Playing Catch-Up

Spring break is nearing its end, and though I am envious of all of the people who took exotic trips, I must say that we have thoroughly enjoyed our stay-cation.  My mom came to town last Friday evening and stayed through yesterday evening.  Her original flight was scheduled for Tuesday, but due to our unfortunate circumstances, she stayed a couple extra days.  What a treat!

 

We started our week with massages last Saturday.  This isn't something we splurge on very often ever, and we both agreed that the massages ended way too quickly.  And they were so relaxing that we were both pretty much worthless for the rest of the day.  We did manage to make it through a Target trip, though, and Sara came home with her very own lawn mower.  Her words are still a little hard to understand, but I think that in this picture, she's telling her dad that the yard is ready and waiting for him to pull out his own mower and put it to work.  Hint, hint.

We spent Sunday at the Children's Museum at the Museum of Nature and Science in Fair Park.  Sara did a great job collecting chicken eggs in her borrowed burlap sack.  She didn't fully understand the term borrowed, and was not happy to learn that the eggs had to be returned to their owners at the end of our trip.  After working hard at the museum, we ended up on Matt's patio in Lakewood for some Tex-Mex refreshments.

On Monday we went to the Dallas Arboretum.  It was a beautiful day, and because of the annual Dallas Blooms festival that is taking place, there were many fun activities going on around the park.  Sara enjoyed looking at the animals in the petting zoo.  She didn't want to touch them, but she had a good time pointing, calling the baby goats "dogs", and laughing with delight when they stuck their heads out of the fence to be fed.

We waited in a ridiculously long line (it didn't appear to be very long when we originally committed) to have a $5 silhouette made.  Though we had all had enough by the time we were finished, I'm so glad we waited.  Have you ever heard of a $5 silhouette?  Me neither.  And it turned out so perfectly.  It's hanging in our kitchen now, and will always be a keepsake. In fact, it's so absolutely precious that the pain of our long wait had nearly subsided by the time we were lounging and enjoying our arboretum lunch not fifteen minutes after the silhouette's completion.

This picture is of Sara right after she broke my sunglasses, requiring another Target trip.  Darn.  Aren't those daffodils beautiful?  And what about that little girl?

Sara spent lots of time over the break coloring at her table.  Here she is on St. Patty's Day.  You can see that, even on Wednesday afternoon, she was still pretty red and puffy from her now infamous run-in with the good ol' PB.

Sara is much, much better today.  She was on Benadryl around the clock for 48 hours, beginning Tuesday afternoon, and continues to take a steroid through tomorrow evening.  Though she's been acting mostly like herself, she's been a little glassy-eyed.  I hate that she has had to have so many drugs in her little system.  Anyway, we are now part of the EpiPen club, and we'll visit an allergist on Monday afternoon for more details regarding Sara's reaction to PB.  Today we went back to the pediatrician for her 15-month check-up.  Leaving the doctor on Tuesday evening, it gave me peace of mind that we'd already had this visit scheduled.  Since Tuesday, we've had a few people tell us that children under two-years-old are never supposed to have PB.  I hadn't heard that, and it surprised me because our pediatrician is so good about letting me know what's okay and what's not okay.  So I ran this theory by him today and he said that, while it was popular for a while, it's basically been myth-busted.  Even the American Pediatric Association (or whatever it's called) doesn't subscribe to that thought. He said there are so many theories out there, including one that suggests it's best to introduce such foods within the first year to decrease the likelihood of allergies.  As with most things, there are arguments for and against.  But in the end, he said that Sara's reaction to PB was going to happen -- now or in a year from now.  He also said that 75% of people do not outgrow peanut allergies.  That's a pretty big number, which makes me even more anxious to hear from the allergist.  Can you imagine a life without PB? 

After our appointment today, Sara and I had a lunch date at Chick-fil-A.  Yum.  Then we did a little window shopping outside at Firewheel (a little real shopping, too, with leftover birthday gift cards that have been burning holes in my wallet).  Now my sweet girl is napping.  It's a beautiful day today - high of 73 - so once she's up, we're going to head outside.  Tomorrow a cold front is supposed to move through (thanks a lot, Denver), so we're going to try to soak up the sun today.  When we say, "Let's go outside," I don't know who gets to the door faster these days: Sara or Higgins!