A few months ago, I wrote about Ethan’s newly diagnosed peanut allergies. Now, as it turns out, he is severerly allergic to pistachios. We were sharing pistachio gelato when Ethan started coughing and throwing up mucous. We thought it was just a symptom of a cold he’d had, so I gave him some Benadryl. While I was driving, his face began swelling and turning red and splotchy, and he started wheezing. He couldn’t breathe very well, so I rushed him to the doctor. By the time I arrived (about 10 minutes later), he was obviously in distress and could barely breathe.

His face was almost unrecognizable – it was the most terrifying moment of my life. The nurse helped me inject him with Epi-Pen (which, luckily I always carry with me), and within a few minutes, he began breathing normally.

Recently CNN.com interviewed my husband, Preston, about food allergies and this recent trip to the doctor for Ethan’s anaphylactic emergency. The article can currently be viewed on www.cnn.com, but it probably won’t be on the homepage for much longer. Here is a link to the actual article: http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/08/03/food.allergies.er.gut/index.html?hpt=C1

We had our 20 week ultrasound last Monday, and it showed that Ethan is going to have a little sister!

He’s excited – he’s learning to say “Sister!” and “Baby!” We’re looking forward to it – the official due date is September 11, 2010.

Ethan is excited to announce that in September, he’s going to be a big brother. At my last appointment/ultrasound, the doctor guessed that we’re having a girl, but we’ll know for sure at my 20 week ultrasound. I’m finally feeling better – I’m past the nausea of my first trimester, and am enjoying the start of my second trimester. We’re all looking forward to meeting new baby Wily in the Fall!

I’m a big fan of Ricky Gervais, and Ethan loves Elmo, so this was the perfect combination of the two!

Tags: Elmo, Ricky Gervais

I was just in Hawaii with my husband, son, and parents where we celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary.

We were sitting at dinner one night when I noticed a beautiful crystal necklace that an elderly woman was wearing. It looked strikingly similar to one I inherited from my grandmother when she passed away. I was 6 when my Grandma Betty died, and held on to the necklace, dreaming of wearing it at my wedding.

I had my bridal portraits done wearing the necklace, and was so happy to be able to wear it in the pictures. The morning of my wedding, when I went to put the necklace on, I couldn’t find it anywhere – all of my wedding jewelry was missing! I was heartbroken – the necklace never turned up.

I borrowed a beautiful necklace from my aunt for the wedding, but never forgot about the necklace I’d saved my whole life to wear. I’m still so sad about it, and feel so guilty about losing it.

Back in Hawaii at dinner, I noticed the necklace the woman was wearing, and couldn’t believe how similar it was to my long lost one. I asked my dear husband to approach her and ask where she bought the necklace.

Preston willingly (or at least he pretended to be willing) went over and told her my story, asking where he could buy a necklace like that to replace mine. Her response was that she wanted to give it to me, provided I remember her and do something nice for someone.

Despite his protests, she came over to the table I was sitting at, necklace in hand, and showed me how to undo the clasp, which was antique. She told me that she had inherited the necklace from her mother, and she knew that her mother would want me to have it. I was shocked, and tears welled up in my eyes. I knew this necklace probably meant so much to her, and to have her give it to me, a total stranger, was beyond anything I could have imagined.

She asked that I do something kind for someone else, and I promised that I would. I hugged her, still in shock, thanking her for her kindness. After dinner, I approached her at her table wearing the necklace to thank her again. She wouldn’t tell me her name, but I will never forget her or the kindness she showed me. I will always treasure the necklace she gave me – and I hope to be able to live up to the kindness that she showed me.

I really love diapers.com. This isn’t a sponsored post – I really do love them. I kept forgetting to buy diapers for Ethan, so I ordered them last night. The OnTrac shipping guy just dropped them off 10 minutes ago! Not only were the prices great, but shipping was free, and it was overnight! How do they do it? I love it – good prices on the diapers, and no tax or shipping. Yay for diapers.com – thanks for making my life easier!

Tags: diapers, diapers.com

This clip made me laugh – a comparison between California Senator Barbara Boxer and Dr. Evil (from Austin Powers). Enjoy!

Ethan loves Backyardigans…So much so, that he was watching it on TV and on an iPod…he turned the iPod on himself.

Ethan watching Backyardigans x2

I get a lot of spam comments on my blog. Most of them aren’t worth looking at, but this one was great.

Comment:
I have a nice joke. Why do Vampire have to brush their teeth? Because they have Bat-Breath.

Since they were looking for a link for Voagra [sic], I’m not passing on any link love…but it did catch my attention!

It turns out Ethan has peanut allergies. I’m not too surprised since he had a bad reaction to a bite of a Butterfinger bar (his eye swelled shut and turned purple). Luckily we had Benadryl nearby, and everything was fine. His second experience with peanuts was after I ate some, I touched his head, and he broke out in a rash on his head. Once again, Benadryl to the rescue…

Needless to say, we took him in for allergy testing. Apparently for suspected peanut allergies, they don’t do skin prick tests – the doctor said it’s too risky with how severe peanut allergies can be. They had to draw blood, which was traumatic (for Ethan and me!), but we just got the results back.

It turns out, for the testing scale used, a score of “17.50 kU/L or greater” is a very high reaction, and Ethan scored 18.60. We have to keep him away from anything containing peanuts or peanut oil, but luckily if peanut dust is in the air, it won’t affect him (like, say, on airplanes when they hand out peanuts). It’s kind of scary since peanuts seem to be everywhere, but we’ve always got Epi-Pen and Benadryl with us. It’s just good to be aware – now I’ll need to be extra vigilant. Preston outgrew his peanut allergies, so maybe Ethan will get lucky and do the same…

(PS He has moderate allergies to almonds, sesame seeds and soy as well…)