A Long Update

Solomon had an EEG on Friday. Thanks to those of you who prayed for him. The EEGs are getting progressively more difficult due to the fact that Solomon is getting more mobile and wants to be rolling around and pulling all the electrodes off his head. The doctors also want the child to be sleep deprived (I guess seizure activity shows up more readily on an EEG when there is sleep deprivation), and they want the child to sleep during the EEG (in a strange bed, with his head covered in electrodes and wrapped in gauze, with lights flashing in his face and a computer screen recording). Needless to say, the fact that Solomon slept during the EEG is a great answer to prayer!

The neurologist called today, which immediately made my heart drop. Typically, good news means a call from the nurse. Bad news means a call from the doctor. The doctor called to let me know a couple things. First off, she let me know that Solomon had no seizure activity in his EEG. This is great news! Praise God. All the markers for Infantile Spasms were gone. There was one questionable area in the EEG, however, where there was some slowing of the brain activity (yeah, I didn't really understand it either). I probed and probed, trying to understand what she meant (is this good, bad, neither, both?). But from the doctor who speaks "doctor-ese" and asks, "did Solomon have any clinical episodes?" (translated: "did he have any seizures"), the most I could get from her was that the slowing could be nothing or it could be significant. So, I called the pediatrician.

We are so, so thankful for our pediatrician (and if you're in the area and looking for a good doctor, I'd highly recommend him!). He is patient and speaks at a normal, human level (i.e. a level at which I can comprehend what he's saying). The pediatrician said that the slowing in the EEG could indicate an area where Solomon is prone to having seizures. He said, however, that he thinks it's more likely that it's a portion of Solomon's brain that is still developing and because it is not fully developed, it is not firing and connecting at as fast a rate as the rest of his brain; a very normal thing in infants. All this to say, we just have to wait and see. But I'm thankful that the pediatrician seemed to think it was likely the "nothing" on the scale of "nothing to significant" given by the neurologist.

We still covet your prayers. Solomon is definitely doing so much better than he was a few months ago. He is starting to try to get around (scooting on his butt Asher style). He's getting on his knees occasionally and very vocal with his likes and dislikes. He's delayed for sure, but the doctor seems hopeful he'll be able to catch up. We are working towards getting him into an OTPT in the next few weeks to start working towards that end.

The neurologist said we can bump his EEG's out to every 3-4 weeks now, instead of every 2-3 weeks, so that is encouraging. She said she would like to keep him on his current anti-seizure medication for another 1-2 months, and then begin the process of switching his medication in order to avoid the side effects of his current medication (vision loss). Like I said, we still covet your prayers. We have a long road ahead of us. Please pray for me, as I seem to spiral emotionally around the weeks of his doctors appointments. Pray for joy for me, as well as rest in a Sovereign God. We are thankful that God continues to heal our son and believe He is doing this good work in Solomon. May He alone be glorified!

Lunch on a bus

Today we went to Big Bear's Bus Cafe for lunch.  We met the owners (Jeremiah and Anna) a few weeks ago at The Town Church.  They moved to Fort Collins from Baltimore to open the bus cafe.  

The boys loved eating lunch on the bus.  They kept asking when the bus was going to start moving.  Currently it's parked in a parking lot but they do travel to festivals or other catering events.  The boys were pleased with the food but disappointed that the bus didn't drive away while we ate.   

They serve some great food and the inside of the bus has been remodeled as a restaurant.  The seating is made up of old church pews and the ceiling of the bus is trimmed with a license plates from all 50 states. Did I mention - the bus runs on vegetable oil and for every meal they sell they give a meal to someone in a third-world country?  It's true.  

If you are in the area - go check it out.  It's parked at 2020 N College in Fort Collins.
There's more information on their web site - www.bigbearsbuscafe.com

Corny

What can I say? Baby loves his corn.

Another Trip to the Canyon

Vince took the older 3 boys back up to the canyon yesterday for a bit of time to play in the river. They had a fantastic time and worked the whole time building a rock house in the water. They brought their buckets and shovels and worked as "construction men" pouring imaginary concrete and digging foundations.

Ezra enjoyed finding all sorts of different shapes and colors of rocks.

Obed took a bit of time to rest on a warm rock after all his hard work.
The "house" part way through the big build.

The nasty part of the day was the ginormous snake that decided to join their adventure. I'm not schooled in snake knowledge, but from the little I looked and researched, it looks like this is a bull snake. It was about 5 feet long. Nasty!

Water Fun

Summer is here, so with summer, comes lots of water fun! We headed to one of our favorite parks a few weeks back and the boys thoroughly enjoyed the splash area.

