Thursday, October 17, 2013

Say yes to peanuts

We had our much anticipated peanut challenge on Monday.  When I say much anticipated I mean I actually couldn't sleep the night before.  I was worried about him having a reaction, I was worried about him not wanting to eat any peanut butter, I was just worried.  This from a mom with a 2.5 year old kid with a genetic disease.  It takes a LOT to worry me. 

I read up on what to expect, a possible 4 hour long test where they start by touching peanut butter, then bringing it to your lips and then finally eating what is considered a serving.  Then they want you to wait between each test to see if you have any sort of reaction. 

We were prepared, we brought crayons and coloring books and our DVD player.  The Doctor came in with peanut butter on a spoon and said " His blood work shows him with no peanut allergy so lets just try this"  Um okay.  So Max ate his spoonful of peanut butter while watching Mickey Mouse Club House and it was all very uneventful.  Max wouldn't eat a second spoonful of peanut butter so we had to go and get a recess peanut butter cup.  The horror!  Max has never had one before, he loved it.

So basically we can have peanut butter.  It's a little scary I have to admit.  We have shunned it for so long.  But this opens up some things for us.  Granola bars for one thing were off limits.  Anything that said may contain peanuts we really weren't supposed to eat, although some times we did anyway.  The holidays and random events will be easier.  We don't have to worry about someone bringing in peanut butter cookies or what is in his trick or treat bag like we did before. 

The next 2 nuts on the list are Cashews and Pistachios.  We are going to do a food trail on Cashews first.  Even though these are less common nuts, if a product says may contain tree nuts and isn't specific to which nuts we have to assume it could make him sick. 

My favorite bible verse is about worrying.  My favorite is the last line.
25 “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? 26 Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27 Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life[a]?

To bad I didn't think of this the night before the food challenge

Wednesday, October 16, 2013

Fire Safety

Our local fire department frequently has a weekend open house.  I thought it would be fun this year to attend since Sam is so into anything that is big and has wheels.  Of course we decide to go after Sam's nap and he sleeps though almost the whole thing.  But the event was over at 3 and it was 2:15 we still had time to go. We loaded up the car and hit the road.  I was a little worried about Max and the sirens thing.  He really can't handle loud noises like that but I thought if he freaked out we can just go home.  

We got there and Max got to spray a fire hose.
He loved it!

Then we went into a little fake house and had a lesson on fire safety.  It was really a wonderful idea because fire safety isn't something we have really talked about at home.  They talked about the importance of crawling on all fours through smoke and the importance of finding a safe area out side the home for the family to meet in case of fire.  They encouraged us to practice this at home. 

Meanwhile Sam and Jeremy were having fun of their own.
Sam sat in every single fire truck they had available.  He had a great time.  He got so excited after this one that he ran to the next truck and totally missed that there was a curb..  The good news is there were several paramedics there to help us after he mashed his poor head into the concrete.   

Despite the road rash on Sam's face it was a nice time.  Max did not get to up set about any noises and got to spray water from a real fire hose and Sam got to "drive" a fire truck. 

When we got home I decided what we needed to do was practice what Max and I had learned and do a fire drill.  Jeremy turned the fire alarm on and we all crawled through our bed rooms, down the stairs and out the front door to the mail box, our meeting spot.  Next time we do a drill I think we will try it after dark..