I love how creative kids can be. With just a little prompting in the right direction, their imaginations really take off.

So when I was hanging out at my friend Lee’s the other evening, and she pulled out her daughters latest school writing assignment, I couldn’t wait to see what she had come up.

Let me introduce you to Giannia.  She may only be 10 years old (yeah, I know she looks more like 16, but trust me on the 10 thing. I was at her birthday party), but this is the future of blogging right here.  Quite frankly I know many bloggers who can’t even write this well (I’m often in that group).

So with Gianna’s gracious permission, I’m posting the fake news article she wrote for her class project, for your Monday evening amusement.

 

 

*Just a quick pre-note for my American friends:  Stephen Harper is our Prime Minister.  The equivelent to that Obama dude you guys have down there*

---

Prime Minister Harper

Written By: Gianna B [untrue story]

Prime Minister Harper has offered $56,000,000 to who ever can turn vanilla pudding into fuel and gas.  He announced this on Jan 21st, 2010 in Banff AB Canada.  Many thought why? Mr. Harper [quote-on-quote] said “My dear peoples, #1 we no longer have other options #2 this will drastically help our earth, and #3 I hate vanilla pudding, good luck I am off to Italy”.  Who knows how? [Who elected this guy?]

Mr. Harper has also decide we are to take over Hawaii.  “We will sell it back to the U.S. for $10 so I may get one of those awesome bookmarkers with the fuzzy animal at the top, thank you”  Prime Minister Harper says this on a clip after a romantic horror movie.  His plan now is to threaten to blow up Mr. Obama’s presidential spa.

Where is the army in this? Asks the press but the army is still no where to be seen.  Once again I say who elected this dude.

Get your ballads ready our president is leaving for Mars.  He didn’t even bother to announce it this time folks!  Is he an alien quiet possibly?  He believes that if something is to be done right ask the president!  Watch before you ote this time folks.

---

 

 

Watch out world. You’re never going to know what hit you when Gianna becomes a famous writter. But I’m the only one who can say I knew her when.

As much as I detest trolls, sometimes I grudgingly have to admit their asinine comments make me pause and consider.

Such was the troll that left this comment on Maria’s (BOREDMommy) blog the other day:

Why is it that you call yourselves “mommies”? It’s infantile, like being called a girl instead of a woman. If giving birth (or adopting) and raising a child is so important, why don’t you insist on the dignity of the word “parent”? Or “mother” — if you insist on focusing on gender as well? I am a parent and I was “mommie” only to my children and then only when they were young. No wonder men and childfree women don’t take you seriously: You are endlessly self-absorbed, boring, juvenile, and have nothing to say for yourselves beyond your reproductive status and childrearing.

OK, I have to admit that my first thought was, ‘*snort* Wow…..bitter much?’

But then I stopped.  Do I mind being called a ‘Mommy’ or even lumped in with ‘Mommy bloggers’?

You know… I really don’t.

To me ‘mother’ or even ‘parent’ is a cold, impersonal, standoffish word.

And Vista never refers to me as ‘Mother’.  Ever.  That would just be weird.

To her I’m ‘Mama’ and ‘Mommy’.  So do I associate with that name?  You bet.  Because, as far as my 2 year old is concerned, that is my name.  I have no other identity other than Mommy.  She doesn’t know me as Jenn, same as she doesn’t know Daddy as Bil.  We are Mommy and Daddy.

And I love the simplicity of that.

To me it’s not infantile, it’s innocence at it’s very best.  It speaks to a time when your parents are not adults put on this earth for the express purpose of oppressing you.  It is that sweet time between self awareness and total independence when your child reaches for you to know they are safe, secure, loved.

In time, I’m sure my name will morph. It’ll go from Mommy, to Mom, to OMG! MoooooooooommmmmmGawdYou’reEmbarassingME!

But right now, I’m thrilled to be Mommy.  And I couldn’t possibly think of a sweeter sound than my daughter calling my name.

Are you proud to be a Mommy too?  Head over to BOREdMommy’s site and link up your own post.

I’m one of those people that it’s not just looks that makes someone attractive to me.  It has to be a whole package deal.

Beauty, brains, personality… yeah, I’m greedy like that.

So here are a few of the “Mommy’s” I follow on Twitter that are the full meal deal.  And that I’d totally hit given the opportunity.

