The Miles Rausch Family Website

Last year we did not trick or treat because Ian was not old enough to really enjoy it and we didn’t have much of a desire to go out and about carrying a baby around the neighborhood. So this year was Ian’s first time trick or treating. I knew he would not tolerate a full-body costume, so we come up with something simple: a Gryffindor wizard (from Harry Potter). Once he understood the ‘ritual’ of trick or treating, he seemed to enjoy it. His first attempt at Miles’s aunt Karin’s ended up with him giving his pumpkin bucket and wand to her, though! That was cute. He doesn’t really talk yet, so no “Twick or Tweat” from him this year, but he did sign ‘thank you’ to most of the people we visited.

I made his costume; stick for a wand.

Heading to our first house, Great-aunt Karin’s. (Maybe a first-house annual tradition?)

Waiting for her to come to the door.

She gave him a piece of candy, he gave her his bucket and wand. Fair trade.

Karin’s quite happy, despite it being an empty bucket.

Great-aunt Shannon helping Ian choose his candy.

Sometimes Ian got scared. Like from wolf masks and spiders on sides of houses.

My favorite picture of the night.

Ian moved up to the Toddler A room last week, and kids in that room were encouraged to bring treats for Halloween. (The letter sent home noted that they are peanut-free and there are kids in the room who are allergic to peanuts (read: Ian) so please bring treats that are store-bought and peanut-free.)

Of course, I couldn’t think of anything that’s really toddler-safe as far as candy goes (sure there are some candy that are probably OK, but most are a choking hazard because of size or chewiness.) And almost anything that is chocolate was manufactured in a plant that processes peanuts, so Ian needs to stay away from the chocolate bars even if they aren’t a peanut product. (FYI, Hershey’s manufactures their peanut candy in a separate facility, so their plain milk chocolate bars are OK. Their allergy warning is for soy, milk and almond. Hershey’s is also the only brand of chocolate chips we can buy.) There were some items that we decided were OK for Ian, since we’d be watching him eat them and they were peanut free: smarties, Rice Krispie Treat bars, milk chocolate Hershey’s bar. Other items I thought weren’t toddler appropriate (Jolly Ranchers) or weren’t safe peanut-wise (Crunch bars). He enjoyed the things he could eat, and as long as we offered him an alternative, he didn’t have much of an issue handing over some of his trick-or-treat candy either. And when he woke up this morning, he didn’t remember how much candy he gathered last night (we only went to 5 houses anyway!) Miles’s coworkers are well-fed today.

Woah. This was not going to be a post about his peanut allergy.

It WAS going to be a post about what we sent for his treats. Kool-aid Playdough. Recipe below.

Kool-aid Playdough

(recipe originally seen here)

• 1-1/2 cups flour
• 1/4 cup salt
• 2 packets Kool-aid (she suggests 2 packets for sweeter smelling and brighter playdough, but you could do only 1 packet)
• 1 cup boiling water
• 1-1/2 tablespoons vegetable oil (or canola or olive)

1. Mix flour, salt and Kool-aid in a medium-sized bowl.
2. Add boiling water and oil. Mix with a wooden spoon until sticky.
3. When not too hot, pick it up and knead like you would while playing with playdough to further mix in the dry ingredients.
4. Store in air-tight containers. They will keep for a few months.

Pro tip: when making more than one color, boil several cups of water and then as you are ready to mix one color, ladle the boiling water into your measuring cup. This way, you don’t have to keep measuring water + bringing it to a boil for each color.

This cost me $0.10 per batch (I got the Hy-Vee brand Kool-aid, which was 10 for $1) because I have everything else on hand. I made 2 batches of orange and one of green and was able to make over 18 ‘servings’ for daycare. When I made this recipe for Ian a few months ago, I did several half-recipes in different flavors/colors and it made plenty.

With Kool-aid, my first fear was that it would stain horribly. To  my pleasure, it does not stain your hands, bowl or spoon. I have not experienced stained clothes. I have experienced Ian having some pieces on his feet and small pieces get rubbed into the carpet — it comes out with normal carpet stain remover.

For Ian’s treats, I formed them into pumpkin shapes and put them in bags. I used a sharpie on the bag to draw Jack-o-lantern faces and attached a little label explaining what it was and the ingredients (they look like sugar cookies).

