" mummy I am different!"

Today I had the pleasure of some wonderful Mummy moments and I simply must share them with you.

Since Declan was diagnosed with Anaphylaxis to eggs and nuts roughly a year ago, our every day family life has changed to suit. Even though Declan was a month shy of 2 when he was diagnosed and he cannot fully understand the severity of his allergies Andy and I have made sure spoken about it with him with age appropriate explanations.
We hope to educate him and give him the correct tools emotionally to cope with these allergies and show him that he is different but he is not strange or weird but just special in his own way.

Not long after his allergies became known we purchased a allergy alert wrist band for him (he has never really worn it as he never liked it) and he received the wonderful book pictured below as a gift from his Great Gran parents.

We have many conversations about what is "safe food" and what makes Declan sick. He loves and often helps me in the kitchen whether it be making biscuits for the family, baking cakes, helping make lunch and dinner and so on.
The last couple of months he has started to really grasp what his allergies are and we have noticed on occasion him asking others if a food has eggs or nuts or simply reminding them that he can't have them.This showed us that all the information was starting to sink in.
Declan and I sat down yesterday afternoon and got out the woman's weekly birthday cake books and made sure Decaln was still happy with the cake he picked out months ago (a stegosaurus cake ). After talking about all the different animals, shapes colours etc he finally agreed to mummy's relief that the Stegosaurus cake was still the best for his party next month. Mind you Mummy had already gone shopping and brought the party hats, plates and cups all with a dinosaur theme!
Declan sat at the dinning table at breakfast this morning and was obviously thinking back on yesterdays activity looking through the cake books. He soon reminded me that we were going to have a party for Declan soon and then explained..
Declan: "no eggs and nuts, keep them away...they will make Declan sick"
Me: "Yes that's right Declan! We are having a special dinosaur party for you next month. We will have lots of yummy food but it will all "safe food" because we don't eat eggs and nuts, they are not safe. It would be very sad if you got sick"
Decaln: "Thankyou Mummy, I don't want to get sick"
I smiled to myself thinking wow, he really does understand to a degree! and he was confident in himself.
It was even better before dinner tonight as he was reading his "why am I different?" allergy book with daddy, pointing to the pictures of eggs and nuts and telling daddy they were not safe for Declan. By the end of the book he was happy to wear his special allergy alert wrist band and continued looking through the book again without daddy as if it was the best book ever.
About 5 minutes later he stood up and exclaimed with a loud voice very confidently "Mummy I am different!". Andy and I were quite surprised and quickly said something to the effect of "Yes Declan you are, you are different and your very special because your you. We love you!".
Decaln had the biggest smile on his face and looked very chuffed as though he had just explained to Mummy and Daddy that he understood the book and his situation.
It was an awesome moment and Andy and I couldn't have wiped the smiles of our faces if we tried.....our little man was showing confidence in who he was and enjoying the learning process!!! horray
We are so proud of you Little man! ox