• MommyGeekology – You might remember her from my Relationship Series.  Well, in addition to being a wild woman in the bedroom, she’s also a brilliant web designer.  See…smart AND sexy.
• MommyNeedsMeds – This woman puts the YUM in yummymommy.  And she still manages to look kick ass hawt wile running after five (yes, count them, 5) kids.  Yet she still finds time to be a witty on Twitter.  It exhausts me just thinking about it.
• BrainofaMommy - Smart, sassy, snarky.  And ooooohhhh… so cute.  Her unapologetic style also really turns me on.

If you’d like to play along on Follow Friday, than link up, and if you’re so inclined, grab a badge.

*smooches*

<a href=”http://www.princessjenn.com/?cat=114″ target=”_blank”><img border=”0″ alt=”Princess Jenn’s ‘Follow Friday’” src=”http://i771.photobucket.com/albums/xx353/designsbyprincessjenn/Followfriday.jpg” /></a>

As I sat on the couch last night and tried to finish up a client ezine, Vista got up from the floor where she was using Bil as a jungle gym, grabbed her ‘laptop’, and climbed up on the couch next to me.

Part of me laughed, but there was a little part of me that was completely horrified. I want her to be two. I want her to play with blocks and barbies. I want her to create with paintbrush not Paint.Net.

So I watched the great interest when Momspotting was launched on BlogHer back in November. I wanted to see how other moms handled technology with their children. I wanted to see how they navigated this digital minefield.

I have to say, I’ve been a bit disappointed so far.

Momspotting has become less about families and technology and more about being in an exclusive group.

It’s easy to find this group of moms. Just do a search on Twitter for the hashtag #momspotting.

Oh, but don’t use it yourself. Oh no. That hash tag is just for this exclusive group. If you use it and they catch you, you will be sent a sternly worded DM or email letting you know that YOU are not a Momspotter and THEY are and YOU can’t use #momspotting because it’s only for THEM.

I wish I was kidding, but I’m not.

I’ve never personally gotten one of these gems myself, but I have several friends who have and have showed me the polite, but stern, ‘you’re not one of us’ notes.

So instead of Momspotting opening a dialogue about how we protect and direct our children in this age of technology, it’s become a marker to denote a closed group. This has been evidenced by more and more of these tweets having nothing to do with technology (and wasn’t that the point?)

I think this was a noble initiative. And it had (and still does have) huge potential. But it needs to be an inclusive conversation starter.

Rather than having these 20 or so moms ‘owning’ this hashtag, why not make them the leaders instead? Let them prompt, coach, and encourage everyone to share their own experiences, their own tips, their own rules around technology and their families.

But by shutting people down when they try to participate and use the #momspotting tag, they’re nullifying a huge part of the effect they could have. People want to be part of a conversation, not just spoken at.

Actually that should probably be ‘if I ever grow up’ but who’s counting?

This week I’m sharing with you the ladies that I admire and respect.  Not because they have a lot of followers or win awards or anything like that.

These women exemplify what great writing is.  They are smart, witty, and not afraid to have an opinion.  And yet, not so high on their horse that you can’t have a conversation with them.

• MommyMelee – This is one lady who’s not afraid to voice her opinions and stand by them.  And her writing on her blog is what I aspire to.  Sometimes witty, sometimes controversial, sometimes raw, but always elegant.
• MommyWantsVodka – I adore Aunt Becky.  She has that sharp sense of humor that gets right to the point and makes you snort your drink out of your nose.  Seriously.  She’s also up for a Bloggie award, so you should totally go vote for her (just scroll to the right and look for her under ‘most humorous weblog’)
• Looneytunes – Loralee is amazing when it comes to evoking emotion.  You’ll laugh with her, you’ll cry with her, but mostly, you’ll love her.
• And a quick ‘bonus’ follow.  I just started following byflutter.  Her hilarious passive / aggressive commentary on Facebook is my must read blog post of this week.

If you’d like to play along on Follow Friday, than link up, and if you’re so inclined, grab a badge.

*smooches*

<a href="http://www.princessjenn.com/?cat=114" target="_blank"><img border="0" alt="Princess Jenn’s ‘Follow Friday’" src="http://i771.photobucket.com/albums/xx353/designsbyprincessjenn/Followfriday.jpg" /></a>

 

 

Those of you that follow me on Twitter have probably heard about Sam.

Sam is Vista’s special friend.  And we’re pretty sure he’s a ghost.  Yeah, I’m living in a real life haunted house.

I can remember vividly the first time Sam showed up.  We we all  sitting in the living room and all  of the sudden Vista started to talk to ‘Sam’.  Sam was apparently standing right behind me as I sat on the couch *shudder*.   Vista was happily chattering to him and trying to hand him things.

