Preparing to Become a Big Sister

Molly is weeks away from becoming a big sister. Mommy is getting bigger and more uncomfortable by the day!


We've been talking to Molly a lot about the baby who will be coming to live with us soon. We've tried explaining to her that babies can't do very much at first and that they can't really play. Molly's response was "Why don't we get the baby some toys, then?" She has also decided that she has a baby in her tummy too, which prevents her from doing things she doesn't want to do. Mommy says things like "Molly, I can't pick you up right now. I'm tired because of the baby in my tummy." So now Molly says "I can't eat my dinner because of the baby in my tummy" or whatever else it is she is trying to get out of doing. Ah, kids. They are way more clever than we give them credit for.

She has also, sweetly, taken to caring nicely for her doll. This evening she decided to feed the baby doll some dinner. We hope that she will be just as interested in the care of the real baby whenever he or she arrives.

Food Allergies...Again

Well, last weekend turned into an adventure, of the bad sort. Molly had an anaphylactic reaction to something she ate and ended up at the emergency room. She broke out in hives all over her body, vomited, and her tongue was tingly and maybe swelling. Nothing to fool around with. Daddy and Grandma, who were with her, did all the right things and got her to the ER as soon as they could, but it was definitely a scary time for all of us. Molly is fully recovered now, but we're back in the food allergy camp again.

After today's appointment at the allergist, we have confirmed that the culprit is cashews. She had a majorly huge wheal on the skin prick test at the doctor's office -- enough so that all the nurses and doctors were commenting on it as they were passing by the exam room. She is also reactive to pistachios, which are closely related to cashews. Sesame seeds cause a bit of a problem for her as well -- skin reactions around her lips -- so we are avoiding those as well. We are getting her an Epi-Pen to inject her with epinephrine should she ever have the anaphylaxis again. All of Molly's caregivers -- daycare, grandparents, babysitters -- will need to be trained and familiar with how to use the injector.

We're discouraged that we're back in the food allergy world. We really thought we had put it all behind us after she outgrew her milk allergy and seemed to be fine with everything else we gave her. But we feel better prepared to deal with it this time around and we hope that with vigilance and preparation we will be able to keep her safe.

Back to School

September means a new school year for many families. However, Molly is in daycare all year round at her age, so it's a bit silly to refer to this time as "back to school." However, she did advance to a new classroom in September, along with several of her friends at school, so she is adjusting to a new room and new teachers. She's doing quite well with it, as far as we can tell. Her teachers have always seemed to like Molly, telling us she is cute and sociable and generally a good-natured kid. Really, there's nothing else a parent could want more!

She is also aware that she is about to become a big sister. She talks about the baby and has even spontaneously sung Happy Birthday to "the baby in Mommy's tummy." She also seems to think she has a baby in her tummy too, but whatever. We're excited and nervous about the big changes coming to our family. We know it won't be entirely smooth, of course, but are hopeful that Molly will hold on to her general good nature.

In the meantime we have signed her up for a gym class at the local children's YMCA, which starts next week. We hope that will be a fun family activity, and also hope it will encourage nap time afterwards!

Other than that, not much new to report. We are making slow and steady progress on the potty training, but we're not ready to give up diapers yet. She knows she's supposed to go on the potty, and is quite good about that when it comes to poop, but with pee half the time she just tells us right after she already went in her diaper. Oh well. We know she won't go off to college in her diaper, so we'll just keep plugging away at it.