Dogs. UGH... sorry dog lovers. The idea of having a dog around, does not sound fun to me AT ALL!! Since the boys seem to LOVE dogs lately, The Boss has been trying to convince me, that eventually we NEED to have a dog. "Boys MUST have a dog," he says. Who will take care of it? "The boys," he says... yeah right. Cleaning up animal hair that will be ALL OVER my house... this is the one I have a hard time getting past. I guess since I didn't grow up with dogs, I really do not feel a need to ever have one. The Boss persists. How will I win this one?
(Mama's Boy trying to grab my camera before I can get a good picture of him.)
Switch topics for a moment:
As some of you may or may not know, just over a month ago, we learned the hard way... the VERY hard way, that Big brother is EXTREMELY allergic to Cashews. After a rush to the emergency room in Tracy, an ambulance transfer to Children's Hospital, another emergency room, another ambulance transfer to a different Children's Hospital location, an overnight stay, a crap load of medication, IVs, a trip to our pediatrician the day after, and some blood work, we discovered he is not only SEVERELY allergic to Cashews, but EVEN MORE allergic to Pistachios, and mildly allergic to Almonds and Hazel Nut. So.....
Since that episode, I have probably been slightly paranoid when it comes to Big Brother. Every time he coughed or sneezed, or even rubbed his eyes, I wondered if he was again, having an allergic reaction. Lately, Big brother has been coughing a lot. Especially in the middle of the night. It seemed like he would get a cough reaction after he ate sometimes, so we made an appointment with an allergist to see if we could nail down any other allergies (food and other) Big Brother may have.
So yesterday Big Brother got about 20 FABULOUS skin tests. While I know it was necessary, nothing pulls at your heart more than seeing your child in pain, screaming, clutching to you, with tears streaming down their face. I hope we never have to do THAT again. Well.... Big brother has no other known food allergies. Which is a huge relief. Reading the labels on everything to avoid the nuts has been overwhelming enough. So what has been causing these coughing episodes?
Dogs.
Cats.
Dry Grass.
Did I ever mention the women who last lived in this house had a dog? Did you also know that we seriously live in the windiest place in California? Ugh... the allergist said his allergic reaction is EXTREMELY strong to the dogs and cats. She also said he probably does have asthma, but only as a trigger to his allergies. Thus the coughing when he has been around a dog, a cat, or outside windy MH. My poor child is inheriting the WORST things from me!! I too, am allergic to dogs and cats (mildly to dogs, but pretty bad with cats), but I can usually control it by not touching them, and taking something before I know I am going to be around them, and using an inhaler (which is always TOTALLY cool). Kids aren't so easy.
Well, I guess we won't be getting a dog. Mom yells, "WHOO-HOO!!!!" But this is NOT how I wanted to win this battle. Poor Big Brother. He LOVES dogs. And while I know it won't kill him to be around one once in a while, I also know how annoying it can be to be sneezing and coughing at some one's house, rubbing your eyes, and feeling itchy, due to a dog or cat, and then as a result having a hard time breathing. So, we will try as hard as we can to keep him away. But the mean mom has already had to come out. Yesterday, after hearing some barking at Grammy Pammy's house, I had to tell an anxiously excited Big brother, that he couldn't go pet Kona (GG's Dog). Mean Mom. But now, with the help of Zyrtec, and albuterol using a nebulizer (which as you can imagine is going REALLY WELL... right), but hopefully, we can have a happier, cough-free Big Brother. Mom really doesn't like to win like this. So while we will always have a DOG-FREE home, it has not come without a price. One I would rather not have to pay.
(Big brother asking me to sing a song with him before he goes to bed)
(Mama's Boy trying to grab my camera before I can get a good picture of him.)(The Boys sitting on the bed. Mama's Boy LOVES to climb on Big brother's bed, and of course Big Brother wants to kick him off. We are working on sharing.)
(I just LOVE my little Mama;s Boy. He has become SO MUCH FUN, the older he gets. He always manages to surprise me, which is the complete opposite of Big brother, who is totally predictable. I just love his sweet little face.)
