random updates

On Being Unemployed

I'm still getting used to this being at home without a job thing.  When I was working I was in front of my computer all day long and often had time to check my Google Reader to see what all of you were up to.  But being at home, I often don't check my Reader until late in the day, at which time there are hundreds of posts and I am too overwhelmed to read them.  To be honest, I've been clicking "Mark All As Read" more often than not. Sorry!


On Reading & Blogging

I am getting some reading in, but not a ton. I finished Towers of Midnight and Prisoners in the Palace. I'm still working on The Prince, and I've started The Last Town on Earth (which I promptly misplaced).  I'm also still listening to The Count of Monte Cristo.  I have absolutely NO motivation to review any of these books though, so I'll probably only do a quick paragraph for each ... eventually.

I may not be posting as much for the next few weeks, at least until I get myself onto a schedule. That goes for commenting as well.  I'm still here, I'm just trying to reorganize my life ... which is MUCH more complicated than I'd expected.


On Kiddo

Kiddo flew on a plane by himself for the first time on Tuesday.  His aunt and uncle wanted him to visit them in Boston for a few days then drive back to Maryland with them on Thanksgiving.  I gave him the choice - did he want to do it, or did he want to wait until next year?  (We fly all the time but he's never done it on his own.) He panicked a big at first but then decided he really wanted to go.  For the next few days he'd walk around singing "Shipping Up To Boston" at random times. The morning he left we had to be up at 4:30am to get to the airport by 5:30am.  He got nervous again just before he got on the plane and he almost started to cry, but we hugged and he took a deep breath and headed down the ramp.  The flight is only 1 hour 20 minutes and he told me later that everything went just fine.  He played his Nintendo DS almost the whole way there.  And get this - when the flight attendant said to turn off all electronic devices, he figured he'd better switch off his feeding tube as well (it's got an electric pump).  Hubby and I got a kick out of that one!  At the moment he's having fun with his aunt and uncle in Boston, getting to do pretty much whatever he wants to do.  What fun!


On Thanksgiving Food

I used to love Thanksgiving because of all the wonderful food but now it frustrates me because there is so little that Kiddo can eat. I mean, there's only so much you can do with eggs, rice, white potato, corn, carrots, broccoli, apples, grapes, peaches, mangoes, tapioca, and a little bit of shellfish.  For the longest time even the smell of the holiday food would make him sad.  I'm excited for this year though. At his last doctor's appointment the allergy and GI docs agreed that he could add in a few foods that he really wanted.  They have him trying bison meat (at least for now - the next test will probably prove it's bad for him, but he'll enjoy it until then) so he can have steaks, burgers, ribs, tacos, etc.- all of which he's really enjoying.  He also asked for cucumbers so he can eat dill pickles again.  We're going through a jar of pickles every few days now, and I LOVE it.  Another thing he wanted was lentils.  He used to like them years ago and I guess he figures he'll still like them now (who likes lentils?! certainly not me!).  And in a few weeks they'll let him try berries again, though he's not excited about that AT ALL - he never was a fan of berries. 

All that to say that THIS Thanksgiving I'm excited because Kiddo will get a real meal of things he actually wants to eat. AND he told me that he's looking forward to all the smells because they remind him of the foods he used to eat and love, and they bring back good memories.  Can I just tell you how much I love my Kiddo?! HE TOTALLY ROCKS.


I hope all of you are doing well. If you are celebrating Thanksgiving this week enjoy your day! If not, enjoy your day anyway! Hopefully I'll be back and involved in the blogging world really soon. :)