Happy 4th of July and Happy 18 month birthday to Nicholas! We have had a fun and busy summer. We have been able to visit many family members, friends and spend some nice time up at the lake. Nicholas's favorite thing to do is to be doing anything outside as you can tell from the pictures. His cousin Andrew has a lot of fun toys that he loves to sit on (little motorcycle and dingy). He had his first wave runner ride a couple of weeks ago. We only stayed around the docks and had it in idle, but, Nicholas didn't seem to mind. He did mind wearing the life jacket. It's just something he'll have to get used to; if he's near the water, the life jacket has to be on.
We found out Nicholas has a peanut allergy last month. Something we were pretty bummed about. After talking to some friends and the pediatric allergist, we feel better about things. But, Nicholas will have to avoid all nuts for a year, then, we'll do some testing and as he gets bigger introduce things slowly. We know he's allergic to peanuts, not sure about other nuts, but, not willing to risk it at this point. As many of you know, allergies are way more common than they used to be; nobody knows why. There is a study in England that is monitoring the timing of exposure. One speculation is by delaying kids exposure, we're actually causing the allergy, so, our pediatrician told us to try peanuts whenever we wish. We tried it and on the second exposure (you never react to the first exposure as your body decides that the substance the food contains pose an immunological threat, and it generates Immunoglobulin E (IgE), an antibody, to fight peanuts the next time they appear in the body. Sometimes it takes multiple exposures to peanuts to develop IgE. When someone with a peanut allergy eats peanuts, it triggers the formation of histamines in the body to fight the peanuts, causing an allergic reaction.) Nicholas reacted. So, we are a peanut free house. It's amazing how we never gave much thought to thinking through the food we serve at parties or when we have guests over. Until something directly impacts you or one of your loved ones, you don't realize how aware you should be of such things as food allergies when serving food to others.
Nicholas is still working with PT once a month. He's progressing with all of his developmental milestones. He is close to walking but not there yet. Something we know will come and nobody is concerned that he's not walking given how close he is and his early start in life. He is finally on the growth chart and tracking in the 75% for both weight and height on the corrected growth chart. So, his pediatrician thinks he'll be tall. He is pushing 21 pounds and is 47.5 cm. He is a great sleeper (2 naps a day plus sleeps 10-12 hours a night). He's a good eater overall with some favorites being sweet potatoes and an occasional taste of ice cream. He is learning sign language and communicates with us to go bye bye (this is constant as he loves being outside), eat, more and all done. It's neat to see him signing back to us and fun to be able to communicate with him. He is taking swimming lessons and Kinder Music during the week. Both of which he really enjoys! He loves music and starts dancing whenever or wherever he hears it. His favorites, Forget You and S&M, go figure. It's all about the beat of the song.
We hope you are all having a wonderful summer and are able to spend quality time with family and friends!
Love,
Denise, Denise and Nicholas
