When All Else Fails, Try Distraction - Or Why Soccer is Way Cooler then Baseball

Thank you everyone for all the great ideas about what to do about my child's dreaded question. I have come up with a temporary solution. It goes back to my old motto, when all else fails, try distraction. Since the boys are huge soccer fans, we did some looking and discovered that a famous European team was playing some Americans (can you tell I know absolutely nothing about soccer???) in Palo Alto.

Mick and the boys are off to go to their first real sporting event tomorrow afternoon. Mick has assured me that peanuts are not a part of any sort of soccer tradition, at least in Ireland or England, so we should be ok. Even though I have absolutely no interest in Soccer, I have come to the conclusion that it is a way cooler sport then baseball. There is more running up and down the field, less of people waiting around to do something, and most importantly of all, peanuts are not such an integral part of the game that they are included in a song everyone sings during a break between innings.

OK, I will admit it, I actually have no love for soccer. I used to hate playing it when I was younger, and felt I was aimlessly running up and down the field. I also don't really enjoy watching it, and it seems like nothing ever really happens. Although I enjoy watching my son play on Saturday mornings, I am very relieved that I do not have to attend tomorrow's soccer outing and instead get to hang out and do girly things with Natalie.

I used to really like baseball too. I would watch games on tv and even attend some in person. I excitedly cheered when the Angels won the world series, and followed their seasons for some years after. I even own an Angels t shirt.

But you know, sometimes distractions can distract your outlook. Soccer is way cooler then baseball!!

The Other Day My Child Asked Me That Dreaded Question..

The other day, I heard those words every mother of a peanut allergic child dreads to hear. They are the words that put a chill through my heart and an ache in my head. And even worse these words were not even uttered by my peanut allergic child!!! It is so painful I have trouble typing them even here......... But OK, here goes. Other peanut allergic child mothers look away if you have to.

Two days ago, on July 7 2009, my oldest son Michael looked innocently up at me and asked, "Mommy, when can we go and see a baseball game?"

I calmly replied in an attempt to distract him "T-Ball season is over for the year, you can play instructional next year"

Michael looked up at me exasperated and replied, "No Mommy, like the one on TV. My friend friend is going to see the Giants. When can we go?"

I was able to tell him we would have to look into it, but what do we do???

I quickly ran over to the awesome web site Peanut Free Baseball Games, to see if I could find any sort of somewhat safe games, but Alas the closest games to us that I could find are in San Diego and Seattle.

I know I could try and take all sorts of precautions and just go, but I think I would have a heart attack ducking peanut shells, and trying to get an almost 5 year old to continually wipe his hands. Of course this is also the child who may have reacted to sitting next to a man on the airplane eating a bag of peanuts. I just don't think I could stomach going without actually going insane.

So, what are my other options.... Send the older child with his father while the other one sits at home and I am wracked with guilt over what he is missing out on. Send the older child with a friend and hose him down when he gets home? Don't let anyone go???

If anyone has any ideas, I would love to hear them. Maybe it is time for a road trip to San Diego or Seattle.

Peanut Knows

As I get everyone ready to head down to Southern California again for the July 4th weekend, I thought I would share an interesting find I came across while surfing the Internet superhighway. I don't know how I find these things, but hey, I do have many hidden talents.

This is posted on the web site The Greener Grass. As they describe themselves,

"The Greener Grass is produced by Kaleidoscope, a product development consultancy in Cincinnati, Ohio. It uses our resources to initiate positive change by opening discourse, connecting people, and becoming a conduit for new thinking and discussion that leads to positive outcomes. Our goal is to build a community by interviewing experts and thought leaders, identifying trends, and creating concepts for products, services, and ideas that bring solutions to life."

Sounds like a great goal for me.

Anyways, one of the products they have on this site is called Peanut Knows.

"The Peanut Knows is a friendly little fellow that can detect the presence of peanut and peanut trace in food products. The electronic nose sniffs out the culprit and alerts the user, helping to prevent allergic reactions.

