Fingers, Toes Crossed! The Day Has Come (I Hope)...

The day that I've been waiting for came yesterday! The allergist called to give me E's test results from his allergy panel this year. This is our yearly ritual: we take E to the allergist, he gets the skin test, he gets the blood test, and then we're told his allergies are still there, and it's another year of egg-free, dairy-free, nut-free, limited-wheat eating for my baby.

But this year, the allergist came back with different results. Even though the skin test still showed an allergy to eggs and milk, the blood test came back negative for everything. HALLELUJAH!

What does this mean? It means we get to take E back to the allergist for a dairy test drive some time in the next few weeks. We'll give him a spoonful of milk and wait to see if he has any reaction (with allergist at the ready to administer whatever meds needed in case of a bad reaction). And if that goes well, we can slowly increase the dairy intake to see if he develops any adverse reaction. Then we get to do it again with egg.

I'm hopeful. I'm hopeful for being able to shop at any old grocery store (sorry Whole Foods, you have a great selection of food-sensitive products, but you're expensive!) and not having every trip be two hours (time needed to read every single ingredient label). I'm hopeful for being able to eat out anywhere without having to bring our own food. I'm hopeful for not worrying that my baby might go to the ER because he traded his rice cracker for a friend's Cheez-its at lunch time.

Oh, lucky day, I'm hopeful you've come at last....

Get Your Nose Out of My Baby's Ears

Over the weekend, my mother, my MIL, and I took V to get her ears pierced. For the entire week before, V had been pointing to her ears saying "pretty pretty" in anticipation and excitement. And now, she can proudly display her pierced lobes (a fine job done by Claire's at the mall).

This did not seem like a controversial thing to do; lots of babies have pierced ears. But I got a lot of disapproving looks, free advice, and unsolicited opinions from people ranging from my nanny ("she's too young, it's going to hurt her a lot") to my sister-in-law ("it's not right to do that to her when she's not old enough to make an informed decision of whether she really wants it") to random acquaintances ("the ears will definitely get infected - is that what you want to put her through?", "she's going to grow up vain"). Wow.

Thanks everyone for your kind words and obvious concern for my daughter's well-being. I need to clarify that I had her ears pierced; I did not have her labia cut off or her feet bound. I know - fine distinction, slippery slope, blah blah blah. It's just weird to me that people would have such a strong opinion about somebody else's kid's ear lobes. Has anyone encountered the same reaction?

I'm just glad I didn't tell all these people about having E circumcised, that probably would have created a maelstrom of rebukes and dirty looks.