BABY MONITORS- IT AIN'T JUST FOR BABIES

So... baby monitors.

I am now using a baby monitor EVERY. SINGLE. NIGHT. on my baby.... my baby who happens to be 11 and a half years old.

It sounds insane to me.
A baby monitor!
Yet after what happened recently, I don't see how I could ever NOT use the baby monitor.

But baby monitors aren't just for babies, right?
In fact I used it on myself pretty recently as well. And while I have no need to publicize my age, I'm a hell of a lot further from 'baby' age, than my 11 year old is.

After my back surgery I used the baby monitor for a few days when I didn't have the strength to get out of bed or even pick up my phone to text Yitz that I needed help. So we kept the baby monitor on, and while Yitz was working from home he was able to hear me each time I needed help.

I mean, that's obviously okay, right?

And since I couldn't get out of bed, Yitz had to be the one to dose Coby. Since beginning OIT over three years ago, up until my back surgery, I had been the ONLY one to ever dose Coby. I was scared not to be the one doing the dosing, and Yitz said he didn't want to dose Coby either. So over the course of 3 plus years, which comes to over a thousand times of dosings, I did every single one. No matter what. 
If Coby was supposed to dose while I was taking a shabbos nap, I even instructed them to wake me so I could be the one to dose him.

But after the surgery. I couldn't move. Yitz HAD to dose him. Even once I was able to get out of bed, I still wasn't able to dose him because I wasn't able to bend over to get to where the peanuts are kept, nor was I capable of lifting the heavy canister of peanuts, so Yitz continued to dose Coby- for probably close to two weeks before I took over again.

Then I recently had the flu- so Yitz dosed him again.

So while I still am the one to dose Coby if I am physically able to, we both know Yitz can do it too, so it is good we got over that threshold. In fact, if dosing were to fall out during my shabbos nap, I don't think I would even ask them to wake me up to dose Coby. Yitz would just go ahead and do it. PROGRESS!

So there's that. Some good did come out of some hardships. In fact, before heading into my surgery, part of me was afraid of dying. "They are intubating me! What if I don't wake up?" I begged Yitz to watch over Coby and to promise me to never forget to dose Coby and to always watch for those reactions. My biggest fear upon dying was how Coby would do with all this peanut stuff. I was terrified as to what would happen if I were not here to take care of it all.

But thank G-d, I did wake up. And WE continue to dose him. And to watch him.

So I dose Coby.
But Yitz can too if needed.

I also realized Coby himself needed to become more independent with his dosing. He had still been scared to touch the peanuts and put it in his own mouth. (For dosing- we drown the peanuts in yogurt to help mask the taste and feed it to him two peanuts at a time.)

What's going to happen when he goes off to college? Will he continue dosing? Will this fear become even deeper ingrained in him? He needs to learn to do it himself!

And so I started having him be more involved with his dosing. We did it in baby steps. It started with him feeding himself a couple of the spoons of peanuts and at times being the one to put the peanuts on the spoon before feeding it to himself.

Each time he did it on his own we celebrated and exclaimed that he was becoming more and more free as he realized he didn't really NEED me.

But all that came to a grinding halt.

He started having reactions (and no, it was not dependent on whether it was a day I had him partially dose himself). He was having reactions nearly weekly.

Some reactions were resolved by just benadryl. Some reactions needed both benadryl and steroids. But he had about 6 reactions in 8 weeks time.

Why was this happening again?

In fact this afternoon was the first time he had his full dose of 8 peanuts in the last 25 days!!!!

It's been quite the roller coaster.

He recently had two reactions that nearly landed him in the hospital. 

On our first day in Disney, a few hours after dosing, he was putting on his pajamas and said, "Mom, why did you bring me such itchy pajamas?" I said, "hmmm, maybe they are getting too tight on you, sleep in a tee shirt and lounge pants," but he continued to scratch. And cough. And his ear was red. And hives. And he got so itchy he started  pulling at his hair to deal with the itchiness. That was a first. 
We gave him the maximum amount of benadryl and steroids but it didn't seem to be helping.
We paged the doctor as he continued to cough, mentally gearing up to epi him and head to a hospital in Orlando.
The doctor told us to go beyond the max and give him another half a teaspoon of both benadryl and steroids. She said if the reaction didn't get worse in the next 20 minutes he should be okay.
Thankfully that took care of it and his reaction calmed down.
Since we now have the freedom of skipping dosing one day a week, we had planned on two days during vacation to skip dosing and the doctor said to also keep him at 6 peanuts instead of 8 for the rest of vacation.

