LIONS AND TIGERS- BUT NO ELEPHANTS, OH MY!

So after Coby nearly hurled up his peanut m & ms last Thursday, I began to worry that Coby would begin to doubt in himself as he tried different forms of peanuts. I KNEW that if he would just stick it out a bit longer, he'd eventually tolerate peanut m & ms and perhaps even like it. I wanted him to REALLY get that whatever he believes he can achieve. So I bribed him to give it another go and so he did. Mikey had the brilliant idea of holding Coby's nose and Coby asked Mikey to dose with him too. Coby also ate just one at a time, and it went much smoother than the day before. He was still not at all fond of the taste but he said it was already a bit better than the day before, which was kinda obvious, since he didn't even gag once.

He is soooo proud of himself!

When Coby realized he did it, he was absolutely beaming! He said he'd probably dose the entire week, (minus one day) with those peanut m & ms, and each day, while it is not great, is slightly better than the day before. You go Coby!

And in other news we took Coby to the circus! Years ago, months ago, weeks ago- we didn't believe it would ever be possible with his severe peanut allergy.

When each of our kids were born we got a free circus ticket from Ringling Brothers. It has your child's name on it and no expiration date. We had taken Josh & Mikey about ten years ago. When Coby was born we had put his ticket aside to use at a future date. Once he was diagnosed with his allergy, we realized we probably never would be able to use his ticket. 

Once he started OIT I was dreaming for the day I'd be able to bring him to the circus with little or no fear about all those crushed shelled peanuts. When we learned that the very last day of performances (after a 146 year run) would be today I knew we had to bring him. We were waiting for so long and this was our very last chance.

We called his OIT doctor but unfortunately she told us that even though Coby is now currently eating two full peanuts (or 3 peanut m & ms), he is still not yet at the point where he can safely be surrounded by shelled peanuts. She said to give it a few more weeks....

....but the circus wouldn't be around for 'a few more weeks'! 

I felt my heart drop for him. Circus is a rite of passage in childhood--- is he really going to lose this chance too?

I wasn't ready to give up.

I knew the circus retired their elephants, so I wondered if perhaps they retired their 'shelled peanuts' too. No elephants to eat them, so maybe they wouldn't need to sell it to the audience either. Or if they did, hopefully they wouldn't sell the 'peanuts in the shell', but only the peanuts themselves. After all it is allthe 'dust' on the shells that can cause a reaction, but peanuts themselves he should no longer have an airborne problem anymore.

I contacted Nassau Coliseum and asked them if they sell peanuts in their shells. I was so surprised when they e mailed me back saying, "not only do we not serve shelled peanuts, we do not sell regular peanuts either, nor do any of our concession stands cook anything in peanut oil."

WHAT?!

No. That has GOT to be a mistake. I mean circuses are KNOWN for those shelled peanuts.

I contacted them again, "Okay you said you guys don't sell peanuts- but the circus is going to be by you guys for the next couple of days. Do THEY bring in their own concessions? Will they be selling shelled peanuts?"

"The circus does not bring in their own refreshments. There will be no peanuts being sold!"

HOLY FRIGGIN' MOLY! It didn't used to be like that!!! So we awoke early Sunday morning and drove out to Long Island to stand on line at Ticketmaster for a half hour before it opened for the day hoping there would still be (cheap) seats left. (We had to go in person because we had to exchange Coby's 'free circus seat' in person and this way we also avoided online ticket-master fees.) Thankfully there were seats left! 

Coby kept looking around saying, 'what is this place?' (We hadn't told him where we were going just in case there ended up being no seats, we didn't want him to be disappointed.) Once we had the tickets in hand and told him, his eyes got really big and his jaw practically hit the floor.

"THE CIRCUS?!"

 And yes he had a blast!

It was really cute when he saw them selling some junk or another and he asked if we could buy it. I gave him the easy excuse of, "it's not kosher."

To which he sighed and replied, "Awwwww is there OIT for unkosherness?"

Ha. Too cute!

 Afterwards we hit the Roosevelt Field Mall for a few minutes, but at that point both Coby and myself were getting cranky- too much walking around and not enough buying. Boooooooring!!!! But despite the cranky face, I gotta grab a 'peanuts pic' every chance I get. So there you go:

Just three more days of dosing with... 3 peanut m & ms? 2 peanuts? And then it's time for peanut butter!!!! This is INSANE!!!!! Insane in the best way possible! :-)

Anyway here's a few pix from today's show before they close their doors forever....