The scariest three to four months are here...

It's fall, and with fall comes all of the accompanying foods.  Before Jose I would look forward to all of them, but since Jose I am wary of them and have mainly focused on pumpkin themed foods.  Safe for us both, and it's my favorite.  This means Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Latte abound! For the last few weeks I've been able to easily avoid all tree nut items...until I got an email.  Starbucks is offering a Praline Caramel Coffee.  Typically I'd be willing to try a new Starbucks drink, but this time I couldn't.  I was temporarily frozen with fear.  Pralines are made with pecans.  I called to inquire about it and the corporate office didn't know, and the directed me to the individual stores to see what's in the Praline topping.  Now, it's not the Starbucks that bothers me, I suddenly realized that as he grows older his risk exposure rate drastically increases.  My brothers girlfriend graciously offered to have us at her family Thanskgiving dinner, and even took care of the nut contamination bit, and there's the Teal Pumpkin project for food allergy safe halloween, but unless I'm doing it myself, there's no guarantee of safety.  The even scarier part?  I have to learn to relinquish some of this food control, or we'd always eat only at home or just hot dogs.  Thanksgiving dinner will be safe, as her family loves Jose and wants him to be safe, and I can go through his Halloween candy, but as he grows I can't be with him 24/7 to keep allergens at bay.  What's even worse? Jose's is more manageable than other food allergy kids, where theirs is daily and not seasonal.  So the next four months I have to be super, hyper vigilant and make Jose feel/participate as normaly as non-allergy kids.  Pray for us both, and pray for my nerves...it's going to be a tense four months.