The Battle of Chocolate Milk

There was an incident last month, between chocolate milk and gravity. Gravity won, of course; and I ended up with chocolate milk spattered far and wide. The Very First Step is to make sure no one is freaking out about this! A certain child was sure he was going to get into big trouble. I'm still trying to clean up the impact, but it clearly wasn't intentional, and these accidents aren't common. The hardest hit were a white teeshirt and my hardwood floor. (Of course the shirt was white. This can't be easy!)

After cleaning up the main splatter and the child, I ran cold water over the white shirt. This reduced the chocolate marks, but did not remove them. I tried soaking the shirt in water; no improvement. I tried soaking the shirt in salted water; no improvement. Salt acts as a water softener to make water-for-cleaning more effective, but this chocolate was more stubborn. Next I put the shirt in the washing machine and washed it in cold water with OxiClean White Revive Whitener. The stains might have been lighter, but were still present. So I did some research:

• How to Remove a Chocolate Milk Stain from Clothing
• How to remove chocolate milk stains from clothes - Laundry Advice
• Removing chocolate stains from clothing

Based on that research and availability, I tried soaking the formerly-white shirt in a solution of water, hydrogen peroxide, and baking soda (I purchase the last two in large sizes because they're both so handy). Success!!!

I didn't try ammonia or an ezymatic cleaner or club soda (didn't have any); I figured the bubbles of hydrogen peroxide and baking soda could approximate the fizziness of club soda, assuming that's how it is effective. I didn't try cream or full-fat milk because I don't keep that around either. I have Borax; it's a component in my homemade laundry powder, so I figured it would be tested in the washing machine soon enough.

I've been known to forget what worked last time, so I'm sharing with everyone.

The Dollops

Here's a recipe I would not have considered posting (in large part because it's different every time I make it, and I don't measure anything), but it's my youngest son's favorite dish right now, and it's loaded with vegetables. Even one formerly-picky eater likes it (although without celery)!

First start with the most important but often unmentioned preparation: shopping for the ingredients. I recommend seasonal vegetables from your local farmers' market, if you can. You can look up USA-local farmers' markets from the USDA or from Local Harvest (click on Find Farmers Markets). Vegetables that are in season have more nutrients, taste better, and are usually cheaper. You can look up what's in season from the USDA, from Sustainable Table, or from fruits and veggies: more matters! (some sites assume Northern Hemisphere). Get a lot of fresh vegetables. Also get some ground meat, potatoes, and an onion. Ground meat freezes well, and root vegetables like potatoes and onions keep well (except in spring and summer, when they want to sprout, but that's also when buying them fresh is easier!).

For an example, here's what I made tonight.

First I diced four organic russet potatoes. I usually get yukon gold instead of russet, but variety is the spice of life! I placed them in my largest mixing bowl (4 quart Pyrex), and sprinkled with salt, garlic powder, brown gravy mix, and a small scoop of Better Than Bouillon beef. I generally use garlic powder instead of minced garlic because the taste doesn't change with time; with fresh garlic, the flavor gets deeper and more pronounced the longer you keep the leftovers. I agree with Budget Bytes about Better Than Bouillon; that stuff is a tasty time-saver! Then I covered the potatoes with water, and placed them in the microwave set for 20 minutes. (These potatoes were still crunchy after 30 minutes, and finally soft after 35 minutes. Usually 15 to 20 minutes in the microwave softens diced potatoes.) Then I diced an onion, and put them in the potato bowl about 6 minutes later. Then I sliced two medium zucchini, quartered the slices, and put them in the same microwavable bowl. Next I diced a very large green pepper, and, you guessed it, added it to the bowl in the microwave! At this point, I couldn't submerge all of my vegetables, so I added more water and more spices. At the same time, I also added grated carrots from my freezer, that I bought and grated and froze when they were at their seasonal peak. I let all of that microwave until the 20 minutes ended. The vegetables were still fairly crunchy, and my eaters prefer soft, so I put the bowl in for another 10 minutes. Then I got out my large sauteuse pan (5 quart size) and put in 18 ounces of ground turkey with the same spices as earlier. I use the same spices so that all the food pieces would taste as though they cooked together. In the winter, I cook everything together for a long time in the pan (and heat the kitchen); in the summer, I prefer to use the microwave as much as possible. Once the ground turkey was completely cooked into tasty crumbles, I added a big scoop of frozen corn kernels and turned the heat down to low. When the vegetables in the microwave were finally done, I added them as well using a slotted spoon to drain the water, and turned the heat up to medium. This time, I also added several big scoops of mashed potatoes that I was afraid would go bad before we remembered to finish them. (Tip: this dish is a great home for lonely leftovers.) I kept an eye on the pan, stirring it every so often, and when food looked like it was about to stick to the pan, I added cooking water from the microwave bowl. When everything in the pan was the same warm temperature, I served dinner. I left the pan simmering on low until the excess water had cooked off. After eating a little for dinner, I packed up 10 cups of leftovers.

