Eve has become such a gatherer. She cracks me up. Everwhere she goes she gathers things and carries them with her. She’s had several potty accidents even because she’s trying to carry to many things to the bathroom with her. Silly girl. Last night she gathered up all this stuff and announced that she was going on a trip. To where? The office! (she frequently goes “to a meeting” too, with all her stuff.)
Eve, all packed for a trip
Me & Eve (and doggie)
… and not an ounce will kill her!! Yay! I’m excited. Can you tell? You should be too! I don’t think Eve really understands the significance of this morning’s appointment (and by appointment I mean three hours watching TV and eating peanut butter crackers on the floor of the doctor’s office.) Everyone around her is excited too, for personal reasons. Mine include, in no particular order, peanut butter cookies for Christmas, no more epi-pens, and no more worrying about Eve going into anaphylactic shock (which, to be honest, Alan and I never fully believed to be a problem in the first place… so I’ll add no more guilt about doubting her medical condition to the list of things to be happy about!) Yay! That’s all I can say. Yay!
I went in this morning at 9am with Eve and an empty belly. I was told she could have no food before the appointment, just clear liquids. She was a champ and didn’t complain at all. She did see me packing the Saltine crackers though and asked, frequently, if it was time yet for her to eat them :) We got to the doctor’s office and they did the skin test, like last year, but this time she had no reaction! After 20 minutes the doctor came in and said let’s do the food challenge! I’m always up for a food challenge! He took the peanut butter we brought (yummy, yummy Jif!) and the Saltines and went away somewhere to prepare them. He started her with “a microscopic amount” on his finger, then after she had no reaction to that in 15 minutes they started bringing in crackers with increasing amounts of peanut butter. Eve caught on quickly that when the timer outside the door started beeping a nurse brought in another peanut butter cracker. She was very excited each time. In between food deliveries we read stories and watched DVDs on the hospital’s mini-DVD player. That was handy. Eve excitedly paused the DVD each time she heard the timer go off. I think she likes PB too :) The doctor was pleased to hear that and said it was a good indicator that her body is handling it well. I guess if the kid doesn’t like it they are more wary that perhaps the kid’s body is trying to protect itself. Anyway, she couldn’t get enough… I wonder where she gets that from? :)
Skin test. The P at the bottom is the peanut exposure. The other two marks are just controls.
Watching DVDs while waiting for more peanut butter crackers.
By the end of the visit she was pretty tired.
I promised her Panera Bread for lunch but it was 12:30 before we left the doctor's office and she was asleep about two minutes later. I think we'll do Panera for dinner instead.
Two hours and half a sleeve of crackers later the doctor told us that Eve is good to go. He said feed her nuts, as much as she wants, don’t be shy about it. He also said there’s no need for a follow up visit or annual check-ups or anything. And no increased risk that the allergy will return. Basically an “adios, nice to know ya” goodbye. :)
It feels like some weird little medical science experiment. We learned a lot, paid a lot, and now we are back to life as usual. No more epi-pens, no more inhalers (wasn’t helping the cough)… just plain old life as it should be :) Yay!
Just for fun, here's Eve at the allergist last June (2008). So adorable!
This was her first skin test, June 2008. The funny characters at the bottom are the peanut exposure. The top ones are controls.
This was a funny Halloween. It was a beautiful day, high 60s and breezy. We spent the morning doing my stuff (WW meeting, exercise, etc). Eve happily joined me while Lex stayed home with Alan and had a slow morning. He was still running a fever and not feeling great. At nap time he eagerly went to sleep (rare for him!) and she fell asleep with vision of candy dancing in her head. Lex woke up even more feverish and was happy to stay home with Alan while Eve and I went to the local “mall” for indoor trick-or-treating. I’ve never gone but I have friends who go every year and love it. This year it was packed because the forecast called for a rainy evening. Eve was SUPER excited all the way until we were standing in front of the first person handing out candy…. then she clung to the back of my leg like glue! When we finally moved away from the poor candy-handing-out lady Eve let go of her death grip and started looking around. She had a great time looking at people and wandering around, but refused to say “trick-or-treat” to anyone and usually hid her head whenever we got near someone handing out candy. She is such a funny girl. A few people put candy in her pumpkin anyway so we ended up with about ten pieces of candy, which she happily shared with the family when we got home. By the time we left the mall it was raining pretty hard, so we went home (after a quick stop at the grocery store to get more medicine for Lex and lots of oohs and ahhs for Eve).
Lex fell asleep on the couch and is in pretty miserable shape. I took his temp tonight and it was 103.6. I don’t normally take temps because I can tell if they have a fevers or not without the thermometer and I don’t see much need to know the precise number, but tonight he felt SO hot. I spoke with the pedi on call and she said to keep doing what we’re doing. I’m hoping this is just one of his normal fever spells (they seem to come every 6 months or so and the timing is about right) and not some scary flu thing.
