Drew's First Day of 5 Day Preschool

Drew started back to school on Monday, and while I meant to put these pictures up yesterday, my car had a different plan for me. You see, I have been driving the same car for nearly 10 years and while I would love to see just how long I can drive it...that's just not practical these days. Anywho the car overheated and had to be towed which left me in a panic of "who can pick up whom" and the pics of Drew's first day just didn't get posted.



While eating breakfast - a blueberry waffle was his breakfast of choice.


From that photo I learned that the boy needs a haircut. Some people do it before school starts to make a good first impression. Not me. And from the next couple pictures you will notice that the camera settings were all off...who knows what I was doing?



Notice the mismatched crocs are still in full effect!

So this year Drew will be at school M-F from 9-12:30. On Wednesdays he will stay and do karate from 12:30-1 and then extended day until 2. On Friday he will stay until 1 for soccer. He is SUPER excited to be in class with his best buddy as well as doing both after school activities with him. I am super excited that we are on day 3 and he hasn't had a major meltdown.

I know what most of you are wondering. You are thinking to yourself "gosh, I wonder what Molly will do with all her free time?" I know, right?!? I have 3.5 hours 3 days a week and then 4 and 5 hours on the other 2 days. Before you all get excited let it be known that I am helping out in Izzy's class one of those days. The other 4 I hope to consistently clean the house (something that hasn't really been done since it was listed for 18 long months - I took a sabbatical from cleaning), meal plan, workout, post long overdue blogs that have been typed but need pictures, and get organized. IF, and that is a big if, I have some extra time once I get cleaned/organized then I hope to play some tennis and workout again on a regular basis.

...and just to keep it real, I am still tossing around the idea of a third baby just to shake things up :) Heaven forbid I get to comfortable in a routine, right?

Izzy Update

Thanks to all of those that have send encouraging words and prayers regarding Izzy. It means SO much! Unfortunately the meds that Izzy needs aren't commonly carried at the pharmacies...I wasn't aware of this. So, her medication needed to be ordered and will be in this week. We will begin medicating her for the seizures on Friday evening.

In the meantime I have a boy who started school today! He is certainly worthy of his own post and since I now have 3.5 hours, 5 days a week to myself I will post his pictures tomorrow :)

To Blog or Not To Blog?

...that is the question I am dealing with lately regarding an issue that has me full of emotions. raw emotions full of tears, anxiety, and fear of the unknown.

For 30 min. I have typed, erased, retyped, erased, typed again, erased...you get the idea...and still have not figured out how to put this into words.

I'm just gonna put it all out there via a good 'ole timeline.

mid-June 2011: During our trip to FL I noticed that Izzy had a couple episodes where she would zone out. It happened late in the day, and I wrote it off to her being overtired. (but a seed had been planted in my head because something about the way she looked just seemed off)

July 21, 2011: Izzy and Drew were playing chase through the house and she stopped running she "had the look". I repeated her name and shook my hand in her face and got no answer/reaction. After she "came to" I asked her if she heard me say her name or saw me shake my hand. Negative.

After this episode I began to document her episodes and made a couple comments about it to friends. Pete had yet to witness an episode (my term for what was happening) but I felt certain that something wasn't right. I called her pediatrician and got an appointment for her on July 25th. I can't tell you how thankful I was that Pete didn't think I was crazy (or if he did he didn't vocalize it to me) and just supported my quest for answers.

July 25th: I explained the episodes to her pediatrician and told her that Izzy would "zone out" or appear to be daydreaming for 5-7 seconds. During these few seconds she often could not hear me or see me, but sometimes she could see me, but not hear me. At no time could she speak back to me. It was if a glazed look came over her and she would stare into space and almost look as if she was going to get sick. The pediatrician confirmed what I had already figured out: Seizures. Epilepsy. More specific CAE (childhood absence seizures). We were scheduled for an EEG.

August 4th, 2011: Izzy had an EEG. I had to keep her up the entire night before (truth be told we slept from 12:30-4:30) and her appointment was at 8am. We got situated in a dark room and Izzy looked all sorts of freaky with electrodes coming out of her head :) While under observation she closed her eyes and counted backward from 10; watched a series of bright lights flash in her face; blew on a pinwheel, and finally watched tv.





Results: 2 seizures while blowing on the pinwheel.

August 11th, 2011: we met with a pediatric neurologist at the children's hospital. He confirmed the seizures and suggested medications. I was already a bit familiar with the various medications and side effects. We went through all sorts of crap we needed to know and said we would meet again in 3 months.

August 12th, 2011: Izzy met her first grade teacher and I shared with her the fantastic news that Izzy has been having seizures. I am sure I talked a mile a minute and made no sense since it was all "new news" to me. I explained to her that Izzy's seizures would not be recognized by the kids, and possibly not even her if she wasn't looking at Izzy. I also told her that my goal was to get Izzy adjusted to 1st grade for 3-4 weeks before beginning medications. What I really needed was for Izzy's teacher to get to know Izzy and her personality/nature so that she would be able to inform me of changes/side effects once we started the meds. I had/have so much anxiety about putting my daughter on a medication with known crazy side effects and then turning her over to another person for 8+ hrs a day.

