Our little peanut and peanuts don't mix

So, remember back when we talked about food allergies...... Well yeah.

To catch you up. We went to the doctor and he told us that Bowen wasn't allergic to anything. Shaun and I both thought he was crazy given the reactions we've seen from Bowen to very specific food. Well here's the story.

Through a series of unfortunate events Bowen was at another house one morning because he just simply could not be in our home. Around noon after he had been there for just under two hours. I get a text from the other mama saying that she thought Bowen may be ready for a nap because he was super fussy and he was rubbing his eyes. I said yeah, that's possible and I sent Shaun to pick him up. Shaun got home and I'm looking at Bowen and the very first thing out of my mouth is "What's up with his eyes?" Shaun said that it was super windy outside and maybe he got some sand in them or something. So I took Bowen "downhall" (into our apartment) to change his diaper and to put him down for a nap. His eyes were SUPER red and he was very fussy. I put him on the floor to put the diaper in the pail and he was walking towards me screaming and scratching his belly. As I'm watching this happen I call the other mama and I ask if he was exposed to anything at her house, and she's thinking and thinking and she can't come up with anything, so I hang up. So, just to be careful, I give him a VERY small dose of benadryl. .5ml to be exact. I'm staring at Bowen thinking it's so weird that he's scratching his belly, so I pick him up and put him on the bed and start to undress him to check his belly. One gigantic hive. I call the other mama back and I start questioning her again. Did he eat anything? Did he touch anything? What is going on? He HAD to be allergic to something. I'm still on the phone with her while she's racking her brain as I grab Bowen off the bed and start racing up hall to find Shaun. Right as I get to our apartment door it hits her. Right before he started fussing and rubbing his eyes, she had found Bowen with a Reese's puff in his mouth. Peanut butter.

I start running. I find Shaun and start talking quickly. I show him Bowen's belly and say I have to go now. I ran to the car put him in and started driving as fast as I could to the hospital. I think I hit every red light. About half way there I look back and notice his eyes are starting to swell. I drove faster. I think I may have even ran a light or two... oops.


We get to the hospital and no one is moving fast enough. The Secretary is just chit chatting and I'm trying to get her attention. I can hear Bowen wheezing with every breath in my arms. No one is moving fast enough. I try to explain as quickly as I could what had happened. No one is moving fast enough. They get us back pretty quick and now we have to wait on the doctor. He comes in, asks a few questions and then leaves and comes right back in with a gigantic dose of benadryl, a steroid shot to help open Bowen's airways and a breathing treatment.

Almost two hours later we were discharged with a whole host of things we needed to do for the next couple of days to make sure he was going to be alright.

Bowen is very allergic to peanuts. Bowen has allergy induced asthma, just like his mama. Our whole world changed that day. I called my supervisor and explained what had happened and asked if I could take some time off. And I did. And I cuddled my little boy because life is just far too short.

I've never been more grateful for medical personal and benadryl in my life.

We explained to our girls the situation and about making sure that if they choose to eat peanut butter they need to not touch Bowen for a while and to make sure they wash their hands REALLY well. Our life has changed. I find myself constantly checking labels on food and in restaurants. Bowen and I stayed home while the rest of our house went to the circus tonight, just to be safe. Our life has changed.

We have changed.

S'nK 'n Bo

Viva Las Vegas!

Holy cow! The last almost two months have been such a roller coaster! This job is crazy and insane, and so much fun, and challenging and trying and wonderful! Seriously I feel like I spend so much time trying to figure out how I feel about it, because it's like all of the above, all the time.   I LOVE that I get to spend all day with my boys!

Since starting this job we've had multiple different things we've had to deal with, including girls:

running away
getting in fights
getting suspended
failing tests
aliens
getting arrested
having other random kids in our house throwing eggs
UFOs
Teaching
teaching
teaching

Ok, so not all of the above, but some, or most, or none.


