Saying Goodbye

I've never been good at saying 'goodbye.'  Perhaps it is because my parents lived in two different states and I always felt torn as I was leaving one to go to the other, even though I was excited to see the one I was visiting.  May has brought many goodbye's.  We have had to say farewell to Jeremy's OT, PT, Vision, and Hearing Specialists, but the hardest was with Shin and Heather, who have moved back to California.

It may seem silly, but when you see people week after week, you really start to form attachments.  Even though it has been less than two years with Jeremy's current early intervention group, I have really become fond of them.  It will be sad to not have them come anymore.  I wish we had gotten vision involved sooner, but c'est la vie.


 Jeremy's OT and PT; he's having a grand old time on the ball.



Look at his straight back--now, if only we could keep it that straight.



Heather graduated UVU in December, but she walked in May.  The day after the graduation ceremony, they were on their way to California.  The loss is keenly felt, not only by me, but also by J and especially Zuri.  She is old enough to understand that they are gone and won't be coming over any more, but not old enough to really understand the 'why' of it.  She just knows they are in California, which is a long way away (where Grandpa lives).  She still asks if they are coming over Sunday's, and I have to tell her no.  She gets sad and says that she misses them.

The hardest part is knowing that other than the possibility of General Conference, the chance of seeing them is extremely low.  We had planned a trip to Yellowstone in June with Shin, Heather, and my dad, and none of them are going to be able to make it.  My dad had some work related things, and Shin and Heather don't have the funds to come out since neither has a job yet.  I really hope they will be able to make it out in October for Conference.

Heather's graduation happened to come the day after Zuri's birthday.  Shin and Heather crashed with us for a few days since the lease to their apartment had been up, and my dad also came out.  He rode the train so that he could drive back with Shin and Heather, and consequently, he arrived very early in the morning on Zuri's birthday, surprising her for her special day.




I also decorated Zuri's door and filled her floor with balloons for when she woke in the morning.


Even River seems to be sad they are leaving...






On her birthday, we had a small party with all of us--and she blew out her birthday cupcake.  Zuriwas sorely disappointed that she didn't get a dog.  Now she is determined she will get one in December. 


I know this picture doesn't really have anything to do with the post, but it was taken the same weekend, and I thought it was really cute, so I wanted to include it! :-)


Needless to say, May has been a hard month for me emotionally.  Kai has started preschool, and our Sunday's have become a lot quieter.  I knew that Shin and Heather would move out of state eventually, especially since they constantly talked about being near the ocean, but I had hoped we would have more time with them.  However, I am grateful for the last three years that we have had, and I am holding out hope that somehow we will once again get the opportunity to live close to them.

At the Zoo

We are involved in an organization called Angel's Hands, a foundation devoted to families with special needs children.  They focus on the whole family, not just those with disabilities--involving the siblings in the events as well.  We joined several months ago but because of timing and Chloe being so young, we hadn't been able to go to one of their monthly events.

They sponsored zoo passes and we were able to go to this event.  Being our first official outing all together, just us, it was definitely a trial.  River and Kai were fussy throughout the day.  Zuri did well until near the end, when she wanted to spend all her time at the splash pad, or to ride the carousel.  We were all done.  River didn't like riding in the stroller, she wanted to be out.  I think Kai just got tired of the stroller/wanted to be on the go.  He didn't like when we stopped to look at the animals.

About half way through the day, Zuri stopped at the lion water fountain and drank some water.  She said it tasted gross and then gulped down water from her water bottle.  On the way home, all three kids crashed.  Zuri even went straight to her bed and slept when we got home, which is completely unlike her.  I woke her just before dinner, and she complained of her tummy hurting, and I gave her some snack cookies we had left over from the zoo to tide her over.

The next thing I know, she had vomited all over.  For the next 24 hours she couldn't hold anything down, and was even more picky for the next week on the food she would eat.  I don't know if drinking from the water fountain was what caused the stomach bug, or if she caught something from my brother, who had been sick the day before (but he has other health issues going on as well).  Either way, it ended up not being a fun weekend for us.