Last week, while the older two boys were visiting Grandma and Grandpa in Missouri, we tried to do some extra special things with Obed (and Solomon of course... but Solomon didn't really actually know the things we were doing were extra special). Two of Obed's favorite things are playing in the sand, and "swimming" (swimming defined as splashing as big as possible while flailing ones arms and legs). We have a fabulous beach at a state park about 20 minutes from our house, so we headed that way to play for a bit.

We quickly learned that Solomon is NOT a cold water baby (I think it must be his petite frame... he just doesn't have the body fat to keep his tiny frame warm). Notice his look of concern as the water laps ever so gently on his little toes.
He didn't mind hanging out under the umbrella, reading books.
Here Obed is "swimming."

Obed and Solomon enjoyed their evening cleanings together while the big boys were gone.
Solomon spent much of his time belly-laughing at Obed any time Obed put a toy in his mouth. Who knew that was so funny?
Today, we drove up the canyon and spent the morning at the river. We had a picnic lunch and froze our toes on the melted-snow river... but it was FUN!

As any boy knows, the absolute greatest thing about bodies of water (large or small), is throwing items into said body of water.

Obed knows this fact very well... here he is throwing one of many, many rocks.

Vince took the boys out into the deeper water.

Asher, enjoying the river.
My boys.

Today

Solomon had a neurology appointment today. As I have mentioned before, the neurologist is not typically very encouraging, but today, she seemed hopeful. She is pleased with Solomon's progress and his response to the medication; praise God! She is still wanting to monitor him closely with regular EEG's and possibly a 24 hour EEG in the next 6-8 weeks, but she said that had she not been Solomon's doctor and didn't know his history, she would look at him and just think he was a normal, healthy boy. We're so, so thankful.

Please continue to pray that God would heal Solomon completely. Pray that he would continue to respond to the medication. Pray for me. At times, it's overwhelming to process all we've been through in the past 8 weeks. It's hard to be cautiously hopeful. As his mom, I find myself watching him constantly, wondering if every little motion is seizure activity. Pray that I would be able to let go, trust God, and enjoy my boy, free of worry and fear.

After Solomon's neurology appointment, Obed wanted to head downtown and ride the city bus, so we did just that. Solomon was content to ride in his stroller on the bus.

Obed LOVED every minute of the ride.
Ezra and Asher were not along with us on our adventure today. Vince's parents were in town last week and took the older 2 boys back to Missouri with them for a few days. Here they are, just about to load up for the long drive back.
Today, Grandma took the boys fishing. Great Grandma was able to join them as well.

Ezra caught two fish... he was pretty excited.
After fishing, the boys got to drive the golf cart.
After Grandpa got home from work, the boys got to help him mow the lawn.

Then they got to ride down the driveway in the back of the pick up truck.
Grandma bought each of the boys 3 fireworks to set off after it got dark.
But I think the highlight of the night for the boys was catching fireflies. Living in North Dakota and then Colorado, the boys have had yet to see fireflies. I have told them stories about chasing them when I was a little girl. The boys were able to chase them and capture quite a few. Grandpa wrote and said they were sleeping with a jar full of fireflies in their room tonight.

Planning

For both the good, and not so good at times, Ezra is my child through and through. He likes to plan. He likes to know what to expect. He doesn't like surprises. He likes to be "in the know," and it drives him crazy when he doesn't know. People say physically, he looks like Vince. His temperament, however, is just like his mama's.

Grandma was visiting about 3 weeks ago and gave the boys the choice to either a) visit Chuck-E-Cheese, or b) go play mini-golf. Ezra enthusiastically voted for mini-golf. Asher and Obed just as enthusiastically voted for Chuck-E-Cheese. Ezra was majorly bummed, so Grandma promised that when she came back in about 3 weeks, they could go play golf. Ezra, being the planner, marked it on his calendar, "Monday, June 21st, play golf." Then we created a countdown, so he knew exactly how many days until he got to play mini-golf. Finally, the big day arrived and the boys, Vince, and Grandma and Grandpa went to play mini-golf.

They each chose to wear their "golfing hats."

Like any good 2 year old, Obed played about 5 holes of golf and was done. However, there was a bit of water and a limitless supply of rocks, so he was thoroughly entertained while the others played the other 13 holes.
Then the boys got to go down the big slide as an added bonus.
Ezra and Asher loved the slide and went down multiple times...
Obed? Didn't care much for the slide. He came home and quickly declared, "the big swide was too carey for me mommy."