If You Give A Baby A Peanut Part 2

When Scarlett was diagnosed with a peanut and tree nut allergy last year we started counting the days until her retest in a year. We were hopeful that she would be one of the kids that outgrows their allergies. Her allergist explained to us that less than 15% of kids outgrow their allergies, but we were hopeful. We read labels and tried to make sure she didn't come in contact with nuts of any form. There were a couple times where she accidentally ate something she shouldn't have either by our fault of not properly reading a label, or more recently when she started being able to grab things off the counter. We would immediately give her a Benadryl dose, and we thankfully never had to use her EpiPen Jr.

At the beginning of October she had her annual appointment and her doctor talked to us about the component testing they now have available for peanuts. How great would it be if her test results came back that she was only allergic to the part of a peanut that don't cause anaphylaxis? I took her over to the hospital for the blood draw, and she was a champ! She barely cried at all and was so good about holding still. They needed a lot of blood.

It was 2 weeks until we got the results back, but her test came back negative for all nut allergies. Say what?!?!?!?! Yep, she outgrew all of her allergies! We celebrated with peanut butter toast. She goes back in in December for a skin test to confirm a complete lack of allergy, but we were given the ok to let her have nuts is moderate doses. Bring on the Reese's cups and Chick-Fil-A!!

I know every mom who has a child with allergies worries about what they'll do when their kids are out of their supervision, at a friends house or at school. You can't expect everyone to be as cautious as you are about your child's allergy. You hope they will be, but if they aren't in the habit of avoiding allergens, it doesn't always come easy. What about that kid who offers your kid a Butterfinger but doesn't realize it has peanut butter in it? It is such a relief to not have to worry about these things as she gets older. 

She gets to go trick or treating this year without us having to worry about what treats she's getting in her pumpkin. We will still be putting out a teal pumpkin and allergy friendly treats this year, because even though we don't have to worry about her allergies anymore, there are so many other kids who still do. I'm thankful for our experience because it has made us more aware of what other families of children with food allergies go through.

You can read more about the Teal Pumpkin Project here.

When You Give A Baby A Peanut Part 1

A Weekend For The Big Kids

Harrison and Brooke didn't have school on Friday, so we got to enjoy a 3 day weekend. Well, 5 out of 6 of us did. Sorry, Rob. 

Friday morning I woke up well before the kids and ran out to grab some Halloween donuts to start off our weekend right. The night before I decided the kids and I were going to hit up our favorite u-pick pumpkin patch. It's a 40 minute drive from our house, but I love it so much we still go to this specific patch even though there are at least 20 u-pick patches closer to us. Within 2 minutes of getting there Clark fell and busted his lip and I then had blood all over my shirt. We should have given up then, but we kept at it and wound up with 5 great carving pumpkins, 4 kids who were over it, and 1 mom who just wanted a picture of all her kids at the pumpkin patch. I'm sure you can figure out who won that battle. (hint - not me)

The 40 minute drive home resulted in car naps as opposed to real naps, but everyone stayed in a good mood for the rest of the day. Rob got some free tickets to go to a local haunted house, and we decided H and B would be good to go. This particular haunted house, The Haunted Castle, is put on by boy scouts. Sounds pretty tame right? That's how I remember it being. More Halloween fun house than haunted house. They've changed a lot since the last time I went 15 years ago, because it was definitely more haunted house and taking two 5 year olds was probably not the best idea. Brooke was ready to leave 30 seconds after we walked in the door, and I had to carry her the entire way through. I'm lucky I didn't pass out from lack of oxygen due to her death grip around my neck. We made it all of the way through and rewarded their bravery the way any good parent does, with ice cream on the way home. ;) I thought for sure we'd wind up with them in our bed in the middle of the night, but that hasn't happened yet.

 

Saturday morning we were up and out the door early again, this time for Wild Zoo Halloween. I took all 4 kids by myself, which I'm painfully learning is not as easy as it once was. I think they all had fun which is really all that matters. It was perfect weather to spend the morning outside, but my 3 bears were hot in their bear costumes, so I would up with 2 normal kids, a puppy dog, and Goldilocks. Thanks to a pit stop for lunch on the way home, we made it without anyone falling asleep. Yay, saved nap time. An all 4 kids nap time on top of that!

We dropped off Jules at doggie daycare and then headed to the lake to spend the night at my parents. We went out for dinner at our favorite Mexican restaurant on the lake. The kids ate their weight in chips, salsa, and queso while we watched the sun set over the lake. 

For the first time in about 8 months, Scareltt woke up in the middle of the night and wouldn't go back to sleep. Around 3:15 am I woke up to her yelling "mom" in her pack and play. I tried laying her back down and tucking her in, bring her into bed with Rob and I, putting on her sleep sack in case she was cold. I eventually had to rock with her in a my mom's recliner for about 45 minutes until she was asleep enough for me to put her back to bed. As soon as I laid back down, Brooke was up to go to the bathroom. Then Harrison was awake and talking. Then he was out of bed and downstairs in bed with my mom. At 6:30 I finally said eff it and stayed up, which wouldn't be a big deal except we were road tripping with the big kids, so there would be no nap time.

