Is This Nuts?

I cannot recall having a single friend with a nut allergy as a child. I don't remember knowing anyone who couldn't be near peanut butter. I had never heard the phrase "peanut dust." But recently a good friend's son was diagnosed with a serious nut allergy and I thought to myself, where the heck did all these nut allergies come from?!? I have zero medical training or scientific proof, but I have to wonder, are we anti-bactierializing, anti-bioticing, and generally over-cautioning ourselves into these things?

And just as I was thinking on all this, I read this. So now I can't have nuts on planes? Like at all? I understand that there are some kids who are no-joke desperately allergic, for them I'd do anything. My beef is where the "uncomfortable" mention comes in. Really? Uncomfortable on a plane? Aren't we all? What about the person who overflows into your seat? Or the person who is oh-my-gawd-sick right next to you? Or that person on every flight who hasn't seen the inside of a shower stall in lord knows how long?

But let's focus on the allergy thing. Someone in the article makes the comparison between this and an allergy to dogs. Unless I missed something, dogs can still fly in cabins on planes. There were plenty of dogs on our recent flights. I know more people who are allergic to cats, which this article didn't mention at all. In fact, my better half is allergic to cats. About two years ago we were on a flight with a crazy cat lady. Yes, I called her a crazy cat lady because not only did she give her cat sedatives before a cross- country flight, it appeared that she had snagged some for herself as well.

And I have to stop for a second and say here that I've seen plenty of people fly with pets so well behaved I didn't even realize they were on the plane. But much like children, I now look at the pet-person with trepidation knowing it could go either way. We presume bad behavior until we see otherwise.

So back to crazy cat lady. We'd barely achieved liftoff when this lady pulls her cat out of it's carrier. Wait, let me explain that better. We'd barely achieved liftoff when this heavy-lidded, word-slurring lady dragged her drooling, mewing, head-bobbing cat out of it's carrier. Then she proceeds to "comfort" this totally oblivious cat. I'm sure if the thing could have spoken, it would have yelled to be put back and left alone. Anyway, you could see the fur start to float through the air. Que sniffling. For the next six hours. And that's saying little about the noise factor.

While I'm lucky not to share my better-half's cat allergy, I am extremely sensitive to perfumes. I have always been bothered by strong smells (the incense at church always sends me running), but since having kids it's gotten awful. You know how when you're pregnant you get crazy nose? Like you can smell what people are cooking a zip code away? Yeah well mine never went away. In fact, I think it got worse with each kid. So that leaves me with a terrible headache if the person next to me has done any more than dab the pressure points. I've been to conferences that are "fragrance free", will airlines follow suit?

Makes you wonder what flights - and life in general - will be like when our children become adults...

**Sorry for the stream of consciousness rant, just been that kind of week!**

I Heart Faces: Play

This weeks' I Heart Faces challenge is "Play". I had TONS of pics I could have used for this one, but I just had to go with this one. I guess you could call it "play gone wrong." I wonder who won...

Don't forget to head over to I Heart Faces to see some of the other great entries!

The Great Return

Our vacation is over.

Sigh.

Really, is there anything more depressing than coming home from vacation and knowing that you will have to wait a whole year to again achieve that level of relaxation? Ok, sure there are things that are bigger bummers. But still, it stinks. And while I think that late May/Early June is just the best time to be at the beach, it's ROUGH to know that summer hasn't even really started and already we're out of vacation. We're going to try and plan some long weekends just to have something to look forward to, but I can't believe we have to wait a whole year for our return to the beach.

I never would have considered myself a "beach person". I'm not a huge fan of sand, no longer relish sitting in the sun and hate, HATE, putting on a bathing suit. But when we go to NC with my family, the hose is never far away, Daddy always sets up two giant tarps and no one cares if you run into the ocean in shorts and a tee. The boys love playing in the ocean with Chief, looking for shells with Nanny, setting off fireworks with their Uncles, and building castles and forts with Daddy. It really is a kid's paradise. And all that makes it a parent's paradise.

This year found Finley totally over his distaste for the sand. He was all about digging and building. And the swimming lessons the boys took before we left seemed to make them frighteningly confident in the ocean - they both wanted to run full steam ahead into the waves! Dash enjoyed staying closer in to shore and kicking the waves while Fin preferred to head out as far as Chief would take him - even body surfing in once! They both impressed their uncles with their video-gaming ability, spending hours playing and building boards in Little Big Planet. Chief was up fishing just about every morning and I was quick to usher out anyone awake to watch. Dash got lucky and watched Chief catch a small shark. Poor Fin slept in that day and was greeted with "I got to touch a shark and you didn't!!" Sigh.

Kell loved the ocean too - but only when strapped to daddy. The Bodyglove carrier and the Ergo were our life savers this trip! He also learned some new tricks - waving and saying "hi" in the cutest voice you can imagine. And while we have no crawling yet, he is becoming a master at pulling himself up on things and rolling anywhere he wants to get. He's even able to go from rolling to sitting back upright. I don't remember if the other boys learned that before crawling but I don't think they did. Then again, I know for sure that they've ruined my memory...

