In Which Connor Inherits A Nasty Surprise

Connor seemed to be feeling kind of puny today-- he threw up during his quiet time after he got home from school.  Once his quiet time was over he didn't want to do anything, and just kind of wilted on my lap.  As time went by he became more and more agitated.  He had on the Saddest Face In The World, kept rubbing the left side of his head and squinting his eyes shut whenever he glanced up at the lights or out the window, and the poor little guy seemed to be pretty nauseous.  After playing the "Guess The Body Part" game for a little while, I finally determined that it was his head that was the issue.  After some consultation with Jer (and a thorough going over to make sure he didn't have any other symptoms that could indicate a medical emergency, such as another brain bleed), we determined that he was probably having a migraine.

This may sound like a kind of odd conclusion to jump to, but it's not as unlikely as it seems; migraines run in a couple generations of Jeremy's family and typically start up early in childhood.  Typical family symptoms included nausea, sensitivity to light and pain on one side of the head.  That sounds pretty familiar.  When you add that people with Connor's types of seizures (complex partial seizures) are much more likley to have migraines, the idea starts to not quite sound so farfetched. 

I know that technically you can't call them migraines until you estaiblish that they are reoccuring, so maybe I should just call it a really, really bad headache.  It would be pretty fantastic if we could keep calling it that because it only happened once.

So we dosed him with some acetaminophen-- pretty much the only pain medication he can take since he's on an Aspirin regime too-- and he fell asleep on my chest soon afterwards and slept for about an hour.  When he woke up he was a whole new kid; cheery, smiley and obviously feeling great.  So evidently whatever was going on with him was over. 

I'm hoping we won't see a repeat performance of this any time soon; the kid doesn't really need to add to his list of unpleasant, debilitating things that can affect him at any given moment.  He has enough fun conditions, thank you very much!  I'm hoping this was just a one-time thing or that at the very least if he does end up with reoccuring migraines he only gets them once or twice a year.  I'll keep a close eye on him in the next few weeks to see if it happens again.

Sigh.

~Jess

In Which Connor Is Too Hot Or Too Cold

Connor seemed a little tired today; maybe they worked him hard at school.  Joanna came over the watch the little guy after he got home, and she said that most of the day he was in an "I don't want to do anything" sort of mood.  He might still be recovering a bit from being sick last week; hopefully he'll perk up tomorrow.

He's been having a bit of trouble sleeping at night and for once it's not due to the insomnia.  He has trouble regulating his body temperature and so when the weather turns nippy getting things just right for the first few weeks is kind of a delicate operation.  If we bundle him up too much he starts overheating, making him throw up (and eventually have seizures, if we don't correct things fast enough) and if he gets too cold he starts shivering uncontrollably and throwing up.  And this time of year, the temperature outside can change more quickly than our heating system can regulate, meaning he swings from one end of the pendulum to the other pretty often during the night.  So we spend a lot of time in the first few weeks of fall piling blankets on and taking them off.  Also we change a whole lot of sheets.

So I'm off to bed now; I want to get as much uninterrupted sleep as I can before it's time to go change the bed again.  Hopefully in a week or two the weather will stabilize and the little guy will be able to catch a break!

~Jess

In Which Connor And I Have An Adventure

So today dawned beautifully clear and sunny, with just a hint of a crisp wind to remind us all that fall is here and winter is right around the corner.  Connor has no school on Wednesdays and the day was far too lovely too spend indoors, so the little guy and I hopped in the car and drove out to find some fun!

We stopped for some lunch at a yummy pho place, where Connor sampled the broth and decided it was pretty tasty.  Then we ran some errands, stopped back by the house for a quick restocking on Connor's supplies (and for him to have a small seizure-- the only one of the day), and we were off to the park!

Bradley Park is our local all-inclusive park with a fully wheelchair accessible playground, and we love it.  There are always so many interesting things going on there; this time a local ROTC group was practicing their marching skills in the middle of the park's grassy area, a large group of children were climbing trees and popping out to wave at passersby, and off to one side a young man in a full harness was flying his power kite.  There wasn't really enough wind to do any real kite jumping, but it was neat to see the huge kite up in the air!

So after a quick jaunt on the fully accessible trail through the woods around the park it was time to get straight to the fun!  We spent some time on the swings-- Connor's favorite park activity-- and then spent some time standing and hitting the drums and maracas on the musical instrument set, going down the slides and bouncing in the bouncy car.  Then we had to hit the swings for a second round, because they were just too much fun!  The sun was pretty bright so Connor kept his eyes closed while I pushed him back and forth, but his adorable smile told me just how much he was enjoying himself.

After that we hit the trail again, and this time we did what I like to call an "Adventure Walk."  Every fifteen or twenty feet I stop the wheelchair, find something interesting lying near the trail, like a branch from a pine tree with the needles still intact, a crinkly yellow-brown maple leaf, or a mossy stick, and I bring it over to Connor.  I tell him all about it while encouraging him to look at, smell, and feel all the parts of whatever it is I find.  Then I put it back where I found it and we continue our walk. 

It's a slow activity; usually it takes us about twenty minutes to make one circuit of the trail, which is less than a mile long.  It's a surprisingly tiring activity for the little guy, though, because there are so many new things for him to focus on.  Usually by the end of the trail he's rubbing his eyes, and he went to bed early tonight and is sleeping well, which is a bonus for me! 

Today's Adventure Walk contained a bit of actual adventure; when we were about halfway down the trail we heard an extremely loud crack that echoed all over the park.  I thought perhaps it was a car backfiring.  The next walker we saw coming the opposite direction down the trail told us a tree had fallen across it right next to her!  Sure enough, a few minutes later we rounded a corner and found a fairly large tree sprawled down part of the length of the trail-- it looked like the trunk had rotted through at the base and it had toppled of its own accord.  I parked Connor and went to work breaking off branches and moving them out of the way.  Soon other park goers pitched in, and a few minutes later we had all the smaller branches off the tree and out of the way of the road, leaving plenty of room for people to get by.  The trunk of the tree was too large to move, but luckily there was still more than enough room to get Connor's wheelchair past it and we completed our trip back out of the woods without further incident. 

So except for that bit of excitement I'd call the park trip a rousing success! 

~Jess

In Which Connor Smiles For The Camera

Today was school picture day for Connor, and it sounds like he actually might have smiled this year!  Usually Connor's school pictures are Very Serious, because taking pictures is apparently a Very Serious Business.  So we'll just have to wait a few weeks and see what we get!

Connor had one seizure today in the school parking lot right before I dropped him off in the morning, but the rest of the day went really well.  He did spend a good portion of the day feeling around in his mouth; he's got two loose teeth on the bottom right now and I think his back molars are starting to come in; he keeps shoving his fingers back there and feeling around, and he's drooling like crazy right now.  Poor little guy; cutting teeth is no fun! 

