Roo is 6

Happy 6th Birthday to our awesome 6 year old! Can't believe he's 6 and starting Kindergarten in a few weeks! Time flys! You will always be our baby Roo and Roo Roo bear!

Milk is Still Evil

Bug had a second food challenge for the year at the end of July. I made him cake that had baked milk and baked dried milk powder in it. He was so excited to eat the cake he didn't even ask for icing. He had eaten a good amount and I was pretty sure it was about time for him to react to the milk. We think he ate about 1/4 of a cup of baked milk. Sure enough after eating a little more than the prescribed portion the coughing started. It is amazing what happens at the food allergy clinic at Hopkins when they hear a cough. He got immediate attention and they kept an eye on him continuously to see if the cough was going to develop into anything worse or if the cough would get worse. After a short period, they gave him a dose of Benadryl. They still weren't happy with the cough, which was luckily all upper airway and not at all in his lungs or chest, and they gave him the nebulizer with Albuterol. There was one point when the nebulizer was going and the Bendaryl had kicked in where he looked like he was going to fall asleep on the table. The Albuterol kicked in pretty quickly and his coughing subsided. They declared his challenge a success since he didn't have an anaphylactic reaction and said he could have 1/16th of a cup of baked milk once a day to help get his body used to the proteins. They gave us specific instructions for how to introduce baked milk over a period of time and it was great to leave with a starting dose that will hopefully be safe for him. Unlike the peanut challenge where he was one of the first to leave, he was the last to leave so they could make sure he was better and safe for the ride home. He fell asleep in the car while we were still in Baltimore, and even slept through an hour delay for an accident we witnessed, and slept almost the entire way home. We'll see how introducing baked milk goes, hopefully well. In the meantime we have a safe starting dose and know if he consumes regular milk that it will be an anaphylactic reaction. For such a long day, he was super!

Happy 4th!

We took the kids to see fireworks on the 4th. We lucked out and Roo's best friends family saw us and parked next to us so the kids could all play and watch the fireworks together. The kids were great and loved the fireworks! Happy Birthday America!

Vacation Pictures, We Love Maine

The Tale of the Skunk

The boys fought constantly about Roo's Ultimate Optimus Prime toy on the car ride to Maine and the first two days we were here. Monday morning tragedy struck while they were at the beach. A skunk ran through the beach house, in one door and out the other, and took Optimus. It's a shame, it's been peaceful ever since. Maybe one day I'll have the heart to tell them what really happened. But for now, they were both satisfied with our recollection of this event and why we couldn't chase the skunk.

Having Fun Playing With The New Camera

Here are some landscape pictures from our Maine vacation. We stayed in Owls Head, Maine and stopped at Old Orchard Beach and the Portland Head Lighthouse on our way there. We took a day trip Acadia National Park again this year. We had a wonderful vacation and got to see an amazing rainbow too!

Lighthouse and a Food Truck

As I mentioned, on Saturday before we picked up Uncle Matt we visited the Portland Head Lighthouse and have delicious lobster rolls from a food truck. All in a days work in Maine!

Fly in the Future?

We have finally arrived in Maine. Traffic was heavy almost the entire way from VA. We didn't really hit any real traffic jams but we never got in a real groove either. We made it from VA to our stop in MA in 10 hours. That's not bad but it's not as good as last year either. It stormed on the way driving through Hartford and that was when the boys were on their best behavior for the ride. Thank goodness, because it was really hard to see. Later at the hotel the storm caught back up to us and we weren't able to take the boys swimming, which was a bummer. I had made food before the trip, so we were able to enjoy a nice dinner in the room that evening and avoid going out in the storm.

The next day the boys were up super early. 0445 for Bug and 0500 for Roo. After letting them play for a few minutes I decided that they weren't really allowed to be up so I put Roo back to sleep and crawled in bed and coaxed him back to sleep and we finally woke back up around 0900!!! We got dressed and re-packed the truck and enjoyed the breakfast buffet and finally hit the road again a little after 1000.

Our first stop once we got to Maine was Old Orchard Beach. The boys had fun on the playground and even more fun on the beach.  Old Orchard Beach is a lot like Ocean City, MD. We left and headed to Portland and went to the Portland Head Lighthouse. I think the best part of the lighthouse was the food truck! They had a lobster roll food truck and the lobster rolls were really good, the good bread makes such a difference!

After that, we headed over to the Jetport to pickup Uncle Matt. We figured out that it's only an hour and twenty minute flight from BWI and one less hotel stay and just such a huge time save that it may be worth flying in the future!

They had great parking where there's a little lot you can park in for free while you wait for the planes arrival as long as someone stays in the car. Bug and I went in and waited for Uncle Matt. We walked up the stairs and went down the escalator and did that over and over again!

We squeezed Uncle Matt into the truck and off we went. We stopped at Red's Eats for lobster rolls and then finally got to Owls Head at 6pm. We got everything unloaded, visited with Grammy and PopPop ate our lobster rolls, got the kids to bed and then went grocery shopping and relaxed.

The weather is calling for a lot of rain, I'm hoping doing the anti-rain dance in my head prevents a rainy vacation week!

Outdoor Fun

The kids have been having a wonderful time the last couple months playing outside and enjoying the great weather. We've had a few hot weekends but the trees provide a lot of nice shade. The boys have been enjoying playing in their baby pool on the deck and driving their vehicles around the yard. We've gone to Grandma & Grandpa's house and spent the day outside as well. Yesterday was another great day with wonderful outside play and then going to a pool party with some of Roo's classmates. This is why I would love to live in Florida so we could enjoy this warm sunshiny weather all year.