If you go the frugal route and select a lower-cost ground meat, it will often have a high fat content. Counter this by draining the grease off the meat after cooking, and add 2 Tablespoons (or more) of flour to soak up the remaining grease for a more palatable mouth feel.

I save the cooking water from this recipe and similar preparations. In this case, the cooking water is a flavorful vegetable broth with seasonings added. I could use it to make bread (yeast doesn't like garlic, so you may need to add a yeast enhancer like Vitamin C / powdered ascorbic acid), as a base to make a tasty soup, or to cook rice. Cooking water that's nearly a soup base on its own can be used in any recipe with compatible seasonings that calls for water. I've also used juice in place of water in some recipes; it all depends on how I think the flavors will work together.

I realize that's not the easiest recipe to follow, so here it is without the prose:

4 potatoes, diced 1/4 tsp salt 1/4 tsp garlic powder 1/2 tsp beef bouillon	place in large bowl   cover with water   microwave for 5 minutes
1 onion, diced	microwave in same bowl 5 minutes
2 medium zucchini, sliced and quartered 1 large green bell pepper, diced 2 cups of grated carrots, very loose (probably 1 cup or less if packed)	microwave in same bowl 10 minutes   if needed, continue to microwave vegetables to desired doneness
18 oz ground turkey 1/4 tsp salt 1/4 tsp garlic powder 1/2 tsp beef bouillon	loose-fry into tasty crumbles with no pink on medium heat
1 1/2 cups frozen corn	add to pan, and cook on low heat until thawed
	add the bowl vegetables to the pan when they're done, and return to medium heat   add water as needed to keep food from sticking to the pan   when all food is the same temperature, it's ready to serve!

One thing I try to do with this dish is to include a rainbow of vegetable colors. Red: I'm the only one who likes tomatoes, so when I pack some for my lunch tomorrow, I will add tomatoes. Orange: carrots! Yellow: corn. Green: green bell pepper. White: zucchini, onion, and potatoes. I'm only missing purple/blue, but otherwise I have a (fairly) complete meal in one shapeless dollop of tasty, filling food.

When I "follow" recipes from the Internet (not that I ever follow a recipe exactly), I tend to double the vegetables in the recipe, and halve the meat so that I'm happy with the result. In this case, although this has a lot of meat by my standards, you may wish to double the meat and possibly halve the vegetables.

One thing I love about this concept (it's more of a concept than an actual recipe) is that it's so flexible. You could even view it as a "mix and match" recipe!

1 pound meat or protein	ground turkey
3 cups starch / starchy vegetables	2 cups potatoes and 1 cup corn
5 1/2 cups vegetables	3 cups zucchini, 1 cup carrots, 1 cup bell pepper, 1/2 cup onion
seasoning	salt, garlic powder, beef bouillon

So, let's imagine where we could go with this concept! I really enjoyed the pork potstickers, so how about this wild idea?

meat or protein	1 pound ground pork
starch	2 cups potatoes and 1 cup corn
vegetables	3 cups shredded cabbage, 1 cup carrots, 1/2 cup baby corn, 1/2 cup bean sprouts, 1/2 cup onion
seasoning	minced ginger root, garlic powder, soy sauce

