Applications and Hives

I called the allergist's office on Thursday to ask if they had received Ian's bloodwork results from two weeks ago. The allergist called back and told me that Ian's numbers were very low for all three (milk, eggs, and peanuts). I told him about the hives Ian had two weeks ago that I thought were from walnuts in the cookies he ate. He told me that if the hives were only on his face and lasted for that many hours, they weren't from a food allergy. He said those hives were a skin irritation. I am familiar with that because it's the same with Ian and cinnamon. If he eats a cinnamon bagel, he's fine because the cinnamon doesn't get on his face, but if he eats something like cinnamon applesauce, he gets a rash on his face. The doctor said this might also happen with peanuts, and we might need to stick with foods that aren't messy. Thursday night I gave him his first chocolate peanut butter cookie. He called it yummy, delicious, and scrumptious. I'd say he liked it! He didn't have any rash or hives from that.

Yesterday at lunch I gave him his first real peanut butter and jelly sandwich. He had hives all over his face, and they were really bothering him (he was scratching like crazy). I don't plan on giving him another peanut butter and jelly sandwich for quite awhile (lately I've been using wowbutter which doesn't have any peanuts in it but really does taste like peanut butter), but I will continue to give him other foods with peanut butter that aren't as messy. The allergist said to wait 2-3 weeks before trying a new food. We did baked milk for two weeks and now have started peanut butter. If this goes well, I next plan to feed him eggs (ex. scrambled as he's already been eating baked eggs since November). Then 2-3 weeks later I'll try him on yogurt. I am not planning on having him drink a glass of milk for quite awhile. We still have some cans of EleCare so we'll stick with that for now. I'm hoping that he has outgrown some or better yet all of his food allergies. If he hasn't, I hope it's clear to me asap so that it doesn't get to the point that his eosinophilic esophagitis flares up again.

Yesterday I worked on six online applications for Paul. Some were easy to do, but most of them were very tedious. Some colleges use the same application for ALL their employees as evidenced by questions such as what is your typing speed, where did you go to high school, and what is your driver's license number. I have to enter a lot of the information that is already contained in his CV (dates he went to each school, contact information for references, etc.). When I applied for jobs, I never had an online application to fill out. Times have changed. I haven't totally finished the applications (because Paul hasn't finished writing the cover letters), but once I do, he will have applied for 25 jobs over the past four months. The ones that are farther south (North Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia) would be my top choices, but if we have to go to upstate New York for Paul to teach at a university, so be it. I was relieved when Paul said he didn't want to apply to one in Bangor, Maine. Brrrrrr. If applications could give me hives, I would have had hives last night, but I will gladly keep helping Paul apply for jobs in the hope that one of these will result in him being invited to interview for his dream job.

The only connection Nadia has to someone moving is when our neighbors moved to Oklahoma. So when I tell her that we will probably be moving sometime this year, she keeps asking if we're moving to Oklahoma. So far we haven't submitted any applications in that state. She was worried when I said we were trying to sell the house that we'd be selling her toys. I keep trying to explain we're trying to sell the doors, walls, windows, roof, etc. but will be taking all our furniture, clothes, toys, etc. with us. She was VERY relieved to hear this. I was very glad she verbalized her concern because I hadn't realized when I said we are trying to sell the house (I'm meeting with a realtor next week and we're aiming to put the house on the market in April) that she would think that meant we'd sell her princesses. She's also concerned about not being able to go to Sparks in the fall, but I keep assuring her that wherever we're living in the fall, we'll take her to Sparks. One of our neighbors put their house on the market this week. I am curious to see how long it will take them to sell it. I'm hoping theirs is under contract before we put ours on the market.

I haven't been watching movies the last few weeks since Oliver hasn't been sleeping as well as he did in November and December. He slept better the previous few nights so last night I stayed up much later than usual to watch a movie with Paul. That was a mistake as I was up with Oliver from 2:05-3:29am. I will be going to bed very early tonight.