Allergies

The past couple of months have not been kind to our girls - at least in the allergy department. In December while making a gingerbread house Audrey reacted to a bit of peanut butter. So, at her 2-year check-up they drew a ton of blood and did some allergy tests. And yes, she has a severe peanut allergy as well a severe dust mite allergy. Everything else came out okay.. She's pretty good about the peanut allergy. She knows she can't have peanut butter. If I happen to be eating something that I don't want to share with her, she'll ask, "Does it have peanuts?". Rachel is very protective of her as well. So, we have not had to utilize the EpiPen and hopefully we won't ever have to. I am bummed about the whole peanut butter thing. I LOVE peanut butter and I just think it's sad she doesn't get to enjoy it. But I guess it's okay because she doesn't really know what she's missing. As far as the dust mite allergy....well, stuffed animals are a no-no. Lots of dust mites in those things. We're just spending a bit more money on items with hepa filters. Fun stuff! But overall it's not like she suffers on a daily basis.

Now poor Rachel, here are her eyes after spending a few hours at the park:

And these actually look pretty good, because we are currently using eye drops. Last Wednesday (10 days ago) she looked like an alien. Poor thing! Hers are obviously seasonal allergies. I'm sure once our driveway isn't covered in pollen she'll be good to go. But it's no fun having to stay indoors when the weather is beautiful. Her eyes are still trying to recover from yesterday, so when she wanted to ride her bike while Andy was mowing the lawn, I had to tell her she couldn't. Breaks my heart when she starts crying... She may be a candidate for extensive allergy testing and shots some day. But I'm not quite ready to go there yet. I still want to do some research on the pros/cons. Plus if we're just talking about a month of allergies, it's doable. Not fun, but doable... And she actually requests the eye drops. They don't bother her, so that's a good thing.

So, we keep on a truckin'. Allergies aren't fun, but there are worse things. They both have eczema, but as long as we live in a humid climate it'll be mild. So, we'll continue to hope for the best and take a day at time.