Charlie and the Rain Puddle
Click to viewIn related news, I don't think there's a single dry pair of shoes in this entire house. Charlie was wearing a size larger than he should have been today just because they were the only ones not sopping wet, and the poor kid was stumbling around for at least an hour until he got used to them. (Not that anyone else noticed; he basically looked vaguely more milk-drunk than usual, but still like a toddler learning to walk.)
So I'm 95% sure that Charlie is not actually allergic to milk, but instead is lactose-intolerant. This is based on my extremely non-scientific and amazingly lax studies that involve every so often giving Charlie yoghurt or cheese. He does great on yoghurt, eats it up like it's the best thing ever, and has no visible side effect. No rash, no tummy ache, poops are about as normal as you please.
I gave him cheese last week (a pre-shredded cheddar blend). That did not go so well. Which is weird, because from what I've seen, cheddar is supposed to be even lower in lactose than yoghurt. Anyway, he was cranky all afternoon, and we're just not going to talk about the poops. His butt was red for three days running, though, and I think three of his cloth inserts are gonna be stained even after sunning and multiple hot washes. (Okay, I guess we're going to sort of talk about the poops.)
I've stayed away from either yoghurt or cheese since then, and he's been much better. I'm not giving up yet, though, mostly because I'm stubborn. It's just... I mean, I thought avoiding corn was bad, since they put corn syrup in flippin' EVERYTHING now. Milk is almost worse, and you have to read the labels so super carefully, because it goes by a couple of different names, and really, you wonder why there's milk in some of this stuff at all. Like Pedialyte. I still don't understand that one.
I'm also scared of what the hell I'm going to do when we actually get to Karjackistan and can't get soy milk. The current thought is to try one of the toddler drinks - Similac doesn't make one for soy, but Enfamil does, so I might buy some and see if Charlie likes it. Which solves the problem for a little while, at least. And I can order it powdered from Amazon, which ships to dip pouch addresses, so we're squared away there, for a little while, anyway.
Really, I just don't want to give up baking with butter. And I don't want to have to bake everything twice. I have a tub of margarine for Charlie's toast, that's about as far down that road as I'm willing to go, okay?
(Yeah, I know, I'm throwing a tantrum here. Obviously I am not going to force the child to eat anything that I know would make him sick - I am not the person who knowingly gives people things they can't eat under the theory that just a little won't hurt them. I'm just... not entirely convinced, in Charlie's case, and he's too young for a scratch test to be conclusive. (Not that it's even an option at this point - mostly because he's too young.)
In other moving-related news, Bill has headed off for his training, which will take him clear through July, so I've started moving full-speed ahead on trying to sort the house as much as I can. The first order of business was to clear off his desk, which was about six inches deep of papers and whatnot. I was able to clear a load of it - a lot of stuff that was tossed, a lot of DVDs and CDs that were put in their actual places, a lot of papers that were filed away. Two piles of things that I still have to figure out how to deal with, but I can see the top of the desk now! It's very cool. Next step: clearing off the top of his dresser. It's exciting here, I tell you.
Went to Costco with the kids. Purchased one mega-package of toilet paper, paper towels, and Kleenex each. Will probably do at least one more of the first two, and two or three of the Kleenex, until we actually pack out. (Local paper products in that part of the world are frequently terrible. Or elastic. Which is a whole different category of terrible.)
On the plus side, I think the kids' passports are here. The mailman refused to leave them in our (locked) mailbox, though, so I have to go to the post office to actually retrieve them, which won't happen until tomorrow. Unfortunately it's the post office that usually has a line out the door, and I'll have to take Charlie right before naptime, so that should be fun.
Last bit of moving-related stuff: So I've decided that I am defintely going to replace the current laptop before going. This one has been giving me bits of trouble recently, and I'm scared to death that it's going to just up and stop working once we're over there, and I won't have any way of getting a new one. And as usual, every time it's time for me to get a new computer, I end up debating whether or not I want to make the switch over to a Mac. (Specifically, a MacBook Air.) I wish there was a decent computer store down here - oh, how I'm missing MicroCenter right now - but sadly, I am stuck with Best Buy. (Well, there's an Apple-like store that I'm sure would be happy to sell me a MacBook, but I wouldn't be able to compare with a PC there.)
Bill says, "Get the computer that makes you happy." Which is nice to hear, yes, but completely unhelpful in this situation.
Anyway, that about covers it. Andrew is in school for another three weeks, before he gets a series of half days and then no school at all. And then we theoretically are packing out. *meep*
(I'm trying not to think about it too hard, there's just too much to do before then.)