The steampunk roller derby costume is moving right along; I finished off both my bloomers and my bustle today, and I'm pretty darn proud of them both!  Of course I didn't think to factor in all the fabric when I sent in my measurements for my corset, and now it's a bit too small.  Oh well-- I'll manage.  If nothing else, I'm sure I could find a new one when I'm at the convention!

So I was looking back on the my older entries, and I discovered that I actually strapped on my first pair of roller derby skates exactly a year ago yesterday.  Crazy, huh?  I look back at that picture of me in my gear for the first time and it drives me absolutely nuts because I have my knee pads on the wrong knees, so the Velcro was probably catching every time I touch my knees together.  Oh well.

I'm glad I'm still having so much fun with skating, and I haven't managed to seriously mangle myself or anything.  I can't believe it's been a whole year!

~Jess

In Which We Receive A Fantastic Surprise

We received a very welcome surprise today; new pictures of Ellen!

This kid has at least a million watt smile; I swear she could light an entire city with that grin.  It was head lice treatment day at the orphanage (probably a pretty frequent day, as there are a lot of kids and they all share clothes) so in the pictures she's wearing a shower cap.  She's holding some of the presents from the latest care package we sent her, and in one of the photos she's put on her new sunglasses and is striking a pose, shower cap and all.  She's definitely got a good sense of humor!

It's so great to get the chance to see little glimpses of her personality shining through in pictures, and I love knowing more about what's going on in her life.  We're so far away and the wait is so long that sometimes it's hard to feel connected; we know we'll bring her home someday, but we have no idea when that day will be. 

So I do my best to find little ways to make the wait not seem quite as long and to keep engaged with what she might be doing.  I keep track of Thai holidays (and Thailand has a lot of holidays), so I know what kind of celebrations or activities she might be participating in.  Her school posts up an online calendar, so I know when her school breaks start and what kind of classes she might be taking.  Her orphanage website puts up a daily menu of what the kids are eating for lunch and dinner, so once or twice a week I'll check in.  That way I have a general idea of what she's eating.  I'd say probably nine times out of ten it involves chicken-- I'm assuming probably because it's inexpensive, nutritious and easy to prepare. The kids look well fed and healthy, so I think it's probably working out for them.  I'd probably better bone up on my chicken recipes since that's what she'll be used to.

I may have to pull out some more exotic ingredients, though, because sometimes I have absolutely no idea what the heck she's eating.  Since the website is in Thai, I have to rely on Google Translate and it has a tendency to creatively interpret menu items.  Last week I checked in to discover she was apparently being served "Heavenly Boot Dumplings" with a side of "Creamed Destiny" for lunch. 

I have no idea what Creamed Destiny is, but it probably has chicken in it.

So I use my imagination a lot; I know the time difference between our cities and I can speculate about when she might be getting up, if she might be swimming right now, whether or not she might be enjoying her Creamed Destiny, etc.  But it's all pure speculation.  And that's one of the reasons why I love  pictures of her-- because for that one captured moment I know what it is that she was doing.  And in the pictures we received today, she was grinning that amazingly contagious smile, holding the presents we'd lovingly packaged for her, and thinking about us.  For that one moment, we're connected.  Until the day we finally meet, it's the closest I can come to reaching out my arms to my daughter. 

When she imagines us and breaks out in that beautiful smile, I hope she knows we're smiling back.

~Jess

In Which There Is More Sewing And Derby Watching

Today was a day very like yesterday, involving a whole lot of watching derby and sewing.  The only difference was that Connor slept in until past ten in the morning; probably making up for yesterday's past-dawn bedtime.  He had a fantastic day once he decided to get up, and he didn't have a single seizure!  I'd say he's officially over his illness and ready to go back to school tomorrow. 

My bustle skirt is completely finished now except for the fastening, which I haven't exactly figured out yet.  It needs to be really flat to be comfortable because it's going underneath a waist cincher and a vest, so I'll play around with a few different things.  I'm leaning towards velcro, which would be a quick fix but would probably work since no one is going to see it; I'm just not sure if it will be strong enough.  So we'll just have to see what I come up with!

I expect to finish up the skirt tomorrow while Connor is in school.  Then I'll head out to go fabric shopping for bloomer material, which should be fun!  I'm thinking I'll probably stick with an undyed or white cotton muslin, but maybe I'll get crazy and go for a daring pinstripe or something. 

I do like to live on the edge.

~Jess

In Which Connor Is A Jack-In-The-Box And I Build A Bustle

So today Connor and I both felt much better; I think by the time Monday rolls around he'll be able to go back to school!  He didn't have a single seizure today, which is a pretty good sign that he's on the mend.  I actually felt fully recovered while Connor was still a little under the weather, and I think sleep was probably part of that.  Jer stayed up with Connor last night, and the little guy ended up sleeping for a grand total about forty-five minutes, sometime between six and seven in the morning.  Jer was not super excited about this.

So he slept in while Connor and I got some breakfast and then ran over to the fabric store, where I picked up some of the final things I needed to finish off my bustle skirt for my steampunk roller derby costume.  I'm pleased with how it's turning out considering that this is the first bustle skirt I've ever sewn in my entire life, and I can't wait to see what everything will look like put together.  Then we came home, where I alternated between working on the skirt while watching derby (it's a three day tournament, so guess what I'm doing tomorrow?) and trying to interest Connor in doing anything at all.

Connor didn't quite seem to know what he wanted to do.  Any time he was sitting up-- in my lap, in his wheelchair, on our couch, etc. he was The Sleepiest Boy The World Has Ever Known.  We're talking actually trying to fall asleep while sitting up-- the whole head-nodding, eyes drooping bit.  This also applied any time I tried to get him to play with his toys or to interact with anything in any way. 

But any time I put him down on any horizontal surface, suddenly he became Super Awake Hyper Boy.  He could be, to all appearances, completely asleep on my lap, and the second I eased him down onto the couch his eyes would instantly pop open and he demanded attention.  At one point I put him down for his usual hour and a half of quiet time, and he yelled at the top of his lungs through the whole thing.  Obviously having him sleep on my lap for eight hours was not going to be a good idea (not only because I wanted him to sleep tonight, but also because I was using a wide variety of sharp sewing-related things) so the whole day we played this sort of Sleep Jack-In-The-Box game.  He never quite managed to nod off completely while sitting up, but he still managed to completely avoid doing anything today, so in his mind his goal was probably accomplished.  Oh well.

Thankfully we shouldn't have a repeat of this tomorrow because he's actually asleep tonight.  I'm hoping to finish up my bustle skirt tomorrow and maybe even whip out a pair of bloomers if I have time, and of course watch a whole lot more derby.  We'll see how things go!

