Two Firsts

Today, Senna had two firsts, one not so great and one pretty great:

1) She had her first blood draw. Skin tests Friday unfortunately showed that she has severe food allergies (to peanuts, other nuts, milk, egg, and sesame seed). So, we had to go back today for the blood test to get more detailed information on these and other allergens. (By the way, yes, she will hopefully grow out of some of these, except the nuts, which she is likely stuck with.) It has not been fun, and she was especially unhappy with the blood draw, but she hung in there. Thankfully, Alex is home and we could all go to these appointments together. The allergist is great, and we will see her again Monday for the results. But, tonight I'm having a hard time getting out of my head Senna's little face looking at me, crying, and her saying, "All done! All done!" (sigh)

2) Interestingly enough, today she also went into the ocean for the first time! We took her straight to the beach after the blood draw to get her mind off of it. Up until today, we always offer to take her into the water and she says "no," stopping cold several feet before the water's edge and refusing to go further. Today, though, we didn't ask, we were just sitting on our blanket in the sand, and she marched toward the water, with a different stride than before. Suddenly we realized -- she's going in! It was the perfect day for it, warm, calm water. And she was in up to her knees for a good hour, with Alex and/or I holding her hands, before we had to drag her out to go get some lunch.

I think our little girl grew up some today.