What about an Indian variant? Hmm, curry or garam masala? I would probably use ground chicken, rice, a selection of fresh vegetables, and curry! My mom makes a delicious curried chicken salad with rice, so that's why I'd lean in that direction. What about a pizza variant? Perhaps using sausage, potatoes as a neutral base (or skip the starch and serve with rolls), tomato sauce with bell peppers and mushrooms (my favorite pizza toppings!), and seasoned with garlic and oregano. Oooh, that one might require a topping of mozzarella cheese! For a Mexican variant, beans are both protein and starchy (ground or shredded meat will also work), fajitas have bell peppers, mushrooms, and onions, and season with garlic and cumin - possibly lime and cilantro too! There are so many choices! Enjoy, and feel free to experiment!

Notice that all of these combinations are gluten-free, dairy-free (GFCF unless you sprinkle cheese on top!), and soy-free (GFCFSF). This dish is allergy-friendly and infinitely adaptable. Unlike many allergy-kind recipes, it can be made frugally. It can easily be made vegetarian. You can use up or hide leftovers in it. I have used vegetable purée in it to thicken the base (stirring soft potatoes will also do that). Use your imagination!

Book Corner Bookmark

I made a book corner bookmark (with those very nice instructions) with my boys this weekend. I like this origami method because it uses a small square, no fancy shapes or templates. The fun part for me was selecting an interesting bit of "paper" - I like how the Hershey's Special Dark cocoa label looks as a bookmark. The fun part for them was using a white envelope corner, and coloring it to suit themselves. In fact, coloring was so much fun, we never got around to the monster inspiration!

Antihistamines while Breastfeeding

After scouring the web and coming to the same conclusion, I found this quick chart on Lactation Guidance for Antihistamines: Claritin and Zyrtec should be fairly safe to take.

Some charts, like kellymom, are more generous, but since diphenhydramine can cause drowsiness, it's not the best for baby. I'm going with the more conservative version ...

kid fonts

At Karston's preschool, the teachers carefully dash out the name for each child to trace on the daily artwork. Tedious! Karston is learning to write his name, and I'd love to build on that at home, but I know I'm not going to draft all this tracing for him when I'm sure there's a font for it ... I found free trace fonts @ fontspace.com with the Print Clearly and Trace fonts. Much better!

Sidetracked

I was multi-tasking searching the web for two topics, looking for GFCF recipes and looking for possible causes of Karston's abdominal pain.

From the GFCF recipe search, I ran across mention of a low oxalate diet (LOD) helping severe pediatric abdominal pain! Interesting! So I went looking for LOD and quickly got to the specific carbohydrate diet (SCD) (with recipes). Those might be worth trying, but it's so hard to get Karston to eat anything that I shudder to think about trying to get him to eat from an approved list. On the other hand, maybe tracking his diet for oxalates and carbs while tracking how he feels ...

I found this doctor, and he's not that far away either. Hmm, a specialist ... wouldn't be the first one, but we haven't gotten anywhere yet either.

I suspect either intestinal allergies (sadly, there's no test for these T-cell-mediated allergies, so you just have to associate symptoms with diet) or colitis. Since Cale was diagnosed with colitis and it can run in the family, I think it needs to be considered for Karston. Unfortunately, it looks like differential diagnosis is a current research topic, explaining why it's tough to get medical traction.