~Jess

In Which We Are Still Sick And I Watch A Ton Of Derby

Connor and I were still both under the weather today, so once again he stayed home.  We ended up spending the day either reading, napping or watching roller derby on the Internet.  The Western Regional Playoffs are going on right now in Portland, and Derby News Network is streaming them live.  So I watched something like six straight hours of roller derby today, which is perhaps the most time I've spent watching any television-like thing since I was in high school.  But it was kind of the perfect sick day sort of thing to do, so I have no regrets. 

Also I took notes on interesting game strategy.  No, seriously-- I have a little notebook I use especially for derby-watching notes.  I'm a complete and total derby nerd.

Connor only had five seizures today, which is a downtrend from yesterday's seven and a sign that he's getting better.  He spent practically the entire day asleep, which is another sign that we usually see when he's in recovery.  I also felt much better than I did yesterday-- I no longer have gremlins attempting to drill through the inside of my head, though I'm still kind of achy and have that feeling of general malaise.  Looks like this particular illness is turning out to be a 48 hour bug, which I have zero problems with.

Jeremy, who has a cast iron immune system, is still irritatingly healthy.  He made up for it today by bringing me a Chocolate Explosion from Adamo's, our local coffee hangout.  It's sort of a chocolate shake on steroids.  Since this particular Martian Death Flu doesn't involve my stomach and I've been spending all day cooped up on the couch, I've pretty much exhausted my stash of tasty chocolaty things. 

Hopefully I'll be feeling well enough tomorrow to venture out and restock!

~Jess

In Which We Are A Couple Of Sickykins.

So not only is Connor sick, but he decided to share the wealth.  I woke up this morning feeling okay,but as the day progressed I've gone rapidly downhill.  Little tiny construction workers have set up their jackhammers inside my skull and are currently drilling directly into the back of my eyeballs.  It's a less than pleasant sensation.

This explains why I felt so lousy at derby last night.  My body was saying "Red Alert!  Red Alert!  Germs are invading!" 

In Connor, the sickness has manifested as congestion, vomiting, and lots and lots of seizures.  He had seven today while on Ativan.  I'm not really surprised by this; whenever he gets sick he seems to have a whole bunch.  He's not really running a fever, but I think just having his immune system fighting off a bug is enough to trigger his seizures. 

So Connor stayed home from school, and we spent most of the day being miserable on the couch together.  We read a few books, watched Kung Fu Panda and took lots and lots of naps. 

I think we're probably up for a similar day tomorrow, unless Connor shows miraculous, dramatic improvement. 

Fun times.

~Jess

In Which Rowbert Gets A Tune-Up And Connor Is Sick

Hey everyone, guess what?  I got sleep!  Sleep is awesome.  I should totally do it more often.

Today was a pretty busy day for us.  After an extremely early in the morning send-off to my family, who had to return home today, I went back to bed, where I slept even longer.  It was amazing.  Then I got up and went out to clean up our van.

We needed to take the wheelchair van in for its annual maintenance, and also because the ramp had been acting up in funny ways for the last week or so.  It started doing this weird lurch to the right every time we tried to put it away, and while it would still go into the undercarriage it was obvious that something was off.  So Jer took some time off, we scheduled Joanna to watch Connor, and we prepared to take our beloved Rowbert in for some TLC. 

I always have to clean my vehicles before I take them in to the mechanics, by the way, because I believe that otherwise the mechanic is secretly judging me by just how messy the interior of the car is while he works on my car.  My mother does the same thing to the house whenever my parents have a maid service come, so I'm pretty sure this is an inherited trait.  Oh well.

The wheelchair van repair place is north of Seattle, which is quite the drive-- well over an hour away.  I was a little nervous about going today because Connor woke up this morning obviously under the weather.  He's been in school for a couple of weeks now, which means it's about the time when all the kids have thoroughly passed around on all of the new and delightful bugs they have picked up over the summer.  I'm pretty sure he'll be staying home tomorrow, as he's congested and miserable.  We really, really needed to fix the van though, and Jo was able to drop her daughter off so she wouldn't be exposed to Connor, so we figured we'd have to go for it.  Of course he had a ton of seizures (five or six-- I sort of lost count, which probably makes me a horrible mom) and was utterly miserable all day.  Poor little boo.

At least he has a functional ramp van now, though.  It turns out that a bolt holding something important in place had sheared off, so that's why the ramp was acting in such a funny way.  They replaced the bolt, and now everything is hunky-dory again.  Yay for Rowbert!

I left shortly after we found out that we could take the van home today (we weren't sure if we'd have to leave it overnight) so I wouldn't be late for derby, but I an accident on the access road delayed me getting on to the highway until the height of rush hour.  So then I sat for nearly three glorious hours in bumper-to-bumper traffic all the way through Seattle and back down to Puyallup.  So I was late anyway.  I felt really off and kind of achy tonight during our scrimmage, but I'm not sure if that's because I'm coming down with whatever super bug Connor's come up with or if it was because I'd just sat in a car for three hours.  I'll probably know one way or the other by tomorrow.

On the one hand, it really stinks that Connor is sick.  But on the other hand, he's sleeping again for the second night in a row.  I'm going to go take full advantage of it now.

~Jess

In Which There Is Much Rejoicing

So Connor had a couple of seizures today, and I got to hang out with my awesome brother and nephew some more, and some other stuff happened too but this blog has been interrupted for a very important bulletin:

My child is ASLEEP RIGHT NOW!!!!! 

I would do a happy dance of joy but after five straight days of near-dawn bedtimes I'm pretty sure I'm too exhausted for that.  So guess what I'm going to go do right now?  Here's a hint for you: it's the opposite of being awake.

Good night!

~Jess

In Which I Can't Even Think Up A Title Because I Am So Tired

Connor had two seizures today; both of which were fairly minor.  Hopefully this isn't the start of a new seizure cycle.

Just because he had two seizures today doesn't mean he's going to let up on his No Sleep Ever strike, though.  Last night's bedtime was two in the morning.  If the amount of talking and giggling I'm hearing over his monitor right now is any indication of how tonight is going to go, I think he's going to aspire to even greater non-sleeping heights of glory.

So I'll be up playing Spider Solitaire for the next five hours or so; that's what I end up doing when my brain gets to the point that it no longer functions due to sleep deprivation.  I play on 'hard mode,' because then I can not feel so bad about the fact that I don't win very often.  I've played 316 games on hard mode and won a grand total of five, so I don't really think winning too often will be an issue any time soon, but, you know, it's the principal of the thing.

Seriously, sleep would be so great right now.

In Which Connor Goes On Strike

Still no seizures!

We're on day four of Connor's No Sleepathon, and I'm staring to get a little punch drunk.  I'm losing the ability to think coherently enough to figure out what we did today and actually blog about it.  I know we did stuff to day.  Tons of stuff.  And it was really fun, too.  I just can't remember off the top of my head what it was.

