Oh, Peanuts.
Have I got news for you.  There has been a lot going on. 
I had guests up until I traveled to several different countries, and then spent lots of time in doctors offices with littles, and now it is time to gear up for school next week.  whew!
The good news is that everyone is doing fine and as full of attitude as ever. 
Little One is excited about school and Missy is talking in adorable little sentences. And I will have more stories here soon, for those who can stand to sit all the way through them. 

Sweet Sour

 Food allergies are no fun.  But we're pretty used to them by now.  Good thing, since some of Little One's really serious food allergies will probably be with us forever.  But one of the many mysterious things about food allergies is that some of them are sometimes outgrown. 
Like somewhere in there on a molecular level, there's been this teeny, tiny little immunological UN conference and a peace deal finally gets brokered between the Histamine Republic and the Empire of Soy, for example.  Isn't it nicer when we can all just get along?!  Yes.  It is.  But since those little proton-sized newspapers are too small for us to read, there's no way to know if such a deal has been reached except to throw the two sides together, take cover, and see what happens. 
Since Little One's person is the battleground, it's best to do it in the doctors office, and this is what we call the Food Challenge.  Sounds serious, huh?
In a food challenge we take a miniscule amount of something we expect, suspect, or just hail-mary hope a person has stopped being allergic to, and we have them eat it.  Then everyone sits and watches all intently for 20 minutes or so.  If everything seems ok, we give a slightly bigger bit to them, and again watch and wait.  Sometimes, like when Little One tried egg last year, there is a reaction and the whole thing is called off.  But if all goes well, they eat a little more and more until they have had a large enough "dose" without reacting that we can safely say they are no longer allergic. 
Little One hasn't passed a food challenge in a while, but last week we went ahead with Her new allergist and tried to see whether She had made peace with lemons yet.  And, as it turns out!!

Yep.  That's right!  She passed!
Little One is beyond excited.  She asked me to take pictures and a video to send J immediately.  She stopped people in the hospital hallways to cry out joyously, "Guess what? Guess what guys?! A-scuse me, guess what I CAN HAVE LEMONS!!!!! Is. That. So. Great?!" And sang about Her love of lemons all the way home in the car. 
To celebrate, we fixed special dinner of salmon with lemon dipping sauce and lemon-pepper roasted veggies. 

We haven't tried other citrus yet, but we will and excepting pineapple the allergist feels confident that She will be ok with that as well. 
Lemon is an ingredient which tends to sneak into the strangest places and is rarely labeled.  So if I could have chosen an allergy from Her list to cross off, this would have been it.  I'm almost as excited about it as She is! Yay for Little One! We have one less thing to worry about.
And from now on, when life gives Her lemons, She can just eat them!

Recastle

We had some friends visiting this week.  We did lots of fun stuff but on the last day there wasn't time to go anywhere, and the playroom had been played out.  

What to do with four bored princesses and a bunch of leftover moving boxes?

Who knew recycling could be so royally fun!

Let The Missy-Isms Begin!

Since hearing my reaction to Her rash awhile back, Missy's new favorite expression is,

"Jeeeeeeze!" 

Which is a good teenage warm-up, I think.  As in:


"Miss, you have a lot of blocks to pick up."
"Jeeeeze!"


"Sorry Miss, no more broccoli until you at least try your bread."
"Jeeeeeezze!"

"Miss, you need two shoes, love, not just one.  Please find your other shoe."
"Jeeeze.  Jee-eeeeezze!"



Or. Several times a day:

Little One: "Wow, Missy! We sure maked a BIG mess togever!"

Missy: "Awwww.... JEEEZE!"