Charlie Update

Charlie continues to be a sweet, loving boy. He is definitely a rule follower, and (other than testing me and Daddy) he never gets in trouble at school or anywhere. He has an anxious, nervous personality like both his parents. He sometimes gets nervous in new social situations and takes a while to warm up to new people. But overall, he is much better at playing with kids his age and being without me. He loves going next door to play with Luke and will run next door by himself to ask if Luke can come over to play.

If Holly is with him, he does much better. It gives him something to do, to look after her, and he is less worried about everything else. I am able to take them to the gym now and they will go to the childcare room without crying or pouting (usually).

One of the major recent changes with Charlie is that he has stopped napping. It's been about 3 weeks since his last nap. Usually I make him still have quiet time in his room for an hour.

The other Charlie update is his allergy testing. We took him to an allergist to have skin testing for his peanut allergy, in addition to cats and other environmental allergens. Kyle and his whole family have issues with allergies. Charlie had a reaction when we went to Memaw Rex's last year and she had a few cats. So it was time to get him tested. When he was 1, he had a reaction of hives and redness around his mouth when I gave him peanut butter.

He has never had an issue since. I was really hoping his peanut allergy had decreased or even gone away. 

Here is his back right after all the pokes. He hated it. I told him he could cry or scream but he had to be very still. He did a great job of being still. But he did scream for almost the entire 20 minute test.

After a couple of minutes:

After about 10 minutes:

The "+" sign at the top right is their benchmark positive. Technically, the body should react the worst there. But as you can see, that was not the case. The worst reaction was actually from peanuts. :( It's the one right below the "+". The second worst was cats. It's next to the 7 at the top left. The rest of the positives were from mold, and various outdoor pollen. We have to start carrying an Epi-pen for Charlie and we are going to do some blood testing to get more information on the peanut allergy. That should tell us if it is a more mild form of allergy or the more dangerous kind. 

It was not the news we wanted. But I am very thankful that he hasn't had any issues with it yet.