So um, yeah.  That's pretty much it.  Some stuff happened, and then some other stuff, and for the love of Pete it's one in the morning and why isn't my child asleep yet? 

I know why.  He's on strike.  It's this whole The-Cousin-Is-In-My-House-Playing-With-My-Toys thing.  He's decided to punish me by never sleeping ever, ever again. 

Oh, and I just heard something running around up on my roof, or more disturbingly, possibly in my attic.  So now I'm more awake, but only because I'm contemplating whether or not I really need to go up in the attic right now to check and see if there's something in there, or if I can wait until it's, you know, not one in the morning.  No doubt confronting an angry raccoon while standing on top of a ladder armed only with a flashlight would really wake me up.

Whee!

~Jess

In Which Relatives Visit And Connor Has An Opinion

No seizures today!

This morning I drove down to the airport, leaving Connor and Jer sleeping (Connor stayed up until 1:30am last night) while I picked up my brother, sister-in-law and nephew, who have come to stay with us for a few days.  My nephew, W, is almost one and a half, and he is an adorable rascal.  Within about an hour he'd managed to turn our entire living room into a scene of happy chaos.

Connor was not thrilled with this development.  Apparently no one asked him if he wanted to have his younger cousin come visit and play with all of his toys.  Certainly no one asked him if he wanted to have his younger cousin come visit and play with his mommy and daddy.  He waved "bye bye" to W very emphatically several times, and when that didn't work he resorted to making his classic Angry Face a whole lot and pouting. 

Also when W came over and sat with us on my lap, Connor was patting him on the back maybe a wee bit too enthusiastically.  It didn't phase W at all, but I'm not sure that Connor's intentions were exactly to express his affection for his cousin.  Luckily Connor knows better than to actually hit anyone hard no matter what he'd actually like to be doing.  Also I'm not sure he has the arm strength to do any real damage anyway.  But regardless, the little guy is not happy about the visit at all and is doing everything in his power to let us know it.

Oh well.  He'll get over it.

W, on the other hand, seems to be absolutely thrilled with pretty much everything in our entire house; especially things that can be open and shut, banged on other things, or dragged along behind him.  He also thinks our cats are fantastic, and he expresses this by chirping "kitty" in an adorable half-intelligible squeal and launching himself enthusiastically in their direction, sprinting towards them as fast as his chubby little sock feet can go.

The cats are about as thrilled as Connor is with the visit.  They seem to be spending most of their time in the areas behind our baby gates, staring through the bars in a horrified fashion at the small, red-haired torpedo that keeps trying to coax them near enough to grab.

Well no matter what the cats think, I'm loving being able to catch up with my brother and sister-in-law and getting the chance to really interact with my nephew for the first time.  Last time I saw him he was only about six months old, so he's made some big strides since then!  I'm not sure what all we'll be up to in the next few days, but whatever it is I'm sure it won't be dull!

~Jess

In Which Nutkin Visits Again And Connor Does The Opposite Of Sleeping

No seizures again today!

Connor went to school sleepy again this morning, only this time it was the real thing.  He was up until 2:00am the night before, which meant, of course, that I also got to stay up until 2:00am.  Whoo hoo.  And guess who's awake again tonight? 

So in lieu of writing anything remotely resembling a quality blog post, I'm going to show you a couple of pictures I took today of the next installment of the Loki Torture Program being run by our local squirrel.  Yes, Nutkin has decided that there is nothing more fulfilling in life than spending at least an hour every day harassing my cat.  He usually stops by in the early afternoon; I figure he probably makes the rounds of all the frustrated housebound cats in the neighborhood to keep their cardiovascular systems in good shape.  It's a service he's providing.

Presumably some of those houses have bird feeders to sit on that actually contain birdseed, because Nutkin sure doesn't look like he's hurting any in the nutrition department.  Somehow I can't imagine this squirrel working too hard for his food either.  If he had to do that, he wouldn't spend all day entertaining himself by harassing my cat.



Nutkin: "Are you sure there's no birdseed in here?"
Loki: "Pleeeease can't I eat him just a little bit?"

 Though perhaps I should say "entertaining herself," because after reviewing the pictures I took it becomes evident that Nutkin might actually be a girl.  In which case I suppose we could always call her Nutkina, though I think Nutkin is a pretty solid unisex name.  The squirrel was surprisingly modest about such things on camera, which is surprising considering his/her otherwise rather forward personality. 

Oh well. 

~Jess

In Which Connor Plays Rip Van Winkle

This is what Connor did all morning.  He's totally faking it.

No seizures today!

Connor was not terribly excited with me when I woke him up for school this morning; he really wanted to sleep in.  So he decided to play possum.  The first time I woke him up he opened his eyes, glared at me, and closed them again.  I went back in ten minutes later and sang him a loud, annoying Good Morning sort of song.  He buried his head in the sheets and pretended I didn't exist. 

Five minutes later Jeremy walked in to say hello before he went to work.  He took Connor's blankets off and tickled him a little bit.  Connor curled up, folded his hands under one ear in the classic "I'm sleeping" position and kept his eyes firmly shut.



He kept them shut while I put his clothes on, and when I strapped him into his wheelchair, and put in his hearing aids, and rolled him into the van.  He opened them up to watch out of the car window on the ride to school, but as soon as I deployed the ramp and he saw me standing there ready to unstrap his chair he shut them again.  He even kept them closed when we walked into his classroom.  I talked to his teachers for a little bit, and every once in a while he'd crack his eyes open to see if we were paying attention to him.  When he saw that we were watching him he'd shut them again really quickly.  Maybe he thought that if he kept up the act long enough I'd believe it and put him back to bed. 

 

This is what Loki did all morning. He's probably not faking it.


 Of course he had a great day at school once he decided he actually wanted to wake up and pay attention.  Silly little guy.

So Joanna came over after he got home from school and I went out and took care of the 800 errands I'd let stack up that I didn't want to take Connor with me on.  Poor Joanna-- Connor spent the entire day declaring he was horribly bored with everything in the entire house; probably in revenge for me forcing him to be awake and go to school and have tons of fun and stuff.

Oh well.  It was still a pretty great day, even if Connor refused to admit it.  Jer and I even went on a date once he got home from work!  It involved dinner, and then (what else?) a coffee shop and books.  We are nothing if not creatures of habit.

Of course, Connor does seem to be having a bit of trouble sleeping tonight.  Apparently he spent a little too much time during the day with his eyes closed.  Maybe if I go in and sing a Good Morning sort of song to him it will do the trick.  It sure worked this morning.

