Christmas Traditions!

Since we're new at this Christmas with a kid thing, we are slowly building our Christmas traditions!
This year we decided to stay home for Christmas and I'm so glad we did! It was completely worth it!

Christmas Eve!

Earlier in the day, Luke was allowed to open his last Advent book! It was the Polar Express which he immediately wanted Dave to read to him! Here are the 24 books that he opened this year!

We also made some Christmas cookies and Luke was able to help decorate them this year!

On Christmas Eve, Luke was allowed to open one present! Inside were his Christmas PJs, a book (we recorded Rudolph for a keepsake), and a few small animals- he loves those little things!

He then put on his new Christmas PJs and we went to the PIR lightshow. But of course we stopped for hot chocolate first!




Luke is still rearfacing in his carseat (and won't outgrow the weight limits for awhile at this rate) but for the lightshow we decided to forward face him (don't worry it's switched back already)! The lightshow is at a raceway so it's off the main road and it's just a very slow line of cars going probably about 3 MPH. They gave him a candy cane so of course that was a big hit! He really enjoyed the light displays and was telling us what everything was- "snowman, Santa, reindeer, dog, bear, snowman, candy, ball, boat, Santa, duck, snowman"... for 30 minutes straight :) 


When we got home from the lightshow, we played some more, had a Christmas Eve dinner then Luke went to bed! Santa was coming and we needed to get ready!

We put all the gifts out, cleaned up the house, then Dave and I worked on some Lego sets he was displaying in his Christmas (Lego) village. It was a really nice night! Then we went off to bed!

 

I got up early Christmas morning to get the monkey bread in the oven and make sure I was ready when Luke got up! I wanted to capture this special morning on video!

We opened gifts and tried them all out! Luke had a lot of fun opening gifts and played with all his new toys.

Then we sat down for Christmas breakfast of pancakes, bacon, and monkeybread (all egg free of course). My pinterest Santa pancakes didn't come out as I imagined :) but they tasted delicious!

After playing some more, it was nap time and we all decided to rest!

Christmas dinner was salad, beans, filet mignons, mac and cheese, and mashed potatoes. Dessert was Christmas Cookies, apple pie, and Santa cheesecakes!

We are so thankful for another amazing Christmas with family. It was a beautiful day and I am a lucky mommy!

Christmas Season... Updates

I posted a few weeks ago about our plans for the holidays this year... you can read about those here!

Here are some of the updates for now...

We have set up our tree and Luke loves to play in the living room and yell LIGHTS and TREE. He has tried to play with the ornaments a few times but for the most part he leaves the tree alone.

Some of his favorite holiday words are: Santa, Snowman, and Reindeer. He's really into talking about them and labeling them EVERYWHERE

Speaking of which... we took Luke to visit Santa. On the way there, he kept babbling about Santa this and Santa that. When we got to the Santa Village at the mall, there was a huge poster of Santa- he was pointing and yelling "Hi Santa!"
Then he saw the kids before us sitting on his lap... he immediately grabbed my arm very tightly. When it was his turn, he was not a fan AT ALL and it was a short and sweet visit with Mr. Claus this year.
After we walked around the mall, the next time he passed Santa he pointed and was happy saying "Hi Santa" and when I asked him if he liked Santa he says, "Yeah"

Christmas Light Displays
Zoo Lights! When we had family in town visiting, we were able to enjoy zoo lights. It was a nice night before the cold came and we had a fun time walking around. He was really into the lights and could even identify animals that I wasn't sure about (some of the light displays are hard to figure out).

On Christmas Eve we drove through the Winter Wonderland display at Portland International Raceway. We picked up some hot chocolate first, put Christmas music on the radio and enjoyed our drive! It was a nice display and will be part of our Christmas Eve traditions!



 Gifts
last post I was undecided on who the 4 gifts were going to be from... since he didn't really need to know this year, we didn't bother deciding. I guess we will have to decide by next year! We did leave 2 bigger gifts unwrapped which to both of us is what Santa did so that might be how it goes! Then we will just get the 4 gifts for each other. Next year, Dave might be completely in charge of my 4 as a surprise. We will see :)


Advent Books!
Luke has loved opening a book everyday and I'm so glad we decided to start this tradtion. One added benefit that I didn't realize was that he gets to practice unwrapping gifts (perfect age for this now). He has enjoyed most of the books and likes taking them all out of the basket. Some he likes more than others and some are paperbacks (he has mostly board books still) because I wanted more for long-term. He reads them all and gets so excited when the day's book is waiting for him under the tree! I will put all the books away with our Christmas stuff and wrap them back up next year (minus a few board books that I'll replace with other Christmas stories)

His Christmas Eve gift this year will be his XMas PJs, a book (Rudolph recorded by mommy and daddy), and his Elmo ornament.

