Family Time

What's really great about this vacation is that the kids get to see all of their grandparents at the same time. Grammy and Papa came to visit on Saturday when we arrived. They were so excited to see the boys and how big they're getting. They spent the night and Roo was totally excited that they slept in the same room as him. We spent the next day hanging out and we all had a very relaxing day.

The next evening Daddy picked up Uncle Matt at the airport and when the boys woke up the next morning they were excited to see him; though a little confused as to how he got here.

That evening Grandma and Grandpa arrived and the kids were excited to see them.

Roo loves having his whole family around, it makes him really happy.

This coming weekend they'll get to meet even more of their Maine family and friends.

Old Orchard Beach

After we all got up and ready Saturday morning we got in the car for any easy drive throbbing NH and up the Maine coast. I wanted to stop at Old Orchard Beach since I had never been and thought the kids would enjoy the beach. We got to the beach, found parking and headed out to find a spot on the sand.

The weather was great, warm with a really nice cool breeze coming off the water. Roo loved the ocean and had a blast collecting shells and dodging the cold water.

Bug was a little slower to warm up to the beach and sat in my lap for a bit but eventually played on the sand on his own.

A hot air balloon took off from near the boardwalk and Bug loved watching it and saying balloon. This was a really fun and relaxing stop for all of us.

Blogging from phone...Day 1

The boys were awesome on the trip up. Day one was supposed to be 8 hours but because of heavy traffic all the way even avoiding the 95 resulted in a 10.5 hour trip to north of Boston. We stayed at a Residence Inn the first night. After we got bug to bed Daddy took Roo to the pool. Once they got back I got us dinner and Roo got to be a big boy and have dinner in bed with us...he was super cute.

Bug Cleared the Pool

And how could I forget! We let the boys play outside before bed the other night. The pool still had water in it. The boys took off their clothes and played in the pool. A little bit later Daddy discovered "it". "It" was yucky. "It" caused us to kick the boys out of the pool and dump all the water out of the pool. Can you guess what "it" was? We'll be sure to tease Bug about this when he brings girls home :)

Monday Blues

Monday's aren't really fun for anyone. It's a rude awakening after a fun weekend. I woke Roo up this morning and got him dressed and ready to go. As I was getting Bug into the van, Roo waited on the stairs. I called for him to get into his seat. He answered by saying, "I'm so sad." That sounded really sad and I was worried so I asked him why he was sad. He replied, "Because you woke me up." Must be terrible to be awakened to play for the day!

So anyway, I'm sure Roo will be excited for the next few Monday's where I won't have to wake him up.

Bug on a Perch

Bug likes to perch. He finds little spots that look comfortable and sits on them. He found the root of a tree at the farmers market this weekend. He loves little stools. This one in the picture was one of the funniest and when I asked him to smile, he lit right up.

Saturday Farmers Markets

Every Saturday for the past few weeks we've been taking the kids to one of the local Farmers Markets. We went to the one in our town one week, one in downtown Fred and another in Spotsy. What we like best about the one in our town is that the vegetables have to be grown in our county! You can't get anymore local than that! I'm hoping to supplement the Farmers Markets with what we're growing in our own garden; tomatoes, squash, beans, watermelon, cucumbers, sweet potatoes and pumpkins. Fresh vegetables taste so much better than those shipped from distances; it's like you can taste the sunshine! Yum!

Allergy Update

Last week we traveled to Johns Hopkins to see Dr. Wood. The drive up went smoothly and the only trouble we had was actually following the GPS to the right street to find the parking garage. The children's clinic is in a pretty bad area so we were careful to find the correct garage. Once we got to the building and found our way to the entrance we found the area to check in. As I was checking in the lady asked me what Bug's food allergies are. I listed a few and said I heard that Dr. Wood was supposedly the best. And she laughed, and said not supposedly, he is the best.

The waiting room had a little play area and there were other little kids there with a variety of conditions. Bug had fun playing with some of the toys and watching some of the bigger kids play. When they first called him back they took his height and weight. And as you guessed, he cried. As we were walking out of the area to wait to get called back to see the doctor, Bug said all done to the nurse and then told her "I love you," through his tears. She was just smitten and gave him a big hug and then smiled at him any time she was calling other kids back.

Once we got called back to meet with the doctor we gave his entire medical history to one of his assistants. You should have seen the look on her face when we told her about the local emergency care center not having epi-pens. Anyway, we gave her his history and I had a copy of all of his allergy testing and she photocopied it and gave it all to Dr. Wood.

When Dr. Wood came in he took his time to meet with us and answer all our questions. He explained how the allergies trend at Bug's age and our plan of action going forward. We are going to have RAST blood work done again in 8 months and hopefully his milk and egg numbers will go down enough to trial them in a baked format. He said that this is the age where we'll learn a lot about if his allergies are going to trend towards better or worse. We are of course hoping for better!