Luckily, we did have some good moments at the zoo, and we are learning what works and what doesn't with three.  It's all an adjustment, that is for sure!

Our first kerfuffle happened before we even got into the zoo.  It was quite a cool morning but the forecast predicted temperatures in the 80's, so I set out shorts and a short sleeved shirt for Kai to wear.  Because I had mentioned that it was pretty cool outside, J saw a pair of pants (double layered, of course) near the clothes I had set out (I don't remember seeing them out at all) and put those on Kai instead of the shorts.  When we arrived at the zoo, it was already pretty warm, and Kai was obviously hot, so I wanted to put the shorts on him.  Well, the shorts didn't make it into the bag.  Oh no.  So what did we do?  We stripped off his pants and had him ride around in his diaper.  Oh, yes we did.

It is one of those things that I was pretty upset about at the time, but looking back, it really is kind of funny.  We covered him with a blanket to help keep the sun off him, and also for privacy. 





By the time we made it in the gates and had seen a couple animals, River was hungry, so J took Zuri and Kai to see more animals, and I fed River.  She fell asleep for about twenty minutes or so, which was a nice respite.


I love this shot--the way J and Zuri are looking out, with Kai right next to them.  It reminds me how awesome J is.

 Since the weather had been cooler and it was still fairly early in the day, quite a few of the animals were out and playing, which made it fun.
 ,





While we got set up for lunch, Zuri played in the splash pad.  I think it was the highlight of her day, and she stopped whining about being hot (oh, I can't wait for summer, when it actually is hot :p ). 




Kai also enjoyed the lunch break.  He got to get out of his stroller and he was all smiles.
 






I think Zuri's favorite exhibit is the Rocky Shores, with the polar bear and the salt water fish tanks.  She kept going back and pointing everything out.  She will love the aquarium when we go. 



I love this picture because Zuri was pointing everything out to me, so excited, and one of the zoo workers started talking to Zuri and telling her about the creatures in the tank.  I love that she took that one-on-one time and was willing to do that little bit extra.





Toward the end of the day, both River and Kai were really fussy.  J and I decided to give in and call it a day.  When Zuri realized we were leaving and not going back to the splash pad, she also joined in the whining.  It was fun.  River calmed down while she was held, and by the time we made it out of the gates, both River and Kai had crashed. 




...but the kids weren't the only ones who were tired!  Guess who was also worn out from the day!

EEG

Kai had an EEG done to find out what is going on in his brain.  They wanted him sleep deprived beforehand, so that he will sleep during the test, but you can't tell a non-verbal, non-understanding child when and when not to sleep.  It just doesn't happen.  We tried to have him go to bed two hours later, and wake up two hours earlier as they recommended, but he was still wide awake during the test.


First they put probes all over his head.  It took quite a while because they had to be precisely placed and they had to stay on.  Then they covered all the probes with a white gauze. 

J laid down on the bed with Kai and held him.  He kept trying to get the gauze off his face.  I actually loved to watch him do that because it was an intentional action; "hey, this thing on my head is bugging me, I want to get it off."


They turned off the lights and did the strobe test.  I tell you, I don't get seizures, but that test is enough to give anyone seizures.  Luckily (or unluckily?), Kai didn't have a visible seizure during the test.  I had a slight headache the rest of the day after that, though.  They stuck a light (almost like a clamp desk lamp) inches away from Kai's face, and did a series of strobe tests.  I think it was about ten to fifteen minutes total. 

After the strobe test they turned on some relaxing music and left the room for 30 minutes.  This is the part where Kai was supposed to miraculously fall asleep.  It didn't happen, but it was a nice, quiet half an hour, and Kai was at least peacefully playing with his fingers in his mouth while his daddy was holding him.


He loved when the test was over and he got all the probes off his head.

