I don’t know how it’s going in the rest of the country, but here in the Northeast it feels like it has been raining forever. I think we’ve easily had rain almost every day for over a month. Don’t get me wrong, rain is good. Plants need rain, yada, yada. But, for a mom home all day with two young kids, it’s a little bit like Mother Nature’s personal torture device. We can’t go outside to play or for a walk, and going anywhere else means two wet kids and a very wet Mama. To make matters worse, Bug has decided that he’s afraid of thunder. If it starts while he’s playing, he’s ok. He just continues to announce, “I don’t like thunder!” But if it’s naptime or bedtime, it’s ugly. He starts to scream bloody murder and there’s really no hope of him falling asleep.

We’re heading for vacation in a week. Maybe all of this rain will buy us a rain-free vacation! Cross your fingers for me…

If you’ve been blogging about back to school tips, please head on over to the About.com Family Computing site and submit your blog in this month’s All About Parenting Blog Carnival!

Thanks for all of the entries. They were fun to read!

The winner of the recent Barefoot Books giveaway was Nicol of the Classy and Sophisticated blog. I’ll be contacting her shortly to let her know about her win - a $25 gift card to Barefoot Books.
Congrats to Nicol and all of the Bloggy Giveaways winners! It seems that I didn’t win anything this time around… no worries, I’ll just enter twice as many next time!

 This contest is closed. Thanks for your entries!

Every quarter, Bloggy Giveaways hosts a huge carnival where hundreds (no joke - there are at least 400 already as I write this) of blogs give away cool prizes. All you have to do is visit, follow the directions (usually quite simple) and cross your fingers. You can start right here!

As you may know, I am a Stallholder with Barefoot Books. In other words, I’ve got the great privilege of sharing the most amazing, intelligent, multicultural children’s books with my friends, family and readers. This month, we have released our first full-color illustrated young adult novel entitled Little Leap Forward. It is the story of a young boy coming of age in China during the Cultural Revolution. You can hear more about the based-on-true-life story from the author Guo Yue in a wonderful video on the Barefoot Books website. Little Leap Forward is one of many great books on Chinese culture from Barefoot Books. It’s the perfect time to learn more about China (good and bad) as the 2008 Summer Olympics approach.

So, by now you’re wondering… what’s the giveaway already?! I am giving away a $25 gift card to Barefoot Books. You can use it to purchase Little Leap Forward, or any other item in our award-winning collection of books and gifts. Simply visit my Barefoot Books website and poke around. Return back and leave a comment on which item you think you’d purchase (other than Little Leap!) and why. Make sure I have a way to contact you! Please note that my comments are moderated, so they may take some time to appear. The giveaway will run until Friday, August 1, 2008 at 11:55pm EST. The winner will be chosen at random from all of the eligible comments. *Sorry this contest is open to folks with US mailing addresses only. One entry per person/email.
If you fall in love with Barefoot while browsing around, I’d like to share that you can also become a Stallholder or affiliate for free! You can sell our gorgeous books to others, reap the lovely discount, earn from sales through your own blog/website and know that you’re part of a company that believes that our children deserve the best. Barefoot also strives to be a green company, so you can feel good about that as well. Visit my site to register or inquire for more information.

And lastly, as a thank you for visiting my blog, I am offering my readers 10% off on all purchases from my site using the link below. Please remember that you MUST click on the banner in order for your discount to go through.

I love books, of course. So I was excited to find out that there are a number of places online where you can read full books for free. I’m not a huge fan of reading on my computer (I spend so much time on here as it is), but it’s great to be able to really preview when shopping online. I’m especially excited about the kids’ books.

Check out my article on About.com: Read Books Online for Free.

Well, Bug’s allergy results were not quite as positive as we had hoped. The egg allergy is still there and was classified by the nurse as a “major” reaction. The skin welts from the walnuts and peanuts were so large that they ran into each other, so there was no question on those. The soy allergy seems to be gone and we have reintroduced soy into his diet. This is actually a big thing. Although he could have soybean oil and soy lecithin, the most common soy ingredients in non-soy foods, soy flour and soy protein are also surprisingly common. We now have a lot more flexibility on meats, breads and other products. Still, we were counting on the egg allergy to go away. In fact, I was hoping for a celebratory brunch after the appointment. No such luck. We’ll keep hoping, I guess.

LadyBug’s allergy blood test for the common 8 food allergies came back negative, which is wonderful news. That could, of course, change at any time, but for now it’s a relief. It won’t change the type of foods we have at home, but it will make it less stressful to take her out to eat and, of course, once she starts school.

My LadyBug turns 1 today. She’s cuddly, sweet, mischievous, adorable, crafty and a bit of a handful. We love her!

It’s no secret that I like video games. It’s also no secret that Big Guy loves them more. So, I’m thrilled to see that Literary Illusions is giving away a DS Lite and some games. I hope I win!
You can also enter the contest if you like. It ends at midnight on July 3. Let me know if you win!

It has been a year and a half since Bug (aka Little Guy) was diagnosed with food allergies. It has been scary, stressful and frustrating (largely thanks to certain relatives who were uncooperative/unhelpful during the food trials). He’s added asthma to his bag of tricks, so that’s nerve-wracking as well. Next week Bug has follow-up skin tests to see how his allergies are progressing. I am hoping to remove at least the egg allergies and possibly the soy allergy. The loss of those two allergies would feel like a “return to normal” for me. It’s not, really, since avoiding peanuts and most tree nuts isn’t a walk in the park, but nuts aren’t central to many recipes. Of course, we’d still be toting the twinject, benadryl and a high level of anxiety around with us, but cooking would be simpler at least.

Lady Bug (aka Little Lady) is turning one next week. Pretty crazy! Because of the family history of allergies, she’ll be tested at a year whether we think she has allergies or not. I wouldn’t be surprised since she has had some eczema and some spit-uppy issues. I have to admit that I’m getting a bit nervous.  I’m trying not to worry, but I can’t help at least a little concern. If she has the same allergies as Bug, it would be sad and frustrating, but it would probably be just as easy to be consistent. I know that the odds are slim that she’ll have exactly the same allergies, so I worry that she’ll have a milk allergy (Bug actually has a mild one, but drinks the stuff anyway) or wheat or something else that will push me over the edge.

Here’s the thing… I adore my kids. I want them to be happy and healthy. I want them the feel special, but NORMAL. I don’t want them to feel left out at birthday parties and special events. But behind all of that concern for the kids, is also just a bit of annoyance for me as well. It’s stupid, I know, but I miss walnuts like nobody’s business. Hubby eats peanut butter at work, but I’m home with the kids, so nuts are out (except for occasional desserts at a Girls’ Night Out). It’s tedious reading labels and exhausting trying to make sure we’re attending activities that are safe for my son. Our families have been incredibly supportive overall, but there are particular family members who I always feel are battling me on everything. I guess I just feel like it’s inappropriate to battle me for control over food when my kid has potentially life-threatening allergies. That’s just me. So, there’s the selfish side of being a food allergy mom!

I’m writing this post in WordPress, rather in Windows Live Writer which I prefer. My web host did something that broke my Live Writer access and I’ve put off posting ever since. Today I took some time to figure out the problem, but it’s still not working. I thought I had fixed it and wrote a whole post about how my web host keeps screwing things up (yeah, I’m too lazy/busy to change hosts right now) and I hit submit… ERROR.

Blah again.