This past weekend we celebrated Grandma D 65th Birthday. It was a weekend event, staying the night in Modesto, going out to dinner, and throwing a surprise party. We were SOOOO tired when we got home (to top it off, Big Brother threw up in the car on the way home), but it was TONS of FUN!
Happy Birthday Grandma D!!
(Mama's Boy and Mom on Grandma's swing)
(Mama's Boy giving Daddy some loves... not really... he is our fiesty one!)
(Grandma blowing out her 65 candles)
(Big brother and Tyler at Grandma's party)
(The Boss, his brother Chris, and Grandma)
(Mama's Boy and Daddy at the party. That was a long night for poor Mama;s Boy.)
10 comments:
Well, I'm on Aaron's side, but now that you found out AJ is allergic, it doesn't matter how many people are on Aaron's side. lol But hey, I found the perfect dog for you that won't have dander. ;)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:IndyStands.jpg
Yipes! The food allergy experience sounds terrifying. Well, at least that's one battle you won't have to fight anymore. And as a dog owner, while we love our Ruby, keeping things clean with her around makes things extra interesting! And having a dog with three kids under three would not be fun AT ALL! On a side note, your boys look so much alike, if I didn't know they were born a year apart I would be sure they were twins!
Your boys are growing up way too fast! Mikko is really starting to look like a little boy, rather than a baby! They are so adorable! I'm sure little Emma will be just as sweet! :)
ok that seriously makes me want to cry for him.
I can't believe Donna is that old! She sure doesn't look it. Next time you guys go to Modesto let us know. I would love to see you guys and let our boys play :)
I'm so sorry you had to go thru that with AJ! that is so scary, but i'm glad he's ok. and now you know what to do!
Brandi,
It was so good to see ya too! You are such a blast to hang out with and chat with! And your boys are so dang cute! I can't believe how much they look alike! (especially in those pics above--craziness!!!)
By the way--you are NOT a mean mom--I'm with ya on the dog thing! Sorry you had to win that way (sooo sad!:0(--but glad you won!!!
saw your hubby at Starbucks in WC yesterday. He was with a client and working hard so I didn't interrupt. Also, he did not have coffee. Just water. That's the report. He's a good guy in case you were wondering.
Hey Brandi - sorry to hear that AJ is allergic to all those things. Have you ever read my posts on NAET that we went through with Tyler? He went into Asthma and we got him allergy tested the skin way first - allergic to very similar things to AJ. We did Alberturol, other neb steroids, Zyrtec, Singular, and a couple of others for "just in case." It was insane. I hated it. Tyler did not "get better" he got worse. He needed the treatments more often. He didn't look healthy, etc.
We got him allergy tested through NAET - its surrogate testing - they test through the parents - but its WAY more thorough. Not just an ambiguous "20 of the most common" but they test you for 100+ things - through nuerosensory muscle testing. We found out he was allergic to 17 foods and other things -0pp;;that the skin testing did not test him for.
Then NAET (www.naet.com) is an allergy elimination technique that eliminates each allergy, one by one. It amazing. Tyler just finished his last one - Maple trees. He is off ALL 7 of his meds, off his nebulizer, and shows NO asthma symptoms currently, which is a miracle to how it was going before.
So since it has TOTALLY changed my son's life I thought I would share it with you. Just go to the naet.com website to find someone in your area. Oh, and our insurance covered it. Check out my blog posts - there is one up for Kylie who is going through it now, and then the posts for Ty are August and September of 2008 posts.
Good luck - it is the worst when your kids have allergies and all the stress - but thank goodness there is a way to get rid of them too!
How scary for you!! I'm glad AJ is OK and you guys are on-top of the whole allergy thing. Not fun at all!
Phil won our dog battle...I said no, he said yes and I'm a softy...so now we have Charlie a standard poodle (although he doesn't look ridiculous like some poodles). He is hypo-allergenic and doesn't shed...so at least he has that going for him. And he is super patient with my kids and lets Sam ride him (he's huge) and eats all the junk my kids throw on the floor, so spills are never a problem. I still say no dog is better then a dog...but if we had to get a dog...Charlie is a good one to get. :)
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