Saturday, August 2, 2008

Pre-School Graduation

Last Friday was Michael and Natalie's graduation from pre-school. For all of you laughing right now, yes, their pre-school does have a graduation and yes it was very nice. The kids all wore graduation hats, sang songs, received diplomas and gave speeches. I was so proud. I can not believe my sweet little twins will be going to snif snif kindergarten.


After the touching ceremony, there was a little reception in the play area. Of course a newsletter was put out where of course I requested that no nuts be present. And yes, of course someone brought nuts. And not just a product that may contain nuts, or nut was just an ingredient in, but a huge, giant, glowing bowl of nuts.

Thankfully the snacks were off to one side, and Conor was much more interested in the giant bag of cookies I brought to keep him out of trouble. But Geezz doesn't anyone read those newsletters the schools hand out.


Now Michael and Natalie are off to kindergarten. They will be attending a Spanish Immersion program, where they will learn Spanish as an integral part of their education. Conor has one more year of pre-school and then he too will be going to kindergarten. Now that will be loads of fun. I guess I better start studying my Spanish.

Does anyone know how to say peanuts in Spanish???


Thursday, July 31, 2008

Mommy I Want a Tattoo - Other Medical Alert Bracelet Options



(no, thankfully not that type of tattoo)




Since posting about Conor's dream of a red medical alert bracelet for his birthday, I thought I would let all of you know about some other exciting options I found if a traditional medical alert bracelet is not the identification of choice for your child.

Before starting this ride on the internet super highway, I did not realize there were other creative options out there. The two most interesting I found were the temporary tattoos, and the silicone bracelets.


Temporary Tattoos

Safety Tat



http://safetytat.com/


“They're kid-friendly with an image to delight every child...Still, it's not the design that makes the difference. Instead, it's the digits that help reconnect lost kids and their families. But the Safety Tats don't stop with the number. You can even customize them if your kid has special needs or health issues. Tattoos highlighting everything from diabetes to autism are available. There's even a tattoo for kids with peanut allergies or for kids on a field trip with their school. ”



Tottoos



http://tottoos.org/Medical_and_Special_Needs.html


Medical Tottoos are printed with the widely recognized medic alert symbol and can be customized with up to 3 lines of text, 25 characters per line, including spaces.


Silicone Bracelets





Design a Band


http://www.design-a-band.com/home


These are totally customizable silicone bracelets. They come in many colors, and you can choose your own symbols(including many medical alert ones), and custom text on both the outside and inside of the band.


Fidledee Id's






These are not customizable, but do get the general message across.



So there you have it folks. We still love our Medic Alert bracelet, and Conor will be utterly thrilled to get his new red one on his birthday. If however, you are searching for a different and exciting way to tell the world (and especially medical personnel) about your child's medical condition check these out.

Wednesday, July 30, 2008

All I Want For My Birthday is a Red Medical Alert Bracelet

Conor is going to be 4 years old on Monday. That means Michael and Natalie will be almost exactly 5.5. It is amazing how the time passes so slowly, and yet so quickly at the same time.

So I have the exciting at home birthday planned. (I try and keep them with only family for as long as I can!!) I need to make my egg free, nut free, vegan coca cola cake with the Power Rangers Jungle Fury saving the world on the top. I need to hang up my very over used Happy Birthday sign, and maybe buy some red birthday plates and red hats.

Conor loves the color red. When he was just over one he assigned everyone in the house their own color. At the time he was yellow, Michael was blue, Natalie was red, I was orange (I have not clue why...orange??) and Mick was green. If something was the person's assigned color then they owned that item. If a chair was blue, only Michael could sit on it, Yellow, only Conor could sit, etc. After a while, Conor decided he liked the red power rangers, so red became his new color. Now he has to wear red clothes, red cups, only color with red crayons, and have a red cubby at school.


A few weeks ago I asked Conor what he wanted for his birthday. He turned to me, very seriously and said "All I want for my birthday is a red medical alert bracelet."

http://www.medicalert.org/


Of course he wanted a red medic alert bracelet. He has been eyeing the picture of medic alert bracelets on the ad at the back of Allie the Allergic Elephant for months now. I found this very sweet, and very sad at the same time. I am happy he accepts he is wearing his medic alert bracelet, but what almost 4 year old wants a new one for his birthday???

We have been very happy with the medic alert company though, as far as bracelets go. Conor has the most sensitive skin ever. He will only wear these same pair of pants that are kind of like pajama pants because anything else bothers his skin. He has about 10 pairs of the same ones and wears them every single day. I am sure people think I dress the poor child in the same pair of pants all the time, but no people, they are actually different pairs. Anyways, despite his very sensitive skin, he always wears his bracelet and is never bothered by it.

I also like that in addition to what is printed on the back, it also has the call in feature. That way if Conor gets lost, the bracelet does not have his name on it, but anyone can call and get all the varied different ways to contact me. They can also discover not to give him a peanut butter cookie with an egg salad sandwich, and allow him to pet the local cat to make him feel better. And certainly not to give him amoxicillian for his infected cut. It is also easy for me to update his information when we discover that he is severely allergic to yet another thing without getting an entirely new bracelet.

Maybe Conor is on to something. Only the cool kids have Medic Alert bracelets.