quick update

david and eli left today. i didn't realize how much we loved having them here until we came "home" today and they were gone. they were able to spend a few days at the hospital with us. and---we went to the aquarium, hiking, the zoo, the natural science museum, visited red rock amphitheater...etc. david and samuel got to do what they like best---run around 100 mph together.

couple updates:
-tomorrow samuel gets to skip the wet wraps. in fact right now he is sleeping without them for the first night in a long, long time. we'll see how he does. (major detail is that colorado has NO dust mites as it is too dry for them to live! which, are probably one of s's big triggers, especially at night.)

--his skin looks and feels amazing. so soft. never felt like this. we contribute this to the number of baths/wraps and elecon.

--today they did a food challenge to beef, which was not scary in the least. we did it to see if he would have an eczema flare. he didn't. was fine.

--tomorrow is actually our first big day---in terms of really seeing if he can add things to his diet. docs say that 99% of people with soy allergy can eat things with soy lecithin and/or soy oil. so tonight i bought vegan chocolate chips with s.l. and we will just take some oil and mix it into applesauce or something. despite the stats i am skeptical. but, being able to eat that would really open up tons of things as most all processed stuff have one of those two things. not that we want processed stuff...but certainly on occasion.

--the other food challenge we will most likely do is wheat. his skin test was positive, but just barely. if the blood test comes back low too we will try it. we will probably try it even if it doesn't. he's only had wheat once and it was over two years ago. i cannot even begin to say how adding wheat would change our lives. we will see. i expect to gain no foods, but certainly would love that surprise.

--like i said, we have not yet gotten the blood tests back; hopefully tomorrow so we can see if we want to challenge any more foods. the only thing that might even be a possibility would be baked egg---which i feel is very unlikely.
and if there are some foods that have high positives which correlate with positives on skin test we might eat those to watch for an eczema flare (which we would be able to see since his skin is so clear.)

eli often insists on walking on his own. which is...fine...except when on a long hike...

samuel had to have a go at the back pack action