What a week!

This has been quite a week. Last Friday, Tyler managed to smash the front of the oven door.  I was cleaning up after dinner and Tyler was playing in the spice rack, as usual.  Next thing I knew, I heard a crash and Tyler was on his hands and knees in a pile of broken glass.  What a mess!  I believe he whacked the oven door with a spice jar and must have hit it just right so that it shattered.  We are still trying to figure out how best to proceed with repairing the oven.

In addition to the oven situation that I had on my mind, Brennan saw the allergist on Tuesday after school.  After describing what his reaction to eating peanuts, the doctor decided it wasn't necessary to do a scratch test and instead, sent us for blood work.  He did okay at the Quest lab for the blood draw and we got our results yesterday.  He has a mild allergy to cats, weed pollen, tree pollen, grass pollen and mold.  He also has a mild to mid grade allergy to peanuts, hazelnuts, pecans and sesame.  For the seasonal allergies, we were told to give him Zyrtec or Allegra now through Halloween.  For the food allergies, we were given a prescription for an epi-pen and were told to keep all nuts out of his diet for a year.  Wow.  I realize that this isn't the end of the world, but I haven't quite wrapped my head around the fact that I am now a mom who carries an epi-pen.  I asked the allergist what I should do about Tyler: have him tested, avoid nuts?  She said I could have a scratch test done on him, but now that I have the epi-pen, she suggested that I could just give him peanut butter and use the epi-pen, if he has a reaction.  Again, I need to get my head around this before I proceed.

The boys have been cuddling and playing with their dogs all week.  Tyler has taken to playing with the little puppy that Avery and Olivia bought him when he was just a newborn.  I love the way he was peeking out the window in the photo below.

I took the boys to Frying Pan Park Farm for a picnic lunch today.  Brennan had fun sitting on the small tractors.  Going to the farm with the two kids by myself was tougher than I expected it to be.  I wanted to let Tyler walk, instead of being stuck in the stroller, but it was so dirty and I was worried about him touching farm animal things and then putting his hands in his mouth.  I ended up pushing a stroller with one hand, holding him on and off with the other, and constantly grabbing for Wet Ones Wipes.  I don't think I'll head there alone again!

But, at least the boys got to have lunch al fresco and see some animals.  There were baby calves and goats that Brennan enjoyed seeing and both boys got to pet a sheep.  The chickens were a hit with both kids.

We've been playing outside in the yard a lot as well this week, since the weather has been so nice.  Brennan thinks he is in the king of the play house!