"I'm not dead yet...." (Monty Python's quote)

Here is the story and an update: (from Bryan's prospective)

Friday afternoon Stephanie was at school in training on got very dizzy and blacked out. The school sent her to the doctors and she decided to go to her regular GP in Gig Harbor. Anna drove her there, but once she arrived, she started having convulsions and what appeared to be seizures. (Later we found out that they were pseudo-seizures as they look exactly like seizures, but are not caused by the same events and do not cause the same damage to the brain.) They then called 911 to have her taken to St. Joseph's in Tacoma as they were also unable to control her heart rate.

The ER doctor dismissed it early on as a psychosomatic situation but did blood work to make sure nothing came up. He had no idea what caused it but said it was not life threatening and was do probably to stress, medicine interaction, allergies, or a perfect storm of all three. They gave her Adivan for seizures thinking that would hold her till Monday. He recommended we contact her neurologist Monday to be seen. We were home an hour before she started feeling worse and this time we went to St. Anthony's which had only been opened 4 days.

We were at St. Anthony's from 10 pm to 5 am. They ran all the blood work over and did two CT scans, one with contract and one without. The ER doctor was very nice and saw her pseud-seizures and was trying to help. He explained that they ruled out strokes, seizures which could cause brain damage, and a laundry list of other things and determined that it had to be neurological but would have to be addressed with a neurologist.

Mike and Nancy were in town for the day on Friday for a doctors appointment but once they heard, they stayed in town to see what was going on. They ended up coming down to help Friday night. They stayed the night and then took Evie to Wenatchee with them so I could focus on helping Steph.

While I was at work on Saturday, Anna and Tanya came to stay with Steph and ended up taking her back to St. Anthony's. They were not doing much so I started making calls, to the Nurse, PA, and Neurologist. Finally they decided to admit her t St. Joseph's in Tacoma. She has been here since. She was having pseudo-seizures every 30 minutes for a while. Eventually, they gave her Adivan to control the seizures. Monday the attending finally listened to what Steph had to say regarding her Topamax dosage which stopped the seizures. However, we have a new issue that has come up. They are having issues with her pulse and blood pressure. Her pulse is remaining between 90-120 bpm and her blood pressure has been 80/40. This is where we currently are.

Thank you to all who have been praying, taking turns sitting with Steph at the hospital, stopped by to say hi, done laundry, and cleaned our house. Taken our daughter to Wenatchee so we could focus on Steph's health. You all mean more than we will ever be able to show!

Judged in public

I have been fighting a nasty cold for several weeks and since I have yet to sleep at night due to horrible coughing spells and having a difficult time breathing, I decided to go to the local clinic this morning while I had a husband around (he took Evie to church.) When I arrived at the clinic, they were most displeased with my lack of air movement and promptly decided to treat me for pneumonia. My husband met me at the clinic as I was leaving since he had to go to work; we made a kid swap and Evie and I made our way to Target where I could procure my bag of medication.

The pharmacy, being the only one in the area open on a Sunday was a bit swamped and was going to require a 30 minute wait. So she and I wandered around the store. It was past lunch time and into the nap hour. I grabbed a box of goldfish crackers and let her begin to eat, but she soon lost interest. I put them in the cart and told her she could walk with me.

She preferred to push the cart, which was fine with me, we had nothing to do, and it kept her entertained and in front of me.

All was well for the first 25 minutes. The last five seemed just too much for the little tot and she wanted to run. I squatted down to her eye level, put my hands on her shoulders and told her she had to hold my hand, or the cart, or I would put her back in it. She whimpered for a second and said she wanted to push, so I let her. This lasted about 30 seconds when she began to stray again. I pulled the cart over and told her she needed to hold my hand.

I really had no objective, I was simply trying to kill time until the pharmacy called my name (we were circling the area) I was just not about to let her run free.

We were by the greeting card section and I noticed they had Easter cards, so I asked her if she'd like to pick one out for Mamaw, she liked that idea, so we walked over to the bottom row of grandparents cards and I let her pick one...she found one she liked, and started kissing it. Perfect. I told her we could go now, and of course this is when things really took a turn.

She didn't want to go, so I quietly grabbed her hand and led her back to the cart, she sat on the floor. I scooped her up and placed her in the cart. During this time, I had pulled over to the side to stay out of traffic, but apparently this was amusing to other people as they just stood there, watching. I now had an audience as I dealt with my tired, hungry, cranky 20 month-old while I waited for my prescriptions.

