Snow

Snow
It won't be long before we'll all be there with snow
Snow
I want to wash my hands, my face and hair with snow

Snow
I long to clear a path and lift a spade of snow
Snow
Oh, to see a great big man entirely made of snow

Where it's snowing
All winter through
That's where I want to be
Snowball throwing
That's what I'll do
How I'm longing to ski
Through the snow-oh-oh-oh-oh


Those glist'ning houses that seem to be built of snow
Snow
Oh, to see a mountain covered with a quilt of snow

What is Christmas with no snow
No white Christmas with no snow
Snow

I'll soon be there with snow
I'll wash my hair with snow
And with a spade of snow
I'll build a man that's made of snow
I'd love to stay up with you but I recommend a little shuteye
Go to sleep
And dream
Of snow

Playdate...

Jackson had a playdate with his friends Maddy, Grayson and Amelia on Saturday night. The kids played well together, running between Jackson's bedroom and the living room, a tornado of toys following them. Jackson was tuckered out when his friends left and crashed on his bedroom floor, which is become somewhat of a habit for him. Here are some photos from the event, we did pretty well getting them all in one place so that moms could snap memory shots for our scrapbooks! Believe it or not, the kids posed on their own for the first photo.

We have another set of friends that are usually with us in this gang. Elise and Anja were missing from our playdate, and we talked about options to get us all together once again. Jason and Darcie and their family moved to south eastern Minnesota late this summer and are missed.

Thanksgiving Day

We hope that you all had a Happy Thanksgiving. We are full and happy after two days of turkey dinners! Jackson had a great time, and enjoyed the meals immensely. His favorite dish on the Thanksgiving table, this year: cranberries!

Jackson watched the Macy's Thanksgiving parade with me. I didn't think he'd sit for it, but I was so excited that we were able to watch parts of it together. He liked seeing the Snoopy and Dora balloons.


To keep the boys busy while the dishes were being done, Ron read the boys a book


Luke and Jackson, Thanksgiving 2008

Como Conservatory

It is so nice that we can head to the warmth of the Como Conservatory to feel like we are somewhere warm. Jackson really liked the fish and can't wait to return.

Pop Goes the Weasel...

Baa Baa Black Sheep...

This week in pictures...

We played hide and seek. It took me a while to find him on this round.



Played mini golf at the Children's Museum



We made colorful snowflakes and hung them in the window.



And he was just plain cute

I feel in love with the drummer...

Last weekend we had our friends Russ, Heather and Grayson over for pizza and play. The boys had a great time together and even decided to start up a band together. They just need to decide who will be the drummer:

Allergy Update

The time at home has been going well, we are having a lot of fun when we can. Though we are starting to get a little stir crazy, and I welcome the adult conversations like you wouldn't believe. The schedule is a little nuts and goes something like this:

7:30 - 9 Try to get some work done
9 - 12 Take care of Jackson, pick up the house and run errands
12 - 2 Work
2-5:30 Keep Jackson busy
5:30 - 7:30 Eat and spend time with my family
7:30 - 10 Work or do homework, depending on the day

We are slowly finding out what Jackson is allergic to. On the no list so far are strawberries, tree nuts and caramel color (which could be dairy or gluten). We are trying gluten today, so we'll have the answer to this very soon.

We are also sure that he is allergic to our old detergent or dryer sheets. We've switched to Tide Free and stopped using dryer sheets and that has put an end to that reaction.

Monday Feature: Likes and Dislikes

Jackson's Likes: steak, sleeping on the floor of his bedroom, apricot fruit leathers, dump trucks, gluten-free, dairy-free pancakes, the rollercoaster at the MOA, honey roasted chick peas, playing guitar at The Children's Museum, colors, the library, putting on his coat all by himself, cooking, playing with Grayson, Baby Hank, the ball pit at Eagle's Nest and tow trucks

Dislikes: getting his hair cut, asparagus and nose wipes

What do we do with our time...

So, some of you may be wondering what we are doing with all of our time together, and I thought I would show you, in pictures.

We are playing in the ballpit at Eagle's Nest in New Brighton

And rockclimbing at Eagle's Nest

Making giraffes out of Duplos

And flying Duplo made airplanes around the dining room table

Apples the size of his head...

Ron's uncle works at an apple orchard, and maintains apple trees in his yard. This apple comes from one of his trees. Isn't it crazy?

Cheese

This is what Jackson does now when someone says "say cheese!"

Cheese!

