Big Personality Part 2

As previously mentioned, Brenden has developed a very funny personality. Some of the things are just plain funny, others are weird, and some are scary. (His willingness to go to strangers is good and bad.) So here is a new round of unique things that we have noticed.

He has a very interesting way of eating peanut butter crackers, which he loves. He doesn't just take bites and chew them. He doesn't even stick the whole thing in his mouth, which apparently is something he reserves for nilla wafers. He's decided that he likes to pull them apart and eat the peanut butter first. He scrapes it off with his fingers or teeth, or just sucks on the cracker until it's gone. He won't even start eating the crackers until he's sure that all the peanut butter is gone from all the crackers on his tray. Even when he does start munching on the crackers, he doesn't eat all of them. Half of them end up in his lap, and the rest are distributed between the floor and Riley. I'm pretty sure Riley has gained a few pounds since Brenden figured out how to feed him.

The things that don't frighten him surprise me, especially since most of them are things that kids are supposed to be afraid of. Like loud noises, which he seems to love. I'm not sure if it's a boy thing, or just a Brenden thing, but he loves fireworks and the noise of the vacuum cleaner. Maybe it's because Tim vacuumed around him when we first brought him home so he could become accustomed to the noises. I know it's nothing to do with his ears, since his hearing is fine. He just seems to enjoy them. He also has no problem wandering through the dark dance studio at night when everyone else leaves. We noticed when he was little that he preferred a completely dark room when he fell asleep, but I didn't realize that he would be OK with it when he was running around. I hope that continues when he's older. I was terrified of the dark when I was little and I'd hate for him to inherit that from me.

He has the strange ability to figure out how electronics work, which I'm going to assume comes from having a dad that is an engineer. My brother, who is almost 25 years old, couldn't figure out how to use my cell phone so I figured Brenden wouldn't have a clue how to use it. It took him roughly 30 seconds to figure out how to unlock it and a few more minutes to realize that the pictures on the screen were buttons. I thought it was a fluke, so I handed it to him again later. He knew exactly when way to turn it and had it unlocked even faster. He's seen me use it every day so he probably picked up how to do it from seeing that. Then at Christmas he was handed several different phones from the family and he figured out how to use those as well. He has no problem turning on a TV, either with or without a remote, and learned very quickly that when he swung the Wii remote it made the picture on the TV move. I think he may like it almost as much as Tim and I do.

Pitching during a game of Wii baseball. He's a natural!

So those are the new things that have amazed me. There are several other things, but that would take at least 30 more minutes to type out. I can save a few for later. By then he may be doing something even more crazy. Never a dull moment!

4 Years of Wedded Bliss

January 24th marked 4 years of marriage for Tim and I. It wasn't our big, fancy-shmancy, white dress and black tie wedding, but it is the one that we look at as our official wedding date. He proposed to me on January 7th, 2005, and in just a few weeks we had agreed that waiting until after he came back from Iraq was a bad idea. I had no health insurance and, as his wife, I would get much more support from the Army while he was deployed. So that morning I walked into work and asked for the afternoon off to get married. They all looked at me like I was crazy, but they went and bought me flowers, because every bride needs a bouquet. (I miss everyone at Dr. Foy's office!)

First dinner as husband and wife.

My first wedding bouquet.

Off we went to the court house, where we signed on the dotted line and that was it. Now vows, no witness, no judge, just $16 and it was legal. Then we had to start calling the family, who of course was shocked. Tim's mom finally told me later that she was a little upset by it, but that she realized it was best and that she's glad we did it. I'm really happy that she didn't tell me at first, because I love Connie to death and would have felt horrible for upsetting her. My parents were ecstatic. They have loved Tim from the moment they met him. My dad even told me that I was going to marry him that first day, which was crazy.

