School!

Well, here we are - somehow I'm already taking the obligatory huge backpack on little kid's back first day of school photo. We had to go to bed pretty early last night, which resulted in some questions about why it was still light outside. Seth didn't mind. He grabbed his "best stuffed puppy" and covered the both of them up - completely - and fell fast asleep. Luke on the other hand (and they share a room), needed numerous drinks for the next hour plus. Yes, it's going to be an adjustment. This morning I went to wake Seth (and dig him out of the sheet cocoon). He suggested I go away and let him get some more rest. Thankfully, it didn't take too much more convincing before he was up and ready for breakfast. Of course, his roommate was jumping out of his bed and running around like a crazy person. The backpack had to be big enough to hold a folder (aka, roughly the size of half of Seth!). He was definitely excited by the time he got in the car. We pass some horses and cows on the way to school (sounds so rural, right?). As we drove by he was yelling, "Hi cows! I'm going to school!" And when we pulled into the parking lot it was, "We're here!!" I was thankful that his teacher, whom we met last week, invited us in on the first day to take some photos. That was a little easier than dumping him off at the door on day one. So, here's my oldest baby sitting at his desk, coloring the bus with his yellow crayon. Where did the last four years go?




And just for fun, here's Luke and his "bag." He announced he was ready for school and that he had his bag. Dave told Luke he was staying home with Daddy while Mommy ran Seth to school today. Luke, who adores Daddy and is always happy to hang out with him, threw his bag on the floor and pouted. Until he realized he could go outside to wave goodbye.

This blog post is brought to you by the letter P

Okay, I've come to grips with all the P things we won't be enjoying at my house:
*Pink and purple in mass quantities
*Polish, of the finger and toenail variety
*Princess anything
*Parties, of the tea variety
*Pouffy skirts
*Pantaloons (okay, I'm stretching here)

However, I had the luxury of cleaning my house this weekend. [You have to have multiple small children to really understand how this is a luxury.] Anyway, by the time my favorite scrubbing cleaner and I got to the floor around the third toilet my desire was to scream, "Boys! It's a big bowl. Cut me some slack."

Brought to you by the letter P.

How do you know when you have too much water under your deck?

When these cute (?) little guys are also under your deck. Dave had started tearing up deck boards to resolve the standing water problem. I made the comment that with all that water under there I expected to see a fish or a frog swim by. A couple of hours later he came inside to get me (where I was lying on the couch, eating bonbons and watching movies, yeah right) and come take a look at the little frog. Turns out there were two of them. So, approximately every 5 minutes two nearly irresistible little boys were begging me to let them go outside and look for the frogs. They hung out for a few days but now that the water is gone they seem to gone also. The frogs that is. The boys are here to stay. As for the deck, we're looking at some serious rebuilding. A serious time commitment from Dave. And another serious investment in deck boarding, supplies, etc. Aarrgghh.

Peanut Butter Dreams...

So, just the other day I woke up and realized I had been dreaming about eating spoonfuls of peanut butter chocolate chip cookie dough. I know, this is my third post recently involving cookie dough. I have issues. But, in my dream I was freaking out about eating the peanut butter! I have read that if you have a food allergic child you should avoid those foods when you are pregnant with or breastfeeding subsequent children. As such, I haven't had straight up peanut butter or peanuts since sometime around last September. For the most part, that's not a problem. I don't worry about cross-contamination, etc. for myself and Max, but am avoiding the purest form of peanut products. Easter was hard with those gorgeous Reese's eggs staring a nearly 8 month pregnant lady in the face. But that's about the biggest temptation I've faced. Until my dream anyway. Wow, that was a long prelude to what is likely to be a long (and boring to most) post.

But one year ago today Luke had a peanut butter sandwich with a side of nasty hives and the rest is history. For those of you wondering, I did have to dig up the calendar from last year to find out the exact date. It's not really etched into my head - just the vague knowledge that it was the end of July.

I am so happy with the progress we have made and the things we have learned. I'm also a little disappointed with my own occasional weaknesses (aka breakdowns) as it relates to Luke and his allergies. And please please please know that I am very aware that parents deal with much scarier and more serious issues. The fact that it is "only" food allergies is not lost on me!

