In Which It Is Halloween And Connor Gets Sick

Happy Halloween, everyone!

Well, I spoke too soon yesterday on the seizure front, I'm afraid.  Connor had a pretty good morning, and then late in the afternoon he had his first seizure in two weeks, which is when I discovered he was running a 101 degree temperature.  He had two more seizures before the Tylenol brought his fever down enough to get them stopped.  Other than the temperature and saying that he was tired he didn't seem out of sorts, though.  He spent a good portion of the afternoon sleeping, so maybe his body is coping with the fever that way.  I'll keep an eye on him tomorrow and make sure his temperature doesn't get any higher.  Since he doesn't have any other symptoms right now, I'm wondering if maybe he's got a bit of an infection going-- maybe a UTI.  We'll just have to see.

Once the Tylenol kicked in he seemed to perk up, and by the time Jeremy got home he was feeling pretty good, so Jer took the little guy out for just a bit of trick-or-treating.  Connor was a yeti again this year; he got so excited about that costume when I took it out that I figured he could just wear it again this year.  So while the boys were out I stayed home and passed out candy.  We had a slim crop of trick-or-treaters this year, possibly because it was pretty cold outside.  There were quite a few teenagers who came to the door; I'm hoping that next year Ellen will be home and able to try out trick-or-treating for the first time! 

My sister left today and I miss her already.  It was lovely having her here; I wish we had the chance to get together more often.  While I absolutely love living up here in the Pacific Northwest, it is difficult having most of our family 2100 miles away in Texas.  I guess I just have to convince them all to move up this way!

Anyway, hopefully the little guy will be feeling better tomorrow.  I'll be spending that day helping him out with the vast majority of his Halloween candy, which he can't eat.  It's a horrible job, but somebody's got to do it. 

Yum!

~Jess

In Which Connor Looks Great And My Sister And I Grow Facial Hair

It was yet another fun-filled day of sisterly shenanigans over here, as Mary and I decided to go check out The Sock Monster (thank you, astute reader "rbn" for that lovely suggestion) up in Seattle.  But first we had to stop by Adamos and pose with chocolate mustaches.  For Science!

Anyway, so we took the lovely scenic drive up to Seattle to go buy many, many socks, which The Sock Monster luckily had in abundance.  Mary and I both found several pair, and I also got a couple pair for Connor.  Since he wears his braces for most of the day his socks are on display a lot of the time, and so I like for him to have stylish tootsies.  I have a feeling I'll be visiting that store on a fairly regular basis.

After that we ate some gelato, because it is physically impossible for me to pass a gelato shop without going in and eating some.  Then we drove over to the shopping center Jer and I frequent when the little guy is staying up at the hospital in Seattle (something that thankfully hasn't happened for a while) and did some browsing around the various shops there. 

We mostly window shopped, and found a whole lot of cute things in various stores that we decided we could make fairly easily ourselves in all of the spare time (ha!) we have.  We also had to look at, touch and comment on every single thing in every single store we went into, because we are the most annoying customers in the world.  Oh well.  All in all it was a pretty great day!   

Oh, and Connor had yet another fantastic day too.  Tomorrow marks two whole weeks without a single seizure!  I believe the last time that happened was somewhere around July, which is kind of crazy.  Here are a couple of pictures from yesterday that Joanna took.  In one he's decked out in all of his Yeti glory with his best friend baby C, who as usual is annoying the bejeezus out of him.  I'm pretty sure he secretly likes it though, because he gets pretty excited when I tell him that she's coming over.  In the second one he's painting his pumpkin.  Doesn't he just look great? 

That's my big boy!

~Jess

In Which I Have A Bout And Connor Visits The Pumpkin Patch!

So today was bout day for me; my roller derby team, the Trampires, played the Terrormedixxx up in Bremerton.  This was the first bout my sister had ever seen me play in, so I was hoping it would go well.

Bout day takes up way more time than just showing up shortly before play time; our team lunch today was at 2:00 in the afternoon, which meant we left the house just before 1:00pm to get there.  We ate at this little tiny Filipino place that had an interesting choice in decor-- it was lined on both sides with full size broken refrigerators.  Seriously-- there must have been at least eight fridges in a space slightly larger than my laundry room.  It was very, very strange and more than a little creepy.  Oh well.

