Allergies

So when Hayden was bit by the mosquito, we ended up taking him to the doctor since his eye has swollen up so bad. While we were there, we mentioned to the doctor that we suspected a nut allergy. After some tests, we found out that he has a TON of food allergies. He is allergic to all tree nuts except pecans and hazelnuts, peanuts, eggs, peas, milk, soy and wheat. We met with an allergist and after meeting with her and a review of his test results, she determined that we need to completely avoid all nuts, peanuts, peas, eggs, milk and soy. Apparently his wheat allergy is not very bad and he can continue to have wheat. Thank goodness because we were seriously wondering what we would be able to feed him!

So we have replaced cow's milk with rice milk since he can't have soy, almond, coconut or an animal milk. We are learning how to replace eggs in many items (which is difficult and gives some things a funny texture). And you would be amazed at HOW MANY items actually have soy in them. It seems like we can find products that have all the allergens removed EXCEPT the soy. Very, very annoying.

I have been experimenting with many recipes on substitutions and so far, most are coming out fairly successful. I also finally broke down and bought a box of egg replacer. It definitely makes a difference compared to using applesauce or some of the other options for egg substitutions I have seen online.

The bad part of this entire thing is that he is pretty picky when it comes to food. He will not eat meat except chicken from Chick-Fil-A. And now with the allergies, he can only eat the grilled chicken from Chick-Fil-A, but thankfully he loves it. However, he rarely eats it reheated. His new favorite thing to eat is Cheerios. He has been going crazy eating only bowls of cereal. Oh and you know he eats whatever is served at school, but of course, not at home. :)

Because of the allergies, we have to ALWAYS carry an epi-pen, benadryl and steroids. We have had to give him the benadryl and a dose of steroids a few times, but luckily we have not had to use the epi-pen and I hope we never have to do it. The allergist told us there was an 80% chance he will grow out of his food allergies by the time he starts kindergarten and only about a 20% chance that he will grow out of the nut allergies.

Savannah, GA

In October, we made our first trip to Savannah, GA. I gave a presentation on religion in sports comedies at a popular culture conference. After my presentation, we enjoyed the evening with dinner with some seafood. On Saturday, we took Taryne and Hayden to the beach. This was their first trip to the beach. It was the first trip to an Atlantic beach for any of us. It was early October, but the water was pretty chilly. The most amazing thing about the beach was the sand dollars.

As a kid, we would often find small pieces of sand dollars on the beach in Galveston, but I had never seen a whole one on the beach...only in a souvenir shop. As we were playing in the sand and searching for shells, this girl came up to me and handed me something. It was this dark brownish-gray color and I honestly didn't know what it was. I must have looked confused because she told me it was a sand dollar. Really? It was whole! Then I realized it was ALIVE! That freaked me out a little. I went to hand it back to her and she told me to keep it. I then asked where she found it. She said out in the water just under the sand. Really? Later as we were on the edge of the water, I noticed a few of the air bubbles popping up were in a circle...so I quickly dug a little of the sand away and there was another sand dollar.

After the beach, we went back to the hotel for a small nap and then to downtown Savannah to check out the squares. There are a little over 20 squares around the downtown area. Each one has a unique feature and story. After a lot of walking, we had dinner and decided to call it a night. I think we thoroughly wore out Taryne and Hayden that day!

Olympic statue...the sailing competition from the 1996 Summer Olympics was held in Savannah

Tybee Island

Sort of blurry, but one of the sand dollars

She wanted to hold the bird so bad!

UT Gardens and Nature Trail

One weekend, we decided to take Taryne and Hayden to the UT Gardens on campus. The gardens are beautiful throughout the year with different plants blooming and there is even a kitchen garden with all sorts of fruits and veggies being grown.

After the UT Gardens, we went out to a nature trail area owned by UT. There were several trails, but we decided to check out one of the shorter ones since it was not really stroller friendly. Both Taryne and Hayden loved the walk and checking out the different trees and plants. The mosquitos were a bit bad that day and poor Hayden was bit just below the eye. He had an allergic reaction to the bite and it was swollen shut for nearly 3 days.

This wasn't even as bad as it got before the swelling went down...

These are the biggest holly bushes we have EVER seen!

HGTV is headquartered in Knoxville

Nature trail