Ok but seriously have you ever cleaned raw egg out of industrial carpet? Kill me now. It took me more than a week! Listen and listen closely, SALT. It is your best friend, poor a TON of it on the egg while it's still fresh. Let sit. Vacuum up later when dry.   When in doubt, add more salt.


So teaching and the girls take up most of our time, as it should since we're both working full time. But we do get to spend a good deal of time with the other couples in the other homes which is the coolest part of this job if I'm allowed to say that. There's a couple two homes down that is also LDS (there's a total of three LDS couples in this job and the program ops is LDS and our supervisor.) has a baby that's 5 weeks older than Bowen and is super hippy, like us me. LOVE. We call each other and rant and talk about our babies and cloth diapering and breastfeeding (yes Bowen is still breastfed) and our babies being sick, and getting each other sick and all of us sick, and oh heavens I'm so glad that they're here. I'm not sure I could do this job some days without them.


Speaking of illnesses, we've been sick lately, which has been SO MUCH FUN! Not. Bowen was first by vomiting all over our bed, in the middle of the night. Then Shaun and i each caught it, for just a brief period of time, and then last week I was SUPER sick for three days. Ended up going and getting a couple of bags of fluids at urgent care and some zofran because I couldn't even keep water down. I some how managed to keep that illness to myself, thankfully! I was thinking we were over it all until Bowen got a fever tonight, but he seems to be doing well now. And my immune system is holding up well enough. So we're all good there.

I'm sure this is wonderfully boring to all of you out there, but it's nice to be able to see how far we've come, both in this job and in our lives and with our illnesses. I think I'll be sure to thank Heavenly Father one more time tonight that I'm not sick any more because that sucked.

The culture shock is wearing off slowly but surely. I think it helps that we don't go anywhere near down town most days, unless we're going to the main office, which is pretty close. But I have to remind myself frequently that this is a job and we're living here, and not just visiting, like I keep thinking...... oops.

We're super bummed that we're not going to be with family this holiday season. It's hit me really hard this year, because it's my first not being able to go home. Who would have guessed how much that meant to me? Because I didn't.

But life goes on, and so do we!

I've got many thoughts, on many things, but it's late and I must be going to bed now. Hope you enjoyed the update,

Love,

Kirsten, Shaun and Bowen!

Busy Little Bees!

We've been so busy the last few weeks. First and foremost,


WE GOT THE JOB!!!!!

I don't think I've been so happy about a phone call in my entire life! We put our lives on hold for this job. Really. Shaun stopped applying for other jobs, I didn't attend orientation for school here in Tallahassee (did I not mention I was going to be taking classes this fall.... oops?) We sat around the house, waiting by our phones. For WEEKS. Waiting to hear back about this job, and what the next step was, etc etc etc. I'm SOO glad that part is over.

What started as a "hey, Kirsten, I need you to fill out this application for a job." turned into a hey, you're moving to Vegas in a month! Welcome to the next chapter of your life! It was a month long process of lots of waiting, lots of Shaun, CALM DOWN (he was sooo excited he was like a new puppy for WEEKS about just the prospect of this job.)  But hey, next week we fly to Vegas, to see where we'll be living for AT LEAST the next 18 months of our lives!

Don't you remember how much I hated moving? Yeah, we'll be moving to Vegas into a temp apartment for a couple of months, and then moving again onto Boys Town campus, and then we'll have to move again once we leave the job. Uh.... I hate that part of the job... MOVING, but hey, I'll take it.

Shaun's so excited for this job, and honestly, I am too! Who would have ever thought I would have been excited about being a parent to teenagers when I'm just a few years removed from the situation myself.

I know a lot of you guys don't know much about my teenage years, but I'll suffice it to say, they were not pleasant. My senior year was one of the worst of my entire life, and that's saying something, given I spent more time my junior year in the hospital and in dr's offices than in class.   I was talking to Shaun about this, and not going to lie, I was beginning to doubt how good I'd be at this job based just off that fact. I can't show them how to have a great teenage years/time, because I didn't have it myself. And then I got to thinking about it. My life lacked stability, and that's EXACTLY what these kids need, and what we're being hired to provide. I'm going to be able to sit down next to theses kids and say, you know, I don't know the extent of your life, and how bad that this has been for you, but at the same time, I can honestly tell you how much having some grounding helped me. How much having someone in my life supporting me and my decisions has helped me.  Like I said in the interview, I want to be that difference for someone. And I'm excited about that opportunity.