As for the results of the test...well, we still haven't heard back from neurology.  I have called twice and left messages.  Apparently, they are backed up.  We were able to get the results from Kai's pediatrician, but he wasn't able to tell us much other than the results came back "abnormal due to seizures."  Well, duh.  I guess they really were seizures then.  Kai's pediatrician said there was a lot of jargon that only the neurologist would know what it meant, so we are in the waiting boat.

I suppose the consolation is that if it were something serious, they would have gotten back to us already, right?

Easter Weekend

One of these days I will be all caught up, but until then, you will get Easter in May!  :-)  For Easter this year we went down to Manti and had family pictures done at the Manti temple.  We then went to Palisades and spent the afternoon with J's family.  We had an Easter egg hunt for the kids, and a combined birthday party for Zuri, Kai, Addilyn and Emery, who all celebrate their birthdays in the spring.



It was a rough trip for me because I had thrown out my back a couple days earlier that week and although I was mobile, I was still in quite a bit of pain.  On Wednesday, Maria had tickets to a ballet and took Zuri with her (I was supposed to go, but we found out that they don't allow babies; J also had scouts that night, so we didn't have anyone to watch River or Kai).  Since Zuri was going into her spring break at school, Maria volunteered to take her for the weekend.  I thought it would be a nice chance for Zuri to enjoy time with her cousins as well as give me a break.

Well, that didn't turn out as planned.  Thursday morning, I gave Kai a bath.  As I was getting him out of the tub, I decided to see if I could make it any easier by placing the ventilator strap across my shoulders (the ventilator resting on my left hip, the strap on my right shoulder).  I then grabbed Kai, and as I stood up with all the weight, I felt something "tweak" in my back, but I was okay.  I got his cares done and although my back felt a little off, I thought I would be fine.  River was sleeping and Kai was content in his crib, so I laid down on the couch hoping that it would help my back.  About an hour later, Kai needed a diaper change, and as I was changing it, I could feel my back twinging more.  I got on my knees and finished the diaper.  When I did the slight bend to open the diaper genie, my back fully gave out and I was on the floor.

Luckily, I had my phone on me, and I called J.  After getting off the phone, I managed to make it to the couch, then up the stairs.  Just as I was passing the front door, it opened, and my neighbor came in, scaring me.  I said some choice words (not a proud moment) when the door unexpectedly opened next to me.  J knew that I wouldn't call anyone else to come help me until he could get home, so he called the neighbor to come over (he knows me too well).

My wonderful neighbor took care of me, and helped me with River and Kai for a couple hours until the nurse came in (thank goodness one was available).  Friday morning I couldn't even get out of bed, so J took me in to the instacare, where the doctor gave me a cursory examination and prescribed some muscle relaxants.  That was it.  Wanting to get to the root of the issue, I went to a chiropractor, who told me my L5 was out.  She said that it was quite common for women 3-6 months after birth, because all our ligaments are tightening back up and with all the bending and lifting we do with the baby (and Kai in my case), so it is easy for the L5 to slip out.  Well, shoot.  At least we know what the problem is, and although I am still a little sore in the mornings, once I get up and moving, I am back to normal, but it did take about a week before I stopped shuffling around like an old lady. 

Needless to say, posing for pictures in that condition was a little tricky, but we made it work.  I even managed to get from a kneeling position back to standing that day. 


Zuri and River entertaining each other while we were waiting for the photographer to finish up with J's siblings.



At Palisades, the water was too cold to really do any swimming, but it didn't stop the kids from splashing around.


Zuri's Easter basket, and the eggs for the egg hunt.



Suzanne taking Kai for a walk.  He was quite fussy while we were there.  I think both he and River were just tired, because they crashed on the way home.


J and his dad


Kai had a major spit-up during his feeding, getting everywhere, including his trach gauze and ties, so J stripped him down and did his cares on a bench.  Oh the fun. 



Zuri kicking the ball around with J.
;
I love the follow through! :-)