I told Evie she had to sit down on her bottom, she cried and arched her back. I gently but firmly pulled her little legs down so she would have to sit in the cart, but as I went to sit her down I noticed the greeting card under her; she grabbed it and chucked it out of the shopping cart. At this point, a woman standing behind me observing the entire situation said "ohhh noooo."

Another woman, also standing by watching and scowling, sighed heavily.

I secured Evie in the seat, walked red-faced in front of the crowd of spectators to pick up the crumpled card and envelope which had fallen a few feet away from the cart and right in front of the shoes of one of the women. As I bent over, the crowd of women all stood there, arms crossed, jaws clenched, judgment dripping off their faces, glaring down at me.

Evie was now quiet, sucking her thumb and twirling her hair. I walked back to her and the cart, gently placed the card in the back of the cart, stroked her hair and pushed her over to the pharmacy counter.

The people sighed, shook their heads in disgust and finally walked away.

I'm not really sure why all women were standing around watching me with scowls and sighs. I never screamed at my kid, I wasn't shaking her or pummeling her. I kept my voice low and calm, I got down to her level. I remained consistent and I didn't give in to her tyrannical behavior. There are days when I completely suck as a mother, but this was not one of those times. At least not that I know of.

Yes, my daughter was being difficult, but she was tired and hungry, and truth be told she was still not throwing a full-on fit. She wasn't screaming or kicking or hitting, all of which she is very capable of. She threw a card arched her back and cried for less than a minute. She was tired and she was hungry, and she was acting out because of it. I was making her do something she was barely capable of doing because I had to get the prescriptions; the pharmacy closes early on Sundays.

It made me realize that there have been times in the past, before I had a child that I would find myself annoyed at people who would wander around the store with their screaming children. I would never stand there and gasp at them, or say anything, but I know I would express my annoyance later at home "why do they have to bring their kids to the store when they're cranky? Just take them to the car if they're throwing a fit!"

HA. The wisdom of a childless parent. I would like to take this moment and apologize for any bad thoughts I had prior to being a parent myself.

I would like to say though, I would never just stand there and watch a woman suffer with her kid; I have NEVER made comments to another parent about their child, and if I saw a mom struggling with a kid, and the kid threw something out into the middle of the aisle, I would certainly pick it up and hand it back to the mother; that's just basic courtesy.

More "funny" anecdotes from toddlerland

The teacher @ Evie's daycare/preschool gave us a CD a few months ago with all the songs the kids sing and dance to during the day. Evie LOVES this CD and knows all the words and the moves, as can be seen in the video posted a few weeks ago.
She now requests the music to dance to every day, sometimes several times. The title of the CD is "Kids in Action," but to Evie, it is simply called "Accshonnn!!!" (Action)

She usually just walks to the piano and points toward the iPod dock on top, saying "Action" over and over until we get it, but today we were up in my bedroom; we have no iPod dock in there. She found a stack of CDs on my dresser and started handing them to me one at a time. When I told her they were Mommy's and not to be touched, she very seriously said,
"Mommy, Action?" And then made the "sign" for please. Apparently all CDs are her Kids in Action CD.

*******
Since she had her tubes put in, we haven't been able to give her a bath as, according to the doctor, bath water is the dirtiest water ANYWHERE and very risky for infection. So we give her showers. Evie LOVES her showers; if it were up to her, she would live in the shower. This is great until it is time for shower time to end. Then mass hysteria ensues.

It wasn't until this weekend that I figured out a way to get her out of the shower without her being completely devastated. When we were in the shower, I told her that the water was getting "very tired" and was going to need a nap. She said "oh noo."
I said, "yes, the water is soo tired washing us, it needs to take a nap, so we need to be verrry quiet, and let it sleeep."

We turned off the water, I put my finger over my mouth and made the "shhh" sound; she did the same thing. Then together we tip-toed out of the shower, which she thought was great fun.
When a few droplets fell out of the shower head a few seconds after we had exited and made a drip-drip drip noise on the shower floor, Evie was quick to turn and "shhhhh!!!!" it.

Since then, there has no longer been any crying or protesting when leaving the shower, as long as we say "night, night, shower," all is well.

The things we will do, to get kids to go along with us.

Tomato soup for the soul

Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Out of the mouths of babes..

There is a really bad flu bug working its way through the public school system; I finally caught it Thursday and took Friday off to lay in bed and moan. Bryan took Evie to daycare but when they got home, they came bounding into our bedroom, as I was in bed with a fever of 103 degrees.

