I had always wished my parents had kept more of my childhood toys. I have dome of them, but countless boxes were given away, thrown out and donated. For a long time I could not understand why they would not keep every single toy we had ever owned.

That is, until I had a child of my own and also a lifestyle that has had us moving two times since Gigi was born. Just before the move from the big marital house to our current place of residence, I finally cracked open all of the boxes of her baby toys and offered most of them on our local Freecycle group. I kept those that were either extremely special to me or that she had shown a particular preference for. There are the two little soft pink Gund baby dolls she had to have in bed with her every single night until the Christmas before her third birthday, when I gave her the Zapf Annabell doll. She was all about Annabell after that, and even more into the Baby Born and the Chou Chou I have bought her complete her Zapf collection. Of course, Annabell was off the market in most places last year and now it looks like a new version is coming out where the doll will turn her head toward the direction of your voice! Let’s hope I can use restraint and not buy this for Gigi. I am a sucker for these dolls. They are of the high quality as the dolls of my childhood made by Horsman and other American doll makers.

I have some of my favorite dolls from my childhood out in the garage: Breyer Horses, a big “walker” doll names Josephine (I named her afte the song “Come Josephine in my Flying Machine”) and several books and Barbie dolls.

What was your favorite toy growing up?

It can be a challenge to properly medicate a young child these days.

Gigi woke up with her head badly congested and it quite quickly moved into a sinus headache. The poor kid has probably only ever had a headache before the last time she had the flu. Today was a struggle for her to stay happy and energetic. As someone who get frequent headaches, I really felt bad for her.

I sat in the La-Z-Boy with her and rubbed her temples while I asked her to just keep her head still by focusing on the wall sconce across the room. Eventually, she closed her eyes and relaxed a little but, but every time she would move her head would hurt again.

I was able to find one chewable Sudafed in my box of tricks, but it was the last of the pack. Since the FDA has led the crusade in removing pretty much every single over the counter medication that really worked for nasal decongestion from the store shelves, I was out of luck by the time we got to the store. The Pharmacy was closed and most everything we needed was locked up. Also, this past week most stores pulled cold medications off the shelf if they were formulated for children.

I did find one combination congestion/cough medication for Gigi that seems to be helping her head feel better. But, when it comes down to it, you have little in the way of options if you want to find something at the store to give a child with a cold or congestion. In fact, antihistamines are under fire right now as well. Prescriptions are an option, but not on a Saturday night.

She seems to be feeling better. I gave her the congestion /cough liquid along with something for headaches.

Last night we had a simple dinner of collard greens and homemade macaroni and cheese. The Mac and cheese was penne with a simple white sauce infused with mild cheddar. Simple, delicious and quick.

I also had a glass of sweet tea.

Within minutes of finishing my meal I began to crash. I have been noticing lately that sometimes after I eat, I suddenly feel a wash of fatigue come over me. So, I have decided it is time to begin keeping a food diary. I assume it was either the sugar in the tea or the pasta that caused me to crash. Either ay,. There is something that needs to come out of my regular diet and I am determined to find it.

Now, I just need to find a good flourless, sugarless chocolate cake and I will be happy.