Noodler

Let the official countdown begin! In less than one week, Clara will return to the allergist for her wheat "oral challenge," which is when she will eat Cream of Wheat at the allergist's and people will watch her to see what happens (I'm bringing popcorn for the show). The hope, of course, is that nothing will happen and that we can cross wheat off of our foods-to-avoid list.

We are feeling quite confident that the oral challenge will go well, since before her initial allergy testing she ate wheat with abandon and seemed to suffer no ill effects. But for the past three months, Clara has not had any bread, crackers, or any of the millions of other food products that contain any wheat. She does enjoy her daily wheat-egg-milk-free waffle, which I buy at great cost and great convenience from the special-diet-friendly Wegman's. But I am truly excited to be able to make her a great number of wheat-a-licious delights, even if I still have to avoid eggs and milk (and peanuts, tree nuts, shellfish, and fish, which are her "just-in-case" no-nos).

So wish us luck! And don't feel to bad for Clara: as you can see from the picture, she manages to eat quite well on her special diet. Here she is eating some (actually quite delicious) brown rice pasta with a tasty red sauce mixed with smooth Tofutti cream cheese. Good times.

100 Best?

I've been doing a little research for a project I have in the works (details to follow at some point) and came across (again) the Modern Library's list of the 100 best books. I've seen the list before, but I don't recall having seen the readers' poll list, and I am truly stunned! In the readers' list of the 100 best novels, the top ten selections include four by Ayn Rand and three by L. Ron Hubbard. In the readers' nonfiction list, the top ten includes one by Rand, two about Rand, and one by L. Ron Hubbard. Weird!! Obviously polls like this are completely self-selected, but I wonder how the word got out to so many Rand and/or Hubbard enthusiasts!?

I should say here that I've never read anything by L. Ron Hubbard, and the only Rand I've read is The Fountainhead, which I did not much like. But regardless, I just can't imagine that either of these lists is actually reflective of the general reading public. I'd be interested to hear other thoughts, including thoughts on the "official" list. I have yet to read Ulysses, but I'm really starting to wonder what all the fuss is about. And I also have a hard time believing that no women have written anything worthy of the top ten (the Radcliffe's Rival list does better here).

Read on!

Happy Second New Year!

After a hectic start to 2008, Jeremy and I decided to start the new year over today. We took an unexpected trip to Utah on January 1 to attend my grandpa Welton's funeral. He was truly the best of men, and his funeral was beautiful. I loved being able to spend time with family and to reminisce and reflect on my life. Going to his funeral literally inspired Jeremy and me to be better people, and I'm grateful to my grandpa for a life well lived.

(I should just say here that I am sorry that we didn't tell any of our wonderful Utah friends we were in town. With everything going on with family events and the funeral, our short trip was just packed. I am sorry, though, and we promise to have more time on our next Utah trip.)

We returned home yesterday on a 6:00 a.m. flight from Salt Lake. Clara, mercifully, slept almost the entire leg of the first flight, although that made her quite squirmy in between Atlanta and Syracuse. The best (and weirdest) news about being home is that it was 70 degrees in Syracuse! We had five feet of snow in December, and now it's sunny and 70. How weird is that? (I'm sure we're in for it now and will soon be punished for being able to enjoy such pleasant weather.) The bad news about returning home was that through a series of unfortunate events our car battery was dead. Luckily, Jeremy and a friend got it jump started this morning, and now Jeremy is enjoying what is no doubt a spectacularly beautiful drive through the hills south of Syracuse.

So yes, our year got off to an unexpected start, but we're now excited to re-start our "normal" new year and dig our heels in for a great aught-eight! So far my only resolution is to have my teeth cleaned sometime this year. I am really shooting for the stars.

Happy New Year!

A couple of pictures: Here's our family near my grandpa's burial site. The next picture is of us at Sam's grave. My grandparents' plot is just a short walk from where Sam is buried at the Provo City Cemetery. I appreciated having our whole family together for the first time since Clara was born.

Happy Christmas!

My family has been aggressively campaigning for me to publish a few Christmas photos of Clara-B, and I am loathe to disappoint them.

Here Clara sits in all of her Christmas-Sunday finery. She was predictably well behaved for the Christmas program at church, which was good since that meant that Jeremy got to enjoy it. (I also managed to more or less enjoy it myself, through all of my anxiety; I think it turned out well!)

Christmas Eve was great--especially when Clara took a nose-dive off of the couch while Jeremy was struggling to read "The Night Before Christmas" to her. Classic CB. She just did not see what all the fuss was about and was not interested in this random book she'd never seen before.

Christmas morning was delightful. She was jumping up and down in her crib when we went to get her up, so she must have known it was a special morning (then again, she does that every morning, so I guess every day is special). We actually couldn't get her that excited about anything, so we lured her towards her stocking by putting her morning soy milk under the tree. That did it. The next twenty minutes or so involved us trying to get her to open her presents when she preferred to sit quietly and drink her soya, in all of her bed-headed glory. She really is not much for opening presents. When we would tear off a strip of paper to get the opening going, she would just take the piece of paper and delicately try to smooth it back onto the package. Clearly she has not changed much in the three weeks since her birthday. (I just figure she is Jeremy's daughter and therefore prizes order. Or something.)



We had three families over for Christmas dinner, which was really fun, although I was starting to come down with something and wasn't feeling quite myself. The food was all delicious, though, and nothing got broken, and I don't recall any crying children (other than CB, who--mental note--does not like pinatas being hit). The highlight was that everyone consented to singing carols. It was a Christmas miracle!




As a final bonus to our Christmas week, we received three packages in mail today, so the merry-making continued! This picture of Clara opening a gift from Jeremy's parents really captures how Clara approaches unwrapping her gifts: with great suspicion. She's always happy to see what's inside, though!


