Friday Things
1. Joseph had another oral challenge at the allergist this week – pecans – and he passed! It’s always such a huge weight lifted when he gets through those three hours with absolutely no issues. So far we’ve scratched off baked eggs, cooked eggs, soy, almonds, walnuts, and pecans. HUGE hurdles! We have hazelnuts, pistachios and cashews left to finish off the tree nuts. These last three (along with almonds) had the highest levels in his blood work, so I’m cautiously optimistic since he is now eating almond products without an issue. On that note, I’ve received quite a few requests through Instagram for a series on the blog documenting Joseph’s allergy journey… is that something you would be interested in reading?
He also had his 2.5 year checkup (he had a busy week!) and continues to grow and develop wonderfully. He’s healthy, happy, and we continue to slay those allergies, fingers crossed our good luck in that area keeps up!
AND my husband took him out to hit tennis balls last week, but apparently he preferred to throw them in the air and run underneath them instead, ha!
2. Dominic has been busy, as well – he cut two more teeth this week! He’s crawling everywhere, standing with super steady legs, and walking behind push toys with tons of confidence. Also, he’s suddenly looking much more like a toddler and not much like a baby anymore. Such a big boy!
3. Two of my best blogging pals, Jessica and Maria, launched their new meal planning subscription service this week, Sweet Peas Meals. You get weekly meal plans with grocery lists and bonus baking and breakfast ideas, and I signed up immediately. I love being in the kitchen to bake, but I am horrendously bad at meal planning, so I’m looking forward to having ideas and inspiration delivered right to my inbox once a week.
4. On a similar note, I absolutely adore this recent post by Tracy >> Creating Healthy Eating Habits. I’m totally inspired to do salads for lunch next week!
5. This video of a Golden Retriever saving a baby deer from drowning made my week.
6. Have you seen this map of the United States showing which regions say “tennis shoes” and which say “sneakers” when referring to athletic shoes? What do you say?! It’s definitely tennis shoes here!
7. I had a chance to try samples of Muuna cottage cheese recently, and am absolutely in LOVE with it! There are a tons of fruit flavors, made with all-natural ingredients, and I’ve found that if I eat one plus a handful of almonds for breakfast, it keeps me totally satisfied until lunch. It’s in a few select stores in my area, and a ton of others around the country. If your store has it, give it a try!
8. Did you watch any of Wimbledon? Roger Federer is a favorite in our house, so it was awesome to watch him win another one! Now I’m on to watching the Open Championship. Our bucket list trip is traveling to London to watch Wimbledon and then heading to Scotland to see the Open at St. Andrews. One day!
9. We watched the BBC show Marcella over the last week – only the first season is on Netflix and there are just eight episodes. I’m not really sure that I liked it; it seemed a little… weird. We still haven’t watched the first episode of Game of Thrones yet – I think I need to read an entire review of the previous season to remember where everything left off!
10. TGIF! I hope you have a lovely, relaxing weekend!
My son also has numerous food allergies (tree nuts being his highest) so I would love a post documenting your journey. My doctor has never mentioned retesting, but it’s been on my mind. I would love to know more!
I was born and raised in Southern California, but now live in Maine. There are so many different slang terms, but I think it is really interesting how much East and West coast have in common language wise, while the mid-US has so many different terms. Language is fascinating
Hi Michelle – your boys are getting so big. Here in MA we call them sneakers. I had never heard them called tennis shoes until my brother married his wife (from Florida). Regional differences are so funny. Since Marcella is my daughter’s name, I’ll have to check out the show. Have a great weekend.Â
I love your Friday posts and pictures. Â I saw that map and I say everything that is shown for our region including Tennis Shoes or “Tennies”! Â I will need to look for the cottage cheese as I am a fan and eat it for breakfast occasionally (should probably more often).
Have a great weekend Michelle!
Thanks Terri! Enjoy your weekend, as well!
So glad Joseph is doing well with his allergy situation. So cute with the tennis racket. Dominic is growing so fast *cries* he’s so cute. I haven’t tried the meal planni g. I finally got around d to watching Broadchurch on Netflix and literally couldn’t stop till I finished both seasons on there….now I’m waiting for season 3. I just started Deep Waters -set in Australia- and I’m like g it so far. Have a good weekend
Thanks Maria! Ahhhh wasn’t Broadchurch so good?! I haven’t heart of Deep Waters, will check it out!
I’m wanting to make your Boston Cream Pie(11). I have read the whole recipe but could not find what size pans you used. May have missed it, but read through several times. Thanks, can’t wait to try it.
Hi Lynda, They are 9-inch pans (step #4), enjoy!!
