Today was a good day. We have been getting a bit nervous about the difficulty Shane exhibits in listening and behaving. But through reading some websites and books, we have developed some strategies to improve how we react to his behavior (good and bad) and his desire to listen, and well as giving him more structure and tools to help him. Also, we are working to remember that he IS three.

Playgroup today was at the park. Which is cool, but this particular park has practically no shade, and my kids couldn't be much more fair complected, and it was hazy, hot and humid. So, of course, we did the sunscreen before leaving for the park and some other errands. Picking up Shane's prescriptions at the pharmacist, he somehow rubbed some errant sunscreen into his eyes. So, we ended up back at home before the park. After thoroughly rinsing his eyes, we were once again ready to go. Just once minor incident at the park where we had a little talk about how to treat our friends. Shane likes to play pretty rough, some of his friends don't. After our talk, they both met in the middle.

Olivia continues to amaze me. She was climbing all over the playground like a pro. A couple of the moms commented on how athletic and coordinated she is given her age. It was validation of what I had suspected, but thought was maybe my biased view. She saw 2 samoyeds, and ran over to say hi, giggling and squealing the whole way. I joked with the owner that she doesn't really like dogs. They were really friendly, beautiful animals. The heat seemed a bit much for them though.

The mention of the dogs reminds me yesterday's visit to the Allergy/Asthma department at A.I. DuPont. We were down there b/c the little man has had a cough going on about a month or so, that has just kind of lingered. We weren't sure if it is/was allergy/asthma related -- he's been off the Pulmicort for about 6 months now AND grown like a weed in that period -- or if it is/was something else. Docs aren't sure either, so they re-tested all his environmental and food allergies via the skin test. It was awful. He was crying and fighting the process even before the skin pricks, just when the nurse was writing the nums on his back with a ball point. As I held (restrained) him on my lap, chest to chest, and alternated between giving him kisses and telling him, "It's OK" my eyes were welling up a bit. The poor guy was not happy about this and I was contributing to it. The good news is that he seems to have outgrown his walnut, dog, and dust allergies. The bad news is that the eggs blew up like they always do. But even that has a silver lining. His immunoGap -- the measurement they do with the blood tests -- on the eggs is dropping. His doc indicated that he has seen this before, where the skin is more reactive than the body's other systems, and since the iG is dropping, he predicts that within 6 months we can do an egg challenge. I had Olivia with me for this visit (as I do for most visits). I put her in the stroller and gave her a snack and drink to keep her occupied during the test. At first, she watched very intently, but as Shane struggled more and more, she got very upset. Their bond is really neat. However,...

... they are often partners in crime. During the waiting phases of the visit, the two would open the back door of the room at try to wander out. Behaviorly, this was very frustrating and embarrassing (especially when the doc would be in trying to talk to me) and really led me to get more serious about this listening and behaving thing. But now 24 hours removed, I realize that they were waiting alot yesterday, and there wasn't much for them to do. I had brought toys and books, but we had been through it all. That's not to say we can't improve.

If you made it through all that, congrats and thanks for reading.