My baby's gonna be 1...

My sweet baby boy is going to be one tomorrow!! I can hardly believe it. Time sure does fly by. He is being sweet as ever today. Smiling, waving, saying HI MOMMA.... with his little arm way in the air. So sweet! I love him so much. He is sportin' a battle wound for his first birthday. We wasn't being so sweet yesterday... he threw our little Walmart shopping cart at Sophia yesterday then tried to jump over it onto her and he fell and the cart cut above and below his eye. He is lucky that it didn't get in his eye! That crazy boy!! :)
We are having a party at the park for him. We have invited family and friends to come celebrate with us. I'll have lots of pictures to share! We are having a crayon themed party. I made centerpieces with coloring books, crayons, tissue paper and ribbon... the kids can take them home after the party as party favors. I was pretty proud of myself for that idea. My friend Kelly has made him a cake that looks like a box of crayons- she is soo talented! Email me if you want her contact info for a cake she is very reasonably priced and does a great job!
Sophia is doing great with her meds, we are down to 1ml of trileptal, no diastat, and no clonezepam. She is so happy and alert. Seems like she is able to process and handle things without being so highly emotional. The test is the week of Halloween. By next week she should be totally weaned off of the Trileptal.
Thank you for your emails, thoughts, and prayers. Hope everyone is having a wonderful week and wishing you all a great weekend.

If you were on a deserted island and could only take one thing what would it be?

First response to this question was....
TONY! He can build a fire with sticks. ;)
He really can.. he is quite the survivalist. Do you guys ever watch Man vs. Wild? I swear that man, Bear, makes the Crocodile Hunter roll over in his grave, did you know he killed and ate an alligator on the last episode!? Well, I think that Bear guy is Tony's favorite person on TV. So, my first answer to what I would take with me on a deserted island? Tony! What would you take?? First thing to come in your mind??

Now, Sophia is doing alright with the medication changes. I think she may have had some seizure activity today though, it's so hard to tell. We have been gradually weaning off and up until this point I haven't noticed anything abnormal. Tony and I are very hypersensitive to her though. I picked her up from school and she was crying, which she never is, she said her tummy was hurting but she was pointing to her heart, ate her lunch, looked kind of gray, said she wanted her doctor, really cranky... then she got a bath (disinfected) before nap time... seemed fine, but I noticed her eye was droopy which happens when she has seizures, don't really know what all that was about!? She is sleeping now though and went to bed happy.
On the positive side she seems to be much more alert and a bit hyper at times, sometimes has a hard time focusing, tells me she feels hyper... but soo happy! That makes me feel good.
It's so bittersweet. I love seeing her weaning of the medication and the possibilities of not being on medication, then this... the episodes, the unknown. I just want to get through the test and go from there. So hard not to get excited about her not being on medication, but I have to remind myself that she may need it, this episode today reminded me of that.
The teacher at school said she was building and tower with blocks and someone knocked it over, they said she got really upset about it... might have been something that triggered this episode.
Goodness, I need a nap! ;)
Hope everyone is having a lovely yet prayerful day...

Send up your prayers today for families who have an angel in heaven.

Life Lessons...

Everyday something new... We have been having the most amazing sermon series "till death do us part", obviously a marriage series. This has been an amazing three weeks of learning. Sunday they showed this video...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ED2ZnQ5rFIY
Very powerful! I hope you will take time to watch it.
More on this later but know that "powerful God things" are happening here. ;)

One more and Updates!

This is an old one too but too cute not to share...


BTW, things are going great weaning Sophia off of her seizure medication. She seems so much more active, energetic, and sweet! ;) Thanks for your prayers! Keep praying.
Also, Maciee is going to be back at school tomorrow! Chantal is at home waiting for the birth of her daughter, luckily she doesn't have to stay at the hospital, but her hubby says she is bored out of her mind, miserable, laying in the bed at home (obviously on bedrest) anywho, thank you for your prayers!

Trying Somethin...

I made a youtube account...
Check out Sophia doing the "diaper wiggle" when she was a little younger and she had a full diaper she used to do a diaper shake dance. ;)

Sophia weaning off seizure meds

I updated earlier about the neurologist calling with a date for Sophia's EEG study. I spoke with them again later in the day and they informed me that I needed to start weaning her off of all seizure meds as of tomorrow. At first I was over joyed at the thought, then quickly came the overwhelming fear of what the 5 days before the EEG that she will have no meds in her system will be like. It was been about a year and a half since I have seen her on no seizure meds. During that time she had febrile seizures and absence seizures and focal seizures... needless to say I am slightly nervous. Also, so excited at the possiblity of seeing this beautiful girl off of all medicaiton. If during this time and the 72 hour study she has no seizure activity there is a possiblity that they will keep her off of the Trileptal and only use the Diastat and Clonezapam as needed. Lots of things to think about, I am going to try and not think about it... :)
I took some darling pictures of the kids today but I left my camera in Troy's room and I am not going to chance trying to get it and accidently wake him. So look for a picture blog from me tomorrow documenting our fun night while the kids were helping me make dinner, breakfast for dinner, pancakes.

We got our date...

