Brothers

"Sometimes being a brother is even better than being a superhero." Marc Brown

My 2 boys. My first baby and my second baby. This might be my favorite picture of them together. Carter was so excited to get a digger shirt from Grandma. So happy that he forgot he hates pictures and posed for several.
Kisses. Jackson gets his fair share of kisses from his older brother. I have to set a limit sometimes and have banned kisses on Jackson's eyes. They love each other. They adore each other. And they feed off each other. If Carter is laughing, Jackson will laugh. If Jackson is laughing Carter will laugh. Jackson will track Carter around the room and he saves his best smiles and "talking" for his brother.

They even have their squabbles already. Here Carter is complaining to me because Jackson is smacking his face. Or trying to.

Carter is a great brother to Jackson and takes his role as older brother very seriously. We have had many discussions about Carter's little toys and how we have to keep them away from Brother because brother could choke on them. I told him once that if the object was smaller than his elbow than Jackson could choke on it. He has certain toys that are not allowed out of his room because they are a choking hazard and he has done great at remembering that. He will sometimes even pick up a toy and measure it again his elbow and ask "Is this small than my elbow mom?" And no, that's not a typo.

If Jax is crying or fussing Carter will come to him and get in his face and tell him "it's ok brother, I'm here. Shh. Mom is getting your bottle." Or "It's ok Buddy, I'm here."

He was Jackson's formula advocate. When we were trying to get him to drink the nasty formula Carter would tell me each and every time "Mom, Jax doesn't like that formula." And even now, each time I prepare a bottle he makes sure I have prepared the good stuff vs. the bad stuff.

I came over to Jackson one morning and found him with this brown stuff smeared all over his head. My first reaction was "How in the world did he get poop all over his head?" He's known for his blow-outs but this was a new low. Come to find out it was just chocolate(thank heavens). Carter had just finished eating his chocolate chip pancakes and decided Jackson needed some kisses.........

And some how chocolate ended up all over Jackson's head and shoulder.

Both boys love to read. And read to themselves. Jackson loves to read while I get him dressed and ready each morning. And during diaper changes.

Both of my boys are addicted to technology. We already know of their love for TV but now it has spread. They both love the ipad and grandma's Iphone.

I love this picture and watching Jax with this phone. It was as if he'd been using an iphone for years. He used perfect form with his little thumbs and was moving stuff around on the screen.

Words with Friends anyone??

And now for the bad news...............Brothers share toys, brothers share ipads and unfortunately in our house: Brothers share allergies.

We knew Jackson had an increased risk of having allergies since Carter had them but I hoped his food issues would stop with his condition. So such luck.

Allergist's Office. Carter getting nervous for his skin test. We brought the ipad and oreos for Carter to use during his test but he just wanted to snuggle with daddy.

My 2 topless boys. Ready for their back scratches.
Jackson went first. And bless his heart he did not cry at all! This must have been a piece of cake compared to all his other trauma. They had done a blood test weeks before and the results of that guided the panel they tested him to.
I had an important job this day. Holding my 8 month old so his back didn't touch anything, he didn't lay down or scratch his back.

Carter's back. Bless his little heart as well because he didn't cry at all. He was so brave and tough. He knew exactly what was going to happen and that it would hurt a little bit but he was so great.

If you can see all the red, raised hives on their backs you can see that our news was not great.

Jackson is severely allergic to milk and eggs. And honestly I had made peace with that. We have been dealing with that for the last 2 years and I've become a pro at cooking without them. The bad news came in the form of wheat and oats. Jackson slightly reacted to these 2 things as well. They were borderline but for now we are avoiding those in his diet as well. The allergist is hoping that they aren't true allergies and that his body was just overwhelmed with the other allergies so it was attacking random things. Jackson has actually had several things with wheat and oats in them in his short life and has never reacted. We will have him tested again in 3 months to see if the wheat and oat are gone. Cross your fingers. This boy already has such a limited menu that I pray he won't have more.

Carter had some weird results as well. He tested negative to peanuts his very first test and has many peanut butter sandwiches in his life. This test showed that now he is very mildly allergic to peanuts. What?!?! It was so borderline that the Dr. said if he's been eating peanuts for so long without problems than it was probably safe to continue on peanuts.

In July he had an anaphylactic reaction to cashews. Tree nuts have the same proteins so most likely if you are allergic to one kind, you will be allergic to them all. Peanuts are not a tree nut. They are a legume. Who knew? We finally did a tree nut panel and it revealed that he is highly allergic to cashews and almonds. And coconuts. I never thought about coconuts being a tree nut but they are. Another funny thing is that carter use to drink almond milk a lot. Whenever almond milk was on sale I'd buy that instead of soy milk. But apparently you can develop allergies the more your body is exposed to them. The bad thing about coconuts is that we use to give him coconut ice cream. It's delicious. In fact, he had some 2 days before we went. So that is another iffy one. But for now we will avoid it as well.

With all this bad news we did get some semi-good news. Carter's egg allergy is almost gone! He goes back in 6 months and we are hoping at that time he will be ready for an oral challenge. An oral challenge where he will eat something with egg in it, under close supervision of the dr. and see how he reacts. Or doesn't react. And his milk allergy is slowly fading as well. Not ready for an oral challenge on it but it is decreasing.

80% of children out grown milk and egg allergies. Only 10% outgrow tree nut allergies. I told the allergist that we don't seem to be lucky people. She told us the Chinese thought that "You're only lucky if you think you are." So we are adopting that motto and moving forward. I thought that visit might reduce me to tears and a small pity party but it really didn't. Not a pity party for me, but for my babies. I guess when you've been dealt the card of short gut then allergies seem like a piece of cake. I'm very anxious to see the results of their next tests.

But for now we are checking food labels, rechecking food labels, and trying to explain to a 3 yr old why he can't have the coconut ice cream grandma bought for him, that he just had last week. Wish us luck!