The concept is from a form metaphor of the elephant's affinity for peanuts. This is an elephant pendant that, when placed on the side of your dish (bottom button is depressed), 'sniffs' for peanuts. If peanut content is detected the 'mouth' lights up."

How cool is that???? It would be like the Peanut Detection Dog, but in a small pendant in the shape of an elephant. I got all excited until I tried to do further research, and discovered that this is just a concept for a product, and one like it does not appear to be in the works anywhere I could find.

So, all you people who make products.....

I would buy one of these!!!

Please make it!!!

What a great idea!!!!!

My Amazing New Talent

This week I discovered an amazing new talent. I know, I know, you are saying that I already have so many talents already, how could I discover even more....but alas, the trials of motherhood have shed light on this previously (and thankfully) undiscovered skill.

It all began on Tuesday. Conor woke up in the morning saying he was not feeling well. Despite this, he still wanted to eat, so I fed him his usual breakfast. As soon as Mick walked out the door to go to work, the puking began. WOOoohooooo. what fun. I got the puke bowl, and the towels, and proceeded to get the other two sweet young children ready for their camps. Then it dawned on me I have to get them to their respective camps, and I have no one to stay home with Conor. After the throwing up subsided, I figured I would try my luck, and load everyone in the car and hope for the best. I took the puke bowl, and the towels and we were on our way. Everything seemed fine driving along the road until I heard the words I dreaded to hear...."Mommy, I don't feel so good."

Of course my sweet young child had dropped the ever useful bowl, and that was when the adrenaline started. Somehow, with reason beyond reason, I was able to find the missing puke bowl, catch the sick child's regurgitation and drive for 5 minutes until I was able to get to a safe place to pull over on the highway. I did all this without hitting anything, getting a ticket, or even getting a drop of the unfortunate sickness onto the car. I was even able to sooth the sick child, and clean out the bowl by the side of the road without making a mess.

Now if that is not a talent, I don't know what is.

A Peanut Butter Tree

I know I don't have too much free time on my hands, but I find these oh so interesting things when I should be doing other oh so interesting things. So, here is my latest find, The Peanut Butter Tree (also known in plant terms as Bunchosia)

And of course the Peanut Butter Tree produces the Peanut Butter Fruit.


This of course lead me to my favorite source Wikipedia

"Bunchosia argentea is a species of plant in the acerola family, Malpighiaceae. It produces a small red-orange fruit with sticky, dense pulp and a flavour resembling a dried fig. It is native to Venezuela and Colombia in South America.[1]
It has a flavor similar to that of peanut butter, hence the name. Additionally, the scent is unmistakably of peanut butter. Mostly eaten fresh, also used for jellies, jams, or preserves. It is cultivated in South Florida."

Of course this raised many questions for me that lead me to waste even more time trying to pursue. I first tried to find out if this fruit is in any way related to the peanut. If my darling little allergic son ate this fruit would he have a reaction. After hours of research I was unable to find an answer on the Internet superhighway, and I am not that worried because I don't think the tree is too popular here but still inquiring minds want to know......

So now I am off to find more answers for myself (Does anyone know the meaning of life?) and avoid doing all those other things I should be doing. Until I find the answer though, beware of the peanut butter fruit.

Why God Made Moms - An End of the School Year Tribute

With the end of the school year upon us, I am presently sitting at home trying to write this while 3 still pajama clad children run wild around the house. I am finding it quite hard to concentrate with things whizzing by my head, and dangerous sounds coming from the next room. There is no screaming yet, so I figure all is good for now. In honor of the end of the school year a friend of mine sent me this below. It gave me a chuckle and I hope it will for you too. (Hmmm, I just heard from the other room "I think it is stuck in the oven" to look or not to look, that is the question.)

WHY GOD MADE MOMS
Answers given by 2nd grade school children to the following questions:
Why did God make mothers?

1. She's the only one who knows where the scotch tape is.
2. Mostly to clean the house.
3. To help us out of there when we were getting born.

