elf shenanigans

Dexter, Day 5:

What a crazy elf!

holiday weekend

I love long weekends. And staying in my pj’s until afternoon. Yesterday was one of those days. I did in fact stay in my pj’s a good part of the day. But I was working hard. Decorating. Jeremy pulled the trees out of the attic.  And he carried boxes of decorations upstairs. And helped put the lights and garland on the living room tree. But the rest was pretty much left up to me. My once eager girls are no longer interested in decking the halls. I suppose the teen years will do that to a kid. Fortunately though, I still have one eager child.

There really is a sweet little face under that mop of hair.

I’m glad I have a helper for a few more years!

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Dexter, Day 4:

Looks like Dexter is also enjoying the weekend!

another black friday casualty

My very first experience with Black Friday was when I was 9 years old. My dad took me out at the crack of dawn in the hopes of finding a Cabbage Patch Kid. At the time, I didn’t realize the sacrifice he was making. But now that I have kids, I do.

That particular shopping experience landed me in the emergency room with a bleeding head wound. You can read more about it here. So you can understand why I have a slight aversion to Black Friday.

My hubby, on the other hand, just can’t resist scouring the sale ads. Especially on Thanksgiving. I think he might look forward to the ads more than the mashed potatoes. And that’s really saying something (if you know Jeremy). This year he limited his shopping to our local Wal-Mart. He made a list of things going on sale at 10:00 and things going on sale at midnight. He took Bri for reinforcement and headed out as I headed to bed.

He managed to get everything on his list and returned home around 12:30. He decided he needed to wind down a bit after all that shopping, so he started assembling the office chair he purchased. I was oblivious to what was going on, until I heard him call me out to the kitchen. That’s where I found him hobbling around, bleeding all over the floor. He had dropped a metal cylindrical piece of the chair right onto his big toe. Ouch!!! I wonder if his injury will deter future Black Friday excursions. It’s doubtful.

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Dexter Day 3:

our elf

On Thanksgiving morning, Delaney awoke to find an elf on the shelf.

I think it’s a good thing he came to our house because a certain little 3 year old needs all the encouragement she can get to stay on the nice list.

I read the Elf on the Shelf book to Delaney and explained that every night while she’s asleep, our elf will report to Santa about her behavior. And the next morning he will be back at our house, watching. (I hope she’s not so creeped out she has nightmares!) We named our elf Dexter.

Dexter, Day 2:

I can’t wait to see what fun we have with Dexter during this Christmas season!

happy turkey day!

 Delaney had a Thanksgiving program at school earlier this week.

 

They sang a song and played a game. She was just beside herself that I was there to see her. (Did she really think I wouldn’t show up?)

 

 

This is one of her friends. They look slightly uncomfortable about getting their picture taken together.

Have a safe and happy Thanksgiving!

Save the drumstick for Jeremy!!

(I love this picture and had to post it again!)

busy busy busy

Sometimes I don’t know where my days go. I feel like the past week has just flown by and I realized I may have left you hanging a bit with Nate’s update. Sorry about that.

Last Wednesday Jeremy got a call from the neurologist’s nurse and she gave him the radiologist’s report from Nate’s MRI. She told him the brain stem looked fine and there was an arachnoid cyst. We did a little investigating on Dr. Google (not always the best plan) and were thinking this was probably the cause of the seizures. Then on Thursday, they called and asked us to come in to see the doctor and the PA (we normally see the PA). We were a little freaked out by this point.

The doctor went over the MRI with us and said they saw no changes since the last one in 2004. There is no fluid build up and no concerns. So we asked about the cyst and he informed us that it was an incidental finding that he wasn’t going to even report. Apparently it has always been there and hasn’t changed and isn’t causing any problems. Whew…relief!!!

Nate actually hasn’t had anymore seizures since the last one a few weeks ago and no more oxygen desats at night (knock on wood). The doctor’s biggest concern is that Nate’s left pupil remains dilated significantly more than the right. The doctor thinks this may be caused by a medication, but at this time we aren’t going to worry much about it.

So that sums up Nate’s life for now.

Last week Allison performed in a Dance Team Showcase and they did an awesome drumline routine, if I do say so myself. If I can figure it out, I’ll post it here soon.

an update on nate

I was finally able to upload the picture of Nate and his nurse on Halloween.

We had conferences a couple of weeks ago and got a great report. It’s really amazing what Nate can do. He’s able to identify the sound of words and word combinations when given 2 choices. He can identify rhyming words. And he is taking Accelerated Reader tests (comprehension quizzes) over books that have been read to him and doing quite well. He’s gotten a 60% and an 80% and the rest have been 100%. All these things were pretty exciting to hear about!

Medically, it’s been a rough year. Nate’s not ever really been himself since his hospitalizations last spring. He continues to need oxygen at night. And now he’s started having more frequent seizures. He had an MRI on Friday, so we may have some answers this week. Or we may not know anything and they will just put him on a second seizure medication and we’ll have to accept that this is his new “normal.”

So that’s the latest on Nate. Our brilliant 8 year old boy.