Christmas Card
My best friend took adorable pics of Luke in his PJs and was able to get a family shot for us too! He loved candycanes (it was the first time he had one and with his allergies he's not allowed to have any candy!)

Christmas Season

'Tis the Season!

This year is Luke's second Christmas! Last year he was only 8 months old and we traveled to FL for Christmas. He came down with pneumonia and it was pretty miserable! We decided last year would be the last time we'd travel at Christmas because I knew he'd understand more this year!

I am very excited for Luke's 2nd Christmas! He will be 20 months (WHOA) and understands so much. He also talks a ton now and lets everyone know his opinion. I know he will be ex
cited for his new toys that Santa brings but I am also excited to see how he reacts to our Christmas tree, visiting Santa, looking at Christmas lights, etc.
I am hoping to start (and continue) some family traditions for Christmas in our family!

Continued Traditions

Ornaments- when we were younger, my aunt always bought us a Christmas ornament every year. When she moved out of her mom's house her tree was bare and she didn't want that for us. So every year since I was born- both my mom and aunt got me a Christmas ornament. It was always perfectly selected for the year and my name and the year were written on the bottom. I have continued this tradition and always buy a family ornament for the year and also a special one for Luke. This year his ornament is an Elmo ornament since he loves Elmo and was Elmo for Halloween. I can't find the exact ornament but it looks similar to this

Stockings- we will continue to use the stockings I sewed last year for our family. We each have a beautiful stocking handmade with love by me!

Looking at Lights- I've always loved looking at Christmas lights and this year will be no different! We will probably take him to Zoo Lights so we can walk around and look at the displays. Hopefully we will find nice weather! If not we can drive around but it's hard for him to see out his rear facing carseat.

Christmas Card/Photo Shoot- I've always sent a holiday card and will again this year! Our friends and family will get to see Luke ready for Santa! Our list is always over 100 cards so I try to get the perfect picture. This year my best friend is going to help take the picture!

Visiting Santa- we will take Luke to the mall to sit on Santa's lap. Hopefully he likes him this year! I have no clue what to expect!  

 

New Traditions!

Some new traditions I'm hoping to start this year: (I will update with pics once I do them!)
Christmas Advent Books- I heard about the idea on pinterest, and being the book lover I am and how much Luke loves reading, I had to start this tradition! I will wrap up a holiday book for each day of Advent. Each night Luke gets to open a book and it will be his bedtime story for the night. At the end of the season, I will store the books with our holiday stuff and wrap them back up again next year!

Christmas Eve PJs- Luke will get to open up his PJs for Christmas Eve and wear them to bed. 

Gift Traditions- I love the idea of the 4 gifts from Santa but I might do them from us instead. I just can't decide if I want Santa to bring a lot, 4 gifts, or just 1 big gift. The 4 gift tradition is 
Something You Want (car playmat)
Something You Need (robeez socks)
Something to Wear (PJs or clothes)
Something to Read (a book)
I think that might be what Santa brings for him... at least for this year. I might change my mind next year! 

Traditions for next year!

a tradition I'm excited for but not doing yet is going on the Polar Express train at Mt. Hood. He just isn't old enough yet but we will go next year! The reviews are horrible so I'm hoping it gets better this year and next!
I'm also hoping to do some version of Elf on the Shelf or Kindness Elves, The Elf on the Shelf is a little creepy so I definitely like the idea of kindess elves better. Next year! 

I will update this page with new photos later!

An egg-free Thanksgiving

Ok so I just realized it's been months since I last posted.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Life has been flying by. Working full time, being a mom, and just being super busy has taken up all  of our time. Luke has been having an egg allergy about once a month now which honestly just sucks and breaks my heart. A few times he found a crumb at daycare (in Sept and Oct) and in November I didn't completely read a label and fed it to him :(

We are so thankful for many things this year. We both have careers we are passionate about, an amazing son who is so full of life, an amazing marriage, great house, and wonderful family and friends.

Because of his allergies, we decided to have a completely egg free Thanksgiving. My parents flew in, my 82 year old grandma is here from Florida, the three of us, and my best friend and her husband and daughter.

The Menu 

Salad

Rolls

Green Beans, Lightly Steamed

Carrots in Sauteed in Ginger and Honey

Broccoli

Caprese

Annie's Mac and cheese

Turkey

Stuffing (2 kinds)

Cranberry Sauce

Mashed Potatoes

Pumpkin Pie (2 egg free recipes: this one and this one)

Apple Tarts with Salted Caramel Sauce

Sugar Cookies (egg free)

Black Friday Update: 

We survived the egg free Thanksgiving. For the most part everything was good! The pumpkin pie tasted normal but the texture was gross. Eggs are important!

