EKG Results

After waiting a few days and not hearing from the doctor's office I finally called.  The nurse said she would get back to me.  It was 5:30 last night when the phone rang.  I had already written them off for the day since it was past 5:00.  The nurse said, "I am just going to read to you what the doctor has written: The EKG is fine.  Test showed a first degree AV block, this is a benign condition that causes slowing in the conduction system."  I tried really hard to focus on the first line...the EKG is fine.  We are in the middle of dinner, the kids are talking and I was thinking I was going to hear... "all good!"  I took a deep breath, stepped out of  the kitchen (with paper and pen!) and said, "ok, read that one more time."  I took notes, but I am thinking, what the heck does all of this mean! Well the nurse really wasn't sure what it meant either so she said she would get back to me, but it would probably be tomorrow.  I explained the call to Brandon and we just look at each other puzzled.  I do the next logical thing...google it.  In the midst of my wikipedia research (which is scaring me) the doctor himself calls me.  His first words were "I knew when I wrote that I was going to be calling you.  Have you already googled it?"  Haha, he knows me too well!  He assured me that Grant is fine.  He had already consulted with a pediatric cardiologist to confirm.  Basically the way that the electricity works in Grant's heart is just a touch slower compared to a normal EKG.  It is nothing to worry about and that well conditioned athletes have this and they are just fine.  It doesn't affect his pulse or heartbeat.  It sounds scary but doesn't amount to a hill of beans.  We don't have to consider this a pre-existing condition or even mention it as part of his medical history.  And it has nothing to do with the syncope (or fainting) that happened last week!  Oh Grant Ryan, how you keep us on our toes.  You are a special little boy!

On a side note, Grant has been accident free for a week.  We will be taking him tomorrow night to pick out a fish! Bravo Grant!

Conversations Between Siblings

At this point the conversations are still a little one sided, but they still have there only little chats.  Here are just a few things they said today.

Elizabeth insisted on putting Grant down for his nap and she was actually successful...eventually.

EB "Buddy, it is time to go so sleep."
Grant "Wait!"
EB "Nobody is coming Grant. Not mommy. