Snow much fun in Nebraska

Warning...Random Photo overload

Polar express

We decided to treat the kiddo to a trip on the polar express at hood river railway.  It was awesome!

note: this train car was from the indiana rail road company

We got a golden ticket

Cookies and cocoa

Santa at the north pole

The conductor punching our tickets

Grant would not talk to Santa but was happy to hug the Hobo

Finally willing to talk to santa

holiday festivities

The hospital we work at set up a Santa land in the lobby.  The line was super long to see Santa but they cam around every 10 minutes or so and brought cookies or fruit or cider.  They also had real reindeer and crafts.  

They loved the nutcrackers

Waited in line for 40 minutes for the santa visit

 Then we headed for a Christmas tree lighting in the rain...without coats and only one umbrella for the 3 of us.  Poor planning.  they ran out of hot cocoa when we were almost to the front of the line.

check out this sleigh!  Photo op!

We were super happy when the Nicholson family showed up.

to the park

The sun was shining when I got off work today so...to the park!

When did it start getting dark at 440.  

Thanksgiving in pictures

"mom, i'm sorry, we have a problem.  I accidentally wrote on
my skin" noted his name on his arm.

"I built a house!"  while daddy watched football

Lunch...turkey, stuffing, potatoes, gravy, cranberry and bacon
on a homemade bun serve with sweet potato fries.
(we made the whole spread on tuesday)

After Will left for work we decorated the tree.
the boys are wearing boots because there were
several ornament casualties.

Setting up the train...don't mind the underwear...
one of the joys of a quiet holiday at home.  

Playing with the train

Grant's allergy update

We have spent a lot of time at the allergist office this month.  today was our third visit in less than 3 weeks.  The original visit was supposed to be a routine followup visit but he had started having reactions to nuts this fall so we talked about testing him for nut allergies aft christmas.  I also wanted Grant to get a flu shot this year.  There's some new research with flu shots in kiddos, first they emphasized the importance in kids with asthma due to increase risk of hospitalization (Grant was diagnosed with asthma in the spring) and second they are encouraging people with egg allergies to get flu shots, the regular flu shot now contains a fraction of the egg protein of previous vaccines  and there are even lower egg versions for kids 4 and older.  So it was decided that Grant would be scratch tested for the regular flu shot but first we needed a week without antihistamines.  Also at this visit, the doctor notice Grant had a double ear infection so we started 10 days of steroids and 14 days of Omnief but his asthma is so much better that we can stop giving him singulair.  

Visit 2...We were planning to skin test for the flu shot and also eggs so that Grant can get the flu shot.  We decided to also test for all nuts so we won't have to do it after christmas, and also retest his other food allergies since he'll be due for a retest in the spring.  This ended up being about 18 skin pricks on his little back, ouchies and ichies made for a very unpleasant visit.  He tested negative for flu shot, eggs, oats, pecans, and brazil nuts and positive for almonds, cashews, hazelnuts, peanuts, pistachios, sesame, mustard, soy, and two kinds of walnuts.  They forgot to test for peas.  SO he got the flu shot...another ouchie :-(  and the ok to start eating oats.  We scheduled a followup egg challenge.  

Visit 3...today...I prepared a scrambled egg and took it to the allergist office.  The doctor measured out 5 doses of eggs, 1 gram, 2 gram, 4 gram, 8 gram, and 16 gram.  They gave him some ketchup and let him eat the first dose.  We had to wait 15 minutes in between each dose to check for a reaction.  In between the third and forth dose they placed a skin test for peas (and 2 controls) and we waited.  Grant passed both tests and he can now eat egg and peas.  He chose to celebrate by eating the leftover scrambled eggs that weren't needed for the test.   Since the asthma is still under control without singulair and antihistamines, we are decreasing his inhaled steroid dose by half.  Yay Grant!  (yay for mommy and daddy too because we don't have to worry about giving him foods with egg in it)

In between egg cup 1 and 2

In between cups 3 and 4.  Checking out
cups 4 and 5.  (pea skin test on his back)

Enjoying the left over eggs that
were not part of the test.

our first trip to OMSI