No Such Thing as a Free Lunch

We are blessed with very good neighbors. To our right we have a wonderful lady who doesn't mind it when my kids chase (but never catch) her cats. To our left we have a family that has two girls, the youngest of which is four years older than Emily. They are kind enough to give us first pick of the toys and books that their girls have outgrown. A couple weeks ago, they were in spring cleaning mode and we were the recipients of a huge stack of books, a leap pad, and a Tinkerbell chair. Emily loved the chair. She sat in it every free moment for three days. Jane loved the chair. She and Emily fought nonstop over it during playtime.

But during this time, Emily's allergies started acting up. When people ask me what Emily is allergic to, I think of the show "Fraser" when Niles is asked the same question. He says something like, "It may be easier if we started with a list of things I'm not allergic to". So it is with Emily. When her eyes are red and teary, her nose is running and her skin looks like a burn victim's, it sometimes takes us a few days to figure out what the exact culprit is. If only I would have remembered the neighbor's dogs, I would have figured it out sooner. Instead she suffered for days, her allergy medicines hardly putting a dent in her reaction. It took me three days to realize it was the chair. The chair was thrown out in the middle of the night so the neighbors didn't know we had rejected their thoughtful gift.

We've already established that I'm a lousy parent, but I think in this case I was justified in ordering two new Tinkerbell chairs - one for Emily and another for Jane. I have had to tell Emily no so many times because of her allergies. It was nice to be able to make it up to her if only a little.

The chairs arrived today. We've already had several fights over which chair belongs to whom, we've had fits over the chairs tipping and an enormous fight over who has rights to the box the chairs came in. But there have been no allergic reactions. Hallelujah!

I don't think I'll be accepting any free hand-me-downs in the near future. I'm not sure we can afford it.