Slam Dunk!

Matthew has really taken to this whole guest blogger gig. He went to another basketball game last night and the first thing he asked when he got home was if he could blog about it. I'm happy to oblige. :-) So once again, here's Matthew:

On Saturday we went to a basketball game and it was BYU going agenst San Diegeo. At the end of the first half Malia was SO bored. At half time even I got bored. In the first half San Diegeo only scored 12 points. At the end of the game, the final score was 91 to 33. At the end we got to meet Cosmo at the “Y” bell. We got a picture with Cosmo. I got three high fives! :-)

I Don’t Know Whether to Laugh or Cry

I can hear Malia playing in the other room and she is saying that Jolly, her stuffed puppy, is allergic to peas, milk and peanuts. Apparently this weekend had already left its mark on her.

It’s My Blog and I’ll Whine If I Want To

Over the last few days as we have let people know about Malia’s allergic reaction over the weekend, the overwhelming response has been, “Malia is allergic to peanuts? Oh, well. You already have Matthew so it’s no big deal.” To me, that is like saying, “You were in a car accident? Oh, well. Your brother was in a car accident last year so it’s no big deal.” I’ve had only a few people who actually responded with some of the sorrow that I actually feel. And of course, that is one of the reasons I love those people.

Let me assure you that this is a big deal to us. Yes, we already have Matthew and I’m so glad we knew what we were dealing with and knew what to do. Yes, Malia will have a brother who totally understands what she is dealing with and in emotional moments will probably hit her with, “At least you’re only allergic to peanuts! I’ve got it way worse than you!” Yes, I know how to work around that at home and have years of practice reading labels to make sure things are safe. Yes, I’m very familiar with all the forms and hoops that having an allergy kid at school entails. So yes, in so many ways this is not a big deal for us.

However, this is a huge deal for Malia. This is one of those life changing moments when things will never be just the same as they were before. She is young enough that she doesn’t yet understand just how much things will need to change. She’s already had some sad moments. She can’t eat M&M’s anymore. We don’t feel comfortable feeding her one of the Japanese food items we eat frequently because it is manufactured outside of the U.S. where the food labeling laws are not the same. She actually laid her head down on Kev’s arm and cried over that one. We had to swap out the treats her primary teachers gave her for Valentine’s Day because they were not safe. And unfortunately, this is just the beginning.

To put it concisely, the food allergy mama in me needs some time to grieve. Yes, the grief will lessen over time and we’ll make the best of things like we always do, but part of being a food allergy mom is always having a bit of sorrow in my heart that I can’t change things for my little ones.

The Next Bump in My Road

Being a parent is hard. One of the things that has been hardest for me has been watching my children go through hard things when there is absolutely nothing I can do about it. I want to be able to fix everything and I know I can’t. Even if I could, I hope I would be wise enough to understand that those difficulties and trials are necessary to help us become the people the Lord wants us to be. But the desire to spare my children from struggles is still there.

Yesterday held another of those struggles that I wish I could change.

Here’s the short version: last night Malia was in the emergency room having an allergic reaction to peanuts. She is fine, but it was not our happiest night ever.

Here’s the long version: Due to Matthew’s food allergies, we’ve been watchful with Malia ever since she was newborn. Luckily, she seemed to have no problems. By the time she was three, the only thing we hadn’t fed her was nuts. Last summer she had a few peanut butter M&M’s by mistake. We knew that any reaction she was going to have would not be the first time she ate peanuts, but the second or third time so we have been on the watch. I’ve known that we needed to know what would happen before she went to kindergarten, but it’s a scary thing and I’ve been avoiding it.

Last night avoidance time was over. Malia had a stash of candy from her Valentine’s party at school and after dinner she started eating one of those one bite Snickers bars. I didn’t realize what she was eating until she told me she didn’t like it and said her mouth hurt and she started coughing. My heart sank. Honestly, what I felt was a bit of dread.

