Cooper

On Friday, Cooper had seven seizures.  

Seven.

Seven within a 15 hour stretch.

Up until then, he averaged one every 3 to 4 weeks.  Never two in one day, with the exception of the day they first started.

It was a really scary day.  

They weren't even his "normal" kind of seizures.  

Each seizure got worse. 

After the 4th one he started ramming himself into corners and overall just not functioning right.  He couldn't walk straight and he could barely stay upright on the tile floor. 

He was also eating everything in sight--food or not.  Unfortunately, we didn't realize that until we were on our way to the vet and he had already eaten my volume control knob, half of a pencil--it broke as I ripped it from his grips--, and heaven knows what else that I didn't catch in time.  He was working on Luke's seatbelt when we finally made it to the vet.  He was so bad it was almost funny.

It was less funny when I realized he may be like this from here on out.  I've spent a great deal of time following him around ripping things out of his mouth.  He's extremely forceful about it.  I'm worried for him--and for our things.     

By the end of the night he was completely wiped out.  It's a side effect of the new medicine, plus seizures are really hard on the body.  I was grateful to have him settled, but it was scary to see him so unresponsive.

I think the worse thing was that the boys were front and center for everything.  Henry was especially worried about him.  I hate that they had to see him like that, but I was so, so grateful to not be on my own through it.  They were huge helps.  

Fortunately I had the snow to take some of the boys focus off of what was happening. 

It helped balance things out.

Ben made it home from Michigan a few hours after the last seizure.  It was a shock for him to see the state Cooper was in.  It was probably worse to have to hear what was happening and know there was nothing he could do.

Coop has been doing better since.  He's had no seizures, but every once in awhile his legs will give out and he can't walk.  That's been kind of scary, but after awhile they start working again.

He's also either wandering around like he can't get settled, forcefully going after food, or completely conked out.  There's no real in between.

He's just a little off.

I'm praying it's the new medicine that's causing it, but Ben and I are both pretty certain that the brain tumor--that's the most likely cause of everything--has spread enough that it's now affecting him in more ways than just an occasional seizure.  

This may be his new normal.

I just pray that we will know when he's had enough.

We're just not quite ready to give up on him.

Snowed In!!

We've gotten a ton of snow over the last few day--14+ inches, actually!!!

We should have a snow like this every year!

It's been fabulous!

We spent Thursday being completely snowed in!  I was the most lovely, lazy day.  We'd play in the snow a bit and shovel the drive, then we'd come in to re-energize a bit and marvel at how quickly the drive filled back up with snow.  It was incredible how quick it was coming down!  Before too long we would head back out to do it all again!

I must say, having kids old enough to manage snow gear on their own makes everything INFINITELY BETTER! 

Friday and today have been spent making the most of all the snow we have!  It's a never ending amount!!

We made a mini sledding hill on the side of our drive, a massive snow condo,--each boy has his own little cubbie--a snow fort for Ben and I, a big snowman, and there is still a massive amount of snow left!

We are absolutely making the most it!

Ben missed out on all the fun Thursday and Friday--he abandoned us for a week to go ice fishing in Wisconsin--but he made it back for the fun today!

It's been great!  I really hate for it to melt away!

Whoo! Whoo!

The boys took a class about owls a couple of Saturdays ago.

I hung out, too.

I didn't realize how very little I actually knew about them until that day--including how very small and curious screech owls are!

The highlight of the class, though, was getting to dig mouse bones out of owl pellets.

Even I thought that was pretty neat!

Packages!

We came home to a pile of packages on the porch yesterday!

It was a lovely sight!

Today, there were two more delivered!

They are all storage bins that I ordered for the boys' closets.

It's all really exciting stuff!  Seriously!

I've got one of the boys' rooms redone top to bottom and I'm getting ready to move on to the next!  

The most exciting part of the revamp is the closets!  I'm finally getting all the shelves painted white and making sure that everything has a proper home/bin.   Plus, I've added a couple of shelves to Ben's to-do list.  Once he gets those put up, I"m really going to be in love!

Goodbye messy, hodge-podge closets.....Hello sanity!

Ringing in the New Year

It snowed on New Years Eve!

We thought we would have snow on Christmas, but New Years is the next best thing!

Since the streets were bound to be slippery, we decided to stay home for the night.  We played a couple of different games, gambled away some of our quarters, and then introduced the kids to Napoleon Dynamite!

By 10:30, Luke and Ben were out.  Party Poopers!  Henry, Josh, and I stayed up and watched the activities in Times Square.

By the time it was midnight, Josh was too tired to get proper shoes on, so he stayed inside crying, and I was just plain to cold to go outside longer than it took to watch a couple of fireworks and bang my pot a time or two.

