These past two weeks have been busy so here's the update on our family happenings. Aaron had his annual neurology appointment almost two weeks ago. Everything looked great. I really like this neurologist because he keeps notes on us and asks about Josh and his seizures every visit we go to. It is pretty awesome to be able to have that pseudo second opinion seeing as Josh will need to be transitioning to an adult neurologist in about 5-6 years. He also jotted down about Noah's febrile seizure that happened almost a year ago so he can follow along with that if anything else happens with him. I guess we make sure we get our moneys worth from our visits--haha! I just have to say we have a crazy family and I am so thankful for good health insurance!!!!
Anyway, since the neurologist is down in American Fork we made a day date out of the trip. It is crazy that all the kids are in school so we can spend the whole day together--wahoo! After the appointment we headed down to BYU campus just to look around. After visiting the bookstore we sure felt old. We definitely aren't students anymore. We had fun checking some stuff out and getting Aaron a nice sweatshirt. We also drove by our old apartments and had lunch at The Brick Oven. Good times.
On the way home we stopped by to visit the house I grew up in in American Fork. It has changed quite a bit since I lived there, but it was my home for a long time. I hope the current occupants didn't think I was a creeper since I was across the street taking pictures of their house--haha!
We got home in enough time to get a quick dinner fixed for the kids before we had to go to the Transition Fair. It is a yearly event for people with different disabilities. A bunch of resources and companies get together and set up booths around Davis Applied Technical College so people who have needs can stop by the different booths that apply to them. We go every year just to see what options are out there for Matthew now and in the future. He can stay in school until he is 22 then he/we have to find other options for him since we don't think he will be able to live independent at that time. It is really overwhelming to see everything that is out there and not know where to start. Good thing we still have a few more years to figure things out. Even going to these for the last four years I still am overwhelmed by the big decisions headed our way. Ugh! I just want Matthew to be happy, as independent as he can be, and a productive member of society (as much as he can be). That's a big goal to fill! Not overwhelming at all, right ;)?!
When we got home that night Noah snuggled right up next to me on the couch. That's when I felt his head and he was burning up. The poor kid! I took his temperature and sure enough it was 103.8--Ahhh!
The poor kid just looked like he felt awful which I am sure he did. I didn't sleep well that night because I was worried about him. Last time this happened he had a seizure. I didn't want that to happen again. Aaron ended up taking him in to the doctor the next evening and he had Strep. I was just glad it was a quick fix with antibiotics! After two days he was feeling a lot better!
A few weeks ago Matthew got asked to go to Preference. Preference is a formal/semi formal girls choice dance so this was a big deal. A group of girls wanted to take some special needs kids to a dance so they could be 'normal' and have a 'normal' teenage experience. I was so excited for Matthew. Matthew was excited, too. The girls planned out a day date where they played BINGO and then watched the Cars movie after eating a yummy breakfast for lunch. I was so nervous to drop Matthew off. I wanted to make sure he was going to be ok, but I didn't want to worry even more so I just ripped the band aid off quickly. I dropped him off, walked him inside, made sure we were in the right spot and that his date was there then left. Aaron and I were just biting our nails worrying that things were going to be ok for him and everyone else. Here's the cute boy before we dropped him off:
Here's the day date set up:
They had reserved a church gym for their day date and then decorated it. Everything looked pretty cool.
Here's the group of kids that went:
After dropping Matthew off I had to take Sarah to the doctor because she had a fever. Noah had spread his strep goodness to her, but it, of course, was a weekend so we couldn't get in to her regular pediatrician. Since this different office hadn't seen Sarah for awhile they made us bring her in to check her out. Once the test came back positive for strep (which wasn't a surprise) I asked for her to get the antibiotic shot. Poor girl...that question caught her completely off guard. Once the doctor went to see if they had the shot the poor girl got really upset because she didn't want a shot. It didn't help that she felt pretty yucky already, too.
Thankfully, they had the shot and gave it to her. The shot is the only way to go for strep--despite what Sarah really wanted. I am such a mean mom!
By the time I got home from the doctor's office it was time to pick Matthew up from his 3 hour day date. We chilled for a few hours then fed him dinner and got him ready for the dance. Here's the handsome guy:
The group got together a few hours after the day date for the evening part of the dance. They started off with getting pictures. The group of girls even made their own boutonnieres and corsages for everyone in the group. Here's Matthew's date pinning his boutonniere on:
The theme of Preference was Masquerade so they made everyone masks in their group. Matthew was too afraid the mask would break his glasses so he would only hold the mask up instead of actually wearing it:
Matthew was so excited to see all his classmates and friends in the group as they showed up for pictures:
Here's everyone that was in Matthew's group:
With their masks:
The guys:
The girls:
Matthew and his date. (A very funny side note is that his date was actually one of my Certified Nursing Assistant students last semester. That was funny to figure that out! She knew I looked familiar. It wasn't until I started talking with her mom that it came out she was a CNA. I then started asking about it and that's how we figured it out.)