Woob and I had a great time too. I think he started to relax as soon as the plane landed and I know his relaxation was complete when he had his first drink in hand. Not having to drive ANYWHERE for two weeks is bliss. I managed to take 1000 pictures - yikes! Which thankfully I was able to download in shifts on Woob's computer which he brought with us. And I swear next year I will remember that I need only ONE decent outfit and more crappy shirts and lax shorts. For me and the kids. I will not overpack. Yes, I am aware I say this every year. Also, we will never fly the Delta connection through Atlanta again. Ever. And I mean that. I feel as though I could have stayed at least another week before feeling the pull of home. Maybe someday.

Now it's back to the grind, the end of school this week and the continuation of the never-ending thousand degree t-ball season, countless pool trips and summer camp are on the horizon. Oh, and endless days of sun screening 4 people who may not even go anywhere.

Which reminds me, It's barely June and we've killed two bottles of sunscreen. Seriously? Why doesn't my insurance provide sunscreen?!? And should I invest in one of those giant tanning caves for easier group application...

Sports, Pants & Travels: A Boring Update

You were warned...

Sorry to be such a lazy blogger. I know I'm sure to get a kick in the pants note from BlogHer any minute now. We've just been super busy around here with all the minutia of life. Here's a quick sampling, you know, in case you have NOTHING else to do.

Fin and Dash just finished swim lessons. They do them boot-camp style out here - 30 mins a day, every day for two weeks. That's a lot of sunscreen, changes and schlepping for us. But so very worth it. Fin can swim just about across the pool and even graduated to trying out some "freestyle arms" by the end and Dash, well, Dash learned to keep his mouth closed under water. And THAT made for some terrifying diaper changes let me tell you.

Happy Swimmers

Fin has also been keeping us busy with Tball. I have to say that I LOVED football and REALLY enjoyed soccer. Tball is just not my bag. The games move slow, the field is hot and the season is long. Just to keep things interesting, Brooks is also coaching this season. We weren't sure there would ever be this level of planetary alignment allowing him the time commitment and so far it's been wonderful - I know it will be something Fin always remembers. And if he doesn't, you better bet your hiney we'll be there to remind him how his Dad gave up every Friday night for practice and got up at the crack of dawn every Saturday for his games. Snicker.

Happy Playahs

Dash is eager to do all the things that Fin is up to with one notable exception. The kid could care less about the potty. I know his general schedule, so to speak, and if I make him sit on the throne, he will deign to fill it. Otherwise? Doesn't care. That stack of underwear I tried to bribe him with? Sitting there. The stack of toys in the garage I told him would be doled out for clean-pants days? I don't even remember what the hell is out there anymore. I guess he'll do it when he's good and ready. But that better be soon.

Big boys are learnin' up a storm too - Fin has a renewed interest in all his "homework" books and will sit and do page after page. He's also asking more for us to help him read his books. All good things, but with his planned extra year in Pre-K, I'm in no rush. I know he'll learn it all in plenty of time. Dash is working on learning his colors. So far he has mastery of blue, pink, and purple and occasionally he'll pick out green. Anything else is black. That kid cracks me up. When Fin sits down to work, he asks to work on his "homework" too. He is beyond excited to start school next year and will get his first taste of everything when he does camp with Fin this summer.

Kell is sitting like a yogi and shows little interest in crawling. And who can blame him, he has four slaves who will bring him anything at the slightest hint of a whimper. He's loving all foods - and will get extremely jealous if he isn't offered tastes of everything the big kids are enjoying. He's a pretty happy little guy but still demanding of everyone's attention. He loves his brothers like nobody's business and is finally happy sitting and playing with them for stretches. I still get sad seeing small babes in arms, but I look forward to seeing how his personality fits into our family.

Happy Sitter

Brooks and I have been keeping ourselves busy too. Work has taken off for him and it's nice to see him coming home excited about what he's doing. We're also in the midst of the Couch to 5 K (C25K) challenge. The idea is to get those of us who think running is pointless and boring off our hineys. We're on week 7 now which has us running 25 minutes at a stretch. And what I mean by that is we're SUPPOSED to be on week 7 and SUPPOSED to be running 25 minutes at a stretch. Brooks thinks that the three-times-a-week-work-your-way-up workouts are for sissies. He prefers to just jump in when the mood strikes. And because he's NUTS, he goes with sharp inclines and hand weights. I'm following all the rules and hoping it gets easier soon. All this has of course inspired new attire and gadgetry. We both now don our Nike+ fancy shmancy tennies to do our runs so that we can track our progress through our i-devices. My first run I was reminded to "calibrate please." And this was a reminder for me that, although "the device is calibrated to average running stride", my stubby stumps are SO not average. The damn thing was a 1/4 mile off!! I also realized that while wearing your pants a smidge larger then necessary is comfortable, not so much when you'd like them to stay up while running. So I grabbed a pair of the tightest ones I could find off the rack (literally, I think they were called "super tight") and a size smaller than I'd prefer. I got them home and couldn't get them past my CALVES without doing a shimmy. I'm stubborn, so I finally got them on and started my run (hoping to regain circulation below the knees with some movement) and do you know what? The damn things STILL fell off my waist. But not my knees. Picture me running in bloomers. Yeah. So if you have a favorite pair of running pants, help a sister out.

So that's the update. We head out for our annual beach pilgrimage this weekend. I can already feel the sand between my toes...

Happy Mothers Day...