Dino-riffic!

A new hat for Grant, made with love by his mommy!

Yes, I straightened the curtain after I took the first picture and realized that it was all wonky (We were busy watching the street sweeper pick up leaves this morning). Then Grant being a spunky 3 year old is really into sitting still for pictures these days, so these two pictures is what he gave me. He does love his hat already, he told me so. :)



Norah Picks Her Outfit

This morning as I was nursing Mason, I sent Grant to his room to get dressed, then I asked Norah to go pick out some clothes for the day. I didn't fully expect her to do it, but it was worth a shot to see what happened, right? So off she crawls to her room smiling and saying "all right mommy." I smile listening to her, she moved the step stool to her dresser. I hear the drawer open, I can imagine her peering into her drawer from the side. A couple minutes pass, I am now making smiley face with Mason, he's happy now, a full tummy will do that. Norah emerges from her room, this time scooting forward on her "bootie" and carrying a skirt and a cardigan. I smile in the success of this and praise her. Then I tell her she needs to find a shirt to wear under her cardigan. She leaves the clothes on the floor and quickly turns and crawls back into her bedroom. I begin to wonder what shirt she'll bring, knowing that the shirt that goes with her skirt is in the hamper. Again I listen to the sounds of her hunt for a shirt. I remind her she needs to find a shirt, the I hear "Probably, probably. . . . . . .this one!" Out from her room she comes quickly, I smile she did find a shirt. I helped Norah get dressed and told her she really needed to find a pair of tights to finish her look. We walked back into the bedroom one last time and opened her drawer, she immediately grabbed her purple tights. Perfect, don't you agree.

It inspired a fall phote shoot in our back yard . . . . . . . . . . more pictures from that later this week.

Happy Birthday, Jason!

Monday we celebrated Jason's birthday.

Yes there was a cake.

Follow by a gift I found for Jason on Etsy, what do you think? I can't wait for the first snow fall and see Jason going down the sidewalk sporting this hat.

Then the kids gave there Daddy a gift they worked on all week. Grant loved helping paint the canvas' and Norah kept trying to peek at them. Look at the corner of Norah's you can see a faint hand print that Norah left after checking on them after finishing one of the layers of paint. Then there is Mason's hand print, let's just say I am redoing his again to see if we can get it to look like and actually hand.

Happy Birthday, Jason! I am so thankful to have you as my husband & love getting to celebrate you.

Corn Maze

Last weekend we welcomed fall by visiting a corn maze. I love going through corn mazes, and could have spent all day getting lost. However, this time the practical mommy in me said that I must keep us on the route to finish because you never know when Grant will have to go to the bathroom or Mason will demand to eat.  So in order to navigate the maze the best, there were also "cornumdrums" to answer, it added some fun and learning to our outing.

It is always a hard decision to leave Norah's walker behind because she loves her independence with it. With the uneven terrain of the corn maze, we decided to leave it this time. She asked to walk and happily grabbed onto Jason's hand to walk with him down the path. My heart melted as the went down the path hand in hand.

We had so much fun navigating our way through the maze. Also, there was no shortage of painted plywood scenes to take you picture in.

Happy Fall!

72 hours later!

This morning at 9:30 am Norah and I had a date to remove all that EEG stuff.

Let's just say it was easier to keep her happy when the electrodes were being placed than when I was taking them out. If I believed in karma I would say this is payback for all the patients I have left EKG patches on in the past. I dislike taking them off my patients, it causes them pain and I don't like to inflict pain on my patients.So while the pictures depict a happy little girl, let me tell you it was noisy in our house, because on top of Norah letting me know she dislikes the removing of the EEG, Mason was reminding me it was time for him to eat.

Norah did great with her EEG, there was just a couple times very she showed signs that she wanted to take it off. She liked to show off her backpack she had to wear (I might just have to go find her a cute little backpack now). While I think it's great she didn't have any of her episodes, if she is going to have them it would be nice to have one while wearing the get up. So here we are with everything packed up and ready to drop off on Monday to have it read.

Too Young For Facial Hair?

Jason recently added the GEICO BroStache App to his phone, let's just say the kids, especially Grant, love playing with it.

Continuous EEG

For the next 72 hours, this is the look Norah is sporting.

A little fuzzy I know, but that smile melts my heart.

Norah is undergoing a continuous EEG to see if there is abnormal brain activity that may be causing some of her episodes (remember those ones that we started experiencing about 9 months ago with the tired days, head frequently on the ground, followed by vomiting, irritability and a sleepy girl). I am frustrated with the medical system that is so far behind. We had to find a new neurologist, because our old one left. The hospital was treating Norah as a new patient thus delaying her care. Had we been able to have this done back in April and May when Norah's symptoms were at their peak, it may have proved to be more helpful. Lately,  Norah's "off" days seem to be further apart between episodes and for that I am thankful.



Hiding under her scarf are 20 electrodes that are hookup to the recorder in her backpack.
Thankful we are able to do this from home instead of at the hospital.

If I had to go with my gut I think Norah either has slit ventricle syndrome (SVS) or is experiencing migraines. Getting a doctor to diagnosis SVS is difficult, and treatment for migraines is someone as young as Norah is giving her a daily medication to see if we see a change. There are two options for medications, the first is an antihistamine and the other a beta blocker. I vote for no medications at this point, or seeking out an alternative therapy. Hmm, lots of thoughts swimming around, so will stop there tonight. Hopefully, I will find Norah with all her electrodes still attached in the morning.