Have you ever played "2 Flashlights?"

Not very long ago Jeremy was doing some work around the house and needed a flashlight. Lo and behold you would have thought it was Christmas in February at our house! Caleb thought the flashlight was the neatest and greatest thing. He begged to hold the flashlight and finally Jeremy had to retrieve a second one. Since then Caleb has learned to ask for the flashlight, (uh, more like order myself or Jeremy to get him a flashlight) with the words, "Get the fashyight Mommy/Daddy." If not immediately satisfied, he will then say, "Get two fashyights Mommy/Daddy." He and Jeremy have now made it into a game, which we call playing "2 Flashlights." The game simply involves going into a darkened room and shining the flashlight under various pieces of furniture to hunt for lost toys, books, clothing, etc. or just up on the wall for various entertainment purposes. I cannot tell you the number of times I have laughed at them playing their game. It is great! I know most adults would probably find this play a waste of time, but what a blessing it is that Jeremy is so willing to invest the time in playing with his son- what a great Dad!

Caleb Jumping

Caleb finds various ways to amuse himself when I am on the computer. This is usually right within eyesight as our computer sits by the bed. As you can tell from the video, I must have just put away some clothes because Caleb made excellent use of the empty clothes basket. Pardon the messy room, but I think the little acrobat is pretty funny.

Ode to a Paci

Oh Happy Day!

We've seen better days!

Well, we did it. We bit the bullet and took the paci away. Caleb has lost his best friend, TV watching companion, bedtime buddy and overall comfort giver. It's been a rough couple of days in the sleep department- nighttime and nap time, but it had to be done! I really was not in any hurry to take the paci away as I figured when Spring hit and we were able to play outside, Caleb would just naturally and gradually lose interest in it. I also wanted to wait and make the change from the crib to a big boy bed with paci on board to ease that transistion. Alas, however, his lips had become so chapped that it developed into eczema around his whole mouth and the paci was just making it worse. Caleb continues to ask for paci and I have repeatedly told him, "Paci is gone, paci made your mouth itch worse so we had to take it away." He now tells me, "Paci made mouth itch, paci gone," but he has continued to ask for paci, especially at naptime and bedtime. He even asks for a specific paci as identified by color- white paci or blue paci. I don't know how many more days we'll have of this, but I figure it won't last forever!

So paci, here's to you!

So long,
farewell
We hate to say goodbye
But truth be told
the time was drawing near
You've been a dear
and we'll miss you for awhile
Especially mommy's missed sleep-
you were such a jewel to help us through each night
But soon
you'll return
we're quite sure
with baby brother to come on board
until then, may you rest comfortably
in the aisles of Target and Wal Mart
Goodbye, Goodbye, Goodbye

Love, Caleb

In the kitchen and changing hair

Caleb loves to use "peppa". Notice his fluffy, long hairstyle too.

This is right after Caleb's bad haircut. As you can see, I accidentily hit his right side with the clippers while his left side remained a normal (while fuzzy) length.

Here Caleb is after the second clipping where I was able to match his left side to his right while Jeremy held him still. He now has one of those 80's do's.

Happy 2nd Birthday Caleb!

So we celebrated Caleb's 2nd Birthday a few months ago, but because of the break we took from blogging I am just now posting pictures. It was a wonderful party with lots of family present. Caleb even enjoyed an allergy free cake thanks to Cherrybrook Kitchen cake mixes! Mom and Dad hosted the party at their place as I didn't have the energy to get everything ready myself (due to fabulous pregnancy hormones!). Caleb received some wonderful gifts too and had a blast opening them.A pre-party game of tissue paper toss.

This is fun!

Radnor shares his skills with a saw.

The lifetime Tennessee Hunting and Fishing License, courtesy of Granddaddy.

Some crazy party-goers.
This is for me?

Let's blow out the candle, not burn ourselves!Happy Birthday Caleb!

If there's a cake, you can count on Granddaddy being close by!

