micheleandtom.com

Zoe had her peanut allergy food challenge today. (This is the last test, where they feed you peanuts and see if you have a horrible allergic reaction, to determine if you still have the food allergy in question.)

The doctor began by dipping a peanut in water and having Zoe drink the water.

Slowly, over the course of four hours, she worked up to a half a cup of peanuts. She was fine, loved the taste, and had nary a reaction.

Actually, “fine” is probably an understatement. She was deliriously happy. She came home and ate some Peanut M&Ms and then wanted to eat at an Asian restaurant for dinner (which we previously had to avoid because of their ubiquitous use of nuts).

She was so excited, she asked Tom and I to be her “nut buddies!” We hope Zelda grows out of her nut allergies as well.

Fight Gone Bad is a CrossFit workout designed for mixed-martial artists. Word is that it was named this after an MMA fighter completed it and said, “It felt like a fight gone bad!”

Tom did this workout on Saturday morning, perhaps not the best lead in to a weekend of intensive moving.

After the last two days, I believe Tom feels as if he is living “Move Gone Bad.” (Did I mention that he’s my hero?)

Parenting tip: make sure all of your doors squeak.

Tonight, after we put the girls to bed in different rooms, Tom crept up on them and caught them in the same room playing their Nintendo DS in the dark.

“Dad, how did you know?” asked Zoe.

“Because you guys make a racket,” Tom replied.

Really though, it was the squeaky bedroom doors Tom heard creaking from the other room. We can only hope they are this easy to catch as they get older!

We were visiting a friend of mine who had 6-month old twin boys yesterday, and the girls were entranced with all things “twin.”

At the dinner table last night, they wanted to know more about the biological processes that lead to twins, and the differences between fraternal and identical twins. Since we try to be comfortable with the girls about reproduction, we end up discussing it whenever they have questions, which means we had a lengthy discussion about sperm, eggs, fertility drugs, and cell division at the dinner table.

The whole concept of sexual intercourse is extremely distasteful to the girls (thank God), and they assume that we have only had sex twice, once each time strictly in order to get pregnant with each of them.

They asked us again last night how many times we “tried” to get pregnant. I said 1 and 1/2. Then Zoe looked at us funny and said, “Where did you do it? Because I would have remembered if I had seen something like that!”

We demurred.

Ahh…raising kids. They always hit you with this stuff when you aren’t expecting it.

Zelda’s due date was September 11, 2001.

From a very pregnant woman’s standpoint, I wasn’t too happy that Zelda was born after her due date (not “too happy” is probably putting it mildly). But, I am delighted that she was not born on her due date, as it would have been tough to go through the rest of her life with a birthday on such a horrible anniversary.

Okay, this is a total aside, but I just have to write about it.

All of us who grew up in the seventies remember School House Rock very fondly. (Come on, Conjunction Junction, What’s Your Function?)

These songs are amazing–they really do teach. Zoe has fallen a bit behind in her times tables because they get squeezed in (read: ignored) in the Chinese part of her school day. So, we have begun listening to Multiplication Rock in the car on the way home from school.

After only one ride, her 4s, 6s and 7s were solid, and her 8s were almost perfect.

My personal favorite is the sixes, shown below. (Although Naughty Number Nine is a close second!!!)

The girls really like eight, which was my favorite when I was a girl!

I am using this post as a forum to try to convince my husband to post on this blog more! I told him that at his current posting rate, this blog will cease to be “our” blog, and instead, he’ll be demoted to being a guest blogger on “my” blog!

Of course, I’m not sure that being demoted to guest blogger really bothered him.

Once we actually set foot in Argentina, I am expecting big things out of him in the blog department…big things. So stay tuned, pure excitement will ooze from Tom’s pen…or keyboard…come October!

I know that I, for one, cannot wait!

Speaking of a different lens while living overseas during elections, it’s particularly intense to be an expat during times of military action. (Sadly, a relevant topic these days.)

I was reminded of living overseas (Taiwan) during the first gulf war. This was prior to the Internet and email. I remember that I was attending a large aerospace conference where everything came to a halt, and a TV was tuned into the news, when Bush’s deadline for Iraqi withdrawal had elapsed.

Additionally, the head of the firm I worked for was one of the human shields Saddam Hussein was shuttling around to various sites to prevent them from being bombed by the US. (He had been in Kuwait on business during the invasion by Iraq.)

It was surreal, because Asia was so removed from the action. I felt out of place–my country was at war, yet it seemed like it only existed on the news, as if it was happening to other people a world away.

(Strangely, being in the US during Bush II’s warmongering has felt similar due to the lack of real US media coverage. It’s easy to run around our daily lives with no awareness of what’s going on in Iraq, as we collectively pretend that it’s not really happening.)

Being in a small country (Taiwan) that was, and still is, balanced on the knife’s edge in its relations with a much larger neighboring country (China) provided a different lens for viewing the first gulf war.

Living in South America now when the United States has made such unpopular unilateral military forays should prove to be illuminating as well.

Tom and I have arranged for our absentee ballots so that we may participate in the upcoming Presidential election. (Go Barack Obama!)

It will be interesting to be overseas during the October madness. Being outside the country gives you a whole new perspective on the event when your country’s political process is viewed through the lens of another country’s interests.

I lived in Taiwan during the lead up to Bill Clinton’s first successful presidential bid–a period of pure political apathy in the United States. I was startled at how avid everyone in Taiwan followed the campaigning. I couldn’t get into a cab without being quizzed by the driver about all things election. Taiwanese newspapers of all types followed every Bush/Clinton move. I would get into raging political debates with foreigners of all stripes.

In truth, it made me excited about democracy again. Here I was living in Taiwan–a nation struggling toward democracy–and they were more excited, engaged, and informed about our election than we were!

Get off your ass America and vote–it matters!!

Recently went to the doc where he pronounced my knee to be “looking great.” I thought his opinion a bit generous as it was swollen and a little lumpy!

He also pulled out two of the dissolvable stitches that had worked up through an incision, and hence didn’t dissolve (that was a little weird).

The picture here is two months post-surgery. Looking better than it did one week post-surgery! My right leg is still a bit puny with lite quad action, but it’s coming along. Range of motion is finally improving and I’m getting much stronger.

Tom, thankfully, no longer has to torture me everyday!