While Momma is away...

It was a big weekend for the Mezger family. First a praise: we have a house in Austin! My mom and I literally combed every street in the greater central Austin area for 2 days (with the help of MLS listings, craigslist, etc.), and well, our options were slim. We didn't expect it to be so hard--you would think that in this (down) market it would be easy to find plenty of rental properties. And there ARE plenty of rental properties, but very very few in the price range we wanted, in one of the areas we wanted, with the space we needed. But on the 3rd (and last) full day of my trip, a new house came on the MLS and it was pretty much perfect. Not exactly where we wanted, but close enough. Plenty of space, nice yard, and well within our budget. It was a photo-finish to get the paperwork in (we knew there was competition) but we got it! The house was actually built in 1966 and has had 1 owner, never rented. It's a really sweet "old lady house" that will be just perfect for us for the next year or two while we get settled. So, yea!

Before I left, Owen had been battling a fever. No other symptoms really, just a decently high fever (103ish) which made him tired and fussy. I felt bad leaving Kyle all alone w/ him, but they prevailed...as the progression in these photos/videos will attest to.

This video is almost mean...but Kyle did go put him right to bed after taking it.



Looking pretty pitiful with his pedialyte.


He started feeling a lot better by Sunday, so they went to Tanglewood Park (where the nays and choo choo are). There is also a big lake/pond with ducks. Here is Owen in hot pursuit of a duck (notice he's carrying his blankie). (We have another video where Owen gets a little too close for the duck's comfort and the duck starts hissing at him.)

Lunch on the choo choo. He'll actually leave his hat on for 10-15 minutes now!

The other news we have is sort of a bummer: Owen had an appointment Tuesday with a peds allergist and they confirmed that he does have a peanut allergy. Kyle took him (I was flying back to NC) so he got to ask lots of questions. For now, we're just going to keep peanuts, peanut butter and ethic (specifically Thai) food out of his diet. If we need to get more extreme (and we hope not) we will, but we're going to try to not go overboard with restricting his diet. We will, however, be prepared at all times w/ an Epi pin (1-dose syringe/needle w/ epinephrine) in case of emergencies. Once we get settled in Austin, he'll get tested for tree nuts as well. There is a 20% chance he'll grow out of the peanut allergy, but we're not getting our hopes up. The good news is that 1) he was also tested for strawberries (because his bad reaction was to a PB&J w/ strawberry jelly) and he's not allergic to them, and 2) peanut oil doesn't have the protein that causes the allergic reaction so we can still eat at Chick-fil-A! :)

Overall, a very productive weekend!