Confessions of a not so fabulous mother

I hope everyone had a wonderful and blessed Easter. We most certainly did! But it wasn't without issue (is it ever?).

Holy week was supposed to be a busy one. It still was, but due to The Little Man coming down with a stomach virus things were changed up and became busy in a different way.

Tuesday evening my husband was out of town on business. I got the boys to bed and settled in to get some work done. It was very windy and rainy and around 11 pm the storms started. The wind was very strong and the lightening was amazing. I'd say it was beautiful, but storms scare me so I'd tried not to look at it too much. The Older Boy came in my room half asleep because the storm woke him and he was a little afraid. I let him crawl in bed and fall asleep until the storm died down and then I took him back to his room. They started up again about 20 minutes later and back he came. I gave up at that point and let him sleep with me all night. The storms continued that way for most of the night/early morning until about 2 am. At that point either they stopped or I finally fell asleep. At 4 am The Little Man came in complaining about a stomach ache. Not having much sleep, I told him he was fine and sent him back to bed (I felt that there was NO way I was getting up with only 2 hours of sleep). Back to his room he went and I heard him moaning a few minutes later. I had to get up at that point. I made it to the door way and ask him "Do you think you might be sick?" when he answered my question by throwing his face in his trash can (at least he made it in the can). I managed to get him to the bathroom where this continued until around 5:30 am (poor kid). After that he'd get a half hour/45 minute reprieve until he got sick again. By 8 am we had to drive Older Boy to school so with bucket in tow off we went. Older Boy's class was putting on a performance that morning and with Dad out of town and Mom home with the sick one, he had no one there to represent. He was VERY disappointed. I felt really bad about it. But the Little Man actually used his bucket on the way home so there was no way I could have sneaked in the school for the 15 minute performance with the Little Man without contaminating everyone or the building itself. I was scheduled to attend an afternoon retreat with the boys on Holy Thursday so I figured I'd be there for that at least. But no go. The Little Man was feeling better on Thursday but not enough to go to school so I had to bail on the retreat too and the Older Boy had to attend by himself. Again, I felt horrible about it but what could I do? Then it happened. I COMPLETELY let Older Boy down. See Thursday was also "early dismissal". I knew that but I had planned on being there so it wasn't in the forefront of my mind. And I forgot to pick Older Boy up. He had to call. And he was the last one at the school. And the secretary had to wait with him because no one else was there. I felt beyond terrible. Older Boy got the short end of the stick Wednesday and Thursday and then I forgot him. I didn't forget him. I was going to pick him up at normal dismissal time. But I forgot to pick him up when everyone else got picked up. He.Was.Mad. He's still bringing it up. I apologized 1,000 times. I was "that" mom.
We made it through Good Friday and Holy Saturday unscathed. But on Easter Sunday the Little Man got sick again. We figured that his tummy just wasn't 100% and all the excitement and not eating right put him over the edge. My sweet cousin mentioned that her daughter had "the rolling stomach flu" and that it would seem to be gone but then rear it's ugly head again so I attributed Easter Sunday to that. Yesterday he was fine and ate totally normal foods. Today he seemed fine too. Until dinner. Older Boy had a friend over for a play date and I made hot dogs and French fries for dinner and the Little Man didn't seem hungry. They are his favorites so I was perplexed and a little peeved that he wasn't eating. He left the table to visit the rest room for a few minutes and then came running out yelling "I don't feel well! I don't feel well!" and before I could get the entire phrase "BACK IN THE BATHROOM" out he christened the kitchen, hallway, bathroom and part of the family room. It was not good. I actually swore (I'm so not proud of that.... confession here I come). So I guess we are still on rolling stomach flu. And the play date friend will now go home and tell his parents that Older Boy's mom who forgot him at school has a potty mouth. This past week has not been a good one for the Little Man or for the Mama. I sure hope things turn around and soon.
This will be known as the spring break/Easter of vomit and bad mothering. That's not quite how I wanted things to go.

Mama teaches a lesson

I drove the boys to school today. When I returned home I had a message on voice mail "Hi mom, I forgot my clothes (it was gym day). It's me "Older Boy". Can you bring my clothes to school"? What?!? I just got home. And I have lunch duty in few hours. Crud.

So instead of being a good mom and just taking the clothing to school for him, I did this:



Nine year old boys H.A.T.E. love notes from mom. Putting it on heart shaped paper with a sparkly pink smiley sticker was for effect. Hopefully this embarrassed him enough that he NEVER forget his clothes again :)

Don't mess with the Mama (or her work out time).

He Didn't Bat An Eye... I Felt It Deeply

A few weeks ago my son had blood work done for a RAST test. The results should take 7-10 working days to come back. They have probably been back for several days. I haven't heard anything and really was in no rush to call. My husband on the hand was chomping at the bit. He wanted to know what they said.

In years past I was so excited to get these results. Would numbers go down? Might he have outgrown something? Is there a food challenge in our future? This year I didn't really have that luvin' feelin'. So I never called to check on things. I never called that is until my husband kept asking about the results. I put it off as long as I could. But I called. And the Doc and I played phone tag for a few times. But he's good, and he kept calling and finally today we connected.

And the results: After two years nothing has changed. The numbers say he's just as allergic to everything as he has been. Nothing appears to have been outgrown. Nothing is worse, food wise. Trees, Mold and Grasses appear to have gone up but that's not shocking (or deadly).

It's not that I took it hard. I TOTALLY expected those exact results. But I'm disappointed. I can't pretend that I'm not. Even though I doubted things would change, I still hoped that they would. Yes, I guess that makes me human. And my human self felt like C.R.A.P. I called my husband and gave him the news and needless to say he didn't feel any less C.R.A.P. like than I did. We agreed to tell our son together this evening. And we did. And he was totally unscathed by the news. He was nonchalant and didn't even seem to care. His concern was that he didn't grow back into his milk allergy. And no, of course he did not. He seemed relieved and he went on with his life. No, he wasn't disappointed. No he didn't act upset. Maybe he felt that his mother had that part of it covered so he could just quietly move on. Lesson for me here: Today, April 14th 2011 I was more invested in my son outgrowing his food allergies than he was. That doesn't lessen the impact of food allergies on our lives, but maybe it needs to lessen the impact of outgrowing the food allergies on me (and my husband). My 6 year old son handled it like a trooper. He didn't bat an eye. Today I need to be as smart as a 1st grader. And I just need to let it all go... at least for another 2 years.

Our House Is Going To The Birds

First we had these:



Now we have these:




There must be something back there that keeps attracting them. Good thing we like watching them more than we like eating them :)

Food Allergies on Easter or Passover?

Celebrating Easter and Passover with Food Allergies. Share your favorite information and links!

Rolling In The Dough: A Guest Post

I wrote a guest post for Asthma Allergies Children. It's a more detailed about one I did a few weeks ago about The Little Man making bread at school. I planned on doing one here on the blog, but then I had the offer of the guest post and I jumped on it. My son is severely allergic to wheat. But we pulled this off...safely. He was able to be one of the kids, a normal kid. Yes, it took work and planning and I stressed out about it, but we did it... safely. We hear so many things about what food allergy kids can't do in school. I wanted to share what food allergy can do in school... even if seems scary.

So head on over and check it out HERE
and let me know what you think.