Joel's 3rd Birthday!

Joel LOVES cake!

The Elmo balloon was a big hit for everyone

Wow, a whole month later and I am finally blogging about Joel's 3rd Birthday, which was Jan 17th... we had a small party with our friends, the Hollidays.  We had pizza (with goat cheese - no, not like that, its sliced and very mild! so yummy!) cake, and presents.  Joel had a hard time waiting to open his presents, but other than that the evening was splendid!  Joel especially liked his Melissa & Doug ice cream play set and has been so obsessed with it for the past few weeks and he keeps it up in 'high' places "so Judah won't get it." *sigh*

This past weekend we spent some time in Van Wert to celebrate the January/February birthdays.  Joel opened some more amazing gifts, including an awesome pirate hat and sword, but...again.. his absolute favorite toy was a Melissa & Doug sliced cookie set.  (they should really be paying me for advertising;) Judah also was obsessed with cousin Eliza Spath's princess crown and wanted to wear it the entire evening.  Daddy wondered where he had gone wrong as he watched his two boys enjoy really girly things.  (Side note: props to any man who bakes cookies!:)

Joel opening his favorite gift - Melissa & Doug ice cream play set

Joel update
Since Joel has turned 3, it seems that he is much more opinionated and likes to begin his statements with "you should..."  He also becomes fixated on how things are 'supposed' to be and has a hard time letting go of that ideal.  However, on the bright side, Joel seems to be even more a sponge of information than ever.  He absolutely loves to read long, long books and seems to follow the story line very well.  He also enjoys babysitters more than before, I think because he tells them what to do and they listen ;)

results - NEGATIVE!

Joel was recently allergy tested and the results stumped even the 'Asthma and Allergy' specialist.  Based on his symptoms and history she expected something to show up as a positive allergy.  Plus, since 80% of childhood asthma is allergic asthma, she said that the results would give us a clue as to whether or not he actually has asthma at all (he was wheezing at the time and agreed that his symptoms are different from typical asthma).  The entire test was negative.  She said Joel was an 'atypical' case and mentioned a few possibilities:
1. Joel might be allergic to something but it has not shown up yet. Sometimes it takes years.  She suggested coming back in 1 year if he was still having symptoms.
2. Joel might have non-allergic asthma. (not common)
3. Joel might have reflux or large adenoids that may be causing his wheezing. (she confessed that probably these are unlikely since his tonsils looked 'great' and he does not have reflux symptoms)
4. Joel might have viral asthma.  She stated this was her best guess.  I agree his symptoms match up with viral asthma more so than anything else.  However, this is usually something found in babies. So, kinda weird.  What happens is that the child is exposed to a virus, wheezes mildly during the sickness and then continues to wheeze (only slightly but oftentimes with no other symptoms) for multiple days even weeks after the illness is visibly gone.  This type of asthma commonly disappears when the child gets older.

We were there for 3 hours and I've heard it is super expensive.  Thank goodness Judah was with Daddy at home.  However, finding out Joel is probably not allergic to anything was definitely worth it.  Also, we recieved lots of free Singulair samples and for us, this is huge.  Singulair is a chewable pill with a much different mechinism of action than other asthma or allergy drugs.  It has minimal side effects and seems to work wonders!  But, the makers of Singulair know this of course and so the price is sky-high.  For us, one month of singulair would be $130!  At $4.50 a pill, I use it very sparingly but have found that it does work very well for Joel.

Joel and Judah like to play "doctor"

Judah update
Judah is still not saying much but understands a ton.  He follows commands well when he wants to;)  We started spanking Judah this month and I forgot how tough it is at first.  We are sticking with spanking him for only 2 types of disobedience - 1. not coming to us when we say "come here" and 2. touching something after we have said to him clearly, "no touch"  I think he is slowly understanding the whole obedience thing.  He is getting frustrated with 'not getting his way' and has loud crying fits when that happens.

Judah is now very fond of pretend play, dancing, and getting beat up by his brother.  In fact, he likes his brother so much that ff he is ever in a room without his brother he is looking for him constantly.  He calls him 'ba-duel' for Brother Joel.. duh, could you not figure that out?  I am already using Joel's influence on Judah to get Judah to do what I want.  For instance, when Judah goes up the stairs for fun Joel always follows along (the way that Joel follows his little brother around is a story for another time).  I tell Joel to come back downstairs and he immediately says "but Judah, Judah!" as he slowly, and unhappily complies.  Sure enough, about 30 seconds later, Judah will come down as well.  Maybe that is an evil game to play. Oh well.

sweet Judah all bundled up