Day Out With Thomas and Aunt Kellie

Aunt Kellie likes to spoil her nephews, so when she saw a deal for this year's Day Out with Thomas she bought tickets for our crew to go for a ride.  The kids were in heaven - especially Eric.  He was fixated on seeing Thomas' eyes. 

After hours of train riding and Thomas themed play, the boys just wanted to sit and read the books they earned from participating in the activities.  Thanks, Aunt Kellie, for a fun and memorable day!

Playschool Party

Today was Caden's last day of Playschool.  For the past 8 months he has met twice a week with a group of 5 boys for a mix of learning time and play time.  We've had a lot of fun and made some new friends.  The mom in charge for the last day decided to throw all learning out the window and just have a water party.  Bring on summer!

A Boy with a Green Scooper

Ryan got a load of nice dirt from the dump and we filled in our flower bed today.  Eric was a great helper and stuck with it from the first wheelbarrow load all the way to the last.  He was such a happy helper I decided to take a picture.  When I showed him the pictures (at his request), he responded, "Hey!  Its a boy wiht a green scooper!  I have a green scooper!  See?"  I tried to explain that he was the boy in the picture with the green scooper, but he was too busy telling me the wheelbarrow was full and it was time to go dump it.

Up and Down

Kyle has been going up the stairs for about 6 weeks, but just this week has been working on mastering the down action.  He's been tentative, then this morning got tired of waiting for me to help him join the boys downstairs.  So he just whipped himself around and took off alone.  He was so thrilled with the accomplishment when he got to the bottom he came back up.  Then he returned to the basement one more time, giggling the whole way.  It was hard to get a clear picture because he was going so fast!  I've put the baby gate away and our house feels so much more open.

Arena Football

We bought the Pass of All Passes when it was on sale for a super good deal a few weeks ago.  Its good at 13 venues and I plan to make it to at least half of them.  In light of that, I took the boys to the Blaze Arena football game.

Caden's Opinion: Those daddies are not being very nice to each other!  They keep knocking each other down.

Eric's Opinon: We rode a train! (I'm not sure he realized the main event was the game and not the Trax ride getting there.  He carried his Trax ticket around like a valued treasure for over a week.)

I don't think we'll be going to another Blaze game any time soon.

Food Allergy Awareness Week (FAAW)

This week has been Food Allergy Awareness Week with over 20 states across the nation having formal proclamations to that effect.  I had planned to have a blog post or two about it, similar to what I have done in the past – share a few statistics, challenge a few people to ‘eat like we do,’ and praise my children for being mature beyond their years.  But statistics only matter if you are the 1 in whatever number, food allergies are about so much more than just eating, and there are days my children act their age.

Its been 4 years and 2 months since we recieved Caden’s diagnosis I’m just not up for the traditional FAAW outreach.  So please, forgive me, if I wax philosophical for a moment and share just exactly what FAAW has been for me this year.

Sunday was Mother’s Day.  I had the opportunity to reflect on motherhood and what it means to me, and inevitably how it isn’t at all what I thought it would be.  I realize most mothers likely carry similar sentiments about life being different than envisioned, but for me almost all the differences between the fairy tale in my childhood dreams and the reality I’m living now is linked to food allergies.  It was an odd way to start the week, thinking not about how food allergies affect the afflicted, but how they affect those around them as well.

Monday dawned with a Facebook link to a teenager who had passed away Sunday due to an allergic reaction.  The third such death in that state in the last year.  The seriousness of food allergies was all to real for me that day, and I couldn’t bring myself to blog.  I ignored the world for a few hours and just treasured my little ones – my three little ones who spend each day at a heightened risk of death, and for whom every social activity is potentially lethal.  We were 20 minutes late to meet a friend at the park due to life complications related to allergies.

Tuesday was brighter.  We had a get together with the support group to look forward to.  I wasn’t able to blog before we left because I was making 4 different meals for the 4 mouths that needed feeding, then spent an hour packing the food and supplies necessary to leave my house for a 3.5 hour period of time.  I meant to take pictures, but I was busy talking with other parents and chasing Eric around with a wet wipe since he was having a mild contact reaction.  Just a runny nose, red watery eyes, and general itchiness.  At least he didn’t break out into full body hives like he has the last few times we’ve been at the park. 

Wednesday was supposed to be my day for the blog.  Caden and Eric had entered the FAAW art contest and I planned to go see their art on display, take pictures of them with it, and post it all on the blog.  We just needed to swing by Caden’s GI doctor on the way.  Getting out the door was crazy hectic as we did breakfast (again, short order cook style), tended to Caden’s tube, did Caden’s therapy, and went through the hour long process of packing up to leave the house for an extended period of time. 

