Life

Some notable happenings from the past few days:

1. Isabella announced that she will no longer be called, Isabella and is instead, you guess it, Bella. Since I have been itching to join the ranks of the association, Mean Moms of America, I flat out refuse to call her Bella. Later I went into her room and saw that she removed the I,S,A from the letters hanging on her wall.

2."Mommy, I really want a bunny. Can we pleeeease get a bunny?"
   "No, we are not getting a bunny."
   "But I like bunnies way more than dogs."
   "Stella, did you hear that? She says she likes bunnies more than dogs! You just made Stella cry."
   "But I really do! I don't like dogs anymore."
   "Look at Stella, she is so sad that you said that."
    And then commenced the crying because I would not get a bunny for her.

3. Monday I had a pimple on my forehead that happened to be the size of a third eyeball. While I like my children to believe that I can see everything they do, I would have passed on this pimple. Apparently it was incredibly distracting to Isabella while we were working on her math lesson:
    "What is that thing on your face?"
    "It's a pimple, don't worry about it."
    "Well, why did you get it?"
    "I don't know--I'm trying to pass as a teenager." I guess that was an acceptable answer until I was          explaining a math concept and noticed she wouldn't take her eyes off my pimple. 

4. Tuesday the kids had dentist appointments. I've been dreading Isaac's appointment since the screams that come from him during a cleaning can probably be heard in the next building. I was all geared up. Emotionally prepared for torture time, and physically prepared since I planned to remove his shoes after the extreme kicking of the last appointment. Isaac woke up crabby and I was disappointed since I'd really hoped for a good mood. I held him most of the morning until he fell asleep for an unusually early nap. I didn't think much of it since he goes to bed late, doesn't sleep well, and then wakes up early, a 9:30 a.m. nap seemed reasonable.

We got to the dentist and I could tell something was off with Isaac. I thought he would perk up when he saw the video game room and he tried to walk into the room, fell down, stood up, fell down, was screaming...they wanted me to fill out paperwork. Isaac was still screaming, and now shaking uncontrollably. I tried giving him the iPad since that usually cures a bad mood. He couldn't even hold it. Now Isabella was asking for the iPad. I snapped at her and told her to into the playroom--something was wrong with Isaac. I thought maybe it was a blood sugar thing, so I ran out to the car to get formula and a syringe. The receptionist gave me a cup...Isaac was still screaming, and shaking. They came to take Isabella back for her appointment and I couldn't decide if we should stay or go, I just told them that I needed a fork to mix that stupid formula. So there we were, screaming child, me mixing formula, Isabella upset that she may miss her long anticipated dentist appointment, then I was syringing up formula, and giving Isaac a quick two ounces. By that point I surely looked crazy. I mean, who doesn't when they are holding a lethal syringe (60cc).

I told Isabella that she could go back for her cleaning and maybe Isaac would feel better after having some formula. Meanwhile, Isaac kept pointing to the game room, but he wouldn't stand up, even with my help. I pulled a chair over and sat him in front of screen. He couldn't hold the controller, and then he started dozing off. Isaac, dozing off in front of a Lego video game definitely means something is wrong.

Well, fast forward a little bit, the dentist came out to the waiting room to have a look at Isaac. At this point, Isaac had stopped crying and was basically slouched over and his eyes kept rolling back and he kept drifting to sleep. We decided he should go to the ER, so I dropped Isabella off with my mom, and by the time we got to the ER he had a fever of 103.3, which I know isn't crazy high for kids, but he didn't have a fever until we left the dentist's office, and his symptoms were more concerning than anything else.

He had some Motrin and then started to perk up a bit. They couldn't find anything that was wrong with him, he didn't have a cough, his nose wasn't runny, his g-tube looked okay, ears were good, flu test was negative...and by that point he was saying, "bee bee" (beep beep) so that I'd move out of the way so that he could watch TV. We were discharged, and after a nap and a tube feeding, he was back to normal and wrestling with Isabella. He has not had a hint of a fever since 2:00 p.m. on Tuesday. It was all incredibly weird, and scary at the beginning since he has never acted like that or had a fever. We are thankful he is okay. It is so challenging with him since he is unable to tell us what is wrong. We've tried teaching feelings and attempt to help him pinpoint an area of discomfort, but it's virtually impossible since he does not have the verbal ability to tell us if he isn't feeling well. We've had glimpses of progress in this area, for example, when he was able to touch his g-tube and say, "ow", so we'll keep working on it.

5. I have heard more about silly putty since Sunday, than I would ever care to hear.

6. Isabella very nonchalantly told me that when I die she will not forget about me and will think about me all the time.

7. At dinner, Walter was mentioning that his annual review is this week, and we basically explained to Isabella that it is a grading system for people who work...ideally you want an A+. "Well, what if you get an F." "That probably means you're fired." "And then you have to go work at a pizza place." Anything is possible.

8. My so called facebook "friends" ruined the finale of Downton Abbey for me. Note to self: do not log on to social media outlets before having a chance to watch season finales.

 Getting ready to show Pirate Legos to Opa

The result of watching many home improvement shows with Daddy: Measuring vents...

Carrot and orange golf

Isaac was sure this remote would control his Playmobile race car

Checking for the 'on' switch

 Walter's Aunt teaches Suzuki violin, but lives too far away for us to take lessons with her. This was an impromptu Sunday lesson...

--Sierra