Evie promptly clamored up in bed with me, crawled up next to me, gave me a hug and then asked the following question:

"Hi Mommy! Is ya poopie?"

"No, I'm not poopie, are you?"

"Nope!"

I guess this is what we ask her every time we greet her when she wakes up.

How to make a teacher's head spin backward

Would you like to know how to make a regular kindly, fun-loving teacher turn into your favorite head-spinning horror flick character?

It's simple really, all you need is the following equation:

-One classroom full of roughly thirty, 12-13 year-old, hormone-filled students

-Add candy

-Make it a holiday based solely on the acquisition of more candy, other sugar-filled sweets and romance.

-Add cards, stuffed animals and balloons arriving in your classroom all day.

-Make it the day AFTER a dance.

-Make it Friday; the 13th.

-Make it the last day of school before a week-long vacation.

With these ingredients, you have yourself a recipe for complete teacher melt-down:

After spending most of the day trying in vain to still TEACH them SOMETHING, you finally acquiesce the last 30 minutes of the day and say "to heck with it!"

You let the students open their gifts and eat their treats, as long as they SIT IN A CHAIR. You really don't care which chair, as long as they are sitting.

This works for the first 10-15 minutes, but then you notice some kids are starting to toss chips at one another like monkeys and now two of the male students in your class are shoving full fist loads of sweet hearts in their mouths at once (apparently they are having a contest to see who can fit as many in their mouths as possible.)

You sternly tell them to go spit it all out, and they, on the way to the trash can, inadvertently knock over a cup full of orange soda, which you NEVER allow in your room, but another teacher HAS allowed them to have, so you are trying to go with the flow and not be a complete and total hard ass.

Now there is sticky orange soda spill on the floor, and you notice, while you demand the spill be wiped, that there are chips crumbs ground into the carpet, at which point you become your mother and declare:

"OKAY, THAT IS IT! everybody STOP what you are doing and start CLEANING UP!!!" You then stomp around the room like a wild maniac, pointing out all the spills, ground food particles and candy wrappers on the floor, demanding the children clean them up immediately.

Other students who were sitting and talking quietly are looking at you like you've lost your mind; some are laughing, some are rolling their eyes, and comments are being made about how the fun is now all ruined.

You then say, "Your RIGHT, the fun IS being ruined by people who cannot handle the privilege of food in the room! This is precisely WHY I don't let you have parties! "



Ahhh yes. You can see the eyes rolling now. I'm rolling my eyes myself.

But it was said today, and there is no taking it back now. The children were being wild sugar-loaded monkeys and I could see things were only headed to utter disaster, and so I, the big bad teacher, turned into Attila the Hun (or Dr. Kill Joy) and I ruined their good time.

Bring on the vacation.

It's all about timing

Scene:
I'm cleaning up after dinner, loading the dishwasher, Evie is playing in the Tupperware drawer inside the pantry. My friend Anna is over, hanging out, Bryan has not yet come home.

Anna and I are chatting when we hear a crash, we look over at Evie, who has pulled a clear plastic canister of pretzels down from the bottom shelf of the pantry; pretzels are now strewn all over the kitchen floor.

Evie: "UH-OH!!!

ME: "Evie, what are you doing?"

Anna: (Joking) "Evie, WHERE is YOUR MOTHER?!?"

Evie: looks up at Anna, puts both hands in the air, raises both shoulders, cocks her head to the side and says in a quizzical voice-
"I dunno!"

A new dance video

Make photo slide shows at www.OneTrueMedia.com

What I know so far

1) Trying to understand the food likes and dislikes of a toddler is a losing battle.

2) Routines are fantastic until you try to break them.

3) If provided the choice, the answer will be "no," more often than not.

4) Elmo has magical powers.

5) As soon as you brag that your child can do something or has broken a habit, they will make a liar out of you.

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"Miss Sassy Pants"

Evie is now known as "Miss Sassy Pants" at her daycare/preschool. She has become the self-appointed boss of all the other children, leading them in all activities, games and into all kinds of trouble.

She is often the first child in the class to try new things, such as climbing on to the top of the table, or scaling the outside of a playhouse.

When other kids get into trouble, Evie takes it upon herself to "teach" them.

The other day, her teacher was redirecting another child in the class when he was doing something dangerous, (most likely something her learned from Evie,) apparently Evie was standing alongside the teacher, "assisting." The teacher told Evie, "I don't need your input," at which point Evie turned to the teacher and continued jabbering, only now at the adult.

I have no idea WHERE she gets it.