The firsts continue…

All continues to go well here, with both boys eating their (now much smaller) daily dose without incident. Aviv is actually excited to eat 2 Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups (in addition to his cookie of other nuts), and Ari is enjoying the new concoction that Orr made that is jam between two layers of dose brownie. (Yes, Orr is still creating new dose desserts for them on a regular basis.) Both boys generally finish by the time they come home from school, and are THRILLED to eat regular lunches like the other kids. We’re even considering signing up for the hot lunch program at school… something that was so off limits previously that I hadn’t even considered it until Aviv asked about it recently. The boys’ bodies have far outpaced our minds in coming to terms with our new reality, and we often don’t think about doing certain ‘normal’ things (ordering take-out, trying new restaurants, signing up for school lunch, etc.) without prodding. We’ll get there, but we’re not quite there yet.

So a year after beginning this trial, we are still embarking upon firsts… Ari entered his first chess tournament last week, and as I watched him play, in a room of 200 other kids, with everyone touching all of the chess pieces and eating between rounds, I took a moment to appreciate how miraculous it was that he could be there. The machinations that would have been needed to enable him to play (before this trial) would have been so onerous (separate pieces for Ari, warning the other child about touching his, carefully wiping down the mats and tables between rounds, etc.) that he likely would not have been able to compete. There he was, though, enjoying himself and learning new lessons of both gracefully winning and losing.

Other exciting news is that we are going to Disneyworld for the first time! We never would have taken that on when the boys were so allergic, but now we feel confident and excited. We’ll travel with our dose, of course, and some snacks, but can feel free – and it does feel freeing – to eat whatever and wherever we want. Now that these types of adventures are safely available to the boys, we want to experience them, so we’re going. When we went to Disneyland last year, we were still in the painful throes of the large dose (with daily fights and tears, for us and the kids!) and Aviv was sick on top of that, so it was a tough trip. Fingers crossed for a trip of smooth flights, new explorations, easy eating, lots of fun and all that the magic kingdom has to offer.