~Jess

In Which Loki Tries To Invite A Friend For Dinner

Connor had a better day today; he slept in until noon (not surprising since he stayed up past midnight), but we didn't see any major seizures.  He and I rotated out some of his old toys and played with them for a while, but for the most part we took it easy today. 
About two in the afternoon I heard this weird squeaking noise coming from our living room-- it sounded like someone was running a squeegee up and down a pane of glass really quickly.  I peeked my head around the corner and saw Loki standing up on his hind paws at one of our windows, frantically trying to paw through the glass.  Sitting on top of our bird feeder about six inches away from the other side of the window was a very large squirrel, who was giving off an arrogant, blasé air as he watched the cat's frantic attempts to burrow through the barrier and eat him.  The bird feeder was empty and he wasn't making any attempt to eat anything out of it anyway, so there wasn't any real reason for him to be up there except for the fact that it put him at perfect eye-level for the cat. 

I've seen this particular squirrel before and wondered why Loki always got so worked up whenever he saw him, and now I know-- the squirrel obviously enjoys baiting him.  I've decided to name him Nutkin, as he seems to enjoy riling up predators and would probably end up missing more than a tail if Loki ever saw him on a day I had a window open.  Also I would be buying a new window screen. 

I thought about shooing the squirrel away and ending Loki's torture, but Connor thought the squeaky noise Loki's paws made on the window was hilarious.  So I let them be.

Crazy cat.

~Jess

In Which Connor Has More Seizures

Connor had five seizures again today.  This time the longest one was two minutes.  Looks like I'll be putting in a call to the neurologist's office again.

Today I went out and bought a couple of child safety gates, a few cabinet cinchers (or whatever they're called-- those things that go around two adjacent cabinet doors so you can't open them) and about eighty bajillion of those little plug covers.  I'll install it all tomorrow while Connor and I are hanging out around the house; I'm guessing we probably won't be going much of anywhere tomorrow if his seizure trend continues.  I need to get some cleaning done anyway, so that's okay. 

I'm wondering if he's starting to get sick-- he was running a low-grade fever this afternoon, which is often a sign of a cold coming on for him.  He tends to get sick right at the beginning of school; something I suspect is true for a lot of kids.  Either that or I took his temperature too close to one of his seizures; oftentimes his temperature goes up a little bit after one because all of his muscles are firing.  It's like an involuntary super-hard workout.  He's not congested or anything, so we'll just have to see.

We'll keep searching for our magic pill and hope that we'll find something that will keep his seizures at bay.

~Jess

In Which I Contemplate Childproofing And My Cat As Battering Ram

Connor had five small seizures today; the longest lasted about a minute.  Looks like it's probably back to the drawing board on his meds.  Whoo hoo.

When I wasn't cuddling an exhausted and crabby boy on the couch today, I spent most of my time figuring out exactly what I need to do to childproof my house.  Our respite care worker Joanna's little girl is getting closer to crawling every day, and since she spends so much time here it's important that we have a safe environment for her.  We never bothered to childproof things for Connor because not only does he not crawl, walk or move himself around in any fashion, but also even if he could he probably wouldn't want to touch anything.  So despite having a five year old in the house, this will be our first time child-proofing.

While it might be another month or too before C is crawling, I want to get this taken care of this week because we've got relatives arriving in town soon-- including a chubby cheeked, adorable, extremely high-energy one year old.  This kid is extremely bright, and also does not believe in walking anywhere if he can run. His parents have assured me that he will do his very best to test out every nit-picky detail of our childproofing.  So I need to get on the ball and make sure I've got everything taken care of before he arrives! 

So I've got my list of things we'll need now, and I'll be going out and seeing what all I can find off the list over the next few days.  I'll also be doing some rearranging-- I think all my knives are going to find a home in a higher drawer.  Then we just have to train the cats to jump over a gate to get to their litter box.  No doubt they will be highly amused.  I'm thinking Loki is just going to try and run through it, since that's what he does to all of our doors and windows.  Since we don't have any stairs we'll probably get the pressure mounted ones (plus I'm not thrilled about the idea of drilling into our door frames) so if he built up enough speed before he rammed it maybe he'd be able to push it down with his skull.  He's the Juggernaut of cats.  I'm not sure he has any brain cells left, so it probably wouldn't do any damage.

Crazy cat.

In Which I Take Connor To The Pool And Am An Evil Horrible Mom

Last night Connor stayed awake until a glorious five in the morning, so this is going to be short.  I need my beauty sleep!

He had three little seizures today and was pretty tired, for obvious reasons.  I decided I was going to take him out anyway, though, because I wanted to make dang sure he'd sleep tonight.  He's got school tomorrow and I was not having the kid fall asleep at five and wake up at seven.  I picked the most strenuous, sensory-high activity I thought he could handle today; we went swimming.

Swimming is not only a physical workout (we do a lot of standing, kicking, splashing etc in the pool) but also a major sensory workout for Connor-- especially when it's warm outside so there are a ton of kids in the toddler pool.  Our local pool is indoors, which means that there are a whole lot of echoes and the noise can be pretty overwhelming.  Connor usually freaks out a little when we get in, but today the pool was especially busy and his lack of sleep probably didn't help.  Basically I picked him up, walked into the pool with him, stood him up about waist deep in the lukewarm water, and watched his little face crumple like an empty brown paper bag.

So we sat in a corner of the pool and rocked for about ten minutes while Connor hid his face in my chest and cried huge, silent tears.  Every once in a while he looked up at me with a quivering lip, his expression telling me that his mother, who he loved and trusted with all his heart, had committed the Ultimate Betrayal, thereby making me feel like the Worst Mom The World Has Ever Known.  He's so good natured and sweet that when he does have the occasional rare meltdown it's really hard for me to not just immediately stop whatever activity it is that we're doing even if it's something that's good for him.  But he hadn't done any other sensory or therapy work today, so I knew I needed to stick with it. 

Sometimes being a good mom means that your kid won't like you very much.  That's the way it goes.

I told myself that if we sat quietly for long enough he'd eventually calm down and adjust to the pool.  And that's exactly what happened.  Oh, don't get me wrong-- he still wasn't exactly overjoyed with the idea of being at the pool.  But he stopped crying once he figured out that the other children were actually kids like him and not, say, oversized piranhas who planned to strip the meat off his bones in less than three minutes if they got within five feet of him. 

