The mysteries of parenthood

Every parent knows that kids should come with an instruction manual.  You can ask doctors, get opinions from other parents, and Google things to death, and you will still have a hard time figuring things out.  After nine years of parenting, the only concrete things I have learned is that you can't make kids eat, you can't make them sleep and you can't make them poop.  (I bet you can figure out what we've struggled with in this house)

My latest parenting mystery is allergies.  I don't have allergies.  The only thing I know I am allergic to is penicillan  - I learned that the hard way when I was in labor with K!  Hubby struggles with sinus allergy problems and is allergic to coconut (or maybe he just can't stand the taste/smell of it).  So we don't really have a lot of knowledge regarding specific allergies.  I had to learn on the fly when I had J.  He had problems with dairy as a baby, and showed signs of a peanut allergy (which I'm sure he's outgrown but he refuses to try anything peanut-related).  Last summer we figured out that he must be allergic to cantaloupe(!) because even though he likes it, he can't eat it anymore because it "makes his throat feel funny".

Now let's talk about my lovely daughter.  We discovered when K was a baby that she is allergic to those temporary tattoo/sticker things.  J always puts them on his face before football games, and we put a megaphone one on K once.  These things normally come off relatively easily with tape and/or rubbing alcohol.  Not on K.  It would NOT come off and she screamed and cried, and the tattoo left a burn-like mark on her skin.  She was sporting a pink megaphone on her cheek for days afterward.  Apparently she has very sensitive skin.  She wanted earrings but does not want to get her ears pierced, so I took her to the mall and we bought some little girls clip-on earrings.  After wearing them for a few hours, she cried when I took them off, saying that I hurt her.  Her little ear lobes were red and swollen.  The poor girl can't even wear pretty bling.

One night after her t-ball game she ordered a Tigers Blood sno-cone, which is a lovely bright red color.  She ended up poking a hole in the bottom of her cup, so half of her sno-cone ended up on her pants.  Later on I took her to the bathroom and when she pulled her pants down, she had a bright pink splotch on her skin in the exact shape & size of the sno-cone spill.  I don't know if it was from the cold ice (although it was quite a while after the spill), a red stain from the sno-cone or a reaction to the dye used for the treat (or all of the above).  I wouldn't be surprised if it was the latter.  J's doctor was always very reluctant to recommend allergy testing for a child.  Since J & K share that same doctor, I doubt he'll be receptive to the idea with her, but it seems like it might be smart, given how sensitive her body seems to be.

I don't think you ever really get this parenting thing down.  As soon as you figure one thing out, some other bizarre condition or behavior or phase will appear and throw you for a tailspin once again.  And they say women are a mystery!