Good-bye, Chick-Fli-A

I love Chick-Fil-A... it's a fantastic fast food joint with great values and polite, helpful staff.  I also love it that they've got family night every Wednesday with free kid's meals from 5-7pm.  We went last night, and I am sad to think that it is probably our last time for quite a while.

I was sitting at dinner, enjoying a wonderful spicy chicken sandwich with my family, and thinking about how great it would be to make it a tradition to go every other week (the weeks that Randy's off on Wednesday) and invite some friends to join us.  See, not only do they have free kids meals, they also provide activities for kids.  In fact, last night Monkey got his face painted for the first time!  He was pretty tickled that the lady, "write on face".  He also loves their small, toddler friendly playground.

Monkey's first face painting, he was very serious and still for the lady

Here's the problem though.  After 1 chicken nugget, Crackers' face started breaking out.  By the time he'd eaten 2, we noticed his hands were swelling.  Scary? Yep!  You see, I'd forgotten that the nuggets have just a tiny bit of egg in them to help hold the batter on.  Crackers is allergic to eggs, but has never reacted to the nuggets like that. 

The solution seems simple enough: don't give him nuggets.  Unfortunately for us, their only choices for kid's meals are battered chicken.  We tried once to get him grilled chicken instead of the kid's meal, and they charged us some crazy price for just a piece of grilled chicken.

There it is, Chick-Fil-A will have to be one of those places that is only for mommy and daddy for a while.  *sigh* and mommy and daddy don't really get out all that often - so, again I sadly say, "Good-bye Chick-Fil-A".

Swollen

Crackers loves Nonnie's "Happy Apple"

  EGGS! Yuck!  We know this boy has an egg allergy.  He has reacted a few times to eggs in things, usually if there is egg in something he eats, he gets snotty and congested.  If he eats eggs by themselves, he gets a swollen face.

Tonight I shared my Chinese chicken salad with Crackers for dinner.  I went upstairs to take care of a potty need with Monkey (I know, don't leave your baby in the high chair).  When I came back down, Crackers had finished his dinner.  I pulled him out of the high chair to get him dressed and.... saw that his eyes were red and swollen, his face was splotchy, he had a light rash on his trunk and limbs... UGH!

Seriously?  I gave him the same food 2 nights ago for dinner.  He had no reaction to it then.  Maybe it's because somehow the egg in the mayonnaise somehow got stronger over 2 days?  I have no idea - I really hope it is not some strange new allergy.  I quickly gave him Benadryl - I wish I had gotten a picture  of his crazy redness.  He is still slightly swollen 2 hours later.  I guess that means no more products with any egg in them at all for a while.

Chinese Chicken Salad
1 can mandarin oranges, drained
1 can bamboo shoots, drained
1 can water chestnuts, drained
4 cups cooked chicken, diced or shredded
2 tsp minced onion
dash of soy sauce
a bit of mayo
5 spice seasoning, to taste

Mix everything together.  Serve over rice or noodles.