Friday, June 27, 2008

quote to end all quotes

Noah, age 6 and 1/2, provides us this great little gem today that will live on much longer than he will want it to. This (Friday) morning, Sara told him he needed to take a shower and he said,

Noooo!! Today is not Sunday! We take a shower on Sunday!!

Noah, as your father, it is my responsibility to remind you of this saying at the most embarrassing moments possible: Bringing home your prom date, when your teenage friends are over, at your wedding, etc. I look forward to the rite of passage of embarrassment that my father couldn't provide for me.

Friday, June 20, 2008

Hurt and offended

I seem to have a way to make my wife hurt and offended. Yesterday it was about the family blog, and today it was because I forgot to do the dishes (which I told her I would do) and take out the trash. I don't really have an excuse, other than I forgot.

I really don't want to upset my wife. She is everything to me. It's just that watching "So You Think You Can Dance?" made me forget to do what I told her I would do.

She'll probably get upset when she finds out that I had an excellent lunch, paid for by the company, at Applebees. She doesn't get paid lunches. She's lucky to get to eat her lunch without having to share.

Thursday, June 19, 2008

Food allergies

I have 5 boys, and they are wonderful, wonderful little guys. My 4th, Ammon, has always (or nearly always) had problems with skin rashes and irritations, especially on his feet.

It started when he started eating "people-food", around the time he weaned himself and started eating solid foods. About this time, he started to scratch his feet and legs. Of course, they started to bleed and get all crusty, etc. He shows signs of excema, which is increased because we live in a desert. We had him allergy tested. I'm glad I wasn't there the first time we did, because holding down a screaming 1 1/2 year old to do skin pricks is not my idea of fun. I was watching the other kids while Sara took him. Anyway, that test came out negative on all substances.

About a month or maybe a month and a half ago, he ate a PB&J on wheat bread. He actually ate the bread too. Usually he just licks the peanut butter off or fingerpaints with it. We knew that he could possibly have a problem with peanuts, because his attitude would change, and he would break out more. He started complaining about his mouth and tongue hurting. Sara took him to the doctor and they did a blood allergy test. They drew his blood then tested it.

The tests came back, and we were very surprised at what they said. Ammon, who is 2, came back with an allergy to wheat, soy, eggs (ok, egg whites, but who is going to separate them for him?), milk, corn and peanuts. Holy crap.

Finally, we had some answers. But now, what the crap do we feed him? It turns out, that if it doesn't have wheat in it, it's going to have corn or some kind of corn product in it. So his sandwhich that he ate carried at least 3 of his known allergens: wheat, peanuts, and high frucose corn syrup. Sara really struggled for a long time. I guess it would be guilt for feeding him, and/or overwhelmed at the prospect of having to feed him food not containing those things. She figured it out, and took him off of those things, and his feet got better. But now he likes to sneak food when nobody's looking. And his feet now show it.

Then we thought that if Ammon had allergies, what about the other 4? We had Hyrum, Noah and Daniel tested. We'll test Sam at about 1 year. Hyrum came back with a milk allergy, Noah came back with a wheat and egg allergy, and Daniel came back with nothing. So now, we have 3 out of 4 tested (3/5 overall) that have food allergies. Noah and Ammon also have outdoor and animal allergies too. Are you going to try to keep a two year old inside during the summer? Especially when his favorite things to do are "push you swing", or "push me at da swing" depending on how he's feeling, and "jump on the tramp" which is short for trampoline. Don't get any ideas...

So Hyrum can have cereal, but he can't have "normal" milk. Noah can have non-wheat cereal and milk. Daniel can have whatever we feed him. Ammon can have Rice Chex and some speciality organic cereal that doesn't have HFCS (high fructose corn syrup) and rice milk. His diet consists mostly of rice-based products. That and meat and potatoes. Good thing he's a carnivore!

Me? I'm allergic to sugar. Not really, but because I'm diabetic, I basically am.

Wednesday, June 18, 2008

12:00 hour

Apparently, noon is the poop hour most popular time to use the facilities here at work. We have two floors here at work, and on each floor is one big bathroom each for men and women. Since we men can go to the bathroom standing up 70% of the time, there is usually only 1-3 actual toilets in a typical men's room. I go into the second floor men's room at 12 to visit my other office, and I find the two thrones already in use. So off to the first floor I go. While I'm in there, someone else comes in and takes the other one there. So it was a busy time in the bathroom here at work.

Found my password

I haven't updated this in a long, long time, adding to the blogsphere other useless blogs. I'll try to write more often.

There is so much that I would love to talk about, but I really don't have the time. I work for Spillman Technologies, and I have 5 boys 8 and under at home. That translates into "when I get home from work, I have to be superdad", or something. The problem is that sometimes, you just don't want to. I love my family, and I'm glad that they can't wait for me to come home. Often, I feel like I'm useful just for playing, like I'm a Toy or something.

Oh well. One day, far into the future, when they are dads, hopefully they will look back and say that they were grateful that I did that for them.