Just falling from my head...

Robin and Dallas are playing together and I turn to look at what they are doing and Dallas is trailing behind Robin with a string hanging from his mouth and Robin has a hold of the other end leading him along like a horse. Robin previously had the metal spring to a wooden clothes pin stuck onto the end of this string so I said to him "I don't want any metal put in Dallas' mouth so if that's what he has in his mouth please take it off" Robin replies "No Mama, it's just string and IF he did have metal in his mouth and IF he died he could just be a fossil instead, but it's just string.".

I'm grateful for:
✿ Wearing jammies all day - It makes it just that much easier to go to bed at night.
✿ Take out - on days like today I cherish the discovery of Chinese take out we all like.
✿ Amazon food subscriptions -my case of wheat/dairy/soy free Pamela's cookies came today! The price is half off buying them at Safeway.
✿ Not following in my mothers foot steps. - My sister is going through a tough time because she makes the same mistake our mom did, loving liars. It's an unconscious choice my sister makes, she's attracted to jerks but at least she has the sense to leave when she finds out they have been cheating. I'm grateful I didn't choose that path. It looks sad and lonely.
✿ I found today's newspaper useful - it has become more and more rare that the local paper has been useful for much more than lining the bird cage. Today however I while skimming the paper, and I always do on Thursdays for the hike of the week there was actually things worth reading. Don't ask me what, I'm too tired to remember now but I remember being interested.


For the second day in a row Dallas woke us up crying and wouldn't go back to sleep. The day involved a lot of blowing up at each other followed by apologizing. Nap time was a battle of wills. It at 2 PM but sleep didn't happen until 5:45 and we slept until 7:45. They didn't fall asleep in their own beds but only on top of me after I had given up and said we could get up and go down stairs. Doug got home nearly an hour later around 8:45. A gas main had been broken in Seattle and he was stuck at a stop on the train waiting for the tracks to clear for the longest time. Tomorrow will be a day of catch up before the weekend starts. Friday is movie night and Robin has already requested Fiddler on the Roof so I will get almost 4 hrs to work. I'm looking forward to Saturday and the Mardi Gras celebration!

Doug was reading Robin a book today that had peafowl in it. When Robin saw the picture of the male peacock he was so excited. He told us when he was a big boy, before he was Robin, he lived with his grandma and they had peacocks. It was said in a strange matter of fact way. It's not the first time he had seen a peacock either. There is one that roams around the zoo that we have seen.

Later he started talking about his horse that took him to school but it was two wild and he had to get rid of it but he loved the horse and he was so sad.

Today while serving breakfast which involves a lot of back and forth between the kids and the pan of steel cut oats, I noticed that Dallas' face looked pretty red. Doug was working from home and standing a the counter on his computer and I asked him to check Dallas out too. His cheeks were red, the bridge of his nose was red, his neck was red too. There was no way he could have ingested any allergens yet since he had only eaten some freeze dried peas, a common snack here and his steel cut oats with raisins, coconut oil and OJ and we eat this all the time. We took off his clothes to see if maybe he was reacting to a spider bite or something and his arms were red and so were his legs and the trunk of his body was splotchy red. I was very concerned.

I haven't ever turned red like that but have had hives before but for me it has always been accompanied with difficulty breathing. I have gotten hives as a reaction to antibiotics. Dallas had no signs that he was having any trouble breathing. Doug has had hives that have turned his body red before due to stress. He said it looked just like what Dallas had. For Doug, he was taken to the emergency room and they gave him epinephrine and Benadryl. In my case just Benadryl. We don't use medications very often but I do keep Benadryl in the cupboard because once you have your throat start to close up on you, you will not want to be without the antidote for it. I go to find the Benadryl and it turns out we have a bottle of hard tablets and a bottle of liquid that expired in May of 2002, both only for adults. We decide to get the kids ready to go to the store, we would buy and give him some Benadryl and if he didn't turn back to normal we would go to the hospital.

I had stop getting the kids ready to nurse Warren and I got the idea to pump some milk for Dallas and see if that helped. I pumped almost two ounces and put it in a sippy cup for Dallas. He was happy to drink it down and within two minutes the redness in his face and the trunk of his body started to fade. By the time we were able to get everyone in the car his arms and legs were also back to normal color. I wish I knew what caused it and if it was the breast milk that cured him or if it was coincidence. I feel like I helped him either way and I'm so glad he's ok. I do wish I knew what caused it. He didn't sleep well the night before so that could have been it I suppose.

I'm grateful for:
✿ Having my own forest to explore - Robin, Dallas and I went out to pick up sticks to make a fire pit for Saturday evening. We are going to try and clear the floor of the woods and grow some grown cover for the goats to munch since they have taken out the blackberries in that area
✿ Casey sitting on my feet - He's 6 yrs old 100 lbs and still thinks he's a puppy. He will sit and stay pretty well. He does however feel like he needs to site between me and the kids while I'm still holding the kids hands! He kept running off to check on the goats and I can't really fault that since he is the livestock guardian.
✿ Dallas' compassion - He will kiss anything he thinks might be a hurt. He is so concerned with how everyone else is doing. Robin fell down outside and got a sticker stuck in his hand and Dallas was very worried about him. If he tosses a toy and it lands near you he will come and kiss you to make sure your ok. When Warren cries he comes up and tells him "is k, is k." while patting him and kissing him.
✿ Doug cleaning up the little toys - he moved some furniture and put away every toy he found. I know this takes a lot of time to do, I'm the one who usually does it and I am grateful that he did it for me.
✿ Getting to over hear my kids bath tub conversations They have rubber duckies, frogs and dolphins and they were having talking with each other. The big ones were the mom and dad (Robin) and they were telling the little ones were the kids(Dallas) about bath safety and rules such as: take care of each other and don't let the little brothers fall under the water, keep the water in the tub, look up when mama washes your hair and Dallas played the part of the kids just saying "no! no! and splash! while laughing at the mama frog and papa dolphin" Too cute.

I'm grateful for:
✿ Getting the laundry put away - there were nine loads of laundry to put away. I'm getting caught up slowly but surely.
✿ Watching the kids imaginations run wild - I love how they play together. Play cooking is awfully fun to watch. Dallas feeds me imaginary food all the time. Robin likes to make me imaginary tea.
✿ Letting someone else make dinner - Doug made pizza
✿ Gift cards in the mail - Doug's aunt sent a gift card for Warren so now we can buy more cloth diapers. Maybe I can start washing every other day instead of everyday. I really fear what might happen if I forget to dry them in the morning
✿ The music of Fiddler on the Roof - Robin sings every song with me. Dallas is learning them too. They love to dance to them too.