Pretend Hurricanes, Mutant Ants, etc

[altarflame]

I just got done with a big bowl of butternut squash. Yum. Peel, cube, steam, and then mash it up with a little butter, a tiny bit of brown sugar or honey, and some salt and pepper. I could die happy.

Today has been a fried green tomatoes, brown rice, chicken and tomato on toast kind of day. I need a food journal, this tandem nursing while pregnant business is making me insane.

We're under a Hurricane Warning and it's purely annoying. The thing isn't even organized into a hurricane anymore, and they're still canceling my class Wednesday night, Robbie's classes, our bi-weekly date tomorrow afternoon with Jamie watching the kids is cancelled, etc etc. Freaking lines for gas going around the corners and nothing on the shelves at the grocery store. I ROLL MY EYES AT YOU, ERNESTO!!

Last night we went out to Biscayne National Park to grill for dinner and let the kids run around, and Isaac got bitten up by fire ants like I have never seen before. They were all having a great time in a secluded area we were in together, looking at flowers and watching seagulls fly over and all of a sudden he was screaming.

The things were HUGE and he was just covered in them. I'm going to post pictures, I mean it's insane. He has 40 big bites on his right foot and leg alone. I broke my own rules and nursed him, but he wasn't even calm enough for that for several minutes. I couldn't believe how happy and ok he was within a few minutes, though...it's as if it honestly just hasn't bothered him at all since it happened. Ananda says he looks like he has chicken pox. Everytime we see him we wince, it's so bad, but he doesn't really care.






Annie and I finished the Chronicles of Narnia a few nights ago. She really loved the ending. I'm reading her The Hundred Dresses while Aaron and I finish Rowan of Rin, and then they'll both be beginning the Harry Potter series. I will be relieved and a half to be reading them THE SAME STORY - I didn't quite know what I was getting into, when I let Aaron pick out a book too. Two chapters per night makes the bedtime routine drag on forrreeeevvveer.

Aaron's cheek is swelled up - the opposite one as last time :/ He's had a low grade fever throughout the day. Depending on how he looks tomorrow I may be taking him back to that awesome ped I found. I'm glad we found someone good and he's there, but it's still $100 and aside from that I'm starting to wonder if Aaron has a chronic gland problem or something. His lymph nodes swell anytime he even has a cold, to a disfiguring degree, and he got mumps to the extreme even after being vaccinated against them (fully). I wonder if there is a tonsil problem that causes this?

Ananda and Isaac spent a long time playing dress up and putting on wild interpretive dance shows this evening. They have a stereo in their room and Ananda found something Asian sounding on the Garden State soundtrack and went wild.



You see what their room looks like when I'm NOT doing photo tours or hosting playdates or birthday parties O_o

Comments

[altarflame.livejournal.com]

I didn't really expect them to hurt, but I thought he'd surely be going mad itching. Part of that though is the history - Aaron would be CONVULSING AND SCREAMING from itching and not calm down until dropped into a full bathtub, until very recently. That of course is mostly just Aaron.

That is totally awesome about Charlie!

I have a weird anti-basement thing. Half of it is because of movies like Silence of the Lambs, Stephen King books, and all the psycho killer stories you hear (like that Australian girl they just found after 8 years); half is because radon gas levels in basements are through the roof and lung cancer rates are highest in places with a lot of basements as a result. Either way it is a foreign concept to me since you can't dig a basement in Florida (You're either on swamp land or coral rock), so maybe I'm just not familiar enough with them :p

I'll respond to your email soon, I'm trying to get through all these comments first.

[the-waker.livejournal.com]

Oh no! Poor Issac! Ouch. And poor Aaron. What did they determine it was last time?

Make a food jounral Tina! :D

I can't wait until my girls are old enough to do chapters at night. Autumn found my old Narnia books and wanted me to read them to her - she sat through a few chapters but I don't think she's "ready" yet. I love children's literature.

Hah, now THAT looks more like Autumn's room (and mine to be honest) most days :D

[altarflame.livejournal.com]

Last time they didn't know what made him swell, but the swelling trapped fluid in in his ear drum which made IT swell, and the next thing you know he was in total agony from the double swelling pressing together, and there was no way for any of it to heal with everything irritating each other :/

I can't even keep up with this journal!

I think I started reading Ananda chapter books when she was either a late 3 or early 4, and her favorites were Roald Dahl. In her room right now we have Matilda, James and the Giant Peach, The Fantastic Mr Fox, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator, The BFG...and probably others I can't recall. Then we moved on to Oz, I think we did the first four Oz books. With all of those, there are an abundance of film versions and she LOVES to read a book and then watch the movie. I didn't think she was ready for Narnia until she was 5.5 at least, and even still we've been stopping to explain frequently.

My room is not so great either - but mine is easier to clean. I usually "tidy up" mine at least once a day, but there's only gets that a couple of times a week because it's just...well...POINTLESS.

[sistersunshine.livejournal.com]

Aww poor Issac! My dh gets a bite or two when he mows the lawn and he carrys on about how much they itch for days! I wish he was here so I could show him that picture!

How much does Aaron's lymph node swell?? I sure hope he's feeling better soon! My son has had some swollen lymph nodes for almost 3 months now!! They are all pretty small but they worry me a lot. He's seeing the dr again tomorrow!

[altarflame.livejournal.com]

With Aaron it is only the ones on his jaw, way back. They swell enough that his face is noticeably assymetrical from it. Sometimes it gets kind of intense. It's when there's a fever or discoloration (signs of infection, in other words) that I really worry, and so far this hasn't looked that way.

He's never had them for any extended period, it's more like any little cold triggers this and then they go back down as soon as he feels better, basically.