Tracking down allergies

For a while we've been thinking that my younger daughter, almost 21 months, was allergic to dairy. When we cut out dairy her eczema seems to improve. When we were on vacation she didn't have much dairy the first few days, and her skin got better. Towards the end of the trip we discovered where to get chocolate milk, and then her skin got bad again.

So, we've recently begun making a concentrated effort to eliminate dairy. I was surprised to find dairy in some food items, like some french fries (McDonalds) and chicken nuggets. She was looking a lot better, but she was still itchy and scratching. So before bed the other night I covered most of her body with Cetaphil cream in the tub. The next morning, she looked like heck. Her face was all red and blotchy, as were her legs and arms, and she had dark circles under her eyes again. I checked the label of the Cetaphil to make sure there wasn't any dairy product in it, and saw that it has "sweet almond oil", among other things. It definitely seems like she is allergic to something in that, so now we're trying to figure out if is is the sweet almond oil, and what that means.

Gokey Fever, I think it's going around!

Tomorrow is Danny Gokey Day in Milwaukee. Since last night, I've had the song "Gokey Fever" (to the tune of "Boogie Fever") stuck in my head. They keep talking about Danny Gokey Day on the radio, and some of the local business have signs out like "We Love Danny Gokey" and "Go Danny Go". There's a house near us that has a Danny Gokey yard sign out also, but they've had it for a few weeks.

Now I've got to put on my my my Gokey shoes!

FREE Disney PhotoMovie with Disney's PhotoCD purchase (PhotoPass)

I was just working on my Disney PhotoPass pictures from our recent trip, and saw that today and tomorrow (May 7 and May 8)you can get a FREE Photo Movie with a PhotoCD purchase. It's listed on the "Special Offers" at http://www.disneyphotopass.com/specialoffers.aspx

Here's the fine print:
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FREE PHOTOMOVIE OFFER DETAILS: YOU MUST CREATE AND ORDER PHOTOMOVIE IN SAME ORDER AS PHOTOCD. Offer is valid only from 12:00 AM EDT on 5/7/09 through 11:59 PM PDT on 5/8/09. Your order must include at least one Disney's PhotoCD and one Disney's PhotoMovie. The products must be ordered at the same time. Limit one free Disney's PhotoMovie per order. IF YOU DON'T CREATE AND ORDER YOUR PHOTOMOVIE IN THE SAME ORDER, YOU WILL NOT RECEIVE A FREE PHOTOMOVIE.
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I was going to get a PhotoCD, but at a regular price of $74.95 the PhotoMovie is a beyond what I can spend. I'll be very happy to get one for free, though! Now I just have to pick the pictures to include in it!

Happy Children's Day!

In Korea, "Children's Day" is celebrated on May 5th. So while almost everyone around us is doing something to celebrate Cinco de Mayo, we'll be having bulgogi (asianinfo.org has the recipe I use most). My kids' schools are open today, so we won't be doing too many activities, but maybe we'll finally get in a game of yut! We bought it about 7 years ago, and still have never played it properly. We always intend to get it out for birthday parties and things, but never do.

WHAT?!?

My younger daughter is at the stage where she is learning new words every day. As of a few days ago, one of her new words is "what". Not just "what?", though, it is almost always "WHAT?!?!?!" It's pretty funny to have a 20-month old question you like that. I'm not quite sure if she knows what it means, but she does seem to use it appropriately. I tend to talk to her quite a bit (about what I'm doing, about what we see outside, about where we're going, etc.) Now if I say something innocuous like "we'll need to go get the doggies some more food," I get a "WHAT?!?!" in reply, as if that were a crazy suggestion.

Some possible upcoming post ideas:
- trip report for our Walt Disney World vacation
- bubbles
- Pi day (when did that start?)
- Chex Mix
- new beds and shelving
- books galore
- opposites

Help Make the Adoption Tax Credit Permanent

Here's a link to a Rainbow Kids article about the adoption tax credit, and how you can help make it permanent.

http://www.rainbowkids.com/ArticleDetails.aspx?id=639

Kudos to Walt Disney World's Lost and Found department

A few weeks ago we were on the trip of a lifetime to Walt Disney World with family and friends. We spent most of the trip at Disney's Polynesian Resort, and then spent one night a Disney's Port Orleans - Riverside. I accidentally left my Passporter Deluxe in a drawer at the Polynesian, but didn't realize it until the evening we were at Port Orleans, and we were heading home the next morning. I wasn't totally sure that I had left it -- most of our bags were already packed, and I didn't remember putting it in any of them, but I didn't want to totally unpack everything to check.

My husband called and left a message for the Lost and Found Department at the Polynesian. After we arrived home, we got a call from them saying that they had indeed found the book. They wanted to verify where we wanted it sent, and offered to send it either FedEx or regular mail. Since I didn't need it urgently (the trip was over!), regular mail was fine for us, and it arrived a few days later.

One of the coolest things about the whole process is the card that was taped to the box with our address on it. It is a postcard, and the reverse side says "We are holding an article(s) in our Lost & found Department which we believe may belong to you." It then gives you the number to call to identify the item and verify your address.

I have four kids, and even when we try to travel light, we still have a lot of things. I tell the kids that if they bring something they need to keep track of it, but as happened with me and my book, sometimes things do get misplaced and left behind. It's nice to know that the Walt Disney World Lost & Found department is looking out for me!

It also reminded me of the good experience we had with the Lost & Found department at another Disney resort several years ago, when my older son was much younger. He had a toy monkey that he really loved. We brought Monkey with us on vacation, and at some point he disappeared. We searched through everything in our room, but couldn't find it, and couldn't remember exactly where on the trip we had last seen him. We tried not to alarm my son, and tried to divert his attention when we asked about it. Eventually I went to the front desk and asked if by any chance anyone had turned in a toy monkey. He was there, and the people were so nice: "Oh, we were hoping someone would come for him! We had him sitting on our desk since we knew someone must be looking for him!" Again, we always try not to lose things, but it was really nice that they had Monkey, and my son was thrilled when he reappeared. Since it was my first experience with the Walt Disney World Lost & Found I wouldn't have been surprised if there was just a box of found items or something, but it was really nice to know that they took such good care of the items. This was "just" a stuffed toy monkey and a book; I hope I never lose anything really valuable, but I know that it will be in good hands if I do.