Once he relaxed just enough to stop jamming his nose into my collarbone I changed his position and helped him float around the pool on his back, which calmed him down quite a bit more.  I think a combination of things made the sensory input not quite so overwhelming.  His ears were underwater so the noise was muffled a little, and instead of staring at all the Scary Splashing Piranha Children Of Doom he could look at either a nice, calming ceiling complete with skylight (one of Connor's favorite things in the world-- he loves skylights) or he could watch my face.  And then after some floating time he was able to do be upright again and do some of his standing and balance exercises, though we held off on the splashing and kicking as I didn't want to push him really hard today.  Splashing is one of the things he has the worst time with because he really doesn't like getting water on his face.  We did do a little gentle bouncing, and a couple of times he even cracked a smile.  We stuck to the quiet part of the pool away from the other kids, and other than a Giant Splashy Inflatable Ball of Iniquity that landed too close to him and almost triggered another meltdown, he seemed to think things were okay.  Towards the end of his pool time he even shifted his weight around on his feet a little and put his hands on my shoulders to keep his balance! 

We ended up spending about an hour in the pool, and he was pretty exhausted by the time we got out so hopefully he'll actually sleep tonight.  Which is what I'm going to go do now, because I'm also pretty tired. 

Good night!

~Jess

In Which Connor Is Hot Stuff

So Connor apparently decided we just needed a little break, because he's up to his usual tricks again.  He had two seizures today (thankfully small) and has decided that since he didn't have school today he's going to stay up all night in revenge.  Oh well.  At least he was still in a pretty good mood today and, other than being a little tired after the seizures, played the day away. 

Since I actually got sleep last night and Connor was feeling pretty good, I spent most of the morning catching up on the housework I'd been putting off in the last couple of weeks while Jer and Connor hung out.  Then in the afternoon the three of us strolled down to one of the local playgrounds and spent some time hanging out there.  This particular playground is not the best one for Connor-- there are no swings (his favorite activity) and the slides are a little too high and long for him to really enjoy them-- but it has the advantage of being in full shade.  This is pretty essential for the little guy when we have hot, sunny weather and want to spend any amount of time outdoors because he can't sweat, so he quickly overheats.  Even though we stuck to the deep shade we only spent fifteen minutes playing before he started getting too hot and we walked back home.  We stripped him down and had a play session with some ice cubes wrapped up in a few paper towels to cool him off.  He had mixed feelings about the put-the-ice-pack on Connor game. 

Then this evening Joanna came over to take care of Connor so Jer and I could go out for a date!  We kept it simple-- we stopped and ate at a local restaurant, drove to a bookstore in Tacoma where we spent an hour or two browsing, and then finished the evening up at a local cupcake (and coffee, of course) shop.  That could be the description of any one of hundreds of dates we've been on over the years, but our routine never gets old. 

I hope we're still going out on our bookstore-and-coffee-shop date for many years to come!

In Which Connor's Sunshine Comes Out

Today's seizure count: Zero.  Nada.  Zip.  Thank goodness!

Connor woke up this morning and started cooing away in his sing-song private language for the first time in a long while.  It was so lovely just to stand in the doorway of his room for a moment and listen to him chatter away happily to himself as he reached for the dust motes in the sunbeams slanting thick and golden across his bed.  And when he turned his head and saw me, he laughed out loud and broke out in a smile so big it wiggled through his whole body.  So I knew it was going to be a great day.

After school (where he apparently had a really great time) and quiet time we ventured out of the house for the first time in a week.  He's been having so many seizures lately that he's been spending long periods of time in a sort of half-awake state, and hasn't really been up for more than sitting out on the deck and on the cooler afternoons a walk or two around the block, which he tolerated in a sort of limp, apathetic way.  But he really seemed to be feeling good today, so I decided we could make a trip out to the grocery store and if that went well, go out to the farm to pick up our produce share. 

Connor reacted like the grocery store was the most amazing thing he'd ever seen in his entire life.  He waved carefully to every single person we passed, and when I showed him each thing I was putting in the basket he asked me what it was.  He was obviously engaged and really enjoying himself, so I figured he would still be good for a while and took him to the farm too.

Connor loves the farm.  He really enjoys watching me weigh all of the fruits and vegetables, and he giggles at my attempts to sign all of their names (ever tried to fingerspell "kohlrabi" or "radicchio" when you can't remember how to spell them?)  Sometimes we find a chicken or two pecking around outside, which he also finds highly amusing.  I can't say I blame him, there-- chickens are hilarious. 

Today we didn't see any chickens, but we did get to go out and pick a pint of cherry tomatoes as one of our "extras" (our CSA usually has additional pick-your-own items you can add to your share, often herbs or greens) which meant that I took the wheelchair off-roading out into the rows.  He bounced along the grass next to the sungold tomatoes, which produced a lot of giggles.  The wall of green plants stretched up well past the top of his wheelchair as I picked, and when I brought the half-full pint down for him to see he reached out and delicately traced the top of one of the fat orange globes with the tip of a finger. 

We went home after that and cooled off as he'd had enough time in the sun for the day, but it was just so great to have my cheery little guy back again!

~Jess

In Which I Take The Cats For A Walk

Seizure count today: five.  He had his first one at school this year today, so we've gotten that over with now.  The new Zonegran should hopefully kick in some time on Saturday or Sunday, so that will be good.  In the meantime we'll just keep our fingers crossed that the seizure count will start going down.

For some reason I am unaccountably tired today.  I'm not sure why; I didn't really do anything today.  Maybe the last few weeks are just catching up with me or something.  At any rate, Connor is actually sleeping tonight so I plan to go to bed early.  I have lots of things to do tomorrow so I want to have enough energy to do them! 

So I trimmed the cats' claws (yes, I trim my cats' nails once every two weeks or so) and took them out in the backyard on their leashes.  They are so cute; when they see a leash in my hand they prance over to the door and gamble about until I put it on.  Then they instantly declare that they are Not Happy about being subjected to Such An Indignity and all of their muscles completely stop functioning in protest.  Also they somehow misplace the bones in their legs.  And then I open the screen door and suddenly their bones sproing back into place, all of their muscles magically start working again and they dash outside. 

They spend the next twenty minutes or so waltzing around the backyard, surveying their kingdom, eating grass, and doing mysterious activities whose purpose is known only to cats.  Every five minutes or so Loki will remember that he's not supposed to like the leash, and he'll loose muscle function for about twenty seconds until he's distracted by the next clump of grass and tears off again.  Loki doesn't have a very long attention span. 

Cricket is too smart to waste any of her precious Outside Time in protest-- at least until I start trying to lead her back towards the back door.  Then suddenly she can only walk in directions that point away from the house.

I take them outside one at a time, of course.  Walking one cat on a leash is difficult enough without adding a second cat to contend with.  Cats never agree on anything. 

Crazy cats.

~Jess

In Which I Do Not Have A Fun Day

Well today was, um, interesting.  And by "interesting," I mean "absolutely no fun at all." 

Connor had six seizures today, and after consulting the neuro office we ended up bumping up his Zonegran, which has the fun side effect of making him the limpest wet spaghetti noodle kid the world has ever seen.  He napped off and on for about eight hours today and then Jer put him to bed at around 6:30, where he crashed.

