Quote of the Day

This morning we asked Roo what he wants to do this weekend. His response: I want to go up in the sky, and tell the man to make it warm, and then come home. Touche!

Yee-Haw

So really, what is more hilarious that saying yee-haw and then diving head first off the couch. I'm sure if I look back through the blog I'll find a similar post about Roo diving off the couch, but Bug is too funny to preface it with the "yee-haw." I think he got the yee-haw from one of the Toy Story movies. Regardless, it's hilarious....and no worries, we don't let him actually jump off head first. And seriously, who would think to jump head first off their couch anyway...both our boys at age 2 I guess!

Bug's Food Allergy Outlook=Positive

This week we went to see Dr. Wood at Hopkins. He is Bug's food allergist and he is awesome. We have done a good job avoiding all of the foods that Bug is allergic to and hopefully one day it'll pay off. We had the blood work done for this appointment in December and saw the results a a week after the blood was drawn. We looked at them and compared them to last year and thought they looked good. But, we didn't want to get our hopes up because we're not doctors.

When we got to Hopkins, we were first seen by the doctor who is on fellowship with Dr. Wood. She was really nice and asked us enough questions that we didn't forget to ask or bring up anything. She was pleased that Bug's eczema is under control and she made us feel good that we knew what we were talking about since we did a bit of our own research to figure out some of Bug's fruit allergies.

So anyway, after she met with us, she went to speak with Dr. Wood so the two of them could come up with a plan. That's what we like so much about going to Hopkins, is that we leave with a plan and we're not at all directing his care like with our local allergist.

So Dr. Wood came in and was very pleased to see that Bug's numbers went in the right direction. Watching the numbers from the RAST results between ages 1 and 3 can tell you a lot about whether or not the food allergies are going to be getting better or worse. Bug's egg number dropped an entire class, his milk dropped 1 point, peanut went down a bit and so did some of the other ones. The ones that went up were typically less than a point. When we first met with Dr. Wood last year he told us that we could expect either huge increase at age 2 or for some to decline, that it's sort of a benchmark year to tell what direction the allergies are going. This is based on a lot of research and statistics, and though I'm not usually a huge fan of statistics, if this is our best hope, then we're all for it.

Dr. Wood was visibly happy when he was speaking with us and let us know that it is likely that Bug will outgrow ALL of his food allergies by Kindergarten! Amazing news!

We had let the fellowship doctor know about Bug's terrible eating habits and Dr. Wood explained that they will most likely remain terrible and to continue with the soy supplement and feed him any fattening food he likes, like bacon and sausage, daily even. He was actually surprised to hear that Bug is off the bottle. He explained that food allergy kids can be terrible eaters and that sometimes they even fear eating.

If Bug's numbers stay down next year, he said we can fully expect to test out peanut. Scary right!

Until next year, we are allowed to have coconut again; Dr. Wood doesn't expect any reaction at all. And we're allowed to try out banana. I'm to bake it first, in a banana bread or cookie, and then if he does ok, give it to Bug in small pieces increasing over time. It would be great to get banana back as it is one of Roo's favorite foods and we know he misses having them in the house.

And finally, Bug had a little growth spurt and is still short but got taller and remaining steady on his 10th percentile height curve and went up a bit from his 10th percentile weight curve to 25th! Now he's the size of an average 1.5 year old, lol!

All, in all, it was a great day and worth the drive to and from Hopkins. We'll be back there in November to see his 3 year old numbers!

Place Holder for Christmas Week Pukefest Fun :)

I haven't gotten to Christmas week yet and the fun the boys had with their cousins and Grammy and Papa and the pukefest that ensued.

Grammy and Papa came for Christmas this year and so did Uncle Dan, Maddie and AnnaBell. The boys were so excited to have family over at the house and on Christmas Day the kids all woke up and immediately wanted to open presents.

The kids were all super excited about their gifts. The boys got awesome bean bag chairs from Grammy and Papa. Roo was excited about Buzz and Bug loved his B Doggie.

The boys were so excited to open their gifts with their cousins and run around with them for the day.