Strawberry Fields Forever

We've confirmed Jackson's first allergy, strawberries. We tried a small amount pureed in his cereal this morning and he seemed to get flushed right after breakfast. But seeing as how I am never quite sure that it's the food he's eaten, we tried it again at snack time. He had two small strawberries and within minutes his cheeks were bright red and splotchy. So strawberries move to the not safe foods, poor kid.

Safe Foods:
Alum
Apples
Aspagargus
Bananas
Banana juice
Black Beans
Blueberries
Brocolli
Carrots
Carrot Juice
Chicken
Chocolate Chip Cookies -- Enjoy life (allergen free)
Corn
Fruit leathers organic -- Peach, grape, pineapple, apricot
Fruit Snacks -- Annies organic fruit bunnies
Granola -- Back to Nature Apple Cinnmon
Grapes
Green beans
Gyro Meat
Hamburger
Lima Beans
Mango Juice
Mashed potatoes (made with rice milk, no butter)
Oats
Pears
Peas
Pickles
Pinto Beans
Pork
Potato
Raisins
Rice
Rice crackers -- Hol Grain Brown Rice
Rice flour
Rice Milk
Rice Poofs
Sorghum Flour
Spinach
Squash
Sweetpotato
Tapioca Flour

Not Safe
Strawberries

Bye Bye...

Picture this:
Jackson takes his red school bag off the doorknob, throws it over his shoulder then he's off to the kitchen. He finds his tin lunch box and carries it in his other hand. Next, he comes up to me and says "bye-bye Mommy, kiss?". So I bend down and give him a kiss. Then he's off to find Daddy for a repeat of this routine, then he heads to the back door. It's adorable, he's completely copying the routine that happens on the days that Mommy goes to work, or Daddy goes to work.

Some days he even does this while wearing just a diaper... like he's off to work without any clothes on!

Calling home...

I called home today to check on Jackson and talked to him for a bit on the phone, and while I did, Ron sent me this picture.

Rainy days and Mondays...

Allergy progress: On Friday we tried soy milk. A little bit for breakfast, a glass at lunch and one at dinner. It looked like he did fine, though he did have two tiny little red spots at bed time, but I don't think it was related. So, we tried the same thing on Saturday, and all went well. We'll put it on the maybe list (because of the two red spots) and take him back off for now.

Today is officially the start of our new schedule. I will be working a long day in the office on Mondays (while Ron is home with Jackson), staying home with Jackson the rest of the week, and working from home in the early mornings and evenings. It's a full schedule, and leaves basically no time to play, any free time will be used to do homework. I'm doing all of this to get a handle on Jackson's food allergies.

However, for the start of our "project", Jackson woke up with a rash all over his face! Ugh. And it looks as though Ron is going to have to go into work, because one of his lifeguards has injured himself. So we aren't really starting off on the foot I had hoped for, the right one.

It's possible that the lunch meat that we got could have been the culprit, though I have doubts. It's an organic product, contains chicken and sodium lactate (my research showed that this was not a potential allergy). The label also said that good practices were used to prevent any contamintation from other allergens. He ate the lunch meat at 5:30pm and at 8:30 when Ron put him to bed he was just fine.

Is it possible that something in his bed irritated him? I suppose so, so I took everything out and put it in the washing machine with Tide Free again this morning.

Or is it the fact that he has a cold of some sort and is pretty snotty? He potentially slept with snot all over his face during the night. Or maybe it has something to do with cutting his canine teeth.

We are going to do everything we can to get his face cleared up today so that we can try a new food tomorrow.

Ron's Birthday

Ron's Birthday...

Happy birthday to the husband and the daddy at our house!

Allergies scratched...

We took Jackson to see the allergist again on Monday and she decided to do another skin test. During these tests, his skin is exposed to allergy-causing substances (allergens) and then is observed for signs of an allergic reaction. The results came back that we should stay clear of treenuts, he had a reaction to three of the tree nuts that were tested. However, this still does not solve our issue and the doctor wants us to continue to completely limit dairy for the next 6 mos. Dairy is a known allergen for coming up negative in blood and skin tests.

Today and tomorrow are Jackson's last days at childcare. Starting next week I will stay home and keep a close eye on Jackson's diet. The last few weeks now that he has had an allergen free diet he has been doing great! Next week I will start by adding soy back into his diet and see what happens. I am looking forward to being home with him, but am going to have to find some stuff to keep us busy. If you are looking for a playdate during the week, give us a ring!

Trick or treat...

I have not been very good about uploading photos lately, as I just haven't found the time. Here is one of Jackson in his Halloween costume, he was a puppy dog, woof-woof!