I wasn't here to see that part though, because I was supposed to be in a roller derby meeting but was instead sitting in the traffic caused by a combination of Taylor's Swift's concert and an accident.  My normal commute to our practice space is about twenty to twenty-five minutes.  I spent a glorious hour and forty five minutes staring at tail lights and coming up with new and innovative torture methods for Taylor Swift's entire vehicle driving fan base. 

So I finally arrived home after my second meeting (thanks to Ms. Swift I completely missed the first one), glanced at the calender and discovered that I'd completely blown off Connor's appointment with the pediatric orthopedic surgeon, which was apparently yesterday.  And now I really, really, really need some chocolate.

Sigh.  Tomorrow will be a better day, right?  I guess we all have some of these.

~Jess

In Which I Write Way, Way Way Too Much About Very Little

Connor's seizure count today: four.  Of course after he had his first one before seven in the morning I told his teacher that he'd be having some during the school day for sure.  Of course he had a fantastic seizure free school day, and then started up with the seizures again five minutes after we got home.  Isn't that the way it always goes?

In other news, this seems to be my 1,000th blog post.  Holy crap that's a lot of listening to me drone on about covert pediatric laxative buying, insane cats and possibly illegal amounts of chocolate consumption.  I'm not sure if I should congratulate people who've read the whole entire thing or question their sanity.  Either way, party hats for you all!

I have no plans to stop writing any time in the near future, because it's an ingrained habit now and also because I get at least ten e-mails wondering why the heck I haven't blogged any time I skip a day.  So I'm pretty sure I'll still be doing this when I'm eighty, only then I'll be blogging about things like misplacing my teeth and how I like to threaten random bystanders with my jewel topped cane.  I plan on being a wickedly eccentric old lady, which, judging from where I am now, should not be difficult.

Fun fact: if I did indeed blog every day from now until I was eighty, I will have written over 19,000 blog posts.  Wow.  That's makes hitting 1,000 posts look kind of insignificant.  Maybe I'll hold off on the party hats for a few decades.

Of course I'm not sure what I'd be celebrating anyway-- it's not like I put a whole heck of a lot of effort into these things, as is probably painfully obvious.  I just sit down before bed and write about whatever happened that day, and if nothing happened I either write about that or digress off on some crazy tangent about velociraptors or possibly cheese.  I like cheese.

Um, so yeah.  1,000 blog posts.  Crazy.

~Jess

In Which I Cook Things And Almost Show Off My Underwear

Today was a Cooking Day, also known as a Holy-Crap-I've-Got-Way-Too-Much-Stuff-From-The-Farm-Share-In-Our-Fridge-And-I-Must-Do-Something-With-It-Before-It-Goes Bad Day.  So I cooked a whole lot of things.  I made cornbread, which, okay, didn't use up anything in the fridge but dang it, it's cornbread, and I made tomato mozzarella basil salad and steamed green beans (though they started out purple, they steam up green and taste just like the regular kind) and spiced rum blackberry cobbler, which is basically regular cobbler with a fourth of a cup of Kraken Spiced Rum in it for extra awesomeness.  And then I retreated from my steamy kitchen and collapsed in a little heap on my couch. 

A giant bowl of blackberry cobbler topped with vanilla ice cream went a long way towards restoring my energy levels.  Also it was delicious.

Connor spent his Labor Day (of course) having seizures.  He had three today despite a morning dose of Lorazepam, thereby confirming our he's-going-into-another-seizure-cycle theory.  Thankfully they were all relatively short, but he didn't really want to do a whole lot today and I can't say I blame him.  He played with his keyboard for a little while, we read a few books together and did some kneeling and standing work, but otherwise he mostly spent the day conked out.  I hope he musters up some energy for school tomorrow or it's going to be a long morning for him. 

So that's your usual depressing seizure report.  I swear these things are getting to be so routine that the blog is starting to sound like a broken record.  Connor needs to get back to more exciting things, like being ridiculously cute and plotting world domination.  I'm sure if he figured out how to harness his power of adorableness for evil the world's governments wouldn't stand a chance.

So anyway, I also went to the YMCA today where I did my usual weight routine.  I've been going in two or three times a week for a couple of months now, and I'm really starting to see a difference in my roller derby performance.  Derby exercises a very specific group of muscles and neglects others, which can increase the risk of knee injuries.  There's also the problem that you exercise your legs unevenly; derby involves a whole lot of "skate fast and turn left," which means that some girls who don't do any cross training actually end up with one leg much, much stronger than the other and in extreme conditions a less than flattering condition I'll refer to as UBCS-- Uneven Butt Cheek Syndrome.  I would like to avoid both injury and UBCS as long as I possibly can, so the weight room sounded like a pretty good idea.

There have been a number of embarrassing moments in the gym of course, like a couple of weeks ago when I picked up a thick barbell (the kind used for grip work) to move it out of my rack and accidentally dropped it with a tremendous clang, not only making the entire gym look in my direction but also leaving a glorious barbell end-shaped set of bruises on my inner thigh. 

Then there was the near-miss the day before yesterday when I glanced in the mirror, keys in hand, literally on my way out the door of our house to discover that the pair of white basketball shorts I'd borrowed from Jer to work out in were old enough that they'd somehow become translucent and blatantly displayed my teal undies in all their cotton, comfort-fit glory.  Whee! 

But despite a variety of near-disasters and the loss of a good portion of my personal dignity, I've continued going to the weight room, where most of the single guys of a certain variety (the ones who always do their workouts where they get the best view of the ladies in the machine room) have finally figured out that even if I'm the only chick in the free weight room (and I'm almost always the only chick in the free weight room-- at least in the squat racks) I'm there to actually lift weights and, despite their best efforts, not to make prolonged, sexy sexy eye contact in the mirror with them while they're doing their exaggerated barbell curls.  Even the persistent ones generally figure this out and drift off once I start doing squats.  Squats, when done correctly, generally make people look like they aren't getting enough fiber in their diet.  I am no exception to this rule.

I'm not sure that my cobbled-together routine hits everything I should be working out, but I just found out that the army post offers personal trainer sessions for free!  So I think I may try giving their number a call to see if I can get somebody with a little more expertise to work out a great roller derby cross training schedule just for me.  In the meantime I'll keep doing what I'm doing now in the hopes that it will make me a better player. 

And also to avoid that whole butt cheek thing.  Especially if I want to keep wearing teal undies.

~Jess

In Which I Go Blackberry Picking And Miss A Friend

Connor had two (thankfully short) seizures today, which suggests to us that he's getting back into a seizure cycle.  Oh joy.  We'll probably start him on the lorazepam tomorrow in an effort to keep them at bay until the holiday is over. 

