Saturday activities

Yesterday Dave went rock climbing with a friend. They haven't gone in almost a year, and he was excited it finally worked out. They went to a place 90 minutes away, but the first 2 climbs they tried were closed due to nesting birds. That was a bummer because they were east-facing walls, meaning they warmed up first in the sun. Cold rocks are tough to climb because it's hard to hold on with numb fingers. But they did manage to find a couple of good climbs. He came home all happy and sore, which go hand in hand with Dave. Then he took all the boys on a hike down by the riverbed. Spencer's been wanting to go there ever since the cub scouts had a Chumash Indian guest speaker, telling them all about making games from nature. He said they could find lots of elderberry bushes down in the riverbed to make clapper sticks. Spencer brought some home yesterday and was able to make a clapper stick, just like the guy said. I enjoyed the quite house while they were gone.

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One new development with Brennan's allergies: we were talking to a lady whose daughter has food allergies similar to his, including eggs. She said she's been able to give her eggs as long as they're cooked, which alters the egg protein. We were hesitant to try it, but the other day he got into some salt water taffy, which contains egg whites, and low and behold, he didn't develop a rash. So we are going to try to introduce eggs into his diet and see what happens. That's not one of his major allergies, but it does help baked goods not be so dry and crumbly. Sometimes I look at Brennan's skin and am so grateful at how much better he's doing this year. It's a lot of work to keep him fed, but it's just so worth it. But sometimes it still makes me want to cry, like tonight when we ate the most delicious strawberry cake from scratch, and he was no longer content with his chocolate soy ice cream. So we kept throwing sugar at him until he got happy. Gummy bears did the trick.