Bil and I just looked at each other.  And decided she had an imaginary friend.  How nice for her.

But on the off chance, I called my mom and asked her if the name ‘Sam’ rang any bells for her.  As we ran through the family roster of the dead we came up blank.

I was still clinging tightly to the fact that this was an imaginary friend.  Perhaps, I reasoned, she’s talking about Sam from the Wiggles.  She loved watching the Wiggles at that point.  Perhaps she had just picked that name.  So, I put the Wiggles show on and when Sam showed up, I pointed to the TV and said “Look!  Sam!  Is that your Sam?”

I’m pretty sure Vista is going to be really good at that ‘OMG you are a complete moron’ look when she’s a teenager, because she threw that look at me and slowly explained to her idiot mother “Sam on TV,” pointing to the tele.  “Not Sam,” pointing to the other end of the room.

Well, fine.  Nix that idea.  But, I still wasn’t giving up on the imaginary friend idea.

Until the morning I went to get Vista dressed.  I conversationally asked her “Where’s Sam?”

She pointed to the floor next to her.

“Oh, he’s sitting next to you?” I said, very pleased with my deductive reasoning skills.

I got the ‘you’re an idiot’ look again and she patiently explained “No.  In ground…. buried there.”

I have to tell you, hearing your two year old tell you about someone being buried in the ground (they certainly don’t teach that on Dora or Sesame Street) is kind of a conversation killer.

So I changed gears.  Fine, Sam probably wasn’t just an imaginary friend if he’s buried in the ground.  So we played 20 questions with a 2 year old with limited vocabulary.

Q: Is Sam a boy or a girl?

A: Boy

Q: Is Sam a little boy like [cousin] or is he old like Daddy?

A: Like Daddy

Q:  Is he old like Grandpa or just old like Daddy?

A: Old like Daddy.

Alright, so we had a male ghost, somewhere in the 20 – 50 age range.

Q: Is he wearing a hat?

A: No.  He…  *at this point she started point to her forehead*

Q: Does he have an owie on his head?  A bandaid?

A: No…  *it took a few days, but we finally figured out that Vista was trying to tell us he was wearing a headband of some sort, after she started wearing insisting on wearing her hairbands around her forehead rather than to hold her hair back*

We continued playing these games.  Showing pictures, asking questions, guessing answers.  Near as we can tell, Sam is an adult male, Native American, ghost… who likes to swear.

Oh, did I forget that part?

Yeah, I came in one day to get Vista up from a nap and she was happily chattering to Sam.  And they were talking about ’sunny beaches’

I sent Vista out of the room to go play in the living room, and turned to (where I thought) Sam was.  I gently explained to him ‘Listen here you son of a bitch.  You teach my daughter to fucking swear and I will exorcise your ghosty ass.  Are we clear?’

I’m assuming he got the message, because there’s been no more mention of sunny beaches or any beaches for that matter.

But then, a few months ago, Sam went away suddenly.  Vista explained he had gone to the mountains for a while.  I smiled and nodded like this made sense and figured maybe we were rid of our ghost for good.  Not that I really minded him.  I mean, he seemed to be friendly enough.  And Vista certainly enjoyed talking to him.  On days when he would chat with her as she woke up from a nap I could here fits of giggles.  But still.  A haunted house really doesn’t draw friends to want to come over for coffee.

Months went by, and no Sam.  Until about a week ago.

Vista woke up and started talking about Sam again.  I figured, not a big deal.  So he’s back.  Good for him.

But, something’s changed.  Or rather he’s changed.  He seems to want to be more helpful.  Which is nice… but, dude, it’s creeping me the fuck out.

The first incident was the other day when Vista and I were in the living room.  She was dancing around and I said “Should mommy put some music on so you can dance?”

As soon as I said that the DVD player turned on.  Now, that, in and of itself, I could ignore.  But we have one of those fancy players that also acts as a radio tuner and you can hook your ipod into it.  We have never use the radio part (because the reception is crap and while I’m pretty sure there’s something we could do to fix that, we’ve never bothered and just don’t use it), and very rarely use the ipod dock, so it’s always set to play DVDs.  Except when it turned on, it was set to a radio station playing music.

OK, I must have sat on the remote or something and accidentally turned it on.

Except when I stood up to look, I saw the remote sitting across the room from Vista and I.

I looked at V.  “Where’s Sam?”

“He just went outside”

“Yeah I bet he did.  Tell ghosty boy to quit touching Mommy’s technology”

I walked over and shut the DVD player off.  I wasn’t in the mood for dancing anymore.