So once again we took the day easy; Jer and I switched off on watching the little guy while we did a few things around the house and ran some errands.  I did have one thing I really wanted to do outside the house though that I'd only be able to do for a couple more weeks, so early in the afternoon I grabbed my largest metal mixing bowl and drove down to post to go blackberry picking.

I was by no means the only one out in the woods today with the same idea; I saw quite a few other people out with buckets collecting or, in a couple of cases, simply picking the berries and eating them straight off the vines.  The berries patch I was headed to today borders a lake, and I've got my own special method of finding the largest, ripest berries even when, like today, the bushes have mostly been picked clean.  I simply pick one of the fishing access spots, kick off my shoes and wade into the lake!  The berries grow right down to the shore and because of all the water they grow at least twice as big as the ones by the trail.  And because they're not easily accessible from anywhere but the lake, no one seems to pick them except for me.  I picked about fifteen cups of berries in an hour, and I was pretty selective about what I was picking-- they didn't go into my bowl unless they were ripe enough that they practically fell into my hand.  And of course every fourth or fifth berry went directly into my mouth.  I had to test them and make sure they were still good, right?

Picking berries at the lake made me a little sad this year; I used to do this all the time with my friend Anna before she moved out of the state and picking by myself just wasn't the same.  I miss the companionship, the lighthearted competition to see who can find the biggest, most perfect berry, and the fun we had at home later canning and cooking so far into the night we labeled our preserves "Midnight Jam."  I haven't found another foraging partner in crime yet, and with fall approaching I'm fast running out of time this season to discover one.  I found myself noticing all sorts of things that would have delighted Anna-- a small cupped nest built out of moss hanging in the tangled berries with a few slivers of delicate ecru eggshell inside, a big patch of wild mint, a pair of green jeweled dragonflies that insisted in landing on my hair-- and wishing she was there to share them with. 

At one of the fishing spots towards the end of the trail I came across a woman who forcibly reminded me of Anna; she had the same lean frame, auburn hair and open, friendly face.  She was sitting on the pebbled shoreline with her knees drawn up to her chest, gazing out across the lake.  She didn't so much as glance in my direction which I took to mean she wasn't interested in chatting, but as I picked I worked up the courage to ask her if she wanted some blackberries.  That little moss nest hid right around the corner; maybe she'd be someone I could show it to. 

I turned around to ask and she was gone.

~Jess

In Which Connor Has Hilarious Dreams

Connor seems to be having some fantastic dreams tonight; every twenty minutes or so he bursts into peals of laughter.  I went in and checked on him the last time it happened and he was fast asleep with an enormous smile on his face.  I'm glad he's having such a good time; maybe if he has those sorts of dreams more often he'll actually want to sleep through the night!

Oh-- wait-- he's awake now.  I think he laughed so loudly he actually managed to wake himself up.  Guess the Dreams So Awesome They Make You Laugh Sleeping Technique has a major flaw. 

The little guy had one seizure today that lasted about a minute and was considerably less violent than the last couple of seizures we've seen.  However, that blows my one-a-week hopes out of the water.  We were a couple of hours late on his morning medication because we somehow managed to sleep through our alarm, so that might have triggered it.  We'll just have to see how the rest of the weekend goes.

Connor had the seizure about midday and then slept for several hours afterwards, so him waking up in the middle of the night isn't all that unexpected.  We took the rest of the day easy and ended up spending the evening watching a (gasp!) movie together as a family.  Normally television isn't our idea of family time, but little guy didn't really have the energy for a whole lot else, so we indulged him for once.

Some days just need to be lazy days!

~Jess

In Which Connor Has A Better Day And I Witness Toddler Playground Deprivation

Connor went off to school in a much better mood today, and we didn't see any seizures, which was great!  Maybe we're back to a one-a-week schedule; wouldn't that be nice?  I'd prefer them not to be twelve minute seizures, but I'm not going to complain too much.

Since it's Labor Day weekend, Jeremy was off of work today so we got to spend some quality time together.  He has at least four day weekends on most of the federal holidays, which is a pretty nice perk if you ask me.  So we dropped Connor off at school together and then ate a leisurely breakfast at our local coffee shop.  After that we went for a long, lovely walk down at Bradley Park. 

The weather was absolutely perfect-- that glorious blend of warm sun with just a hint of crisp fall coolness-- and there were plenty of people out enjoying the morning.  Some were enjoying it a little more than others, though; at the entrance to the park we saw a group of young mothers lying on yoga mats all in a row doing Pilates, their children in strollers parked down by their feet.  They're a pretty consistent group, and I see them out there doing various circuit training exercises a few days a week.  Most of the time it looks like a really great way for moms to get fit together.

However today they'd decided for some inexplicable reason to do their exercises about thirty feet away from the huge and completely deserted playground, which was in easy eye shot of the children.  There were some extremely unhappy kids in those strollers, let me tell you.  Jeremy and I were probably risking hearing loss any time we got within fifteen feet of the group.

Can't say I blame the kids, though.  If I were that close to a playground and strapped into a stroller, I'd probably scream too.

Anyway, all in all the day went really well and I'm looking forward to spending the weekend with my boys! 

~Jess

In Which Connor Goes To School And The Fire Truck Comes To Our House Again

Today Connor went back to school!

I'll admit it-- I did a little happy dance when I got up that morning.  I love my sweet boy absolutely to death, but the couple of hours of alone time I get four days a week during the school year is hard to beat.  So I waltzed into his room and reminded him that he was going to school today.  He got really, really excited for a bit, and seemed pretty ready to go.

When we got to the door, he started getting a little nervous.  You can see he's not quite sure about this whole school idea even though he's an old pro at it-- this will be his third year in the same preschool classroom.  When we got to school I actually thought he was going to cry for a minute or two.  Poor little boo-- I guess all of the sudden he felt pretty anxious.  I don't know if it was because I was leaving him (and with this seizure record this summer I've pretty much been glued to the kid) or if it was because we got there early and he thought none of his friends were showing up.  At any rate, after an uneasy moment or two he settled back down and apparently the rest of his school day went great!

Unfortunately the rest of the day was not quite so wonderful.

We had a quiet afternoon, and it was getting into early evening when Connor started having a seizure.  We gave him Diastat three minutes in, and around seven minutes called 911.  All in all it ended up being about twelve minutes long.  He stopped seizing about a minute before the ambulance and fire truck pulled up.  They took a good look at him and, after calling one of the local hospitals for the okay, let us sign the form refusing transport. 

One of the EMTs actually recognized Connor from one of his seizure episodes at school over a year ago.  Guess the little guy is pretty memorable.

So he's been asleep now for a few hours-- I don't think insomnia is going to be an issue tonight.  But we'll be giving the neurologist a call tomorrow.  While Connor thankfully kept breathing through this one, it was not an experience we particularly want to repeat.

Whee.

~Jess