While we were eating at the Filipino Lumpia And Broken Refrigerator Emporium, Connor was off with his respite care worker and her family at the pumpkin patch!  First they stopped by to trick-or-treat at Joanna's mom's house though, and he received a giant package of pudding which was apparently the most exciting thing he'd ever seen in his entire life.  He wore his yeti costume again because what the heck-- he likes it and it still fits. 

Then they were off to the pumpkin patch, where Connor was forced to do all sorts of horrible things, like sit in a pile of corn and touch pumpkins and stuff.  Horrors.  He also painted a pumpkin today, which is currently sitting on my kitchen island.  It is very cute, and I'll be putting it out on the porch tomorrow so the whole neighborhood can see what a fantastic budding artist we have in the house!

So the bout was really fun and I felt like I played well, which is always nice.  We lost by quite a bit, but we still had a great time!  A lot of people were dressed up in all sorts of crazy costumes (including some absolutely adorable kids) so I had fun checking out all of the creative get-ups people were wearing.  Jeremy and Mary both got to come, so that was pretty fun too!  I'm glad things worked out to where Mary was able to see me play; I love getting the chance to share the sport I enjoy so much with family. 

And now it's way past my bedtime, so I should probably go to sleep!

~Jess

In Which My Sister And I Go Out On The Town

Today my sister and I went out and did a whole lot of sister-type stuff!

While Connor was in school we played around in the local area.  First we went out for coffee, and then we drove over to the mall and shopped for a little while.  I found a lovely winter coat which I'm pretty sure is going to be my new best friend now that winter is coming on.  Mary ogled all of the awesome socks in the stores here.  Mary loves socks even more than I do, if that is possible.  Particularly argyle socks.  She owns a ridiculous number of argyle socks.  Also tights.

Anyway, so after we picked Connor back up from school (the little guy had another great day, by the way) Joanna came over to watch him so Mary and I could go play further afield.  We decided to drive down to Olympia and do some more shopping, because shopping is awesome.  Since the rain was still holding off though, we made a side trip to the Nisqually Wildlife Refuge, where Mary took many pictures and accused me of having secretly manufactured all of the fallen maple leaves, as they were way, way too big to actually exist in real life.  Many of them were about the size of my head.  Also she declared all of our vine maples to be fake too, because there was no way that trees could really have leaves that red.  In her defense, I think all the trees in Texas went directly from green to dead this year thanks to the drought, so I indulged her and admitted stapling all the fake red leaves to the trees before she got here so she would feel better about the Dallas area's less-than-glorious display.

The things we do for family, huh?

Anyway, so it started sprinkling halfway down the trail, and by the time we got back to the van the rain was really coming down.  We drove the rest of the way to Olympia and ducked into one of my favorite restaurants to eat a late lunch.  After that we visited the neat toy store downtown, where I picked up some stickers for Ellen, a Christmas present for Connor (a stuffed Gobo doll from Fraggle Rock!), and Mary and I drooled over the giant selection of Playmobil toys and argued over who owns* the large collection currently sitting in storage until Ellen comes home. 

Anyway, so then we drove back to the house, met up with Jeremy and went out to dinner at our favorite Greek restaurant, which was lovely as always.  My entire fridge is full of delicious leftovers right now, which is not really a problem as far as I'm concerned.

It's so great having my sister here!

~Jess



*Hint: it's me.

In Which My Sister Comes To Visit

My sister Mary is in town!

My sister looks like a younger, thinner, possibly evil carbon copy of me.  There is absolutely no way we can possibly deny each other ever.  So good thing we like each other!  Otherwise she could totally rob a bank or something and pin it on me. 

We are also both extremely sarcastic, and we feed off of each other.  So if you see us together, be prepared.

