Disney World - Day 3

Our last day in Disney was a Saturday, which meant it was very crowded and crazy. We started the day with a character breakfast at the Cape May Cafe. I'm so glad we did this. Marino LOVED getting to meet the characters - do you see his smile? Not to mention, the food was amazing!Once again, the chef came out to meet with us and then made us eggless/gluten-free pancakes and donuts - yum! And Marino got to hug Goofy and Donald - his favorites! 

From there, we took the shuttle over to Hollywood Studios. I really wanted to go there this year, while Marino is still young enough to get excited about seeing characters. He'll always love rides, but he won't always love seeing Pixar characters in person, so I wanted him to experience it at this age. 

Our first stop was Pixar Place. Pap Pap and Gramma Barb got in line for Toy Story Midway Mania and Evan, Marino and I headed across the street to meet Buzz and Woody. 

The line to meet Buzz and Woody was deceptively long, but there were plenty of photo ops and entertaining things to see in line. 

Marino making faces with a new buddy. 

At last, it was time to meet the big guys. Marino was soooooo excited! 

It was so precious to see and I know he will only be this excited about these kinds of things for another couple years. I loved seeing this happy face!

After that we got back in line for Toy Story Midway Mania! I'm not kidding, even with my dad and Barb holding a place in line for us, we waited 90 minutes. It was insane. I really wish we had gotten a Fast Pass but by the time we arrived, the Fast Pass times were for the evening. So, after a looooooooooong wait, we got on the ride. 

Thankfully, Marino loved it and said it was his favorite of our trip. Surprisingly, he was pretty good during our wait. 

On our way to lunch (which we reserved as soon as we arrive in the morning), we saw a short line to meet Jake from Jake and the Neverland Pirates. We stopped and said hello to Jake. 

We had lunch at the Hollywood Brown Derby. It was delicious and, again, the chef came out to discuss allergies and options. Marino was exhausted and slept on my lap through lunch.

After lunch, we wanted to see the Disney Junior show, but it was cancelled because of technical difficulties, so we headed to some quieter areas of the park.

We checked out the playground in the Honey I Shrunk the Kids area. No line and Marino loved it!

We also got to meet Marino's favorite Pixar characters - Lightning McQueen and Mater!

By this time, we were all pretty worn out and had achy feet, so we headed back to the resort for some rest. 

The next morning was check out - some of the Disney resorts allow you to "check in" with your airline right there. They take your checked baggage to the airport - this was really nice. We took the shuttle to the airport and we were on our way home. 

New Allergies/Worries

Last week, I took Marino to the allergist to go over his updated labs for food allergies. We had agreed to avoid shellfish and nuts until he was 3 and then do a blood test before giving him those foods, since they are such common allergens (I have a shellfish allergy myself).

Honestly, I was less concerned about nuts than I was about shellfish.

Unfortunately, we found some new allergies.

The most surprising was a moderate allergy (RAST score of .8) to sesame. Marino has been exposed to sesame on a regular basis - he eats hummus several times a week. In doing some research on it, I found that sesame allergy symptoms can be insidious, sometimes manifesting as unexplained eczema or asthma flare ups. Obviously, I am now removing that from his diet and keeping tabs on hidden sesame oil other foods (like the Vietnamese food we love).

The other new allergy is a severe allergy to peanuts (RAST score of 6). While I feel like peanuts are the most well know of allergens, it still gives me another food to worry about. The allergist felt confident he would likely need an epi-pen shot if exposed to peanuts, so we will have to keep a close eye out for them.

Perhaps the most disappointing was that his RAST score for eggs jumped from a 44 to an 84. Now, keep in mind that his allergy to sesame with a RAST score of .8 is a moderate allergy. A RAST score of 84 is astronomical...the measurements stop at 100. The allergist tried to reassure me by saying the testing just captures a moment in time, and his score could be somewhat more or less if we tested another week. But he also said that with a score that high (and increasing rather than decreasing), if he outgrows the egg allergy it won't be in the near future.

This visit coincided with Marino's starting a new preschool next week...one without nurses and with 3 times the number of kids in his class than where we were before. I am definitely concerned.

5 on Friday

As always, here are 5 special reasons I am loving my boy this week. Some of them are a bit sad, since he was very sick this week, but precious nonetheless.

5. Monday, he told me "I need a Lightning McQueen bandaid [pronounced "banday"]." " Where should I put it? ", I asked. "Um...on my lips [pronounced "yips"]" he said.

