Matthew gave us quite the scare . While at our friend's house last night, Matthew was having fun trying to crack nuts using a nutcracker. He was pretty quiet for a few minutes and then looked up at me and said," Do you know that I snuck a small piece of a nut... and now my throat feels funny." He has never really eaten nuts before except for a few spoons of peanut butter when he was 18 mos old and a few bites of a cashew a few years ago. Within an hour his face had hives around his mouth and nose, his lips and neck were swollen and he was saying his throat still hurt. We gave him a double dose of benedryl and called the on call Dr. He told us that we should give him his epi pen and his last dose of prednisone. He seemed to be resting fine shortly after Terry spoke to the Dr. He woke up this morning with a beat red face, hives on his upper thigh and swollen neck with a big lump on the left side. He said that it hurt to turn his head and that his face felt "tight". I gave more benadryl and he was seen at his peditrician's office as well. We were quite scared that he would have to be admitted to the hospital, but his Dr, said to give him benadryl around the clock every 6 hours for three days. She said to keep a close watch on his airway for the next 48 hours. Now, we need to add NUTS to his allergy list :( I told him that he can not sneak food and that it can be sooo dangerous. I told him that it would be sad if he had to spend Christmas in the hospital. He replied " It would be ok. Santa would know where to go and if not, my gifts would be home waiting for me to get better" .
I just hope that he understands now , just how dangerous allergies can be, and that it could even have been so much worse than it was.
Please keep all of the families who have lost their little ones in your prayers this Christmas. There are so many who have had to say goodbye to their sweet babies and so many who will be spending their first Christmas in Heaven.
Merry Christmas ^^Eithene^^, ^^Maggie^^, ^^Zach^^ , ^^Ellie^^ and so many others.

I also want to take a moment to say thank you to everyone who has sent us Christmas gifts and holiday cards. We have received gifts not only for Matthew, but for Bradley and Steven as well. We have also had several donations that we will place in Matthew's medical account. We are truely thankful for everything. Also, a big thanks for all of Matthew's "Happy mail". He gets the biggest smile on his face every time he opens up his PO Box and sees new cards and letters. Thank you.