This and That

Sweet Gavin
Last week Gavin had another febrile seizure. He had his 18 month vaccinations the day before and while he hadn't HAD any fever, his legs were SOOOOO sore the next morning (3 shots) that he wouldn't put any weight on them until cold compresses had been applied and he had had his tylenol. Apparently, just after his nap his fever spiked in a very short amount of time and he had a seizure in his high chair. Tess called us freaking out, which of course made me FREAK OUT. We turned around from going to pay for our tax work and came to pick Gavin up to head to the Dr. By the time we got home, he was doing better, but was obviously confused and not feeling super great. By the time we got to the dr. he was eating raisins and giggling. We have a nuerology appointment in mid-may just to make sure there is nothing else we should be worrying about.

In the meantime, i spoke with a Dr. who works at Cornell here in Education City who is a professor of nuerology who was very reassuring. Basically, the brain creates pathways when kids are young to help it learn how to respond to things (to blow kisses when you do, to learn to clap hands to a beat, etc). The way dear Dr. Basim explained it to me is that his brain has begun to develop pathways to respond to fever. Unfortunately, when a fever spikes in Gavin, the brain is "learning" to respond by having a seizure if it goes up very quickly. At this point, it may not be how HIGH the fever goes, but how quickly it begins to rise that is the issue. So he said we just need to avoid spiking fevers. OK, easy to say, difficult to do since kids don't come with a warning bell system. Needless to say, the more spiking fevers he has, and the more seizures he has, the more likely his brain will respond to a spiking fever by having a seizure. This does not mean he is more likely to have a seizure disorder (i.e. epilepsy) later in life, it just means until he is about 5 or 6, we have to be hyper-vigilent about every illness and vaccination. . . Forgive me my psycho-ness when I talk about fevers . . .

Brady is a Wild Thing and Aidan knows what happens if you Give a Pig a Party

Explanation for the footy PJs when it is already in the mid 90s during the day and in the high 70s at night: Aidan seemed like he had developed ring worm on his feet recently. After he had woken up from a nap i noticed he had these WEIRD rings all over the bottom of his feet. NO IDEA where he got it from, but thanks to prompt application of jock itch cream and having him wear socks for a week, we don't think it passed on to everyone else, and it seems to have gone away . . . i think this might be the first time we haven't had illness/fungus passed from one kid to the next - score one for mom and dad.

Brady shows me his tongue

Brady has become quite the mimicker these days. You can pretty much get him to try to say anything you ask him to - "oopsie daisey" "hey you" "night night". Tonight when we were leaving Applebee's, he points at the sign as i'm buckling him in and says "apple.apple.apple" I finally realized he was pointing at the apple symbol and of course gave him lots of praise for recognizing it - very cool to see your kid putting the pieces together. When we drove into our compound Brady says something to the effect of "hmmm HOME" but in the sing song manner we do when we say "we're Home!". All of the boys are mastering "ouchie" - it's MUCH nicer than the whining or crying we used to have with little bumps and bruises. Brady hasn't quite figured out that you are supposed to directly refer to the body part that has been injured and pretty much always rubs his head even if it's his fingers that have been mashed or his foot when he tripped over something.

It may look disgusting, but it is SWEET POTATOES (Aidan, Gavin)

While Gavin is a bit more delayed with talking, he is DEFINITELY understanding what we are saying and asking him. He is pointing to lots of items in books, and pretty much all body parts - even mommy's belly button when she isn't expecting it! I've decided to start getting the boys to do some "chores" around the house. We are starting small - they each take their PJs to the laundry in the morning. So far we are 2 for 3 . . . :) In other exciting news, we are down to one nap per day. We basically just decided to do it after NO ONE slept sunday afternoon and they were a little bit of a nightmare that night before bed. For the last 2 days they have stayed up all morning and are going down around 1230PM and sleeping until 3 or 330. And they have been doing really well at bed time! they still walk themselves down the hall to go to bed, but they aren't in complete breakdown mode where they just NEEDED to be asleep - thank goodness for that . . . We have both noticed even Tess and Marie seem more rested with them sleeping this long in the afternoon :) I'm looking forward to this - now we can make some attempt to go out and about in the morning without feeling like we will all suffer for it later - VERY EXCITING! :)