Life, Through Children's Literature

The past few weeks we've had some experiences that reminded me of children's books that we've read recently.Last week I felt like the bear. All I wanted to do was eat (carbs - and lots of them!), sleep, and have everyone leave me alone. Basically: To hibernate. For some reason I was extremely tired and cranky and took naps almost every day. Unlike in the story, there were no friendly woodland creatures frolicking around our house, but it would have been nice to have someone else take care of the cooking and cleaning. Maybe it was my penchant for staying up way too late or the cold and dreariness hitting me with full force. Either way, thankfully my mom was just a phone call away to listen to me vent and I can happily say that this week has been much better.

Our second experience was baking holiday cookies after we checked out the book "Mr. Cookie Baker" from the library. Ben saw the beautifully illustrated sugar cookies and wanted to make some of our own. I admire all you moms out there who regularly cook with your kids. How do you do it? We don't bake much since Ben can't eat most baked goods and what with the mess, I often feel like it's more of a hassle than it's worth. I'm a scrooge, I know. But this time I decided to bite the bullet and go for it, and we had lots of fun. I think I'll be ready to make some again by next Christmas.

Since I can't get the pictures to post in order, here are the finished products. Ben wanted to make them for his friends at preschool and frosted the pink ones himself. By Ben's choice, our shapes were pumpkins and hearts. We threw a few gingerbread men and Christmas trees in there as well so his classmates wouldn't be totally confused about the occasion.

The aftermath: Cooking paraphenelia and residue covering every surface, including the floor and Ben.

I finally stripped him down to his undies since I couldn't keep the frosting off his clothes.

Do any books (children's or otherwise) describe your life right now? Has a title or the content of a book related to it in the past?

Leave it to Sesame Street...

To come up with a great exhibit for kids and adults alike. This traveling exhibition is currently at our science musem and Ben and I just spent three hours there. He would have stayed longer, but we had already overstayed our parking meter by almost an hour and got a ticket to show for it. If you live in Columbus and have been hesitant to go because it costs an extra $3/person, it is well worth it. If you don't live in Columbus, keep your eyes peeled and be sure to go if it comes your way.

The activities were really interactive and educational. Plus, it burns off lots of kiddie energy. We had fun shopping at the pretend supermarket, dressing Elmo for the weather, pumping a heart and lungs, disco dancing with Grover, learning proper hygiene from Ernie, and running through the obstacle course. The course has a foam wall the kids can crash through like Super Grover and it was by far Ben's favorite part. No joke, between the three different times we went there, he probably spent an hour in that section alone.

For more pictures of the exhbit, click here and scroll to the bottom of the page. Let me know if you go or have gone and your thoughts on it.

Farewell Nessie Boo!

Last week we said goodbye to our good friends, the Storeys (sob!). They spent a year here with us in Columbus and are now onto greener pastures in upstate New York for Ross's new job at Hobart College. Ben and Nessie are buddies so we had her over to decorate a gingerbread house with us while her parents packed up their house. I bought the gingerbread house kit last year during the after-Christmas sales, so everything was a little stale, but they had fun and we think of Nessie every time we look at their creation.

Meticulously applying candy. Auntie Bekka, you'd be proud. Bekka is a hardcore gingerbread house aficionado. The only person I know who's made a Halloween gingerbread house with black and orange frosting and gingy bats.

The pre-made kits are so great - they come with candy, frosting,everything. Basically Gingerbread Houses for Dummies, so it's right up my alley. It makes me think of our first year in Boston when we attended a gingerbread house party that was the total antithesis of the kits. Two friends baked homemade gingerbread houses for about 20 families and we all brought candy for decorations. Needless to say, a major undertaking. A shout out to Paige and Mindy for such a fun memory!

