Long Time, No Post

Sorry for the long wait guys, but things have just been crazy around here! I'll fill ya'll in:

Walkin' in a Winter Wonderland

On Saturday evening, we headed down to Guthrie, OK with my sister, Stephanie, and her family to see their "Victorian Christmas Walk-Around". It was absolutely friggin' cold! It was 24 degrees with a wind chill making it feel like 15 degrees! We just bundled up the kids and made do. Georgia was in my sling (she's now in the hip carry-such a big girl!) and so she got quite a bit of my body heat to keep her warm. Ezra's eyes would occasionally water from the cold, but other than that seemed to be doing fine with the frigid temperatures. Guthrie is quite an old town and is lucky enough to have many of their original buildings downtown. In their display windows they show people doing activities (pie baking, knitting, dancing, etc.) or items that would've been used at the turn of the century during Christmas. It's very festive to see all the lights and decorations and, of course, they just have to have a very fun, traditional Santa. Ezra just watched Santa in awe, but managed a whispered "thank you" when he was given a small candy cane. He continued to clutch the candy cane for the rest of the walk in his little mittened hand. Overall, despite the wind and cold, it was a very fun way to celebrate Christmas!

Covered in Frosting From Head to Toe

On Monday night for Family Home Evening we got together again with Stephanie and her family to make sugar cookies. We gave each little boy a small pile of dough and a few cookie cutters. As the boys have each played with playdough many times, this was a relatively straight-forward task. Ezra eventually abandoned the cookie cutters, instead choosing to make little "snakes" for the rest of the time. His cousins, Cooper and Greyson, did pretty well, despite the occasional sneezing on the cookies and dropping the dough on the ground only to pick up and continue working. After baking the cookies, the fun really began. The boys covered the cookies in frosting and began a whirlwind of sprinkles and colored sugar...which they would lick off, of course. After a while, Ezra skipped the cookie part all-together and just started to decorate his hand and then lick it clean. Between some more coughing, dropping, and finger-licking, we soon decided that the only people who would be eating the cookies are the little boys themselves.

Allergy Saga: Part II

So...the saga continues. We went to Ezra's allergy dietician yesterday to learn how to deal with his allergies in everyday life. We discussed many different ways we can get Ezra to eat (because he's got to be the pickiest kid ever!), in order to make sure he's getting a well-balanced diet. We also discovered, much to our dismay, that we weren't being nearly careful enough with dairy avoidance. Not only is he not allowed to have any sort of dairy products (which we were avoiding), but he shouldn't have any product that has ANY sort of dairy in it, even very small amounts or products that have been processed in the same plant. This goes for the peanut/treenut avoidance too. So eating out with him will basically be impossible because we don't know if the french fries (which might not actually be all that safe in the first place) will be fried in the same grease that the mozzarella sticks were fried in. We won't know if the plain ol' baked potato was rubbed down with olive oil or butter before it was popped in the oven. Argh! Basically if we want to go out to eat with Ezra we first need to have little chat with the manager to see if he's willing to work with us on the whole cross-contamination issue. *sigh* Our allergy appointment was followed by what I like to call, The Great Purge. Last night, Spencer and I went through every cabinet, shelf, and fridge drawer in our house in order to get rid of any dairy/nut/processed in the same plant as dairy/nuts products. So Stephanie and Mom, you just might be coming into a great deal of food in the next few days as we just can't seem to bear to just throw all this stuff away. While I know that Ezra will have to learn that he can't eat everything that he wants to, I just want him to have a "safe place"(as the dietician called it). I want him to have one place in the entire world where he can eat anything he wants (as long as he asks me first :P). He's going to be hearing, "No, you can't eat that!" plenty of times in the next few years without having to hear it at home.

Lest you think we are being extreme with the avoidance (I know it can seem a little extreme even to us), let me explain. As of now, all of Ezra's allergies are considered low-reaction. His chances of growing out of his allergies are, comparatively, pretty high. The more careful we are about avoiding exposure, the higher his chances are of quickly growing out of his allergies. Also, while he is low-reaction, it's not uncommon for reactions to get much more severe without warning (anaphylactic shock, anyone?). If that were to happen, I would never forgive myself for not being careful enough, when I know better. So that's where we're at right now. Look on the bright side...it could be a wheat allergy...have a fabulous day!

Here's most of our loot from The Great Purge...

I don't even want to think about how much that all cost us!