How did God make mothers?
1. He used dirt, just like for the rest of us.
2. Magic plus super powers and a lot of stirring.
3. God made my mom just the same like he made me. He just used bigger parts.

What ingredients are mothers made of?
1. God makes mothers out of clouds and angel hair and everything nice in the world and one dab of mean.
2.. They had to get their start from men's bones. Then they mostly use string, I think.

Why did God give you your mother and not some other mom?
1. We're related.
2. God knew she likes me a lot more than other people's mom like me.

What kind of a little girl was your mom?
1. My mom has always been my mom and none of that other stuff.
2. I don't know because I wasn't there, but my guess would be pretty bossy.
3. They say she used to be nice.

What did mom need to know about dad before she married him?
1. His last name.
2. She had to know his background. Like is he a crook? Does he get drunk on beer?
3. Does he make at least $800 a year? Did he say NO to drugs and YES to chores?

Why did your Mom marry your Dad?
1. My dad makes the best spaghetti in the world. And my mom eats a lot.
2. She got too old to do anything else with him.
3. My grandma says that mom didn't have her thinking cap on

Who's the boss at your house?
1. Mom doesn't want to be boss, but she has to because dad's such a goof ball.
2. Mom. You can tell by room inspection. She sees the stuff under the bed.
3. I guess mom is, but only because she has a lot more to do than dad

What's the difference between moms and dads?
1. Moms work at work and work at home and dads just go to work at work.
2. Moms know how to talk to teachers without scaring them.
3. Dads are taller and stronger, but moms have all the real power 'cause that's who you got to ask if you want to sleep over at your friends.
4. Moms have magic, they make you feel better without medicine.

What does your mom do in her spare time?
1. Mothers don't do spare time.
2. To hear her tell it, she pays bills all day long.

What would it take to make your mom perfect?
1. On the inside she's already perfect. Outside, I think some kind of plastic surgery.
2. Diet. You know, her hair. I'd diet, maybe blue.

If you could change one thing about your mom, what would it be?
1. She has this weird thing about me keeping my room clean. I'd get rid of that.
2. I'd make my mom smarter. Then she would know it was my sister who did it not me.
3. I would like for her to get rid of those invisible eyes on the back of her head.

Things I Learned on our Vacation - Lesson #2

Yes, I know, more lessons from our fun filled vacation to Ireland. When we arrived my very well meaning mother in law told me all the preparations she had done for our visit. She really is wonderful, and after a month or two of trying to understand Conor's allergies, she now really gets it, and does her best to help us out. Before we arrived she cleaned the house of any peanut products, made an effort to find safe foods for him, and cleaned the whole place thoroughly. She even had some things she was not sure of to have me check out for myself.

After we had been there a few days, (and I recovered from our 3 flights see lesson #1 only take direct flights) she excitedly told me she had checked out a local restaurant and thought it would be safe for Conor. She said she had gone in and talked to the staff and person in charge, and they said Conor could eat there safely.

Hearing this great information, we headed over there one night for dinner with tons of family. We all excitedly sit down and peruse our menu for our exciting dinning options. When I get to the bottom of the menu I see a giant disclaimer , "This restaurant is not safe for those suffering from nut allergies." Uh Oh, not a good sign. My husband gently points this out to my mother in law who stated that she spoke to the manager, and just never quite looked at the menu. I called the Manager over to our table, informed him about Conor's life threatening allergies. He first told me the food was safe, and there were only peanuts in a few things. I politely pointed out the giant disclaimer at the bottom of the menu stating his restaurant was definitely not safe, and then explained to him how cross contamination works. He went off to double check again, only to discover that many other products in the kitchen were not safe, and if my son was that sensitive perhaps he should not eat there.

Thankfully there was a McDonalds around the corner, (yes, McDonalds are everywhere) and the restaurant manager kindly agreed to let Conor eat his McDonalds happy meal in the restaurant while everyone else ate their regular food.

So what was my second lesson of our vacation.....

#2 Always double check any information someone gives you

and sub lesson - restaurant managers are idiots!