Lizards And Eating Solids

I'll start with Ayla's news since it is not likely to make anyone feel sick.  Ayla started eating bananas this week.  We had the go ahead from the doctor last week to offer her solids so we put some banana in her basket feeder and let her chew on it.  She loves it and gets very mad at it when it runs out.   She's been eating at least a half banana at each dinnertime while the rest of us eat our dinner.  She sits happily in her high chair and gets herself super gooey.  Tomorrow we are going to start baby oatmeal.  I suspect she will like that as well.

On an even more exciting note (especially for me), she seems to be outgrowing her milk allergy.  I've been testing with small amounts of cheese and baked goods with trace milk in them and so far she has been fine.  I did go overboard last weekend with some bubble tea that had cream in it and that did seem to upset her a little.  I am so thrilled!  I can easily eat a diet with only very small amounts of processed milk.  I can finally see the light at the end of the special diet tunnel!

Now for something really gross.  And you know it's bad when I, who cuts open abscesses at work, finds it disgusting.  On Thursday morning when I woke up, Mike told me he had already started the washer because it smelled bad.  I assumed he meant that it smelled of his workout clothes.  While it was running there was a weird mildew type smell coming from the washer closet but we couldn't find the cause.  Mike took Mikey to school and I went about my morning.  I went to move the wash to the dryer.  As soon as I opened the washer I knew there was something dead in it.  Believe me, I have smelled enough dead critters to know that smell immediately.  I was horrified!  Not only was there something dead in the washer, I had to find and get rid of the dead thing!  I pulled the wash out, one piece at a time.  I shook each piece over the washer before making a pile on top of the dryer.  The clothes smelled horrible!  If it hadn't been a very large load that included Ayla's favorite blanket, I may have thrown the whole load away.  Knowing how frugal I am, you get the idea of how bad this was.  When I got to the bottom of the washer my fears were justified.  There, sticking out of one of the drain holes, was half on a lizard with the skin pealing off.  I wanted to cry, scream and throw up all at once.  I used a baby wipe to remove the pieces and swab the inside of the entire washer.  I then ran an empty run with lots of bleach, hot water and an extra rinse cycle.  I then ran the clothes with lots of vinegar, hot water and an extra rinse.  And the clothes again with detergent, hot water and extra rinse.  The clothes then smelled fine.  As I moved them to the dryer I shook each one out to check for any more pieces.  I didn't find any.  Mike removed the clothes from the dryer.  There at the bottom was the lizard's tail.  I nearly a hysterical fit.  I think he saw the look on my face because he quickly reassured me the clothes smelled good so we were okay.  I think I will always shake my clothes out before washing from now on.  And hopefully Mike now can smell the difference between nasty gym clothes and decomposition.