it's that time of year again, when we all gather together as a family and we count our blessings. this year, as with every year, there is much to be thankful for. family, friends, good health... really, what more could you ask for? this is also the first year that i think mimi really understood about Thanksgiving.
recently at school the kids made a chart that showed what they were thankful for. pretty much every kid in mimi's class said they were thankful for their mommy, daddy, or family. mimi was the only kid who said she was thankful for God. later, i asked her what she was thankful for and she again answered God. i asked her why she was thankful for God. she says, "mom. did God make people?"
"yes," i answered.
"And did God make all the birds and sky and trees?"
"yes" i answered.
"And did God make you and Daddy?"
"yes, God made everything." i told her.
"Mom? Do you know why I'm thankful for God?" she asks.
"No, tell me why you are thankful for God."
she says simply, "Because She gave me you and daddy and ozzy and kaya."
i told her that was a pretty good reason to be thankful for God. i especially liked that she refers to God as "She."
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this thanksgiving, my sister nancy, my mom and dad and rob's mom and dad came over to our house for t.g. dinner. it was nice to spend time w/my mom and sister, but i did miss having my older sister woo and her husband, hunter, present. the kitchen just didnt feel crowded enough this year without her bustling around in there! (and i mean that in a very positive way... it's just not as much fun unless youre underfoot of another Kim family member in the kitchen and fighting for food prep space.) she and her husband stayed in indianapolis, but will join us for christmas, so we will have to wait until next month to see them again.
i want to be able to say that this thanksgiving went off w/o a hitch, but as in previous years, something always happens. this time two years ago, my older sister woo was rushed to the emergency room for anaphylatic response to the shrimp bisque. last year i was stuck in a cabin on a cruise ship, fighting waves of nausea from my first trimester of pregnancy AND motion sickness. and it seems this year, a thanksgiving without drama was not to be had. the evening before thanksgiving day, mimi had to be rushed to the Emergency Room. while a Lindor truffle is largely suspect (likely contaminated with peanut proteins), the way it played out was rather different from the usual Peanut Perpetrator Modus Operandi.
in the few times that she has ingested peanut/peanut butter, the reaction begins with her mouth swelling/itching/hurting and hives forming around her mouth and then her eyes, before spreading to the rest of her body. her last episode also involved a tightening of the throat which led to lots of throat clearing and coughing.
this time it was different. it started with an "off" day, wednesday, after my parents and sister arrived. after putzing around the house for the better part of the morning, i started to get serious about getting the house and food ready for the big dinner the following night. my parents and sister had gone to get groceries, so i began running around cleaning in a stress induced state, which i have to admit is NEVER a good place for me to be in, and i HAVE to learn to calm myself down and bring it down a few hundred notches.
mimi had barely eaten lunch that day, saying she was full and didnt want to eat any more and could she be excused. i let her go play. a few hours later as i'm blasting through the house, one hand holding the baby, another hand vaccuuming and picking up crap off the floor, mimi starts yammerin' on about being hungry but not wanting any 'grow food' and just wanting snacks. like how about that chocolate that grandma brought? or the bag of Pirate Booty?
i argued that we would be eating dinner very soon, but if she wanted a snack i could fix her something healthier than chocolate or corn puffs. not taking no for an answer, she began filibustering on the virtues of snack foods and against the foods that fall under the realm of 'grow' and 'healthy.' up to my hairroots in Things To Do Before The In-Laws Arrive, i started screaming at mimi that it wasnt healthy, i'm sick of hearing this, but dammit, go ahead and eat the damn chocolate and puffs, but you better clean your plate at dinner time and why wasn't all those Legos in her room picked up yet. go pick those up first! in a typical mimi response she says, but mom, i'm sooo tired. i dont have any energy! i can't go clean my room because i need foooooood.
so she eats the truffle and the puffs and then goes directly to the couch to lay down, all the while i'm railing at her at the top of my lungs and ozzy is also starting to fuss and i just cant seem to make much progress on cleaning the house. i can see she is upset with me, but i'm too mad to go and make amends with her. (as you can see, i'm clearly a contender for Mom of the Year). so i say to her, if you're tired, go upstairs to bed. and surprisingly, she gets off the couch and goes to her room.
a few minutes later, after rob tells me he plans to check up on her after i went ape crap on her, i decide to check on her myself. i tell her i'm sorry about my behavior, i stressed how much i really want her to eat healthier foods and today i just couldnt handle anything more than what i already had to handle. and she nods, but her eyes are closed and she really seems to be on the verge of sleep and hardly seems to care about what i was saying. thinking, wow, she really IS tired. i tucked her in and quietly left the room. barely a half hour later, rob goes to check on her and as he rubs her back, he notices that it's covered with raised bumps. he brings her downstairs to the family room and we can see her entire back and front is covered in large, angry red hives and she's scratching at herself like a wild thing, literally tearing her skin to bloody shreds.
