It's a bird, it's a plane, it's Allergy Mom

I've been thinking a lot lately about what my role is or should be as the mom of an allergic child. L is two years old. We have three Halloween events coming up. The first is a MOMS club party at the park, where the kids will trick or treat from mom to mom. The issue with that one is what I will hand out as my treat. Here's the thing, L only has 10 approved foods, so unless I hand each a big old sweet potato, I won't be handing out something L can eat. But I can hand out a non-food item.

Update: In the end, I brought PlayDoh as my "treat" to the MOMS club party and chose granola bars to hand out at our door (though we ended up having not a single trick-or-treater). The latter treat was chosen, not because of L, but because I figured we wouldn't get many TOTers so I'd end up eating whatever was left, and granola bars are my normal snack anyway.

Also, L did go TOTing. He was pretty clueless, so I was able to exchange his candy for a toy without incident.

My purpose

I've finally decided how I want to use my blog: to be an Eosinophilic blog, an Apraxia blog, and sometimes an IBS blog, because when you're facing these problems (as a parent or an individual), you long for others in your shoes. And that's where I am now, I'm looking for others in my shoes, and realizing I can be that person for others. So if you've found me because of one or more of these issues, then Howdy, and if you're blessed to only have one of these problems, I hope you'll forgive the intermingling of these three. My son has Eosinophilic Esophagitis. That has been our life since March of 2006. Now he is two years old and was diagnosed in June with verbal apraxia, so we deal with that now too with speech therapy twice a week. And since I have IBS (the diarrhea variety--ooh fun), that will necessarily come through in my storytelling as I stop at gas stations, run to portapotties etc.

Becoming Jane Part 2

A week or so ago I DVR'd an episode of Conan O'Brien where Anne Hathaway would be a guest and discuss the movie. Well I watched the episode yesterday afternoon. The clip she brought was the one from the ball by the pool (for lack of a better word), a lovely, if anachronistic, scene. This is where Jane nose-dives into Lefroy for a kiss and they, ahem, make out. Now I had taken this scene to be a nod to our 2007 notions of romance and courtship (i.e. if we go to a chick flick, we want kissing). Well, after the clip Hathaway explained that this kiss was the 19th c. equivalent of Paris Hilton exposing her hooha to the papparazzi (i.e. scandalous and slutty). Duh (although I wouldn't liken it to public nudity, but yes, it was slutty). So this tells me the writers/director knew they were protraying Austen as a slut, just for the hell of it (or perhaps for the sake of ticket sales). WTF! So much for my notion that the writers were fans of Austen.

I'm so confused!!!

Becoming Jane

DH and I went to the movies yesterday, we saw Becoming Jane, and I can't get all the sexy, romantic bits out of me head so I shall attempt to write a review.

Okay, so it was a complete work of fiction, let's get that out of the way, and comical in some ways for how anachronistic it was (I think that's the word)--Jane Austen who was all about propriety and the rules of society would not have a) made the first move, b) kissed before engagement, and c) called him "Tom" before engagement. But the screenwriter tried to flub over these bits with a line something like (this is Jane talking), "I don't make the rules, I just follow them." And it definitely had a 2007 take on 1796 that was laughable. DH said that toward the beginning he was ready for it to turn into a Disney animated feature.
There's plenty to criticize, but the fact is, I was completely drawn in. I loved when Jane and LeFroy hooked up. I wasn't sure how Tumnus, the faun from Narnia, would fare as a romantic hero, but he was sexy and believable and oh, the tears--two thumbs up for James McAvoy. By the end, I was crying buckets.

The other thing I liked about the film was you could see how much the screenwriter loves Austen's writings, weaving in quotes and themes from her novels, creating characters that might have inspired Austen's characters, and of course creating this plot that might explain Austen's recurring themes of societal mores, marrying for love vs. money, the consequences of poverty. As a Jane Austen fan myself, I loved these details.

I am a sap when it comes to unrequited love, longing glances, tears behind a man's eyes, and this film did those things proud (more on McAvoy's part than Anne Hathaway's, but she did a good job herself, I rarely thought of her as Queen of Genobia from Princess Diaries). Honestly, I can't wait for it to come out on DVD so I can own it.

So 4 stars out of 5. The first 45 minutes were garbage, but then I fell hook, line and sinker.

Today's excursion

Today L and I went to "Fun Time 4 Kids," a play place I never knew existed till I got the June calendar for MOMS club. It was so much fun! There were only two of us from MOMS club but the other mom was my buddy J, so that was a treat. Our boys barely played near each other at all, but the place was laid out so that we could see our kids from wherever we stood, so J and I talked the whole time (well, minus the half-minutes spent wrangling our boys when one, usually L, was trying to steal a toy from someone already in posession). This never happens! Even at playgroup, conversations only happen in tiny snippets, although maybe that has to do with knowing everyone in the room instead of only one.... Anyway, the boys had so much fun they were easy to look after. J had to leave after an hour and a half; L and I stayed but only for another 20 minutes or so because he was getting tired and hungry (as evidenced by the tantrums he threw as I pulled him off stolen toys). How do you teach an only child how to share??!! Even with playgroup, MOMS club, gym class...I think I'm giving him opportunities to socialize, but not enough to make sharing sink in, so far at least.

So this week I've been spending way too much time online reading blogs and that has spurred me to create my own place to ramble. Do I have anything interesting to say? Doubt it. Will my blog change the world? Sadly, no. But these days the chore of getting out my journal and a pen seems too much to bear sometimes, especially for the dumb types of thoughts I have lately as a frazzled mom to an almost two-year-old, so why not send them out into cyberspace where no one will read it anyway, since I'm not sure I'm going to tell any of my friends and family about this page. Hmmmm.