Caleb's First ER Trip

This past Monday, Caleb woke up with a fever from a cold. The day before, David had taken Josiah to the doctor to check up on his cold (which had lasted a week) and it turns out he was fine. However, the doctor gave the advice that when children have a fever (even up to 106 degrees) that it is wise to wait it out for the first three days and not give Tylenol or Motrin, so that the fever can kill the virus off quicker. Taking that advice, I did notice Caleb's temp increased steadily throughout the day though didn't seem to "spike," (as that would be an indication for febrile seizures) once taken under the arm 101.5 (add a degree) and then later 103.5. I was very tempted to give him Motrin as he was very lethargic and whatnot, but he was so sleepy and so I just let him sleep instead. Soon after he fell asleep on the chair, I heard him start to cry and so I ran over to see what had happened. He was having a febrile seizure, and so I quickly called for David (who was working from home that day) and he came out to care for him while I searched for the phone to dial 911.

When the firemen came, they checked his vitals and his temp was 104.7 in the ear!! His heartrate was of course elevated and he seemed to still be asleep afterward as he wasn't responding well to us or the fireman. Once he cooled down a bit (they took off his pants and got a cold cloth for his head) he sort of woke up and then started to cry again when he saw the fireman. He said at that point that we should give him a dose of Motrin, so I got that out for him. The paramedic soon arrived with the ambulance and took down all the information, and then advised us to have him go to the ER since it was his first seizure. Also, he was still very out of it and they said it would be best to transport him in the ambulance in case he had another seizure...I wasn't arguing with that. He looked horrible at this point! I called our babysitter's mom and got them to come over to watch the other two kiddos and rode in the ambulance to the hospital and then when the babysitters arrived, David also came to the hospital in the car.

It turns out that David got to Tacoma General before we did, as the ambulance driver took a very circuitous route to the hospital. Apparently, the paramedic in the back informed me that he was used to driving around Sumner and wasn't as familiar with the Milton/Fife area. I could have thought of two shorter routes than the one he took! Oh well, thankfully by that point, Caleb had calmed down and was falling asleep in the ambulance. He kept looking with his eyes only to the right, which the paramedic said is sometimes a side effect of the seizure. Eventually, his eyes returned to normal and he would look both ways again.

The doctor in the ER informed us that his seizure was of course related to his high temperature and that in the future we should treat any temperature of his with a regime of Tylenol and alternating Motrin every 3-4 hours to prevent future problems with febrile seizures. We stayed in the ER room until Caleb could show he could take some fluids (a popsicle--he loved it) without throwing up. He was very shaky and wanted to sit with me or Daddy at all times. We did lay him down on the bed though for a bit and laid my coat underneath him to keep a Mommy smell around him. A couple times in what seemed like a deep sleep, he would jerk out of sleep and tried to roll over and nearly fell off the bed! I had to sit by the bed in order to catch him just in case.

When he first come home from the hospital, Daniel greeted him and gave him a hug and kiss and Caleb gave a sweet shy smile back. He wanted to walk, but wasn't too steady on his feet yet. I asked him if he was hungry and he tried to run to his highchair (like usual) and he tripped and fell and did a face plant on the rug. This was NOT popular. His legs were not cooperating very well!

We were told that after a seizure that usually a child will sleep a long time as the seizure really takes it out of them! However, we found the opposite to be true that he wanted to be awake and was extremely restless and kept waking up screaming the entire night. I began to wonder if he was scared to sleep, since he had the seizure during his nap. I'm not sure if he would have a memory of that necessarily, but maybe? It wasn't until the next day after repeated attempts at getting him to take a nap, did he finally sleep for a straight hour (3:30-4:30pm) and after that he was a little happier and more like himself, although still very shaky. That night, he slept VERY soundly (much to our relief) and the following day was back to his normal self. We knew that if he started to break out into random dance that he would prove his normal Caleb-ness was back, and he did a little jig for David in the morning.