So, flipping through Pediatric Gastroenterology, I read up on Colitis and Short Stature. We already tested for Celiac Disease although he hadn't had any wheat that week (should be able test for any wheat in past six weeks, though). I read Cholecystitis, which is interesting since we were worried about possible bilirubin earlier this month (but we think it was artificial color from lollipops). I read Colic, linked to milk protein allergy, and found the differential diagnosis of soy protein intolerance interesting. However, colic weight gain is typical, which doesn't cover Karston falling off the weight charts at 6 months. I read about Crohn Disease (often considered with colitis) and other Malabsorption Syndromes. Protein Intolerance was interesting: "cow's milk proteins are most frequently implicated as a cause of food intolerance during infancy," "only a few of these [intolerances] have a clear allergic immunoglobulin E (IgE)–mediated pathogenesis" and "in children, GI symptoms are generally most common, with a frequency ranging from 50-80%, followed by cutaneous symptoms (20-40%), and respiratory symptoms (4-25%)." Constitutional Growth Delay mentions falling off the growth charts at 3-6 months of age, then resuming growth on the right slope but below the curve. Where have I seen that??? Silver-Russell Syndrome usually starts with low birthweight, which didn't happen. Oh, and your word of the day is borborygmus: tummy rumbles!; can be caused by "incomplete digestion of carbohydrate-containing foods including milk, gluten, fruits, vegetables, beans, legumes, and high-fiber whole grains."

Traumatized

Well, it's been almost a week, and I think I will recover from the trauma of Karston's barium swallow (upper GI fluoroscopy) Monday afternoon. I was pretty sure he wouldn't swallow, and indeed he didn't. The techs called in a senior doctor to talk to us, and he was great! He calmly explained to Karston what he needed to do, and asked if he would swallow. No? OK, well here's what we're to do instead. It's OK to cry (he said that several times), but I need you to hold still. Quick as a wink, the other doctor had a tube down his nose (that's got to hurt, but Karston didn't complain afterwards). Karston was strapped down (it was awful to watch), and he cried the whole time, but I promised to hold his hands. At one point, my nose itched, so I switched to one of my hands touching both of his hands strapped over his head. I will never forget the terrible cry, Mommy hold on to my hands! That still hurts to hear in my memory! Who cares about an itchy nose (loose hair tickled the side of my nose and started this problem; I should just shave my head except that would look terrible) compared to that?

Karston got several days of extra hugs and cuddles. I just needed to hold on to him so I could feel better, and he knew I needed it. He even volunteered to snuggle several times. Karston helped me feel better faster -- what a champ!

After his procedure late Monday afternoon, as soon as Karston was dressed again, he was bouncing around and playing. He was immediately completely better as soon as it was over; I was wrung out and feeing weak. I had to spoil him, so despite the snow falling, we went to Bandido's for the green tortilla chips he loves. And he ate chips! If he would only eat reliably, we'd skip these procedures!

Tuesday, Karston told Daddy that he saw a nice doctor yesterday. So not only did he bounce back right away, he even knew the doctors and techs cared about him! I'm very much in favor of pediatric-specific imaging centers now, because they were great to him.

By Thursday, after more snuggles with my little guy, I knew I would recover from this trauma. I can get myself to think about something else instead of hearing him call for me to hold his hands! (I never let go of one hand; just tried to hold both with one.)

I now understand this hurts me more than it hurts you. It does!

Rubber Bands

Rubber bands are great (as long as they're nowhere near a child's mouth!!!).

We used rubber bands for early child-proofing to keep Karston out of cabinets, and they worked well. Of course, now he puts the rubber bands back on if you leave them loose, but he also no longer tries to get into everything. The rubber bands worked until he learned what not to do. Now that he's older, he knows his toys and they're more fun anyway.

I'm using a rubber band on my wrist to keep track of which side is next for breastfeeding. I'm faster on the setup when I don't have to think, test, or remember which side Cale gets. Very handy, especially at night! I sometimes wear a pretty stretchy bracelet during the day, but at night the lowly rubber band is much more comfortable for sleep.

Personality

Even with six weeks to go in this pregnancy, I can already tell a personality difference between my sons. When I was large-pregnant with Karston, he would get his feet under my ribs and kick. This time, the kicks all have a reason. Thumper kicks when I get hungry (he's hungry too), when cold touches my belly (he doesn't like to be cold), and when I lean into something (he doesn't want to be cramped anymore); he doesn't kick just for the sake of kicking. He's a very sweet boy!

I had no idea I would be able to tell something about his personality before he was born, but I learn new things all the time.

Baby Sign Language

I hope we'll be better at sign language the second time around, instead of so intermittent.

Some online ASL resources where you can see the signs: Signing Baby Dictionary, 100 Basic ASL Signs, and the ASL Dictionary.

