Primanti Brothers "West" (Giordano Bros)

James is off of work this week, which gave us a chance to go up to San Francisco for lunch one day at a place based off of a Pittsburgh staple, Primanti Brothers. James was introduced to Giordano Bros by a coworker and he's delighted that it comes really close to the "real thing"!

He's been talking about it for months, so I went up and had lunch with a friend and agree that it's super close to Primanti's sandwiches (and 25 miles is much closer than 2850!).

So, this morning, we decided to drive up for lunch.



They have an "answer board" set up to answer the most common questions they receive.



James' sandwich:



My sandwich (no slaw):



Yum, yum, yum!

Homemade Bread

Peyton really loves bread, so James and I thought it would be good time to take out our bread machine and bake some. Our first loaf (whole wheat) came out pretty tasty!



Peyton really enjoyed it.



I love my happy little boy!



It turned out to be really easy to bake bread, so I try to bake a loaf every 1-2 weeks and split it with my parents. Tasty for everyone!

Christmas!

Merry Christmas!!

Since we didn't get a Christmas tree this year, I set up all the presents under the stockings last night.



This morning, Peyton came downstairs and was surprised by the pile of presents.



He went straight for the Santa book.



I'll spare you the pictures of him opening each present, but he sure ended up with a lot of fun stuff! Blocks, puzzles, stuffed toys, and lots of books! Thank you, thank you, thank you for all the wonderful presents!



Peyton was certainly excited about all his new stuff!



We hope you had a wonderful Christmas with your loved ones. We love you all!

Playing in the "Wolf Den" (AKA Why We won't have a Tree)

James and I took turns decorating our Christmas tree ornaments while the other played with Peyton in the reception area and "Wolf Den" area.

The reception area was decorated for Christmas as you can see in the pictures below (also known as the "before" pictures).



Cute snowmen!



Gorgeous tree!



Even the bear had a Santa hat!

Peyton examined the tree...



Then, started un-decorating it!



Ribbons, snowflakes, you name it, he took it!







We re-decorated the tree when it was time to go back to our room, so it wasn't so bad. But, I don't really feel like having to re-decorate a tree at home multiple times a day, so we won't get one.



But, how can you get mad at such a cute little guy for wanting to have some fun?

Peyton Meets Snow

It snowed last night! We went for a quick walk in the parking lot this morning to introduce Peyton to snow.



Then, later in the morning, James and I signed up to decorate Christmas ornaments, so back in the snow we went! They had plowed in the mean time.



Peyton really don't know what to make of the snow.



Then it started snowing more heavily, so we hustled inside!



And, here are the ornaments James and I decorated. I chose to do a Christmas tree, and James did a snowman.

Sunrise, Sunset (Lake Tahoe Versions)

We arrived in Lake Tahoe on Sunday and were lucky to get one of our timeshare resort's units that overlook the lake. This gave us plenty of jaw-dropping views which I will now share with you. :-)

December 13th: Peyton took a nap and James went down to the lodge for game night. I looked out the window and saw a mesmerizing sunset!





December 14th: It's snowing!



December 15th: Another beautiful day!



The sun is out, so the lake is steaming.



Late afternoon shot of the lake.



December 16th: We thought we heard one of the kids from another unit playing outside the night before, and we were right!



Another beautiful sunrise.



A storm is supposed to come in tonight, so I wanted to get another clear shot of the lake.




December 17th: Our last full day. No sunrise this morning as a big storm rolled in over night.



We're technically supposed to go home on Sunday, but we'll be leaving tomorrow so as not to get stuck in traffic.

KidZone Museum, Truckee, CA

Today we took Peyton to the KidZone Museum in Truckee. It's a wonderful place for children to go and play!

Peyton walked in and looked around at all the things they had and just zeroed in on an enormous train table built by one of the volunteers. It's a replica of the town of Truckee, with tracks all the way around and through it. And it had great cut outs for kids to climb under to access the inside tracks.









After spending a good half hour with the trains, Peyton decided to climb the enormous play structure set up in the center of the room with different activities.



When he got to the end of the structure, there was a twisty slide and Peyton really wanted to go down. With James' help, he had so much fun sliding!





They had a baby corner with soft shapes and things that were easy to climb which Peyton and a little girl checked out.





Then a ride down a straight slide!



He also played with plastic tiles, but I didn't get any pictures. He had such a great time and took a very long nap this afternoon!

Egg White Allergy Confirmed

At 12 months, we gave Peyton his first taste of egg. He promptly broke out into hives and we rushed him to the doctor's office. By the time the doctor saw us (about an hour and half later), the hives had completely cleared up. The doctor gave us a couple options, one of which was to wait a couple of months and try again.

At 14 months, we tried again but this time we only gave Peyton egg yolk. He didn't react, and so we've continued to give him just egg yolks since then.

At his 18 month check up, Dr. Glinder suggested that we proceed with getting tested to confirm whether or not Peyton is allergic to egg whites. He also could not give Peyton his annual Influenza vaccine as those vaccines are grown on egg embryos and may contain a small amount of egg protein. My allergist works in the same medical group and also happens to treat children, so Peyton and I saw him a couple weeks ago. He recommended that we do a spot test of both the Influenza vaccine and egg whites which we scheduled for this morning.

This morning, Peyton did not react to the Influenza vaccine and was able to get the full vaccine, but he did react to the egg whites. So, it's confirmed: Peyton is allergic to egg whites.

We can continue to feed him egg yolks and products that we've been feeding him that may contain cooked eggs (boxed pasta, packaged bread, home cooked pancakes, etc), but the doctor gave us a list of ingredients to look for (and avoid) going forward. This means that Peyton can't eat homemade breads, cake, frosting, cookies, anything with an egg wash, or anything cooked at a restaurant that serves anything containing eggs (there's too high of a chance for cross-contamination in a busy restaurant kitchen).

James and I have our work cut out for us, but the doctor is optimistic that this allergy will pass in the next few years. We'll try again in two years.

For more information on egg allergies, you can visit the Food Allergy & Anaphylaxis Network web site.

James Visits the Koss Family

James is in Philadelphia for a work conference until Wednesday, but he flew out on Friday to spend the weekend with his best friend Mark and his family.

While there, he got to spend time with Mark and Trish's children, Owen (5) and Kaitlin (2-1/2). Both kids were very friendly with James and he just adored them!

Trish gave me permission to post pictures of her beautiful children with Uncle James.



The family went out to eat on Sunday and Owen wore his Troy Polamalu jersey (you can take the family out of Pittsburgh, but....).



From what I heard, Kaitlin was glued to James' side the entire weekend and this is the perfect picture showing just that - cute!

A huge thank you to Mark and Trish for being such wonderful hosts to James. I'm terribly sorry, again, that Peyton and I couldn't also make the trip.

Hello Again

Hello friends and family,

I do apologize for not posting any new content to the blog in over 6 weeks. December was a bit crazy and January hasn't been much easier.

I'm going to start posting again, starting back in early December, but you can expect posts on:

James' trip to Philadelphia and his visit with the Koss family
Our trip to Lake Tahoe
Christmas
Peyton's first hair cut!

Thanks for your patience. And, I'm posting this as though I posted it on December 1st so that the rest of the posts will come after this one.

Fun with Couch Springs

A couple weeks ago, Peyton figured out that if you pull off a couch cushion, there's plenty of fun to be had with the underlying couch springs.

It was too funny to not capture!