It was a delicious meal and we were able to do family pics as well for our Christmas card

August Allergy Update

We had our next round of allergy testing this week. Last time we went, we planned to come back for both a baked egg challenge and a tree nut panel. I had them scheduled on different days but it ended up that we could do them both on the same day! We were at the allergist's office for over 4 hours, which as you can imagine is hard to entertain a 15 month old that long. He took control of the office and was armed with some Sesame on his ipad.

In the long run, not much has changed in our daily life. He has now been cleared for all vaccines (I'm sure Luke is thrilled about this) and we have a new nut allergy confirmation (compared to the suspicion we had).

BAKED EGG ORAL CHALLENGE
For the baked egg challenge, I brought in a blueberry bread that I had baked with 1 egg, close to 400*, and over 30 minutes.
We had 7 trials, spread by about 30 minutes apart. They start by touching it to his cheek for 2 minutes then waiting to see if there is a reaction. Then they give him a tiny crumb to eat and we wait 30 minutes. Then they give him a larger crumb and we wait 30 minutes. Now he's allowed to have 1 bite and we wait 20 minutes. This continues until he eats all 6 portions of the bread (plus the one on his face).


In between tastes, Luke ran around the office, played with his animals and watched Sesame on his ipad. He was also allowed to eat his normal foods. It was a long morning. He eventually fell asleep on Dave's lap because it was naptime!

eating cake is exhausting!

Luke passed the baked egg oral challenge. I thought I'd be thrilled but it's just frustrating because nothing has changed.
We still need to treat every exposure as an experiment and be ready with benadryl, epipen and a possible hospital visit. We tested his reaction to 1 egg, baked in bread for 30 minutes, over 300*. However, most baked goods have at least 2 eggs and we haven't tested him at that concentration yet so once we try other baked goods it will be an experiment as well. Also, many aren't baked for 30 minutes.

TREE NUT PANEL
We had suspected nut allergies because of his previous blood test so we've been avoiding exposure. The allergist wanted us to do the nut scratch panel to confirm the allergy and see if it is just peanuts.

Unfortunately, he responded to the test for: Peanuts, Almonds, Brazil Nuts, Hazlenut, Sesame Seed, and Coconut. We were cleared to use sunflower butter but need to avoid all other nuts. The allergist said we can experiment with sesame seed (hummus) if we commit to serving it daily, and to try coconut because we had used coconut oil in the past.

 Once we got home, Luke was allowed to have more bread! YUMMMMM

Children's Books!

I came across this article the other day and loved it because I am obsessed with children's books. I've always loved children's books and have boxes and boxes in the attic from my classrooms but when I was pregnant I decided to start a new library collection for Luke.

Luke has a ton of books and he loves to read them. The funny thing is I always imagined I'd read him multiple books a day and we really have been slacking in that department. The good thing is he still loves books and "reads" them to himself multiple times a day. He opens them up (correctly- this proud reading specialist has noted his Concepts About Print) and babbles different words on each page while turning them. Then he goes to the next book. The kid loves books so it's good he has a lot. I probably have an addiction- I can't go to a store and not buy him a book!

Edited to Add: I came across this link today and wanted to save it!

Allergy Testing

After a tough few weeks avoiding eggs, wheat, and nuts while traveling across the country with a wild one year old... I almost lost my mind.

We were able to schedule an appointment with a local pediatric allergist this week and I was really happy with him. He is not a very conservative allergist, but I'm ok with that. He believes the sooner you can introduce things back in the better.  He was actually more concerned with Luke's asthma, eczema and allergies since those all go together. We decided to do the scratch test on the spot which was great. I thought he was going to make us schedule another appointment. I was so happy to have more reliable answers.

The results came back as borderline to nuts and wheat and severe to eggwhite (no surprise there). The dr suggested we reintroduce wheat but hold off on eggs, nuts, seeds until the summer. He wants to do a separate nut panel and also do a "baked egg challenge" in August. The baked egg challenge has Luke eat something that has an egg baked over 300* for over 30 minutes in it (like a cake or bread). We will take the food to the office and plan to be there for 4 hours while they monitor him. If he can tolerate the baked eggs then we can try some more vaccines that contain egg.

I feel so much better now, avoiding eggs is fine with me- I'm used to it now. I also feel relieved that I found an allergist I liked and trust.