Febrile seizures are common in young children with high temps, and also there is a higher risk if someone in the family has had them. I had them also around the same age as Caleb, so there you go. Needless to say, we learned a lesson and will be very careful about fevers from now on for sure!

Thanks for all who prayed for our precious little one. We are very thankful that he is back to normal and not hospitalized or permanently injured or whatever!

Christmas Fun 2009 Part 2

The day after Christmas we went to Grandma and Grandpa's house to exchange gifts and have dinner together. At one point, I caught the folks with the twins in the computer room looking at this Fischer Price ABC's game on the internet. Daniel just loves this game and kept pointing at all the letters and repeating what the computer said. The game works in that the child can press any letter on the keyboard and it pops up with a picture of an animal, saying both the letter name and then playing the animal sound as well. Caleb enjoyed it also and was mimicking the animal noises and sometimes the letters also.

Daddy is opening the adult-proof packaging here for some of the toys the boys opened at the grandparent's house. The twins got a Fischer Price car wash set and a firehouse ramp dealy as well.

Mommy is playing "Hungry Hungry Hippos" with the three boys. Daddy is helping too (Daniel is sitting on his lap).

Josiah is posing here by G-ma and G-pa's tree. When I ask him to smile for the camera, he tends to give this really goofy grin. Not his natural smile at all, but still shows a very sweet Josiah! Josiah got a Tag Junior reader pen, which I will use with him to start getting him interested in reading more. The pen interacts with the books that they come with and teaches all sorts of beginning reading types of concepts. I am hoping that this will be a great tool as I will start to homeschool him soon, probably officially starting some things this coming fall. For now we have two of the books that go with the pen and eventually we will collect more of them I am sure. He also got a neat construction crane that he enjoyed to playing with as well.

Caleb enjoyed checking out many of the ornaments on G-ma and G-pa's tree. She has lots of musical instrument ornaments and he took this trumpet off and tried to play it. Someday we will tell him that you play the trumpet with your mouth and that you blow the other end of it. For now, he is just too cute!

Caleb also tried his hand at playing G-ma's guitar. This is one that is missing some strings and isn't really playable, but he enjoyed strumming it nonetheless.

Daniel also obsconded with a musical instrument ornament, but his instrument of choice was the french horn. He does have the right end in his mouth, but his buzzing technique leaves something to be desired at this age. Again....too cute!

Daniel also wouldn't be outdone and wanted to play a little guitar. Caleb is in the background looking cute as usual.

Mommy is helping Daniel look at his new Tag Jr. reader. This is a really neat toy that is very interactive with the books that you buy for them. You just press this device onto any picture on the page and it tells you what it is and also reads a story for them when they press it onto the words of the story. I have the feeling this will gets lots of use from our Daniel boy who loves to play with technology! Even with the other types of toys around, he sat with me for a while and played with this one right away.

We had a nice time at the folks house and Grandpa made a nice spaghetti dinner for us with salad, french bread, and some ice cream for dessert. I forgot the twins bibs, so they ate their food shirtless, which at first was not very popular until Daddy distracted them by tickling some baby flesh! All three boys fell asleep in the car on the way home and we were able to transfer them to their rooms without too much fuss.

Christmas Fun 2009

We had a wonderful Christmas morning with the kiddos this year! In the weeks prior, we had begun quizzing Josiah as to the real meaning of Christmas and he was able to tell us several times today "why" we were celebrating, which was a nice touch to the day for sure! Later in the day, they were all sitting at the table playing with their toys and we got some really fun shots of them having a lot of fun together.

Also later in the day, it was very quiet out in the living room and David and I suspected the worst, but came in to discover them sitting here as pictured quietly watching one of the new Veggie Tales movies that Grandma & Grandpa Carpenter sent. Josiah was also sharing his new Leapster 2 with Daniel who was THRILLED to be given the chance to check it out. Josiah in general was very good with the twins and played with them sharing the toys all throughout the day pretty well. We had a couple of run-ins with the "no sharing" bug, but he quickly got the clue that not sharing was not allowed!

