A Quick Succession of Busy Nothings

Look! She's smiling!

As Katy neared two months, I almost canceled her check-up. I wanted to delay her shots a bit (I managed to buy both Jane and Ella an extra month), I wanted to stall her records on the growth chart to keep the doctor from marking her as FTT, and I absolutely detest going to any appointments with three young children in tow. There is invariably a wait that leaves me fuming and muttering about how the airlines can get away with overbooking because they're prepared to offer you some compensation if you get bumped, but I have yet to receive any sort of gratuity from a professional office to make amends for having wasted my time as a result of their greedy presumption. And even though our pediatrician's office has a sick and well waiting room, I just know there are germs lurking on every surface in the consultation rooms. I hate getting sick.

So I was fully prepared to chuck the whole thing, but then I read Dr. Sears' The Vaccine Book, which made such reasonable good sense that I resolved to follow his alternative vaccine schedule. Thus, Katy received the DTaP shot and the rotavirus dose. She didn't even have a fever following, and the ironic thing is that her spit-ups, which before were rather explosive and excessive, have pretty much stopped. I'm sure there's no connection, but I thought it a funny side effect for a weakened live-action virus that is supposed to cause vomiting.

**************************
We harvested all of one tomato, one yellow squash, and one picking of green beans from our garden. It is unfortunate that the only good fenced spot is also in the shadiest part of the backyard. Rabbits chewed up most of the green bean plants before I figured out that the culprits were not bugs, but I did have a small triumph: I saved a few of the bean pods, dried them out, and planted the seeds again in hopes of a second harvest. We shall see if our survivalist skills ever pan out.



**************************
Thanks to this lovely post, on a lovely, lovely site that I love to read whenever I am hungry, or at any other time, I have two mason jars of vanilla extract brewing in the back of my pantry. It was quite the quest to find the alcohol, as grocery stores aren't allowed to sell anything other than beer or wine (???) and package stores are illegal in all but three cities in our county. Also, people under 21 are not allowed into said rare packages stores, so I was limited to hunting for vodka, brandy, or rum on the weekends. At last I emerged with a bottle of rum (what a pity they don't sell that at CVS), and ordered 25 vanilla beans from Madagascar, with 10 from Tahiti thrown in for good measure. I intend to buy some brandy as well, stew each variety of vanilla beans in a bottle of that, and compare the final products. Possibly I will give away tiny extract bottles for Christmas presents, or I may just use it all up in baking, dispensing with the nasty imitation vanilla once and for all.

**************************
Speaking of blogs that I love to read, this gem makes for great late-night giggles over ice cream or Special K bars. Just priceless.

**************************

Jane: Oh! Katy scratched me!
Me: Well, hardly.
Jane: No, she was gentle.

(Yeah, I had to think about it, too.)