4. He threw up on Sunday (everywhere, it was awful) and he was really disturbed by it. "I'm not going to get my drip [drip = throw up] out anymore because Daddy already cleaned it off the floor" he told me.

3. On Monday, he told Evan on the phone "I don't feel so good. I gotta go to the doctor and get all better."

2. One of Marino's favorite stories is "The Three Little Pigs". The other day, we were reading it and one of the scenes shows the completed house of sticks. On that page, there is a small bird in the corner, folded up in his wings and looking sad. Marino pointed to the bird and said "Oh no. Little bird is sad because the pig took away all of his sticks." I was really impressed with his insight there, that he would have put together that the bird needs sticks and was upset that the pig used the sticks he needed for his own house.

1. Sydney's birthday party was Sunday (post coming soon) and Marino was so excited to sing happy birthday. He was loudly singing the whole walk over to the cake (where we were supposed to go to sing). Can't wait for his birthday this year!

To say this was a rough week would be an understatement. Out of nowhere, Marino developed a fever and began vomiting on Sunday afternoon. His fever got up to 104 overnight, which is the highest fever he's had. I took him to see the doctor on Monday and she showed me a blister on his tonsil - evidence of Coxsackie virus. Coxsackie is self-resolving, so she told us just to keep him on a diet of liquids and soft foods and keep up with Ibuprofen. Tuesday, I bought him some Campbell's chicken noodle soup for dinner. Well, as he was eating it, he broke out in hives. Evan checked the can and the soup is made with egg whites!!

Evan gave him the Epipen shot and Bendaryl, then Albuterol and Pulmicort. All seemed to be calming down until he broke out in head to toe hives, and his eyes are ear lobes started swelling! So, off to the ER we went. There, they gave him Pepcid (antihistamine) and steroids and kept us for observation until 2am. He was absolutely miserable. If you had seen him, you would have cringed. His eyes were little slits and he had blotchy red hives over ever inch of his body. It was awful. He improved slightly 3 hours after the medicine was given, so they let us go home.

The next morning, he still had swollen eyes and some hives on his face, but they improved by noon. We are doing Benadryl every 6 hours, round the clock, steroids once a day and Pepcid twice a day for several more days.

Marino's 2nd Birthday Party

I know, I am so behind on posting this, but here are some pictures and details from Marino's 2nd birthday party (July 3rd). We had it at Romp N Roll and it was really an amazing day. At this age, you never know how your child will be for their birthday party (cranky, overstimulated, shy) but Marino was running around the whole time with a huge smile and a look of sheer joy on his face. He ate up all the attention and always wanted to be up front during circle time. He certainly seemed to understand it was his special day. In case you don't want to view the whole slide show, here's a few of my favorite pictures (all taken by my friend Regina Brown).

Isn't that Plex hat the coolest? This etsy seller made it for me...complete with a removable birthday hat on Plex's head, so I can take the birthday hat portion off and he can wear the hat in the winter! If you have an unique hat needs, definitely contact her! She came up with the idea herself and sent it to me in a couple weeks for a great price!

We had a great time with great friends (20 toddlers!)and I feel so blessed that we have so many special people in our lives that love Marino. The party had a Yo Gabba Gabba theme and we dined on eggless cupcakes (made by me) and Rita's Italian Ice. Marino gobbled up all of the treats and promptly threw them up on me at the end of the party (too much sugar and excitement, I guess). It was definitely a day I will remember for the rest of my life...to see my boy so happy, excited and full of joy - life doesn't get much better.

Hope you enjoy the slideshow!

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Marino's 2nd Easter

My first ever post to this blog was on Easter of last year. It's amazing to see how much Marino has changed since then. He was not yet crawling, standing, talking, etc, and hadn't cut his first tooth yet. Look at him now (ok, he still has a freakishly small number of teeth, but everything else has changed drastically).

My mom and stepfather came down on Thursday night so they could watch Marino for us on Friday (daycare was closed but we both had to work). Marino definately bonded a lot with them. When I got home from work, he was calling my mom "Granna" (this adapted from "Manna" which is what he called her last month) and Ray "Grampa." He had a great time hanging out with them, and trying to convince Granna to let him take a bath in the lake:)

Saturday, my mom and stepfather, Aunt Chelle, Evan and I all took Marino to Bunnyland at Butler's Orchard. It's a scaled down version of their fall festival but was a lot of fun. We had beautiful weather (high 70s and sunny). Unfortunately, the boy was cranky. He is cutting a molar on the bottom (it's swollen but hasn't cut through yet) and I think that may be the reason for the crankiness. He was not even amused by the bounce house (although he recognized it as we were driving into the parking lot and said "bouncy house!") and he was too afraid to look at the bunnies because a woman was holding them with her face painted like a bunny, which apparently Marino found terrifying (odd, since he is not afraid of much).

