Alex's 4th Birthday/B&O Raiload Museum

We celebrated Alex's 4th Birthday in Baltimore at the B&O Railroad Museum.  Yet another gorgeous September day. I may need to move to San Diego so that we can have days like this all year long ;)

 

Inside the Museum

Riding the Carousel

 



Ethan

The birthday boy!

 

Audrey riding the train. She looks unsure, but she loved it!

The boys

Audrey & Daddy on the Carousel

 

Playing with the trains

One of the many trains inside the museum.

Train ride!

Waiting for the train to go.

Tired after a fun day.

Happy 4th Birthday, Alex! So glad we got to celebrate with you :)

2012 FAAN Walk for Food Allergy

This September was our 2nd FAAN Walk for Food Allergy. It was a 2.3 mile walk in Ellicott City, MD and the weather could not have been more perfect!

 

"No pictures, please"



 

The Walk

We walked as part of a group called Linda's Legacy (set up by my sister's food allergy moms support group), which happened to be the #1 fundraising group this year, raising just under $4,000 for FAAN (Food Allergy & Anaphylaxis Network).



 

Ready to "walk"



The boys did walk some...and at one point, Ethan pulled Alex and I in the wagon :)





Wildlife

Alex



Ethan





Ethan & Alex with Captain America & Mickey Mouse

 

 Such a fun morning and a great experience for the boys. The only thing that would have made it better is if Kyle Dine was there ;)

Food Allergies Rock!

 

In September, we traveled to Philadelphia to see Kyle Dine at the Strides for Safe Kids Food Allergy Expo. I cannot say enough good things about Kyle Dine. He is a rock star in so many ways. My nephew, Alex, has several food allergies (although, thankfully, the list has gotten much shorter over the last couple of years!) His food allergies impact his life daily and there are many more challenges to come as he gets older. Kyle is a Canadian song writer who entertains and educates about food allergies. He performs at school assemblies, but we have seen him at my sister's food allergy support group and two years in a row at this expo. It is so sweet to see how he encourages these kids. I just love him.

Kyle Dine :)

 

My nephew, Alex, rocking his Food Allergy Expo T-Shirt

Ethan & Alex getting their very own Kyle Dine guitar picks!



After the Expo, we had lunch at one of our favorite allergy-friendly restaurants.

My sweet girl...always sucks her thumb when she's tired.

Ethan & Audrey LOVE the egg drop soup at PF Chang's...I love that they eat all kinds of things I never would have eaten as a kid.

 

Before heading home, we visited my grandmother in Philadelphia--notice the billboard (I LOVE Revenge!)


Have I mentioned that we LOVE Kyle Dine?!? Audrey's favorite song is "Food Allergies Rock!" The kids always want Kyle Dine in the car and Audrey always insists we start with Food Allergies Rock. I'm pretty sure I've heard it at least a million times, but I don't mind because Kyle Dine rocks! :) 



Catching up, Part 1: September

Wow, so we've been a little busy since school started...Let's catch up! (I just may be the worst blogger ever!)

Here are some of the highlights from September:

Back to school shoe shopping...

Audrey's navy Tom's are in that bag...Love her. Lover her Toms :)

My little shopper :)

Ethan picked these out himself :)



The kids LOVE getting balloons from the kids shoe department.

Playing outside while we wait for Daddy to come home from work...

Tricycle Ride! (To whoever invented the long handle on Audrey's tricycle, you are my hero).

Ethan on his bike (given to us by a generous neighbor!)

Wildlife

Trip to the ER (because we do that...regularly)...

This time it was an eye issue. Ethan started rubbing his eye on a Friday. By late afternoon, I was concerned, so we visit our pediatrician. They put some gooey stuff on his eye and examined it under a black light, but didn't see anything, so they said maybe it was an allergy issue (I had my doubts) and we came home. Later that night, Ethan woke up crying that his eye hurt, so on Saturday morning it was back to the pediatrician. They examined his eye under the black light again, still didn't see anything, but could tell by Ethan's level of discomfort that something was going on. Since it was Saturday, they sent us to the ER to see a pediatric ophthalmologist.



Waiting for the doctor...

Right eye problems.

Waiting some more...

 We LOVE the new pediatric ER at AAMC...glad it's there, wish we'd stop having reasons to visit ;) Anyway. Ethan had to do the gooey stuff/black light thing again. He was not a fan (especially since it was the 3rd time in 2 days), but he did a great job cooperating with the nurses. They didn't see anything either and were going to send us home with the "allergy" diagnosis...I wasn't happy with because I knew something was up, but thankfully the doctor called our pediatrician to discuss. I don't know what Dr. G said, but they came back and said they were going to flush his eye in case there was something in there they weren't able to see. It was torture. The nurses basically had to swaddle him so he couldn't move his arm and then squirt water into his eye. It broke my heart having to help hold him down, but as we tell our kids all the time, "sometimes we have to do things we don't want to do to help us feel better." Ethan was a champ.



Reward for water torture.

...And the toy machine, conveniently located right outside of our room.

 We still don't know what was in Ethan's eye, but after the nurses flushed it out, he felt much better. The doctor said his eye would probably hurt for another day or so from the pressure of the water, but I could tell a difference in him very soon after. My boy was back!