Oliver's New Job

Oliver has started to want to help with things around the house. One thing he started doing on his own was throwing his diaper away. He gets very excited about doing this. He is in his onesie for these pictures because he gets so excited to do it that he gets upset if he has to wait too long.

He also helps out with other things around the house. At supper, he brings the cups to set the table. He will pick up his toys if we encourage him. He gets very excited when I open the dishwasher, but I don't think he's quite able to help with that yet.

Saturday Morning Cartoons

This morning Oliver and I got up and watched some Saturday morning cartoons. He watched Playhouse Disney. He liked playing on a blanket I put out on the floor for him. He is also a fan of putting his head on the boppy pillow. Later in the day, the three of us went grocery shopping. We also went to Home Depot and Lowe's to do some preliminary looking for our upcoming kitchen work. We did some measuring at home and are getting closer and closer to being ready to start some actual "real" work.

Every night we read Oliver books and say prayers with him. One book we have added to our collection is Counting Kisses. Thursday night when we read it, he bent down and kissed the pages while we read. Tonight I got it on video :)

Friday night at the Shook House

We have had a pretty lazy night around here. We wanted to get out of the house for a bit, so after supper we headed to the mall. It was nice to get out. I need to be better with the camera if I am going to make it through 40 days. Pictures make my posts more interesting. I've been doing some research online to learn a little more about peanut allergies. Tomorrow we are going grocery shopping for our first time since learning of Oliver's allergy. We will definitely be reading lots of labels tomorrow. I hope to start calling around to a few restaurants pretty soon to find out which ones Oliver can safely eat at. Not too much else exciting to report tonight, so until tomorrow :)

Pictures

I needed to shovel Tuesday morning and Oliver decided he didn't need to take a nap that morning. So, he got to play in the snow while I shoveled. He seemed to enjoy it. He laughed a lot when I would throw the snow. He picked up snow and moved it from hand to hand. Overall, first true playing in the snow experience was a success.



Sunday was Valentine's Day and Oliver had fun playing with Danielle. This is pretty much the best picture I was able to get of the two of them. When we were getting ready for supper, we had both high chairs in the kitchen and as soon as they saw the high chairs, they were in the kitchen waiting to be put in one so that they could eat.


I made heart cookies for Valentine's Day. The little boy I watch decorated some to take home. Oliver thoroughly enjoyed eating them (as you can see in the previous picture). His favorite cookies were the ones with the red frosting. He had one with white frosting and put it down as soon as he saw Eric with one with red frosting. Apparently red frosting either tastes better or is more fun. Oliver also did some painting for Valentine's Day. He used a paintbrush and did pretty well, up until he decided to start eating the paint.



Oliver spends a lot of time playing with his little people. He has quite a few sets and a lot of people and animals. He likes to fill the airplane up with people and animals. I caught him playing with these while I was in the dining room so I zoomed in to get a picture without him knowing. He apparently has a sixth sense for cameras because as soon as I snapped the first picture, he looked right at me. So...
I got a cheesy grin from across the room. :)
Happy Thursday Night! We are looking forward to a quiet weekend without any plans :)

40 Days of Posting

I decided that for Lent this year instead of giving something up, I am going to do something. My plan is to make a post everyday of Lent. So hopefully I am up to the challenge, it seems easy at the end of the day to skip out on doing anything (as is evident in my lack of posting the last few months). So here's my start date.

We received a letter today from the allergy doctor we took Oliver to on February 8th. The results of his bloodwork show that he is highly allergic to peanut and moderately allergic to cat dander and egg. The doctor's instructions are to avoid any foods that contain peanut (using peanut oil, produced in a factory that also produces peanuts, etc) and to avoid any contact with cats. The doctor said if he is eating foods with eggs and not having any problems, he can continue to eat eggs, but if he does have episodes of rashes or other problems after eating egg whites, he will need to avoid eggs as well. While we are bummed out to know he has these allergies, we are somewhat relieved to know what caused the reaction he had and know to avoid these allergens and the steps to take in case of another reaction.

Last week for Valentine's Day, we had a fun time decorating cookies (and eating them) and doing a little painting for making valentines.

We went back to Iowa on Friday, February 12th for a quick weekend. My mom had surgery that day and we didn't have to work on Monday so we thought it was a good chance to get back to Iowa for a weekend. It was a pretty laidback weekend, we did enjoy a dinner at Doughy Joey's with a large group of my family on Saturday. On Sunday, we were able to visit with my niece Jessica and her family. Oliver and Danielle had fun playing together. We tried again to take a picture of the two of them and I guess you could say I succeeded in getting a picture, just not necessarily a good picture.

Apparently I am not able to post any pictures tonight, something isn't working quite right. So words are all you get. Hopefully tomorrow night blogspot will allow me to post some pictures of the little boy.

Where we have been

It has been awhile since my last post and it feels like a lot has happened. We headed back to Iowa on January 12th and stayed until January 30th (Eric went back to Illinois for 1 week in there to begin classes). During this time, we spent lots of time with our family, which was nice. It was a sad sort of nice though as on January 22nd, my dad passed away. We felt very lucky to be with both him and my mom (and extended family) during his last few weeks. We love him very much and will miss him.


