In a moment of bad momminess (I was tired
and she was begging) I gave Eve a peanut butter cracker. One of
those sandwich crackers with a barely there layer of probably
fake peanut butter in the middle. While the general guideline
is to wait until a child is at least one year old before
introducing peanut butter, I figured she would be ok since we
have no food allergies on either side of the family, Lex has
had no reactions to anything and Eve so far has had no reaction
to any foods either. Ten minutes later she looked like
this:

The rash didn’t seem to bother her,
but I felt awful! I put them both in the tub (bath time anyway)
and washed her face really well, all the while mentally
preparing myself for a trip to the ER. Luckily it cleared up
quickly and was barely noticeable an hour later and completely
gone when I put her to bed 1.5hrs after the cracker incident.

I emailed Dr. Shu, our old
pedi, because she is a fantastic pedi and uses email
religiously. She said it could most definitely be a nut allergy
and said to get in touch with the pedi on call tonight to see
what we should. Conveniently the pedi on call is Eve’s regular
doctor so we had a nice chat. She said to not worry about it
for now, since the rash is gone and Eve is sleeping comfortably
with no swelling or breathing problems. We will discuss more at
her 1yr check up in a few weeks and we may have her tested for
nut allergies. Obviously I will not be giving her peanut butter
again in the near future. I feel so guilty. I know, logically,
that she would have had the same reaction had I waited two more
weeks, but emotionally the guilt is still there. I also HOPE
HOPE HOPE it was a fluke and she doesn’t really have a nut
allergy because peanut butter is a staple in this house. If she
does, it must not be too sensitive because she’s spent her
whole life, including in utero, around the stuff.

Anyway, let’s all hope she has no allergies
and it was just a strange and random coincidence :)

How I wish I had caught this whole thing
on video. We were eating dinner and Lex grabbed his napkin.
Then he said, “can you spell napkin?” and jumped down from his
chair and ran over to the fridge. I wasn’t sure what he was
doing (and, to be honest, only half paying attention) but when
he got n-a-p on the fridge I decided it was time to grab the
camera. This is a word he’s never spelled before, that I’m
aware of anyway, and you can hear him sounding it out as he
goes. I’m so impressed and proud of him!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0FawMk3YX0k]

The video is 2:30 and, as usual,
half or so is him congratulating himself
:)

Alan came home for lunch and stayed with
the kids so I could run some “business hours only” errands. It
was great! There’s not much I love more than hopping in the car
on a beautiful sunny day and just going! Doesn’t really matter
much where. I have great daycare kids and it will be nice to
get us all outside more as the weather warms up, but I
definitely miss the ability to hop in the car and go, even with
my own kids (they both love rides in the car). There’s
something about the freedom of summer that will be missed this
year.

I made Chocolate
Mint Sandwich cookies this weekend. Sooo yummy! I
occaisionally get to sit down for 5 minutes around lunch time,
after the toddlers are in bed and when babies need
bottles/boob… so I turn on the TV and see a bit of Martha
Stewart’s show. This week was cookie week to promote her new
cookie cookbook. I saw her making these and had to try it
myself. Alan teased me, but he sure did like the outcome! I’m
going to freeze most of them (except what I gave away to
parents on Friday and party people today) and have them at
Eve’s party. Yummy!

One big giant upside to this whole daycare thing
is that it seems to exhaust Lex! This is the first week we’ve
had a toddler here full time and every day this week, and every
night, he has fallen asleep quickly and easily. A few times he
was even in his own bed (he’s been going to sleep in our bed
with music for many months now) and several times at nap time
I’m pretty sure he was asleep before I even made it down
stairs. I guess having a full-time toddler really wears him
out. All that socializing is hard work for an introvert
:)

My kids are very silly and were especially
so last night. We went to Panera Bread for dinner (they LOVE
Panera Bread!) and on the way Lex was talking about who is a
girl and who is a boy. Alan asked what I am and Lex said,
“Mommy is a grown up. (pause, then very dramatically) Oh no
Mommy! You’re a grown up. What happened??” We all cracked up.
They are perfect angels at dinner. He always gets a blueberry
bagel with cream cheese and she gets a plain bagel run through
the bread slicer (makes nice little strips) and they both eat
and people watch and Alan and I get to have some grown up
conversation. Since we’re grown-ups afterall :)

When we got home Eve was tired, but extra
playful. She kept crawling away, but looking back at me,
grinning, then scooting away from me. I brought them both
upstairs for a bath and when I put her down she crawled right
into our dark bedroom. I went in to get her and she was
standing up, laughing! When I got close enough she spun around
and lunged for me. She takes three or four steps and falls, so
she tries to wait until you’re close enough to grab her :) And
grab her I did, tossing her up into the air. At the same time
Lex ran in behind us and slammed the door. Now I have two
laughing kids in a dark room. Lex ran up and crashed into me
and Eve. It was so silly. I love my kids and their little
personalities.

I’m going to try very
hard to hold on to these happy thoughts as I deal with four
extra kids today. Wish me luck. The first will be arrive
momentairly, so I’m outta here for now.

Lex has become such a kid lately, I
hesitate to even call him a toddler. Two things remind me of
this often. When we go out in public I frequently get comments
on how cute Eve is, but people have by and large stopped
commenting on Lex’s cuteness. Not that he’s not adorable, it’s
just that people (I think anyway) are more comfortable
commenting on babies, not kids. He has also picked up the fine
art of bedtime procrastination. “Mommy, I need a drink of
water. The music is over. My pyjamas have a hole in them.” Etc,
etc. In fact, it’s now 11pm and he’s still awake! (Ok, maybe
the whole daylight savings thing might be playing into
tonight’s issues)