Then the other day, I went to put Vista down for a nap.  She laid down in her crib and I was tucking her in asking her if she wanted me to put her white noise machine on for her… when her Winnie the Pooh music box turned on by itself.  Neither Vista nor I were anywhere near it.  And not only that, it’s not a little push button switch to turn on, that I could have hit accidentally this time.  It’s a slider.  And to put it on the song and setting that it was on the slider has to be slid down from it’s off position at the top, alllllll the way down to the bottom position.

I turned it off.

“Where’s Sam?”

She pointed to the end of her crib.

“Could you tell him to stop doing stuff like that please.  It’s creeping Mama out.”

I got a nod from her.  I finished tucking her in and let her sleep.

Oh, but the best was yet to come.

This morning I woke up to hear Vista chattering through the baby monitor (Yes, she’s 2.5 and we still use a baby monitor.  Don’t judge).

I looked at the clock.  7:00am.  Bil would have gone to work a few hours ago.  So it was time to get up and grab a quick shower before I went in to get her.

Until I heard a male voice respond to one of Vista’s chattering questions.

A voice that I didn’t recognize.

A voice that certainly wasn’t her father’s.

I went racing out of my room and threw open her door…. only to find her alone in her crib.  With no one else in the room.

“Hi Mama!”

“Hi baby.  Who were you talking to just now?”

“Sam….and my dollies”

Holy fuck.  Had I just heard her ghost over the baby monitor???  Are you fucking kidding me??

I’ve come to the conclusion we have one of two things going on here.

Either

1. Vista has a friendly ghost who watches over her and likes to make sure she’s happy.  And who now seems to be able to turn on things in the house and make himself heard…..or
2. I’m loosing my ever living fucking mind

I’m kinda leaning towards number two.

Just a quick Vista update for those who care.

So… we had an appoint with our family doctor on Monday to talk about Vista’s inhalers and I also wanted to talk to him about some of her specialist flagging some of her behaviors as autism markers.

Visiting Dr.F is always interesting. First of all he is the ONLY doctor that Vista likes. She will let him check her, and even pick her up, with no screaming and crying. And then there’s the fact that Dr.F totally think the sun rises and sets with Vista. You see, she was his very first patient in his practice (in fact before he even had a practice). He was her doctor when she was in the Special Care Nursery (a step down from NICU), when she was born. And so he’s always taken a special interest in her.

I love the fact that she’s so relaxed with him. It makes a visit to the doctor so much easier. And I also like the fact that I feel like he listens to me and doesn’t dismiss me as a neurotic mother. That’s a rare and valuable quality in a doctor these days.

The first thing we discussed were her inhalers. And the fact that, yes, the doc at urgent care had prescribed her an inhaler that was way above her age range (thank you Dr. Lori for bringing that to my attention).  We confirmed that she doesn’t need to be on inhalers full time, but when she gets a cold, she’ll go on them for a week or two to keep her airways open.  I’m happy with that arrangement and it seems to work for Vista.

Then we talked about some of the autism makers we’re seeing.  Stuff like lining up toys, counting things over and over and over, and other OCD quirks she has.  He agreed that it was probably time to get her in for a formal screening, so he’s made a referral to the Children’s Hospital in the city.  He’s not overly concerned, especially because he’s thrilled with where she is with talking and walking in light of her brain issues.  He said  that any autism she may have would be mild and it may just be her quirky self.

Before we left, I asked him if he had received a call from Children’s Services back in December.  Surprise, surprise, they didn’t call him either.  That’s 3 names I gave them and they called none of them.  Unreal.  I still have to check with Vista’s pediatrician to see if they talked to him.  What I found interesting is Dr.F guessed within 2 seconds of hearing my story who it was that had reported me.  He’s asked me to gather some information about the CS investigation and pass it on to him and then he is going to file a formal complaint against the pharmacy (and pharmacist) who filed the report with CS.  I’m apparently not the only person who has had problems with that pharmacy.

I have to say, I came away from this appointment feeling good about where things are and very supported.  Having a good doctor, when you have a child with issues, can really make such a huge difference.

As we were walking out of the office, we ran into Dr.F’s wife who had brought him some coffee.  The Dr introduced us and his wife immediately looked at Vista and said “Oh!  Is this Vista Avalon?”.   I must have had a “how the fuck do you know my daughter’s middle name” look on my face because she started laughing and explained that Dr. F talks about Vista all the time and they both just love her name, so it’s always stuck with her.  Huh.