Progress: I can get up in the morning and not want to throw up thinking of having to feed Luke three meals and some snacks during the day. For the first week or two post diagnosis it truly made me sick to wake up and think about doing this. The key for me is that the more homemade I can make something the more I can control what's in it and reduce the risk of cross-contamination. This doesn't mean I'm a healthy cook or a good cook. But it does mean that I've learned to make homemade ice cream for birthday parties and bagel dogs that start with yeast and water and donuts fried in my own kitchen and cupcakes that don't come from a bakery. I am thankful for my bread machine and my ice cream maker. I am thankful that I am at home during the day and can spend more time cooking than I was able to when I was working outside of our home. I am thankful to have a handle on which brands label well.

What I'm learning: There are a lot of good resources on the internet. I am blessed to have a really good friend whose little boy is Seth's age and peanut allergic so she's been a great source of information! There's also someone at the church we are attending with a school aged allergic child and she has been very kind to share her knowledge as well.

There is a support group that meets on our side of town. I've only been to a few of the meetings. Honestly, most of the group members have older children and all the talk of the issues with school scare me so I don't really enjoy it too much. But there is an allergist who spoke a few months ago at a meeting I attended and it was so very interesting. I have linked to his blog in my allergy info section.

*I was really surprised to learn that the initial testing should happen a few weeks after a reaction. Any closer to a reaction and the test results are likely to be wrong - and not in a good way. Luke was tested the day of his reaction (bad!) and tested as moderate. It's likely he's more allergic than the test indicated.

*He also talked about a study, in another part of the country, where they were gradually exposing allergic children to the allergen (in a very controlled situation) and the children were able to slowly build up to tolerating small amounts of the allergen. Dave and I are split on whether we would want him to take part in something like this if it was ever an option.

I've also learned that the key is to be prepared. If we're going somewhere that there might be treats then I take my own. You can't just tell a two year old that he can't eat something. You need a substitute for what he can't have. So far, this has worked. Although admittedly we haven't been too many places that this was necessary. I imagine as he gets older and goes to birthday parties, etc. it will get much harder. But for me, I never want him to feel left out so I must be prepared.

As much as I wish I didn't have to know about it, I think it is all very interesting. I really think it would be neat to educate schools/churches/someone about allergies at some point. I certainly don't know all that I would need to know to do that, but I would be willing to learn.

Occasional meltdowns: A rash of any kind freaks me out as I assume it's hives. For one, I'm learning that Luke doesn't tolerate heat well. Or I guess I should say his skin doesn't tolerate heat well. He really doesn't seem to mind at all but gets a little rashy sometimes when he's hot. I have to get used to that and not just assume I've fed him something bad and he's breaking out.

I would like for our pantry to not have anything in it that he cannot eat. For now, I have boxes clearly labelled that he can or cannot eat. But sometimes he catches one of us eating something and to tell him he can't have it makes me crazy, even though he usually doesn't care near as much as I do.

And this one is soooooo ridiculous - but we watch a lot of cooking shows and sometimes it hits me that Luke can't really be a chef when he grows up because there's too much he can't eat/taste. And then it makes me sad that my baby is limited in the things he can do.

And Seth thinks it's cute to call Luke "Mr. Peanut." Clearly, that's just annoying. And Seth eats sunbutter and jelly sandwiches nearly every day. I have told him it's not peanut butter but he refuses to believe me and asks for peanut butter and jelly. One day Luke asked for peanut butter and I told him he couldn't have it. He sat his little body in the corner of our huge couch, slouched his shoulders, and looked down at his pitiful hands in his lap - likely just for show for me, but still.

And I worry about school but that one's a few years away.

And another tough one for me is finding a sitter or using community type daycare (at the gym or a parent's day out type of setting). I don't feel like I can just say 'here he is with his epipen' and expect everyone to know what to do (thankfully he aged out of the area at the gym - not that I've been going - where they feed the kids so that makes it much easier).

So, that's that. A year down, the rest of his life to go. Wow, if anyone is still reading, you deserve some cookie dough! I ate all of mine, so you'll have to find your own. But do reward yourself!! No, really, thanks for hanging in there. Now I'm going to go get some hugs from the cutest 2 year old I know!

Delish...

There was an old show that had a word of the day. Someone would say the word and everyone would get all excited and yell. Or I think that's how it went. Apparently our word of the weekend recently was "delicious."


