Another Tea giveaway!

Still loving Tea brand clothes. Now Pacifier (pacifieronline.com), an awesome Minneapolis based baby/kids boutique is giving away a $100 gift certificate for Tea clothes on this blog:
mymomshops.blogspot.com

I know it's a longshot, but it sure would be nice to get some of those cute clothes for free!

Daily Tea

So, I love the clothes from Tea. Particularly their Daily Tea play clothes for girls. So, I am entering a contest. If you have kids, you should consider entering too!
http://www.thefashionablehousewife.com/05/2010/tea-collection-childrens-clothes-giveaway
http://www.teacollection.com

SCARY allergy experience

So, Elliot had his first (and hopefully last...at least for a long, long time) somewhat severe allergic reaction last Tuesday. I picked him up from preschool at the regular time, and they frantically waved me in. Turns out, he had just thrown up a few times. Poor kid. I figured he just had a stomach bug, so I took him home and put him on the couch with some juice and a movie. His energy was very low, so it supported the "bug" theory. I was eating my lunch at the table, and his energy started returning. However, he was also scratching at his neck area an awful lot. So, I went to check him out and saw some hives on his neck. Hmmm, that's weird. A few minutes later, when the itching and scratching persisted, I decided to change his shirt. When I took off his t-shirt I noticed more hives under his arms. So, I gave him some benedryl. By now I was really starting to worry and keep a close eye on him. After the benedryl, the hives continued to spread, which is not a good sign. I was so scared. Our instructions from the allergist are (when he has shown two or more systemic symptoms: #1 vomit, #2 hives) are to give the epipen and call 911. That sounded way too scary to me. Plus, the kid was dancing around the living room by this point acting completely normal, so I thought he must be starting to feel better. I finally gave in and called the allergy doctor. They told me to follow the instructions and give him the epipen and call 911. NOOOOOO!!!!
I decided to drive him to the ER myself. Not a very good idea. He was falling asleep in the back seat and I started panicking. What if he's passing out?! What if his blood pressure is dropping (this can happen with anaphylaxis)?!? What if his throat is closing up?!?!?!
So, I called 911 from my cell phone. They instructed me to pull over and wait for the ambulance. I did. As soon as we pulled over, Elliot started projectile vomiting. Yuck and yikes. The ambulance arrived shortly thereafter. The kind of cool thing is that one of our neighbors was one of the paramedics! That was comforting in a way, for both Elliot and me. The other cool thing is that all of Elliot's vitals (BP, heart rate, oxygen) were normal. Phew!
Once we got to the hospital he was almost back to normal. No more drugs (and no epipen this time) were needed. It was one of the scariest and most exhausting experiences of my life. To see your little kid so vulnerable and in danger is terrifying.
So, the only thing we can figure is that the granola bar he had for a snack was contaminated with peanut. He's had that kind of granola bar a hundred times before. The wrapper does say "may contain traces of peanuts", but I never took that too seriously before. I hope to never again make that same mistake. So, I've been looking for SAFE snack alternatives that taste good. Boy, the choices are really more limited than I expected. He is also allergic to milk and eggs, so that makes it even more challenging. I've found some great websites though, and am learning more about what is out there. Check out this blog and enter to win some allergy friendly goodies!
http://www.onefrugalfoodie.com/2009/05/03/one-sweet-giveaway-enter-to-win-a-prize-pack-from/

The lesson I learned is this: If this ever happens again, I will give the epipen and call 911.

play date

Elliot had his first "official" play date the other day. By official, I mean that I dropped him off and left him at a friends house. It was great! It was at his friend Molly's house. She is his favorite friend from preschool. He has been talking about Molly since January. Well, turns out Molly has been talking about him too, so Molly's mom suggested a get-together. They just love eachother! Super cute. What is it that makes a kid connect with another kid? Isn't it fascinating to watch kids start to form relationships on their own? There was another cutie girl there from preschool named Erin. Next week the play date is at Erin's house, and Erin's mom said Elliot is welcome to join them again. How nice! I guess I will have to host soon, huh? My house is small and dirty (do you think 3-4 year olds would notice that sort of thing?), maybe I'll have to invite them to a park or something. Elliot is even more excited that Molly and Erin both have older brothers that also love Star Wars. Poor Molly. She is going to be left behind for Star Wars figurines... Nobody can compete with older boys that love Star Wars, in Elliot's 3 1/2 year old mind. Some day he will realize his folly. :)

bag o' clouds

The other morning Elliot walked into my bedroom (I was still lying in bed) carrying the bag of cotton balls. It's the Target brand, plastic bag with blue sky and clouds on the front. He had the sweetest expression of awe on his face, and in his voice, as he said "Mom, is this made out of clouds?".
Me: No, it looks like clouds, but it's made out of cotton.
Elliot: Clouds are cotton.
I proceeded to tell him all the things that are really made out of cotton, and said clouds just look like cotton (I didn't go into the whole "tiny particles of water" explanation of clouds...yet).
Seriously, I love this age! He was so excited for a moment, thinking he had found a bag of clouds.

