Quick catch-up

There are two draft posts sitting here, completely finished except for photos, but both kind of need the photos and Blogger has decided it doesn't want to let me upload photos and I'm tired of fighting with it so... I'm just going to write a photo-free post instead. Sorry!

This afternoon Matt made one of his fancy grilled pork roulades, this time stuffed with onions, red bell pepper, and fresh pineapple. It looked and smelled amazing! And then we cut into it, and learned that pineapple contains this enzyme that breaks down proteins... The meat had a weird, almost chalky, consistency all the way through. It was very disappointing. Funny/frustrating thing is, if we had used canned pineapple it would have turned out perfectly because the super high heat of the canning process kills the enzyme!

Well, now we know. No more fresh pineapple + meat dishes.

We have successfully reintroduced eggs with no one reacting to them, which is hugely helpful when I remember about it. (i.e. only once last week) Two more weeks until we can start reintroducing everything else. I'm getting so tired of this diet... It's not terrible, when I plan well, but it seems like last week things just kept coming up that made it more difficult to make the planned meals... I'm hoping to do better this coming week.

The kids are looking forward to their second week of summer break, now that the yard is approaching 3/4 free of snow. It is so weird having temperatures into the 70s and half the yard still covered with snow, but we had so much out there that it's taking a long time to melt! Regardless of the snow, LB and Kit have both been happy to get outside multiple times every day.

Occasionally I lose track of how young Otter still is, because he is so big: at 8 weeks, he has nearly doubled his birth weight already! He's fitting well in 6 month clothes. I don't recall LB or Kit growing quite this quickly...

LB and Kit love talking to Otter, making faces at him, helping with him... LB especially is doing a good job of helping with both of the younger kids: while I was busy in the kitchen today, LB brought Kit and a pile of books over next to Otter, and read aloud until both of his siblings had fallen asleep!

We had been talking about going out of town for a hike or picnic for Mother's Day, but it turns out that greenup is happening this weekend—pretty much every deciduous tree in the area leafing out at the same time and sending pollen everywhere—and  between the pollen and the fact that the sudden rapid snowmelt is causing rivers to rise quickly (and all the places we wanted to go are near rivers), staying home is sounding like the best choice. Matt offered to grill for me, so that will be nice.

What are you doing for Mother's Day?