During the time we were back in Iowa, Oliver had an allergic reaction to an unknown substance. His face, specifically his eyes, swelled up. Eric had left to go back to Illinois that day and that just added to the stress of the situation. I ended up taking him into the ER that evening (along with my sister Kathy and brother Dale). They gave him benadryl and a steroid to help with the swelling. By the next evening, he was back to normal. Luckily, his breathing never seemed to have any problems throughout this event.

We scheduled a follow-up appointment with an allergy specialist through our local doctor which we just had today. The doctor wanted to do a blood draw to test for multiple allergens. Here is a list of the allergens he is testing Oliver for:
almond
cashew
corn
oat
pork
sesame seed
alternaria alternata (I believe a fungus)
cat dander
cladosporium herbarum (a type of mold)
cockroach
cod fish
D. farinae (dust)
D. pteronyssinus (dust mites)
dog dander
egg white
milk
peanut
shrimp
soybean
walnut
wheat

The doctor said if we don't hear anything within two weeks to call for the results. He did prescribe an epi-pen for us to have with Oliver in case of another reaction. I think this made both Eric and myself feel a little better to have on hand in case we would need it.

Since getting home, we have been adjusting back into life. Eric is getting into the swing of things with classes. He is feeling like he is getting close to completing the class portion of his PhD (followed by a few years of research and writing for a dissertation). I have been doing day care and catching up around the house. Oliver has been busy busy busy!

Oliver is getting 4 molars in, had a cold, and his first ear infection. I think we are on the downward side of the cold and the ear infection, but we have a ways to go on the molars. He seems to be handling it all pretty well, other than at night, sleeping has been a little rough. Oliver loves playing with his toys and is now aware that his toyroom is upstairs and wants to go up there all.the.time.






Hopefully that catches people up on us a little bit and hopefully I post a little more regularly. We are expected to get 4-7 inches of snow tonight so maybe we'll get a snow day tomorrow. Stay warm everyone!

Christmas and New Year

His first bubble bath
Bathtime with cousins: Sophia, Oliver, & Danielle
Sophia and Oliver on Oliver's new couch from Aunt Kathy & Uncle Dale
Our family picture at the Steffen Christmas
Henry and Oliver playing on Christmas morning
Henry on Christmas morning
Oliver excited about his new toys on Christmas morning
Checking out his new phone- Christmas morning
On Christmas Eve, we went to the fire station with some cousins and aunts and uncles. Oliver liked driving the fire trucks and ambulance.
The ball popper Oliver got at Grandma & Grandpa Shook's house. All of the kid's played with it that day.
Oliver with his stocking at the Shook Christmas
Oliver and cousins on the Shook side- (left to right) Tanner, Savannah, Kaydence, Oliver, Sierra, Alexis, & Braden

The day after we got in, we went to Heritage Farms with Grandma Shook, Aunt Amy, Uncle Mark, and cousins: Sierra, Savannah, Kaydence, Caitlyn, and Dimitri. We rode in a horse-drawn sleigh back to a cabin in the woods. In the cabin, we had cinnamon rolls and hot chocolate. We also saw Santa Claus. After we were done there, we rode the sleigh back and went inside a big barn. They had lots of animals that the kids could pet and a rocking horse to ride. Outside, they had horses and ponies that the kids could ride. Oliver enjoyed his pony ride. It was a fun and cold day!
On the pony ride
Petting the goat
Riding on the rocking horse
Our family in front of our horse-drawn sleigh
The cabin in the woods we went to
Oliver playing out in the snow
Walking in the snow
Oliver sitting (very briefly) with Santa Claus
On the sleigh ride trying to stay warm
Our family on the sleigh ride
The horses and sleighs
We celebrated Christmas just the three of us before heading to Iowa. Oliver thought climbing on the boxes was just as good as opening them.
Grandpa and Grandma Steffen with Oliver, Braydon, Sophia, and Henry.
The three little boys in their matching Christmas clothes from Grandma & Grandpa Steffen. Oh the memories that brings back! :)
Oliver got a much needed haircut upon his Oliver tractor. It worked for a few minutes to keep him entertained, then we did the lock and hold.
As you can see, the front was getting pretty long. Thanks Aunt Donna for the haircut.

We were very blessed and lucky to be able to spend a little over two weeks back in Iowa with our family and friends. It was cold and there was a lot of snow, but it was wonderful to be with everyone. We did spend some unexpected time in the hospital with my dad, he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer while we were back. We were glad to be there to help out and support both him and my mom during that tough time. Please keep him and my family in your thoughts and prayers and visit http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/cletussteffen to see updates on him.

I wasn't very good about taking pictures while we were back, but we did many fun things. We celebrated 5 different Christmases. We went out to dinner numerous times with extended family. We went to see Santa Claus with cousins. We went out to dinner for my mom's birthday with a group of 30 people. We celebrated New Year's Eve at my parents' house with lots of food and fun.

I hope everyone had a very merry Christmas and that your 2010 has started off well.