We did that and thankfully all was well.

Once we got home I decided to start building him back up to 8 peanuts half a peanut at a time. We got to 6 and a half. Then 7. Then 7 and a half.

That night he said "I'm all itchy." Thankfully it subsided on its own.

Since he had a tiny reaction, I decided not to updose him the following day, but instead we got a call from the nurse at school. "Coby is complaining that he doesn't feel well. He doesn't have fever, but he never ever comes here to complain about anything." We picked Coby up and I decided that even though he didn't have fever, something was going on, so I down-dosed him to 5 peanuts.
All was well. I decided to put on the baby monitor in case he was getting sick he could call out to me.
The next morning at 5:30 he called out to me. "Mom, I can't lift my head off the pillow." He had 103.1. He tested negative for flu and strep and his high fever never came back. (That evening he had 99.7 without any meds in his system). The doctor said we can keep him at 5 peanuts that day and if fever stayed away to updose him by one peanut each afternoon.

We kept him home from school again on Thursday and planned on sending him back Friday.

He was completely fine all day Thursday and so I dosed him at 4PM with the 6 peanuts. All was well. He went to bed at about 9PM.

Thankfully I hadn't turned off the baby monitor because at 4AM I hear some coughing and he calls out, "Mom. Mom. Help. I can't breathe!"

I run into his room and am not even thinking about his dosing. After all 12 hours had passed. He tells me he can't stop coughing and is all stuffy. I think he is catching a cold and am about to give him a second pillow but instead I ask, "Are you itchy?"
He replied, "All over."

I turn on the light and see he has hives. I go to the kitchen with him and give him the max benadryl and steroids. He tries talking to me but his voice sounded extremely tight. It's not getting any better. At that point I wake Yitz (who had been sleeping in the basement, since I was still having hacking coughs throughout the night still from the flu and we didn't want it to keep him up all night). Coby begins scratching at his legs and we see the hives travel down his arms to his wrist, which had never happened before. He continues to cough and he can't really talk.
We were about to epi him and call 911, when we decide to do what the doctor had us do in Florida and give him that extra half a teaspoon of benadryl and steroids.
It worked and calmed down the reaction.

THE REACTION THAT WAS 12 HOURS POST A 6 PEANUT DOSE!

I had Coby sleep in Yitz' bed next to me so I could really monitor him and we kept him home from school because we feared a biphasic reaction. (a biphasic reacton is a secondary and more extreme reaction that can happen a few after the first reaction, it happens in about 25% of allergic reactions).

We don't know why this is happening. The doctor doesn't know why this is happening. He said it is EXTREMELY rare for someone to react 12 hours post dosing- but they HAVE seen it happen before. They also said most people after graduating OIT have no problems at all, but we all know Coby is extremely reactive.

They told us to keep him at 5 peanuts for several days and add Zyrtec to his daily regimen. After several days I began increasing Coby's dose by HALF a peanut (instead of the full peanut they originally advised), and today was the first time he was back up at his full dose of eight.

Coby was SUPPOSED to have his allergist appointment this past Monday but in order to do his testing he'd have to have no medicine in his system (no benadryl, no steroids, no zyrtec). The appointment was pushed off to the end of February and we were told to wean him off the zyrtec about a week before the appointment and hope for smooth sailing so we don't have to push it off again.

...and the baby monitor remains on.

How can I EVER turn off that monitor again? What if it had been off that night of his big reaction? What if he was calling out to me that night and I couldn't hear him over my sound machine and he was choking and couldn't get to me?! Thank G-d he had been sick a few days earlier or that monitor would not have been on! Knowing that he reacted TWELVE HOURS after a DOWNDOSE is terrifying me. And it was no minor reaction.

In truth, that reaction deserved an epipen. He was coughing and his voice was tight. I played with fire. I was hoping and praying medicine would work because I can't start epiing him every other week as both the reactions in Disney and this one 2 weeks later may have warranted.

This is the first real time post graduation I begin to doubt it all.

Yes OIT is a wonderful thing and the closest thing to a cure there may ever be. Yes MOST people have no problems with it.

But Coby does.

And it seems every time we strip away the more 'potent' form of dosing, Coby begins reacting to less and less.