Eve, on the other hand, is on a sugar high from the lollipop she ate and she’s bouncing like a crazy person! I’ve been back up there three times already to find her in various states of disarray (and disrobed!) The first time she took her cloth diaper off and took the whole thing apart! This most recent time I found her in the bathroom, naked, saying she wants different PJs. Sigh. H0pefully she’ll pass out soon :) I think she came home with just the right amount of candy. We all got a few bits and there isn’t a huge bowlful left over. What is leftover though is the candy we bought! With the heavy rains only the hardiest (and most foolish, in my opinion) were out and about, so we have lots of leftover stuff. Hmm… now to find something creative to do with it… or maybe now it’s time to go to bed. Yeah, I think that’s it.
Sleeping Beauty has a quick Skittles snack to energize for the big night.
There's our little pink pumpkin princess. Doesn't Lex look sad in the background? He was happy not to go out though, really he was. (and yes, she is a New England Sleeping Beauty, turtle neck, tights, socks and all!)
I suspect this chariot is not befitting of a princess :) She was actually confused as to why we were getting in the car to go trick-or-treating.
An action shot at the mall
Eve made a beeline for the first empty bench she saw and announced it time to eat some candy. She was apparently eager to eat that lollipop. Her first ever tootsie-pop, I believe.
Everyone surveys Eve's haul. The best part was, everyone was happy with it!! (except me who was a little disappointed not to have to "save" Eve from any tasty Reece's Peanut Butter cups. Oh well!)
"Gloves!" she says.
Ooohhh... fun with chocolate pudding.
Beautiful Eve
A Halloween preview
After one too many nights spent wandering the house looking for doggie, I made a new rule that Eve’s doggie stays in her bed. She’s been having a really hard time with this. She tends to tuck it places, like in the toy kitchen microwave, under pillows, in the bathroom, etc. and it takes me forever to find the toy each night. Now doggie stays in bed and Eve stands down stairs (often!) crying that she loves her doggie and needs her doggie. Sweet, but sad. She even goes upstairs sometimes just to hug the dog :) On daycare days she gets super excited when I let her have doggie in the car (doggie goes to daycare for naptime), but then cries again when I put it in the bag when we get there. She’s so sweet.
She’s really an emotional mess lately. Not sure why. She cries a lot, for no good reason, and often comes over and asks for hugs. I think she needs more attention and one-on-one time. Tomorrow, while Lex is in school, we will be having some serious mommy and Eve time. The daycare teacher even commented on how much she cries lately. She used to love daycare and now I leave her in tears, often twice a day if I can’t sneak in and out while dropping Lex off after school. Poor girl. She is cutting all four of her 2yr molars, so maybe that’s the problem. Or maybe just because she’s two? Or do the female hormones kick in this young? Whatever it is, she’s so sweet but the crying is draining! For all of us! Hope that passes soon!
Hair!
I’ve been thinking lately about the effects of preschool on Eve. We didn’t do anything to prepare her for it because, well… what’s to do? We got Lex all prepared and figured Eve’s routine wouldn’t change much anyway. Now I’m wondering if that was the right thought.
She has been a fussy mess lately. I know she’s two and it comes with the age, but I really miss my sweet, good-natured baby girl. She cries, a lot, and fusses, and whines. I think a lot of it stems from her not sleeping well, but I’m not really sure why she isn’t sleeping well. She often wakes up crying at night. I think she might have bad dreams sometimes. She wakes up much earlier than she used to and is harder to put to bed.
What prompted this post however is her daycare fussing. When we started daycare she loved it. Lex cried a lot, but Eve was always super cheery and happily went off to play. Since Lex started school though Eve has really started to protest daycare. The past three or four days we’ve gone, I left her in a ball of tears. This morning she begged to come with me to drop Lex off (normally I drop her off first on daycare days) and she was happy until we got to daycare, then tears, tears, tears. I left her standing by the door crying that she wanted to come to work with me. The teacher was right next to her and I know it doesn’t last long, but it’s rough! She even suggested we drop me off first, before taking her to daycare :) She said she would carry me into my office. Silly girl! I wonder if she misses having Lex with her at daycare?
Lex also cries everytime I bring him to daycare after school. Sigh. The hardest part is that I started the work/daycare thing to give her more social interaction (since it was so hard to get him out the door for playdates) and to get him ready for school. Now he’s happy at school and Eve and I have mornings for playdates… so the need to work is no longer there… which makes leaving them in tears two days a week really tough :(
Eve got herself dressed the other day, including hat, coat, shoes, backpack, etc. Why? She was going to the meeting. What meeting? Watch…
After dropping Lex off this morning we came home and parked the car outside. Getting out she noticed the leaves on Alan’s car and got very happy about the car being “all leafted.” :)
Little Miss Eve in Hello Kitty PJs
This is what Eve wore to drop Lex off at preschool this morning. Heads were turning! (in a good way, of course!) All of the grownups were gushing over how adorable she is and even some kids came over to chat with her. At one point she put the phone to her ear and called Mema. “Hi Mema. We’re at Lex’s school. He’s in preschool. We are dropping him off. Goodbye Mema.” Later in the car she called Popcube. “Hi Popcube. We dropped Lex off at preschool. Yes. Goodbye Popcube.” :)
The whole ensamble and behavior made me think of college. Wearing PJs and flip flops, coordinating cell phone. Yeah, it’s going to come way to fast!!!
Eve, after she got dressed... in Lex's clothes (current and hand-me-down). The shoes are hers anyway.