New Years, Fun Times, and an Allergic Mystery

This past weekend we got to go visit Josh's family for New Year's. It was fun to get out of the house for awhile. Especially because the kids love playing with their cousins. Abby's still in her "I need a warm up time before playing" phase but other than that it was good all around. My sister-in-law was actually not working for a change and I got to spend some quality time with her which is always fun. She used to work weekends so whenever we visited I got a whopping three hours of sisterly bonding time. They recently moved to the same city as my Parent-in-laws so it came with a bunch of changes. Not only do we get to see all Josh's family in one visit but it came with new jobs for the sis and bro. New job for Heather (sis-in-law) equals weekends off. Yay for weekend visits! Life for the in-laws is always exciting and ever-changing. Very fun. So the weekend was quite nice. Did I mention that I officially have an awesome Chiropractic doctor for a brother-in-law and that he's super awesome for helping me out? Yeah...well...it's totally true. A week ago I couldn't turn my head/neck very far at all. Today, I can look behind me to see what the kids are getting into without pain shooting every which way. Yeah. He's awesome.

Well, with our fun-filled adventure this past weekend came a mysterious moment that adds to my allergic state of "huh??" I went with my mother-in-law and all the kids to the local duck/goose pond to feed them old loaves of bread. Now, we do this here at home only all of our bread comes from our house which is all milk-free. Not to mention that I guess I shouldn't assume that my five-year-old won't eat the moldy, old, crusty bread that is supposed to feed to the ducks. So there I was, feeding a goose when I look over to see Alex snacking on a piece of bread. Guess what? It had milk in it. Naturally, I freak out. Ok...freak out is a bit extreme. There was no hyperventilating or anything too crazy like that, but I knocked the bread out of his hand and asked him how much he ate. I think he ate about 1/3 of a piece of bread. I ran to get a juice box for him to swallow it down fast so it didn't sit idly in his throat. I whip out my benadryl and ask him how he feels. Guess what now? He felt fine. First let me say this: Thank God! But now let me say this: What the heck?? We just got back from his current milk challenge at the doctor's office where he reacted to a mere sip of milk in less than 15 seconds with a mild anaphylactic reaction. He eats a good chunk of bread with milk in it and nothing? I'm confused - officially. He never needed the medicine but who knows what happened. The milk could have not been present in that particular slice. For now I'm just thankful that it didn't go bad. The doctors are confused because of the severity of his reaction in the office but he's still labeled as deathly allergic. Allergies are so confusing.

So other than the fact that I rang in the New Year completely alone in the dark at my in-laws house because everyone was a bunch of lazy butts and went to bed before midnight, (you all know who you are...just sayin') the weekend was fun and I'm glad that we are blessed with such a wonderful family. So to all my family, no matter what part of the world you are in, I hope your new year is filled with wonderful times and good health. Happy New Year all!