Sunshine on my Shoulders

1. Mason is still doing great with the elimination diet. The only setbacks we've had are when I unknowingly eat something with soy, like at a restaurant. Did you know a plain, dry baked potato from Red Lobster contains soy? Me either. My bad, Little Dude. My one and only splurge has been the occasional drive-thru french fries and I even checked to see which places don't use soybean oil to cook them. I thought Sonic was safe, but it turns out, only Chick-fil-A uses plain 'ol spuds in 100% peanut oil (to which he hasn't reacted). Why must there be so many additives in everything?!

2. Lately, I've stumbled upon a few new things I can eat. Unfortunately chocolate cake is not one of them... but jell-o is! Hooray for sugar!! Since avocados seem safe so far, I've been spreading them on rice cakes, imagining that I'm back on that lovely little private beach in Mexico. I even found some gluten-, dairy-, soy-, corn-, egg-, nut-free vegan mac n' cheese the other day. Sad news is that it tastes even worse than it sounds. Ick. Mocha wouldn't even finish it.

3. Speaking of her: I woke up this morning to find that last night she peed on my freakin' yoga mat that has been out in the living room for a few days. Can't wash that out. Thanks, turd.

4. It wouldn't have been so bad except that the morning was already off to a rough start after the little neighbor kids were playing right outside Mason's window and woke him up. Perfect timing too, since it was late enough that he was not going back to sleep and early enough to put us both in a bad mood. And right about the time I found Mocha's surprise, the kid filled up a fresh diaper and began screeching at me as though it was my fault he was sitting in poop for 0.5 seconds. I know I'll be grateful for that reaction when he starts potty training, but in the mean time, Iamsotiredofcleaningupbodilyfluids!

5. Matt got a slammin' new computer. Mine is basically on hospice, so we went shopping Monday to see whats new in the 5 years since being in the market for one. Well, Matt came home last night in a funk and decided he needed some retail therapy. Two hours and several dollars later, he had his fix. The coolest part is that he got some gadget that wirelessly connects it to our TV so now he can watch his espn.com, youtube, and whatever else in all its HD, 40-something-inch glory.

6. Last spring we had grandiose plans for sprucing up our yard and planting a garden. We even borrowed a tiller and bought flowers... annuals. Then out of nowhere, morning sickness slammed me onto the couch and March-June became little more than a blurry haze of barf bags, chicken nuggets and 2-day-old mascara. When I finally got over it, my summer class was nearly over, Matt had undergone foot surgery, and the little flowers (never taken from the tray) had been dead and crunchy for months. I guess it got pretty ugly because the only topic of conversation in the last year between us and two of our neighbors has been our pitiful lawn. We actually caught one of them trimming our hedges a few weeks ago when he thought we weren't home. AWKWARD! I never imagined we'd be the trashy ones on the street, but go us! This year we are determined to finish what we started and maybe add a little curb appeal too. We haven't even bought dirt and I'm already overwhelmed. Why does yard work have to be so much... work? We're sticking with perennials this time.

7. I luurve springing forward. It is my signal that I survived winter and the sun will shine once more. My serotonin tank is usually on empty by the time February is over and I was exceptionally nervous about it this time, having to go through the first few crazy months with a baby during the same time of year. But alas, we survived. One thing I haven't figured out is: Why don't we just move the time by 30 min and call it good?