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…)

Wow! I’m 30! I was wondering how I would feel about reaching this milestone, but to be honest, I’m excited. My 20s were great, but I went through a lot of difficult times during my early 20s. As my 20s went on, life only seemed to get better, with my marriage to my wonderful husband and the birth of our sweet boy, Ethan.

I’m thinking about the Tim McGraw song, “My Next 30 years…” It’s a great reminder of how life just gets better and better with time – and I can relate. Here’s to my next 30 years!

Halloween this year was so much fun! Ethan was a monkey, which was just so fitting! He loved dressing up, and we did a lot of fun activities, including going to a carnival put on by our HOA (with pony rides!), going to HeeHaw Farms in Pleasant Grove, UT, and going Trick or Treating in Draper with family. It was so much fun!

[caption id="attachment_344" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="Cute little monkey..."][/caption][caption id="attachment_346" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="Ethan roping a bull..."][/caption][caption id="attachment_348" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Preston and Ethan Trick or Treating"][/caption]