We planned an entire day to ourselves yesterday. Mike and Connie came to pick up Brenden and take him to the Jenks Aquarium where he fed stingrays and had a great old time. We went to the matinee showing of The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, which was awesome. It didn't feel like it was a 2 1/2 hr long movie at all and the special effects and makeup they used to age the actors was amazing. Of course I cried, but more because I missed Brenden than anything. (If you see the show and have kids you may know what I mean.) After that we headed to the mall so that I could use one of my gifts, a Victoria's Secret gift card. Yay for new bras! My other gift was the rest of the Twilight books, which I am devouring. I read the 2nd book on Friday night, which is when we decided to exchange gifts, and I'm halfway through the 3rd already. (For a great review that doesn't give too much away, please see my friend Heather's blog.) Tim was very happy with his gifts. I got him a set of Perfect Push ups, a cover for his phone, an adapter to hold his Nike+iPod, and the latest Odd Thomas book, which we both love.

SO EXCITED!

After the mall we came home to wait until our reservation at 7 pm, which was all I knew. I didn't know the name of the restaurant, although I did know it was French. (Thanks Mike! hehe) I took a nap (a night of reading wore me out!) and Tim played on the Wii. Eventually we pulled ourselves together and made it out the door. He took me to The Brasserie, which turned out to be fabulous. The waiter helped us choose wine, which we both enjoyed, and the food was great. We both had salads and then Tim had a steak with Bearnaise sauce and I had duck with gnocchi. Then we shared a yummy creme brulee and coffee. By that time it was only 8:30 pm, we were dressed up, and we had no idea what we wanted to do. Eventually we agreed to get a bottle of wine and head home, where we both proceeded to get tipsy while playing the Wii. It may not sound like a perfect night to anyone else, but we had the best time. (Even if I did almost break my arm tripping over furniture.)

Tim - thank you for everything you have given me, which is more than I deserve. Thank you for our beautiful son, who brightens every corner of my life. Thank you for the opportunity to stay at home with him. I will treasure these times with him forever. Thank you for supporting me, through my silly moods as well as the awful ones. Thank you for being wonderful. I love you more than words can say. I look forward to what the future holds for us and I'm so happy to know that I will have you by my side.

M.I.A. (the acronym, not the rapper)

We've been seriously out of the loop for the last few days. Why? The Wii. The wonderful, time consuming, absolutely awesome Wii that we bought on Saturday. I think we've spent at least 6 hours a day playing the thing, if not longer. We also got a Wii Fit, which is fabulous. My favorite part? When it told me that my BMI was at a normal level and that I should just maintain. SWEET!!!! I've been working hard to loose weight and I'm glad that a video game noticed.

So for the past few days, when we haven't been out and about, we've been bowling, playing tennis, and doing balance games. If you want to have fun and work out some muscles (my shoulder is aching!) and have some extra money lying around then I would really recommend it. Brenden even has fun watching us play, which we try to do sparingly when he's awake. (Nap time is great for a game or twelve of bowling.) He does like the Fit board and running in place with us, which cracks me up.

Working up a sweat on the Wii Fit!

So that's what we've been doing most of the time. I promise the newness will wear off soon, but until then, please understand we aren't ignoring you. (Sorry, Karen!)

We did find some time on Sunday to go to the zoo with everyone again. Everyone included: Tim, me, Brenden, Ginger, Jim, Justin, Mike and Connie. This was the first time we've used our membership card since we got it in November and I really need to use it more often. I think we decided we only have to use it 5 times in the year to make our money back, but I'd like to use it a little more than that. We all had a great time enjoying the nice day and watching the animals. Brenden has even started trying to mimic their noises, which makes me laugh. He knows what to do when I ask him what a dog says, and he's working on meowing when I ask what a kitty says. Someday soon I hope I can get him to moo. Poor kid, I'm always making him show off the funny things he does. I promise I give him crackers for it, though.

Watching the sea lions.

He loves the carousel.

Another new skill is turning around in circles really fast. He just started doing it today and it really cracks me up. I think he's picking up a lot from the dance studio, including walking on his toes and tapping, which I don't mind. Actually, I walked on my toes a lot when I was little so he's predisposed to doing it anyway. I do need to watch him since I know that it can lead to shortened calf muscles, which was a worry when I was younger, but for now it's not constant like mine was so I'm not worried.