But I think the real winner is the Born 2 Sign cheat sheet to put on your frig. If we see a reminder all the time ...

Name Frequencies

I knew I had found a very good site for name frequencies just after Karston was born, and I finally found it again. In 1999, Karston and more common homophones were ranked 896 in popularity; there were 15 Karstons in 1999.

Sippy Cups

Now that I have some experience, here's the report on sippy cups.

You do not want the Nuby valve-free sippy cups while breastfeeding! To open the silicone valve, the child bites the valve. Yeah, I don't think I need to say more. After some chewing on the valve, it's no longer drip-free. I discovered this all over my lap while driving out.

You do not want any sippy with a snap-on lid (ours is also Nuby). You want a lid that screws down so the lid doesn't pop off when the child drops it.

Speaking of dropping, you want a sippy valve that's hard to install because you do not want the valve falling out when the cup is dropped. It's a bonus if the valve's easy to replace (you can buy more).

What we like best are the Circo sippy cups from Target that are never in stock around here. For night-time drinking, Karston prefers the Circo sippy with two handles (the model for younger children). Second place, at least if you already have Avent bottles, is an Avent bottle with the Avent Non-Spill Soft Spout. Karston likes the soft spout better than the hard one, and that seems fair to me. You'll also want the handles to go with the spouts. The Avent dome lid should help if it wants to leak during travel. One nice feature of the Avent spouts is that you can separate the valve into two parts to clean it out. (I finally learned why people buy pulp-free orange juice, a product I thought had no redeeming features: it's so that you don't have to clean pulp out of the sippy valve!)

We'll try the Nalgene sippy bottle soon.

After 12 to 18 months, sippy cups are a convenience to prevent messes; Karston can drink from a cup, and sometimes prefers that. On the other hand, he also pours what's in a cup other places, too. (He only gets water in a cup.)

Pollen

I don't know if Karston caught Daddy's cold, or if he has allergies. His nose drips are clear, and he has multiple sneezes at a time, all of which are more characteristic of allergies. So I looked it up, and right now the main allergens are Ragweed, Chenopods, and Grass at a High-Medium (7.9/10) pollen level. I've been sneaking decongestant into his juice, and he seems to feel better or sleep better (doesn't cough himself awake) when I do. I guess time will tell cold from allergies, but in either case, a decongestant should do the trick.

Bib Clip and Hat Attach

This was a very quick project using found items! I saw bib clips that look really convenient for travel, but it's not worth $12 plus shipping plus the wait to me. Dishwasher-safe and rounded is probably very good for babies, but Karston seems mostly grown now. So, since we'll be on the road next week, I thought I'd make one set of bib clips. I cut off the blue cord from a trade show pen that didn't write, and held a lighter to the ends to seal off where I had cut to keep it from unraveling any more. I put a white cord toggle over a loop in the middle of the cord, and I tied a bulldog clip, also from trade show visits, to each end. I looked through the Klutz Book of Knots, but ended up making up the knot anyway. I pulled a loop through the hole in the bulldog clip, ran the short end through the loop, snugged it up, and tied a half-hitch to finish the deal. It seems very secure. Voilà, one bib clip! Total cost, zilch; and I got to clear away some lingering trade show leftovers.

Since I was on a project roll in the right room, I kept going. I used a leftover piece of embroidery thread, two lanyards (one at either end), and one more bulldog clip to make a secure hat attachment for Karston. Fasten a lanyard on the hat, clip the other end to your collar, and the wind won't take your hat. The kid's ready to travel now!

Sleeping

A study on sleep/wake patterns of breast-fed infants in the first 2 years of life indicates Karston should sleep less than his non-breast-fed counterparts and not sleep through the night. Oh well! I think he already knows that, and I'm the one coming to grips with it. I would daydream about the time I get to sleep on my own schedule again, but I'm too close to zombie to daydream. Still, some day I am sure I will be allowed to have a regular sleep schedule of my own. And I think all those times when I thought we were "almost there" were cases of wishful thinking. Come on, I've been thinking Karston was close to sleeping through the night without us since he was six months old, and here he is about to pass sixteen months of age without a full week of full sleep. I just need to accept that I have a happy, healthy child who doesn't need as much sleep as I'd like. The important phrase is "happy, healthy child," and I'll just deal with the rest. Now if he would give up what he did way too early Wednesday morning (cry from 1:30 AM to 5:30 AM), that would be great!