We’re experienced food allergy parents here, so we decided to watch for a while to see how things would go. If things had gotten too scary, we knew we had Matthew’s Epipens and our allergist’s permission to use them on another child. An hour and a half later, the coughing had worsened and Malia had lots of mucus in her throat. She threw up and felt better for a little bit, then the coughing worsened and she threw up again. She started scratching at her ear and we noticed that it was red and a bit swollen. That was when we decided it was time to take her to the Instacare. Kev and Nathan took her and I stayed home and talked Matthew down. He was freaking out and needed some reassurance that everything would be ok.

At the Instacare, the doc said that technically she was in anaphylaxis and so per clinic policy, she was transferred to the emergency room. The doc there felt like epinephrine was overkill (which made me feel better about our wait and watch decision) but they loaded her up with a couple of other things. Through it all, Malia was a trooper. Kev said she only cried once when they put the IV in and by the time I got there, she was calm and in complete control of the remote. She was also developing more hives. But she was acting like herself, including taking selfies and a million other pictures. After a few hours of meds and observation, she was sent home with instructions to give her regular doses of Benadryl for two days to prevent any delayed reactions. So in terms of allergic reactions, it could have been much worse.

This is my sad kid. All the blotchy redness you can see on the bridge of her nose and her cheek is actually hives. They were crawling down her neck and onto her chest as well.

In spite of everything, she still grinned for her selfie.

I get asked surprisingly often how we found out that Matthew has food allergies. My answer is always, “The scary way.” Honestly, I don’t think there is a not scary way to find these things out. Even being as watchful as I have been and knowing what I do, last night was scary. It would be for any parent.

When I woke up this morning, the first thought I had was that Malia won’t be able to eat at Kneaders anymore. That is her favorite place so it was a sad thought. We don’t know yet how severe her allergy is although based on her reaction last night I don’t think it is as severe as Matthew’s. But it is still going to mean changing some of our food routines. We won’t be able to just stop for lunch whenever and wherever we want. Eating out will require some research in advance to see how each establishment handles nuts. She won’t be able to eat things baked at local bakeries which will be good for my waistline but sad for our occasional cookie or doughnut runs. She will need to be careful about what candy she eats, especially chocolate. I know it’s not the end of the world, but it is disappointing. She looked terribly sad this morning when we told her she wouldn’t be able to eat M&M’s.

This is not what I wanted for her. It is not what I want for Matthew either, but it is one of those things that I can’t fix. All I can do is try my hardest to make their lives as normal as possible and help them feel included in all of life’s festivities.

I know that was a lot of negativity just now. But sometimes I just need to brain dump it all so I can put on my big girl panties and deal with it. So now I need to remind myself that being allergic to just peanuts is nowhere near as hard as being allergic to all of Matthew’s stuff. Malia will still have lots of options. We just need to readjust our thinking. But we’ll figure it out, just like we always do.

When Books Come to Life

In the past year and a half, we have come to like our brand new elementary school. There have been some fun programs, the staff is great to work with, and our kids have been very happy there. This past week has made me love it just a little bit more. Part of the third grade curriculum is learning about different genres of books. This week was fantasy week and the teachers went all out. They chose a Harry Potter theme and they have been preparing for weeks. Last week I helped out by making chocolate frogs for the allergy kids so I knew they had some fun things prepared, but I really didn’t know how grand their plans were.

