Benjaminisms

Benjamin is so funny sometimes. I wanted to write down some of the funny things he has said lately so enjoy!

1- While talking to his cousin PoJo: "Hey PoJo, or should I call you Root beer Head."

2- My mom and I were talking in the car and Benjamin and I had the following conversation:

Benjamin: "Mom, are you frustrated?"

Me: "no, why?"

B: "I want you to be."

M: "Do you know what happens to mommies when they are frustrated?"

B: "no"

M: "They yell, scream, and cry a lot"

B: "oh, nevermind then"

3- Getting ready to run a race: "I'll be a rotten egg after you!"

4- While going to the bathroom: "It's okay to say bum in the bathroom but not in the living room. I can talk about the bathroom pee in here too but in the living room I can only talk about the letter p."

5- "Mom, it's only okay to call things 'stupid and dumb' not people."

We're having a...!

So this past week has been very interesting but I went to the doctor today and had the ultrasound. We are having a GIRL! 100% positive, the doctor and the ultrasound tech said so. We will also be dealing with a kidney infection, kidney stones, and gall stones. I actually found this all out after going to the ER in Pocatello. We were at Taun's family reunion at my family's cabin and I was in alot of pain so I made Taun take me to the ER at 3:30 in the morning. I spent 2 days in the hospital and then went back for 1 day to the reunion. Hopefully we can just make it through the next 4 1/2 months before anything else happens. I will have to have surgery for the gall stones after the baby is born. We are just praying that everything else goes well and we get our baby girl here healthy and well.

Alexander is 2!

Alexander had a birthday, shout hooray! My baby is 2! (I guess that is okay since I will be having another baby in 5 months.) We had a party on Saturday with my family and then another party on Sunday with Taun's family. He got some really great presents and we all had a really great time at both parties. Thanks to everyone for the toys, clothes, sleeping bag, and swimming pool. Since his bithday he has slept in his BIG BOY BED everynight and today he wanted me to put underwear over his diaper. I think he will grow up before I know it.

here are some pictures from the party with Taun's family.

The grandkids kept grandpa very busy on the swingset. We kept hearing, "Grandpa, come push us!, Okay, now it's our turn!" Grandpa was pushing all the kids on the swing and they loved it!

Alexander eating his birthday cupcake.

Here are the pictures from the party with my family.

We celebrated the 3 June birthdays in my family. Taylor - 17 (my sister's oldest), Alex - 2, and Emma - 2 (my brother's 5th).

Taylor with Alex. All the kids love Taylor and he is so good to play with them.

Alex got some really cool trucks.

Another cool truck.

Now comes the fun part...the eating of the cake! He did pretty good at first...

He got a little messy...

Whoa! Give the kid a bath!

Seizure update:

He has not had any seizures since coming home from Primary Children's in May. He is still on medication and the rage comes and goes. It is so hard to know what to do when he rages because he cannot control it but I don't want to have him think that it is okay. We are so grateful that we were able to figure some things out but wish we could know the reasons he has seizures.

FISHING

Grandpa Davis took the kids fishing and we all had a blast. We only caught 2 fish but the fishermen were the 2 kids who really needed to catch a fish. Pam cast Cougar's line and within seconds he was reeling in a nice size fish. Then just as we were getting packed up to go, Pam cast another line and within seconds a fish was on the line so she handed it to Benjamin. He was so excited until it moved and then he wanted nothing to do with it.

Grandma Davis helping Alex fish.
Benjamin fishing.

Alex kissing the fish that Cougar caught.

The 2 Great Fishermen. Benjamin and Cougar with Mark.

Pictures of Alex

Taun just emailed these pictures to me. They are the only pictures we have from Alex's hospital stay. All we had with us was Taun's cell phone. His head is wrapped to help the EEG leads attached to his head for the 24 hours. He was heavily sedated in one or more of the pictures and I wondered if he would ever be normal again. He is doing much better now and he is adjusting very well to being on medication. The Keppra-rage is mostly gone and we are so relieved to have our happy little Alex back. Thanks to all of you for your phone calls, prayers and support. We love you all and hope all is well in your neck of the woods.

We're Home!

Don't have much time but I still wanted to update and Taun is not home to check for grammar so bear with me. We came home on Tuesday and Alex is making huge progress every day. When we came home he could still not walk or talk. He was still so drugged and wiped out. I am staying home the rest of this week to be with him and watch his improvement. As of today, he is walking and signing some things. I will know that he is 100% normal when he starts getting into mischief (ex: drinking from the toilet, smaking his brother, etc...)

He is on an anti-seizure medication called Keppra. They say that sometimes people who are on Keppra can get Keppra-rage. We have seen it and we don't like it. Hopefully his body will adjust to the medication and the rage will go away. He will be on Keppra for a year and then they usually taiper them off of the medication and see how they do. They also gave us Diastat to give him incase of a breakthru seizure. Without insurance, 2 doses cost $700. Thank goodness once again for insurance. I pray we never have to use it but I am glad we have it on hand incase it does happen.

Thanks to all of you for your thoughts and prayers on Alex's behalf. I am so grateful for the Priesthood and all of it's many blessings.

I will post more of the details later.

What is PICU?

The Pediatric Intensive Care Unit at Primary Children's Medical Center. Why do I care? Because that is where I am right now. Here's the story: Friday at 3:30 p.m., I am just chatting with some co-workers after a faculty meeting and my cell phone rings. It is Taun so I answer because I was interested to find out how the boys were doing (Alex was quite sick Friday morning, vomiting and really lethargic, so Taun stayed home with them). I answer the phone, and Taun says, "They are taking Alex to the hospital in an ambulance again." I run to my classroom as fast as my pregnant body will move and then to my truck and speed home. I was almost hyperventilating when I got home. I saw the ambulances and police cars at my house. I get in the ambulance and ride to the hospital. Alex had another seizure. He started playing; so Taun thought he was getting better. He laid down and shortly after let a blood curdling scream, tightened up, started shaking, his eyes were rolled back and he appeared to stop breathing. Taun called 911 and they took him to the hospital. We were in the ER for about 5 hours while they ran all the tests and x-rays (chest x-ray, blood work, rsv test--big tube shoved down nose, squirt stuff in and suck it back out). Everything looked normal so they released us (about 8:00 p.m.) and we went to get Benjamin from JeriDawn's house. Taun went in to get Benjamin, and I stayed in the car with Alex. About 6-7 minutes later I hear the same blood curdling scream, and I look back to see my baby tight and shaking with his eyes rolled back. Again, he appeared to not be breathing. I jump out of the car and scream for Taun. JeriDawn calls 911 and they Ambulance takes him back to the hospital.

The hospital kept him overnight. He started having seizures again at 4:00 AM. By his time, Logan Regional Hospital decided to transfer him to Primary Children's. He continued to have seizures every 40 minutes, in the ambulance on the way to SLC. By the time we reached Primary Children's he was having seizures every 10 minutes or so. He was given two or three different anti-seizure meds and taken to have a CAT scan. It revealed nothing was majorly wrong with his brain.

It is Sunday night and thus far he has gone through a lumbar puncture, E.C.G, MRI and continuous blood tests. He is a little more alert and not having seizures. By tomorrow he should be out of the PICU into a room in neurology.