House of Plague: Now with less plague

I got an egg-shaped tray for holding deviled eggs. Those of you who know of our family love for deviled eggs will understand our excitement, I am sure.

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I got a clue already and brought Eliza’s old rocking horse down from the attic for Miss HOITHIE!-pants. She was gratifyingly gobsmacked. She kept pointing at it and yelling “HOITHEE!” like she didn’t even know what to make of the fact that there was a HORSE in her ROOM.

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Also entertaining: She loves Eliza, if by “love” you mean “harass and get all up in her business” so her latest thing, when she can’t find Eliza but knows she is somewhere in the house, is to stand in the middle of the room and just yell “Ee-YI-thah!” at the top of her lungs until Eliza appears. I usually let this go on for far longer than I should because 2 and a half feet of bossy yelling child is funny.

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I think I have a sinus infection. I guess I have to go do something about that but my doctor’s name is a synonym for “To Die” which is funny when Jim goes to see him but it doesn’t fill me with confidence, except I can never be bothered to do anything about it when I’m well, and then I’m sick and who wants to go see Dr. Death when you’re already not feeling well.

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Eliza and I get kind of carried away for the Superbowl mostly because it’s a good excuse for a cooking frenzy. We made a white bean/pesto dip which she likes because she is allowed to run the food processor. We made peanut butter-and-jelly sandwich bread pudding, and I let me make the sandwiches (you cut them up, then add the egg and milk mixture and bake). And we made pretzels from scratch, and she made one in the shape of an R because she was rooting for the Ravens. Here she is mid-pretzeling.

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I enjoy Eliza’s taxonomy of rooting for teams. I believe she roots for New England teams first, and then if no local teams are involved, animals, and if two animals, whichever is the most fearsome predator. For the Superbowl, she was rooting for the Ravens because they were the closest-by team. Also: birds.

I told her I was rooting for them because of that one player whose support of gay marriage set off the Chris Kluwe storm of awesome profanity in service of tolerance. Credit where it’s due, Ayanbadejo has taken at least as strong a stance as Kluwe — he’s not as hilariously profane about it, but he is unequivocal in his outspoken belief that basic human rights apply to everyone. No, I did not give Eliza the profanity-lasced details, just that I like to support people who stand up for tolerance. And yes, she knows that she is lucky to be a girl because if she were a boy she would not be joining the Scouts. She seems to understand and be cool with all of this although I think that, frankly, she is a little mystified by the hullabaloo because in her reality, of course there are people who speak different languages and of course there are different skin colors and why wouldn’t girls be allowed to marry each other? It’s not “Oh, I don’t see colors,” it’s more, I think, “Well, duh, of course everyone’s different, what’s the big deal?”