Daddy, aka "Todd"

Today we were playing the "Daisy" game, except we were next door neighbor kids playing ball outside. (Think this child needs a playmate his own age?) My husband was doing yard work nearby. The conversation went something like this:

"Todd is the mean kid."
"Who's Todd?"
Points to David
"He's always mean to me."
"Really?"
"Yeah, he is always throwing peanuts at me"

Now to clarify, to my knowledge no one has ever thrown peanuts at Max and David, aka "Todd" is not mean to his son. But it did make me laugh. The things this kid comes up with. Throwing peanuts at an allergic kid would be pretty mean.

Pizza Friday

He SAYS he ate almost the entire muffin half. I am inclined to believe him as usually if he is going to lie he will fess up soon after without me even prompting him. He did say he didn't like the sausage because it was cold but liked the olives and carrots. We shall call it a success for now.

Mom, aka Daisy

Max is king of pretend play. We are constantly talking about or being dinosaurs, Pokemon characters, Ben Ten characters, various animals or monsters. The most interesting games which I think give me insight to Max's little psyche, are when we are people.

Most recently I have been assigned the role of Max's cousin. My name is "Daisy". My husband likes this role play and has been wondering aloud if I should get a pair of really short shorts.

The interesting part is that Daisy is allergic to all the things Max is and Max, in our game, is not allergic to anything and can eat anything he wants. So the other day I had given him a marshmallow which to Max is like handing him a candy bar. Yum, city! He is eating the marshmallow saying, "Yum, this cheesy marshmallow is soooo good." (Cheesy marshmallow, gross!) "Too bad you can't have any of this cheesy marshmallow, Daisy." (Really, I don't mind.) "I'm going to have to wash my hands when I am done eating because you are allergic to cheese, remember Daisy?"

We play this game quite often lately, me being the allergic cousin and him being himself without allergies. I wonder what this says about him and his thought process about his allergies? Is he feeling left out? Is that why he needs to create a character outside himself who is also left out? Maybe I am reading too much into but lately he has been doing a lot of "When I am no longer allergic to milk, I will eat yogos or go to Chuckie Cheese to play all of the games." How much do I let him hope? Pretend?

Pizza Friday on a Monday!

Again Max did not eat the pizza. I took a picture so you could see how tasty it looked.

So today while grocery shopping I remember my mother telling me to use an English muffin. I had dismissed it at the time because I hadn't found an English muffin that did not contain a milk ingredient. So just to see I decided to check out the English muffin labels. All the Thomas brand contained milk but way at the end of the bread isle I found the Weight Watchers brand English muffins and lo and behold, no milk or egg or nuts. Of course we will all have to chuckle at my 32 pound 5 year old eating a "diet" English muffin.

I let him put it together himself for dinner. I put some sauce on and he added the toppings. And you know what, he ate one whole half! I then tried adding up the calories for half a muffin with a few sausage bits, olives, carrots. Okay, probably less than 100 calories, but tasty for all you weight watchers out there. We are going to give it a go this upcoming Friday. This may be the pizza substitute we've been looking for!

Walking With Dinosaurs...But Not Eating With Them

I took Max to see Walking With Dinosaurs today. He loved it, of course. The kid was in dinosaur heaven.

We breezed on past the concession stands selling overpriced popcorn, hot dogs and, you guessed it, peanuts. And here is the advantage of having a food allergy child. He did not ask for a single thing. We never (well hardly ever) buy him food anywhere that, well, frankly I don't know if he even realizes they are selling food. He must, I guess. Everyone around us was eating french fries and hot dogs, but not once did he say "Hey, I want that." (That is until we got to the merchandise stand after the show.) Truly, I probably saved $20 or more just becuase we couldn't eat the food!

When Max does get to eat something not made at home, he savors every bite. Last fall we went into DC to see the sights. I bought Max a pre-packaged Italian Ice from a street vendor. After reading the label 2-3 times I handed him this magnificent cherry flavored concoction of high-fructose corn-sryup. For 30 minutes he slurped and licked and praise poured forth "Mommy, thank you so much for this delicious treat." "This is so good, Mommy." "This is the best treat I have ever had." "I don't like it, I LOVE it." "Mommy, this is the best day ever." "Thank you for getting me this great treat!" "Mommy, I love you."

Aw shucks, it's just Italian Ice.

Off Topic

Also OT, how does one become an Alpha Mom? I think it must involve driving an SUV and working out at a gym as well as not making eye contact with the mom's lower on the social heirarchy.

Cereal Family

Now this isn't necessarily food allergy related but as I forcifully shoved yet another box of cereal into our miniscule amount of cupboard space I thought "How did we become a cereal family." Honestly before children I don't remember EVER having cereal in our home, maybe cereal bars but beyond that not even oatmeal. What did we eat for breakfast? Did we eat breakfast? I only remember eating breakfast out at fun little diners. When was my life invaded with cereal?