Things my children are allergic to:

They must be. Otherwise they would not have such trouble with the following items:

• Turning off lights in an unoccupied room. "Hey! I'm paying for that. Do you think I'm made of money?"
• Closing the outside doors. Were you born in a barn? Would you like some hay?
• Putting dirty clothes in the laundry basket. Although they are frequently found 2 inches away from said basket.
• Putting clean clothes in the appropriate drawer. Somehow, they end up in a pile in front of the dresser.
• Locating backpacks and other necessary school items. But only when it is time for us to leave . . . 10 minutes ago!
• Flushing. Always a fun surprise.
• Getting both shoes put away in the same location. For some reason, one shoe seems to walk itself into the middle of the room. Backpacks also must be ambulatory.
• Looking under beds for any misplaced item. The beds in our home seem to be black holes that the children are afraid to go near, lest they get sucked into the bottomless vacuum.

I have been told that children can outgrow allergies and I hope this is the case with my children. If not, I am crossing my fingers for a vaccine.

Andrew the Brave

Andrew has been getting a lot of extra attention lately. To make a long story short, he was given a "stim" test to determine if his pituitary glad is working correctly, releasing enough Human Growth Hormone.
He wasn't allowed to eat anything after midnight the day of the test or during the five hours it took to administer the test. He was given an i.v. where a very kind nurse drew blood samples every 30 to 60 minutes.
Not fun.

The patient, with an i.v. stuck in his right arm

Well . . . the insertion of the i.v. wasn't fun. Neither was the glucose shot he had 2 hours into the test.

Engaged in his favorite kind of multi-tasking, playing game boy and watching t.v.

But for the most of the day, he was able to play game boy and watch t.v. Once it was all over, he said it wasn't that bad. He didn't want to do it again, but he was happy that both his Mom and Dad could be there with him.

His Mom and Dad are very proud of how brave he was and how well he handled himself.

As for the results: his HGH levels are good. But his body is deficient in a hormone called IGF1. The treatment is two injections a day until he reaches puberty. When given the choice between two shots a day for 6 years or being shorter than his mom, he picked "short". Once he had time to consider it, he thinks the shots won't be so bad. Of course, he may change his mind when we come at him with a needle.