Luckily this time around moving won't be so bad, since 90% of our life is already in boxes! (YAY!) But still. I hate the idea of it. I've never been big on change. And going from a town of 250,000 people to almost 2 MILLION is a HUGE change. I'm a small town girl. One of my life goals is to live in a cabin in the mountains where you can't get cell service. ;) That sounds like heaven to me.




Ok, so that's big, and new, and exciting, but there's other things going on in our lives, and I'd like to just touch on them for a second.

First, we went to the allergist, (FINALLY), and had Bowen tested. Well. That was stupid. Can I just say that? (The allergist tried to convince us that Bo's eczema wasn't eczema and that it was just because he drools when he's teething, even though he's got eczema all over his legs, and arms. What the what? Regardless, we've got two pedi's and a dermatologist backing us, so we'll continue to treat the eczema and ignore this random quack doctor!)   We came with a list of things we thought Bo was allergic to, and he tested negative on all of them. But, I had one of the foods (banana) a couple days later, guess who reacted? Yep. So we'll just continue doing what we've been doing. Avoiding. Because had he actually tested positive for these things, that would be the course of action. Though we do think he's less sensitive to shrimp, which Shaun's thrilled about.

Things Bo's allergic to, for the record:
Banana
Shrimp
Sesame Seeds


And thus we continue on.


Also, I've finally got the ball rolling on a group I've been trying to start here in town, (thanks to some very lovely other ladies). Which is like a catch 22. I Love the fact that it's finally started up, and it was a long time coming, but now I'm leaving and I feel like I won't get to enjoy the fruits of my labor! Speaking of labor, the group is for women in the postpartum period of life, regardless of how old their baby may be, to talk about and process their birth and their depression, if that's something they're suffering from, and all other related things. This was something I was a part of in Utah and benefited greatly from and decided to try and bring something similar here to Florida, after noticing a need within the community.   ***Confession time*** I had a traumatic birth. If you don't have a clue what on earth I may be talking about, I highly recommend reading this post from another blogger. It's not something I talk about, often, or hardly ever, actually, but I don't think that's healthy, so here I am, blogging about it to the world.
 
But the whole birth story is for another post, that I promise is in the works.

Thanks for reading the crazy long post,

Kirsten

10 months!

Our little Bo is 10 months old!!! YAY!!! Here's a few pictures from the last couple of weeks, and a few videos (that will hopefully work!)

Bowen at exactly 10 months! :D

 

 This was Shaun's first Father's Day present. I signed the back of the "D" and hope to make it a tradition. I love the idea of it. We'll see if I can remember next year! HA!

Love that little boy!

Bowen's crazy! He's so high energy all day every day.  He's Go GO GOOO from the moment he wakes up. He loves to do laps around the house, his favorite is when you walk him around, but he takes the CAT truck as a close second. He's yet to let go of the couch and try to take some steps but he has no problem letting go of your hands and just take off. Like the other day chasing after his red ball. Crazy boy!  We took him to the pool today. Here's a couple of videos. 

He LOVES swimming and kept trying to put his face in the water. Silly boy! He would frequently try to crawl on the surface of the water, but towards the end he was kicking his feet! Takes after both his mom and dad in that regard! :D

My dad recently won the video camera that we used, it's dust, shock and water proof, so we took it for a test drive. Not too shabby! 

He's eating some solids now. But still not much. His most recent favorite is peas. Go figure. He had some tonight for dinner and LOVED them, just last the last couple times. But tonight he was trying to eat them by the handful! So silly!  He also ate part of a green bean from my mom's garden, loved it too! 

