Yesterday, I had an appointment with the pediatrician to discuss all the kids' food allergies and what we needed to take serious, and what we could disregard. He took a lot of time to go through each child's list individually with me and asked lots of questions about symptoms they had or didn't have. At the end of it all, I felt much less overwhelmed. We are going to start Nicholas on Allergy therapy in the winter. He will go every week for five weeks or so, to get a shot. Then we repeat the process the next winter. He said it isn't guaranteed to get rid of his pollen allergies, but it may reduce them some.
All the children will eventually have this therapy, but he likes to do it on older kids so they can understand why they are getting so many shots without freaking out! He especially feels bad for poor little Noah who is allergic to pollens outside and inside the house (dustmites). He talked with me about what kind of allergy medicine I had for the kids and when I should be administering it.
The final conclusions we came to were; Sarah can only have eggs occasionally in baked goods, but wheat and rye are fine. Sophie can also eat wheat and rye, but needs to avoid all milk products and hazelnuts. Noah should also avoid milk and celery, but can eat carrots if he shows no symptoms after eating one. This opens back up a whole lot of food options we were once denied, and I feel like a huge weight has been lifted off my shoulders. Chris still can't eat a whole bunch of stuff, but it is easier to deal with when it is an adult.
So, after we left the doctor's office and delivered a birthday invitation to Sarah's friend from church that lives in the same town, I decided to pop in to my favorite Second Hand store in Bonstetten. None of the kids really needed any clothes but she always has such nice things I thought I would just take a look. We totally scored! The first thing I noticed through the window was the Playmobil Fairy Tale castle. I asked her if it was sold and she said that she had just gotten it in, hadn't even put all the parts with it yet. I told her that I would like it please! She will call me in a couple of weeks once she has a price figured and will give me first option of taking it or not. I was very pleased as the girls have been wanting that thing for forever, but it is just so crazy expensive new, we could never justify the cost.
Then I checked out the clothes and found a couple of cute things for Alexandra, some dresses with smocking on them, but again, she didn't really need anything so I wasn't looking that hard. Then I saw it. The gigantic box of Playmobil. Poking out of the top was part of a Pirate island and what looked like the Dragon Castle. This is the bad guys' castle that Noah has been salivating for pretty much his entire speaking life. There was a bunch of other stuff in the box as well. A sheriff's office, an Indian teepee, another stage coach, and tons of people. 60 Swiss francs later it was mine. The castle alone sells for over a hundred, so we were stoked. Then we saw the box with the giant good guy castle and we got that as well. After all was said and done, we ended up with over 600 Swiss Francs worth of Playmobil for 120. Yeehaww! I love deals like that. Of course, Noah was only allowed to pull out the western stuff for now. Everything else we are saving for his birthday. A little silly for him to already know what his present is, but since the others kids also already know about their presents, it seems only fair.
I let them all play with it for just the afternoon before I boxed it all up for his birthday. For three blissful hours, they played and played and played and then cleaned it all up when I said to. Who can put a price tag on that?