thanksful that's over!

we spent this morning at children's visiting with an allergy doctor for tman. when we finally figured out he was actually allergic to peanuts our pediatrician suggested we get him tested since peanut allergies can be severe for some kiddos.

to tell you the truth, i've been dreading this morning ever since i set the appointment up. lance had told me how awful he remembers his allergy testing and i most definitely wasn't looking forward to subjecting tman to that torture. but i was also looking forward to getting some definite answers. we've been completely avoiding all nuts since we figured out peanuts were off limits and i was hopeful to get a definite yes/no on those. and to see if there was anything we hadn't thought of to try for his horrible seasonal allergies/drainage/throwing up.

lance took the morning off to go with me (no way i would have wanted to have done it alone!). they did two environmental tests and then tested for 11 food. and yes, it was pure torture for both of us. lance held his arms and i held his hips down, sang 'jesus loves me' trying to calm him down at least a little and tried not to cry. he screamed and cried. as soon as it was over i picked him up and he puked all over me and him from being so upset (i had planned on this possibly happening so thankfully we all had a change of clothes in the car).

 snuggled up with mommy waiting for daddy to get our clean clothes from the car.  

he perked up a little bit when he realized he could wash his hands (and of course this mommy would let him do whatever he wanted since we just finished a torture session).

top left was the outdoor stuff...clearly allergic to a lot-bermuda grass and marshhelder and elm were the top 3. gotta love that bermuda grass is everywhere...not much we can do at this point but keep the allergy meds going. bottom left weren't too bad-the dog and cat test were in that batch and thankfully those were negative. 

the numbers down the side were foods. shellfish came back negative. peanuts were a definite allergy. almond hazelnut, pistachio and walnut all had some reaction.

the almond and hazelnut were small and the doctor thought we might be able to try those (he suggested trying them in their office first just to be safe), but definitely no peanuts. 

we're going to learn to be a label-reading family!!! 

the doctor did say there's lots of trials going on helping kids become desensitized to peanut and he said he was certain that tman wouldn't go to college still allergic to peanuts-they are going to figure this out! after this, we had to get lab work. torture session #2. clearly not fun having to hold your child down while he cries, but thankfully the nurse got it on the first try.

being near the train track, we had heard several choo choos go by while we were at the hospital and tman kept asking to see them. so after enduring two torture sessions we figured he deserved a fun trip to the main hospital to see the awesome trains!

while this morning was tough and exhausting (i was sweating before we were even finished with his vital signs-he doesn't like those either!), i was thankful that we were only there for some allergy testing. thankful that while his boo boos from this morning weren't fun, having a band aid boo boo from a blood draw is nothing compared to the boo boos that some of the kids have to face. i am beyond thankful for my healthy little guy who hasn't needed to visit the hospital for anything worse than allergies and can walk and run and play and talk...definitely things i usually take for granted. a children's hospital will put things into perspective for ya real quick!

catch up

ugh-it's been over a month. so this is going to be brain-dump/blog catch up and hopefully i won't fall so far behind again. although some of it is for a good reason...after we got moved back in from the skunk, lance had a 8mm kidney stone and was home for almost 2 weeks before getting it blasted. so things were a little hectic around here! we did a LOT of this:

we visited a fun place called the gentle zoo with kristin, anna, audrey and ellery over spring break. it was tons of fun-tanner's favorite part was the big sand box. he liked feeding the animals too-followed his big cousins lead and wasn't scared at all.

we've had a couple of fun baby showers for taylor. tanner even got to attend the one at her school and "help" her open all the gifts. he kept saying "tanner's" after each one...he hasn't quite figured it out that it's not all for him! pic on the right he was cheering "YAY!" about burp clothes (aka tanner's binkys)

we got to go to dinner with rachel and chad while they were here house hunting and checking out rockwall...yes, they're MOVING HERE! so exciting!

i made borscht with my new neighbor, anastasia. she's russian (lived here until her mid-20's) so it was totally authentic! lance was a great sport and tried it for dinner!

we went to the zoo for the first time with taylor. tanner loved the lions (HUGE he said) and watching me feed the giraffes. he wasn't quite brave enough to feed them himself.

 he LOVES driving!

 watching the lions on tay tay's shoulders

and probably one of the highlights...watching a digger over the bridge. true boys!

we had a fun playdate with our new Rockwall mops friends at the arboretum...my allergies were going nuts, but still a fun time. of course i decided this one time not to take my camera. several of the other moms were taking pictures and apparently tanner felt left out because he looked at me and asked me to take his picture...normally when i pull out my camera he waves me away saying NO! go figure! but i did get a fun iphone pic of the 2 of us...one of my new favs (minus my crazy red, itch, watering eyes). we've loved meeting some new friends as we jumped in mid-semester in rockwall mops!

funny story-as i was changing tman's diaper, i realized i had started to put it on him backwards. i said something like, "oops, mommy was trying to put your diaper on backwards." with no prompting he looked at me and called me a "do do." it was hilarious! he loves the big bird movie and the do do family in the movie...so now anything silly is a do do-including ME!

we had a fun afternoon of painting. he would paint, decide he was dirty, and then forget about it and keep painting...over and over. he painted LOTS of paper and then decided to paint his knees, arms, tummy and even ears!

tomorrow we are headed to the allergist for tanner. i'm dreading it...skin tests or blood draws-neither sound fun, but i'm guessing it'll probably be more traumatic for me than for tanner.