Here Josiah is opening his Bumblebee transformer toy, which the adults of the family found to be impossible to transform, though it is supposed to be easy enough for a 5-year-old to operate. Ummm...not so much! It was very difficult to make it change form, so I have the feeling this will remain a robot most of the time.

Caleb is looking at one of his new "Cars" board books that we got for the twins. He is giving his precious Caleb look as well. Caleb's response to the day was not super different from his normal mode of operation. At one point though, I caught him on video dancing wildly to some Christmas music, which was fun to watch!

Daniel is checking out his new carrot racecar that we got for him. This year we didn't get too many presents for the boys, as they are satisfied with just a few things. They seemed to enjoy the toys they did receive however! Daniel's reaction to the day was one of lots of curiousity and bouts of clingy-ness to Mommy. I think he was tired as neither Caleb or Daniel had as long a nap as they usually do, so I am sure that contributed to his clingy mood. He enjoyed playing with the new toys though and some old stand-bys as well.

The most popular gift for the twins were these stocking stuffers that I picked up for them. They are those multiple "pin" toys where you can put your hand underneath and the pins push up to make the shape of your hand or whatever you put in the pins. They were fascinated with seeing how this worked and came back to them again and again throughout the day.

Daddy is helping Josiah build his Star Wars spaceship. Josiah had been asking for a Star Wars Lego set for some time now and this was his first set to try out. Josiah was a big helper for Daddy finding pieces that they needed to build it.

Josiah's most favorite toy that he continued to play with all day was his new Leapster 2 game system. We call it his "own computer" and that was very popular with him! Daddy is showing Josiah how to play here and Daniel is looking on longingly at the "puter," as he would love to have one too I am sure!

This is a fun shot of Daniel laughing at the cars rolling on the table and Caleb looking on unamused. The boys enjoyed playing with their new matchbox cars on the table rolling them back and forth to Mommy and Daddy.

After all the gifts were opened (done by 6:15am), I set out to making us a nice breakfast complete with scrambled eggs with cheese, blueberry pancakes, and maple sausage. Josiah ate all of his blueberry pancakes, Daniel's favorite was the "me" (meat) and Caleb scarfed down everything put in front of him. And as another special meal, David cooked us a fabulous dinner including ham, mashed potatoes, and green bean casserole. Daniel proceeded to rub the mashed potatoes in his hair, which was the second episode of this hair tonic treatment today (earlier he put yogurt in his hair). I was told that as a child when I didn't like something I would dump it on my head (my un-fave was pudding), so what goes around comes around I suppose! Josiah tried all the food, but liked the mashed potatoes the best. Daniel did love the "me" though again (in this case the ham) and again Caleb chowed down on all of it, but as the classic mimicker he had to rub a little of the mashed potatoes in his hair before I stopped him from doing it further.

Overall, it was a fun-filled day and we enjoyed playing with the kiddos and seeing their joy as well. Josiah still has a bit of a cold and we may take him in to the doctor tomorrow as I suspect he has a sinus infection, but we will see how he is feeling tomorrow. We have lots of fun Christmas memories to look back on and are very thankful for God's greatest gift to us, the birth of His Son! Happy Birthday Jesus!

Making Christmas Cookies

This Christmas instead of making a gingerbread house, I decided to make some Christmas cookies with the boys. We started the task when the twins were asleep, but one by one they woke up and wanted to come in and help us. Thankfully, it was a Saturday and David was able to assist with taking cookies out of the oven and fielding little boy disputes, while I was able to continue rolling and cutting cookie shapes.

This was another cute shot, but Daniel wasn't looking at the camera on this one. The twins kept fighting over who would stand on the front part of the chair. At one point, I had another chair on the left of me, but it was just too crowded and I had to move that one away.

