Monday Morning Dash

I finally found the perfect way to completely forget about being pregnant, but unfortunately it wasn't fun*. We had a run-in with a bakery muffin this morning that landed Jackson in the waiting room of the doctor's office with a rash spreading all over his face and almost causing his eye to swell shut. As you'll recall, he's allergic to nuts and while we try very hard to screen each little crumb that goes into his mouth, sometimes things slip by. Well, they didn't slip by until today since this was our first major break-out since last summer.

The frustrating part though, is that he hadn't even eaten the muffin yet, only touched it and then touched his face and rubbed his eye (hence the eye strife). It appears that contact with his allergens may be enough to set this kid off and we didn't know that before or expect it today. We definitely learned something new today and are lucky that the whole incident didn't affect his breathing or require the Epi-Pen, though he was definitely uncomfortable this time and expressed it loudly. Let's just say that Jackson was a bit off today. A few doses of Benadryl and a couple of off-schedule and wacko-drugged-up-naps will do that to a kid. (He's sleeping soundly for the night now and almost 100% rash-free.)

Not exactly how we had hoped to start our week. So let's go backwards instead to Saturday, since we had a very fine weekend filled with lots of good family activity:

[Dad and Jackson at the St. Paul Farmer's Market]
[Jackson cruisin' the market - he hopped, skipped and jumped his way down each aisle]
[self-explanatory goodness]
[A spontaneous trip the Minnesota History Center...]
[...where we saw the MN150 exhibit (it's our sesquicentennial year so they made a really cool exhibit with 150 things that make Minnesota unique) and learned that Greyhound buses originated in Minnesota...]
[...and Jackson got to drive the bus...]
[...and we marveled at the famous butter sculptures from the State Fair, while at the same time wondering why anyone would keep such a thing in the freezer?...]
[...we saw the original Purple Rain Prince coat, since he's a Minnesota boy...]
[...watched a video of a traditional Ojibwe powwow with dancing and singing...]
[...and listened to some original Bob Dylan tunes, since we get to claim him way up here in the Northland too.]

Dan and I both agreed that it was fun to be tourists in our own town (well, St. Paul isn't exactly our town, but close enough). Jackson just loved running from exhibit to exhibit and pushing every button he could find. Fun for all!
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*It's really easy to forget that you're 38 1/2 weeks pregnant when your 2 1/2 year-old has a medical emergency requiring you to run into the clinic with the 30-pounder on your hip, waving your insurance card at the receptionist and hoping that she won't stick her foot out to stop you on your frantic way to the pediatrician's office where you just got off the phone with the nurse who said "come as quickly as you can."

Okay, so I didn't run, but close enough. I certainly didn't notice the extra weight from Amelia or Jackson, since I was moving on adrenaline. I had my midwife appointment after this whole ordeal and was very, very surprised that my blood pressure was "normal." It probably wouldn't have been just 20 minutes earlier.

(I was extra lucky to have Dan off work this morning to come along for co-parent support...and to park the car!)