Oh Nuts!

We had quite a scary event happen last week with Liberty and peanut butter.  We knew she had an allergy but we thought dairy was the worst.  Well, apparently not.  We are not proud of this happening but want family to know during get-togethers how serious it is. We need everyone's support and awareness of her allergies.

Viewer discretion is advised of pictures below.


4:00pm - I gave Preston a snack of peanut butter and celery while I was trying to cook supper.  Liberty was having an off-nap day so she was asleep. 5:00pm - I heard Liberty start to cry so I quickly washed me hands off, got her up and put her in the living room, then hurried back to finish supper.  I was almost done when Liberty brought me Preston's plate and handed it to me over the gate.  I looked in shock at the plate and upset at myself for leaving it out.  I took it from her and noticed some peanut butter smudged on the edge of the plate but the celery was accounted for.  She was not smacking like she had tried any so I wasn't too worried.  I washed her hands off and put her in her chair.  I warmed her chicken and glanced back at her to notice she was itching.  I cut up the chicken and the noticed the swelling start. 

5:18pm - I immediately threw her in the bath to try to wash off any peanut butter that might be in her fingernails.  The swelling was worse.  I gave her Benadryl.  Jonathan had come home early but not feeling well so he had been asleep.  I woke him up.  We decided to go ahead and give her the Epi-pen. I called my friend Christi who has the son that fainted when he had a chocolate chip and asked what advice she had.  She said it was very good what we did.  I sent a text to many friends to be praying.  We really debated on going to the ER but since her breathing was fine we held off.  Thank God she did not eat any.  I felt God's presence keeping us calm and helping us make wise decisions.  We called the on-call doctor and she also said since Liberty's breathing was fine we could hold off on the ER, but of course if it flared up take her immediately.  The doctor said she would check back with us the next day.

7:00pm - Liberty was no longer itching, the redness was going away and the swelling almost completely gone.  I was amazed at how quickly the Benadryl and Epi-pen worked, and so very thankful for everyone praying for her.  But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. 1 Cor.12:9

She is a tough cookie and kept high spirits the whole time.  (With everything that is going on in West we gladly sent all our peanut butter and peanut butter crackers to help bless a needy family.)

We love our Little Libby Lou and appreciate everyone's support in keeping peanuts and peanut butter away from her.

Preston - 33 Months

We have not done an update on Preston in quite a while, so here it goes.

Preston is still our funny man.  He loves to laugh and make us laugh.  He is daring and curious, yet also clumsy.  He will talk to us as he is walking down the hall, and then smack into the wall or a door.  He can fall asleep anywhere, as you can see in the pictures.  He has been fighting his afternoon nap.  So when I go into his room about 3:00pm to check on him I will find that he got up from his bed and just played on the floor.  He then fell asleep while playing.  When he does this he gets very tired before bed time, and will often fall asleep while eating supper.Preston has started saying many new words, and also sentences.  Probably the one he says most is, "Hallster hit head."  (Yes he usually leaves the "i" out.) We are thankful he is communicating more using words and not mumble jumble. 

He has noticed Liberty more, especially when she tries to scoot in between him and his toys.  Unfortunately he is hitting and throwing toys more because of it.  He is total opposite of Hallister, in that he just likes to be alone and play.  And when he is ready for us to play with him he brings us a toy.

Preston wears size 2T clothes and size 6 shoes.  As far as allergies go he cannot have goldfish, anything with tomatoes or juice of any kind (he gets diarrhea).  When we order pizza we get bread sticks for him to eat. As far as dairy is concerned we give him soy yogurt and almond milk.  (I know you grandparents have been wanting to know all this for when you keep him, but it is a good update for family as far as a family get-together is concerned.)  For some reason he has been waking up around 3am, he says he has to go potty, but after sitting on the potty and doing nothing he will say he wants milk.  After two weeks this became very tiresome, so we began to give him milk right before bed and sternly told him we will have to discipline him if he gets up before the light is yellow.  (We have a nightlight that goes blue when they should be sleeping and yellow at 7am when they can come out of their room.  They can play quietly if they wake up before 7am but must stay in their room.)  Thankfully that worked.

We have worked on potty training off and on.  Some days he will go in the bathroom and go potty on his own.  Some days he pees in his room while playing or right in front of the bathroom door.  We have been told by many with boys it is right around the age of 3 they are ready.  At least we have something to look forward to, that in 3 months time we will have only one child in diapers.

Preston does like books more now and is getting very good at saying his colors. We are working on shapes since Hallister has now learned his.  We did figure out the one thing Preston will not say is his own name.  We say Hallister, Liberty, Ranger, Wriley and repeats them all, but then when we say Preston he will say Mommy or Hallister.  We are going to work on that!