4 of Us

Last week Carter and I took our first plane ride together. I was a little nervous about flying with him alone but he did perfectly minus one blow out while we were descending. I swear he chooses the worst times to blow out....Target is another favorite place for blowouts. Sometimes I have changes of clothes and sometimes he looks like redneck baby with a t-shirt and diaper only!

He loved playing with new toys there and loved the rocking horse. When he saw the papers next to him he nose dived off to get them. Guess I'd better teach him the proper way to get off a horse!
Carter got to take his first 2 man bath! Mitchell has just as many blowouts(if not more) as Carter so they spent plenty of time in the water!
Carter got lots of "help" from his sweet cousins. Chloe loved feeding him and I loved letting her!

She even helped me give him a nice Mohawk for Church.
Mitchell was always helping with Binki Patrol. He also loved giving hugs and kisses. Carter wasn't too sure about all the love he was getting but took it like a champ. The hugs usually led to Carter being knocked over. Then Mitchell realized "why give hugs, just knock him over instead." Just wait Mitchell, in no time Carter is going to fight back........:)

Thanks for letting us come and visit Carrie, Ben, Chloe and Mitchell. See you soon!

Yesterday we took Carter to the Allergy Specialist in Ogden...... Notice the eczema on his cheeks...more on that later.
I love this picture of him up on the table.....ready for his skin test and completely unaware of what is coming.
They tested him for about 15 different things. There are 5 common allergies in children. Milk, eggs, Soy, Nuts, and Shellfish. They tested him for those 5 along with some others including, Cats, Dogs, Lemons and Peaches. The skin test wasn't as bad as I was fearing. They mark him with marker, then put liquids drops of the allergens on and then scraped his back. They don't poke holes like I thought, but instead just take a swipe. Carter didn't even cry until the very last 2 swipes. And once she was done he stopped.
Here is his back after a few minutes. If you can't tell the top row is where he reacted the worst. The "C" and "D" are the cat and dog. Long story short he is "highly allergic" to milk(caesin and whey), eggs(both egg whites and yolks), and cats and dogs. He is "mildly" allergic to peaches as well. Our cooking and meals will now have to change that's for sure. He cannot have any of these ingredients cooked or raw. The good news is that he isn't allergic to Soy so we can substitute milk for soymilk. We will have to do all our cooking with soymilk and egg substitutes. You'd be surprised how many things have milk or eggs of some sort in them. I have become a label reading guru in the past few weeks. I have come to conclude that we can't really use boxed things anymore because most of them have powdered milk and dried eggs. So maybe we will eat healthier now as I have to be so careful as to what we eat. Carter cannot have cheese or butter or anything like that that is also in many dishes. I will now have to be the NAZI mother and make sure no one is feeding him anything I haven't checked out and that everyone in a 100 milke radius knows of his allergies. Yes, I will become one of "those" mothers. I have to.
So that is why I say Carter is a vegan(except for the fact that he can eat meat(hopefully,) he hasn't tried it yet. The good news of this is that he will most likely outgrow his allergy to milk and eggs. (You don't outgrow cat and dog allergies.) He can outgrow them IF we can completely and totally keep all milk and egg products out of him until he's 3 years old. That's a long time but if he gets bits and pieces of these things then he probably wouldn't outgrow these allergies.
--He isn't allergic to nuts but the Dr. said that because of the allergies he already has, there is a very good chance of him developing nut allergies. So, Carter isn't allowed to have any nuts of any kind until he is 2 years old. So we have to treat that as an allergy too!
--Anybody ever tried Soy milk? If so, how does it taste compared to regular milk? Anybody any seen the prices of soy milk? Ahh--very expensive. And yes-they do have Soy Ice Cream. It costs approximately 1 arm and 1 leg. Maybe we will just never tell Carter about Ice Cream.
--Also, the dr. thinks his eczema is related to his allergies and that me eating eggs and milk can pass through my breast milk and exhibit themselves in Carter's eczema. So.....she said if his skin gets really bad or worse then I will have to cut those things out of my diet as well! Maybe I'll just wean him tomorrow.........

1. His bottom lip. Loves to suck on it and makes a loud smacking noise. He has also discovered that his tongue can make noises with enough salivia!
2. Sitting up and specifically in the bathtub. Bathtub Basketball takes on a whole new meaning.
3. Hats. He loves it when Neil or I wears a baseball cap and so it was only fitting to get him his own. He actually doesn't mind wearing it and will leave it on.
4. Sippy Cups. Loves this blue one and refuses to use any other one. He even had a tantrum the other day in public, because I brought a different sippy for him to use. Isn't he too young for tantrums?

5. And still my favorite.....sweater vests on Sundays.