Thursday, July 26, 2007

Spiderman doesn't care about food allergies

Yesterday Big Guy turned 5! I can hardly believe it. He had a good day. Below are some of the photos from the day ....
Started off with chocolate chip pancakes -- made with Ener-G replacer, soy milk and Ghiradelli chips

They were yummy!!!!

He went to "school" today and brought Fear Factor push-ups. No dairy!! After school, he came home and found this in the backyard ...


An inflatable water slide!!





They definitely liked it! And had a great time. It will get lots more use at the family party we are having for both boys in a week or so.

For dinner, we got pizza. Since Big Guy can tolerate dairy, he can eat it, but Little Guy cannot. SO, I made Little Guy a pizza with a tortilla, tomato sauce, piece of cut up salami and Tofutti cheese. He liked it and didn't feel left out. Also, when I ordered the pizza I asked for PLAIN breadsticks -- no butter, no cheese -- for Little Guy. He LOVED those too.

The overall theme for his birthday definitely centered on Spiderman, which he loves. (Which is amazing since he has NEVER seen the show or movie. It really speaks to the power of marketing!)

The cupcakes were homemade with the Cherrybrook Kitchen chocolate cake mix and Pillsbury Whipped Supreme frosting. They were YUMMY. And on the top were Spiderman cupcake toppers.




He had a great day and so did we. These are the really fun birthdays ... they get it, they show unbridled joy and excitement .... and Spiderman doesn't care if he has food allergies!!

Tuesday, July 17, 2007

Eating Out

Up until our recent vacation, I was pretty easy going about eating out. I would look at the menu and find something that looked safe for the boys, such as a hamburger, and would ask them to make sure that they didn't put ANYTHING on the bun ... no butter, etc. I didn't necessarily get into all the details of all the foods they were allergic to.

But while on vacation, we stopped for lunch in Sausalito and looked at the kid's menu, which consisted of:
  • Fish and Chips (nope, probable egg or cheese in the batter)
  • Chicken fingers (nope, same reason as above)
  • Pizza (umm, obvious NO)
  • Spaghetti and marinara (okay, finally something they can eat)

We ordered the spaghetti for both of them. And MY FAULT, I didn't quiz the waiter about what they put in it. In my mind, you would only put noodles and tomato sauce in this dish. Plus at the same time, my husband is complaining that the beautiful outdoor seating overlooking the bay was too hot ... and then Big Guy was squinting and complaining, so I had to ask to be moved inside. Needless to say, I was occupied with lots of things at the time.

Okay, here comes the food. Little Guy takes one tiny bite, about 2 inches of noodles and sauce and within 3 minutes starts telling me his tongue hurts. SHIT!!!!! I quickly down my glass of wine and fish tacos. I don't give him anymore to eat and we wait. I ask the waiter if they put cheese in the kid's spaghetti, he insists that they don't ... just noodles, tomatoes and herbs.

A couple minutes later, Little Guy tells me he has to throw up. I scoop him up with the napkin and race off through the crowded restaurant to the Ladies room. We stand in front of the toilet ... nothing. "Do you need to throw up? Because this is the place to do it. I'll give you some medicine when we get back to our table." He tells me he wants the medicine and isn't going to be sick. Okay, I hope so.

Back to the table. On the way back, the nice hostess asks if everything is all right. I tell her he has a food allergy and I think the marinara might have made him sick. Another waiter is standing and also insists there is no cheese in that dish.

Little Guy sits nicely at the table and takes the benadryl. My husband says he'll take him out of the restaurant, just in case. I wait and wait and wait with Big Guy for the waiter and the bill. FINALLY, I get it and we leave.

Outside, there stands my husband in a wettish shirt, "he threw up on the way out of the restaurant. All over me and him, the wall and a lady walking in." Oh no! But it is, in a perverse way, funny too. I have the mental image of my husband holding his fingers over Little Guy's mouth (as he described later to me) and the puke spewing out. Luckily (1) my husband has a similar sense of humor to mine, (2) I know the boys' allergies aren't so severe that there could be breathing issues.

Then we look at Little Guy's legs and see some hives too. He definitely had an allergic reaction to the noodles. We give him some more benadryl and drive away.

To defend the restaurant, I didn't explain what Little Guy's allergies are (but I am not totally thrilled with the waiters' snooty attitude). I realized I need to be the person who starts out the conversation "my son has a lot of food allergies ... can you help me find something he can eat?"

We did that that same night at a restaurant in San Francisco and they were VERY helpful. There was nothing on their kids' menu that Little Guy could eat, so they grilled a piece of chicken for him and gave him some french fries and steamed veggies.

I guess I haven't been that particular and stringent about it in the past because I've been lucky and his reactions aren't life threatening, but I hate to see poor Little Guy feel bad, so I need to be better about it. And reading posts like this help me to know that I'm not alone out there.

Monday, July 16, 2007

Summer time and the living is ....

not really easy, is it? It is BUSY! Which I know is no excuse for not blogging. Look at No Whey Mama, she is busy and PREGNANT! Congrats!!! Not unlike me, her sister is getting married too and she threw her a shower.

Rats! That was one of my excuses for not blogging. Here they are: throwing my sis a wedding shower, super busy at work, went on vacation, had my hubby's b-day, had my b-day, trying to work out more, getting ready for Big Guy and Little Guy's b-day in July and August; joined a book club and had to read the book, created a new photo album with this etc etc. :-)

Before I show off the fun vacation photos ... I just want to say hello and thanks for your comments to some new friends ... Janine at Mom's Food Allergy Diner, AllergicMom at My Kid's Allergies, Jen Barney at A Teacher's Life, Angel at Slayer in Training, and Ash. It is really great to hear from other mom's out there. Thanks for the comments and hanging with me while I lag behind in my blogging. I give all of you a lot of credit for keeping up with your blogs!

Well, here are some fun vacation photos. We went to northern California for a family reunion (of sorts). Before all of those festivities started we went to a place called Safari West, it was AWESOME! The kids loved it.


On the airplane heading out west ... we brought Sunbutter & Jelly Sandwiches on the plane


This is where we stayed ... a REAL African tent! But it is super nice inside with a bathroom. shower, etc.

The boys LOVED the bunk beds in the tent (notice the wine glass on the bed side table, we where in wine country, for goodness sakes!).

Big Guy and Daddy get ready for the safari. We took these jeeps all around the property and got to see tons of animals.






And the coolest part was when they got to FEED the giraffe!! Which, later we found out they weren't supposed to, but ... oh well!

I have a million more pictures, but that gives you a sense of the fun we had.