The other day, I was in serious need of a break. Since it was a blustery day outside, I decided not to feel bad about keeping the kids inside. I handed them the iPad and rather than accomplish some work, as is my usual routine when they get the iPad, I sat down with a book I had just gotten, called Shut Up About Your Perfect Kid. The title makes it sound a little negative, but it is actually a really funny book. I kept laughing every few minutes at something I read. Herbie, being a lover of comedy, came over from playing the iPad and demanded that I tell him what was so funny. I read what I had just laughed at, and he gave me a quizzical look since of course it meant nothing to him. This happened a few times and then he gave up. But each time I laughed (believe me, it is a funny book), he would pop his head up to look at me and grin.

At bedtime, when we were praying and saying what we were thankful for, he piped up and said, "thanks for mama laughing at the book today!" He was so happy that I was laughing, bless his little heart. I need to go finish that book. More importantly, I want to remember the smile on his face when he saw me laughing, and reproduce that as often as I can.

Today was the Wise Old Owl's check-up at the allergist. He ends up going every 6 months because they can never fit all of the things to be tested on his little back. If you have never had allergy testing done, the skin test (more sensitive than a blood test) involves pricking the skin with a dab of an allergen and looking for a red bump. In the past, the reactions have happened so fast that within a minute all of the pricked spots have raised welts a few inches in diameter. They start to merge together and make the testing unclear. So they can only test for about 15 things at a time.

This visit was specifically to look at nuts and seafood, things we have been avoiding but only knowing that he had a positive test to almonds, and that seafood was too risky for someone like him. I felt confident that he wasn't really allergic to seafood, we were just avoiding it to be safe. I even told him we might buy some Ian's gluten-free fish sticks on our way home. Well, it turns out that shellfish seem to be OK, fish are definitely not, and nuts are still out. I was emotionally drained. We came home and decided to skip the preschool art sale tonight.

Then he asked about his "star chart," the one where I put a star every time he tastes a new food. It has been up for a couple of months with little progress except for trying things like chocolate muffins or a new recipe of pancakes. We agreed that 12 stars would get him a new app on the iPad. He had 4 more to go. So on a whim, I told him if he'd drink a glass of rice milk, he could get 4 stars. He shouted in agreement, then changed his mind to flax milk. (A good choice in my opinion, the Good Karma flax milk tastes fabulous!) I poured 2 ounces and handed him the cup. He smelled it for awhile and told us to close our eyes. Herbie and I huddled together with our eyes closed, saying things like, "I hear swallowing sounds! I think he's going to do it!" And he did it! We ran around the house cheering like he had just been on the winning Super Bowl team. Now my boys are playing Stickman Golf and I'll probably let them stay up way too late. But I have a glimmer of hope tonight.