eggs, tomatoes, strawberries, shellfish or nuts. Til he’s 3. Which meant for the next 17 months. I’m still nursing him (not too often, we’re at about 2x a day), so that means I’m off all that too. And if that’s the case, then B might as well be off it. So we try to not have anything in the house that would make him break out.
It’s much easier to do here (Ireland) than when we are in the States. The ingredients on ready made foods here look something like this:
Contains: Wheat flour, sugar, whole egg, skimmed milk powder, natural flavourings, E122, E723
Where in the States, a package of bread has more chemical names than everything I learned in chemistry class put together.
So we’ve learned how to read food labels really well. It’s interesting, you learn a lot from those labels and a bit of research.
We don’t really do much takeout anymore (tomato and dairy avoidance means no pizza, egg and nuts mean no Chinese, tomato and dairy also means no Indian, shellfish means….). The chipper around the corner does us well, once a week when we’re just freaking tired and don’t want to think anymore.
Most of our food is homecooked. And it’s pretty good. I’ve always liked cookbooks, I read them like regular books. So we’re learning how to adapt recipes using soymilk, Rice Dream rice milk, egg replacer and fake butter (as I call it. Most margarines still have dairy in them, we’ve found in Ireland that Pure doesn’t and is deeeelish for both spreading and cooking). Most recipes have turned out okay. Some we haven’t even tried yet. Toad In The Hole (sausages in mini Yorkshire puddings) even works decently. Any recipe that uses more than 2 eggs is out tho, the replacer doesn’t work for that.
Funniest thing we’ve found: Boland’s Custard Cream Biscuits don’t have custard or cream. And generic Double Stuf Oreos don’t have any dairy in them.
Boy, I haven’t had a chance to write a blog entry all weekend. Zoë has been active. The couple time I got her to sleep I tried to sleep too, but I had to come on to wish a happy Samhain, er, Hallowe’en. Now I’m laying in bed, waiting for the morning. While being at work sucks, and being at home is fun and exciting, I get to relax a little at work.
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