Hi Michelle, I do also love your personal stories and pictures! Â Congratulations on Joseph outgrowing his allergies, and Dominic toddling around and sprouting teeth. Â Very interesting, the regional map about whether people say “sneakers” or “tennis shoes”. Â I’m originally from the Albany, NY area, close to the Vermont and Massachusetts borders. Â We always said sneakers. Â Tennis shoes evolved later, once sports shoes developed into a large and varied market. Â We wore sneakers to gym, Â for every sport, and just for everyday wear. Â Once the sports shoes trend took off, you could buy running shoes, walking shoes, tennis shoes, basketball shoes, etc. Â In our area, sneakers became a rather generic term. Â Tennis shoes were shoes you wore to play tennis. Â This reminded me of a map I saw recently on Facebook, which showed which states said soda, and which ones said pop!
Hi Pam, Thank you! I know it’s so weird, here everyone says tennis shoes as a generic term for any athletic shoe! We also say pop :)
So proud Joseph is doing so well with the allergy tests. Want be very long and you will have little girls following your sons around. I live in Texas and have always called them Tennis shoes. Really tenny shoes. Texas is a big state. Other areas may called them something else.
So sweet of you Linda! xo
Hi Michelle, Love, love, love the photos you posted! Â Also thanks so much for sharing the video clip of the fawn rescue…. A-mazing. We need more good news like that! Â :)
Thanks Kathy! And yes, I could watch heart-warming dog videos allllll day long :)
I ended up watching all six seasons of Game of Thrones a second time before starting Season 7. Can’t tell you how entertaining it was. I caught so much more detail, nuance and foreshadowing the second time around.Â
That is so smart, and I bet it all makes SO much more sense now! I forget so much with how much time lapses between the seasons!
Your boys are so adorable! Thanks so much for the Sweet Peas Meals shout out! We are THRILLED you are joining us! xo
Thanks Maria, and you’re so welcome! Excited to get better at my meals! :)
Love Joseph’s all white Wimbledon look. We also just watched Marcella. Too many characters, so I had a hard time following and who was who. And what was up with her black outs? We did like Happy Valley. Did you watch that one yet? Love the actress who plays the main character. Those 2 little teeth of Dominic’s! The cutest.Â
I totally agree Kathy – too many stories to keep straight and I felt like some of them weren’t even necessary or really pertinent to the story. My husband and I kept saying – what, who’s that again? What did he do? I haven’t seen Happy Valley, will check it out!
Maybe I’m on a different page. When you do have recipes, you have some fabulous recipes. But! I don’t subscribe to a recipe site for all these personal pictures. There again, perhaps I’m on
a different page!!!!!
I love the personal posts. Babies and pups <3
Hi Bea, On Fridays I always share a lifestyle post called “Friday Things” – feel free to skip reading that day if you’d just like to see recipes!
Friday is my favorite day!
I love your Friday Things post! You are one of my favorite bloggers, Michelle, and certainly one of the sweetest, funnest, and most delicious. Keep on keeping on!!! And – Thank you!
Try Ray Donovan on Showtime…great show.
Thanks for the recommendation Mary! I’ll check it out!
Dear MichelleÂ
The Joesph allergy thingy had me very interested too. My husband suffers from severe urticaria.
So I wanted to know 2 things.Â
1. What was the blood test you got done to understand what allergies he has. Was it a series or just one.Â
2. How did Joesph get over them. Was there some procedure or he slowly just grew out of them.Â
Thanks in advanceÂ
Ps. Love your Friday posts the most.Â
Hi Aparna! So sorry to hear about your husband! To answer your questions:
1) He had allergy panels done twice… the first one was done for the most common allergens (food and environmental), and the second one was just for all tree nuts. The results are numeric values classified as IGE levels (you can read about the test here, and go from zero – undetectable (negative reaction) to 6 – extremely severe. For example, on his blood panel, pecan nuts were <0.10 and classified as 0 (negative), cashews were 2.09 and flagged as moderate and a class 2 , while peanuts were 35.2(!!) and a class 4 very high.
2) We don't know if he was ever truly allergic to tree nuts since I had never eaten any when he had the reaction to peanut butter, and we were told to avoid them, and the blood panel showed moderate number for many of them. At the first blood panel, he also had moderate reactions to egg (which he reacted to with a rash, as well) and soy, so we avoided those, too. At the follow up blood panel a year later, the soy and egg levels had dropped nearly in half. And when he did the oral challenges for them, he had no adverse reactions whatsover, and can eat those without issue. To make a long story short, we used avoidance for about 15 months before doing the challenges at the allergist to see if he could safely consume those things.
I hope that helps! Please let me know if you have any other questions!
Wow. I can’t imagine that many bloggers would take the time to leave such a detailed and helpful response to help a reader. Just confirms impression I’ve always had of you, Michelle, as a sincere,, caring and REAL person. Â I’m a long time reader who loves your recipes but really only read a few food blogs anymore…the ones who share sweet life stories and show their kind hearts.
Aw you are so sweet Julie, thank you for the kind words. xo