Allergies

The blood test revealed that Arlo is allergic to lots of common things in his life, like trees, grass, wheat, soy, dairy, nuts, etc. So, in the short term, we are washing him and his stuff more, feeding him more meat, and switching to rice. We have kept his rash at bay so far. Maybe he'll grow out of some of these allergies.

His Grandpa Augusta just left today after visiting us for a couple days. Arlo really liked having grandpa around. We had a picnic Sunday with my sister who was also in town for a conference. She brought Arlo a couple of early birthday presents, one from Grandma Roth. Mike smoked ribs.

Because of the cold rain and wind, we had to scrap the plan to camp at Assateague, and instead went to the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum at Dulles. There are some pictures of that. Tuesday, my birthday, the three of us went to the Natural History Museum and the US Botanical Garden.

Blood Drawn

I took Arlo to a Pediatric Phlebotomist today. It sounded like it could have been real bad, but it turned out to be fine. We pretended to draw blood a few days before going, complete with the "pinch." At bedtime he reads a book with some doctors drawing blood, so we talked about it, and did another pinch. So when we got in there, the plebotomist said it's the tourniquet that makes them cry. It's pretty tight to get the blood vessel to swell up. Arlo cried, but it was a scared cry, not super loud, freak out. As soon as the needle went in, he calmed down and just whimpered a little. When the plebotomist said "There, you're all done," Arlo said "Done!" and giggled a little. We looked at the three vials, about 10cc's, and he was all better.
I'd say it was a pretty good time considering what it was. We topped it off with a trip to the park.

Why draw blood? We are still trying to figure out exactly what is going on with Arlo's rash. It comes and goes. I suspect it's the pollen and the cats.

Mother's Day 2010

Mommy wanted to take Arlo to the ballgame for Mother's Day, so that's exactly what we did. Being windy and cool, we sought seats nestled out of the wind, and the sun. As fate would have it, we were right in the middle of the Catholic University student section. Arlo didn't mind though. He had lots of fun dancing to the between inning music and playing with the people sitting behind us. Video to follow when YouTube gets its' act together.

Big Brew and Train Ride

Well, the Big Brew was very enjoyable. The smell as we arrived was very intense with grain, with dozens of batches of beer (wort) all boiling at once. I learned a ton from the really nice people there who were excited to talk about what they were doing. The beer we made at the seminar on April 15th was actually my favorite at the event. The photo is of a guy with a "sculpture," as folks were calling it. Mommy and Arlo got to go to a park to escape the sun after a while. It was hot.

Then we went to a Clyde's restaurant in Columbia Md. It was right next to this park, lake, civic sculpture area. See Arlo in the photo. It was nice and...nice.

Sunday, Arlo attended his friend Nikos' birthday party at Wheaton Regional Park. He had a lot of fun on the carosel and miniature train. Actually, he seemed to go into a trance trying to hold down his cookies on the carosel, and he looked sleepy on the train. But we had fun taking him, and that's what really matters.

My laryngitis has subsided some, but the associated head cold still has a grip.