This is what J drew on the computer when he was finished with his school work today. He saw the movie a couple times about 3 months ago. Isn't it crazy that he could draw that with basic shapes and freehand? I did not help him create it at all. The only thing I told him how to do was to fill in a freeform shape. 

E's in Heaven!

Yesterday, E and Dad ran a bunch of errands. One of the stops was at R's friend's hotrod shop. E was running around looking at all the cool cars. He told R, "This is the one I want to take home." When R told his friend that, his friend opened it up and let E sit in it. E was SSSOOOO excited!

scary night, flashbacks, and lessons learned

ok, so I had a scary experience last night...and it wasn't even my kid.

we got a call from someone in our ward (Ryan answered) asking how much benadryl do give an infant for hives. Ryan told him how much and instructed him to re-administer in 15 minutes if the hives were still there. about 10-20 minutes later they call back just to see if they were doing things right-Ryan restated what he told them before. You know when you just get "that feeling"-a completely calm and clear mind that gives you the urge to go visit someone just to check up on them...yep I got that. I decided to bring an epi-pen "just in case" b/c they had mentioned that their baby had eaten peanut butter a few hours earlier. when I got to their complex, I realized I needed a code to get in. I went to the complex next door to the girl I visit teach (she is in nursing school now) and decided to bring her with me (the two moms are close friends). when we went inside the house, I looked at the screaming baby in her mom's arms and saw the hives. this was now about 1/2 hour from the 1st time they called us. I seriously got panicked, had to catch my breath and then went closer to look at the baby. Her whole body was covered in hives larger than I have ever seen on E. Her whole body was red, except for right around her mouth and nose-which was whiter than I have ever seen. I told them to give her more benadryl and said to bring her to the ER. I gave them the epipen and showed them how to use it and when they would need to use it. Her mouth color was starting to look strange when we left, but it was not too bad. I got out to the van and started it up when the dad comes running outside with the phone in his hands. my friend poked her head out the window to make sure everything was ok. it was not. he was calling 911. I ran inside to look at the baby. her mom was holding her against her shoulder and her mouth looked totally blue (I tried to explain this color to Ryan, but you just can't-there is no color that looks like that) The baby could not stay awake. I told her to lay the baby flat so she could get blood to her vital organs again. Within about 15 seconds, her color came back and the hives on her abdomen completely disappeared. We checked her heart rate and her breathing and everything seemed ok. It was about 10 minutes after they gave her the last dose of benadryl, so it must have just kicked in. the paramedics came and said she was stable and advised them to go to the pediatric ER.

My friend was a huge support for me. There were points during the night when I was so full of anxiety and thoughts/flashbacks of E's reactions that I was not sure what to do. The whole time she was calm and kept reassuring everyone. I don't think I would have been able to think clearly if it were not for her. Thank you Alana!

I also don't even want to think about what would have happened if I had not done every thing that I did that night-leaving my house when I did, picking up my friend, etc. What if I had left my house 5 minutes later, or if I did not pick up my friend and ended up leaving their house too early? The timing was so critical in this situation. If it had been at any other time, would the baby have responded to the medicine or received it in time?

I just could not imagine what would have happened if I just pushed those thoughts away justifying it by "it's too late to go over there" or "I’ll just check on her tomorrow". Would the parents have realized the seriousness of the situation and called 911 or would they have waited until the baby stopped breathing before calling?

From the events of the night, I was reminded of how serious these awful allergies really are and had renewed hope for my life situations. I really am not crazy or overprotective. Just b/c E has not had a reaction like that lately (thank goodness) does not mean that he won't have them again. We are doing a good job of keeping him safe, even if we are really socially isolated. The night also helped me put my priorities back in order. During the whole night, I did not once think of what my hair or clothes looked like. All I was thinking about was this little baby and her parents-how to meet their needs. It does not matter WHAT we have in life, what really matters is WHO we have. We have our families and friends. We help them with their needs. We should not be worrying about how much living space our house has or who has on nice clothes or whose hair looks really cute. Sometimes we just lose track of what is REALLY important in life and we start looking for superficial things to make us happy. What we really need is to completely lose ourselves in serving those around us and we will be happier than we ever thought we could be!

I was just looking through old pictures and realized that ALL my children have something in common....


They all love boxes! It's amazing that they can fit their bodies inside those tiny boxes!

A small setback (or no advancement, I guess)

E had another oral challenge today. This time with pears. He was ok with the 1/2 tsp and the Tbsp, just minor coughing. When we fed him the 1/2 pear, he started refusing it and telling me he needed medicine. He proceeded to start coughing really bad and started to gag as though he would ralf. I guess the Dr. was near and heard the commotion. She came in and asked me if that is what he does when he has a reaction, I said yes. The Dr. said he was having a reaction to the pear and that the reaction was in his airway-that's why he started to cough the way he did. She had me give him some benadryl and they gave him some prednisone, just in case there was a delayed reaction. We had to stay in the office for a few hours after that for them to keep an eye on him. So, not only did we not get pears back, we had to sit in an uncomfortable chair for 6 hours instead of 3. Kinda wastes your day, huh?!

Also 2 weeks ago, we tried watermelon. He "passed" in the office, though he did say that it was stinging his tongue and throat and had a patchy rash on his face. The Dr. said that b/c it went away on its own, that it was not a reaction. Later, we fed him some more. He broke out in hives on his cheek where the juice had touched it and later he took 2 bites and threw up a week's worth of food (or so it seemed). It was about 4 huge barfs in a row. Poor guy. When I called the Dr., she said that sometimes if you go w/o a food for so long, you sometimes might get desensitized, but when you introduce it again, it reintroduces the sensitivity to it. She thinks that is what happened with him. He has been complaining of a headache each time he has a reaction, and always points to the same place on his head. I wonder what the connection is, maybe he is popping veins in his head when he coughs so hard???

At least the good news is that we can have carrots, broccoli, cooked bananas, potatoes (though he thinks mashed are yucky). We are thankful that he is growing out of some of his allergies, even if we still have to deal with others.