I'm a little frustrated with my favorite library today. My sis passed me the "Brad Pitt" cover Rolling Stone. (December?) They had the 'best of' music lists showed how much I'd been missing. I gotta get my ears on BB Kings new album- he's got Dr John backing him. And I still haven't heard David Sanborn's latest release. I was kinda looking forward to razzing my husband about Clapton. He's on Sanborn's album. I like to call Clapton 'white boy'... mainly because it irritates DH. I don't know why Clapton bothers me, but he does. Maybe it's because he makes such a show of calling himself a Blues Man, even trying to insinuate himself into Robert Johnson's legacy. Probably because he's a knighted member of the world's most opressive nation. F'ing Brit. Sorry folks, I do have a prejudice and that's it.
But to get off my ugly spew and back on track, I also need to hear NIN's "The Slip" and another album titled "Boogie Woogie Blues Piano". The latter is a compilation of '36-'41 recordings from some of the forefathers of the style. So no Marcia Ball, but I still gotta hear it. The former is Trent's last big contract album and it's available as a free download.
As happy as I am with the Main library's book selection, I can't BELIEVE of that all these, they only have Nine Inch Nails! WTH!
So I have been trying to think of a fitting pseudonym for my Dear Son (formerly known as DS). DS is generic text/web speak -this one is such a little individual- and so much his own person, that he requires his own 'name' sans the mama ownership. But what fits? That was a tough one. Well it just popped out yesterday when he was making his buzillianth reference to how much he loves the color blue. Blowing his horn, you might say. (ok, sometimes they're just for me, and I laughed.) So from here on out you'll see him referred to as LBB or Little Boy Blue.
Little Boy Blue had a series of allergy tests today that mommy was pretty worried about. I have been stressing about it for months and am glad to have it behind us. We were told to avoid nuts until he was older (5), but his last visit to the allergist, she said that theory had changed. New tests say kids should be exposed earlier to avoid developing food allergies. Jeez O' Petes! But since he had never had them, and since he is so deathly allergic to dairy, she wanted to do a scratch test before we risked it. We actually had RAST (blood antibody tests) done for the nuts, but it was not likely to be conclusive since he was never exposed to nuts. He has such a high score for th milk on the blood test that we would never risk doing the scratch test for dairy to see if he got over it. He'll have to be blood tested going forward for milk/dairy. We also did the banana scratch. Still not sure what all the GI upset was about last spring- that awful month of reactions every few days. Poor baby. Figured it was banana, and maybe it was. All of this is mostly just trying to take as much precaucation as possible with lifethreatening food allergies. True conclusive results are if he eats the food and has no reaction. Obviously can't ever do that with dairy.
The reults of all of his scratch tests were negative. As far as we can tell from that, he is NOT allergic to any tree nut, peanuts or banana.
So we went out and bought some nuts and a banana. Doc mentioned we could come and give it to him in her office. We declined. I'm not unprepared. I have the Epi pens, Benadryl and phone ready. I did it when his regular Doc's office was open. And of course I wouldn't hesitate to call 911 if we needed them. He ate two peanuts today without incident. We'll do it again tomorrow, with a few more. By the end of the week he'll have a full PB&J sandwich. In a few days we'll try a tiny bite of banana. And if that goes well, he'll try a tree nut next, in the same manner. Now we have to be careful not to contaminate the house for our nephew. He is allergic to nuts and eggs. Like LBB, he has some low RAST scores to other foods, which he tolerates. So we are on the path to hopefully feeling safe with nuts. Please continue to pray for us that he doesn't have a problem with these new foods despite the test results. Its possible, but not probable.
I asked about latex for LBB, today, and Doc wants to get that. I mentioned I have a mild issue with latex, that started about 5 years ago. When I went back to work after LBB was born, my hands would get itchy and red after wearing the latex gloves. Not a big deal. So Allergy Doc wants to blood test him for latex right now. I really want to know if banana is actually a problem or not. We are doing all of this IEP/504plan paperwork for his school next year and I need everything to be clear. I have been praying hard. I Thank God that today went ok and He kept my baby safe. I was really scared, and couldn't let on in frot of LBB. I was actually pretty wigged. Today felt like exhaling. Tonight I spent an hour on facebook, totally killing time and unproductive. (this is therapy) Tomorrow I MUST get all the tax stuff done. Then I can finish up my first distance learning course for Emergency Management. Plus I really need to work on the book so I can honestly say I've made progress when the mommies get together at the end of the month. E is hard at work on her project and I have just been stuck. What I shouldn't admit is that I have been developing a plan to start painting the house, inside. It's a plan because it involves a spring garage sale, finally getting some more furniture and generally decorating this blank canvas we've lived in for three years now. The painting part is the easiest and least expensive step, and won't start until we can open the windows. This on the heals of the most recent decision to stay the course with our current adoption plan. Which I'm afraid is mostly about finances. So in the mean time we need to pay off debt and live life beyond the waiting. So taxes, computer classes and book right now. If I drop off the face of the earth for a while, you know what I'm up to...I like a full plate!