He was reacting a lot to pb powder and peanut butter- so we decide not to dose with that anymore

He was doing fine on his daily 12 peanuts a day dosing, but then maintenance switched down to 8 peanuts a day.

Now he's having reactions to the 8 peanuts... and a big reaction to 6 peanuts.

I do NOT want the doctor to say we should lower his dose to something else, because then I'm afraid he will begin reacting to less and less and lose all the protection and freedom we worked so hard for.

OIT has given him so much! The world has opened up to him.... it's just the dosing and apparently the 12 hours that follow (instead of the 2 for most), that I have to be worried about.

-One of my pre OIT fears was how he's going to go to any of his friends' bar and bat mitzvahs? Now he CAN. In the real world he's free to eat whatever he wants (other than peanut butter). The bar and bat mitzvah season has begun. He already has been invited to two friends' bat mitzvahs. (which in all honesty he didn't go to because, "they're girls--- I'm not friends with the girls. I don't want to go!")
The bar mitzvahs though are beginning THIS summer already.

-He also was able to go to his cousin's bar mitzvah which was a potluck shabbos, followed by the bar mitzvah party that he otherwise would never have been able to go to. He had a blast.

Yep peanut butter. His cousins were
eating it after shabbos and while he hated
the smell, we had no fear of a reaction and
was able to eat whatever he wanted on shabbos
(nothing was made with peanut butter)

At the bar mitzvah party. Yum!

-He is going to another cousin's bar mitzvah this weekend, which he wouldn't be able to go to without OIT.

-He went to a cousin's upsherin this past week that had catered food and he was able to eat whatever he wanted.

Cutting Yosef's hair (you may be able to tell Coby's cheeks
are red--- that is a side effect from the zyrtec)

-We celebrated his 3rd OITversary where he was allowed to order anything off the menu.

-He is in a carpool with 3 other kids- which he wasn't able to do before OIT because who knows what was eaten in the car he'd be getting a ride home in and pre OIT breathing it in, or touching where it was could cause a reaction. Being able to go in a carpool is sooooo freeing.

-We got an e mail from his teacher saying that she sees some kids bringing in peanut m & ms, and to please remember the school is nut free. I found it annoying that parents were doing this, but I wasn't AFRAID.

-He went to a family Chanukah party- and ate what he wanted. No worries.

-He's gone to shul and eaten whatever he wants at kiddushes.

-I read how recently on a few separate occasions, peanut butter was found smeared all over subways poles in Manhattan. We don't really ride subways, but still something I wouldn't have to fear, because even though he can't EAT peanut butter, he wouldn't react by touching or being in the vicinity of peanut butter, which he would have before OIT.

https://snacksafely.com/2020/01/someone-is-spreading-peanut-butter-in-nyc-subway-trains/

-In Disney he was able to eat popcorn, lots of ice-cream and go to a character meal with us not having to check ingredients and him being able to just be a kid and eat with no fear.

Dole Whips

Mickey's kitchen sink

Mickey ice cream bars

Topolino's Character breakfast

 

In the past we've had to shlepp all safe foods from NJ including breads, challahs, snacks etc. Post OIT we just buy whatever kosher things they have there--- including the snacks, the breads and the challah. It is wonderful!

In Florida store- he wanted to buy all those Entenmann's knowing he could! We only bought chocolate donuts though.

-And all of the above was just in the past 3 or so months. Oh... and Purim is just one month away--- and because of OIT I don't have to censor a good chunk of the shalach manots (while he can't have the reeses pieces, we can still have it in the house, which we couldn't do before OIT.)

So while this is terrifying to me, with the 12 hour post dosing crazy reaction, and me questioning this whole OIT thing, how can I take away all that OIT did give him.

All I know, is that 'baby monitor' is going to be staying on, and I just don't see how I can ever turn it off again.

EDITING TO ADD 2 DAYS LATER--- Lo & Behold he is sick once again. Woke up with 104. So after two days of being back at 8--- finally, doctor had us skip today. Two high fevers in 10 days--- this is ridiculous. Waiting to exhale...

WELL IT'S BEEN A NICE 19 MONTH/30 YEAR RUN- IT WAS BOUND TO HAPPEN

At Coby's last OIT appointment our doctor told us he was comfortable in Coby skipping dosing once every week! That was amazing to hear- but in truth, I fought it.