The biggest surprise of the whole visit, though, came with Vista gave Dr. F a hug before we left.  And not just one of her ‘I’ll sort of lean into you and let you touch me’ hugs.   I’m talking about an arms around his neck, squeezing hug.  Apparently even she knows a good doctor when  she sees one.

One of my biggest pet peeves about Twitter on Fridays is the massive amounts of spam that is called ‘Follow Friday’.
I’m talking about people who ‘just can’t possibly choose who they like the best’ so instead they send out tweet after tweet with every single one of their followers listed in them.

And that tells me what exactly? That you have enough time (and few enough followers) to type each and every one out.

Yay for you!  Here’s your sign.

And you know how many of those people I’m going to follow because you said so?

None. Zero. Zip. Nada.

Because you haven’t told me anything.

Why are they worth following? What makes them special? What makes you WANT to talk to them rather than the other couple hundred people on your list?

Unless you can give me a reason WHY I should follow them, I’m not going to bother weeding through all the names to figure out which are really worth adding.

So….

1. Stop filling up my twitter stream with absolute useless garbage
2. Grow a pair and stop sniveling about the fact that ‘you don’t want to leave anyone out…’. This isn’t grade school. This is the real world. Not everyone is going to like you all the time. Deal with it.
3. Pick a handful of people you’ve talked to A LOT in the past week and tell me why they were worth talking to.

See? Not that hard.

Now, I still don’t like to send out tweet after tweet on Fridays, so I’m going to bring back my Follow Fridays here on my blog and irritate the shit out of all my readers instead.  I know you guys love me.  Wait….where are you all going??……

Well, fine.  For the three of you left reading, every Friday I’ll be (trying to) post my top follows of the week.  I’ll be telling you a bit about what made them stand out for me that week.

If you want to play along on your blog, I’ll be adding a Mr. Linky at the bottom of the Follow Friday posts, so add the link to your post with your picks of the week so we can go check them out.

Alright?  Everyone happy?  No?  Just me, eh.  Well that’s OK.  It’s my blog and I’m the only one that really matters so pfffffffttttttt.

Ahem.

Without further ado, my Follow Friday list for January 22nd:

• masmom:  My girl, Lu, always makes me giggle.  Especially when she starts popping pain killers from her ankle surgery and starts stoned tweeting?  OMG.  Pee your pants funny.  And if you’re really lucky she’ll leave you a comment on your blog while she’s stoned that’ll take you half an hour to decipher and that she won’t remember writing the next morning.
• carareed:  I just about died when she posted this picture on Tuesday.  That would be a sketch her doc did of her hooha explaining how a cervix works to keep a baby from just falling out (because she’s only had a couple kids and would have never figured that out on her own *snort*).  But the fact that she brought the drawing home and put it up on the interwebs for our viewing pleasure?  Doesn’t get much cooler than that.  Oh, and I may also follower her because I want to be skinny and beautiful like her one day, but that’s complete supposition.
• terrie_j:  Real life mama to @mommyneedsmeds and all round awesomeness.  She’s always there to dispense virtual hugs, kisses, and cuddles, and the occasional smack upside the head if it’s warranted.  It’s like having the best version of your own mom on Twitter, without all the drama, and guilt.
• toywithme and her darling husband Mr_Puck:  The reason these two are on my first list of 2010 goes back to something they did at Christmas for a little girl they’d never met.  I’ve talked about Nat, the daughter of our good friends, who has brain cancer.  Her parents saved up to buy her an iTouch for Christmas.  Something she could bring with her to all the endless appointments she has.  They got the notification from the local post office in mid-December that the package was in, and they went to pick it up.  Only to find that the post office couldn’t find it.  Anywhere.  They went back every day for two weeks to see if it had turned up (as of writing this – mid-January, there’s still been no sign of the package).  There was no way they could afford another iTouch this close to Christmas, so they were scrambling to figure out what they were going to do for Nat’s gift from Santa.  I went on Twitter with a rant about how Canada post sucks the big one (especially since their response to the whole matter was ‘here’s a 1-800 number you can call’).  Enter toywithme and Mr_Puck.  They very quietly, without fanfare, and with no expectation of recognition, offered to replace the iTouch.  They made arrangements to have a store close to Nat’s family hold their last iTouch for them to pick up.  This was Christmas Eve by the way.  I consider these two people true Christmas angels.  They will forever have my gratitude for making the Christmas of a little girl who’s had a really rough year.

So those are my first Follow Fridays of 2010.  Sure, there are dozens of other people I could have put in that list, but I have a whole year for that. 