We're just waiting around, that's what we do. Waiting to see if we'll be staying in Tallahassee, or moving. Waiting for Shaun to find a job. Waiting for me to figure out what I'm going to be doing about school, and when, and where. But we're trying to make the best of it. We have faith that everything will work out. 

And that's where we are right now. 

St. Augustine

Last weekend we went to St. Augustine, Fl. It was SOOO much fun. We loved it, and it was really nice to get away for a while. Bowen and Shaun both got to go to the Atlantic Ocean for the first time together, which was really sweet and cute. But we went right before Tropical Storm Beryl hit, so the surf, while huge was very strong, and Shaun was not happy with it's surf-ability.  And the wind was also super strong, so we didn't stay at the beach for very long.  But we also got to go sight-seeing. Very fun! Here are some pictures from our trip. 

 This was Shaun's "Holy cow, I'm touching something that's more than 400 years old!" face!

Thank you camera timers!

And this last picture is why I LOVE my Ergo! LOVE having cuddles while walking around. Sweet Boy.

Well Bowen's growing leaps and bounds. He says "Buh-Bye" basically on command, which sometimes turns into the scream fest, as seen on the video on facebook. He waves and claps and is just soo full of life. We spend the majority of our days laughing at and with him! He thinks his daddy is the funniest thing ever. Even when Shaun is not trying to be silly Bowen's laughing at him. Which then turns us all into fits of laughter.  He loves to walk and took his first steps just last week, though he'll only walk to me! So silly!  Shaun's still looking for jobs, and we're still trying to figure out where we're going to end up. We were talking just yesterday that we both feel like we're spinning our wheels. We're in a routine, and that's great and all, but there's no progress, and we're a little stir cray because of that.

Bowen's really picking up with eating solids (though still not really eating too much). He LOVES meat, of any kind, and literally attacked me today to eat some of my peach! He ate his first apple slice last week, as opposed to his normal just gumming. He actually used a sippy cup for the first time yesterday! He's really growing up! 

OH! Something else that's new in our lives, we started cloth diapering! Ok, I think it's exciting, but I realize I'm really weird for that. We're LOVING it so far! Bo's butt is too! His once perceptually red butt is now all sweet and almost kissable! :D (Like I said, I know I'm weird!)  We're using GroVia's  and we're in love.  Even Shaun likes them! This was something we've wanted to do from the start, but living in Wymount and having to use a laundry mat, it wasn't really feasible. But, now with washer and dryer in house, we're enjoying the benefits, and (like I said) Bowen is too! 

We're trying to keep busy, going for walks, pushing Bo on his tricycle, going for bike rides, going for runs, playing in the pool on the back porch, going to the park, etc etc etc.   

We're loving it in Florida, we're all enjoying the sunshine, and warmer weather (though it was KILLER today). Thanks for reading this novel! 

Kirsten, Shaun and Bowen 

Buh buh buh buh bye! BUH BUH BUH BUH BUH BUH bye!

8 months, Easter and Graduation

I CANNOT believe it has taken me so long to update this blog. BUT in my defense the last few weeks/months have been CRAZY INSANELY busy! So, here's a recap.

A few weeks ago a mommy group that I was (that past tense is a little sad) a part of went to the aquarium up in Sandy. The aquarium was LAME (or maybe I was just spoiled as a kid growing up right next to the coast) but the company was fun and Bowen seemed to really enjoy the fish! He loved to watch them swim around. But nothing captivated him as much as the sea turtle! He was huge and awesome and kept swimming RIGHT in front of us. Bowen was IN LOVE! There was a display of penguins and just outside of it was a place to compare your height with that of a penguin, so of course I stood Bo up next to one. He just happened to be one of the same species from Happy Feet, there was a little smile in my heart as that's one of my favorite movies! Here he is:

He had a great time. 

Just a couple of weeks ago was Easter and we dressed Bo up. Here he is in his Easter outfit:

Complete with the ball Uncle Chad gave him!