Eric and Kyle got dropped off at my parents house while I took Caden to what was supposed to be a short 20 minute appointment.  An hour later, we left the doctor’s office with orders to go to PCMC in Riverton for a test.  I checked in with my babysitters, grabbed a bite to eat (Caden begged and cried for food), and drug my terrified crying 4 year old to have the test done.  I promised him it would be okay and it would help us help him feel better.  I lied. 

The test showed us nothing useful.  He had an allergic reaction to the solution they gave him as part of the test (only 1 in 500,000 people will have a reaction).  We left the hospital and he spent 3 hours holding as still as possible to minimize his pain, 2 hours screaming and crying in pain, and then 3 hours vomiting every 5 minutes while still screaming in pain.  We desperately called every number we could think of to try and talk with anyone who could help us after hours and finally gave up and took him to the ER.  The ER doctor remembered us.  As he put it, how can you forget a child as unique as Caden?  “Unique” isn’t really a comforting word in the ER, but they were able to get the vomiting and pain under control.

Thursday morning I again spent hours on the phone nailing down the exact cause of the previous day’s allergic reaction.  The ER called to follow up with us; the GI called to go over a next steps sort of plan; the 8 people I left phone messages with after hours finally got around to returning my calls.  We spent the day at home as Caden continued to work through his reaction – you can’t really send a boy who is still in too much pain to walk to play group.  More weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth from Caden.  Another link on Facebook to another news article about a teenager having a severe allergic reaction in a social setting.  This time the girl lived because she had her epi pen nearby, but it hit a little harder for me because this one was in Ogden.

Friday at 5 am I’m awake and typing a blog post that is much too long.  Caden’s pack beeped and woke everyone up.  Eric is back to sleep, but Kyle is still fussing in his crib.  Even though I'm tired, I have too much on my mind to go back to sleep.  In the 6 hours I was in bed last night, I had to get up to fix the pack 3 times.  I don’t really have time to go back to sleep anyway, because I need to research a medicine Caden’s doctor wants to try.  I’ve to go find a delivery method that doesn’t contain any obvious allergens (milk and corn are the most common offenders) before she calls me back at 9 am to discuss our options. 

Ryan has the day off work.  I’ve been needing to take Eric to the hospital to get his blood drawn for his annual allergy check for a few weeks now, but didn’t want to drag all three kids.  Maybe if Caden is feeling well enough I’ll leave the two extras at home with Ryan and get that crossed off the list today.

Its Food Allergy Awareness Week.  I don’t know about anyone else, but I’m pretty aware of how food allergies affect every single aspect of my life every day. 

Mother's Day

As I was falling asleep last night I told Ryan I'd had the best Mother's Day ever and I'm not sure how he's going to top it.  It was a just a low-key, low-drama day.  The speakers in Sacrament meeting were amazing and I felt the spirit so strongly.  For the first time Caden got to go up and sing with the primary kids and my heart melted even though he didn't really know the song. 

At church, Eric's nursery leaders helped him make a cute handprint craft, and Caden's primary teachers helped him write me a note.  Here is the note from Caden: "Loving you.  I like you.  You like our warm house.  Our new cement is drying up."

I should have taken a picture of me with my boys on Mother's Day, but since I didn't I leave you with the pictures my sister and I took for our mothers (idea coutesy of Pinterest - my firt Pinterest project!). 

Fathers and Sons 2012

We didn't get any pictures from this year's adventure, but the boys had a generally good time and here are the reports from each of them:

Ryan - It may be 80 at home, but its chilly at night in the canyon and you really should take a jacket/coat.

Caden - Our new big tent looks like a house!  (has a pointy roof instead of a round one).  If the fire gets too hot, I just pull my hat down over my eyes like this and I can still stay too close!

Eric - I like camping!  It makes me happy. (Ryan said he was the best little camper and just overall enjoyed himself.  He kept getting off his camp chair to throw sticks in the fire and men would sit down in the chair to chat with Ryan.  When he came back he'd candidly tell them "Thats my chair and I need to sit in it now."  Ryan said he kicked out no less than 4 people.)

Kyle and Mommy spent the boys night out in Murray working on a family history project and watching a chick flick with Grandma and Aunt Kellie.

Concrete

Our latest project (perhaps our only project for the year?) was to pour a concrete pad on the side of our house.  We need a place to park the truck and trailer that doesn't produce a mud pit the children play in.  We got some quotes, did the math, and learned this time around the scant savings wasn't worth having Ryan do the project so we hired it out. 

Here it is all prepped and ready to go.  We had to pour a small retaining wall in order to level the yard out, so we poured it out a few inches from the fence to create a little flower bed.  I'm really excited about the flower bed. 

And here is the view from our bedroom window at 7 am this morning.  The kids loved watching the concrete get poured, and even daddy went in to work a little late so he could stay and watch the men work.  We can't walk on it for 2 days, ride bikes on it for a week, or park the truck on it for 3 weeks. Its nice to have it done, but it will be better when its usable.