Marino's favorite part of Bunny Land was these big slides that he went down with Daddy. He LOVED them!!

After some sliding, we went to this cute little hay ball pit where Marino was enjoying himself. Evan walked away for a minute and Marino started saying "need Daddy." When Evan came back, he said "More? Slide?"...since Evan brought him down the slides before, I guess he thought he needed Evan to go back down. It was pretty funny (so, of course, we had to oblige).

Wish granted, more slide

Evan's friend Brian said this tunnel is sort of creepy.

They had new chicks there - so adorable!!

And some sleepy sheep. We remarked the sheep looked tired and a toddler next to us looked at us and said "shhhhh" with a finger to his lips:)

Family love

Marino and his Aunt Chelle

Tractor trike...he couldn't reach the peddles, unfortunately.

More sliding

I love this picture of Evan!

One of Marino's current favorite things - BUS!!

Going through the maze with Daddy

Marino and his Granna

Marino with Grampa and Granna

He was so excited to climb up this hill after he saw some big kids do it. Climbing is one of his favorite things!

Daddy and Marino liked this slide the best (it was the fastest one).

Hi, Bunny!

Even the ponies had bunny ears

We were supposed to go to my friend Miriam's birthday party for her son Matthew (Happy 1st Birthday, Matthew!), but the boy was so wound up and cranky after our visit to Bunnyland, he didn't take a nap until 1:45! After he got up, I decided he was too cranky to subject people who don't already know and love him to his madness. We just relaxed the rest of the day, hoping the crankiness would get better (it didn't).

Easter morning, we got up and went to the playground for a little while before the Easter bunny arrived.

I kept thinking something was "off" here; I forgot to button the top bottom of his shirt! Oh, well!

He is in love with his Brobee backpack. He wears it around the house, outside to play, etc.

Later that morning, the Easter bunny arrived. In the boy's Easter basket:

Books on his favorite things:

Curious George Rides

Elmo's World: Balls!

Yo Gabba Gabba: It's Nice to Be Nice

Gab N Sing Toodee

Gab N Sing Brobee (the Toodee and Brobee I got on Kid's Woot for $10 for both!)

sidewalk chalk

Birdies t-shirt

Brobee Mega Bloks set

Gerber apple mini-fruits

sifter, shovel, rake and truck for his sandbox

Silly Jumpin Plex (this was a big hit...it only makes noise if you throw it or thump it on the ground...perfect for a toddler, although occassionally he would feel bad and give Plex a hug after throwing him).

wind-up eggs (we told him they were Oskee bugs from YGG)

He thought this sand rake was a brush

I think the apple snacks were his favorite thing in his basket (Max's, too).

He seemed to enjoy his Easter gifts, although after seeing all the Yo Gabba Gabba toys, he asked "Where's Foofa?", Foofa being the only character he doesn't have a toy of yet. I guess I need to get on that!

After lunch and naptime, we painted wooden Easter eggs. I was very nervous about attempting to dye real eggs, considering the severity of Marino's egg allergy, but I still love the tradition of decorating eggs. My buddy Rachel over at Allergen Free Please had posted this great idea for decorating wood eggs. I like the idea of painting a few a year and I decided we would write the year on the bottom. I think it will be fun to pull out the eggs we've painted each year to decorate our Easter baskets.

Evan and I painted the eggs with an acrylic paint base color on Friday night and then we used washable paints to decorate the eggs with Marino. Washable paint serves a purpose, but my best analogy is that it's like painting with nail polish. I think next year Evan and I might paint our eggs with acrylic paint for a better result and let Marino use the washable paints. As you can see, our eggs are not exactly beautiful, but we did them together and I love them!

After painting eggs, we went to Great Seneca Park to their great playground. The boy was still sort of cranky and he was sort of overwhelmed by all the very big kids there (10 and older). He mainly wanted to snuggle with me instead of playing.

Climbing up to the slide with the big kids

Hope everyone enjoyed their holiday, as well!