A New Addition to the Haws Household

Ha! Had you going there for a minute. Our newest additions are our wingback chairs that finally got reupholstered. They're 20 or so years old, hand-me-downs from Andy's parents and we were replacing a lovely faded red/orange/turquoise southwest fabric with tears in the ottoman and stains from so many heads leaning up against them. It only took us a year to agree on the fabric, three months to hold on to the fabric before we got them into the shop, and then seven weeks of a sitting room without chairs. Andy is so happy to have them back because the blue room is his cozy spot.

Andy and I have about as divergent tastes as you can get when it comes to colors and decorating styles. I like browns, greens, and purples and he likes blue. I lean toward more contemporary styles while he is very traditional. After countless trips to fabric stores, we thought we might not ever come to a consensus. Maybe we'd even end up as a feature in those magazine articles entitled, "Can This Marriage Be Saved???" When we were about to throw in the towel, I finally stumbled into a shop near our house and we found a winner. Classic stripe with colors we both liked.

This picture gives you a better feel for the fabric: Light blue with green, cranberry, green, etc. stripes. We're really happy with how they turned out.

Andy in his favorite spot in our house.

A Sad Realization

It struck me today that some people view my child as a liability. An accident or lawsuit waiting to happen, or just fraught with too many possible unknowns for their comfort level. Because of his food allergies, perhaps they see the world for him as full of dangers instead of full of millions of opportunities to pursue, activities to engage in, and foods to eat, of which Ben has to abstain from only a relatively small percentage.

I feel this most acutely at Ben's preschool. They do an annual fundraiser where each parent bakes 10 dozen cookies (another subject all together, don't even get me started) and then they assemble the various cookies onto trays of 3 dozen apiece and we parents are supposed to sell them for $12 to parents, friends, relatives, acquaintences, the milkman, random people on the street, etc. Not only am I the world's worst salesperson, but I have a real problem selling loved ones overpriced goods that they don't need, so I opted to volunteer and assemble cookie trays instead of actually soliciting buyers. Sorry if you were dying to buy stale cookies for more than they're worth.

But I digress...Anyway, they had babysitting for the kids while the moms helped make the trays and when I tried to drop Ben off, he wouldn't go, so I let him come in with me. At first I had him sit on the side, but then thought he might have fun helping choose cookies to put on the trays. We each wore the requisite plastic gloves and were enjoying picking from all the fun varieties and counting out the specific number for each tray. I knew that all the cookies were made with wheat flour and many had eggs and nuts in them, but he's fine as long as he doesn't eat them. I had some Benadryl in the car as well in case anything happened. A few minutes later a well-meaning preschool administrator came over and asked if I'd like to put Ben in the nursery. I explained that he wouldn't go and that we were fine, and she said she was just worried about his food allergies and the cookies being a bad mix. A valid concern. She knows Ben because of all the rigamarole we had to go through at the beginning of the year filling out medical forms and dispensing EpiPens and Benadryl in case of emergency. The look on her face showed that she was really uncomfortable with the situation and clearly didn't want Ben in there. She said, unconvincingly, "Whatever you're okay with." So Ben stayed and she was nice enough to get him some crayons and a coloring book to keep him occupied while we finished.

Am I being obtuse, paranoid, taking unnecessary risks, or not respecting the preschool's wishes? Earlier in the week they'd had me come to the preschool to look at Ben because he broke out in a little rash on his face when the class made cookies, which he didn't eat. I just told them over the phone to give him a shot of Benadryl, since I knew exactly what was happening, but they wanted me to see it. I came with my Benadryl and by the time I got there, they'd already given him some like we'd discussed and he was fine. What was the point of me coming? I also have to pack Ben a separate snack box since he can't eat some of the treats other families bring to share. I totally understand that and am fine with it. I don't expect people to cater to my son's culinary peculiarities. But I've mentioned a number of times that if they have juice, dairy, fruits, or veggies, he is fine to eat them. Yet they still won't give them to him for precautionary reasons. For heaven's sake, there's no wheat in a carrot!

Whew. Thanks for letting me rant. Have you ever encountered a situation where you felt like you were seen as a bad parent or people were wary of you or your child for any reason?