Busy Weekend With Family

This weekend was full.  Very full.

We had graveside services for my grandfather.

Lots of fun with cousins and grandkids.

Birthday celebration for my mom.  (I love you, Mom!)

Chills and Thrills

We are bet-ter!  We are bet-ter!

oo, oo, oo, oo

Okay, I did go to church yesterday, taught RS, and overdid it.  But, today we took it easy and continue to recuperate.  Some lingering crankiness, but we are on the mend!

The boys received a train set for Christmas and we've been immersed in trains this weekend.  The boys love playing with them, creating road blocks, simulating crashes, testing the upper limits of the trains' traction, and, uh, fighting, of course.

Erik and I are better.  All are appreciative of that.

I may have mentioned before that Merritt is a climber.  Like, he looks for even the randomest centimeter to climb.  He'll stand on your feet if there is nothing else to scale for greater height.  He likes to hold onto the bar in the kitchen with his hands and "walk" up the cabinet so that his feet are almost at the same altitude as his hands.  He is also a snuggler who likes songs at bedtime and for the singer to rub his back.  And he can turn anything into a sword.

Both boys love to be tickled.  "more, more, more!!"

State of the Neurons: An Update

Good news from the neurologist today!  He thinks it is time to try and wean Evy off his anti-seizure medication.

In order to do that, we are going to need to do a video monitored EEG.  Which means he'll be admitted to the hospital, hooked up to an EEG machine for 24-48 hours.  This will track the seizure activity as he comes off his medication and will tell us if there is any seizure activity.  He'll be video taped the entire time.  Since one of his parents will be with him, too, we have to make sure to remember to not pick our noses . . . unless we want someone to watch us picking our noses.

Really not looking forward to needing to go this route to determine the next step.  Would rather just have a regular EEG and see how things go.  But, in the end, Heavenly Father will provide what we need because we doing our best to provide for Everett.

One of the things I have come to have an extremely firm belief through this is that parents really do know their kids.  I saw this when I was a teacher.  Sometimes, I had to *really* listen to what they were saying to get the intent of what they were saying in order to remedy a situation.  But, when I did that, the situation always improved.  Several people poo-pooed me when I took Everett into the neurologist the first time when he was one.  "Febrile seizures are no big deal."

I was right to do it.  I was right to take him in again, when he was three, even though most wrote it off as another one of his febrile seizures.  Seizures are complicated things.  The brain, as much as we know about it, is a complicated organ.  Oddly, when I was talking to his neurologist a year ago, I felt slightly comforted that he was as concerned as I was about some of the things I had noticed.  Not because I wanted there to be a problem with Everett, but I kind of wanted some indication of how cuckoo I may or may not be.  I wasn't.  The doctor listened and I witnessed a tremendous level of development in Everett once his medication was at a therapeutic level.

He is still hesitant around water.  He'll go into the water now without holding our hand.  At the same time, I read a book with Everett about being baptized at the age of eight, and from that point on, at random moments, he'll say, "I don't want to be baptized."  And, it is because the idea of going underwater terrifies him, still.  (Erik and Everett were dropping off a thank you note at a neighbor's house and in the middle of the conversation, Everett says,"I don't want to be baptized."  Poor kid; it is still bothering him.)

I am praying that his brain has had enough seizure-free time to heal so that he can be seizure free.

Just as we were leaving the neurologist, Everett said that he needed to ask the doctor a "qweshtion."  Erik tracked the doctor down in his office and Evy said,"I have a cough."  Poor guy.  I bet he was wondering why we went to the doctor today and didn't say a thing about what has been immediately bothering him so much.

On the way home from the neurologist, we talked about living things.  Everett started the conversation by asking me if "trees are alive, cars are alive, food is alive, bears are alive, tater tots are alive . . . ."  We talked about how some things are made by God and some things are made by man.  Only things made by God can have life (in the way he was defining it).  God gives life.

"That's pretty good to know."