Harrison and Brooke have been talking about Cedar Point for months, and they are finally 48" tall, big enough to do some big rides, so we decided to take them before CP closes up for the season. We watched a whole lot of roller coaster POV videos on YouTube before we left hoping it would get them excited about the big rides. They were excited but scared.

We started out on the racing carousel, then went with a mild roller coaster. Everyone was still good then. Harrison wouldn't stop talking about the Millennium Force, so we went and got in line. In the 20 minutes we were in line, both kids decided they didn't want to go. I tried bribery, and it worked on one of them. Harrison was ready to ride it, but Brooke refused. I thought Harrison was going to die during the ride. It was so much more than he was ready for. When it was done he said he liked it, but it was scary, and he laughed and cried a little. There was a guy in front of us who told Harrison how awesome it was that he rode it and that he did a great job. I think that helped with Harrison's emotional state after the ride. We told him how proud we were of him for being brave, and he insisted he didn't want to ride again.

I got Brooke to ride the "big swing," Skyhawk, with me. I almost feel bad for encouraging them to ride big rides, but not really. I want them to grow up loving roller coasters as much as I did. Riding Skyhawk did not create a love for thrill rides in our little girl. After the excitement of a couple big rides the kids were ready for something more their speed, bring on Camp Snoopy. They were so happy running around there doing the kid rides. 

Brooke didn't go on any more roller coasters for the rest of the day, but she rode every ride we saw. Harrison asked to do the Millennium Force again with his dad, so they did. I managed to walk onto one of my favorite rides, Wicked Twister, while the kids were waiting in line with Rob. We ended the day with a few games, and Brooke won a ginormous pink emoji. Just what we need in our house.

The day was magical. If I could do it over and over again I would. My parents took us almost every year when we were kids, and they are some of my favorite memories. Running around the park with my brothers and sisters and then meeting up with my parents for a picnic lunch.We would ride from the time the park opened until it closed, sometimes riding every coaster in the park. We are all already looking forward to going again next year. Do you think they'll grow another 4-6 inches before next summer so we can take them on even more rides that will scare the heck out of them? 

Our Weekend

Can we go back and have a weekend do over? I felt the last of summer slip away from us this weekend, and I'm not ready. I love fall, but I kind of want to live in this in between seasons phase forever. Warm sunny days where you can still run around barefoot, and cool nights that change the colors of the leaves. 

Somehow our house has become the place for the neighborhood kids to hang out. Harrison and Brooke have 3 close friends that are at our house at least a couple nights a week, so it's pretty common for it to be me and 7 kids chilling on a Tuesday night. Friday night we had 3 additional kids who joined our evening hang, so there were 10 kids running in and out of our house. If I had any alcohol I probably would have drank it. 

I kicked everyone out when it was time to get the babies ready for bed, and then breathed a huge sigh of relief. Having 4 older school aged boys hanging around is crazy. They want to jump off the deck, climb the fence, slam dunk on the babies' plastic basketball hoop. They're crazy, and I'm not ready for my kids to be that kind of crazy yet. I know it's coming, I can already see it in Harrison, but can we keep playing house and Legos for the next 5 years?

Once the babies were asleep, Harrison, Brooke, and I got to work painting their pumpkins they picked out during their field trip to the pumpkin patch. We watched Mickey's House of Villains while waiting for the paint to dry and finally called it a night close to 10:30. I think I may have been asleep before they were.

Saturday morning we woke up, bushed our teeth, packed swimsuits and a change of clothes and headed to the lake. One of the local churches was putting on a fall festival, so we headed up to check it out. Before we headed to the festival we took a boat ride while still rocking pajamas. Once at the festival we played carnival games, bounced in the bounce houses, checked out a fire engine and a police car, ate hot dogs and cookies, and bounced some more. Do everyone's kids love bounce houses as much as mine? Yes? Clark just ran around falling down and giggling. It was hysterical to watch him. We had a meltdown over suckers and some screaming due to the number of bees following us around, but overall it was a good time.

Naps followed the festival, and then the big kids wanted to go tubing. It was cloudy, windy, and only 71 degrees. They are so my kids, because I would have wanted to do the same thing when I was younger. We enjoyed the last boat ride of the year while H and B tubed behind the boat, and before we knew it, it was time to eat dinner and head home. I put all the kids back in their jams, and we took off. All 4 fell asleep on the drive home, it's about an hour, and I successfully transferred all of them to their beds without more than a squeak or grunt. Mom win!

Sunday morning was rainy, windy, and brought a nasty migraine along with the weather. Before my headache became unbearable, we made it to our cousin's first birthday party. The party fell right during nap time, but the babies managed to stay in good moods. Pizza, cake, and ice cream will do that to you. 

The birthday girl

Unfortunately my headache was a full on migraine by the time we made it home, so I spent the remainder of the day laying down in bed or on the couch. Mr. Dad of the year took over most of the dinner and bedtime duties so I could lay down and not toss my cookies. My migraine lingered all day yesterday and this morning, but has mostly passed on.

This morning we turned the heat on and it was cold enough that I made the babies watch for the bus from the window instead of walking down to the bus stop. They were not happy about that. Fall has finally arrived, and as sad as I am to see the last of summer go, I can't complain about sweater weather.