I'll Be Back Soon!

Hi Loyal Readers! (or for those occasional "What the crap is this? Why am I reading this?" readers)

I promise I'll be back to writing more regularly soon. Maybe this afternoon I'll start blogging about some of the crap I put on my desk to blog about. Then again, I may decide to take a nap rather than rely on the six hours of sleep I got last night. Why do I do that to myself? Put down the damn book, get out of the freezing cold bath water and go to bed before midnight, you dumb bitch! Sorry, my other half can get kinda mean.

Anyway, today is the big release of John Elder Robison's book, Look Me in the Eye. I'm not getting to go to any fun NY premiers, but I'll be going to buy it this morning.

Today is also the big launch of Halo 3. I don't know for sure, because he was in bed asleep at 1 a.m., but Hubby was gone when I got up at 7:30 a.m., so he got up early and I'm sure Halo 3 in involved. They're selling it at his place of work, so at least he might get some work done today around waiting in line for the newest installment of his beloved waste of time Xbox game. And no, Hubby doesn't work at 7-11.

Oh, Hubby was also kind enough to buy another Xbox console. You may be thinking, how is that kind? Well, see, our satellite dish got messed up when something or someone ran into it. Didn't see it happen, and the plants around the dish weren't harmed, but the satellite dish no longer works. So, Hubby hooked up the Xbox to the TV to act as our new TiVo. We still get basic cable, but no more movie channels. (I'll miss you, HBO! Larry, I'll watch the new season of Curb Your Enthusiasm eventually!) We also have the old Xbox upstairs, so the boys can play Xbox, or more often, play DVDs on it. Hubby told me he didn't want me to miss out on the new fall TV season (and yes, I've reminded him more than once about the importance of TV in my life)
while he would be playing Halo, so he bought a third Xbox to play Halo 3. Isn't he a sweetheart? Yes, and this is the man who just last week was talking about how we're spending too much money and need to budget more. I guess that meant, "Laura, YOU need to budget more. I will continue to spend money on whatever I think we need."

Anyway, this morning I am also taking Harrison to get blood drawn for allergy testing. This will be real fun, I'm sure. Sticking a three year old with needles and drawing blood - what's not to love? Yes, there will be lots of bribery involved and promises of sweets afterwards. Who knows, Harrison may end up on a super strict diet like his brother when we get the results back, so I've got to fill him with junk while we've got the chance. This has actually been occurring the past two weeks. The doctor told me to make sure Harrison eats lots of common allergens before the test, so he's had cow's milk, eggs, cheese, nuts, gluten...a lot of the stuff Hutton can't eat. We'll see how it goes!

Yawn. Now, why did I stay up reading in the bath long after the tub had turned cold? I just had to finish that book, even though I'd read it before. That's the trouble with having mush instead of brains. I can't remember most books I read within 6 months of reading them, and the book I read last night, Never Let Me Go was really good. It was probably really good when I read it last year at this time, but it was the book for this month's book club, so I needed to re-read it. Problem is, the book club meeting was two weeks ago, so I'd already missed it, but by then I was into the book and couldn't just put it away. Oh, and I started two other books while reading it. But I digress.

Time to go get that blood drawn. Fun times!

Milk This

I love cow's milk. I have it daily, in my lattes, and sometimes with cereal. I remember drinking "Quik" all the time as a child. Man, that stuff was good.

When Hutton was a toddler, I did the expected thing, and introduced milk to his diet when he turned one. He was still nursing, so it wasn't something he drank a lot. When he weaned at 15 months, he moved from drinking my milk to cow's milk. At that time, he also developed his first ear infection, and started to get a funny rash on his face. As I was a first time mom, and pretty clueless, I didn't think this had to do with cow's milk. That he'd weaned - sure, that might be it. He wasn't getting immunities from me, so he was more likely to get sick and get an ear infection.

The pediatrician gave me a steroid cream to give him for his rash, which turned out to be eczema. His ear infection went away with antibiotics. Another one happened a few weeks later, and his eczema flared and cleared, but never stayed gone for long. I can't remember what led me to decide to stop cow's milk in Hutton's diet -- if it was a suggestion from the pediatrician or something I found online while looking for eczema treatments. Either way, I stopped giving Hutton milk around 17 months. He still ate cheese and yogurt, but no more cow's milk straight up.

Soon after, he stopped getting eczema. He stopped getting ear infections (the one he currently has is the first one since he was a toddler!). I had my "aha!" moment. Keeping cow's milk out of his diet wasn't too much trouble. I mean, it was nothing compared to the diet he's on now!

I, of course, still had my milk in my lattes, and drank it throughout my pregnancy with Harrison. Though, at this point, Hutton had been diagnosed with Autism and we were trying the gluten and casein free diet for the first time. While I was pregnant, I read in various Autism groups that cow's milk was a big problem for many with Autism. That mothers drinking it could cause their nursing babies to get colic. Huh. Hutton had colic. I decided Hutton definitely had a milk problem, and he hasn't ever had milk straight up since I first took it out of his diet. When he had ice cream around Christmas time, he said his stomach hurt. So, even if we ever are able to add back in dairy to his diet, I'll still be very watchful of cow's milk.

Fortunately, Harrison never had colic as a baby, so I was able to keep up my life-affirming addiction to the delicious goodness of lattes. He doesn't drink cow's milk, either, though, because it's easier for us all to be on the diet. (Or for me to hoard the precious cow's milk for myself.)

So, when Hutton came home with milk propaganda in his backpack the other day, I just laughed. They're talking about nutrition this week at school, and we all know how cow's milk "does a body good!" Especially when you're allergic to it and it causes ear infections, eczema and colic.

If anyone wants, I'll scan the "How We Get Our Milk" coloring book, too, brought to you by "Your Dairy Council, 'The Nutrition Education People'" so you can indoctrinate your own kiddies!