So I swung by the airport to pick up Mary directly after I got Connor from school.  Connor was not particularly excited by this routine change; normally he goes down for Quiet Time directly after school is over.  So he was a little perturbed by the fact that we were instead driving across town.  He was even less excited by the fact that after we collected his aunt we proceeded to go, not home for Quiet Time like we should have been doing if all was right with the world, but instead out to lunch.  So he spent the entire time we were out either ignoring us completely, bending his fingers back on his teeth (which he knows he's not supposed to do) making an angry face or shrieking at the top of his lungs.  Lovely.  As soon as we got home and he had his thirty minutes or so of quiet time he instantly reverted to the sweet, snuggly child I'm used to.

He has me well trained.

Anyway, so I'm really excited about having my sister here (no matter what Connor's opinion is) and I can't wait to spend some time with her!  It's always lovely having family in town.  Who knows what evil plotting we'll get up to?

~Jess

In Which I Witness A Comedy Of Errors

Seriously, this sleep thing is growing on me.  And nine whole days without a single seizure-- how long has it been since that last happened?  I have no idea what is causing this trend, but I'm really liking it.  Keep it up, little guy!

I spent most of today either cleaning or sewing, which Connor was not particularly thrilled about.  I'm way behind on my housework, so when I'm catching up he tends to get pretty bored.  So I'd clean for about twenty minutes, play with him twenty minutes, clean another twenty minutes; you get the drift.  It doesn't really make for very efficient cleaning.

Also I did a whole lot of sewing.  This is because the birthday present I'd made for my sister was destroyed yesterday in a ridiculous Stooge-worthy comedy of errors.  I'd modified a lovely green messenger bag for her by covering it in poppies, and just before I was going to wrap it I held it up to show Connor.  He promptly threw up all over it.

Apparently Connor doesn't like poppies.

So I freaked out, because that bag represented an obscene number of hours of sewing and the messenger bag was made of leather, felt and beads, which I can't exactly throw in the washing machine.  I set it down on the floor next to the couch and ran for the paper towels, which proved to be my second mistake.

Now, Loki is a very tidy sort of cat.  He doesn't like messes, and if he finds one somewhere he will do his part to get rid of it by burying it.  So when I jogged back, paper towels in hand, it was to discover that my cat was standing on top of the bag, claws extended, burying the poppies for all he was worth.  By the time I managed to yank it out from under him (he gave me a very wounded look, as clearly he was just doing his job) he was surrounded by a ring of Pediasure, gold and black beads and shredded felt. 

Yeah.

So anyway, now I'm throwing together another messenger bag, which I will be keeping far, far away from both the cats and Connor.  I had to start over completely because leather is not forgiving as far as sewing holes go, and I would have had to have deconstructed the bag entirely as I'd added a lining, so I figured I might as well save myself some time and start from scratch.  This time I'm doing a sugar skull theme, because I figure Connor is less likely to throw up on a death-themed bag.  And also sugar skulls are easy and fast to do. 

Oh well.

~Jess

In Which Connor Goes To The Doctor

Three!  Three whole nights of sleep!  My body has no idea what to do with that kind of rest anymore.  Connor's asleep again, so what the heck-- I'll go for four nights! 

I could totally get used to this sleeping thing.

So Connor had yet another fantastic day at school, and then after a short quiet time we were off to a pediatrician's appointment.  The little guy needs a referral for a new stander, as he has outgrown his old one.  He weighs 37 pounds now, which is five pounds up from the last time he was weighed!  He is actually on the growth chart right now (in the bottom 5%, but still on it!)-- isn't that crazy?  The next time he goes up a size in clothing I'll have to shop for him in the Boys section, which kind of freaks me out a little.

We also needed new referrals for a few of his doctors, and I went ahead and got him his flu shot while we were there.  Connor was not particularly appreciative of this.  Otherwise the appointment went well, and I like this new pediatrician; our old one deployed so we were switched to a new provider.  I think this is pediatrician number five or six for Connor, but I've kind of lost count so I'm not really sure.

Anyway, after we were finished at the hospital we stopped by the bookstore to pick up Connor's Good Boy At The Doctor's Office celebratory book, and of course I had to browse for me too.  And then we came home because the flu shot was making the little guy a bit sleepy, and also I had to get some dinner going before it was time to go to derby practice.  I made beef stew.  It was delicious.

Hooray for another good day!

~Jess