Not A Surprise

Evie is allergic to milk. This includes cow and goat's milk, both of which she had a 3+/4 reaction to (4 being the most severe). The good news is we pretty much figured she was allergic to milk already so no 'new' news.

She also had a 2+ reaction to cats and a barely 1 reaction to dogs. The doctor didn't see very concerned about these 2. She did not have a reaction to any of the other things she was tested for, and they pricked her 32 times. Maybe they would have done more tests if there had been more space but the 32 pokings covered her entire back already. It was more than enough for me since I had to hold her down!
Since she has hives she will either outgrow this much more slowly than most would or she could have this allergy for life. She could also continue to be allergic forever but have a less severe reaction over time, like being congested or sneezing lots or something like that. Her cat/dog allergy could explain why she seems to have had a cold since August. The other thing about hives is that apparently hives are common to people who have anaphylaxis so we did get prescribed an epi-pen for her. However, the doctor said it was extremely unlikely that we would ever need it because milk doesn't usually result in an anaphylactic reaction. He said he gave me the prescription for my piece of mind AND because if anyone I talked to heard she had hives and he hadn't given her an epi-pen they would think he was lax or crazy. So we have a prescription for an epi-pen for the 0.01% chance that she swells up and stops breathing.

We can try baked goods with milk because apparently those aren't always a problem, but we'll have to wait and see on that. Apparently hot dogs have milk in them, along with all the other chum in the world, but they should be ok. Otherwise no milk stuff until she is at least 2-2.5 years old.

Also, there was nothing we could have done to prevent this and it's just one of those things. Fingers crossed that she does outgrow this or becomes less sensitive as soon as possible.

Stair Climber Evie

Nana and Grandpa live in a split-level house and today Evie learned how to clim stairs by following Nana up the 2 stairs from the family room (aka Evie's playroom) and the kitchen. She has done it several times now and is already really good at it! It's really cute too because she takes off to go up the stairs and turns around to make sure someone is following her (as a spotter).

She also had her 9 month pictures taken today. She was supposed to have them done weeks ago but she had the big cheek bruise from taking a header into the coffee table so we waited until that went away. It was a fairly awful experience and I feel really bad--we invited Nana and Grandpa to come with us thinking it would be fun, but it wasn't so much.

Now that Evie can crawl around she is super hard to photograph because she wants to be somewhere else, duh! The photographer didn't take very many pictures--she kept waiting for Evie to smile while looking at the camera which was like asking the planets to align on cue. This of course would have been an ideal picture to have but we like the pictures of Evie where she is doing her regular stuff too--like her super chub face when she looks at something really hard or how she eats her bottom lip all the time. After about 35-40 minutes of baby torture and mommy stress, we ended up with less than 10 pictures to choose from which is ridiculous. Since they do digital photography and as a result, the images are FREE to look at, why not take a ton of pictures? I am going to write and comment on this as well.

We'll get the pictures to everyone once they come in a few weeks from now!

Aunt Lea and Anna Visit

Aunt Lea and Anna have come to visit from Denver and Evie has been having loads of fun with them. Above is Evie playing on the table at BW3s with them--she really enjoyed the salt and pepper shaker access!

They also helped give her a bath and she was pretty fun during bath time but a little cranky since it was a smidge past her bedtime. On Sunday she had her second swim class and she was not into it as much this time. I don't know if she was tired, or teething or just too cold but she seemed to tolerate being in the pool more than enjoying it like she has in the past. Her poor little lips turned blue almost instantly and her gums were chattering for a while:( When we got home we put this cute pink bow from Lea and Anna in her hair and she looked gorgeous, even with her Robin Williams face (I think this is the face of a teething baby!):Last night we went to the Melting Pot and she loved the balloon Nana got for her, but she is thinking really hard in this picture about how to get it into her mouth. it made me kind of sad though because while we were there I realized that she might never get to enjoy 2/3 courses depending on how this whole milk allergy thing pans out. And even though we scheduled her appointment with the allergist for today, we won't be going. I got a call from daycare after she had been there for about an hour saying she has been projectile vomiting for a while now so daddy went to pick poor sick Evie up. She had to her reschedule her appointment because she is sick. I am just bummed because it sucks for her to be sick AND I was really hoping to find out more about her milk allergy so I know what to expect. Now we'll just have to wait on that until next week.

And I almost forgot her funny from yesterday. So we were prepping everything to give her a bath last night and I stripped her down while daddy prepped the tub. She was in her birthday suit while we went from her room to our room, put some dirty laundry in the hamper, etc. and then we went into the bathroom, which I knew was taking a chance but my gamble paid off. I had Evie standing in the sink looking at herself in the mirror and I looked down and she was peeing everywhere--and boy does she have some good aim for a girl! The good news is it all landed in the sink and went down the drain but it was too funny--seconds longer on the laundry run and we would have been soaked!

First Swim Lesson and First Snow!

Today marks Evie's first swim lesson and her first real snow. We are pretty sure she enjoyed both but it was a little too cold to enjoy the snow much. In other Evie news she learned how to clap this weekend and is really good at it!

Here she is getting into the pool, Audry is in the corner of the picture. We are practicing steps and she wore her new suit--the little skirt part kind of fans out when it hits the water:
Mommy and Evie--not sure what she was thinking about all this--and Allison in the corner:Evie and Glenn. We actually know all the other babies in the class which is really fun. Glenn has quite his pick of the ladies.All of us playing humpty-dumpty and helping babies fall off the wall. From L-R is Sarah and Audry, Mommy and Evie, Carrie and Allison, Alex the instructor, Beth and Katie and Bethany and Glenn.

I tried getting some cute snow pictures of her looking at me but she loved it so much we had no luck. Plus it made this really cool crunchy noise she liked when she touched it:

Now she is melting down--to much new fun stuff I think!

Verdict in...

Evie does have a milk allergy according to her RAST test. It is 'moderately' severe and we are going to take her to an allergist soon to have the skin prick test done and see what we need to do from here. I am hoping: (1) that the RAST test was a false positive for milk allergy, (2) if it wasn't that she outgrows this, (3) in either case that she doesn't have any other allergies we just don't know about yet. Keep your fingers crossed.

Otherwise, Evie is super cute and loveable and fun and I am thankful everyday for her because she is the best thing I ever did and for sure the best thing daddy and I have ever done as a couple. She is awesomelicious!

Mommy started her new job on Thursday and hopefully this will mean more time with the Juner and less work stress overall, although learning the new in's and out's is going to take time, stress and making some mistakes probably. Fingers crossed for this too!

Last Sunday we went to Cinti to see the Voellmeckes and here is 4 generations of Voellmeckes:
If you zoom in you can see her poor bruised cheek from the coffee table fiasco. It is FINALLY starting to look better after 1 full week!

And here, just for fun, is Evie sleeping. She wouldn't nap on Monday unless I held her:)First swim lessons with all her friends: this Sunday!