SnotFest 2011: The Count

• 6, no, 8 boxes of Kleenex (found two more after I counted yesterday), that means 880 tissues were used, don't let me intimidate you with my math skills
• 170 cough drops, about
• 3 trips to urgent care
• some onions
• 2  6 prescriptions
• 2 4 trips to the doctor (Erik is there right now hoping to get got a magical cure, and I went right after so I could get one, too.)
• 1 bottle of Chestall (helped Merritt, it is honey based, check it out)
• 3 cases of pink eye
• 4 nights where Sheila and Merritt slept not one wink
• 3 weeks of coughing, snotty noses, sore noses, no voices, non-breathing, fevers
• lots and lots of cold/cough/flu medicine
• sleep interruptus
• 1 stethoscope
• french fries, too many to count
• teabags, I lost count
• prayers of desperation
• blessings of healing
• nosespray
• 2 humidifiers constantly running
• Vapo magic oil
• my awesome digital thermometer
• 1 container of baby Mentholatum rub
• more loads of laundry than I though possible for us to get dirty (and, no, I didn't fold like the last 6 loads, in fact, I am sitting beside 4 loads right now.  Kind of companionable at this point)
• 1 awesome tube of Aquaphor for the sore noses

And, yes, all of us had the flu shot in October.

My voice is gravel-y.  Don't be too jealous.

Christmas

Whew.  My goal was to get to these posts before they were a month old.  I did!

For Christmas, I will still really drugged from the surgery.  I avoided taking pain  medication as long as possible on Christmas day because I wanted to be able to be there for it.

Chips in the stocking . . . a favorite of Merritt's.

Mommy sharing her chocolate.

Erik is excited about the matching church tie fashion (in burnt orange, of course).  Merritt is annoyed because the chip eating was interrupted.

Can you believe how tall Evy is?

I don't look too shabby considering how I felt.

The kids received some more marbleworks tubing and Merritt went right to town.  (he is only 2 and loves to build it up!)

Merritt and the chips and his new helmet.

My family did the sweetest thing.  They brought Christmas dinner to me.  My sister came up from Waco with her kids and delicious things like apple chutney and a wassail drink My parents came with the brisket and then some . . . and they just set everything up in the kitchen.  I didn't have to do anything.  Mom even tried to make the "paperplateness" Christmas-y.  The food was yummy!

Making nativity scene placemats with cousins!

We enjoyed our Christmas and having everyone over.  The kids had a *great* time with their cousins!

Church the next day.



We are very grateful for the blessings of friends and family.  This Christmas will be one I remember (or "sort of" remember, go pain meds) for a long time!

More Duct Tape

If you have never seen the Red Green Show, I highly recommend it.  "If you can't be handsome, you might as well be handy."

Today, Merritt figured out the safety device for the doorknobs.  I think I am going to find some zebra striped tape.  Pink just doesn't do it for home interior decor.

I think Evy is experiencing cabin fever.  Yesterday he announces that he would like to go on a vacation that isn't boring.  His vote was for Preston's house.  Today he suggested that we go on a picnic, go to a friend's house, go on a plane and visit friends (his cousins in Washington--but he only wants to go with his dad on that trip, no Moms or Merritts allowed), go fishing, go to Glen Rose "the place with the high building and the big footprints" (aka the hotel and dinosaur state park), go out in the backyard, go to a playground, or to a RESTAURANT!

It is just too cold to venture to many places right now, especially with our snotty noses and coughs.

I've been checking the boys everyday for wheezing (thank you Grandma for the stethescope!).  And as soon as Merritt sees the blue tubing coming his way, he pulls up his shirt so we can listen to his heart and then he pulls up the back of his shirt so I can listen to him breathe.  He knows just what to do.

Erik is back home today.  Hooray!  At one point, there was a bomb threat at the border and it delayed his return back to the US.  In the end, it was only a hold up for a couple of hours.  We are glad he is safe!

Handprints: Nature Style

For Christmas gifts, I try and involve the kids as much as possible.  Frankly, like most things, it means that things take longer.  At the same time, I want Christmas to be about giving and thinking of others . .  . and so it works pretty well.

For one of the gifts we gave, a garden bag, we personalized it with our hands.

These are cabbages using the side of our hands.  Everett now swears that they are weeds.

The kids' hands were the "tops" to the carrots and I painted in the carrot so that it looks like it is tucked into the pocket.  Evy really liked this one.

The whole palm became a rose bush.

 And, that blue smudge was supposed to be a chrysanthemum.

The kids really enjoyed doing this and I was suprised at how big their handprints are.  (In fact, Everett's feet are 1/2 the size mine are, and I don't have small feet.)

And, we, of course, had to get out all of our gardening tools to help us "do the paintin' thingies."  I guess, Evy saw them as inspiration.

Play Time

The boys had lots of play time during Sheila's recovery.  They played outside, at the playground, at Dad's gym, at the mall, and every where in between.

Can we say Madagascar?