Pairs of socks knitted in 2014

  • Roxanne's socks
  • Brian's Cascade socks
  • Shirley's lacy socks
  • striped Meredith socks
  • striped stranded #1

Sunday, February 1, 2009

Waste not, want not?

There's quite a few random allergies in our family. My body "doesn't do dairy." It's probably technically a form of lactose intolerance, but as Lactaid tablets don't help my problems (nausea, bloating, migraines, and the occasional episode of spectacular vomiting and diarrhea) when I overindulge in dairy products (By "overinduldge" I mean "eat more than one half serving of cheese daily".) that seems to be the best description. One of the nicest things about being pregnant was that God, in God's infinite wisdom and kindness (as well as possibly recognition of the fact that I wasn't keeping down many other foods, so ice cream might be the only shot at getting enough calories in me to support new life) chose to repeal the "dairy issues" for nine months. But I digress.

My mother-in-law, sister-in-law, and husband are all allergic to onions. It's not as dramatic as a peanut allergy, but does complicate cooking. There is a very short list of nice restaurants (by "nice" I mean "has wait-staff and cloth napkins" at which Brian and I can both eat food off of the menu.

When we were in college, we were singularly blessed when a local restaurant, the Dutch Inn, was taken over by a Chinese restaurant chain. The resulting hybrid, the Dutch Inn-Quick Wok served both food off their American menu, as well as classic Chinese American food. Brian would order off the American menu (where onions do occur in cooking, but in predictable dishes) and I would order from the Chinese one (wherein dairy products do not typically occur.)

We weren't sure if Shirley would develop this trait. You can imagine my panic when I realized one day that I'd just fed her a jar of something that listed onion powder fourth on the list. (To be fair, the first three ingredients were "chicken, rice, tomato paste." Gerber makes very simple baby food.) I drove to the grocery store and bought a bottle of Children's Benadryl.

She had absolutely no problems with the food. Just as well, as you're not supposed to use Benadryl on children under two without a doctor's supervision.

Which leaves me with a bottle of Children's Benadryl that I can't return and will expire long before Shirley is old enough to use it. Fortunately, one teaspoon of the nauseatingly sweet syrup is enough to make me sleepy, and two will cause me to sleep for at least six hours. (For those of you who are curious, Benadryl is the "PM" in "Tylenol PM.") It's not a complete solution to my insomnia, but it definitely helps!

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