What a big boy!

Nicky has really been such a big boy today!

First we went to the allergist and he was able to do ALL of the testing in one day. Originally he'd had two appointments, one today and one tomorrow, but he did it all today. For that they drew a grid of 10 squares on his back and then poked him once in each square. He wasn't happy about it, but quickly smiled when given two lollipops by the nurse.

We had to wait for a while and then see what the reactions were. Then anything he hadn't reacted to definitively would usually be retested the next day with a stronger dose via injections in his back (rather than the tiny pokes). But Nicky was amenable and so we went ahead with those six injections today. He screamed and squirmed as I held him. (I held him instead of having him held down.) It took a few minutes to calm down after that, but he was ok after a bit. Poor guy.

In the end he is VERY allergic to cats, and has strong allergies to grasses, weeds, trees and mold. He is NOT allergic to dogs or dust oddly enough. So the dogs can breathe a sigh of relief. But looks like we'll never own a cat again. The doctor said Nicky's reaction was so strong that even coming into contact with a person who has a cat (who might have dander on their clothes) would make him react. I took some photos of his back during the testing to show Tom, but they're on my phone and I'm not sure if I can get them onto the computer. But the cat one was really impressive!

We're putting him back on the Zyrtec and then instead of the Singulair we're going to try Nasonex for two weeks and then follow up with the allergist.

So awesome day already and he was super good.

The doctor said it would be best to take him home, give him benadryl and watch him for the rest of the day since he reacted strongly to several of the tests. So I called in to work and then we headed home. We stopped by to see Tom for lunch and then stopped at the drugstore for benadryl chewables (much easier to give him than the liquid). Then we stopped by McDonalds for small ice cream cones as a treat for being so good.

Now, this is the point where if you're not really interested in how potty training is going you can skip the next paragraph!

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When we came home, Nicky finished his ice cream and then he said he had to go under the table. Now, this is secret code for "I need to poop" from Nicky. So I had an idea. I went and got his potty and put that under the table with him. By doing that he was interested in sitting on it. It took a while of sitting and then running around the kitchen naked, but finally he called me to come see and he'd gone poop in his potty! I was so proud of him, and I did a little dance for him and we took photos (which I will not share- see how lucky you are!). This was so exciting! I think we're really getting close to getting Nicky into the potty-routine. Nicky got a mini-candy bar as a reward and then we went to take a nap.

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He's just fallen asleep now. We go to pick Tom up from work in about an hour, so I'm going to try to get some of my homework done.

Oh, and by the way, I lost 6 pounds last week on my first week of WeightWatchers. Yay me! I actually hadn't worked any exercise in last week, but this week we'll be walking 15 minutes in the morning and 15 minutes in the afternoon just to get to and from the car during the week. I bet that will help too.

I was very good about journaling and keeping within my points for the week. I wasn't too hungry most of the time, and I made a lot of good choices that I know I wouldn't have made before, so I know that helped a lot. I know I won't lose this much every week (and probably not actually ANY other week) but as long as I'm heading in the right direction that's good! I'm doing this with Donna (Tom's mom, Nicky's Nana) and she'll be coming soon to stay with us over the summer a lot. That'll make it even easier to stay with the program.

Nicky and I will be going down to see Grammie, Aunt Liz and Aunt Jodi over the long weekend. We're looking forward to celebrating a belated Mother's Day and Aunt Liz's birthday with them. I don't know if I'll make it to a meeting this weekend or not. I'll try though! Hm, I didn't think about it yet, but they do have a cat. We'll have to be sure to keep Nicky away from the kitty as much as possible and have Benadryl on hand.