Allergy Tests

We have been busy around here. Between work, rugby games, cleaning and getting ready for company for Thanksgiving we have been going and haven't had a lot of relxing time. We did take Jake to an allergist and had him tested after his blood test came back positive for eggs, milk and peanut allergies. Thankfully though, when we went to the allergist and they did a skin test it was only positive for eggs. So no eggs for a while and he will get re-tested in a year. The doctor said his levels are really low on the scale. Less than .05 is not allergic and Jake is .2 for eggs, which is level 2 out of 6 (6 being the worst). The doctor also said that he thought he would outgrow the egg allergy, which would be great.

We also had to go to the allergist for his flu shot, since flu shots have eggs in them he could've had a reaction to it. We did what is called a challenge test. Jake had to have 10% of the shot then wait 30 minutes to see if he had any reaction, followed by the other 90% then another 30 minute wait. He did fabulously! I was nervous about him getting two shots like that and I took him by myself so I wasn't sure about having to hold him down. But he was great and he didn't even cry for the first shot, not a peep! And the 2nd one he fussed for just a second (literally) and I think it was more because I was holding him down than because of the shot. He didn't have any sort of reaction to it so that is great.

Aunt Gini, Al and Page got here today so we will be super busy for the next 5ish days. Hopefully getting lots of pictures since I have failed to do that the past couple weeks.

No pictures today because I am too lazy to upload them tonight and there aren't very many!

Into EVERYTHING

I will let the pictures do the talking. (Except to say yes, I run to get the camera when he does this before doing anything else. Mother of the year right here.)

Growing boy

Yesterday we took Jake to the doctor for his 9 month appointment. It was a happy visit because he didn't have to get any shots! His pedi said he looks great and he has definitely met all of his milestones. She also commented on his lack of stranger anxiety. While he wasn't due for any vaccinations, this would have been the time he got a flu shot. However, when we gave him eggs a couple of months ago he got some hives on his face and torso, so he didn't get a flu shot. He did have to get some routine bloodwork done (we will talk about that in a second) so the doctor wanted to go ahead and have him checked for an egg allergy with that so we could be sure. She did say that most kids grow out of egg allergies and Jake's seems pretty mild as he eats stuff made with eggs and doesn't have any reaction to it. She also said it may not be an allergy at all and could have just been a fluke. Hopefully we will know soon.

So we went to get his bloodwork done today. I was worried about how he would react because I knew they were going to have to take it from his arm which meant he would have to be held down. Jake is not a fan of being still in general and most definitely does not like being restrained. So between that and getting stuck with a needle I was sure it was going to be a mess. Well he definitely did not like being restrained. I had to hold him in my lap and hold his arm out so the girl could first find his vein then get blood. As soon as she put the elastic around his arm he started freaking out and dang he is strong. I had a  hard time keeping him still and holding his arm down. Although he didn't have any sort of reaction when she stuck his with the needle, which was good because I don't know that I would have been able to control him then. Of course as soon as she was done and took the elastic thing off his arm, he was immediately fine. I was glad about that.

So his 9 month stats:

Height: 28.5 inches (58th percentile)
Weight: 20.5lbs   (50th percentile)

He has definitely slowed down in the growth department. (maybe he is listening to me finally!)

Not sure what this big boy did with our baby

Daddy and Jake reading before bed

In his big boy pajamas

Happy Halloween!

We headed to our community fall festival yesterday afternoon. It was a gorgeous day for it! We hung out there for a while and got some cute pictures and food. I can't wait until Jake is old enough to have fun at events like that (well, yes actually, I can wait, wouldn't want him growing up any faster!). Tonight we got Jake dressed in his costume and took him trick or treating at one of the neighbors houses (we tried to go to a few but only one was handing out candy). Unfortunately Jake didn't take enough of a nap today and was already tired, but we got a few good pictures. Then he hung out in his costume and helped us give out candy for a little while before heading to bed.

We actually ran out of candy this year. Last year, in anticipation of lots of trick or treaters we bought a lot of candy. We ended up with only a few kids coming last year and had a ton of left over candy and we tried to avoid that by not buying as much. Of course because we did that we had a ton of kids come to our door. Oops! I guess next year we will go ahead and go with too much rather than not enough.

In his monster shirt at the Fall Festival

Checking out the fire truck

With the punpkins

Cosmo enjoying the sun today

Our Monkey boy

Finally got a really good smile!

9 Months...and 39 weeks

Another month gone by and now we have a 9 month old. And as of today Jake has been living on the outside world longer than he was in my belly. I still can't believe that it has been nine months, it doesn't seem like nearly that long. Jake is such a great baby and we are so blessed to have him.

