Variety

Most of you know that T is allergic to eggs. In the grand scheme of things, this is a minor issue. And in terms of all the allergies out there, eggs are pretty easy to avoid. If he *has* to be allergic to something, I'll take eggs.

And I think it goes without saying that I am very grateful for my son's overall health. I'm not complaining! He has been a remarkably healthy kid in his 19 months of life and I'm so thankful for that!

It's just that sometimes his egg allergy bums me out. He's really been a trooper about it. He's heard "no" so many times when he wants something that someone else is eating that he usually just accepts the "no" and walks away. It's almost like he knows he's allergic to eggs and so he doesn't bother making a fuss.

This morning at MOMS I picked my kids up from childcare and brought them into the room where we meet. Lily almost always asks for a treat and so we went to the treat table (usually full of baked things that contain eggs) and she picked something out. Taylor stood near the table just gazing at the treats and never "asked" me for anything. (I usually try to have something in his diaper bag that he can have instead.) But in that moment my heart went out to the little guy. Especially because he looks up to Lily so much and wants to be doing whatever she's doing. And in this case, he couldn't. And I felt bad for him. He's such a trooper.

At Christmastime I made a couple batches of cookies without eggs so that Taylor could eat sweets along with the rest of us. I had sort of forgotten that he'd never had a cookie. And I will *never forget* the look on his face when I handed him his first cookie and he tasted it.

I wish you could have seen it.

His eyes lit up and were enormous.

And his expression said, "WHERE have these been all my life?!" It was really priceless.

I'd love for him to outgrow the allergy and the allergist thinks there's a good possibility that he will. But for now we do our best to avoid eggs. And he's putting up with it really well.

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We've been researching minivans a little bit as the lease on Andy's Camry winds down in about six weeks. We're looking into buying a used Chevy Uplander. I wouldn't describe it as the cutest minivan I've ever seen. But let's be honest, IS there a cute minivan?

Anyhoodles, it seems like the Uplander has the features that we're looking for and like we have the best chance of finding this particular car in our price range with under 60,000 miles on it.

We have a friend in the car business and she's keeping her eyes open for one. So I'm just praying that God would provide the right vehicle for us. My prayer is very similar to the one I prayed when we were house hunting. If any car we find isn't the One He has for us, then I pray He'd close the door.

I never imagined that I'd be excited about a minivan, but I am. I just think it's going to make my life as a mom, hauling my kids around town, quite a bit easier.

Imagine with me, if you will, pulling into a parking lot and looking for a nice big spot for your semi-ginormous SUV. And you find one! And you park, get the kids out, and head inside to do your shopping. And you come back out to find that some bozo (excuse my language) has parked reeeeeeeeeeally close to you. (Can't they SEE that you have carseats in the back?!?!) And your semi-ginormous SUV has very large doors that swing open very wide. And you have to do your best to open the door ever so slightly, pick up your heavy kid (mine are 30 and 40 pounds a piece) and wrestle them into their carseat. And you're pregnant. And not the slimmest that you've ever been in your life. And after months of this you start to feel just a weensy bit annoyed every time you have to try to squeeze yourself and your kids into the narrow little opening to avoid scratching or denting the car next to you. That is if you care about not scratching or denting the car next to you. (Which I do.) But as your belly grows (and so do your children and your annoyance) you can imagine yourself one day maybe not caring quite so much whether Mr. Oblivious parked next to you gets his car scratched by the door of your semi-ginormous SUV. Can I get an amen?

Real mature, I know.

I blame it on ALL THE HORMONES.

Let's just say I'm looking forward to the sliding doors of a minivan!

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Still no name for this baby. Lily's latest suggestion is Ruby. And I really like it. And Andy doesn't. So the search continues...


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Lily is officially enrolled at the Christian School. Oh. My. Word. This makes me really happy and is surreal at the same time.

She is just so excited about Kindergarten, and I just can't believe this is happening. In six months my daughter's school career will begin and she will be gone five mornings a week.

Yes, we've decided on the "half day" program for her. We really took our time thinking that over, but I'm happy with our decision for several reasons.

First, she's going to be a "young five". Her birthday is in June so she'll likely be one of the younger ones in her class. I know how big the adjustment to preschool was for her, so I can only imagine what it's going to be like going to school five mornings/week. I'm glad that she'll be able to come home and spend the afternoon with me, Taylor and the baby.

Second, at my appointment with the Principal (she interviews all new families) I asked her to tell me what she felt were the main differences between the half day and all day programs. I had already spoken with the Kindergarten teacher about this, but wanted to get another point of view. She told me that the half day kids are dismissed sometime around 11:30. After that the all day kids have recess, eat lunch, take a rest, and by that time have about an hour left in the school day. So, we would be paying significantly more for her to get only an additional hour of instruction each day. And because of my previous point (she'll be a young five) I think the mornings will be plenty for her. Although, we're keeping an open mind. And if at some point during the year we feel like she's really ready for a long day/bigger challenge then maybe we'll send her all day. We'll just have to wait and see.

And lastly, it comes down to money. The half day program is just easier to swing at this point. We really are trying to trim our budget and stick to it each month. We recently took on a larger mortgage which made things significantly tighter for us. And we finished our basement. Ouch is about all I can say about that. And because we've never had to pay for childcare, there was never a line for that item in our budget! The half day program allows us to send her to the Christian School and adjust to cost of it in our monthly expenses and work our way up to the cost of first grade. (Hopefully, finding a minivan in our target price range will save us at least $50-75/month and that'll be a big help!)

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I'm reading She's Gonna Blow! by Julie Ann Barnhill and so far it's really, really good. She is SO honest about her own struggles with anger as a mom. Her transparency has been really helpful for me and I've already taken away several good points that sort of stick with me throughout the day and help me to keep things in perspective. Someday I'll have to share some of my favorite quotes.

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Are you enjoying the Olympics??? I am!

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Take care and have a terrific Tuesday!