Just in case anyone was wondering or worried, the allergies are alive and well here in the Starr household.  Ethan obviously has severe food allergies and has since the beginning, and every doctor asks these questions in this order: 

Do you or your husband have allergies?  No.
Does anyone in your family have allergies?  No.
Did your breastfeed your son?  Yes.

Statistically speaking it’s a little rare for a baby to have food allergies with the above questions answered as such.  But, that’s what God gave us and we’re perfectly accepting of it.  It’s just a way of life and we don’t think twice about it.  Well, over the holidays Rachel started feeling a left out.  With all of the, “Can Ethan eat this?” and “Let’s make sure to make it where Ethan can have that”  I can see how a younger sibling would feel a little slighted.  I mean, when she gets cookies and real yogurt, who can blame her for feeling jealous of the package of Smarties and soy yogurt Ethan is eating. 

I digress.  Over the holidays Clay gave her a quarter of a cashew and she had a typical Ethanesque allergic reaction…hives, vomiting, screaming, “I don’t like!”, etc.  Thankfully we knew what we were looking at and dealt with it like we’ve always dealt with Ethan’s reactions.  After a series of tests (I’m pretty sure I won’t be able to get Rachel within a 10 mile radius of Quest Diagnostics ever again) we had another appointment with the allergist this morning and his first words were, “Well, it’s a little random.”  My response…”Rachel?  Random?  No…..”  She has a very slight milk and soy allergy, a mild peanut allergy, and then she’s really allergic to cashews…just cashews…no other nuts (trust me, we tested her for all of them).  He said that she is only the 2nd patient he’s ever had to just be allergic to cashews.  I love that kid for keeping things interesting.  That was our excitement for the day…I’m reading we may get an ice storm tonight and I’m crossing my fingers that our electricity stays on. 

I thought I would get creative tonight with the fruit we were having for dinner (it made me feel better about the chicken nuggets and fish sticks I fixed), so I made these little guys (the chocolate chips were much cuter, but E had to make do with raisins):

I told Ethan we were having snowmen for dinner and he got very excited.  However, when he saw them he said, “Actually that’s not a snowman – but it’s okay, I can pretend.”  Gee, thanks.

I was tagged by Ashley to post the 4th picture from the 4th file…

Jack, Ethan & Josie watching tv – Jan. 20, 2007…they were such babies!

And I’ll go ahead and accept a tag I received a while back:

8 TV shows I watch:
1.  Extreme Makeover: Home Edition
2.  24
3.  Texas Country Reporter
4.  CSI: NY
5.  Lost
6.  Little Einsteins
7.  House Hunters International
8.  Everybody Loves Raymond reruns

8 Favorite Restaurants:
1.  Freebirds
2.  Macaroni Grill
3.  Red Robin
4.  Babe’s
5.  Sonic
6.  Atlanta Bread Company
7.  Luby’s
8.  Simply Fondue

8 Things That Happened Today:
1.  Watched the Nana Puddin’ show at school
2.  Cleaned up a kid’s vomit from the lunch table
3.  Said goodbye to Clay as he left for a guys ski weekend
4.  Warmed up a lot of leftovers
5.  Went to the grocery store
6.  Put away laundry
7.  Prayed for Brad
8.  Looked over the menu for the scrapbook retreat weekend Cara and I are anxiously awaiting (I can’t believe I just admitted that)

8 Things I Look Forward To:
1.  Seeing my nephew and nieces Saturday
2.  Clay being home in a few days
3.  Aforementioned scrapbook retreat
4.  Going to Georgia with my mom and SIL this summer
5.  Playing Sequence for Kids for the 289th time this week
6.  Spending a Kohl’s gift card that’s burning a hole in my wallet
7.  A clean house
8.  Getting our tax return

Want to be tagged?  Consider it done.

I have often wondered what the magic age is when kids start making their own friends.  Ethan is very blessed to have a lot of friends, and his best friends are the children of my best friends – funny how that works out!  But I knew he would come home from school one day talking about a particular friend and how he wanted to have them over to play.  I’m obviously a very social person, but I wasn’t sure how I would approach another mom (a stranger for all practical purposes) and invite them over to our house.  Well, the day has come.  He has been talking about his friend Brant from his class for a few weeks now.  It just so happens that Brant’s mom not only teaches at preschool with me, but we went to A&M together and were in Aggies for Christ together – I love the way God works things out.  Last week Jenny and I talked and planned to meet at the park this morning.  Of course Ethan’s supersonic hearing was on alert during that phone conversation and around 127 I stopped counting how many times he asked me when exactly we were going to play with Brant.  We went to a park I had never been to before and had a blast.   And one of the highlights of the day?  Rachel was so exhausted that she not only fell asleep on the way home, but she stayed asleep during the car/bed transfer.  Sweet victory.

February 7, 2007 – VERY ready to meet our 10 pound baby girl.

Apparently when the cold weather blew in Saturday morning, it brought along with it a big boredom front.  Ethan moped around that morning until Clay got it out of him that he wanted to go bowling.  He’s been a couple of times before, but we’ve never taken Rachel so we headed out for a new adventure.  Thankfully the bowling alley by us is smoke-free and very kid-friendly, and they have those little ramp things that kids can use.  Ethan was most interested in the scoreboard, and Rachel was most interested in the air vent on the ball chute.  You pay by the hour and the kids were done after about 37 minutes, but we still had a great time.

Here’s the technique:

The post-bowl look:

Proof of the undeniable winner:

And baby bowler’s face after the big win:

A few days ago Ethan said, “Mommy, why does Diego ALWAYS have to speak Spanish?”