Quick pics and a short video

From the backyard today.

and with a stick (in the house, of course) yesterday.

Ben played with this stick in the backyard for quite some time yesterday. He was walking with my finger in one hand and the stick in the other, poking everything in sight. I was telling my mom today that I can only imagine all of the things that Ben will eventually "poke with a stick" in his future... ant hills, dead worms, minnows, turtles, mushrooms, etc...

Some of his first tentative steps...

School's Out!

Today was the last day of school with kiddos. Because I left at 12:30 (as I do most days), it felt a bit weird because I wasn't there to actually say "good-bye" at the end of the day. Instead I hit the grocery store on the way home for a much needed stock up on food. We still have 3(!) days of staff in-service left because of the umpteen snow days from December. Oh well - I am pretty much checked out (mentally) at this point, so they aren't going to get a whole lot out of me (he-he).

Here are a few pics from last Thursday at The Hub, a new brew-pub in Portland. We met up with some of Andy's college buds and their families.

Riad with Ben and Dylan in a stare down.

Ben is doing fine with the whole peanut and egg allergy - He was fully recovered from the whole peanut ordeal in about 48 hours. He is still snotty, which leads me to believe that, yes, he does have some other type of allergy, like pollen or grass or dog. My bet is on the dog. I have had to find some alternatives for Ben for daycare when they are eating pancakes, waffles or PB sandwiches. I found some frozen waffles for breakfast and have been bringing some other options like pasta with spaghetti sauce and veggies.

Ben is right on the cusp of becoming a walker. He took about 8 steps today in the front yard before crashing. He has been a bit whinny lately - I suppose he is just getting frustrated by his lack of mobility. I have to get the video camera out to catch this. Whenever I get it out, he's not in the walking mood.

Oh, and we decided to fix the Jeep and postpone the vehicle purchase for the time being. Bummer for me. The new Chevy Traverse is a pretty sweet ride - I'll have to drive the Pilot to compare...

Yup, it's peanuts and eggs...

Here is Ben's back after the scratch tests.

The top L one was the control to be sure that the Benedryl from Sunday wouldn't mask any results. The second one down on the L was the eggs. The 3rd one down on the R was the peanuts. Soooo, this means no eggs or peanuts for Ben (or mommy - I'm still BF - Grrrr) for one month.

We'll see if the other symptoms of constant runny nose and eczema go away. If so, then we can try to slowly re-introduce things with egg as an ingredient (like baked goods, etc. - NOT scrambled eggs). If the symptoms return, then we will stay away from eggs for a while longer. Probably NO peanuts for a long time.

If the eczema and runny nose don't go away, then we could go back for a few more scratch tests like pollen, grass, dogs, etc. Another possibility is trying to give him Singulaire (outdoor allergy drug) to see if it helps, then do the scratch testing assuming then that he IS allergic to some type of outdoor allergen.

I still haven't done the blood draw for lead and hemoglobin from his 12 month appt, and the allergist said that when we go for the draw that we could do an IgE level too. I'm not exactly sure what that would tell us - I'll have to get back to you on that.

Well, I'm glad that we found out about the peanut allergy now, instead of on some camping trip or while visiting MN or something - at least we know what we're dealing with now. Not fun, but hey - there are a lot worse things that could happen, right?

Quick update

Ben is back to his normal, happy-go-lucky self. (Or, not-so-lucky if this turns out to be the dreaded peanut allergy... which I'm about 90% sure it is.) It's pretty amazing to see how fast that little guy recovered from being one big giant hive back to having no trace of any hives today. We had a nice weekend of yard work, attending a friend's baby shower (my sister-in-law's sister) for her adorable new baby, Josie, that she and her husband adopted about a month ago, and just hanging out with little Ben. We postponed car shopping for a later date (hopefully soon). I may have to re-book the Tuesday appointment with the allergist because Ben had some Benedryl today and I don't think they can do any allergy testing with Benedryl in the system.. Oh well. Have a great week everyone.

One minute he's fine, the next minute, covered in hives

Poor buddy - He can't seem to catch a break here. At work today, I got a phone call from daycare today at noon. Marlienne was concerned that Ben was having an allergic reaction to something, after a lunch of macaroni and tuna and 1/4 of a peanut butter sandwich. His face was full of hives and his eye was starting to swell. I took off from work, picked Ben up and headed straight to the doctors office. They got him in right away in Immediate Care. The doc evaluated him, said yup - looks like an allergic reaction and gave him some Benedryl, and told me to keep a close eye on him. I headed out to my car and put Ben in his car seat and he proceeded to throw up all of his lunch. So, I brought him back in to the office. We tried another dose of Benedryl and a shot of a steroid, because he was getting dramatically worse - the hives had spread to his torso, legs and arms and he started wheezing a bit. He was 2 hours overdue for a nap, so we waited in the doctor's office for another hour or so while Ben slept on my chest and the nurses and his doctor checked in on us every 15 minutes or so to see how he was doing. Honestly, I was starting to get a but worried when the pediatrician on staff stopped by for a consult and exclaimed, "Wooooaaah! You weren't kidding - that rash looks horrible!" Ben's breathing had improved but the hives continued to spread. Finally, at about 4:00, we headed home where Ben slept for another hour or 2, got up to eat, then went back down for the evening at 8:00. His face looked pretty close to normal, but the rest of the body hives were still present when he went down to sleep. We picked up a Rx for baby Zantac and an Epi-pen and are to give him Benedryl for a few days. We have an appt with an allergist on Tuesday - hopefully we will do a blood draw (along with a blood draw for lead levels and a hemoglobin test - labs ordered at his 12 month appt that I haven't gotten to yet) to test to be sure it was the peanuts and not the tuna, and to see if there are any other allergies (I suspect egg whites - Ben got a few facial hives when I gave him some scrambled eggs 3 weeks ago).

I took a few shots to show the allergist what he looked like...

How sad... doesn't this look painful?

...and a nice shot of our beautiful, happy, baby boy from last weekend.

Videos for grandma

Here are a few videos of everyday life... Mostly for g-ma Jan, who I know is dying to get her hands on little Ben (July is coming soon, hang in there!). Everyone else - feel free to skip over these.

First - Daddy jumping off of the front porch (I'm surprised that Ben didn't pass out from laughing and that daddy didn't pass out from jumping).



Next, one of Ben playing one-handed peek-a-boo.

And another of Ben crawling with a plastic bowl in his hand.

And yet another of Ben playing with his new ball popper.

12 month check up

Thursday night (May 28th) we had Ben's 12 month check up scheduled at 6:30. After an hour and a half (!) visit with a very thorough family practice doctor (our pediatrician cancelled at the last minute with a family emergency), we left with 3 shots (MMR, Hep A, and chickenpox), and an order for a blood draw for lead levels and hemoglobin (both standard tests, I guess, for babies 12-15 months of age and living in a 100 year old house). Ben was getting past his bed time and wasn't in any mood for someone to stick another needle in him, so we will return at a later date for the visit with the phlebotomist (I'm kinda proud of being able to use that word).

Here are Ben's stats:

Length - 30 inches (50th%)

Head -18 inches (50th%)

Weight - just under 23 lbs (50th%)

Here's our big boy in his forward-facing car seat.

And today here's Ben standing (on his own - for a few seconds) with a diaper in hand while waiting in the shade for the AC estimate on the 2000 Jeep ($450!! for a new clutch something or other) - now we have to decide - buy a new vehicle or fix this one up... I'm hoping for the former :)