The bourgeoi-Vieve

"I can't eat peanuts because they make me very, very sick..."

3 days ago
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Last May, Genevieve was diagnosed with an egg intolerance and a mild peanut allergy. She grew out of the egg intolerance, and now loves them. (Had one for breakfast this morning, in fact). However, with peanuts, you never know which way they are going to go. Nor do you know if the next reaction will be mild, or severe.

So, today was her 18 month check, to test for real. (We applied for it in January, and only received the appointment last Friday, but we won't go there).

Instead of where we went last time, there was a labyrinthine route up to the point I'm sure is furthest from the main entrance. (It also didn't help if you went up in the lift too early).

Anyway, we get there and after a quick interview, it was off to yet another area for the test. (They'd recently centralised where tests would be done, to save on resources). Find the desk. Report at the desk. Wait, wait, wait. Hey, did we mention VV has a 3.5's attention span? Wait, wait, wait. Do some colouring, wait.

VV then had her 'scratch test' (again). The nurse drew a little smile on her hand, and then a few marks on her back, to aid in identifying the test points. She 'scratched' skin with a histamine trigger (which would provide a rash with anyone, as a control to act as a reference), and then with a variety of tests. Peanuts, of course, and also a variety of other nuts we weren't sure she'd had.

"Pink bear" on the left, and a new one on the right.

These were the results, 15 minutes later. The two big ones are peanuts, and brazil nuts (which, previously, we weren't aware of). After being measured, and finding our way back to the doctor, and more waiting, we had our diagnosis. As per last time, there's no real way to determine what reaction Genevieve would have - just that she would have a reaction to both peanuts, and now, brazil nuts.

Again, he thought the need for an EpiPen was borderline, but thought that it was probably prudent to have one.

DSC04279

So, it's situation normal. Unfortunately.

I made some copies of the new action plan, and used a photo from one of my recent home-studio shoots as the mugshot. She looks so innocent.

Williamstown beach

6 days ago
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Williamstown Beach

Warrandyte

6 days ago
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We headed out to Warrandyte to catch up with Kellie and Eliza, and Carole and Jacob. The RunBike came along too, and saw some mud action.

Again, it proved its worth over conventional bikes with training wheels. She was up and down the steepest of hills, without a qualm.

Leave only footprints (or treadmarks I guess)

A kid on training wheels wouldn't have got up there

Using the kickboard

6 days ago
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Wouldn't you know it? I should've filmed it last week when she did it all herself ;)

KickBoard

Saturday night at Narnar's

Oct 25, 2009
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IMG_5581.JPG

CargoBike Trip No 3 - WIN!

Oct 20, 2009
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Well, I felt so bad about Sunday that today I had the chance to make amends. So I booked tix online, and we headed on down (again).

I just told her that we were going for a ride, but within a few minutes of riding, she was saying "This is the same way as you go to Star Wars". Can't keep anything from her eh?

The look on her face when she realised we'd be going in was priceless. And, I think she enjoyed it even more than I did. We weaved around and looked at each of the exhibits, and some of the interactive stuff as well. We'd been in there for well over an hour, and I could see she was starting to look around her a bit more. She hadn't seen her princess.

So, I had been leaving one corner of the exhibition to the end, and there she was. Genevieve was RAPT!

No... that's not a mirror

Hmm... I wonder how much I could flog this for

CargoBike Trip No 2 - FAIL

Oct 18, 2009
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We made good time back home, so I thought we'd skedaddle down to ScienceWorks to see the Star Wars exhibition there. It's been on for months, but it's finishing in a few weeks, so I thought we'd make a go of it.

We rode the 6kms down there, with her not really knowing what it was. We had her lovely brown coat on - a bit Jawa or a bit Jedi depending upon how you look at it. But she also had her (well... my actually) Leia hair beanie. We locked up the CargoBike and she could see the StarWars signage about the place. She was SO excited. Her little buddy Henry has seen it, and he must talk about it a lot.

We walk in, and I see this sign.

I find your lack of tickets disturbing

I explained it to her, but she didn't want to believe it. She started to tear up, so we headed back out to the bike. By then, she was having deep heaving sobs. Not the whingey rubbish we normally get - she was really upset. That's when I started to shed a few myself. I'd never seen her so sad. So I thought it's worth a try, and I headed back in. She was still crying and I went up to the ticket booth. The poor guy - he really wanted to help us, but he couldn't.

So, slowly stopping with the tears, we got back into the Cargobike and headed home. I cheered her up by taking a few pix of her with 'the big gold lady'.

CargoBike Trip no 1 - BIG Success

Oct 18, 2009
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We didn't quite get onto this yesterday, so we had to do it today. This time last year, VV and I did the 50km ride in Around the Bay in a Day. This year, the weather was a bit flukey, so I decided against committing. But, I did want to take her down to the bike expo.

We loaded up the CargoBike and headed down to Alexandra Gardens. She loved riding her RunBike around, and answering everyone's questions. In all seriousness, I could've sold 50 of the suckers today - she has a killer sales pitch ;)

She found a bike for me, and a bike for mummy (and interestingly, we would've LOVED to have had the ones she chose... hmm... taste may be rubbing off?) We decided to get out of there before the ATBiaDers started arriving back in droves - but there was even things to be seen as we left, including a stilt-walking butterfly.