Merry Christmas, one and all!

Snow--Bah!

I am absolutely certain there is something very pressing I should be doing right now rather than posting to this blog. For example, I could be cleaning my apartment, otherwise known (of late) as The Sty. Or perhaps I could be practicing the piano, as in t-minus-4 days I need to somehow be proficient enough to play the piano for six musical numbers for our church Christmas program (I'm thinking maybe it's seven, but I'm drawing a blank). Or I could actually finish grading the rest of my students' papers and submitting my final grades (I only have two more to read, and yet here I sit).

But what's the fun in that? Why do today what you could put off until tomorrow?

Really, though, I'm just beat-down tired this evening and realized I haven't posted for awhile, so I thought I'd give what I am sure is an eagerly-anticipated snow update. So far this month, we have had 45 and a half inches of snow, which brings our season total to about 53 inches. (Don't get out your calculators--that's 3.75 feet in December and just under 4.5 feet for the season; we're really looking forward to winter starting on Saturday.) We did quite well not going outside for most of the big storm this past weekend, but when Clara and I went out to the car yesterday the poor Golf was completely covered. This happened last year as well, but it was much more complicated with Clara in tow. I strapped her into her carseat then proceeded to push, brush, and blow (just kidding) the snow off the car, then (because we are not prepared and have no shovel in the car) I went ahead and tramped, kicked, and shoved snow away from the sides of the car so I could pull out of my parking spot. The whole ordeal took like 20 minutes, and I was soaking wet by the time we finally pulled out. It was totally worth it, though, because we got to go pick up Jeremy for a little Christmas shopping outing. Good times.

The walkway to our parking lot. I actually think we had a more impressive shot of this earlier this year (last winter) after a big storm, but you get the drift (punny!).

Just for fun: CB waiting for me to manage the snow situation.

Now for a couple of bonus pics: Clara's wispy baldness is borderline long enough in the back for pigtails, so we decided just to go for it the other day. (Sorry about the unmade bed. Please refer to earlier information about The Sty.)

One important step closer to ABD

I can't help myself: I have to report that Jeremy successfully defended his dissertation proposal this afternoon. His committee is quite enthused about his project, and now he's one step closer to really getting started with his research. I'm just too pleased with him. The man works like a machine, but it always pays off. Congrats, Jer!

Yes, she is very bright. But still...

What's wrong with this picture? (She does it all by herself and never seems to notice a problem!)

Irresponsible Mothering Is an Art

The other morning I was blow drying my hair, and Clara was playing quietly around the corner. The quiet should have, perhaps, been my clue that she was up to no good, because pretty soon she came around the corner wielding a crochet hook in each hand, which she had somehow gotten out of a closed box (her resourcefulness is terrifying). Clearly, the fact that Clara had some uninterrupted playtime with two eye gougers is a mark of irresponsible mothering, but really it wouldn't seem nearly as bad had I not found her chewing on a dirty diaper two minutes before this picture was taken, or if I had not found her trying to lift the toilet lid two minutes after. The moral of the story: I should not dry my hair.

Flu Shots

We have to take Clara to the allergist for her flu shot, on account of her egg allergy. (Who knew they grew the influenza vaccine inside of eggs? I seriously learn something new every day.) Because they have to test her on several different levels to see if she'll react to the vaccine (scratch test on her back, subdermal injection, then perhaps several small doses of the actual vaccine) the whole ordeal may take up to four hours. Poor baby!

On a happier allergy-related front, I did whip up a successful batch of wheat-dairy-egg-free pancakes for Clara, and she loved them. All is not lost!

Wish us luck on Thursday! (Or wish Jeremy luck! I'll be teaching that morning, so he gets to wrastle Clara at the allergist. What an excellent father.)

Giving Thanks

Clara really did us proud with her Thanksgiving eating. I think the secret sleep chemicals in the turkey are starting to take their toll at this point. Wow. (Click on the picture to get the zoomed-in view of just how ucky she really is.)


Our great friends Stephanie and Steve and their two boys came up from Philadelphia to spend Thanksgiving with us. We loved being able to spend time with them and are grateful for their friendship, after all these years. We ate plentifully on Thanksgiving, then we took them on a lovely winter tour of Syracuse before ending up at the MOST (Museum of Science and Technology) for the afternoon on Friday. We all had a blast, but I think Thomas and Hewitt were in heaven. Clara seemed to enjoy herself as well (she looks really wild in all of the pictures we took this weekend; it must be the hair).

Wheat-free baking, Take II

Wheat-free baking is the pits. We've tried two recipes with very, very marginal success (if one defines success in baking as "technically edible"). Here is Clara sampling some really dry oat flour biscuits. She obviously doesn't look that sad about it, as eventually she just thought we were playing a game of "touch-the-nasty-biscuit-to-your-tongue-and-smile-about-it." But she didn't really eat any of it. Classic.

The quest continues...

You Should've Seen the Other Girl

Clara got her first black eye today at church. No, she was not boxing with other babies. I was holding her on my lap, just sitting there, when she suddenly decided to make a lunge for the hymn books. I couldn't catch her, and she fell head-first onto the hymnal holder. I had her out of the chapel before she'd even released her first wail, but I was shocked to see a bleeding eye! I panicked, since I am a rookie mom, and went back in to get one of our doctor friends, who decided she didn't need a stitch and that she would not be going blind anytime soon. Ugh. Anyway, poor Clara had a rough Sunday between the black eye, her cold, and a wicked diaper rash. She's much happier today, though her eye is a bit more swollen and bruised than it was yesterday. And I actually don't think this picture does it justice, since you can't see all of the bruising on the top of her eye. In any event, I just console myself by realizing that we survived Clara's first injury!