Smelly AND Theraputic!

I was on the phone with my mom yesterday telling her how much trouble Chase was having sleeping because she couldn't breathe. That was when my mom suggested one of the craziest things I'd ever heard. She said "put a crushed shallot in her bed when she goes to sleep." Apparently in the Thai olden days, crushed shallots and kaffir lime leaves were added to a warm bath for any babies/kids with congestions. I didn't have any kaffir lime leaves and probably wouldn't even know where to look for one but did have a bag of shallots sitting in my pantry. I kind of thought it was crazy but mom said that she did it when we were little and it worked well. I was afraid that the emitted gas would burn Chase's eyes, and she assured me that a shallot was small enough and would not be as pungent as a big onion and told me to just hold it in front of me for a minute to try. Sure enough I didn't feel any stinging, but since my nose wasn't stuffy at the time, I couldn't attest to the nose-clearing ability. Desperate time called for desperate measures, and I wasn't about to face the third sleepless night in a row without a fight. And you know what? She slept 11 hours straight last night. I never heard one stuffy nose snort--not one angry fit. When I opened her bedroom door this morning, the distinct aroma was abundantly there but my child was also breathing effortlessly. Within minutes of my taking her to the living room to have breakfast and play, she was suddenly congested and dripping the gooey stuff again. Unbelievable!!! I'm not above making her a shallot necklace to wear for a couple of days. Kun Yai to the rescue! You are the greatest walking and talking mom's encyclopedia. I also made your concoction of lemon and honey drink this morning to soothe my miserable throat and am already feeling better. Man, I used to hate that stuff when I was little. Thanks again, Mom!

We're experiencing our first thunderstorm in this house, and Paddy was taking a refuge from the evil storm that was coming to get him under my feet.
My 85-lb baby.


I was feeling adventurous and let Chase have some chicken and noodles for dinner. The kid looks stoned here, doesn't she? Anyway, ALL the kids were very happy about this dinner choice, if you know what I mean.

It's been raining cats and dogs here all week and our backyard is so overly saturated and flooded. I have had to hose down the boys a couple of times a day after they come back from using the bathroom. We have both a bathtub and a little shower stall in our bathroom, and I've been rinsing them off in the shower stall so I wouldn't have to fight with Paddy to throw him in the tub. It's really tiny even for me, but it does ok for a quick job. For some unknown reason, Brutus LOVES to be in the shower stall. All I have to do is to open the door and tell him "bath" and he'd just jump in. I think he's just relieved that he didn't have to slip and slide all over the place in the tub. Last night I left Paddy outside while I was cleaning off Brutus in the bathroom. When he was done and dried off, Bru jumped into his papasan chair and got comfortable. Then I went to get Paddy, opened the door, told him "bath", and practically had to shove him in. Brutus, who heard the command, leaped out of his chair and into the stall. I couldn't get him out for a minute. He was actually miffed that I kicked him out of the bathroom without giving him another rinse down. All my kids are weirdos. Look how thrilled Paddy is about this situation.


BUSTED!

This explains why we are not making any progress with the sippy cup. My kid thinks that nipples of any kind are funny. I know. She would gnaw on it a little, take it out to examine it, squeeze it to see if something comes out, chuckle to herself, and then repeat the process. She does it with mine sometimes and I can never keep a straight face long enough to tell her no. Life with this child is always amusing.