big brother

A friend came over to watch Grace for me this morning while I took Sam to his dreaded appointment with the allergist. On the way out the door, Sam decided that he needed to take his toy cell phone along. Half way to the doctor's office, he announced from the back seat that he was going to call up Mrs. Erin to check and see how Grace was doing. Such a good big brother. :)

We confirmed what we had suspected for a few years today at the appointment. Sam is allergic to peanuts. Along with it, he is also allergic to all varieties of tree nuts. Poor kid. I was hoping it would be peanuts and that would be it. This really knocks out a world of wonderful foods for him. I was really excited to learn that there is a peanut butter substitute out there, though. The allergist gave us a couple of small samples of a sunflower seed spread called Sunbutter by a company who guarantees that there are not traces of any nut in their manufacturing facilities. I'm going to go hunting for a larger container of it over the next couple of days so I can try some of my recipes that require peanut butter substituting this new product instead. Keeping my fingers crossed that it doesn't cost an arm and a leg.

Sam was also tested today for several different outdoor allergies and only had minor reactions to two trees. We go back for round two next Wednesday: additional pollens, dust, molds, dogs and cats (not enough room on his little 4-year-old back for all those scratch test spots). I'm thinking we can pretty much rule out a dust allergy since he would probably be dead by now living in our house if that allergy were present. I'm pretty sure Gordon is secretly hoping that Sam is allergic to cats so we can put the cat out of his misery in this home and send him to a house with a grumpy old man so they can commiserate together about loud, obnoxious, snot-nosed, tail-pulling children. And I'm also pretty sure he won't get the satisfaction. We shall see...I'll update on the allergies again next week.