Happy Birthday Jonathan!

It's hard to believe, but today is Jonathan's first birthday! Happy Birthday sweet boy.

We love you!

Going home from the hospital - 1 day old

4 weeks old

June - 4 months old

trying cereal at 5 months

July - 5 months old

August - 6 months old

September - 7 months old

September - 7 months old

September - 7 months old

November - 8 months old

December - 10 months old and first experience in the snow.

Today - 1 year old - birthday cake and frosting everywhere!

This NEVER happens!

This is what I found when I came home from a solo trip to Target on Sunday afternoon. Believe me when I say this NEVER happens and probably hasn't occurred since Andrew was an infant. So sweet!

Keith said Andrew woke up from his nap in a dark place and so Keith was holding him and before he knew it, they had both fallen asleep sitting in the chair. He said they had been in the chair for over an hour before I got him. (Yes, I was at Target a long time. There's so much to see when you aren't on a quick mission to get everything you need before someone melts down!) Keith said he had considered trying to transfer him back to his bed, but was afraid it wouldn't work and he didn't want to spoil the sweet moment. Who could blame him?!

The good news is that Andrew woke from his second nap in a much better place!

Cashew Allergy

I realize it's been a while since I've posted an update on Andrew and the hives. So, without further ado...

In early December, we took Andrew to a pediatric allergist after he suffered from hives for about 10 weeks. She was so great and spent so much time taking a full history and looking at Andrew. Dr. Oglivie-McDaniel said she thought Andrew was reacting to something, probably food related, but that the cause of hives was the most difficult allergy to diagnose. Not what I was hoping to hear! I had been keeping a food diary and had sort of pin-pointed food dyes as a source of the hives. She agreed that was a possibility. Unfortunately, there isn't an allergy test for food dyes, so it is still a theory. And in case I'm right, we are trying to avoid food and beverages with dyes.

But there are many other foods they can test for. They took five viles of my baby's blood and ran countless tests for all sorts of things, including common food allergies such as wheat, dairy, eggs, nuts, etc. He was so brave while they took vile after vile and I helped hold him down. I'm not sure who suffered more.

Anyway, 2 weeks later, we found out that Andrew is allergic to cashews. (Andrew had a couple of cashews when he was around 20 months old and threw-up about a half hour later and then broke out in hives. We have not given him any since this reaction so we didn't know if it was a fluke or an allergic reaction.) So this diagnosis wasn't a complete surprise to us. And, now we get to carry an Epi-pen, in case of accidental ingestion of cashews and a serious reaction. FUN.

Fortunately, Andrew doesn't like any nuts or peanuts, so it's pretty easy for us to avoid cashews. But because of his age and the fact that we don't know how he is going to react, we are also avoiding all tree nuts and products made in factories or plants that process tree nuts. This is a lot harder than I thought it would be. For example, some of Andrew's favorite dried fruit snacks are made and packaged in factories that also process tree nuts. WHY do they do this to parents? So, I've started buying some organic snacks. They are more expensive, but come with less worry!

And Andrew, he doesn't seem to know anything is different about his life. He is on a daily dose of Zyrtec and that keeps the hives at bay. We saw the allergy doctor a week ago and she said we could try to stop taking the Zyrtec. We tried once and he was so miserable the next day, that we've been afraid to stop giving it since. So, we're back to square one for now. The good news is that we have the hives under control and for the most part, every day is more normal. I'll take normal via medication vs. crazy without for now.

Great Grandpa

Grandpa actually understood that we wanted to take his picture and looked at the camera for a second. He said, "Oh, you sinna picta nemma?" (That's my attempt at writing in Dutch what he said - "Oh, you're going to take a picture?")

Grandpa and Jonathan checking each other out.

Jonathan was fascinated by Grandpa's bald head.

Andrew spent most of our visit playing with Grandpa's toy tractors.

We went to Hutch on Friday and spent the day at my parent's house and squeezed in a visit with my Grandpa. I didn't think it was one of our better visits, but I haven't seem him in a while due to sickness. My mom said she thought he responded great and more than she had seem him respond in weeks. He only said a couple of phrases and one of them was in response to the noise that the boys were making as they explored his room. "They sinna fun hava." (They're having fun.) I've only heard him speak in Dutch lately. I don't know if he ever speaks in English anymore. I'm just glad that I can understand what he is saying. It's so sad to see him like this, but every so often, I'm blessed to see a little twinkle in his eye or a little smile that lets me know he's still in there. Alzheimer's is such a horrible disease!

70 degrees in January!

It's hard to believe, but today it is a BEAUTIFUL and balmy 70 degrees, and it's still January! Yes, it's a little windy, but we live in Kansas and that is to be expected. (Those of you who live in cold and snowy lands, please try to keep your grumpy comments to yourself. You could always move here and get away from the cold and the snow, you know, if you wanted to.) Anyway, the boys are loving that they can play outside without jackets. And we are loving that we can run off some of their excess energy! Here are a few pictures of Andrew giving Jonathan a ride on his tricycle.

Jonathan thought this was the coolest thing EVER!

"Pick up the pace, big brother!"

These pictures are from a couple of weeks ago. I think it was only around 60 degrees this day, and it was before our little cold snap and sprinkling of snow, which all melted two days later.

Jonathan's first taste of outside. Rocks are good teething toys, right?

Andrew practicing his balancing act.

Jonathan can't climb the slide yet, but he loves to slide down.

"Hey, wait for me!"

Scout

Andrew and his best friend, Scout.

Andrew giving Scout a kiss.

This is the real Scout and our puppy's name sake. She lives with her family Paul and Amy in Florida. Sadly we haven't seen them in several years, and we aren't sure how much Andrew remembers them, but the memory of Scout lives on!

Andrew received this little puppy, which he has named Scout, for Christmas from his Sunday School teachers. This is his most prized possession and most loved toy. We don't do anything without Scout, especially sleep. Scout has a voice - a rather high-pitched squeaky voice. He also whimpers quite frequently and takes a lot of the blame for naughty behavior and consequently spends almost as much time in Time-Out as Andrew.

Me: "Andrew! Please be quiet. That is too loud and hurts my ears."
Andrew: "Oh, it's not me. It's just Scout."

I can not begin to tell you how many times a day we have this conversation.

Me: "Andrew, please stop running around and spinning. You are going to make yourself sick or step on your brother."

Andrew: "But Scout wants to run in circles. He likes it."

What is a mother to do with an animal that isn't alive but still has so much personality?!

Sydney and Brenna

Snack time!

Lucky Charms without milk. Notice the concentration. I think they were all picking out the marshmallows.

Brenna, Andrew and Sydney

Andrew and Brenna watching Dora.

Brenna feeding Jonathan a block.

We took many pictures and could not get them all to look at us at the same time. But they are still all so stinkin' cute!

Brenna, Jonathan, Andrew and Sydney

Andrew took this cute picture of Sydney's sweet smile.

Jill and her girls were in town visiting this past weekend. They were going to stay with us, but we have been so sick, they opted for a more healthy environment. But they did get to come over and play on Monday. The kids had a great time and Jill and I got to talk - in person for a change! Thanks for coming to play!