Holy Grail

Many apologies for a too long absence from my blog. It has been another crazy week, having gone to Atlanta for several days on business/pleasure and with another big work deadline coming up in a few days. The upside is that I should have new fodder for the blog from it all. The downer is that I haven't had time yet to commit it all to key strokes. Need to catch some ZZZs but I will leave you with a promise, in the words of Monty Python --

"I'm not quite dead yet!"

So don't give up on my blog. I shall return!

Death And Taxes

It has been a while since my last post and I almost didn't make this one because something hit my GI tract last night and I was in PAIN. In fact, on my drive to work, I had to stop at Safeway for a potty break, plus stock up on Rolaids, Pepto, rice cakes and apple juice. Not sure whether to blame our post-Easter-service run to McDonald's playland. Serves me right for venturing out to try something I don't usually get, the Big-n-Tasty. I have many new names for that sandwich now (the Big-n-*@~#$%!), which had to be censored from this blog.

Bob and I are thankful that the Easter holiday gave us a few extra days to submit our tax forms because we ended up preparing them last minute this year. Last night, I was trying to explain to Connor about taxes, and he was having some difficulty over the concept of our government.

"Does the Government live in the sky?" (i.e. like God -- well, sort of I guess)

After a myriad of questions like that one, I tried to simplify it by telling Connor that if Mommy and Daddy don't pay our taxes, we'll go to jail, and he would have to live with his grandparents. Perhaps that was too graphic.

When my parents came this morning to take him for the day to D.C.'s Air and Space Museum, Connor kept asking them, "Did Mommy and Daddy pay their taxes?"

Finally, Gong Gong asked him why he was so concerned and he tattled on me about his new fear of us going to jail. I am a horrible mother, although I suppose he has to learn about this fact of life sooner or later, right?

What I Have To Live With

I kid you not, a glimpse into Bob's psyche...

B is for...

Bright, brilliant Benjamin
Beautiful boy
Bonny and fair
With bedazzling eyes
Babbling and beaming
Balloons, balls and buses
Bouncing to music that gives you such joy
Boisterous and brave, even brazen at times
Boldly balancing perilously all by yourself
Blankie brings comfort
And big brother too
Blow kisses to baby and to Two-Step so true
Birthday blessings be yours
On this beauteous day
And be mine forever
Beloved Benji, my boy

Deja Vu All Over Again

The most strange and beautiful phenomenon occurred on my drive to work this morning, just as I entered the city. Sudden gusts of wind blew through the streets scattering what appeared to be a wondrous flurry of cherry blossom "snow". Pedestrians ducked down into their jackets instinctively to weather the storm of petals swirling about.

Ha, I thought to myself. The only time it ever really snowed this late in the season in Maryland was at Mitch and Majel's wedding -- oh my gosh, exactly 9 years ago today! They were dressed in traditional Filipino (i.e. short-sleeve tropical linen) attire for their Catholic wedding when the snow storm descended. They might have expected rain in April, but not snow. I still remember the procession of cars slipping and sliding on the road from the church to the reception, what a surprise for their relatives from the Philippines...
But, this isn't really snow.

Then I looked more closely at my windshield and realized that the "petals" were melting on contact. I was, in fact, driving through a snow flurry in April. The surreal, magical storm lasted all of five minutes before the sun came out again. Too bad it didn't happen on April fools day :)

Butros Butros

The name of the former UN Secretary General struck me as fitting for the title of this post about butt rash. (What was his mother thinking?)

Anyway, several of our blog team members have been asking how Connor's butt rash has been faring. We did get quite a scare after trampsing around in our backwoods weeks ago, when we discovered a silver-dollar-sized red patch on Connor's bum. Being neurologists and knowing absolutely nothing about rashes except to fear the target lesion of early Lyme disease, we frantically sought electronic consultations with a host of friends and family in much more useful medical specialties (family med and dermatology) by circulating g-rated digital pics of Connor's lil' tush across the eastern seaboard. Thank goodness after some thoughtful consideration from highly-trained doctors the verdict was unanimous -- ringworm! We finally realized there was a reason that parents need to bathe their kids, either that or slather them with fungicidal creams on their way out the door.

Well, the next day the grandparents happened to be giving Connor a bath while babysitting (probably realizing that we never bathe our kids), when Gong Gong discovered Connor's butt rash on his own.

That evening, he brought it to our attention -- [in Cantonese]: "You know, Connor has a skin lesion on his bottom, frequently seen in China; if left unchecked the rash can be very disfiguring. It's a fungus, you have to apply fungicidal cream."

Who knew we should have just asked Grandpa in the first place? Looks like we still have a lot to learn from our parents, like about butt rash. By the way, Connor's rash is all better now, and he's a whole lot cleaner too!