Eggs, allergies and parties

So... we had quite the "exciting" day on Tuesday. Not only was I preparing for our first dinner party in London (yeah!), but I also had the pleasure of escorting Charlotte to the ER (A&E here in the UK). You see, I am not a worrisome person, but due to my allergy oddities, I have been slow with moving Charlotte into the solids phase. Allergies and choking are my TWO greatest areas of concern for this little bugger. I try to talk myself off the ledge, but I still have such anxiety about both issues. I'm working on it... but any suggestions are welcome. (I just can't fathom how someone can eat without teeth?)

I thought I would introduce Charlotte to scrambled eggs - I figured she needed a bit of protein after weeks of fruit and veggies. After one-half of a teaspoon of eggs, she began to cry incessantly and rub her eyes and pull at her ears. Within two minutes, her eyes started to swell shut and she had massive hives all over her face/neck. Yikes. Because I still haven't taken the Baby First-aid course, my only thought was to call 911 (999 in London) after not getting a connection with her GP. Perhaps I jumped the gun a bit too quickly, but the ambulance was here in a "quick" 25 minutes. Thankfully she was breathing fine and had started to settle down by the time help arrived. (Note to self, walking to the A&E is faster than getting a ride in the ambulance.) We took our first, and hopefully last, ambulance ride together to the hospital. She seemed to thoroughly enjoy it - go figure. Needless to say, she is highly allergic to eggs. Poor bugger, but nothing a little Prednisone, nursing and napping couldn't help to ease the pain... Looks like I will continue to be the only family member eating all of the bakes goods I have been making. ugh

On a culinary note, we did host a dinner "party" for three of Tim's co-workers who were in town from the PA office Tuesday evening. I can say "party" because when you only own 4 chairs and there are 5 people present, I call that a successful party! I whipped up fig and blue cheese stuffed pork tenderloin, brown and wild rice with fresh herbs, a mixed green salad with strawberries and candied walnuts and a Swedish apple pie. Tim told me the raisins in the pie are polarizing... but I think he just likes to use fancy words.

All in all, Tuesday was a successful day. I came home from the hospital with a healthy baby, we had a great time with Tim's co-workers, and I now have 3/4 of an apple pie to finish off...