we spent what felt like an eternity trying to figure out what she ate, what could have set her off, is she breathing? does she need to go to the emergency room? why oh, why did i give in and let her have that truffle?! i did have a moment of hesitation before giving it to her, but thought, oh, it's a high end chocolate, maybe it's safe. there was no label to read. i figured one wouldnt hurt her. what were the chances it could be contaminated? i was not in a good state to begin with to be very careful and vigilant for my child. i felt terrible. and mimi looked at me and said, "mom, i should have just told you No when you told me i could eat that candy." i felt even worse when she said that.
something about how she was reacting also didnt seem right...it didnt seem the same as in previous KNOWN peanut incidences, so then i started to wonder if it could be stress induced and all my yelling at her may have triggered it.
in either case, it made me feel like crap. i was the reason why she was going thru this.
rob and i got her in the bath with corn starch to try to sooth the itching, but she was flopping in the tub, tired, barely able to keep her head up and crying because she was simultaneously unbearably itchy and stinging from the raw open scratches she was inflicting on herself. since the bath wasnt helping, we got her out of the tub and my mom started to smooth on corn oil on her skin in an effort to soothe it, but the poor kid was still clearly miserable, but thankfully still no breathing difficulties. then rob thought her mouth looked very white and swollen, and at the same time i was on the phone with a pediatrician, and both rob and the pediatrician made the call to head to E.R. at the same time. before i even hung up the phone, rob was out of the door with mimi. i grabbed my coat and left directions with my mom about Ozzy's feeds, and ran after them.
a timeline of these events: it all began just before 5 pm with mimi asking for food. 6:15 when rob discovered mimi had hives and mimi had a dose of benadryl. 6:40 when we arrived at the Fairfax inova. 8:00 before we were finally seen by a doctor. 9:30 they gave her a round of steroids. 10:30 pm, we were finally discharged. after a movie while sitting on a hospital gurney, apple juice, steroids, an orange popsicle, and a $100 co-pay later, mimi is back in her car seat and we're heading home after being given a green light to go, mimi turns to rob and me and says, "hey guys, thanks for taking me to the hospital."
so i guess this Thanksgiving, mimi was thankful for more than God. she was also thankful she had parents that took her to the hospital when she was sick. i, of course, was very thankful that she was okay.
recently at school the kids made a chart that showed what they were thankful for. pretty much every kid in mimi's class said they were thankful for their mommy, daddy, or family. mimi was the only kid who said she was thankful for God. later, i asked her what she was thankful for and she again answered God. i asked her why she was thankful for God. she says, "mom. did God make people?"
"yes," i answered.
"And did God make all the birds and sky and trees?"
"yes" i answered.
"And did God make you and Daddy?"
"yes, God made everything." i told her.
"Mom? Do you know why I'm thankful for God?" she asks.
"No, tell me why you are thankful for God."
she says simply, "Because She gave me you and daddy and ozzy and kaya."
i told her that was a pretty good reason to be thankful for God. i especially liked that she refers to God as "She."
---------------------------------------------------------------
this thanksgiving, my sister nancy, my mom and dad and rob's mom and dad came over to our house for t.g. dinner. it was nice to spend time w/my mom and sister, but i did miss having my older sister woo and her husband, hunter, present. the kitchen just didnt feel crowded enough this year without her bustling around in there! (and i mean that in a very positive way... it's just not as much fun unless youre underfoot of another Kim family member in the kitchen and fighting for food prep space.) she and her husband stayed in indianapolis, but will join us for christmas, so we will have to wait until next month to see them again.
i want to be able to say that this thanksgiving went off w/o a hitch, but as in previous years, something always happens. this time two years ago, my older sister woo was rushed to the emergency room for anaphylatic response to the shrimp bisque. last year i was stuck in a cabin on a cruise ship, fighting waves of nausea from my first trimester of pregnancy AND motion sickness. and it seems this year, a thanksgiving without drama was not to be had. the evening before thanksgiving day, mimi had to be rushed to the Emergency Room. while a Lindor truffle is largely suspect (likely contaminated with peanut proteins), the way it played out was rather different from the usual Peanut Perpetrator Modus Operandi.
in the few times that she has ingested peanut/peanut butter, the reaction begins with her mouth swelling/itching/hurting and hives forming around her mouth and then her eyes, before spreading to the rest of her body. her last episode also involved a tightening of the throat which led to lots of throat clearing and coughing.