We asked some questions about latex as Bug's avocado, banana, kiwi, passion fruit allergies could all be related to latex. The good new is that we can keep the latex paci's he uses. He said if he ever has surgery to make sure we are latex free, which is what we had done for his ear tube surgery.

We also asked about Oral Allergy Syndrome (OAS) which could have been another explanation for the fruit allergies and he said definitely not. So that was also good to know.

He told us we don't have to get rid of wheat. Our local allergist had suggested getting rid of wheat to help with Bug's weight gain but didn't provide a warm fuzzy as to the reason why. We hadn't gotten rid of it because we definitely wanted a second opinion. It was great to hear that we can keep it.

He also told us not to worry about rice, which we were sort of thinking but hadn't fully added rice back to his diet. Not that it's worth anything nutritionally, but still, we certainly don't have to avoid it.

And he told us that we should try coconut. He's had it in baked products but not as yogurt or milk or that sort of thing. We still need to try it; we totally chickened out this weekend!

As for helping him grow, our pediatrician gave us permission to try a nutritional supplement called Bright Beginnings Soy Vanilla Supplement. We picked up that day and gave it to Bug over the weekend and he loves it! Dr. Wood said if we give him 2 a day that we don't need to give him a vitamin. He also said to focus on adding more protein to his diet and to aim for 25 grams a day. The good news is that the supplement gets us half way there, which is great as Bug is not a great eater.

It was a huge relief to finally have this appointment (it took 6 months to get in including 1 cancellation because Bug was sick) and to get really good answers and a clear way forward. Best of all, we have hope. And maybe hope isn't a good thing with food allergies but we at least have hope that there's some method that will help us determine when we can try out foods on our bad list.

Oh, and second best of all is that Dr. Wood said we are doing everything right! What a huge compliment!

So for now, our list of allergies is: dairy, eggs, peanuts, tree nuts, sesame seed, banana, avocado, kiwi, passion fruit

Bath Time...Fun?

For months, and I mean months, Bug has hated his bath. We bathe him in his fun duck tub but as soon as we start to wash him it's over. The duckie deflated this weekend so we put him in the big tub. Whew, he really didn't like that. Last night, I eased him in slowly, gave him some toys and he was happy until I washed him. So at least back to the normal amount of crying. Tonight, Daddy eased him in, gave him some more toy and when I got to washing him, I used a toy. Wouldn't you guess, he loved it. When it went over his face, I laughed and he laughed. I've tried this laughing technique so many time to no avail. And go figure, he didn't want to get out of the tub! I opened the drain and even once all the water was out he refused. So, we still get crying at bath time but now it's because he doesn't want to get out. Hopefully we'll continue to move in the right direction, bath time should be the most fun time of the night!

Summer's Here

This past weekend it got hot! Roo and I were out and about and spotted this pool. We had to have it. Much to the surprise of friendly onlookers, I was able to fit it in my van. We got it home, filled it with water and the fun began. I remember the first summer we tried to get Roo in a pool...Bug had a similar reaction! Hooray for summer!

Allergy Food

So I've been thinking recently how confusing and overwhelming it all was when Bug was first diagnosed with multiple food allergies. Now, over a year later, we've adjusted to the changes and have a totally Bug friendly house (you know what I mean!). I was thinking it might be helpful to put together the recipes we regularly use and where we buy all of our items and give it to the allergist and ped as a handout for newly diagnosed patients. I remember how we took an entire day off of work to drive to Richmond to see what we could find at Trader Joe's and Whole Foods. Turns out our Wegman's has just about everything we need. We are currently learning how to add more fat and calories to what we eat since Bug's weight is not where it should ideally be. He's dropped to 10th percentile and though he doesn't look like he's underweight, both the allergist and the ped want to start having weight checks...so we're concerned and are trying to tackle this head on!

I also want to show how the allergy food we have doesn't really taste any different and isn't weird. At Cousin Andrea's graduation party, the family had made just about everything Bug friendly. And you know what, nobody tasted the difference. It's amazing the products that are out there and now that we know where to find where everything is, it's just become normal for us.

So here are some pictures of some of the yummy food we've learned how to cook; most of these are desserts because main dishes are fairly easy when you're cooking from scratch (and I didn't take pictures..) And I have to say, if I didn't cook well before his allergies, I'm certainly learning to become both a good cook and a good baker! I am good at a weeks worth of main dishes now, amazing! Even Daddy is amazed at how tasty some of our dishes come out.

So what do you think, should I start writing a cook book? Even if it never gets published, I think it would be really cool to have. I'd love any ideas my wonderful readers have!

How Do Boys Play With a Kitchen?

Like this!

One uses a hammer...

And the other uses a drill...

Thanks Bloobs for the awesome kitchen. The boys love it! They even fight over who gets to use the kitchen sink.

I'm just waiting for when Roo finally figures out how to cook cupcakes with it ;)