Josiah was the official "sprinkles" guy, and one time when I gave him a cookie to sprinkle he said very proudly, "Here come the sprinkles!!" He was wearing the apron that I made for him at MOPS one time. It says his name on the top and the orange shape is a pumpkin, and the words are "My Little Pumpkinhead," which was his nickname for a long time. I was going to take a picture of him and print it on fabric and sew it onto the pumpkin, but yeah....never got around to that! Overall, it was a fun time making the cookies as a family and we were able to take our spoils to church the following day to share with our Sunday School class.

Putting up the Christmas Tree

This year we put the tree up in the presence of all the kiddos and considering their normal activity level and curiosity, they did very well! The twins were very interested in the tree and Caleb was saying, "Ooooo," quite frequently as you see pictured here.

When Daddy got down underneath to screw in the tree more securely, Daniel positioned himself down there as well on his belly and tried to "help" as well. Caleb soon followed suit and there were two boys in training down below the tree.

For Josiah this was all old hat, but he was still very excited to see the tree again and gave me a really cheesey, excited smile here to prove it.

Birthday Fun!!

There were quite a number of birthday activities this year. It started on Friday night when Grandma took our family out to Red Robin for dinner. I was given a free dessert there and a balloon to wear on my wrist, and of course the waiters serenading me with the "sound off " birthday song...you know, "I don't know, but I've been told. Heather here is getting old....sound off, 1-2, sound off 3-4....etc." Then on my actual b-day (today), David and I had a nice date and my parents watched the kiddos for the afternoon. We went to Claimjumpers for lunch and then did some shopping for me at Southcenter Mall and I got some very needed items. Thank you honey for the nice time and being so patient while I shopped for some things!

When we came home, we had a little celebration with my Mom and Dad, and gave the twins cupcakes to celebrate their 2nd birthday also (which is on Monday). Here is a cute shot of Caleb with his cupcake. He didn't mind making a great mess of his cupcake! It was originally a snowman with three little layers of frosting and at first the top two layers fell off when he turned it over and he was very concerned and said, "Uh OH!!" and tried to put it back together. Eventually, he just gave in and started eating it all wherever it happened to be.

Here is Daniel eating his cupcake. He is the more careful eater of the two and towards the end when his hands were getting all mucked up with frosting, he was clearly asking us to wash his hands off. He tried wiping them against each other, but that only served to get more frosting on either hand.

This is a precious photo of when we were singing them the b-day song and were trying to get them to blow out the candles. Daniel has this, "I know this is for me and I am embarrassed," look and Caleb is reaching out to grab his candle.

Caleb has such a sweet expression here with his new doodle pro toy. They both absolutely LOVED this toy! I had a feeling they would as we have a smaller one that they usually fight over. Now they each have their own to play with!

Daniel is enjoying his doodle pro also. He is the one that used to hog the other one that we have all the time. He loves to bring it up to me and have me write words or letters. I can tell he is a word-smith and really craves to learn more words! At times, he does recognize a word I will write such as his name, my name, etc. and he also identifies a lot of letters I write. He is my first kiddo who seems to like to draw too! We will see how long that lasts!

The twins are playing with their doodle pros here and Daniel has the sweetest look on his face! This is a really nice shot of his gorgeous blue eyes! As per usual when the camera is out, Caleb is turning the other way. It is much harder to get a shot of him I have found!

Grandpa is holding the new toys for the boys here and they are showing him what they can do! The kiddos also got a "Mack the Truck" fort dealy that they can go in and out of and they enjoyed playing with that too. Thanks again Mom and Dad for coming today and watching the kids, so that I could have a semi-kid free day on my b-day. It was great fun to go out with my hubby!

Not to be left out, Josiah also got one present to open. He had been asking for the "Mater Fire Truck" toy he had seen one time with Grandma and she got it for him. He was excited and enjoyed playing with it the rest of the night! Overall, it was a long and busy day, but filled with fun and memories! There are more pictures of the kiddos on facebook for those of you who have an account.

Grandma is posing here with the boys at Red Robin the day before my b-day. They enjoyed their cheese pizza and a little bit of ice cream afterward. Thanks again Mom for dinner, it was a nice treat!