Today: I have come to the decision that it is in fact time to start Izzy on the medication. It is earlier than I would like, but we have witnessed an increase in Izzy's seizures. I think first grade it challenging for her, and while she gets 10 hrs. of sleep a night she is still quite tired. I have struggled with this decision because I really don't want to medicate her. I was hoping that with enough sleep, and the fact that the episodes usually occur later in the day that we could avoid medicating her all together. However, today I watched her space out on me and nearly walk into traffic after I picked her up from school. I was naive to think that she would be "safe" at school and the worst thing that would happen might be a fall off the monkey bars? Clearly I was delusional!

Tomorrow we begin the medication. I write this because I think this blog might soon become my outlet for all sorts of crazy. The outlook for CAE is promising in that she should outgrow them. However, my biggest fear is losing the Izzy girl that I know. She is honestly one of the nicest, kindest, sweetest kids I know! As my stepdad says, "Izzy is magic!" She really is and I am terrified that the Izzy I know will be lost once we begin the medication.

...only time will tell...

First Day of 1st Grade

I am now the proud mom of a 1st grader. Crazy, huh?





To say that Izzy was excited for the first day of school would be an understatement. Last night she was asking how long until bedtime because she wanted to go to sleep knowing when she woke it would be time for school. Unfortunately it took her nearly 2 hours to fall asleep!



...and a picture just wouldn't be complete without Drew hamming it up. This boy just cracks me up. Weirdo.






...the boy just loves his sister somethin fierce!


Last year I would walk Izzy into school each day. Today she decided to go through the drop off line (hooray!). We met her best friend Averie (who is also in her class - SCORE!) and her mom at Harris Teeter and then we followed one another over to school. I thought it would be a madhouse waiting in the car line, but it turns out everyone was walking into the school so we pulled right up to the front doors. Both girls got out of the car off they went.

Izzy was visibly tired when I picked her up from school, but once she got home, had a snack and watched a show she was ready to fill me in on her day. ...and what a day it was! She filled me in on who sat at her table, who was in class with whom last year, who had what for snack, and who the "trouble makers" might be. She also informed me that beginning tomorrow she would like to ride the bus home. I'm not sure I am ready for that:( but I guess I don't really have a good reason not to let her ride. The crazy part is she doesn't even have a friend on the bus? Chickie just wants to ride it. I am not going to lie...it will make my life easier, but I will also miss some of the moms I would chat with while waiting for the kids after school.

Perhaps my favorite part of her new 1st grade class is that the teacher called me this evening just to see how Izzy said the day went and to see if I had any questions. How great is that?!?! I also found out that I will get to help every Monday with reading groups. I am beyond excited to be able to be in Izzy's classroom every week!


Izzy loved that I made the explanation points into smiley faces. Isn't that funny that something so simple (and something I wasn't sure she would notice/understand made her so happy).

I think 1st grade is off to a fabulous start!

Kid Funnies~

Me: Drew! Did you just spill your milk?
Drew: Uh uh uh, Mom, it wasn't me! My milk has a mind of its own...a very bad one.

After getting in the car from camp, Izzy looked at her wrist and said, "Mom, look how purple my roots are right now!" (she was talking about her veins)

Drew: "Mom. I'm the only one in our family who knows what their poop looks like."
Me (with a serious look of concern on my face): "What are you talking about?"
Drew: "I am the only one who knows what their poop looks like cause I watch it come out of my heiney".

While watching the Smurf movie Izzy commented "that must be Gargamel's new lair".

Also while watching the Smurf movie ...a taser gun was used on Gargamel. I then had to explain to Drew what a taser gun was and his immediate reply was an exuberant, "I want one of those!"

Izzy has been asking to get her ears pierced on and off for a few weeks. There are two things holding her back: me saying "no", and her fear the needle will really hurt. Yesterday she asked me why I have a deep line between my eyes. I told her it is from worrying, smiling and scolding. She then suggested we could both get something done we want that involves needles...ears pierced for her and botox for me. I guess when your 6 year old suggests it then it just might be time to consider having it done!

Smurf Dance

Sometimes life just isn't fair.

It happens to be the last week before school starts.

We had all sorts of fun things planned.

Then Izzy got sick :( She has had some sort of weird temp that hovers around 100 and comes and goes all day and is accompanied by a belly ache.

I turned her loose with the Flip video camera and this is what she came back with.

A couple things to note: her hair hasn't been brushed in probably two days, Drew is not wearing any pants and slept in that shirt, and Izzy pronounces "disturbing" as "disterving". And Drew is doing the "freeze and shake" version of the game so at times you will see him freeze or shake his remote.

Make a video - it's fun, easy and free!
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