They boys got to open their cool new tractors that the Bloobs sent them too. They've enjoyed riding them at Grandma and Grandpa's new house!

Later in the day Grandma, Grandpa and Uncle Matt came over for Christmas dinner. We all had a lovely dinner.

But then it happened. The pukefest of Christmas 2010. It got the girls first and then Uncle Danny on the way back to Georgia. So the girls and Uncle Dan were all puking from VA to GA.

A few days later Daddy got the bug and later that day I did as well. When Grammy and Papa got home to Maine, Grammy got it as well.

Oh and so did Grandma and Grandpa.

We're not sure where the evil norovirus came from but we knew it was going around so it was just a matter of time before we got it.

It was great to see family, we're just hoping to avoid the pukefest for next year's festivities!

Preschool Christmas Pageant

Roo's preschool Christmas pageant was this past week. We've been working with him to let him know that it's ok to sing and participate and not to worry about all of the people there. He had his line memorized and he let us each know that he wanted us to be there. We decided to get there a little early so we could have front row seats; we thought that having us nearby may help him feel a little less scared.

The kids all filed into the chapel and were ringing bells. They each took their seat and the program began. Roo did a lot better this time in terms of getting up and down and singing a little bit. When it was his turn to speak into the microphone though, he got really nervous and ended up not saying anything, but that was ok, we were still really proud of him.

After the show we told Roo how proud we were of him and we went with him, the other kids and parents and enjoyed some cake. We thanked his teachers for the time they spend teaching him and making his first school experience so wonderful!

Grandma and Grandpa's Broken House

Grandma and Grandpa are in the process of building a house closer to where we live. We've been going to their house every weekend for a while now to check out how the construction is going. Roo likes to call the house their "broken house" since it's not built yet. The house is coming along really well and they will hopefully be moving in at the end of the month. We're looking forward to having Grandma and Grandpa nearby!

Happy Hanukkah

This year, since Roo is old enough to really understand holidays, we're celebrating Hannukah and Christmas. We had Grandma, Grandpa and Uncle Matt over to our house for a nice Hannukah dinner. Mom made her yummy pot roast and Uncle Matt and I made some really delicious latkes; without egg! It was a tasty meal and the boys had a lot of fun opening up gifts from Grandma, Grandpa and Uncle Matt. The boys have enjoyed lighting the candles every night and get the concept that you're not supposed to blow them out. Happy Hanukkah!

Happy Birthday Mack Doggie?

Today we celebrated Mack Doggie's birthday. We're not quite sure how old he is or if it's really his birthday but Roo declared that it was Mack Doggie's birthday today, so we celebrated! We sang happy birthday and sure enough, in the middle of the song, Bug ran to the freezer to get cake, because you eat cake when you sing happy birthday! Luckily, we have a lot of leftover cake from Bug's birthday in the freezer. So, after we sang happy birthday and spoke about Mack Doggie's wonderful day at school (not Roo's preschool mind you, Mack Doggie school), we ate cake! Happy Birthday Mack Doggie! Think he'll have a birthday again tomorrow?

Roo's 1st Preschool Program

Yesterday we went to Roo's first preschool program. He's been practicing his line all weekend and we even got him to start saying it louder so everyone could hear. He was a bit reluctant to practice the songs with us but he was singing them in bed, while he was playing and as we were going places, so we know he knows them.

We got to his preschool and the had the room set up with little chairs for each of the kids and then a sitting area for all of the adults. The teachers walked the kids into the room in two groups as there were two different rows of chairs. Roo was in the front row and as soon as he walked into the room he stopped in his tracks. His look said "who are all these people and why are they all taking pictures."

Once all the kids were seated they started the program. Know what Roo did for the whole entire show? He sat there without saying a word!!! And you know what, that's just what we were expecting. Talk about stage fright and shyness all wrapped up into one. He was so cute and we were so proud of him and loved seeing him at school!

In the end, he said he had fun and though he thought the whole thing was a little scary.

He did really enjoy eating lunch after with all of his friends and was back to his normal silly self.

The teachers mentioned that they have a Christmas program so we've started preparing him for that. We'll see how it goes!