Fantastic Friday

Yesterday I took my soon2be 5yo to the Allergist. He starts K in the Fall and I wanted to check out his food allergies, etc, because I was concerned about how to handle it with school, etc. Well....

                               HE IS FOOD ALLERGY FREE!!!!!  

He was allergic to milk, wheat, strawberries, and oats. Oats made him break out in what looked like burn marks. That really is the only way I can describe them. Wheat did, too, at times. The rest of the stuff gave him massive diarrhea. That's actually what started us on the journey. I took him to a Gastro who said, "Oh that's normal". I didn't feel he was right and told him so and he got flippant and rude with me. I had this GUT feeling. (pardon the pun) This was my 3rd child and I just knew something wasn't right, even at 2 years old.

I took him to another Gastro and she said she agreed, something wasn't right. They tested him for Celiac Disease, which thank God he didn't have. We knew he was allergic to oats because coming into contact would bother his skin. So we decided to take him to an Allergist and have him tested. It's not a very comfortable thing for a 2 year old... the Dr asked what he ate on a daily basis, etc. So we tested him for quite a few things. Turns out he was allergic to strawberries and milk, which we had NO idea. How do you not give a child milk? Milk is in so much, even in cake batter!

That started our journey. We went back to the Gastro (the female) and saw the Nutritionist in that office and basically put him on a Gluten Free and Case-in Free diet. We were OVERWHELMED to say the least. Wheat is in so many things. Who would have thought it was in some gravies or ketchup???? It was hard (and EXPENSIVE) at first. We switched to Soy milk, but turns out he still had a reaction to that, which the Drs said is VERY common. So then we did Coconut milk (which he LOVED) and dairy free ice creams, etc. After about 8 months, we started introducing milk and wheat back into his diet little by little.

He tolerated them well so we were pleased. We just kept the strawberries and oats away.

Anyway...yesterday we had him tested again and are proud to say he's FREE of Food Allergies. It is such an INCREDIBLE relief. Even the older boys were thrilled and hugged him. They were VERY conscious of making sure he had no oats (in cookies or anything else) and no strawberries in juices, etc. It's amazing how much food allergies affect a family. It's not just the kid who has them, but the other people in the family, too are affected.

So that's our news and we feel FANTASTIC about it.

Landscaping

This is one side of the front of the house. Don't mind Santa who is still on my porch....

This weather has been so Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde type! At least today it will be 70 degrees and sunny!!

I've got so much stuff to do. I need to get the rest of my potting soil and top soil and fill in the landscaping in the front. I'm hoping to dig up some of the bushes and put in flowers or other things. I REALLY want spiral bushes.

There's a few people in my neighborhood that have THESE and they are BEAUTIFUL. I am NOT a good landscaper... I know what I like, but I don't know what goes where etc  etc. My instinct is just to pick out the pretty multi-colored flowers/tulips, etc that I like and throw the seeds into the soil and pack them down and wait for them to grow. lol. Then I'd get disappointed when they wouldn't grow in the shaded half of my flowerbed. lol.

See below:

This was taken in late afternoon, I think

No sun on that part...

See, sun on this part of it...

Does anyone else HATE how you put pics on blogger? I HATE how they have this set up. It drives me nuts! I want to be able to place pics WHEREVER, as in side by side, if I want. Rather than right, left or center. :( Guh. It drives. me. nuts. somedays.

Oh yeah, back to my landscaping issues... I love daisies, lillies, tulips and all different colored flowers. I think I am going to take those bushes out on that 3rd picture. I may plant spiral trees there or 1 spiral tree/bush there. On the other ones...I'd love to plant flowers there. Like these:

Claudia Tulips!

Yes! They actually have MY name. lol. I think they are GORGEOUS. In fact, I bought some on clearance last year at Home Depot (aka HD) at the end of the season. I'm itching to plant them. Unfortunately, there's a tree in our yard and the other day I went over to look at the ground to see if that would be a perfect spot, (cuz I think it would) and when I moved a rock, millions of ants were crawling around...blech. So DH sprayed all around to hopefully kill some of the ants. I didn't want them eating the bulbs....

I'm open for any suggestions on what to plant etc. I know my landscaping won't look "uniformed" as obviously one side is complete rock and I'm not digging all of that up right now! lol.