Last Friday evening Seth and I had stepped out to the porch for a chat. This little chat followed Seth's declaration that, "I get what I want." I'm not entirely sure where he got the notion the entire world revolves around him, but it's clearly an issue. So, while we were sitting on the porch chatting I was explaining that there are 5 of us now that live in our house and that oftentimes someone won't be thrilled with what we are doing but that it's part of being a family. To drive my point home I explained that at that moment I would like to, "go shopping alone, spend a lot of money on all kinds of things, and then have a big piece of chocolate cake. But is that what I'm doing right now??" His response, "Ooohhh, that would be delicious! And, uh, no."


The next night Dave and the two older boys left for awhile and left Max and I alone. I made some chocolate chip bars (recall that I was eating chocolate chip cookie dough while writing one of my last posts?). Well, they came home and Luke immediately spotted the mixing bowl. He grabbed a chair and pulled it over to the counter. Once at the counter, he grabbed my spoon out of the bowl and dug in. In typical animated Luke fashion he declared, "Mommy! This is dewicious!!" Ahh, a smart kid with great taste.

Now, everyone get all excited and yell!

Two months old

Scarily, the second month flew by even faster than the first! Right now, I am loving how, when he's really ready to eat, I pick him up and he spits his pacifier out of his mouth! I am also loving how, if I hold him really close, he'll grab onto my shirt collar. He's a sweetie!

Fourth Fun...

Yeah, yeah, it's a week late. And I really have no excuse. Except that our air conditioner broke. And it took the repairman multiple trips to fix it. And I (this will come as no shock to anyone who knows me very well) do NOT function when I'm hot. Or tired. And not only is it tiring to be hot, it's even more tiring to sleep in your king size bed with your boney elbowed 4 year old and overly-cuddly-I-didn't-notice-it-was 95-degrees-in-the-room 2 year old. But you see, we are ill equipped for air conditioner malfunction and really have only one really good fan which created the need for the slumber party. And lest you think I forgot about the littlest family member, he was in a pack and play 3 feet from our bed. Good times. Aren't you glad you asked why my fourth of July post is a week late? Did I mention I'm home alone now and consuming insane amounts of cookie dough with extra chocolate chips? So, onward...

On Saturday the 3rd we went to some local fireworks. They were fabulous! We left Max with Grammy and Grampy - a combination of bugs, loud fireworks, and hot seemed like a good excuse for extra G&G cuddle time. The older boys did better than I expected. Last year Seth hated fireworks. But he really seemed to enjoy them this year. Luke, however, waivered between, "those are bee-ay-you-tee-ful" and curling up on one of our laps and burying his head/ears in our arms. Here he was happy:

By the time the fireworks ended and we walked back to the car and waited in traffic, we decided I would drop Dave, Seth and Luke off at home and then go get Max. It was after 11 when I finally got him and the boys got their baths and got to bed. Seth was apparently tired. He asked on the way home, "Are we dirty?" Meaning did he have to have a bath. I told him it was church the next morning so he had to have a bath, and besides, he smelled like bug spray. His response, "Well, what if there are bugs at church?" Clever little guy! By the time he was done at church, showing me exactly what he looks like when he's very very tired, I was wishing bugs at church were the worst of my woes. A 4 year old laying on the floor whining is just unnecessary. Aarrgghh!!

Anyway, on to more festivities. We had 3 families over Sunday night for food, fun, and fireworks. Oh, and my parents came by for dessert - they had previously declined our invitation but knowing what a great baker I am they couldn't stay away (ha ha ha!). Actually, I think they knew I wouldn't want Max outside getting bug bit so they came and cuddled him some more.

I'll spare you the details but I think Dave might have had a mid-life crisis at the fireworks store. Actually, I don't know which of these Dave bought and which our guests contributed. I prefer to be ignorant on occasion.
But they were very nice fireworks. Sorry, no photos of the ones that actually shot up into the air as I preferred to stay covered, in the garage.Four excited little kiddos, anxiously awaiting the show. Luke and Seth are in the middle of the four. And one, not quite as excited, enjoying his view from a little further away. Next to me. Looking back, I'm pretty sure the appropriate response here would've been to rip the sparkler out of his hand and declare that he was done outside. However, I grabbed the camera instead. Happy (?) first Fourth of July, Max. Looks like someone has had enough fireworks for this year! And finally, one shot from mid-morning on the 5th of July. This is what two very late nights for a very sweet 2 year old look like on the third day. Middle of the family room floor, restfully watching a movie. With our eyes closed. And a plastic spoon from the night before in our hands.