This week Jake had some pictures taken. He was a ham a wouldn't look at the camera, when he was smiling, but we got some cute ones. He has gotten to wear his costume a couple of times now and we are planning on taking him Trick or Treating on Sunday (just to a few neighbors houses).

Nine months has brought a ton of changes for Jake.

• He would rather be up and cruising around furniture than crawling
• He follows us around (I ran to grab something from the laundry room yesterday and I came out to him in the Ainstead of the living room where I left him)
• He has 2 teeth
• He is back to waking just once a night to eat and we have even gotten a couple of nights of 10-11 hours of consecutive sleep
• He is starting to stand without holding on to anything
• He LOVES LOVES LOVES going outside
• He is talking more, lots of ba ba's, da da's, and a few ma ba's (no ma ma's yet)
• He now imitates us and thinks its funny when we imitate him

At Gymboree

Eating spaghetti for the first time...he loved it so much he put some in his hair for later

Pumpkin Carving

We finally got around to carving our pumpkin tonight. We had planned on doing it Saturday but nasty weather and a chilly evening changed those plans. Other than the storms Saturday though the weather has been awesome for spending time outside, which works well for us because Jake LOVES being outside. He will actually scream (loudly) if we let Cosmo in or out while we are holding him because he wants to go outside.  Sunday morning we took a walk down to the park and played on the swings and slide for a little while. We headed out to the airport that afternoon to pick up Grams from the airport before going shopping and out to eat.

Jake stood without holding on to anything for about 10 seconds last week. He hasn't done it for that long since but he is definitely working on it. He is also absolutely loving Gymboree. We went last Thursday and while we were waiting for our class to start he was bouncing around and trying to get into the gym to play. Once we were in there he just crawled around and checked everything out. He was much more interested in checking out the gym this week than he was last week. I can't wait to go back this week, it is dress up week so everyone is supposed to come in their costume. I will have to take pictures this week.

Helping me cook

Finally figured out how to get out of the bottom of the excersaucer

The goal was to get Cosmo to sit and Jake to smile, we were 1 for 2 on that 

"What is this?"

"This looks yummy"

Covered in pumpkin slime

Pumpkin Patch

We have had a busy week here! Last Saturday Josh was supposed to be coaching a rugby game that we were all going to go to but it got cancelled and turned into a practice. My friend Bethany and I had talked earlier in the week about going to one of the local cloth diaper stores and checking it out. She is pregnant and planning on using cloth, yea! So it just gave me more time to hang out with her. We went and checked it out and while it is nice for the occasional one or two things, I will still be doing most of my ordering online. I am waiting for the day that more cloth diaper stores can actually have a store front and more of a selection (this store was run out of her garage).

On Thursday I took Jake to Gymboree (the gym, not the clothing store). Back in August or September my mom bought a groupon for a month of classes and the one in Allen just opened this month. The first class is free so we will get to do 5 weeks of classes. Jake LOVED it. There are only 3 other kids in our class and he likes the music and dancing. He just took off and crawled all over the room checking everything out. I can't wait to go back this week.

Yesterday we were gone most of the day. Jake and I headed to April's baby shower in the morning. Jake was fascinated by all the big kid toys that were there so I wasn't able to get any pictures with the very pregnant April. We can't wait to meet baby boy when he arrives, hopefully in the next few weeks! We had a great time visiting before we headed home to meet my mom and Josh to head off to the pumpkin patch. Jake was so fascinated with EVERYTHING at the pumpkin patch. We couldn't get him to look at the camera or smile because he was too busy looking at everything else! We spent a while walking around just taking pictures before actually looking for a pumpkin. Then we took pictures while we looked. Jake liked the hay and kept trying to eat it and pumkpins. He also thought throwing pumpkins or pushing them off the hay or benches was fun. We finally found our pumpkin and then headed to dinner. Jake got to try broccoli for the first time at dinner. He seemed to like it, but did not want to sit in the highchair very long. Hopefully as he gets bigger going out to eat will get a little easier. After dinner Josh headed across the street to Pizza Hut Park to coach a rugby game (which was apparently a pretty impressive setup, Jake and I will have to go next time). My mom and I headed to the mall and Jake got a pair of shoes to wear when it is cold. I'm not sure how he is going to react to the shoes since he has only worn shoes maybe twice in his life. We finally got Jake home and he was so exhausted. Poor kid had a long day!

Pictures!

One of the few smiles we got

Love this picture

Way too interested in all the people and pumkins to pay attention to the camera

Daddy and pumpkin boy

Jake liked playing with the little pumpkins

Yummy

Trying to eat the scarecrow

He had pancakes and a baked apple one day and was covered in food because he just attacked it

Happy Baby