This playdough is made of edible items, but I would not encourage kids to eat it. I tasted it, just for knowledge’s sake, and it is nast-ay. Like eating ocean water. The Kool-aid does NOT save it. So though it is technically edible, I’d call it non-toxic. It is very sweet smelling though.

We spent our New Year’s weekend in Hawarden with my family, sans Adam, Cari and Jackson who were home over Christmas. No sickness for Ian this time, thank goodness. However, Marissa got the flu on Sunday and my parents got it early this week. We (thankfully) did not catch it. See some highlights below.

More photos can be seen here. More video can be watched here.

While it was good to see family and friends this weekend, Christmas itself for this family was not all that great. We were with the Rausches in Big Stone City from the 23rd until noon on the 25th. We did the usual Christmas things, which were good — but Ian was sick and miserable all through it. It started on Christmas Eve, late afternoon. The family had already left to prepare for Christmas Mass (they are highly involved in the music and are often lectors at church). Ian had been fitfully napping all afternoon and Miles mentioned that he felt really hot. So we took his temperature: 101.5. Bummer. We called the on-call nurse for our clinic and after a series of questions, she determined that the temperature wasn’t high enough to be a serious infection and wasn’t low enough to chock up to teething. She thought it was a GI viral thing going around (especially since I remembered he had thrown up at daycare when I picked him up on the 23rd.) She suggested doing nothing (except light clothing) but to give him tylenol or ibuprofen if it got to 102, if he seemed in pain or if he needed a little help to sleep. I was OK with this, because when I was packing, I decided Tylenol wasn’t necessary. So we didn’t have any with us.

In church, he was sleepy and lethargic and squirmed his way into an uncomfortable (for me) position and fell asleep. It was like holding a casserole dish straight out of the oven in my arms. So warm. After church we spent dinner and the evening at grandma Harriet’s. He was generally in OK spirits until a few minutes before we left. Bed time, for sure. We took his temperature at the house and it was 202.3. Since he met two of the three conditions the nurse gave, we brainstormed who might have infant medicine in town. (Big Stone is a small town and nothing would be open that late, especially on Christmas Eve or Day.) After Paula ran to a relative’s, we gave him some ibuprofen and sleep that night was OK. However, his fever would reduce for an hour or two and then spike back up past 102 by the time we could give him more medicine. We got back to Sioux Falls near 3 on Christmas Day and made our way to the Miles family gathering. We had noticed some goopy eyes throughout the day, but often times when he gets a cold, he gets a virus in his eyes which produces some matter in his eyes. I didn’t think too much of it, because of that. After about an hour at the gathering, we decided to call the on-call nurse again. She couldn’t recommend anything without an accurate temperature reading. After a series of finicky thermometers and a poopy diaper, we got his temperature taken and it was 104.5! Woah.

Only one acute care clinic was open in town on Christmas Day and it closed in a little over an hour. It was in the exact opposite corner of the city. Skipping the lobster and steak Christmas dinner, (poor Miles missed it 2 years in a row) we made it there with no problem — traffic was slim and it doesn’t take long to get around Sioux Falls anyway. After an hour wait, he was diagnosed with pink eye in both eyes and a double ear infection. There was only one pharmacy open on Christmas Day and there’s over an hour wait. Things that evening went pretty fine after that.

After a few horrific evenings of what seemed to be a baby in lots of pain, Ian is doing much better. He’s still got a week of antibiotics left, but he should be OK. We never caught the pink eye — amazing since when we first noticed the goop, we didn’t do a great job of washing our hands after wiping it away. Eek.

Some steak and lobster were dropped off at the house the next day, so we didn’t miss out this year, after all!

Below are some photos from the weekend. See more here.

Ian was invited to his first Halloween party. I was surprised at how well he did, since he can sometimes be unpredictable in the evening on weekends. The other two kiddos are over a year old, so he was mostly mesmerized by watching them play I think. Still, I think he had fun. Some of the swag he received: homemade crayons in the shape of skulls, candy (he shared with mommy and daddy), stain eraser (bar of Ivory soap!), mummy decoration, Frankenstein trick or treat bag, Charlie Brown “The Great Pumpkin is Coming” shirt, sunglasses and stickers. Ian gave his friends crocheted Frankenstein dolls that his mommy made for him. We all had fun! Plus, little kids in costumes are HILARIOUS.

Right before mommy let him face-plant. Cue tears.

No-legged Frankies.

Each child in attendance was ecstatic to put on their costume and pose for photos.

Watching his friends play.

“I really like your costume, Dino.”