I haven't posted a link to pictures in a long time, so here is a link to a few new ones. I hope you all had a great, fun-filled weekend, too! I think I'll go play another game of tennis.

Still aggravated, and waiting for some real answers.

Brenden woke up at 7 am today, bright and early for his last visit to the allergist. I think he may have been trying to tell me he was ready to get back on his Allegra. So we got out of the house at 8:30 am, although I definitely didn't look my best, but no one looks at me when I'm toting around an adorable toddler. (More on that later.)

So we get there and are almost immediately taken back. The nurse looks at his back and I expected to hear that it looked better. "Uh oh, he reacted to more," she said. What?! I cannot see what she sees, because the little red dots on his back don't seem to stem from just one spot. Yes, the soy and wheat dots are still bad, I get those. But to say he's allergic to oranges when there is no difference from Wednesday? That woman seems crazy to me. So I ask if the doctor is in and if she will look at him. "No, she's not in yet." Ok, I'll just go back and sit down until she's here. That didn't seem to go over well. Maybe they aren't used to aggressive parents, although I'm pretty sure I wasn't being remotely aggressive, just asking for answers to his test. Isn't that why I went back?

So after about 30 minutes of waiting she comes back to tell me he's on a strictly rice diet: rice cereal, rice milk, rice crackers, rice cheese. (What the heck is rice cheese?) Um...didn't he react to rice, too? HELLO! That one had more of a reaction than milk! Now I'm really skeptical. I still haven't seen the doctor and I'm starting to think she isn't even in the office. I did get the OK to give him his Allegra, which was the first thing that I did when I got home. Of course I had to ask if that was alright, no one thought to tell me.

Tim was not at all pleased with the response we got and decided to call the office himself. I'm not sure if they ever called him back but at the moment he's preoccupied. Eleven people were laid off at his job today, all of them from the structural group, and it made him nervous. He is in the civil group and they had their own meeting where they explained that the civil side of things is secure and they have more than enough work to keep them all on. They are even hiring someone in the next month or so that used to be an intern. The civil group is also much smaller, which helps. But Tim feels terrible, he's the newest person in the entire office and hates that people who have been there longer are now looking for a job. I tried to explain that he shouldn't feel bad, especially since they are hiring someone new, but it didn't work. I think he is also worried that his job isn't as secure as they say. If that ever happened (knock on wood) he always has the Army to fall back on, but that's only if he can't find another job. It made me feel better to have a backup plan, but he still seems down.

On a much happier note, Brenden was a big hit at the clinic today. The nurses ate him up, from his dancing to his waving to his kisses. Yep, my son kissed a nurse today. Such a friendly baby! They thought it was great and passed him around and around. Of course I watched him the entire time, but I felt pretty secure knowing they weren't going to run off with him. He was more than happy to have an audience, and LOVED the sucker they gave him. That was a nice, sticky mess to clean up. At least the nurse gave him a light colored one that would come out of his shirt easily.

So my poor, itchy baby is still poor and itchy, just now without any kind of yummy food to eat until our review conference on February 9th. NOT happy about that long wait. He's supposed to survive on all rice products and apples until then? I still don't know why she couldn't take a few minutes to look at his chart (or his back...hello!) and let me know what we are going to do in the long run. We may even look at a different doctor who isn't so cut and dry. We'll just have to see. Until then, we'll have rice coming out of our ears...or at least stuck in Brenden's hair.

Still waiting to see

If you read the previous posts, then you know that Brenden and I have another date with the allergy clinic tomorrow. I thought I was going to have to take him in today after he got sick this morning and was running a low grade fever. I called the office to see if it could be a reaction and they said it was a virus and in no way connected to his test. I was relieved at first, but then I realized that Brenden probably has the nastiness that Tim and I shared over the holidays. It knocked us on our rears so if that's what he has then we are in for about a week of really sick baby. I think the Motrin I gave him helped with the fever, but he's cranky and seems exhausted.

