More allergies

Aidan's school nurse informed us that his epipen was expiring and that he has to return to school with a new epipen.  With our high deductible insurance plan the epipen ends up costing us around $200 to fill.  It wouldn't be a big deal if this was a prescription that we actually used, but the reality is, we avoid all nuts for Aidan (his main allergy), and in the twelve years that we have known about the allergy, we have never one time had to use it.

Not to mention the yearly plan we have to make with the school and then the extra paperwork (not to mention the worry that we experience from the time he's gone to the time he returns) that we fill out anytime Aidan heads out of our care for youth group activities, school trips, overnighters, camp.  It's been about three years since we had a recheck done for Aidan to check on his allergies.  We are told that many kids do outgrow a peanut/tree nut allergy, so we were hopeful.

Mike went with Aidan (just in case there was a blood draw-mom didn't want two patients!) to the allergist he saw when we first moved here and when we got the news that he had indeed outgrown his dairy and egg allergy.

Aidan received a skin test (he hasn't had one since he was a toddler) to check for several allergens.  Not that he has had any other "real" problems (we know he has seasonal allergies but don't know what they are), and we also had a suspicion that he is allergic to raw carrots (his throat gets scratchy when he eats them), but because the Dr. recommended the skin test until some fancy new blood test comes out in about 6 months.

So this is what Aidan's back looked like about two hours after his appointment.  Washed and rubbed down with a topical allergy medicine, you could still see some swelling and bumps from his more sensitive allergens.

Aidan was tested for 21 items and while we learned that he hasn't outgrown his peanut allergy (bummer), we  now also learned that he's allergic to much much more...another bummer.

While the skin test isn't as accurate as a blood test we have an idea of what he is allergic to. We can deal with an itchy throat and watery eyes, it's the anaphylactic reaction that we want to be more aware of.  Again, this skin test can tell us what he's sensitive to, but it doesn't give us any indicator of the severity of it and whether or not Aidan would go into anaphylactic shock if he ingests any of the food items.

Here's the list:

NUTS:

Hazelnut (the highest nut reaction-no Nutella for him)

Walnut (we were aware that this one was higher than his peanut from his blood test a few years back)

Cashew

Pecan

Peanut

Soybean (we used to substitute soynut butter and soy milk, and it seems like the reaction was similar to soybean and peanuts alike)

Pistachio

Macadamia nut

brazil nut

VEGETABLES:

Carrots

Celery

TREES/PLANTS:

Alder

Birch

Grass

ENVIRONMENTAL:

Dust Mites

AND GET THIS:

Dogs and Cats

Aidan's never experienced a problem with Sophie and her fur.  And she sheds a lot.  And we have several friends and family members with cats, again, he's never had an issue.

We are also told that because of the pollen on these foods (raw not cooked), he could have a reaction to the following as well:

Apples, pears, plums (including peaches, prunes, nectarines, apricots and cherrys)

kiwi's

parsley (including celery, dill, anise, cumin, coriander, caraway)

potatos (including tomatos, green peppers)

Peas and beans

sunflower seeds 

raw bananas

the whole gourd family (melon, watermelon, honeydew, canaloupe, zucchini and cucumber)

oranges

lettuce

Holy cow!  That's a long list!  Thankfully, Aidan is old enough to decide what to eat and what not to eat and while several of the things he eats on a regular basis made the list, he hasn't had a problem to most of them.  There are some fruits and veggie's he doesn't like and the list may explain the reason.

Again, the main reason we wanted to have Aidan retested was to explore the allergies and risk of anaphylaxis, however, we found a much longer list than what we were aware of.  We will get a blood test and hopefully more accurate results for the life threatening allergens in about 6 months.  Those are the ones we are most worried about since those will kill him and are the ones we want to take special precautions to avoid.  The other symptoms can be easily managed with allergy medication and/or avoidance.

Aidan read through some of the materials that the allergist gave him after the appointment and as we chatted about it last night he told me he was allergic to nuts because we introduced them too early to him.  Um, thanks for the attempt at mom guilt, but Aidan has NEVER had nuts.  Unfortunately, had I known more at the time (there is no family history of a severe anaphylactic food allergy) I wouldn't have eaten nuts at all during my pregnancy or during breastfeeding.  Thirteen years ago, nut allergies were a "new" thing and there didn't seem to be much knowledge about them.   With my severe morning sickness my OB suggested eating more peanut butter to increase my protein intake and help me to gain weight.

So there we have it.  A long list to make feeding my kiddos healthy even harder!  But honestly, if that's the worst health problem that my kids have in life, then I am thankful!

An early Christmas with the Teodoro's

Our family has been busy passing around our ugly Christmas sweaters this year.  Mike and I wore them to a church Christmas party, we let a couple of people from the youth group borrow them for the middle school youth group ugly Christmas sweater party, then one of the gals that we teach with borrowed it for her High School ugly sweater day.  

Capping it off, Aidan wore it on the last day of school before break for his ugly sweater day.  Pretty sure the turtleneck and jiggle bell socks make the whole outfit.  

Later that day we celebrated Christmas with all 37 (and growing) Teodoro's at our annual Christmas party.  Michelle, Chad and the girls were in town from Okinawa so we were able to celebrate with everyone in the same country.  We all crammed into Grandma's living room for some present opening.

There are kids everywhere now!  

Uncle Steve was around to help Owen open his gift from Mia.  A safe with a lock that he adores!

Grandma opened her presents as well.

Babies were passed around for some love.