Recycle Baby Food Jars

I think the end is in sight for baby food from jars. Karston is much more interested in what we're eating, and so far he hasn't refused any food when he's in the mood to eat. So some day soon, no more baby food jars. That's nice (much better than when he would barf back anything not from a jar!), but I've still got a ton of small jars that might be headed for the recycling bin. Still, reduce and reuse are key components to recycling, so I've been looking for other ideas. Here goes!

You can use them to hold beads or buttons. I store the jars upside down for this, so I can see what's in the jar through the clear bottom instead of the opaque lid. I arrange them by color. You can also store screws or other small parts with similar groups that fit in one jar, and arrange by size. eHow.com has a page on this type of Baby Food Jar Organizer.

My friend Cheryl is good at decoupage (tissue paper and glue on a clear stratum for a nifty stained glass effect), and I think she could make cool votive holders with tea light candles. Turns out that's not a new idea either, because eHow.com also has a page on How to Use Baby Food Jars for Decorative Votive Candles.

While there, I noticed that eHow.com has a page on How to Use Baby Food Jars to Make Gifts, and another on How to Make Gel Air Freshener that you could put in clean, empty baby food jars.

Next I turned to Google to dredge up ideas. I turned up a list of uses for Excess Baby Food Jars, and some entries under Crafts from Recycled Stuff. And finally there's Eileen's Favorite Camp Crafts and Other Fun Things from Baby Food Jars. That covers a whole bunch of uses for these baby food jars. I think my favorite (after convincing my crafty friends to take them! that even worked for the first several months) is to donate the jars to a local school or a Girl Scout troop for their arts and crafts!

Update 11/24/2006: And (duh) there's always using them as jars in the kitchen! I stored leftover chocolate chips in one recently.

Easy Diaper Stacker

We've been using a Reebok shoebox as a diaper stacker, pretty much ever since Karston came home. It sits on the dresser corner with its flip lid, very convenient. It's been a great diaper stacker, especially before he started wearing size 3 diapers. I thought about using something else for size 3 diapers, but the shoebox is so easy. And cheap. Size 3 diapers have to go in the shoebox on a diagonal, but so what? We're still using it.

What A Trip!

Oh my, what a trip!

First we got off the park-and-ride bus at the terminal. A couple steps later, I noticed we didn't have the car seat, and the bus had already left. Since we didn't have "spare" time, I went to check-in while Kurtis followed the information desk directions (ask the next park-and-ride bus radio ahead) to get the car seat. While standing in the motionless United check-in line, one clerk pulled everyone on our flight out for expedited check-in. I had to shuttle all of our bags to the desk while holding Karston, who had gotten tired of his stroller. As a result, my check-in conversation was short. Last name? Number of seats? Number of checked bags? ID? OK, here are your boarding passes.

Since I hadn't seen Kurtis, I went back to the information desk where we had first stopped, to let that clerk know to send Kurtis to meet me outside Security.

And Security is where he was waiting for me. I gave him his id and rushed through, but he got hit with 3 strikes. First time through, whoops, wallet and change in pocket. Whoops, cell phone in pocket. Whoops, metal belt buckle. Three strikes, so he's pulled aside for wanding. I'm holding Karston while trying to catch all of our stuff, I have all boarding passes, and we get paged on the intercom. Argh! I leaned over with his boarding pass, and he said he'd get the car seat. I threw all of the loose stuff in the stroller pocket, threw my carry-on in the stroller, and headed to the gate. I couldn't run with Karston (too much jolting for him), so Kurtis passed me. We did make our flight, just barely.

