Kisses and Tear Gas

We've got a couple of new developments at home. First is that Tommy is now giving us kisses and it is wonderful. I'm not a big one for kisses, but I'll take any that he's offering right now. More on that in  a bit.

The topic of the day however, is Karen's homemade tear gas. Tonight I was so excited for Sunday dinner, as Karen found a recipe for fish tacos that all of us could eat together. With Tommy's allergies, we struggle to find new things to eat. Karen doesn't eat anything that Tommy can't eat because she's still nursing, and in a show of solidarity, I have agreed to only eat all the stuff I have always eaten.
















So, God Bless her, she looks for new recipes, and this morning she told me she found a new fish taco recipe with corn totillas and corn and red pepper salsa. It sounded great. When we got home later, I found out the recipe was actually called "FIERY FISH TACOS" and the primary ingredient was cayenne pepper. As an eczema suffrer and a parent of an eczema sufferer, I can tell you that cayenne pepper us usually a powerful enemy of my people, but I figured we could give it a shot. Had I known the actual recipe (fish, pinch of salt, pinch of pepper, mason jar of cayenne) this whole disaster could have been avoided.

Also unknown to me, was what happens to cayenne pepper when you throw it on a sizzling pan. And I'll tell you good people that the effect is essentially in-home tear gas. I've seen people get tear gassed on television, and our experience was much the same. Coughing, crying, runny noses, burning lungs, a choking sensation; all the elements of a pleasant family dinner. Eventually, fearing for the well being of my child, I grabbed him and we fled to the front porch, as Karen stayed in the "Lion's Den" as she referred to it although I think "European Football Riot" is more fitting, to finish our new favorite meal.

Needless to say, the tacos were a wee bit spicy, as I learned when I tried the first bite and my tongue was engulfed in flames. Other than that, it was a really successful meal. I have notified Streets and Sanitation that our garbage contains weapons grade incendiary compounds and I've been assured it will be handled properly.

Anyways, try the tacos. they're awesome. On to the kissing.

So he's kissing us now. You kind of have to trick him by getting down to his level, and then you have to ask him like one thousand times, but if you catch him in the right mood you get a kiss. Now, where I was raised that there is no open mouth kissing until you're 3 years old, but I guess we're making it up as we go here.

On a more serious note, we've got a first class mama's boy on our hands. He loves loves loves Karen and reaches and cries for her any time he gets upset. When she cooks in the kitchen, he tries to climb up her legs and and he chases her out of every room that she leaves. Yesterday he and I were right in the middle of a very tense game of Jenga, and when Karen went to refill her water, he just abandoned our game like I wasn't even there. With that forfeit, my record against him remains unblemished.

Now as a board registered and certified mama's boy myself, I think I probably had this coming to me. Maybe when he stops nursing, I'll have a chance here. Until then, I'll just keep trying to make him laugh a little bit or ask Grandpa Greg for some coping strategies.




















He babbles constantly. A lot of ma-ma-ma-ma-ma and a few dada's occasionally. Mostly it's just screaming and squealing and aye aye aye's. I put a few video's on our YouTube page, so you can see some of his highlights there. I'm also doing another collage below, so please enjoy those.