If you want to play too, than link up, and if you’re so inclined, grab a badge.

*smooches*

<a href="http://www.princessjenn.com/?cat=114" target="_blank"><img border="0" alt="Princess Jenn’s ‘Follow Friday’" src="http://i771.photobucket.com/albums/xx353/designsbyprincessjenn/Followfriday.jpg" /></a>

 

 

There is no such thing as a normal conversation around these parts.

Oh, sure.  It may start out innocent enough.  But somewhere there’s always a divergence and we end up scratching our heads going ‘How the hell did we get here??’

Case in point was the conversation we had last night.

Bil was in the living room and … well, I don’t even remember what Vista said that prompted it, but I told her “Just call Daddy, Obi Wan Kenobi”.  If you don’t know who Obi Wan Kenobi is, you are dead to me.  Seriously.  And seriously consider coming out from that rock you’ve been living under.

Anywho…

Bil responded with “No way.  I’m Yoda”.  (Vista, of course, is dutifully running around the house screaming “OBI WAN YODA” at this point)

I stopped.

And this is where the conversation went all wrong…

Me: You want to be some wrinkled green mutant?

Bil:  What?  Yoda is cool!

Me: You can’t be Yoda.  He’s got no penis

Bil: WHAT?  What ARE you talking about.

Me:  He doesn’t.  I’m sure of it.

Bil: How the hell would you know if he had a penis?

Me:  OK, maybe a penis.  But he’s definitely a eunuch

Bil: ….Yoda is a eunuch….

Vista now screaming “YODA EUNUCH” ad nauseum

Me: Totally!  You don’t see any little Yoda’s running around.  And you totally know George Lucas would have exploited that angle if it was possible.  So see… eunuch.

Bil: It disturbs me that you’ve actually thought about this.

Me: So see, you can’t be Yoda.  You’re Obi Wan.

Bil: How about I’m Han Solo and you can wear a Princess Leia slave…

Me:  No.

Bil: No?

Me:  Dude, so totally not going to happen…

Bil:  How the hell did we get here?

Me:  I don’t know, but I’m pretty sure it’s your fault.

I’m beginning to realize that last winter we really lucked out.

Vista was for the most part healthy and didn’t come down with a lot of colds or sickness.

This year… *sigh*  Is a different story.

As soon as she gets over one cold, we get a week off before she starts getting  sick again.

Bil and I are so over it.

The whining,  the hysterics every time she sneezes, the being up all night because her nose is runny and that is an absolute crisis in her world.

And with every round of being sick has come a round of croup.  Except I don’t think it’s croup.  I think  it’s the start of asthma.

So with this latest round of sickness she’s back on inhalers.

There are a few things you learn very quickly when you have a child who is chronically ill.  That is to trust your instincts, trust that you know your child better than any doctor, and that doctors are not infallible.

I spend a large part of my days, when something new comes up, reading medical journals online.  Researching, cross referencing, eliminating possibilities.

When Vista was little, and her doctors insisted that she was fine and just slow to develop because she was a preemie, this research got them to agree to do an MRI (against their better judgment – they were just humoring me, you understand).   But mother’s instinct didn’t fail me and the doctors were shocked when her scan revealed a brain malformation and missing pieces.

And when I suggested when she was only 3 months old, that she might have a milk allergy, which was summarily dismissed by all her doctors… well, I should have listened to my mother’s instinct then.  By the time she was a year old, her GI specialist grudgingly agreed that she might have an *mild intolerance*.  Months of food diaries and elimination diets revealed a severe milk allergy.  Bad enough that she couldn’t even eat beef and a kiss on the cheek from someone who had just had a drink of coffee with creamer in it would leave an angry red mark on her skin.

Now I’m preparing  to do battle on the asthma front.

This time I have my own experience to draw from, though.

As a kid, I was diagnosed with croup over and over.

I had chronic bronchial infections.  There were years I was on antibiotics 11 months out of the year.

But it wasn’t until I was a teenager that a doctor finally shook his head, handed me an inhaler, and sent me for asthma testing, which confirmed  the diagnosis.

See, the problem was, even in the midst of an asthma attack, I don’t get the tell tale bronchial spasms that are what most doctors use to diagnose asthma.

After Vista’s coughing attack at Christmas that left her breathless and blue, we found out she doesn’t get bronchial spasms either. But the attack she had was a carbon copy of what my asthma attacks used to be like.

So, now, once again I am researching, reading, and preparing to make my case before the judge doctor.