Just a little poke … or 8!

After the great cashew butter and jelly incident in Chicago, we, along with Harmon’s doctor, thought it might be a good idea if Harmon got some allergy testing. So, on Aug. 19, we headed to the U-M Food Allergy Clinic at Domino’s Farms. Side note: while we were parking, we saw a few longhorns as this clinic is in the same complex as the Domino’s Petting Zoo. Holy cow (har, har), they are HUGE! I also can see how there would be some serious goring happening with those things around!

ANYWAY, after talking to the allergist a bit about what happened and other things that we’ve figured out Harmon is allergic to, it was time for some testing. Instead of doing it on his back, which we were expecting, the technician did four picks on the inside of each of his forearms. He then had to sit for 20 minutes to give his body time to react to the serums. I held him on the exam table while he sat with his arms facing up and resting on a pillow. The clinic had portable DVD players (and Harmon watched Air Buddies) so that made the 20 minutes go by much faster. We could see him getting small hives on some of the picks so what we thought was confirmed. He is allergic to fish, eggs (straight eggs only, like scrambled eggs), cashews (NO WAY), pecans, walnuts and hazelnuts. Surprisingly, he wasn’t allergic to almonds (he has had those on a couple of occasions with no reaction) but the doctor recommended we just steer clear of all tree nuts just to be safe. We also had orders for a blood draw but we decided he had been through enough that day. So, we instead headed to Toys R Us where he got a nice Cars surprise.

Since the testing, he’s been just fine. We’re learning how to avoid tree nuts, mostly by reading food labels, and we have an EpiPen for emergencies. If I HAD to choose, I would rather have him allergic to tree nuts than peanuts, mostly because he wouldn’t be able to have PBJ anymore. This is his favorite thing in the whole world AND the thing that really got this allergy business started.

This is the ONLY cool thing about Chuck E. Cheese's:

Funny Harmon things

10 funny things about Harmon lately:

1) We let him ride his tricycle down to the fire hydrant in front of our neighbors’ house and back again. When you ask him where he's going, he says he’s going to ride his bike down to the “fire department.”

2) When Harmon was a baby and we all would snuggle up in the bed, he always used to roll toward Kevin. Kevin would say that Harmon was “bum rushing” him. The other day, both boys were in the bed and Simon started rolling toward Harmon. Harmon promptly said that Simon was “bumming” him.

3) He sings “We Made You” by Eminem. He also loves the video.

4) His favorite cookies are Pepperidge Farm Chessman Cookies. BUT, he calls them Chester Cookies.

5) He has a new-found love of strawberry Pop-Tarts.

6) He calls Taco Bell “Bells.” We’re not sure why. We’ve never taken him there and we’ve only been through the drive-thru a few times since he was born.

7) His “th” sound comes out as an “f” sound. He’ll say, on bath night for example, “I don’t have to take a baf?”

8) Sometimes, his “s” sounds come out as “sh” sounds. Case in point – sausage becomes shaushage. Hilarious!

9) Instead of ridiculous, things are ridicleous to Harmon!

10) He just recently decided that he likes things like frozen yogurt and donuts, after basically refusing to try these things for almost three years.

Three hots and a cot

I’ve always loved the “three hots and a cot” line from Boyz n the Hood so I like to work it in when I can!

Anyway, on Monday, July 6 – which happened to be the first day of our vacation – we started Simon on a three-meals-a-day schedule. He had cereal and fruit for breakfast; cereal and vegetable for lunch; and fruit and vegetable for dinner. With each meal, he also had a bottle and then had one last bottle before bed. So far, it’s going very well. Let it be known he’s not one to turn down any food. I buy the two-pack tubs of Gerber baby food and he was having a half tub at each meal so we were going through one tub of fruit and one tub of vegetable each day. Since it’s been about a month of this and he’s still ALWAYS hungry, tomorrow we’re upping the intake to one tub at each meal.

His nine-month appointment isn’t until Sept. 4 and we can’t wait to see how much he weighs. I’m thinking he might finally catch big brother.