Ben's first letter to Santa

Ben dictated his letter to me, I printed it, and he'll sign his name.

Dear Santa Claus,

I want to write a note so you know what I want.

I am three.

I want curved Lego (Duplo), Santa Claus.

I want eggnog, Santa Claus.

I want candy canes from Santa Claus.

Caitlin crawls because she’s a baby. Maybe she will want markers.

She’s my sister.

She also climbs up on the couch. And she climbs on me! And she climbs on Mama. And on Daddy.

I’ve been a good boy and helping Mama.

I like school.

Thank you for all the stuff you gave me and for all the dinners that I have (but not from Santa). Thank you!

Love for Santa Claus,

Ben

An all-around allergy update

Okay, so that isn't me, but it sums up how I feel about ##$$#@ allergies.

Let me start with Ben.

As I mentioned in a previous post he'd reacted to raw egg. I since brought him back to the allergist who didn't bother testing him with raw anyway. He feels based on Ben's recent history of consuming cooked egg that it's just a matter of time before he outgrows it completely and to keep going as we have been, i.e., keep offering him cooked egg and other forms that he's been fine with and avoid whole egg mayo and other raw forms, like whole egg eggnog (Ben's been fine with store-bought since it's egg yolks only). So that's good news. I hope. The allergist did advise me to bring along an egg to Ben's peanut challenge (even though I had one for his appointment) and he'd skin test him with it then.

And now Caitlin.

As I also mentioned in an earlier post Caitlin was tested for egg and peanut and tested negative for both. The allergist said we could introduce both foods anytime. We haven't intro'd peanut since we don't keep peanut in the house, but I have given Caitlin scrambled egg on two occassions and both times she reacted (redness and small hives on the chin). Today I was at the allergist for my own appointment (seasonal and pet allergies) and I mentioned Caitlin's reaction to egg, so he tested her with raw egg and she reacted. Not strongly, however, which indicates that this will be something she'll also outgrow. In the meantime he recommended we continue to challenge with egg at home. Caitlin has had quiche with no problems and some baked goods, so I suspect the scrambled wasn't as well cooked hence the reaction.

Man oh man, it sure would be easy if this allergy business were more straightforward.

As for me, I'm still allergic to cats and dogs, and have more seasonal allergies than before (throw in grass and a bunch of weeds). The allergist didn't recommend allergy shots and definitely didn't recommend we have cats or dogs as it could make my allergies worse to the point of asthma, and I definitely don't want that. So now I have to figure out what our family pet options are. Fish and birds just don't cut it.

What Caitlin's up to lately

It's been a little while since I've updated on Caitlin's milestones, so here's a little on Caitlin's recent achievements.

She's been proper hands-and-knees crawling for about a month now with a smidge of commando crawling thrown in now and again. And she's getting around very quickly too! The little smartypants takes off on me when I say her name... she knows a diaper change (which she loathes) or a clothing change (which she loathes almost as much) is coming up. I usually get halfway through one or the other and the little bare-bummed girl takes off at full speed, looking over her shoulder laughing. Silly monkey.

She's also pulling herself up on furniture, and her most recent trick is to climb on Daddy when he's laying on the floor next to the couch, then climbing up onto the couch itself. Once she gets up onto the couch she turns around, sits, and claps for herself. She's so funny and way too cute!

I recently mentioned she'd discovered gravity, but she hadn't yet coupled the discovery with food. Yeah. She's discovered it now. Lots of messes and good times to come.

And I've had a recent discovery of my own. Occassionly Caitlin becomes overtired. It's not common because she doesn't get over-stimulated/tired nearly as quickly as Ben did when he was an infant/toddler (he would ramp up so fast you wouldn't know what hit you!) and having had the experience of getting one child through infancy and toddlerhood I am quicker to notice the signs, but we can't be perfect all the time now, can we? So, it does happen on occassion and she cries like there's no tomorrow. Until recently Nic and I would hold her and rock her in the chair, then try to put her down, and of course, more crying the minute we put her down, and so we'd rinse and repeat. One night after shuffling her around from crib to chair to our bed to crib to chair, etc. in an effort to soothe her she just screeched in my arms. She'd totally had enough. Mummy *finally* clued in. I put her in her crib screaming her wee head off and left. Literally two minutes later - silence - she was out like a light. Duh. Apparently my infant translator wasn't plugged in. Crying doesn't always = "hold me, don't leave me"; sometimes it means "Piss off! I'm trying to sleep and you're messing things up!"

An unusually beautiful November day

A perfect day to take lots of pics of the kids!

Crap. Back to the allergist with Ben.

I'll have to make an appointment tomorrow. Despite Ben's negative egg test back when he was 2.5 yrs (with our former allergist who failed to test Ben with anything other than an extract, i.e., didn't perform a skin prick test with actual egg) he is still reacting to raw egg.

This morning this is what he looked like after sampling some cookie batter that contained one egg. The photo doesn't do a great job of capturing the hives (clicking the photo will show a slightly larger image), but I'd say there were about fifteen of them. I took his shirt off so I could watch and see if he developed any more, but fortunately it didn't spread beyond his face.

Ben is printing his name!

Ben recently learned to print 'Ben'. I'm so proud of him. He's come leaps and bounds with his fine motor skills since starting school. I'll have to take a photo of his printed name and update the post later.

Thank goodness I have a blog!

Otherwise people might get tired of me gushing about my kids!

Caitlin's learned a couple of new 'tricks' lately. :)

1. Dropping objects is fun. Especially when riding in a shopping cart and Mummy has to keep picking them up. She is experimenting on her own, too, by just picking up random items and dropping them on the floor to see what happens. So far her food stays on her tray. For now she likes food way too much to throw it. I'm sure it's coming though.
2. Food sharing. For the first time this evening Caitlin offered me a bite of her apple slice. Such a sweet gesture!

Besides this she continues to impress us with her self-feeding skills and her interest in eating all types of foods. For example, tonight we had pasta primavera alfredo and she gobbled it up. Veggies and all. And now that she has eggs in her diet she tried her first poached egg this morning and polished off almost half.

What a wonderful little girl she is. She's just so much fun. We are just love her so much!

Halloween '09

I dressed up both the kids and took them out, then brought Caitlin home to give out candy with Daddy and took Ben out again. Both seemed to have a great time and looked adorable in their costumes. Ben went as a dragon again this year; last year's costume stilll fit him. He originally wanted to be a ghost, so I made him a costume, but changed his mind once I was finished making it (such is the way of children), so now he has a dress up costume. But Ben made a great dinosaur, growling and roaring at everyone, a couple of houses gave him extra candy for his enthusiasm. :)

Ben the dinosaur and Caitlin the ladybug.

Daddy sneaks into the picture.

Ben growling at Caitlin and her presumably thinking "you don't scare me".

Caitlin makes off with some of Ben's Halloween loot.

Daddy trying to isolate the candy, and Caitlin making her way over.

Now this is what big brothers are for!

About a third left of an enormous lollypop Ben scored at one house. He was determined to finish it before going to bed... and he did!

Yum!