funny misquote

Elliot loves Star Wars, as you probably already know. Yesterday he was playing with his older cousin, Tanner, outside. They were having a make-believe light saber duel. (Special thanks to Tanner. Not many 13 year old guys would be so kind as to play all afternoon with a 3 1/2 year old cousin.) Elliot then shouted out, in his best Darth Vader-ish voice, "Luke, you are my father!"
For those of you who haven't seen the movie and have been completely removed from all pop-culture for the last 30-some years, it's supposed to be "Luke, I am your father" (a very pivotal point in the Star Wars movies). I just think it's funny because he always gets that line switched around. :)

Good Friday?

P.S. I really am going to try to be better about blogging more.

Elliot has been very funny lately. It's amazing the kind of stuff that 3 1/2 year olds are capable of understanding, or at least trying to wrap their little heads around.
Lately, of course, the big questions revolve around Easter. It's a really tough thing for me to get my head around. Jesus died on the cross, was dead three days, rose again and ascended into heaven. The whole Trinity thing.
Elliot asks the BEST questions! It's just amazing to me. It's a bit intimidating to answer such big questions. Especially when I think some of them (theologically) are hard to understand! But we've had some great conversations lately.
The other day I was explaining Holy Week to him. I told him about Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday... I told him Good Friday is when Jesus died on the cross. He said, "that's BAD Friday". I can't tell you how many times I've thought that myself! But then I explained that it's GOOD because Jesus died on the cross so that we could all be in Heaven with Him someday! Jesus wanted to make it as easy as possible for us to get to Heaven so that we could all be there with him someday. That's how much he loves us! Wow.
Anyway, my point is that Elliot is (and maybe most 3 1/2 year olds are) really cool.
My other (admittedly, more important) point is Jesus is really cool, too!
Happy Easter everybody!
Enjoy the sunshine!

So, I am completely addicted to etsy.com lately. If you haven't been on there, you must check it out. I haven't purchased anything yet, but my wish list is steadily growing! It will be fun to get some baby/new mom stuff to get ready for baby girl. Especially because I will feel good about supporting creative people and their crafts! Well, maybe especially because the stuff is so darn cute, but supporting artists is a definite bonus! Do any of you sell on etsy? Let me know so I can check out your page and add you to my favorites!

Christmas fun

So, Elliot's favorite thing this year is to covertly take the little christmas lights off of the tree. We bought a prelit fake tree a few years back. It seemed a great idea at the time. With (then) three cats and a baby on the way, it seemed like it would be much better to have a fake tree than a real tree. No needles to pick up, no water to spill, no need to go buy a tree every year... Well, the first year it was beautiful. Prelit really seemed the way to go. There were way more lights than we could ever cram on there, and not a single bare spot. Each year a few more bulbs would burn out. Last year we bought some weird tool that detects where the "duds" are so that you can replace them and get the whole strand working again. We never counted on a mischievous 3 year old though. He pulls those little bulbs out every chance he gets. Goodness knows where they end up. I found one inside the couch the other day (by accident, I was looking for something else...don't ask what). I see little empty bulb sockets all over the place now. Most are at about 2.5 - 3 feet off the ground. This is no mere coincidence. So, now the only prelit portion of our tree that is still lit is a a lonely little patch at the top of the tree. The rest is meekly lit by some new LED lights that I bought this year. Guess I'll have to go get a few more strands...

Meet Darth Elliot

Here is Elliot's hilarious halloween costume from this year. Man, he loves that mask thing. Shout out to the Lahr family for letting us borrow it! I think I'm about ready to hand it back over. Elliot's already talking about next "weeks" (he means next year) halloween costume. So far he has said he was going to be Chewie (Chewbacca) and an elf. We shall see. I'm glad that it's almost a whole year before our next halloween. Bring on Thanksgiving and Christmas BABY!

I don't ever think of blogging!

I don't ever stop to think about blogging. I don't even know what to write.
That's something that I need to work on I guess.
Although, Becky, you are the only person "following" my blog. So I guess I could just fill it full of personal notes to you!
Did you tape Oprah for me today?
Do you and Maia want to get together to play sometime soon?
Elliot would love that.
How about a game night? It feels like it's been a long time! I need some Blokus in my life. Or we could play something else (I was SO on fire last time...).
I had better finish up with my work so that I can go home to my family.
YAWN!
I'm tired!

Now I have a picture

That's all. Just now I have a picture on my blog. That's more than Becky has.

I can blog too Becky

Blogging is intimidating. But if Becky can do it, I can do it.
But, I really don't have anything funny or witty or interesting to write right now, because I'm at work. So, here it is.