Fordham Miller Fare

head lice. they're not just for kids anymore.

that's right.  after getting ready to declare madeleine yet again free of the creepy crawlies (ha!), i came down with them myself.

the good news?  that after the third go around, i purchase a product called Resultz i found on the internet.  it has been approved in Canada, but not here, but was easily (although somewhat expensively) purchased through the internet.  i used it most recently to treat madeleine, and was delighted with the fact that (1) it is not a neurtoxin, and one needn't call poison control should it get into one's eyes, and (2) it does not require the massively labor intensive approach of the cetaphil program.  the active ingredient is apparently found in everyday cosmetics, including lipstick, which can either make you say, 'a delousing agent?  in my lipstick?' or 'thank god there's something you can just pour on your head and wash off without major risk of chemical exposure.

i won't bore you with the details - oh, okay i will.  it works by dissolving the waxy coating on the lice, thereby dehydrating them.  think of it as a kind of citrasolve for the insect world.  saturate the hair from roots to tip, wait ten minutes, and shampoo out.  it is a pretty oily substance, so my experience has taught me that at least two if not three shampoos in a row are necessary to get the hair really clean again.

my googling shenanigans have earned me enough of a reputation that i ended up selling a bottle of the beloved lotion to a friend in the late evening hours.  thankfully i thought to re-order - just in case.  here's hoping this stuff does the trick.  if not, i'll be emulating twiggy for my next haircut.

sad

earlier in the year, madeleine struck up a new friendship with a boy in her class.  classroom crushes are nothing new to madeleine.  she has had one about every year she's been in school.  in kindergarten, her crush led to wild disappointment when the young gentleman in question settled in enough to take up with the boys and leave her in the dust.  all summer when we encountered this boy, bill coached madeleine on the art of 'playing it cool.'  it worked, and in no time she was a pro at handling rejection.

this time, when things came to an end, it was not madeleine but i that was crushed.  she and this boy had been such sweet and smitten friends, it was somewhat astonishing to witness.  (i also especially appreciated the fact that their playdates were not fraught with the hysteria and tantrums that are so often a part of her playdates with girls.) i was sure that this would send her on her way to a solid understanding of what a healthy loving relationship is. i mean, she is only 9, and of course it was only a puppy dog kinda crush, but she's always been precocious, and i couldn't help but be buoyed by their mutal affection.  we even went to a family contra dance together. i foolishly thought it was forever.

of course it wasn't forever, and while i tried to smooth over the rough edges of whatever slight precipitated the end, it was all for naught.  it's a done deal.  she's moved on.  for what it's worth, it appears it's a mutual split.

but the other day, when i was furiously cleaning her room in a particularly angry and fragile state (see previous post on entropy and baby powder), i saw that she had tossed out an envelope that had once contained several baseball cards, sent by the boy in question early in their infatuation.  the sight of it in the garbage can, the third grade handwriting, the sentiment behind it, brought me to tears.

threat levels

biocontaminants: code yellow.

pestilent life forms: code orange.

chemical hazards: code green.

upon entering the domicile, please report any sore throat symptoms to the nurse on duty, reporting any allergies to medication, especially antibiotics, at that time.  kindly hand over your toothpaste, toothbrush, and dental floss, as well as any other dental appliances.  these shall be returned to you after a run through the sanitization cycle, but only on an as needed basis.  abandoned dental aids will be triple-bagged and sent to the incinerator.

please report any itching of the scalp to the nurse on duty.  surrender any hairbrushes, combs, headbands, pony tail holders, and stuffed animals.  these will be subject to appropriate sanitization procedures, and returned on an as needed basis.  hair checks will be conducted on an erractic enough schedule to ensure the survival of at least one reproducing adult.  therefore, please be prepared to repeat this process in 6-8 weeks.

there are currently no active chemical hazards, so you are free to enter and depart rooms as you please.  however, in the event of an unanticipated release of mercury, you will be asked to vacate the premises immediately until proper mercury cleanup protocol can be accomplished.

your patience is appreciated.

sage advice. and don't take any wooden nickels, while you're at it.

From Morgan: You don't have to call it a clothes hamper, you can just call it a hamper, because you don't use it for anything but clothes.  Have you ever heard of a cookie hamper?  Well?  Have you?

From Madeleine: Steps if you spill milk a lot like you drop the gallon of milk. (1) Pick up the milk as soon as possible. (2) Get some rags. (3) Mop up the floor. (4) Get back to whatever you were doing. (5) Make a list like this and give it to a parent.

attempts at routine

in an attempt to serve varied, nutritious and regular meals (and also to enjoy the process of preparing food for the family), the day before yesterday i made zucchini bread, carrot ginger soup, and tomato onion cheddar quiche.  for the kids benefit, i made little quichettes, consisting of only the egg custard mixture and cheese.  oh, and i made the crust from scratch.

when morgan came to the table, he dissolved into tears at the sight of his dinner.  keep in mind, this child currently survives on the following staples: (whole wheat) bread & butter, bananas, yogurt, and some breakfast cereals.  now, i made the quichettes knowing that both of my kids like eggs, and cheese, and bread/crust.  i tried very hard to convince morgan that the zucchini bread was really like cake (and really, it is), and that the quichette is just eggs and cheese.  i did not even TRY to serve him the soup.  he refused the eggs outright, and told me the zucchini bread, which is made with cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger and cardamon, smelled like zucchini.  what the heck does zucchini smell like, anyway?  the meal ended with morgan eating a piece of bread and butter, and me barely holding back-- okay, not holding back -- my fury at his refusal to even TASTE the eggs and zucchini bread.  madeleine, i'm happy to report, love the quichette, and zucchini bread; she tasted the carrot soup and gave it a thumbs down, but she did try it and remarked that it seemed "interesting" in color and smell.