And we made several attempts to get a picture with Great Grandma (GG) and the great grandkids.

Kaylie's escaping and Aidan looks bored

Brett did his part to get Trevi in the picture

 Lilly finally made her appearance but Trevi is hiding in the back

Finally!  Success.  Not everyone is looking at the camera and some kids heads are blocking others, but you get what you get!

Bella had her best time playing with all of the little ones.

And Lilly finally warmed up to the camera when she didn't have to share the spotlight with all of the other kids.  Who blames her?!

Christmas cookies and thank you notes

I found a few more action shots from our camera from Aidan's concert last week.

Aidan's doing quite well on the drums and continues to amaze his drum teacher who gave Aidan a cow bell for Christmas.  Yep, more cowbell!

Owen, without our prompting wrote two thank you notes last week to a few clients.
Grandma and Auntie Nancy placed orders for custom artwork from Owen and he happily complied.

On the bus home from school one day, he even wrote Auntie Nancy a note.  Here he is hard at work finishing his note.

Mike and I both loved the writing that he did and thought it was so precious the way he wrote the letter using his own spelling.  However, Owen wasn't so pleased with his spelling and wanted to write the words correctly.  Thankfully, I snapped this picture before I helped him spell the words out.

At one of Owen's cub scout meetings he made shrinky dink ornaments for the residents at a local nursing home.  He loved making them so much that we bought some of our own to make at home.

Owen and Isabella spent four hours happily working on shrinky dinks.  A great $5 investment if you ask me!

Owen even sat patiently and watched them cook in the oven.

The kids traced pictures and then colored them in.  Here they are before.

Here they are as they are getting them off the cookie sheet.

Owen thought that he shouldn't have wasted all of his time coloring such a big paper if it was just going to shrink that much.  He thought it would have been easier to color them after they shrank!

The kids and I also did our annual cookie making.  Sugar cookies are always a must.

And this year, Aidan found a recipe from Martha Stewart that he wanted to try.  His snicker doodles were super yummy!

At least now I know I can send him off into the world knowing how to bake a pretty good cookie!

concerts and trees

Aidan had his first concert last night playing drums for his school jazz band and wind ensemble.  He did such a great job!  He even had some amazing compliments from his band director Mr. Kelsey.  It's hard to believe Aidan's only played drums for about 6 months.  

Aidan's band instructor told him that it's been a long time since he's heard someone play the timpani's with such enthusiasm.  He also said that Aidan seems to have found his real passion and just confirmed what we have been told from Aidan's drum teacher that Aidan seems to show a real gift for playing the drums.  It's pretty amazing to see his progress in just a short period of time.

This past weekend, we spent the morning at the Festival of Trees in Downtown Tacoma.  The kids got a chance to meet up with Santa.  Owen actually started to stress out a bit in line because he knew the inevitable question of "what do you want for Christmas" was coming.  He honestly hadn't even thought about it.  While we notice kids everywhere having a focus on the gifts and the "I want's" i'm thankful that our kids seem to be focusing on the real reason for Christmas.

Isabella and I took some time to shop in the Mary Bridge gift shop at the Festival and she found this cute little mistletoe hat.  It stayed at the shop.  Maybe when she gets married!

The start of the Christmas season

The excitement of Christmas is upon us.  

Owen has always really been into coloring and drawing and for the past week or so he's been working super hard at making pictures.

Our kitchen table is always littered with crayons and drawing paper.

He's been working so hard because he wants to sell his art to get money so he can buy Christmas presents.

He wants to buy Isabella mint tic tacs and Aidan lemonheads.  Isn't that so sweet?  Here's the money he's made so far.  Mike and I have a LOT of pictures to hang on our walls now!  I'm sure he would be happy to sell any of his artwork to anyone other than mom or dad, so if you are interested let him know. 

Most pictures are a dime, but the commissioned artwork he will sell to you for a quarter.

He's even getting quite good at counting money (just like his mom!), and I was pretty impressed at how he counted it all by himself and labeled it on the table. 

Owen has learned to sign his artwork and has even been hiding "OT" in several of his drawings like some of his favorite books that have a mouse on every page.  It's a fun little hunt.

We decorated for Christmas on Saturday.  Some of the kids enjoy it more than others.

And we did our traditional Christmas ornament gift opening for the kids.  

When I was growing up, my uncle who was a tree farmer, would give our family several Christmas trees.  There were some years where we would have four (three live, one fake) Christmas trees decorating our home.  The house had 12 foot tall ceilings and most of the trees scraped the top of the ceiling.

Because of that memory, I have always wanted to have more than one tree in our house.  Thankfully, I found this white tree brand new in the box at a garage sale for $5.  I was so excited to get it put up upstairs in our hallway between Owen and Isabella's room.

Owen of course, had to add his own touch and put his Lego train under the tree.  Sophie loves the glass balls and we keep finding her with them in her mouth.  I think she thinks they are balls to play fetch with.

Here's the downstairs tree all decorated for Christmas.  Rocky (the bear) is dying for something festive to wear.  I'm on the hunt!

On another note, the Teodoro kids have been revisiting the "it's not fair" phase of life.  I think it's the developmental stage that Isabella is in now (I remember this several years ago with Aidan), and she's dragged her two brothers right along with her.  

We have been working hard on teaching the kids the phrase JOY (Jesus, Others, Yourself) teaching them that that is the order to find real joy in their lives, but they keep getting stuck on the other part of life that we are working on, which is to make sure they are staying focused on their own actions (the effects and consequences of those) and not on others.  Ah, parenting...so fun!