Allergies...

Name: Zack

Allergies: Dairy, egg, and peanuts

Update: Skin test NEGATIVE for all three. As long as the blood test comes back negative we can slowly reintroduce dairy, eggs, and peanuts into his diet!!!

Name: Sam
Allergies: Mixed grass, carrot, pineapple, and severely allergic to tree nuts
Update: Possibly also has food allergy syndrome and/or eosinophilic esophagitis. More on that below...
Name: Matt
Allergies: Severe shellfish allergy, also environmental allergies - pollen, etc.
Update: Nothing new here...

Name: Marci
Allergies: NONE
Update: I just married into this mess. :)

We went to see the allergist on Thursday of last week. The prognosis was both good and bad.

Zack's future looks promising as long as the blood test comes back negative. I'll find out tomorrow . I am SO EXCITED at the possibility to reintroduce those foods. Oh- just give me eggs back! There really is no good substitute!!!

Sam's diagnosis is more mixed and unclear right now.

What we know: He is definitely severely allergic to tree nuts. I was surprised to find out that he is also allergic to carrots, pineapple, and mixed grass. It is possible that his blood test will show more allergies. The allergist wants to skin test him for other allergies now that so many of these came back positive.

What might be likely other allergies due to his reactions? Celery, tomatoes, potatoes, shellfish, and/or salmon. And maybe more than that.

See his skin test below. The top left is the control (the plus and minus sign). #1 was a 10% diluted solution of hazelnuts. HUGE welt. #3 was carrots. This picture doesn't really do that one justice, but it was also a welt. #4 was pineapple. Very allergic, although not as badly as tree nuts. And #5 was mixed grass. Smaller welt, but a reaction all the same.

Poor Sam. This was a miserable itchy experience for him...

He has always complained about food being "stuck" in his throat. He started scratching at his throat when eating at about 9 months old when we introduced various solid food. We went the dysphagia route for a while and that didn't really explain things (although I don't rule that out yet).

The allergist thinks Sam has one or both of the following:
Food Allergy Syndrome (also known as Oral Allergy Syndrome) - a non-anaphylactic allergy where raw fruits and vegetables cause an allergic reaction in the lips, mouth, or throat. BUT, they can handle them cooked.
Eosinophilic Esophagitis - an inflammatory condition where the wall of the esophagus is lined with eosinophils (a type of white blood cell that registers inflammation due to allergies). They don't exist in the esophagus on a healthy person. It basically feels like your throat is inflamed, irritated, or that food "gets stuck" anytime you eat something that causes a reaction.

The bad news: The only way to diagnose or track EE is by doing an endoscopy. So... I have been researching pediatric GI doctors and need to make an appt so that Sam can have an endoscopy.

Personally, I think Sam has EE. Maybe also FAS. Either way, my little 4 year old needs some more research before we know what's going on with him. Maybe when we figure this out, he'll actually eat more!!!

Of Stuffed Animals and More

Up to recently, I have "named" all of Sam's stuffed animals.

I was highly original.

Meet "Little Koala".
And "Big Doggy".
Not to be confused with (Big Doggy,) Al, Kanga, Little Koala again, Little Doggy, Elephant, and Blue Bear.
This boy loves his stuffed animals.
See just how creative and original I've been in naming these?

Well, last Christmas, Sam got another stuffed animal. A monster.
And for the first time, he named his own stuffed animal.

Ladies and Gentlemen... I'd like to introduce you to...

Drum roll please...

MORE. Yep. This monster's name is More.

And I have no more to say...

Zoo and Wheeler Farm

Our Joyschool is coming to a close next week! So sad! Each week, we have preschool on Mondays and Wednesdays. Then, we have Field Trip Fridays. It has been such fun to go see museums, parks, candy factories, fire stations, and everything else there is to do here.

Lately, we've gone to the zoo and Wheeler Farm. This first trip to the zoo was with some other friends too.
Three buddies
Zack and Sam. Zack was enamored with the elephants and couldn't bother to look at the camera.
At the giraffes

These two have become best buddies. Just ask them. They'll tell you that they are twins!

Measuring up.
Tori and I took our boys on a train ride at the end.
Here's our joyschool at Wheeler Farm
Buddies again.
All the kiddos looking at the horses. There are only 5 kids in our joyschool, but siblings always join us on our field trips.
On the tractor ride. Sam and Zack LOVE this part.

Back at the zoo with just our joyschool. I love these kids! Front row was our whole joyschool. It was such a fabulous group - moms included!
Partners in crime, these three...
Sam, Tiger and Max were in LOVE with the map. They would check it after seeing each animal.
Checking the map after the rhinos
and by the monkeys
and after the penguins
and by the giraffes!
Riding the carousel.
And of course... we finished with a train ride!
For some reason Zack was scared of the train this trip... but has since gotten over that silly fear.

I LOVE getting out and about and will miss our field trip Fridays! I'm going to have to start planning some more for summertime!

Lately

We've had some beautiful days, but a lot of rainy cold days here lately. So, we've been playing indoors when we can't go outside. These two have turned into such good buddies.

Playing with my laundry sorter

Playing with diggers in cornmeal. (Genius. Thanks for the tip Heidi.)

We've seen a lot of these smiles.

A lot of family visited us over Easter where we decorated sugar cookies.

Sam LOVED the sprinkles.

Really loved sprinkles.

And when his cookie was gone? Don't worry... he found MORE sprinkles!

Check out that sugary smile!

Easter happened. And Sam was quite done with me trying to get a picture of BOTH of them looking at the camera and smiling...

Sam has logged a LOT of hours playing with this uncle.

One day, the boys were supposed to be playing in the toy room while Nate and Jake were studying for their final in the basement. Well... it became a little too quiet. I found them "studying physical science" too. Sam wanted to read Jake's textbook!

When Matt was working late and my brothers were around, they often would read books to Sam.

He LOVED it.

We went to Kangaroo Zoo with Grandma and Lindsey. ALWAYS a fun time.

Lindsey and Sam were buddies the whole time!

My mom even took Zack on the slides!

Zack LOVED it there.

And now, we're hoping for warmer weather... so that we can do more of this!

Priceless in Primary

At church, I work with the Primary... which consists of kids age 3 - 11. We do various activities with them for the last two hours of church including breaking into classes, singing time and sharing time - which is basically the lesson and activity.

I was in charge of sharing time today. So... I had 5 women (who were moms of kids in primary) be our Mom Panelists and stand behind the rolling chalkboard. I hung a sheet on the bottom so the kids couldn't see them at ALL. Then, we had each child ask the panel a question like "What's your favorite color?" and the moms would answer it. I had lots of prepared questions the kids could use or they could just ask any question they come up with. Most of the kids used my prepared questions.

ANYWAY. We went oldest to youngest. On the last child, cute little Matthew who just turned four and you still sometimes can't understand what he's saying, Matt told me that he already had a prepared question.

I said, "Okay, go ahead and ask it."
Little Matt said, "What's your favorite color of bakkem?"
I said, "Bakkem? Hmmm... Can you say that again?"
Matt - "What's your favorite color of bakkem?"
Me - "Bakkem? What's that?"
Matt - "You know. BAKKEM. It sucks dirt."
Me - "Vacuum?"
Matt - "YAAAAAH! Bakkem!"
So I said, "Oooooooookay Mom Panelists! Our last question is WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE COLOR OF VACUUM???"

Hilarious, ehhhhh? Yep. That's primary for you. You just never know what's going to happen and it's usually highly entertaining.
So, what's your favorite color?