Sophia will be going into the hospital on the 27th for a three day EEG study. I am nervous about it but will be right by her side. This will be the longest I will have been away from Troy and it makes me sad to think about. The hospital is in another city and I really don't want Troy in the dirty hospital anyway. So he will stay home with Daddy and Mimi, as they will take turns caring for him. I'll write more on this later but wanted to update those of you who were waiting to know if and when we were going to do this.

Call me a "Hater" and then something really cool...

So, call me a "hater" but I have to say this. I have watched Hulk Hogan since I was a young child. I watched Hogan Knows Best on MTV, I am a reality TV junkie. As I write this I am watching RW/RR Challenge: The Island. I have always been pretty indifferent to the show. I think they are funny, stupid, spoiled, and at times real. I pity both families who were involved in the car accident with Nick Hogan. They are people, they make mistakes and I am not going to pass judgement in such a horrible situation.
Like I said, pretty indifferent, and I have never written anything like this... but... it must be said! Sunday night was the spin off from Hogan Knows Best with Brooke Hogan, called Brooke Knows Best. I have been watching the show for a while now. It is my "mindless entertainment", I need to unwind and watch something that means nothing once I get the kids to sleep. All day, Tony and I text message and follow the stock market, the election, the important things... but at night, I just can't sleep after watching a story about a missing child or a father who murdered his family and then killed himself because of economic hardships... thus, I watch reality television. Let me say, I did NOT sleep well after watching Brooke Knows Best on Sunday night.
Until this time I was indifferent, I just didn't care... it was entertaining and didn't give me that hollow feeling in the pit of my stomach. However, this week's episode, incase you didn't see it (I hope you didn't share the pain with me) but it was Brooke Hogan considering going to college. During the episode she was taken to meet with a guidance counsellor, she sat through a college literature class, she saw the dorm rooms, and off course she went to a bonfire and got to meet some other college students. Now, sounds like a good episode right? WRONG! She was so incredibly spoiled acting, which is not a surprise, that's the common thread in every episode.. however, she acted more spoiled and more snotty than I have ever seen. She mocked the guidance counsellor, was disrespectful to the employees and the students. You could tell she thought she was being cute... since when has acting less intelligent and just plain rude become a trait that young women should thrive for and think is attractive?
You know being a young woman in her position, she has media attention, she has seen her fair share of hurt and upset in the situation with her brother and her parents divorce... she could be a strong, independent, professional, fun, happy, sexy, energetic, young woman and really be an example for other young women... or even be a selfish, spoiled stink that lives in a Miami penthouse and doesn't do anything for the world but have a pointless show and makes bad pop music. Instead she has gone to a college and degraded everyone practically everyone she came in contact with. Picked fun at the living conditions in the dorm rooms, acting above everyone.
Does she not realize that there are young people who pray that they will get accepted to college, pray that their scholarships or grants will go through, people who work full time to pay for one class a semester while they take care of a family, people who never have the opportunity to go to college... then you have Brooke Hogan who instead of using the opportunity to give credit, admiration, and clarity to the role of students in a college setting, she made it seem like that life was for middle class citizens with nothing better to do. Mocking the living conditions like she was too good for that kind of life. I am sure college literature isn't the most thrilling class, but don't be so disrespectful as to fall asleep, phone ringing... disrupting the class. It wasn't funny, it wasn't entertaining, that show was annoying!
Don't even get me started on Paris Hilton's My New BFF show...
But, seriously... what horrible example for our young women in today's society. I'll tell you I don't want my daughter thinking an ignorant and condescending attitude is at all attractive.
OK, I promise never to do a post like this again.. but I had to get it out. :)
Now, let me add something really special... October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, now regardless of your (or my) political stance this was a really cool thing that happened at the White House last night. :)

"Jello in hees mouff"

Troy got his first bloody lip last night. In my opinion, at 11 months old as active as this child is for this to be the first bloody lip, we have done pretty good protecting his little face. Last night the kids were playing in Troy's room while I was running back and forth trying to get them dressed for bed. It was kind of late because we had ballet last night and the later it gets the more wobbly Troy becomes. He was walking around his room like a little drunk man and smacked right into the side of his crib. I was in the other room making a bottle and Sophia comes in and says "Troy has jello in hees mouff."
I ran in the room to find him screaming only to find blood in his mouth and all over his jammies. I grabbed a burp cloth and the mommy in me took over. I explained to Sophia that the red stuff wasn't jello, it was blood. She was explaining what happened to Troy to her grandma on the phone and it went something like this...
"And Troy bumped hees mouff, then he had bloud in hees mouff, then he was screamin', and his teeff were bleedin', then momma put a rag in hees mouff, and he was cryin', then it yooked yike jello in he's mouff"
Troy is alright and we are defiantly going to work on the L sounds, the W, the TH, and those stinky pronouns... :)

Updates on Prayer Requests...

Maciee is doing good. Hopefully they will be going home from children's hospital today or tomorrow. They did find that she had a virus that attacked her brain causing nuerological symptoms. From what I hear she is on antibiotics, doing much better and the swelling in her brain is going down., God Bless them! I am so relieved that she will be ok and they are coming home.
As for my friend, Chantal, she is still in the hosptial waiting to have that baby girl. They are going to keep her until the birth of the baby. She isn't on steroids anymore... basically from what I hear they are just waiting for the baby to be born.
Thank you for your prayers.
God Bless.