this time it was different. it started with an "off" day, wednesday, after my parents and sister arrived. after putzing around the house for the better part of the morning, i started to get serious about getting the house and food ready for the big dinner the following night. my parents and sister had gone to get groceries, so i began running around cleaning in a stress induced state, which i have to admit is NEVER a good place for me to be in, and i HAVE to learn to calm myself down and bring it down a few hundred notches.
mimi had barely eaten lunch that day, saying she was full and didnt want to eat any more and could she be excused. i let her go play. a few hours later as i'm blasting through the house, one hand holding the baby, another hand vaccuuming and picking up crap off the floor, mimi starts yammerin' on about being hungry but not wanting any 'grow food' and just wanting snacks. like how about that chocolate that grandma brought? or the bag of Pirate Booty?
i argued that we would be eating dinner very soon, but if she wanted a snack i could fix her something healthier than chocolate or corn puffs. not taking no for an answer, she began filibustering on the virtues of snack foods and against the foods that fall under the realm of 'grow' and 'healthy.' up to my hairroots in Things To Do Before The In-Laws Arrive, i started screaming at mimi that it wasnt healthy, i'm sick of hearing this, but dammit, go ahead and eat the damn chocolate and puffs, but you better clean your plate at dinner time and why wasn't all those Legos in her room picked up yet. go pick those up first! in a typical mimi response she says, but mom, i'm sooo tired. i dont have any energy! i can't go clean my room because i need foooooood.
so she eats the truffle and the puffs and then goes directly to the couch to lay down, all the while i'm railing at her at the top of my lungs and ozzy is also starting to fuss and i just cant seem to make much progress on cleaning the house. i can see she is upset with me, but i'm too mad to go and make amends with her. (as you can see, i'm clearly a contender for Mom of the Year). so i say to her, if you're tired, go upstairs to bed. and surprisingly, she gets off the couch and goes to her room.
a few minutes later, after rob tells me he plans to check up on her after i went ape crap on her, i decide to check on her myself. i tell her i'm sorry about my behavior, i stressed how much i really want her to eat healthier foods and today i just couldnt handle anything more than what i already had to handle. and she nods, but her eyes are closed and she really seems to be on the verge of sleep and hardly seems to care about what i was saying. thinking, wow, she really IS tired. i tucked her in and quietly left the room. barely a half hour later, rob goes to check on her and as he rubs her back, he notices that it's covered with raised bumps. he brings her downstairs to the family room and we can see her entire back and front is covered in large, angry red hives and she's scratching at herself like a wild thing, literally tearing her skin to bloody shreds.
we spent what felt like an eternity trying to figure out what she ate, what could have set her off, is she breathing? does she need to go to the emergency room? why oh, why did i give in and let her have that truffle?! i did have a moment of hesitation before giving it to her, but thought, oh, it's a high end chocolate, maybe it's safe. there was no label to read. i figured one wouldnt hurt her. what were the chances it could be contaminated? i was not in a good state to begin with to be very careful and vigilant for my child. i felt terrible. and mimi looked at me and said, "mom, i should have just told you No when you told me i could eat that candy." i felt even worse when she said that.
something about how she was reacting also didnt seem right...it didnt seem the same as in previous KNOWN peanut incidences, so then i started to wonder if it could be stress induced and all my yelling at her may have triggered it.
in either case, it made me feel like crap. i was the reason why she was going thru this.
rob and i got her in the bath with corn starch to try to sooth the itching, but she was flopping in the tub, tired, barely able to keep her head up and crying because she was simultaneously unbearably itchy and stinging from the raw open scratches she was inflicting on herself. since the bath wasnt helping, we got her out of the tub and my mom started to smooth on corn oil on her skin in an effort to soothe it, but the poor kid was still clearly miserable, but thankfully still no breathing difficulties. then rob thought her mouth looked very white and swollen, and at the same time i was on the phone with a pediatrician, and both rob and the pediatrician made the call to head to E.R. at the same time. before i even hung up the phone, rob was out of the door with mimi. i grabbed my coat and left directions with my mom about Ozzy's feeds, and ran after them.
a timeline of these events: it all began just before 5 pm with mimi asking for food. 6:15 when rob discovered mimi had hives and mimi had a dose of benadryl. 6:40 when we arrived at the Fairfax inova. 8:00 before we were finally seen by a doctor. 9:30 they gave her a round of steroids. 10:30 pm, we were finally discharged. after a movie while sitting on a hospital gurney, apple juice, steroids, an orange popsicle, and a $100 co-pay later, mimi is back in her car seat and we're heading home after being given a green light to go, mimi turns to rob and me and says, "hey guys, thanks for taking me to the hospital."
so i guess this Thanksgiving, mimi was thankful for more than God. she was also thankful she had parents that took her to the hospital when she was sick. i, of course, was very thankful that she was okay.
so glad to hear that mimi is okay and that everyone was able to appreciate the true meaning of thanksgiving!
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