I thought, "but if he skips, and then Coby gets sick and has to skip, then he'd be skipping too many days and he'd lose all his desensitization so we can't actually start to skip one day a week 'just because' unless he's allowed to start skipping two."

After many weeks of refusing to skip dosing a single time 'just because', I had a lightbulb moment.

"Hey Stace, what are you doing? If you don't challenge his body and make sure it is actually capable of skipping a day every single week and popping right back to his regular dose the following day, how will you ever make any further progress? How do you expect the doctor to ever give permission to possibly skip 2 days a week or even more, if you won't even skip a single day? Trust the doctor. Trust the process. You gotta give it a go."

So I dove in and we began skipping dosing once every week. We would choose the day that the skipping of dosing would give him the most freedom- such as on vacation- if we wanted or needed to be active all day, we'd simply skip that day that week. If there was no day like that, we just let Coby pick any random day he wanted to skip (as long as it wasn't a day that was close to the skipped day of the prior week-- like if he skipped Friday, he shouldn't skip Sunday just two days later)

Coby all in all had been doing great, though he did have a couple of reactions over the last couple of months.
One was a random middle of the night reaction that scared the bejeebers out of me. That day Coby dosed as usual, and 7 hours later Yitz was getting ready to go to bed and woke me up. "Stacey, Coby woke up complaining about being all itchy and he can't stop coughing. I gave him benadryl and he went back to bed." I turned on the baby monitor but was a nervous wreck. I don't think we had ever been able to give him JUST benadryl to completely stop a reaction once there was coughing involved. I started thinking of those people who died from an anaphylactic reaction in their sleep and was terrified each time I went to check on Coby throughout the night. Thank G-d all was okay. But it was not a fun night. We remain clueless as to why he even reacted in the first place.

The other was just before we were about to leave to Brooklyn for my in laws 50th anniversary celebration. He began reacting at home. We needed both benadryl and steroids to calm down the reaction. Since it was late and he was heavily medicated he was a bit out of it by the timewe got the restaurant, but thank G-d the reaction didn't progress. AND he was able to eat in that restaurant since he OITd, otherwise he wouldn't have been able to. (If you are wondering why we didn't plan to simply just skip dosing him that particular day that week, it is because 3 days later we were headed to Costa Rica and NEEDED to skip dosing him on that travel day. We couldn't risk a reaction happening mid air and by the time we got to Costa Rica it would have been too late to dose him... That flight ended up having to make an emergency landing due to a sick passenger but that's a whole separate story)

In Costa Rica he was able to participate in fun activities all over the country.  He ziplined, rappelled through waterfalls, hiked, snorkeled, ATVd, took boat rides. He had the time of his life.

PURA VIDA!

 We traveled all over the country and after booking our flights and all our hotels and activities, we learned that there was NO kosher food anywhere near we were staying--- not even drinks or bread! We packed a suitcase and small cooler full of kosher food- cereal, breads, granola bars, deli, cheese, pasta and prayed CUSTOMS wouldn't confiscate it. We read lots of articles that it's a complete crap shoot- some people get through and other people have every single item confiscated. We tried to mentally prepare ourselves for that telling each other we would just live on fruit, but at the moment of truth CUSTOMS let us through (and yes we declared our food on the customs form), but after 8 days of eating blechy suitcase food we were ready for real food, and in San Jose they did have a chabad and kosher restaurant that thanks to OIT we were able to eat!
It was an amazing vacation to celebrate Josh & Mikey's college and high school graduation and try to make the most of our time with Mikey before he left to Israel for the year.

But just when Coby thought we were headed back to NJ- we surprised him with a quick trip to Disney.

Disney had already put up their Halloween decorations even though it was still only August and there was candy being given out everywhere. (To most people it was trick or treating- to us, 'free chocolate!). None of it was 'safe'- but we no longer need to worry about that! And so we collected over TEN POUNDS OF CHOCOLATE. Yep, Mikey weighed the bags on our luggage scale. It was over 10 pounds!

Part of Mikey's collection

My silly Coby doesn't really like chocolate, so he barely ate any of it--- but still. We didn't have to worry about him being exposed to any of these 'deadly darts' floating through the Magic Kingdom since he was protected, and he was able to taste some when he wanted to. A couple of things Coby eagerly agreed to eat that he otherwise wouldn't have been able to was of course ice-cream.