Last Friday Matthew came home with his official letter of acceptance to our neighborhood School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. He also received a supply list which included the option to wear wizards’ robes or regular school clothes and the okay to bring a (stuffed) owl, cat or frog to school. They arrived on Monday morning and had to walk through the brick wall to platform 9 ¾. They visited Diagon Alley to collect their supplies and buy a wand. They had lessons in potions, herbology, charms, and in care of magical creatures they got to dissect real owl pellets. Some of the kids thought that was cool and some thought it was gross. As a parent, I came down on the cool side. They also got to play quidditch and had a trip to Hogsmeade where they were able to sample the ever popular chocolate frogs. To top it all off, one of our local news stations was in Matthew’s class yesterday filming their activity using paper towel tubes and marbles to create tracks for the Gringott’s goblins. It was so fun to see Matthew on the news! He has absolutely loved this past week, so I invited him to be my guest blogger so you can get a glimpse into just how much he enjoyed this week. As before, I've left everything just as he wrote it except for all the smilies. He has about a dozen frownies in a row and a couple dozen smilies, but those little guys didn't copy over into blogger.

Feb. 1-5 2016

  Fantasy Week

First we got introduced to our professors, which were, Professor Larson, Professor Fay, Professor Beck and Professor Mariani. Some people called it Harry Potter Week, and some said Fantasy Week. Then we got our wands at “Oliveanders Wand Shop”, which was fun. Mine is 11’ long, Mahogany wood with troll wisker core, which is a core I have NEVER heard of. The week went by so fast it felt like two hours. And on Friday we got on the news. It was on Fox13 News at 5:00pm. Also on Friday we got to build a track for the goblins at Gringotts Bank. (Marble track.) Then we had the House Cup and Gryffindor won!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The houses at Hogwarts are, Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff and worst of all Slytherin. And each house has a founder, the founders are, Godric Gryffindor, Rowena Ravenclaw, Helga Hufflepuff and worst of all Salazar Slytherin. And on Friday it HAD, just HAD to end!!!!!!! :-( I was in Ravenclaw. One of its describing words was logical. And it makes sense because I like logic. IT WAS SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO FUN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :-) Random comment: I love the font Harry P! :-)

By Matthew

Vroom! Vroom!

I’ve made a decision. We’ve been giving our kids these fabulous experience gifts. They have had a great time. They are all super excited for this year’s experiences. We’re all creating wonderful memories. So instead of trying to guess at what is important to them or how they felt about a particular event, I’m going to invite my off-spring to be my guest bloggers and tell all y’all about it from their point of view. I think it will be great!

First up, Matthew and his first experience with monster trucks! (I didn’t change anything. It is all just as he wrote it, phonetic spelling and all.)

Monster Jam

After they introduced the monster trucks, they were: New Earth Authority, Grave Digger, Zombie, Scooby Doo, Monster Energy, Blue Thunder, Max D, El Toro Loco. Grave Digger is my favorite of all of them. The trucks came out from right under us. It was so cool!!!!!!!! First, there were monster truck races. Then, there were speedster races. After that, there were four welers races. Then it was halftime. After halftime, there was a donut compatision. Then, there was a weely compatision. Then it was free stile time. The best time of the whole thing. There was a car that was painted orange and it just got crushed. Monster Energy won with the most points. We tried to get in line for autographs but it was to long. I got a flag for a suvaneer. It was Grave Diggers flag. It was in the Delta Center (Vivnt Smart Home Arena).
We got back on the train and went home. The thing I will always know, is that there really loud. (Bring ear plugs!)

Fashion Frenzy

My sister, Esther, picked out some rockin’ tights for Malia. They are striped with pandas on the knees. So, so cute. This morning Malia decided she was ready to wear them. She’s gotten pretty good at getting tights on by herself, only occasionally needing help with the baggy ankles or low hanging crotch. She got her tights on just fine this morning, but then she cried because she couldn’t get the pandas straight. I had to stifle a laugh because she was honestly upset. Once we had everything straightened to her satisfaction, she was pleased as punch.

Every girl in the world has had a bad moment at one time or another due to a wardrobe crisis. Although crooked panda tights are not much of a crisis, Malia is only four and I fully expect more fashion emergencies in the future.

I Am the Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything.

42, people. 42.

If you are confused, it means you aren't quite nerdy enough to have read "The Hitchhiker's guide to the Galaxy." It's okay. I won't hold it against you. ;-)