- Calan, Evan and Dada go on a hike in the clouds up by Mt. Boney in Newbury Park
- The kids have fun with Easter traditions (finding baskets and eggs)
- Calan can practically make his own breakfast now
- We do a family trip to Long Beach to meet the allergy doctor
- Evan learns how to use the walker by himself and stay standing by himself
- We have two fun dinner parties with friends (Bosmans in Ventura and Rodriquez family the next street over)
Calan
Aside from Easter, the most anticipated event this month came on April 15th. (No, not taxes…). This was our appointment to go meet super allergy guru Dr. Randhawa at the children’s hospital in Long Beach. It was a long day for everyone, but certainly a success. For us, it was a chance to visit with the doctor and get some direct information on how Calan’s peanut allergy can be treated with immunotherapy (OIT) using Dr. Randhawa’s system. The visit itself lasted over two hours: Some vitals recorded for Calan, profiling, the doctor’s background and description on what he does and what the OIT process would entail, etc…and lots of questions answered obviously. It’s the sort of topic that the more information you get, the more questions you have. Plus, since it concerns our son, we tried to understand as much as we could as well as learn how to learn more. 🙂 All in all though, we left still feeling good about this direction and understanding that it would be a long haul with a greater chance than not that on the other side would be a better situation for us and most importantly Calan when it comes to his body and how he manages his peanut allergy.
The kids did well enough at the hospital, playing and keeping themselves busy in the exam room during all the heavy discussions. What made the adventure ironically more interesting is that Evan actually had an allergic reaction to some pancakes he was trying for the first time as a snack on the drive down. He had a super runny nose and numerous hives on his body by the time the doctor entered the room. Interestingly enough Dr. Randhawa did NOT feel it was a reaction related to food but probably related to a virus or cold he’s fighting. We were not so convinced as this was the second time in the last week that he had this reaction after trying a new food. Before, it was cornbread…now pancakes. (Later in the month we would narrow down what would seem to be the culprit: Wheat, after he had a third reaction to some toast). At any rate, a dose of Benedryl helped Evan, and he was fine the rest of the day.
After the meeting, we set future appointments and headed to the lab upstairs to draw more blood since thorough testing is needed to continue assessing and starting Calan’s program. We made it home in the late afternoon and recovered. We know that next time, staying the night in Long Beach will make a lot of things about the trip easier!
As Calan starts to move from being 4 1/2 to “almost” 5, we have fun as usual seeing him progress. For example, this month he has turned a corner in the morning routine and can officially make his own toast. Using a step stool, he’ll reach to the upper cupboards for a plate. Then, he’ll pull the toaster oven out and slip in two pieces of toast he retrieves from the fridge. After turning the knob to ‘Toast” and pressing start he waits patiently for the timer to ding. There was one day where he successfully buttered his toast and poured his OJ, but lately he asks one of us to do those things. We agree it’s still easier if we handle those parts. He also usually insists on getting his own gummy vitamins from the cupboard and opening up the child-proof lids. 😉
We can also finally say that this month marked the end of his long-time relationship with his balance bike. We remember him first riding it like it was just a few months ago – Dada putting the seat on the lowest setting, yet with feet still dangling in the air pushing him around the house. This was at 20 months old. As Calan grew, he could finally push himself around on his own. Then we made it outside, where he used the bike on countless trips to the park and around the neighborhood, including night-rides with the bright bike light and red flashing tail light strapped on. We even zoomed down along the “long bike trail” when he was motivated. A couple times a year we would raise the seat. Pretty early on he got the feel of pushing hard a few times and coasting while balancing. He good pretty speedy on it, walking really fast , practically running, as the two foam wheels spun below him. People out walking would often comment how cute he looked, a guy barely two years old on a tiny bike without pedals! They would say this when he was three and even four…Eventually he would start doing tricks, where he would push off and coast while putting his legs up in the air and out to the sides. We got him a pedal bike when he was three but nearly every outing he would choose his balance bike to ride instead. Not until this month with the urging of his neighbor friend Molly did he finally decide to stop riding his balance bike. After three years, he did look pretty big for the bike. We celebrated the other day by getting out the wrench and lowering the seat all the way back down to the starting position again together. It’s now ready for the next little guy, whose feet simply dangle loosely in the air when sitting on the seat… for now.
Evan
We’ll be learning more about Evan’s wheat allergy in May, but I guess we can call April the month we learned about it. Despite his reactions this month he didn’t seemed phased (except for a lot of times sporting a runny nose…sometimes because of a cold, sometimes not).
Physically, the little guy is making some more mobility strides. In his 11th month, he learned to pull himself up from his tummy to his knees without assistance. He first discovered it when he grabbed onto the side of the laundry basket one day while ‘helping’ with laundry. The basket edge is perfect, at around 8″ off the floor. The only problem was that for the first few days, he didn’t know how to get back down so he would actually just stay stuck there, sitting on his knees until he could be rescued. As the month progressed, he eventually learned how to get down and even pull himself up in his crib, not just to his knees, but all the way. A nice little milestone for him, but it was definitely the last straw on waiting to lower his mattress.
He’s also gotten good at standing up against the couch or ottoman by himself for longer periods of time. He doesn’t seem to mind it, and in fact is content just to stand and play with some toys this way. As far as getting around, the army crawl is still his method of choice. He’s starting to figure out climbing, and in fact climbed up the bottom set of stairs from the living room effortlessly one time.
Evan is also responding more to little actions like waving and clapping. In fact, we’ve been showing him the reading flash cards that Calan used just for a few basic action words like “clap” and “wave”. He won’t respond to them yet necessarily, unless we do the action too. The other day, however,as we were saying goodbye to Nalonie and she was pulling out of the driveway, Evan began to wave at her all on his own before anyone started waving. It’s as if he understood it was time to wave because someone was leaving.
His favorite activity though is hands down walking with his little plastic walker toy. He grins with joy every time we lift him up to it. He’s figured out how to stand blanced with it now, while pushing it forward, and then keeping up by taking steps. Next up is learning how to steer and for sure not to lean back when standing with it. A couple of tumbles so far, but it hasn’t stopped his enthusiasm for it again and again.