The masks:
The special education teachers opened their classrooms up during the dance for this group so they could have a quiet place to come if they got overwhelmed during the dance. They all had so much fun. After dancing for a little while they moved over to the classroom and had some pizza. The special education kids were about done with everything around 8:30pm so the girls texted us to come and pick them up. Matthew had an awesome time. We are so thankful and grateful for this awesome opportunity Matthew had to go to this dance. If I could hug those girls and tell them thanks without it being super awkward I would!! We are truly grateful for good people like this!! I always worry about how Matthew does at school and so I am comforted to know that there are great people like this that enjoy Matthew.
Monday was President's Day and the kids and Aaron had it off. Aaron was sad because President's Day is the last holiday he gets off until Memorial Day. He always hates going through that holiday drought--haha! Anyway, Josh had a science project that required him to visit the planetarium so we made it a family affair. Of course, Josh had to be in a lot of pictures to prove he was there--but he is also a camera ham so he didn't mind--haha!
All of us watching the Foucault Pendulum:
They have redone a lot of the planetarium. Some of the new games they put in are fun, but a bit on the morbid side. This game Sarah and Noah are playing is one that you try and destroy the asteroids before they hit earth. If you miss one it tells you how many people were wiped out in the direct hit.
Josh and Matthew took a turn:
They have some other games, too:
You could see what mixture of oxygen and fuel would launch your rocket the highest. We didn't get too many tries because there were so many people there that day!
You got to play with the Northern Lights:
Noah figured out that if you touch the Plasma Globe and touch another person at the same time you can shock the other person. Here's Noah trying to shock Josh as he walked by him--the stinker! He would just stand there and wait for an unsuspecting victim to walk by to make his 'shocking' move, too. You have to watch out for that one!
Matthew and I got to forecast the weather on Mars:
Newton's Daydream exhibit:
After that we came home and had to move some furniture around. This is when I am so glad I got some strong boys that are now old enough and strong enough to help Aaron do this. Thanks, Josh!
Speaking of Josh he had a track meeting last month where they gave the participants and training schedule. Josh has been running a few miles almost every day to get in shape for track. To help with some motivation Aaron gives him goals to hit. He hit a big goal the other day so Aaron took him to get a Kong Kone from Macey's grocery store which is a ginormous ice cream cone. It was so big Aaron asked if they could put it in a cup. Yes, that whole cup is completely filled with ice cream! Honest to goodness Josh ate the entire thing all by himself. Oh to have the metabolism of a teenage boy!!
Here's what one looks like outside of the cup:
That's A LOT of ice cream!!
Matthew finally got in to see the dentist. Matthew has secondary health and dental insurance, but it is a pain to work with. I finally gave up trying to find a dentist that will accept the secondary insurance and just took him to our own dentist that was still covered by his primary insurance through Aaron. It has been almost two years since he has seen a dentist since finding one that will accept the secondary insurance is hard to find. Anyway, the hygienist took a long time cleaning his teeth, but thankfully he had no cavities despite being so long since his last visit. Matthew was pretty patient through the whole visit so it was a good thing.
Aaron had Pack Meeting this last Wednesday. He did an engineering presentation. I, unfortunately, couldn't be there because Noah had a basketball game at the same time, but Aaron said everything went pretty well. When he got home he made a quick batch of bacon wrapped jalapenos. However, the jalapenos we had were super hot. In cutting them up Aaron was just crying and coughing because they were so hot and irritating to his eyes and throat. As you can see from the tears running down his face the score ended up being jalapenos: 1 Aaron: 0.
Sarah got her braces on last week. I was a bit concerned about her being so young, but after getting a second opinion we went ahead with the braces. Here's the before:
Here's the after:
Sarah's favorite color is green so she went with light and dark green bands which also helps with St. Patrick's Day coming up. She was so excited. However, the excitement faded a bit by the next morning since her teeth were pretty sore.
Noah continues to learn how to play basketball. Thankfully, the referees notice this and are able to help him along during the game. Here's one time where the referee is explaining to Noah what he needs to be doing. Noah is #6:
This week Matthew stayed home from school on Tuesday since it was the ACT test day for the Juniors and the seniors and sophomores didn't need to be there. Matthew likes to be busy so I got to go on a few walks with him and Sophie that day. The funny thing is Josh stayed home that day, too, because he was sick and had a fever. It was a party at our house. The few days before Daniel had to stay home, too, because he has a cold and had an asthma flair up. He hasn't needed a nebulizer treatment for a while, but we had to break out the nebulizer because he was wheezy boy. Thankfully, everyone is finally feeling better. We had been doing so well staying healthy this winter, too. Oh well what can you do?!
Yesterday Daniel had a field trip to the Salt Lake City Library and to the Symphony. One of my friends was the chaperone and she texted this picture to me of her group of kids. The kids had to dress up for the Symphony which Daniel wasn't excited about, but you do what you have to do, right?! Daniel is the Mr. GQ in the back:
Sophie likes to be next to her people every chance she gets. The other day she crawled up on my shoulder and fell asleep. What a weird dog!
I just love that Matthew went to Preference. It is so nice to know that there are such good people in the world!
ReplyDeleteAlso - I miss the King Kong ice-cream!!