I was told to find any open seat, and took the first one I found: next-to-the-last row, next to a heavily tattooed man (I liked the PacMan, power pellet, and ghosts tattoos on his fingers); Kurtis sat right behind us. Karston was pretty good for this flight, once I took away the safety brochure because he was waving it wildly and was trying to whap the napping guy next to me. Takeoff nursing. Play through naptime despite more nursing. Nurse for descent, and THEN he feel asleep! He actually slept through landing, and the next half an hour on the O'Hare tarmack waiting for an open gate to disembark. So although we landed early, we obviously didn't have much time to spare inside the O'Hare terminals.

On this flight, Kurtis asked me a critical question that made me sick to my stomach. Where's my wallet? Well, I threw all small pocket items in the stroller pocket. So keys, belt, wallet, sunglasses, all went in the pocket. But did I remember to empty that pocket before we gate-checked the stroller? No, I was too busy trying to catch up to Kurtis and not jostle our child too badly. So his wallet, importantly containing his ID, was floating loose in the cargo hold. Ugh. I felt really bad. Plus I didn't want to fly back alone. Luckily the stroller folds up so tightly that everything stayed in the pocket.

The flight attendant had announced connecting gate information, so we knew we should catch the shuttle bus over to Terminal C. In 10 minutes, I found and went to the bathroom while my boys stayed in the exact same place in line for the shuttle bus. I found an idle gate agent and got walking directions to Terminal C. Since Karston was spaced out in his stroller, I could run this time; Kurtis couldn't run with the car seat but he hussled well. In fact, we played tag: Kurtis went faster on escalators, I went faster on level ground.

We raced to the next gate, only to get the bad news. That flight was oversold, and the rushed check-in at home meant that we did not get boarding passes or seat assignments for the second and final leg of our trip to Madison. So showing up later because we were stuck on the tarmack meant we were the first ticketed passengers who were turned away.

I wanted to get to Madison in time to check in so that I could use conference wireless to ask my mother to freeze the breast milk in our frig that will spoil before we get home. I explained to the gate agent that I wanted to make it my conference in Madison by 4 PM before registration closed, and that I wasn't happy that I got turned away with such expensive non-standby tickets. Note to all: be nice to your gate agent, no matter how steamed you feel! She let me turn down a bus trip to Madison (3 hours on a bus with a one-year-old who hasn't napped?), and found 2 seats to Madison on American. She was an angel!

Of course, the American flight was back in the terminal we had just left, so we had to hoof it all the way back. In a hurry again. Running made me feel weak and light-headed because I hadn't eaten in over six stressful hours. We checked in for the last two non-exit-row seats (no children in exit row), bought sandwiches while that flight boarded, walked on, and switched seats to be together.

So finally at 2 PM (eastern time, the time our stomachs were on, not counting that breakfast was a bit early), we got to eat our sandwiches. Usually a delayed meal makes both of us quite grouchy. But we both knew we were doing our best today, so we weren't snapping at each other.

You can probably guess what happened next. We got to Madison uneventfully, but our luggage didn't. We took our United baggage claim stubs to the United baggage office, filled out the form, and at the very end, Oh, you came in on American on your last leg, they have to track down your bags. Great! Of course, at first American tried to send us back to United with our United baggage claim stubs. American said to call at 6 PM if we didn't have our bags, and to say Representative to the system.

No issues renting a car, driving to the hotel, or checking in. I requested a mini-frig to store baby food, and we were early enough to get one. We were starting to smile and relax.

We didn't have bags by 6 PM, but only one other flight came in from O'Hare, so it seemed too hopeful to us. Kurtis called, and no one knew. We bought toothbrush and toothpaste, but with hope, no more.

Growth Charts: Software - Niche - Child

Growth Charts 1.2.2, free OS X software, lets you enter your own data on the CDC growth charts so you can compare at a glance to the U.S. distribution. Sure, you could download the PDFs to print and plot by hand, but this is so much tidier. It's also a reasonable place for me to log all those stats from each pediatrician visit. You can track more than one child (charts go up to 20 years of age). One of my pet peeves for software is locking me into a proprietary file format, but these data are stored in easy-to-read text files. So it's niche software, but if you're interested, Growth Charts is nicely done.