i know i shouldn't engage in power struggles over food, but i'm at a loss at what to do with this child who wants to eat bananas and yogurt 3 meals a day.  i truly don't care if he won't EAT what i make, but the fact that he won't even TRY it is what gets to me.  i know he has some serious super-taster/texture issues going on, but it's hard to get excited about cooking and serving food to your kids when one of them (and sometimes both) reject just about everything, even things they've previously eaten and enjoyed.

yesterday morning, it was madeleine's turn.  while she has become a very game eater, and expresses a lot of interest in the health value of foods, getting her dressed these last couple of days has been complete torture.  madeleine is one of those "it doesn't feel good" kids.  when she was a toddler, putting on a coat which caused her sleeves to bunch up was a regular meltdown experience.  i had to buy her shoes a size too big in order for us both to cope.  but the strange thing is, this sensitivity seems to wax and wane.  i would have thought that we were gradually outgrowing it, but this week has seen the "princess and the pea" return with a vengance.  suddenly, the clothes she's been wearing for the past 6 months don't feel good (and it's not because they're too small).  nothing feels good, and she turns into an inconsolable and rather nasty puddle of despair.  this shirt is too long, this skirt bunches up when i sit, this waistband doesn't feel good.  we managed to work through some hysteria over her sneakers, which are relatively new and which she had worn for several weeks without complaint, but the rest of it is going full steam.  good god, i can't imagine what it's going to be like when she's a teenager, and has adult size wardrobe crises.

yesterday she had her first ballet class, where they are very particular about the uniform.  we needed a blue leotard, and the one she had she had outgrown, but just barely.  still, the tears and the trauma came again.  i got her into a looser fit black outfit, but when we arrived at class and she saw the eight other girls in blue capezio leotards, she became despondent again.  the director managed to find us a blue one in roughly her size, but it was only a minute before i heard her sobs coming from behind the bathroom door.  we managed to pull it off after i cut out the tags, but i thought "if i have to endure much more of this i'm going to go mad."

today was better.  she dressed herself in a skirt and shirt without a tear, and only got my ire up when she went into a screaming rage at her little brother over the "theft" of the swing she had been using.  tonight at dinner, i served whole wheat spaghetti, Ian's fish sticks, and peas.  neither child cried.  i did not raise my voice.  maddy started off with an "i lost my appetite" speech after one look at her plate, but bucked up and ate both fishsticks plus her pasta plus a copious amount of peas.  morgan whimpered at the fish sticks, proceeded to peel the breading off of them and eat what remained, ate about 3 strands of spaghetti, and ignored his 5 peas.

on an unrelated note, just before dinner maddy was doing a ginsberg-esque chant with the aid of a tamborine, while morgan provided the interpretive dance segment.

maddy's handiwork

when you can't post...

...make a photo album!

where have i been?

boston, maryland, back to boston, and the cape.

sorry for the absence, and only a moment to write.  there's been a lot going on around here.  morgan had his wonderful 5th birthday in early june.  we had a family gathering and cake.  bill's parents came to stay for a week, because shortly after morgan's birthday maddy had eye muscle surgery (for misasligned eyes, also known as strabismus) at children's hospital in boston.  we managed to do the outpatient surgery in one day, and two days after my return i headed down to maryland for four days. 

my trip to maryland was to help out one of my parents.  i've never really posted anything in detail about my immediate family of origin, and it doesn't feel right to be too specific here.  but i can say that in a general sense this parent of mine is having some health issues, and needed some support on the homefront, so off i went.  then back here for a couple of school picnic's for madeleine, then back to boston for madeleine's follow-up visit (a good outcome), then a trip to the cape to watch some whales. 

we've been practising an every-other-year-no-birthday-party rule (odd years are off, even years are on), where on the off years we do something exciting as a family instead of having a party.  a painting of a whale made me think to ask morgan if he'd like to go whale watching, and he was very game for the idea, so that's what we did.

i'll try to blog more in a day or two, including uploading photos into flicker, to give you more of the details on all this stuff.  but i knew if i didn't write something right now, it would all slip away and it would be more weeks before you heard from me again.

notes from the weekend

• morgan has coined "smell out" as a way of describing a food-related intrusion into his (highly sensitive) olfactory world.  to his cousin jeff, who was eating a fritatta in morgan's presence, he declared, "jeff, you're smelling me out."
• maddy has started two-wheeler training camp.  bill took her to the town common saturday to practice her two wheeling.  because maddy has a tendency to vent her SUBSTANTIAL frustrations on her kindly parents with impunity, bill adopted the alter ego of "mr. ross, bicycle coach," to avoid being at the receiving end of her more virulent invectives.  while this was somewhat successful, bill believes that a disguise may be necessary to complete the ruse.
• both kids are home from school today.  maddy, viral fever illness.  morgan, potential for stomach flu.  me, i've got a stiff neck from "wrong sleeping" (exacerbated by two more consecutive nights of agonizingly "wrong sleeping"), and am awaiting return calls from the triage nurse ("just how many ibuprofens is TOO many?") and the massage therapist.  in the meantime i'm clining to my kaz Themipaq Heat Therapy System like the life raft in a stormy sea that it is.  (see picture, right.  no, that's not me, but mmmmm, i could use a little of that soft focus in my life right now...)
• btw, when you get your medical care from the local university health service, you can expect a lot of "those" kinds of questions when your 7-year-old starts reading everything in sight.  we are getting a HUGE head start on alcohol, drug, and sex education.
• oh, and two last words:  chef wayne's.

Reading is Fundamental

Maddy is taking part in her first Read-A-Thon.  Since some of you who read this blog have made a personal investment in this latest endeavor, I'll be keeping her tally here and posting titles to a new list, just to keep us honest.

As of today, 6 books toward her goal of 50.