He is such a happy little boy. He's always smiling and laughing and trying to get into things.

About a month and a half ago Bo learned to pull up to standing and he's been trying to conquer the entire world since then. He wants to be standing ALL THE TIME. He only wants to be on his belly to crawl to a place where he can stand. He's working on standing by himself, but he's only made it up to 30 seconds so far and we have to trick him into it. (He FREAKS out if he's holding on to something and then lets go and just stands there, he can do it, but it scares him, or something.)

At his 6 month check up he was 15 lbs 4 oz and 25 1/4 inches. He's just a growing. We threw him on the scale today at my dad's house and he's ALMOST 17lbs. Still little for his age, but growing!

He's doing great with solids, though he still hasn't had much. He tried English muffin today, and LOVED that. Tonight we had some watermelon and that was a new instant favorite. He gummed a piece to death! And then asked for more!  Just today Bowen woke up from a nap and had a tooth in this mouth! I couldn't believe it! I was so excited and so happy, who would have known?! Just from my baby getting a tooth! He's got one that's basically all capped out, and one that's just started to appear, I swear he didn't have either this morning!

Bo now says babababa and dadadadada and mamamama and several other things we haven't figured out yet. He knows milk in sign language, though he's yet to sign it himself.  He also tackled a flight of stairs the other day! I couldn't believe it! He just crawled right up to them and started climbing! I didn't even know he knew what to do!  He's a new adventure every day!

The next big thing that happened was HUGE!!!! Shaun finished his undergrad!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I think that statement deserves a whole page of exclamation points! :)

The last year and a half that we spent in Provo was rough, soo rough. 8 months I was pregnant, 8 months we had Bo there. I know that it was NOT easy for Shaun at all, but he did it. I am so ridiculously proud of him. A week ago he walked and got his "diploma" (the real one will come in the mail in a few months). It was an early morning for us, since he had to be AT the Marriott Center at 7 (and Bowen doesn't normally wake up until AT LEAST 8). So by the time Shaun had walked Bo was DONE with the day and with us, but he managed to get some cute pictures in. See below.

Shaun walking across the stage:

Afterwards:

Bowen decided that Shaun's cap would make a good hide and seek device. :)

And this is what happened as we walked back home. Bo passed out. Thank heavens for the ergo because I know he wouldn't have slept in the stroller! Sweet boy.

Once we got home we realized we had forgotten something! In Shaun's early morning haste to make it to the  Marriott on time he forgot his lei's. I remembered to grab them on my way out of the door to watch him walk, but just put them in my bag, so we totally forgot while taking pictures too! But as soon as we got BACK home we remembered and walked back outside to get some more pictures. I think you can see the news/feelings/relief/holy-crap-we-have-to-pack hitting Shaun in these pictures. :D

Well, he's done. We're so glad, and so grateful that he's finished, and from what grades have been submitted so far he did AWESOME! I'm soo proud of him. 

We've also made it to Florida, and have basically everything unpacked (who am I kidding, no we don't!, but we're working on it.)

We're trying to get settled in and Shaun has already started applying for jobs. Lots, and lots and LOTS of jobs. We're keeping our fingers crossed and prayers upwards. Hopefully something soon will appear. As for me, I hope to start taking some online classes now that Shaun has a little more time (YES he does have MORE time now, that's how crazy his schooling was.) Not too serious, just a few here and there until we figure out where we're going to be settling down.  But we'll see!  We're so thrilled to be out of Utah (though someone, the smallest someone, misses their Uncle Chad a LOT!) and moving on with our lives.  A whole bunch more of really big changes are coming, and we're excited about the prospects! Hopefully sometime soon we'll be dealing with the following BIG things: finding Shaun's first REAL (as I call them) big person job, moving? staying?, finding our own apartment?, townhouse?, condo?, House?!, me going to school, me graduating from school???!, babies? (not now!), new car for Shaun....

"life, everything, we're just beginning...."-Shaun

I think he said it just perfectly, we're just beginning.