He is still reacting to several of the things on his back, mostly on the side with the milk and grains. I'm surprised by this since last night we gave him a bath and I thought it would wash some of it away. We didn't wash his back, per instructions from the allergy clinic, but I still thought it'd take a little away. I'm ready to see what they say tomorrow. If he really does have to give up all sorts of things then we're going to have to overhaul our entire way of eating. I would feel terrible if I went along eating a ton of things that he can't have, especially when he's little. Let's keep our fingers crossed that the doctor thinks he's OK as long as he's on Allegra.

This is his back today. As you can see the fruit/veggies side seems to be much better. I couldn't even label them all because the redness was too faint to show up in the picture. Let's hope that's a good sign for fruit!

The results are in...

…and they aren’t pretty. I took Brenden to get his patch test removed and read this morning. I thought he’d have a few show up positive, like the jelly and tomatoes. Unfortunately I was only partly correct. They pulled the tape off, which didn’t seem to cause Brenden any kind of discomfort, and the nurse started writing down plus signs. "Yep, there’s a positive. And another. And another." Um…ok. How many things do these people think one kid can react to? Apparently, almost all of them. So according to the test this morning, Brenden is allergic to:

Cow’s Milk
Soy Milk
Corn
Rice
Wheat
Oat
Barley
Rye
Peanut
Cashew
Banana
Peach
Pear
Tomato
Potato

He didn’t react to apple or, to my surprise, the jelly. They are still trying to decide if he reacted to oranges. So I asked the lady if he wouldn’t be able to eat this stuff, or if it just meant he couldn’t touch them. She had no idea. We go back in on Friday for another check and then the doctor will call me, hopefully before next week. I have no idea what they expect me to feed him. He can’t survive on jelly, apples and water alone. Right now, we're going to keep doing what we're doing until told otherwise.

I think his Allegra does more for him than we know. They asked me if he had outbreaks of eczema when he ate those things, and I told them I didn’t ever notice, and believe me I watch out for that. To me that says that he may be allergic, but not enough to keep him away from them.

Here is the photo from his back this morning. I labeled the dots so you can see which is which. The potato left a lot of starch on him, which is why it looks so bad. I promise it didn’t react THAT badly.

Anyone know of a diet that excludes all of those things? Will get him all the necessary vitamins and minerals? That doesn’t taste like cardboard? Anyone? Yeah…me neither. :(

No Fun

Today I took Brenden to the Tulsa Allergy Clinic for a patch test. I had no idea what we were getting into. I had been assured that they weren't going to stick any needles in his poor little back, which is what they did when he was 7 months old, so I thought this would be easier. I'm not so sure that this method is any better.

After arriving on time at 8:55 am for his 9 am appointment, which is amazing for me since I had done my hair and makeup, had fed Brenden, changed him, and even let the dogs out, we waited for 45 minutes. It didn't bother Brenden too much. We had a ton of people there for him to talk to. Most of them had received allergy shots so they were stuck there for 30 minutes until they were sure to not have a bad reaction. They enjoyed his use of sign language and thought his dancing was funny. When we finally got back there the nurse showed me exactly what was going to happen. They take 2 large strips of paper tape with little pockets of different foods, slap it on Brenden's back, then tell me to come back on Wednesday. Um...ok. What do I do in the meantime? Well, we can't get it wet. We can't touch it. No Allegra for itching. If he has a reaction to anything bring him back. On Wednesday they take it off, check it, and then his back can get wet, just don't scrub. Come back on Friday to make sure nothing is still reacting. I'm staring in shock at this huge thing on Brenden's back, trying to decide just how long it will take him to tear it off, either with his hands or some random object, like the remote control. Thankfully Brenden sat quietly in my lap while all of this went on. He never cried or even whined, just gave me a look like he was confused and went along his merry way.

I'm not sure if we'll make it to Wednesday, and then to Friday for his last check up. So far, so good. Check back with us tomorrow, though.

It takes up his whole back. Poor guy.