Peanut Friday

from joe

Heidi and I have been a bit (overly) nervous about Gus having a peanut allergy. My dad and sister have a severe allergy to them and quite frankly raising Gus thus far, while it has been the most amazing fulfilling experience of our lives, has not been easy. There was the whole complicated pregnancy, the ICU stay, the nightly colicky screams, and his slow weight gain. I guess we weren’t thrilled about adding one more thing to the list, so we have had a peanut-free house. For over two years. At least to the best of our ability. There has been the occasional peanut that slips through our fire wall. A couple months ago we fed Gus some chow mein and he ended up with red noodle-shaped streaks across his face. We realized that there were peanuts in the dish and have been nervous to try it out again, fearing the worse. How could we live forever without peanut butter?!

Heidi unexpectedly and suddenly picked Friday as the day to put the issue to rest and deemed it “Peanut Friday”. She and Gus rode the tram up to the hospital to pick me up from work yesterday, Heidi with a spoon full of peanut butter in the diaper bag. We sat down at a picnic table (just outside the ER– yes, we are crazy) and with one nervous look at each other, fed Gus the good stuff. We watched him expectantly. And then laughed at how silly all of this was. Nothing happened. Except that Gus had a hard time mushing it up in his mouth and made a face. But… no allergies! Hallaluyah.

I’m going out to buy a big ol’ jar of peanut butter to celebrate.

We’re anticipating a Shellfish Wednesday in our near future.