Ghirardelli at Disney Springs

Mickey bars at Disney's Blizzard Beach

And while this next picture is just from the new Stew Leonard's that opened up in Paramus- it fits the ice-cream theme. Kosher not safe Soft serve in the store! Thanks OIT!

So it has been great. Here we are mid October with Simchat Torah approaching. We had decided Coby's skip day this week would be Monday/Simchat Torah so he wouldn't have to worry about a delayed reaction from dancing. We knew we no longer to fear this holiday but instead he could be just one of the kids collecting a bunch of candy and dancing around with the Torahs. He'd also be able to partake in the full meal the following morning with no concerns of a reaction either thank you OIT!!!

But then it happened.

This past week we skipped Monday because of the Sukkah hop- we didn't want to have to worry about a reaction when he was running around with kids. (And once again thanks to OIT he was able to participate in the sukkah hop and eat foods at other people's houses--- oh and while on the subject of other people's houses, we were also able to go on another shabbaton with good friends from college that we hadn't done... SINCE COBY WAS FOUR MONTHS OLD. It was so nice to be able to do that again. Thanks OIT!)

Where was I?

Oh right.
Back to 'but then it happened.'

I started to feel crummy. I didn't have fever but my throat felt like it was on fire. I felt like there was broken shards of glass covered in hot lava going down my throat every single time I swallowed. That was my only symptom but it was miserable. I couldn't sleep through that pain and didn't know what was happening since I didn't have any fever- it didn't make sense.
After three days of this hell I gave in and went to the doctor and just by looking at my throat she exclaimed. "YEOWCH! That is bad! You definitely have strep."

Strep? I haven't had that in THIRTY years! I don't even have fever. So weird. Thank G-d for antibiotics. What a difference they make!

She did warn us, "Be careful for others who live in your home. If they get sick in the coming days, assume it is strep."

NO! Please Coby can't get sick. That complicates OIT since you can't dose when  sick. And he has Simchat Torah coming. He can't get sick. It becomes so complicated for him to be sick.

But he hasn't been sick in since March 2018 (with strep), so really I know we're 'due'.

Friday I am about to dose him and he says, "mom I feel weird. I don't think I should dose."
"What do you mean weird?"
"I can't explain it."

He did sound a little congested but I couldn't skip him completely- after all he had already skipped that week just 4 days before on our 'skip day'.

I decided to down-dose him from 8 to 6 peanuts.

An hour later he had 102. And yep, shabbos had just begun a few minutes earlier so we are stuck. (WHY DOES THIS TYPE OF STUFF ALWAYS SEEM TO HAPPEN ON FRIDAYS?!!!)

CRAP!

Thank G-d, Thank G-d, Thank G-d, I didn't give him his full dose and he had ABSOLUTELY NO REACTION last night.
We really dodged a bullet.
It could have been real bad.

Today he woke up with 104 and complaining about his throat. There was no way I could dose him today.

We also knew we couldn't wait til Sunday to see the doctor. We were worried how high his fever could spike during the night and we needed to get him on antibiotics TONIGHT. The longer the illness the more complicated it becomes to get him back to his maintenance dose. And safely. We also wanted him to be able to participate in Simchat Torah festivities.

So to PM Pediatrics we went.

Ironically HIS strep test came back NEGATIVE!
Which is a 'crap' in my book.
That means we need to wait for this virus to run its course AND it means he can still catch my strep.
Here's hoping he it's a fast one and he'll be able to participate in some Simchat Torah festivities and safely get back up to his dosing regimen.
Sigh.
But hey, it was a 19 month run for Coby. Fingers crossed for at least another nice 19 month illness free run for our Cobester.
Feel better sweets!

BORING IS GOOD!!!!

Wow, it's been forever since I blogged, which must mean only one thing--- our OIT life as of late has basically been boring.

3 CHEERS FOR BORING!

Coby has been enjoying his post OIT life. I mean, how could he not?

-He has been able to go on all the camp overnights with no worries.

At Camp Getaway. He also went camping at Hershey and Lake George.

-He went to a friend's simcha with no worries and really hit the jackpot there!

loading up from the yummy buffet

He literally chased down the ice-cream bar table as the waiters wheeled it out

Yum, dessert table

He just couldn't get enough

-He was able to go to a potluck Shabbaton with no worries. It was a great time!

-He was able to eat whatever he wanted at the collation after Mikey's graduation.