Henry was the only really festive one!  

He banged his pot and celebrated in the front yard with the neighbors.  They rewarded him with a New Years hat and some black eyed peas!

 

By New Years morning there was enough snow to shovel AND to go sledding!

After Mass, we all bundled up in our warmest clothes, aired up the snow tubes and headed out!  

We went sledding first.  It was the best sledding we've ever had!

The snow wasn't deep enough that we had to tromp thorough it, but it was iced over a bit so our sleds would speed down!  It was perfect!!

There weren't even any tears from anyone--a first for us--despite the fact that we were all trying to run each other over on our way down the hill!

It was just blissful family fun!

After  sledding we headed to Great Grandmas and then to Gigi's to shovel their drives and sidewalks.

Everyone wanted to help shovel.  Unfortunately we have one really great shovel and one really crummy one.  We need to buy a couple more good ones, so there won't be sad boys after the next snow.

Everyone got a turn, though, and we were even rewarded with hot cocoa at Gigis!

We also decided to reward ourselves with lunch out at a pizza joint!  Delish!

Usually that would be enough fun for one day, but once we got home Josh, Henry and I met some up with some friends at the skating rink--Luke and Ben were too cool to join us!

It was probably against my better judgment to take a broken armed boy roller skating, but we'd already gone sledding, which is just as bad.  Plus, we weren't going to let a broken arm stand in the way of fun!  

(Let's all just say a prayer that it's healed correctly when it finally comes off!)

Once we got home, Ben swept the boys off to a movie to round out our day!  They even got to eat dinner there--quite a treat!  

We kicked the year off right--a jam packed day of fun!  Hopefully it will set the tone for the rest of our year!

"Be Kind" and "Have Fun"--that's the focus for us this year!

Christmas 2012

We made it through another Christmas!

I continually felt behind--more so than usual.  

My Christmas cards got out late, I never managed to get my mantle decorated, and I did the majority of my shopping the week before Christmas, but I wasn't stressed and nothing seemed chaotic, so I'm chalking it up as a successful one!

Henry got the camo compound bow that he had been dreaming about!  He was ecstatic!  He needs to build up some muscle, but he's slowly getting it!  Santa also brought him a pair of chest waders.  He's desperate to  walk into the lake! 

Sadly Josh Oliver did not get the new puppy that he was dreaming of.  Santa agreed with me and told him that we already have two dogs that really need all of our love and attention right now, but he left Josh a bunch of dog treats so that he could try to convince either Maggie or Cooper to be only his dog.  He hasn't had much luck so far!  Maybe if he was more willing to pick up there poop......!  Santa also left him a bunch of art supplies which he totally loves!  

We also gave him a dream light puppy.  I had the worst time trying to track that thing down, but I knew he probably wasn't getting the one thing he really wanted so I had to make sure he got #2 on his list.  He was happy!  He wasn't even too upset about not getting a real puppy!

Other than the whole Santa debacle, this was my very favorite Christmas for Luke.  

This year he decided to buy everyone presents with his own money.  He put so much thought into the things he bought and asked to look over his brothers lists.  He even spent a day just shopping with me--that really was a huge sacrifice for him!

In the end he bought Ben a fancy bluetooth for one of his playstation games, a pretty scarf for me, monster trucks for Josh, and binoculars for Henry.  Out of the $65 he started, he spent all but $5 of it.  

I absolutely love that kid!

Taking all that into account, Santa brought him a Kindle Fire.  He was ecstatic and beyond surprised!  

I'm a big believer in making kids work and save for things like that, but sometimes those kinds of gifts are justifiable--plus I had to easy my guilt about the whole Santa thing!

*     *     *     *     *

Church was really central for us this year, more so than usual, I think.

Luke served a Christmas Eve Mass, Christmas Day Mass, the day after Christmas, and New Years Day Mass.  Plus there was another Sunday Mass in the mix.

It was a lot for Luke, but I loved that it helped us, as a family, keep the focus on the real meaning of Christmas.

That's Not What I Paid For....Is It?

I like my boys' hair short.

Summer is my favorite when they get it buzzed super short!

Unfortunately, we let them go a little to long between hair cuts and they all discovered how fun it is to have hair long enough to spike.

The desperately needed haircuts, but they all refused.

In the spirit of compromise, I offered to let them go to someone other than the Jonker Boy Barber--aka Ben.

Forty five dollars later--that's why it's a special treat!--they all had nice haircuts that they could still spike and style how they wanted.

Three hours later, I was chatting with Ollie and noticed this:

He was super, super mad when he ended the day with a short summer buzz cut.

It will be awhile before he gets anything but a Daddy Special!