Happy Halloween

So Caleb was Bob the Builder for Halloween. I didn't buy him a pre-designed costume because they just looked so cheap. Plus, Caleb's cousin had already loaned him a cute checkered shirt (from my favorite children's store Janie and Jack!) and a pair of overalls that would do the trick and were way cuter anyway! Thinking of Halloween, however, with a child allergic to milk, wheat, eggs, oats, nuts (as we just recently found out from Caleb's 2 year check up with his allergist) and likely peanuts isn't really a whole lot of fun. Taking him trick or treating would mean that Jeremy and I would most likely have to eat the candy (yeah, HAVE TO) and that just seemed kind of cruel. So we did what seemed the easiest and most logical, we trick or treated at Grandmama's and Grandmama's only because she had allergen free cookies for Caleb's treat. Caleb seemed to enjoy it although he would not wear his Bob the Builder hat, which I did actually splurge on Ebay for. So here he is at our stop at Grandmama's.
Since we're on the subject of food allergies, let me just take a moment to share some of what I have learned being a food allergy mom. In my previous 7 years as a dietitian I had little and I mean little experience with food allergies and the education dietitian's receive related to the topic is little at best, from what I remember. The one instance I remember having a patient who had a food allergy was on a weekend at the hospital when I just happened to be the dietitian on call. So I receive this call from our diet clerk, "Hey, we've got a lady here allergic to wheat. What do you want me to send her for her dinner?" My response, "Well, what did you serve for dinner?" After several back and forth conversations including one with the diet clerk reading me off the ingredients to the cottage cheese and a conversation with the patient herself in addition to a consult with a previous food textbook, we sent her a cottage cheese fruit plate- no muffins, no crackers. If the diet clerk had called and said to me, "We have a patient here allergic to milk, eggs, wheat, oats and nuts," I have no idea what I would have done! Likely the patient would have received plain, raw fruit and vegetables. The problem with food allergies, especially those like wheat and milk, is that other foods you do not traditionally associate with those food may in fact contain them and food labels and ingredient lists are not always clear on what is actually in the food. Casein (milk), for example and ingredients derived from wheat may be found in lunch meat, but they are not always specifically stated. Plus, the ingredients "natural flavors" may include ingredients derived from milk. So, as a food allergy mom, I have become an even more thorough food label reader and have even called food manufactures to be sure a product was free of Caleb's allergens. Cooking at home and taking food for Caleb when we eat out or visit other's people's homes has become a way of life for us. I am thankful that I enjoy cooking and have an interest in knowing about cooking (i.e. what purpose certain ingredients serve in specific recipes), because some of the products I use to bake for Caleb are of course different than just your regular baking ingredients. And how truly thankful I am that Caleb is such a terrific eater! I don't know many 2 year olds that love cole slaw and squash and ask for seconds on those foods, but he does. He loves all different kinds of vegetables and fruits and really and truly doesn't act that interested in sweets, which was one of my big concerns in having a child with food allergies. My mother made him a delicious fruit cobbler (yeah, wheat, dairy, egg, oat, nut free if you can believe it), which he thoroughly enjoyed his first bowl of (pictured below), but then was not interested in the next day.
Jeremy and I wound up finishing it for him, and believe me, it was delicious (thank you Bob's Red Mill biscuit and baking mix and pancake mix- both which are wheat, oat, dairy and egg free- and thank you Mom for being able to cook allergy free for him!). Which reminds me of how completely and totally thankful I am for the convenience items he can consume that seem to make his eating a little more normal and make meal preparation a little easier for me. While they are sometimes difficult to find and often pricier, these items are great! Since Caleb is allergic to both wheat and oats, most of these items are gluten free, so I somewhat feel like I know what the person with Celiac disease must go through. Anyway, having lived for a year avoiding Caleb's food allergens, if I ever return to work I will be much better equipped at working with people who suffer from them. Here is a picture of some of our favorite "convenience" food items that meet Caleb's allergen list.

Break from Blogging.....

So, we've been away for a while with a break from blogging but alas, we have returned! There were several reasons for the break which I will list just for my own sake.
1. Broke the camera and something just doesn't seem right about blogging without pictures- who would care to listen to my narrative (excuse the present!)?
2. Procrastinated, but finally bought a new camera but then could not get the software to work correctly on the computer to download pictures. Problem recently fixed! Thank you Jeremy.
3. Found out baby #2 was on the way and amidst the nausea and vomiting, found out I needed to spend Caleb's nap time napping myself (there goes the previous designated blogging time). It is amazing how much time I could spend sleeping being preggers!
4. Joined Facebook and my need for communication with the outside world was solved with the break from blogging! By the way, if you're not on Facebook take the time to join and get in touch with all those long lost high school cronies, college roomies and the like.
5. One word: HOLIDAYS! Thanksgiving and Christmas were great! We spent a lot of time with family and friends, including relatives from NC which was wonderful. They were busy, nonetheless, and with the increased amount of cooking I did combined with the increased need for sleep, not much time was left for blogging! Not to mention time required to shop. Thankfully, I had already purchased many of my gifts, so I didn't really have any last minute purchases to make.
6. Jeremy had the month of December off from rotations and so we just spent some time chillin' as a family. I don't think Caleb knew much what to do with both of us here, but I think he enjoyed getting to see his daddy everyday for more than just a few hours. Jeremy and I also managed to get away for a couple of days just the two of us to Gatlinburg. Believe it or not, it was my first overnighter away from Caleb. He stayed with Grandmama and Granddaddy and had a wonderful time, as did we! Jeremy unfortunately returns to his rotations today, however, I really think he is glad to be returning to something productive. Plus, he can see now that the end of school is in sight! Just a few rotations left and then graduation the end of May, which just also happens to be when the baby is due. We like to plan big events simultaneously!
Here we are today, trying to turn life into some sense of normalcy- Jeremy's back to school, I'm ~21 weeks pregnant and Caleb is amusing us everyday. How exciting that a new year has begun and new beginnings are all around us! I'll probably post some pictures from the past few months in my next blog.