-He has been able to go out to eat with no worries.

Teaneck Dog-House on Father's Day

-He went to Hershey Park (with his camp) for the first time since completing OIT and after that 'singing cows chocolate ride' he was able to eat the unsafe chocolate they handed out at the end of the ride. SCORE! He was also able to eat Dippin' Dots there, which had not been safe for him in the past.

front row, green hat on the right is our Cobester

- He has eaten at bakeries that otherwise would have been un-safe.

-And of course- ice cream!

What a blessing.
Food.
Friends.
Freedom.
Inclusion.
Safety.

Though truth be told, there are always some hills to climb during this journey. We've had some trials and tribulations. One morning Coby got off the couch and every part of his exposed body was speckled. His arms, his cheeks and his ears and neck.

I didn't completely freak out (yay me!) since I knew Coby hadn't actually eaten anything at all by that point, though we did call the allergist. We gave him some medication that cleared it up--- and then we figured out what caused it. We had had several teenagers in our home 2 nights earlier. They hung out in the den. They had left, but they left behind an intense fragrance. Some concoction of deodorants, body washes, lotions etc. That morning was Coby's first time in the den since all the teens had been there. In fact it was a full 36 hours later. Their lotions must have really clung to our couch fibers because just by sitting there for a few minutes Coby's sensitive body was not happy.
BUT thank G-d it was not a food reaction.
Can't blame everything on those peanuts!

Another day Coby had to have 5 baby teeth pulled. As if that's not traumatic enough, we had to call his allergist to see if we should have them all pulled at the same time or space it out. How would we be able to dose him if all of them were pulled at the same time? How would he chew up those peanuts? Exposed and bleeding gums mixed in with an allergen can cause a reaction. A body that has been through anything traumatic together with its allergen can cause a reaction. Our allergist advised us to just have them pulled all at once and to skip a couple of days of dosing. We were then to spend the next week building back up to Coby's maintenance dose. Thank G-d we had no issues and it all went smoothly. And yes, the tooth-fairy was extra generous that night.

My poor baby

Coby also went back to the doctor for his twice yearly allergy testing.

Coby's reaction, while positive was down to a 5x17 measurement! Before Coby began OIT they were only able to test him with 1% of the full dose and back then his number was 12x32. We've come a long way baby! Way to go Coby. Our allergist told us that Coby probably will never get a negative result, but we are still moving in the right direction. He also said we can try not having apple-sauce anymore after his dosings--- and we have done that for the last few days and had no problems! Woot!

We also asked the doctor if we should put him back on the peanut butter powder dosing as well, and the doctor told us it was not worth it. Coby was having way too many reactions from that that it just wasn't worth it unless and until Coby wants to have complete free eating to begin scarfing down peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. (Yeah, right...) This does mean that while Coby can mostly free eat- we still have to be wary about actual peanut butter. We recently actually called a couple of restaurants we have been eating at to find out that peanut butter is in some of their items. Pre OIT we wouldn't have even been able to step foot in the restaurant. Now, post OIT but not dosing with PB2 powder, we are able to eat in those restaurants but cannot eat the items with actual peanut butter in them. A bit of a step backwards, but not a complete fall. So while it's a bit disheartening, we are okay with that.

So his skin test has once again improved...

And after the blood test- well deserved
and now safe ice-cream

....But with skin testing, come blood tests.

My trooper

We got those blood results back and learned that now Coby's thyroid is fine.
However, despite being on a vitamin D supplement, for some reason his vitamin D levels are even lower than they were last time, so we were told to  increase it by 150%.

And lastly his peanut numbers...
They tested five different components, but it is the first two that is the most important.

H1 before beginning OIT was 41. Six months ago it was 20. And now.... it is 10.6!!!!!!
H2 before beginning OIT was 41.6. Six months ago it was 19.5. And now... it is 11.3!!!!

Yowzers!!! While those numbers still indicate a severe allergy, Coby's class of allergy has gone from a CLASS V allergy, down to a CLASS IV!!!!

So yeah, we may have had to take a couple of steps back in some aspects... but today compared to where we were less than 3 years ago is un-freaking-believable.

It has now been 2 years since graduation. He had just turned 9 when he graduated and this week our little warrior has turned 11! Where does the time go?

Wishing our Cobester a year of health, happiness, love, safety, freedom, friends and lots and lots of ice-cream.... After all, we are still making up for lost time.