A Birthday, an Allergy Test, and an Amazing Big Brother

Last week Logan turned two. We celebrated with pizza, cake and a water balloon fight. I'm finally starting to admit that my second baby is no longer a baby. He is a happy, passionate, always-hungry, always-moving little boy. Somewhere along the road, he turned into a Daddy's Boy. He asks where Jeff is when he's not around, and his enthusiastic exclamation of "DAAAAAAAA!!" when Jeff comes home from work is completely adorable and melts Daddy's heart every time. He is Jeff's little shadow. When Jeff isn't around, he's Carter's shadow. And when Carter is unavailable, he's my shadow. When did I become a last resort?

But I digress...

Along with a birthday comes a doctor visit. And since Carter is allergic to peanuts and a few tree nuts, I thought it was time we had Logan tested. The doctor agreed that we should test him for peanuts and a variety of common food allergens. A lot of blood is needed for allergy tests, so they had to take it from his arm. To get a two-year-old to hold still for a blood draw, they strap him to a board with Velcro (kind of looks like a big swaddle). This was a little horrifying to Mommy, but Logan handled it like a trooper. He only whimpered a little and signed "all done" with his other hand. It was sad, but it was over before we knew it and Logan got down to business examining the cartoon band-aid.

Today, the doctor's office called with the results. The tests were negative. All of them. No allergies. I breathed a huge sigh of relief. I was just thinking about emailing Jeff the news when Carter, who had overheard the message, piped up. "Negative? What does that mean? Does Logan have a peanut allergy?" An I stopped short as my eyes welled up with tears.

You see, in the last three years, Carter has mentally processed his allergy in several ways. He's asked questions about why he has an allergy and why other kids don't. He's pretended that he is not allergic to peanut butter and everyone else he knows is. Once, I looked a worksheet that he was working on and asked why he had crossed out all the chickens. He told me that they were all allergic to peanuts and that they had eaten some and so they were "all gone". Yikes. Because he doesn't have regular interaction with anyone else who has a peanut allergy, he feels like he's the only one in the world.

So, in spite of the fact that Logan's diagnosis (or lack there-of) is a wonderful thing, I was suddenly struck by the fact that this could make Carter feel even more alone in his situation, so my words tripped over each other as I tried to explain and make it "ok" at the same time: "No, Logan isn't allergic to peanuts, but he still won't get to have them because we still won't have peanuts in the house. So nothing is going to change."

Carter responded, "But it's good that he's not allergic to peanuts. That way, if I ever get not allergic, we can have them."

"Yes," I said, "it's good that Logan isn't allergic."

And that was the end of our conversation. What a kid. I am thankful that Logan appears to be allergy-free. And I'm thankful that Carter is handling it so well. I have such great kids.

Gavin is Two Months Old

This is old news, really. Gavin was two months old on July 6, and he is now over ten weeks old. The time really has gone fast. Having three kids is challenging, but somehow the newborn thing doesn't seem as hard as it used to be.

Gavin had his two month check-up on Wednesday. (Our first doctor visit in SIX weeks! It was a nice break from the world of medicine, but I actually miss my midwife and my MFM doctor a bit. We had such a great team taking care of us.) His two-month stats: weight - 11 lbs. 3 oz., length - 24 inches. He is incredibly healthy in every way except for that pesky area somewhere in his adorable little chest. We have two weeks to go until his CT scan to find out exactly what's going on in there. We're still praying that the mass has disappeared altogether and Gavin won't have to have surgery.

At this point it's hard to think of surgery. We feel like we've left the world of tests and procedures behind and we're totally in new-baby mode. Our greatest concern on any given day is trying to figure out how to juggle everything that needs to get done and still spend some quality time with our boys. If Gavin has to have surgery, it will be hard to hand over our little boy (who appears perfectly healthy and happy) to a team of doctors and nurses. I'm sure Gavin will be as well-taken-care-of through this as he was through pregnancy, but I know it will be hard to hand him over to someone else's care. I just need to keep in mind that he is now and will always be taken care of by his Heavenly Father and that's far better care than I could ever give him.

Great Weekend

We had a wonderful holiday weekend with friends and family. It started on Friday night with dinner with our church Small Group. We had a fun evening and left just as a storm was blowing in. We were very relieved to arrive home in one piece after having to wait out torrential rain and hail under an overpass.

We spent Saturday at Vassars' house, helping re-shingle the roof. The boys and I, of course, were indispensable. We worked hard all day to make sure that food got eaten and all the toys got tested and rearranged. I'm pretty sure Jeff, on the other hand, was up on the roof sunbathing all day. :)

Then on Sunday, we embarked on a brief road trip to Jeff's sister's (our first trip with all three boys). The rest of his family was there for the weekend and most of them didn't know we were coming. Because of a series of minor delays on the way, we happened to arrive exactly when everyone else arrived home from church. The timing was perfect and the surprise was fun. We had a great time. And the boys traveled well enough that we may actually travel with them again. Eventually.

Maggie and Gavin all ready for fireworks

We returned on Monday in time to unload the car and pack it up again, this time for an outing to see fireworks. We met Vassars at Round Lake for an evening of blowing bubbles, chasing balls, snacking, waving sparklers, and watching fireworks. Even the babies liked the fireworks, but it did help that we were prepared. Having an excuse to put a baby in noise-canceling ear muffs really is one of the highlights of the Fourth of July.

All in all, it was a wonderful Fourth of July weekend.

Playing God

Since becoming a parent over five years ago, I've enjoyed observing the parallels between a parent's relationship with a child and God's relationship with us. I love that God has made human relationships reflections (verrrrry imperfect reflections, I might add) of his relationship with us. One parallel that I've observed:

Logan is constantly mad at me for spoiling his fun. I stop him from doing all sorts of wonderful things: climbing on the backs of chairs; running out into the street; eating plants in the yard; stuffing whole bananas into his mouth (you wouldn't think it would fit, but Logan has proven that he can get a lot more in there than you'd think); and stuffing small objects up his nose. This is just the tip of the iceberg, people. All of these things and more sound like really great ideas to him, but they obviously don't to me.

The difference? The ability to see into the future. Not that I can literally see into the future, but I know what is likely to happen if Logan succeeds in getting a hold of the saw that he is so desperately reaching for. He, on the other hand, is clueless.

God can actually see into the future. If I know with my limited knowledge what is good for my son, how much more so does God know what is and isn't good for me? When he directs my path, when he tells me "no," when he throws a wrench into my plans, I may have no idea what catastrophe he is saving me from.

I'm so grateful that I have a heavenly father looking out for me. Because even though I'm all grown up, I still need someone who can see farther into the future than I can to direct my path.