A Mac Update

I forgot how much fun the year between 1 and 2 is for toddlers. They literally learn something new everyday and it is so much fun to just watch them learn and explore their world. Mac is hilarious, loveable, stubborn, and so, so cute I could just eat him up. 

Mac has been picking up words pretty consistently for the past month or two. He is especially good with peoples' names and says: Mama, Dada, Bubba, Mimi, Papa, Ama, TayTay, Em, Lella (Stella), Aimee and Seth. Other words that are a part of his everyday vocabulary are: DogDog, Woof, Ball, Elmo, Nana (banana), Wawa (water), nummy (nursing), Choo Choo, Apple and All Done.

Cormac is still as crazy as ever and is constantly climbing on something or getting into something that he shouldn't. Macky is fast, fast, fast and probably the cutest thing I have ever seen is when he runs to Tim when he gets home from work. He has a two-handed wave going above his head and just can't get to him fast enough. I need to get it on video.

Mac has become a total book lover and has definite favorite books that he wants to read over and over again. Watching he and James read together is one of my favorite things. Lately he chooses one of two train books and says Choo Choo while holding out the book for you to read to him.

In the morning, I usually bring Mac into bed with me after he wakes up and as soon as he hears James wake up, he says, "Bubba!" and jumps out of bed to run and find James.

Mac is napping once a day-not for very long and lately his night time sleep has been regressing. He has gone from sleeping through the night every night to being completely unpredictable with his sleep. Today, he fell asleep like this at nap time.

We had beautiful weather here this weekend and took a walk to the park yesterday. James wanted to push Mac on the tricycle for the first time. His feet don't quite reach the peddles yet, but he loved it. He likes to do pretty much anything that James does.

Mac has had food issues pretty much since he was born. He was sensitive to dairy in my milk from birth-6 months (when I thought he outgrew it, but I now know I was wrong), and then since he has turned 1 has been having a variety of increasingly severe reactions to food-mainly vomiting, spells of lethargy and extreme skin reactions. Today he saw an allergist for testing and we found out he is allergic to cow's milk in all forms, almonds and fish. He has never eaten almonds or fish but I eat almond butter on an english muffin every single morning and eat fish on occasion, and so we think a lot of his symptoms have been exposure to these allergens through my milk. We also suspect food intolerances in addition to these allergies. The doctor thinks based on his reactions that he has FPIES to cow's milk, which is food protein induced enterocolitis syndrome. He is unable to digest the protein in cow's milk in addition to being allergic to it, and that is what was causing his vomiting episodes and random spells of lethargy. I still suspect a soy intolerance based on how he has reacted in the past, but he is not allergic to it. I will allow the dairy to fully leave his system and then slowly try to introduce him to soy and see if he has any reactions. At least now we have answers and know what to avoid, so I am happy about that. And I am hopeful he will outgrow the dairy allergy and FPIES. Almonds (we will also avoid all other tree nuts) and fish are no big deal to avoid, but I would be sad if he could never have dairy. All in all, not a big deal. We had already cut dairy out of his diet, I just need to now cut it out of mine until he weans. Hopefully getting him totally free of these things will help him to feel better and be a happier and healthier little guy.

Mac is about as big as James was when he was between 2-2 1/2. I love pulling out my favorite outfits that James wore to put them on Mac. It seems like not that long ago that James could wear this outfit, and now it fits Mac just about perfectly! He is getting so big-25 1/2 pounds at the doctor today (wearing clothes and shoes). I can't believe he is almost 18 months-time is flying!