PS The NPT is good. We have at least three Molly fry hiding out and growing in the lush plant growth. The baby abino Ancistrus (newest, intentional additions) are doing fine. My broad leaf Sag (Platyphila?) has multiplied, too. Only the limnophila mini didn't take off, of all the newest plant additions/changes. I'll post about the tank next month, when I have some more time.
I thought I'd put a few words out there just about what my Dear Son (DS) has been up to lately.
Today we had our weekly visit with his Itinerant Teacher. She is so sweet and DS loves to play when she comes by. Today they made things with a dough I prepared. Like a play-dough playdate except we got to eat the stuff later. You see, DS receives Speech services for the local public school district even though he goes to a private preschool this year. Special time with a teacher to make sure kids with speech problems are on track in other areas is part of the package. Well DS is ahead in every area except speech. Mrs M laughs and says she has to find ways to challenge him. He gets fun, semi-structured learning play time with a pro, every week. It's great. This will go on for the rest of the school year. Next year he will take Kindergarten where he receives speech and his daily teacher will be monitoring to be sure he's on target. So we won't have Mrs M coming by beyond this school year. Hopefully he'll still get to see her in the building from time to time. He'll miss her.
DS also has Speech Therapy every week at the public school. He'll be re-evaluated once or twice a year, but I think we'll be doing this for a while. He is making progress and doing well, but it's a long road. He likes going to Speech, too. He's so personable. He thinks all of it: School, I teacher visits, Speech, Swimming, Soccer, are all just places for him to play. He's a happy kid. And the best! I love him so much!
We also signed up for swim classes again. Because of snow and one sick day, we only made two of the five weekly classes last session. DS is still sinking more than swimming when we take off the floatie. He has two more sessions to get it in a group class. If not, then we are going to have to shell out for a few private lessons if he's going to swim by summer. I'd like to be able to swim more with our pass this year to the big water park/ amusement park. But mostly I feel like it's a safety issue. Kids need to know how to swim. And this is the age for it. Plus, I'd really like to get a full membership at the Y at some point and swim year round. That costs more than the amusement park/water park pass we get. It's expensive, but there's so much for kids that I wouldn't mind paying for it if I were working. He loves being in the water.
DS has his Valentines party next week and we made little pop-up cards. He got Power Rangers Card to give out, and I got McDonalds treeat coupons for the kids, so we made a envelope/pop-up outer case that DS stamped and decorated. We needed to make sure the teacher could read the McDs coupon to see what was offered, because we didn't want the other milk-allergic kid to get the ice-cream coupon. That would be no fun. Probably mom should have thought of a better treat. Tomorrow they are having Pajama Day at his school. It's buitter cold here, and they do play outside in winter, so I am making him wear his sweat pants instead of PJ bottoms. He want to wear his Batman top because that is his favorite. He has a Batman mask and he wanted to wear that as well, but I had to say, "No." Monday Firefighter R is coming to the school to talk about fire safety. DS still talks about his visit last year when FF R pulled the battery out of his ear (slight of hand trick). I worked with FF R on the CERT program in 2003. He's a good guy.
Well that's what our boy does during the week. Of course he does other stuff too, play in the snow, watch TV, go to the library, play video or computer games, go to various indoor playgrounds. He is doing simple math (adding and subtracting items less than ten.) counts too twenty consistently, knows his upper and lower case letters, knows all of the letter sounds, can rhyme, can identify starting sounds of words. He writes his first name without assistance, and can copy a few words from the board. He still practices writing by tracing. This month he was 45.5 lbs and 45.5 inches which was funny. He's growing and learning and we love him more than anything.
We celebrated DS's 5th Birthday this weekend. He had a blast. Thank you everyone. Here are just a few pictures:
