Merry Christmas

We are wrapping up a week on Puget Sound with the whole Eppley clan.
We hope everyone one out there has a great rest of the holidays!

Yeah, I can do that

over
Originally uploaded by mandy&john

At the doctor's office Tuesday, the doctor expressed curiosity that Alex could sit up (mostly) yet not roll over. Wednesday morning during tummy time, he rolled onto his back. That afternoon at the allergist's, he rolled from his back to his stomach. Apparently, he just needed to be told.

Back in the E.R.

Back in the E.R.
Originally uploaded by mandy&john

Last night was Alex's turn to visit the MIlford ER.

Alex developed a lovely rash yesterday in time for his six-month doctor's visit. The doc said that it looked like hives and was more likely food related than the dog. We switched his formula to an organic brand a few weeks back when the melamine story broke. That is now the most likely culprit for his current discomfort. The doctor put Alex on a hypoallergenic formula and he was up all night screaming, so we took him to the ER around 3.

It's still not clear what it is that's setting him off, but it's likely not the dog. We'll let her stay where she is until we figure this thing out, but it looks like we'll get to bring here back home. I'm not glad Alex has a food allergy like his brother, and I wasn't pleased to be in the ER at 4am. But if we can find one or two more things to cut out of our diet in order to make him happy and let Joey come home, then I'm OK with that.

Walking with Joey

walking with joey
Originally uploaded by mandy&john

The weather warmed up above 20 degrees this morning, so we picked up Joey and took her for a walk. It's supposed to be 40 and raining this afternoon, so this was our best chance. All had fun, but I didn't put warm enough pants on Chris and he got a little chilled and cranky by the end. I made it up to him with some hot cocoa later. I think he forgave me.

Noggin'

nog 2
Originally uploaded by mandy&john

We had a nice (though, sadly ) evening tonight of sitting around the (plastic...Nona can't do pine) Christmas tree singing carols and drinking (soy...no eggs for Chris) nog. Despite all the absences and substitutes, it was lots of fun. Chris is obsessed with Frosty and made us sing it about 6 or 7 times. I'm also a pretty big fan of the snog.

Jo(e)yless

Back before Chris was born, we worried that he might be allergic to the dog. We sort of joked that if it happened that way, we'd have to find someone to take the baby. It never crossed our minds with Alex, yet it seems that he is allergic to her.

When he was about 2 months he was coughing non stop for a few weeks and was eventually diagnosed with bronchiolitis and a touch of pneumonia. With some antibiotics he was able to breathe much better, but the cough never completely went away. He hasn't gone more than a day or two without coughing since. Supposedly it takes awhile for bronchiolitis to fully clear out, but this seems excessive.

A couple weeks ago, we noticed that he had a huge coughing fit in a house with a cat, and we started putting things together. It happened again last week in a different house, also with a cat. He is definitely allergic to cats.

We don't know 100% if he is allergic to Joey as well, but there is a fair amount to suggest that he is. We've been trying to keep the house extra clean, but it you know either of us, that's not going to be good enough. To make matters worse, it's been really cold lately, so we haven't been able to open up the house at all. On top of all that, at six months, he need to be on the ground all the time now to learn how to move himself around. We can't leave him on the rugs, or he starts coughing, and the floors are frigid.

So we've made the difficult decision to get Joey out of the house for awhile. Fortunately, she is a wonderful dog and there are many friends and family who would take her in, including Nonna who's just minutes away. The plan is to give it a month or two to see if Alex improves as the house clears of Joey dander. His reaction doesn't seem to be very severe, so we are optimistic, that given a chance to recover first, he'll be able to tolerate her eventually.

In the meantime we plan to visit her an take her for walks and hikes frequently. I'm not sure if I'm more depressed that we had to banish her or that she'll be taken care of better at her new home. Not to say we're bad parents to her, but she's dropped down the priority list an awful lot in the last two years, and she is going to get spoiled rotten for the next little bit.

I think Chris is still too young too really get it, but he knows where she is ("Nonna's house") and doesn't seem too upset about it. He also had a miniature broom and dust pan yesterday to help us clean up the Joey fur.

We are pretty upset and crossing or fingers that she'll be back with us soon. Hopefully she'll enjoy herself at Nonna's. We miss her already and it's been 1 day.