No Soliciting!!!

We have a very clear "No Solicitors" sign hanging right above our doorbell. So tonight, about a half an hour after answering a phone call that started "We have some cash that we'd love to give you!" - if only that were true, someone knocked softly on our door. It was dark, our porch was dark, car in the garage, the "No Solicitors" sign firmly in place where it belongs, so I figured our dog must've gotten out or the neighbor was letting us know he was going out of town or something. Nope, it's a guy with a clipboard. I immediately say, "Didn't you notice our 'No Solicitors' sign?" to which he responds, "Oh, I'm not selling anything!" Oh really? "I'm just in the neighborhood talking to all of your neighbors about new windows! We're doing free in-" I cut in, "That would be soliciting. Go away!" And slam and lock the door in his face. I hate people like that. I should print out a page with the definition of solicitation on it to hand to these assholes who interrupt my dinner-making with their stupid "free" offers. Pardon my language. Hormones. (I've got 8 months left to use that excuse and I'm going to get all I can out of it!)

But aside from that, we've had a busy day! We started off the day with a check-up for Greyson. Finally, 8 months after switching insurances, lol, I found the kids a pediatrician. He checked out ok, though a little lower on the height-weight charts than he used to be. I don't think I ever blogged about this but I finally put two and two together and came up with a lactose intolerance!! Ahhhh!!! My dairy loving family has a baby who cannot tolerate milk or cheese!! Wah! Anyway, since it took me a good 9 months to figure that one out, he hasn't been growing quite as well as he had been. Kind of hard when you're not digesting much of anything. Anyway, he's been off all dairy for about two weeks and things are looking much better. I mentioned it to the doctor and she didn't seem concerned. Her sage advice was "if he reacts to it, avoid it." Simple enough, I suppose. Luckily I've just found out that he loves soy yogurt and cheese so now I don't feel like I'm depriving him anymore. Those were two of his favorite foods and now can be again.

Now for the bad news. Have I mentioned the insanely horrible diaper rash that he had a couple months ago? It was a nasty yeast and staph combination that got him put on Rx diaper cream and a mighty potent antibiotic. Well, it's been coming and going and now Cassia has it too. The little buggers spread in the wash. Grrrr. But it wasn't the yeasty beasties like I thought (and was treating with an antifungal). Oh no, it was the Staph Monster. So now we have a topical antibiotic for that and orders to come back if it's not gone by Monday. The thing that worries me is Cassia having staph. That is the thing that put her into the hospital, two years ago this week incidentally, with a bone infection. The fact that those little buggers hung onto the one diaper she wears a day (at night) and infected her makes me really nervous. The last time she had staph, it was a week in the hospital on iv antibiotics and then another three weeks on them at home. Ugh, don't want to go through that again. But that was accompanied by a crazy fever too and no one has has the slightest raise in temp. *Knock on wood.* OK, enough of that.

Here's some good news: we actually did school today!! Again, it was only Phonics, Grammar, and Math but Cameron did exceptionally well with them. He's also taken it upon himself to start learning cursive. Whenever there is writing to do in Grammar, we take it to the white board and the last couple times he has asked me to write the things in both printing and cursive. The first time he tried to copy the cursive, it was almost totally illegible, but today it was fabulous. Anyone could have walked up and read his writing. He's all proud too because I told him that he's not supposed to learn that until second grade, lol. He also played several rounds of TimezAttack, focusing on his 2s and 3s. He keeps starting new games so he won't have to move on to harder ones, lol. But that's ok. I don't want him forgetting the stuff that's actually in his math book right now!

Yesterday we didn't do any official schoolwork but we did go to the dentist. That's an oral hygiene lesson, right? Later, I read If You Give a Moose a Muffin to Cassia and then we did a word search about it. That was actually an incredibly educationally relevant thing for her to do because she was really working to match up the lower case letters in the list and the upper case letters in the puzzle. I love when you just do something for fun and it turns out to be totally appropriate, lol. We also read a recipe for Moose's Corn Muffins. It's a great little book we have. It's called Mouse Cookies & More and it's pretty much a book of unit studies on those books! There are puzzles and recipes and songs and even a cd. My dad always gives the greatest books for gifts. :)

I've felt a lot better yesterday and today. I was actually able to force myself to do a Prenatal Yoga workout last night and for the first time in a week, I had NO headache today. Yeah! I also had a lot of energy - at least enough to get us through all our errands, fold the laundry that's been piling up for days, make dinner, and actually do the dinner dishes! I do have a backache though so I think I may have overdone it a bit. Speaking of which, I think I've overdone this blog entry a bit too so I will say goodbye for now.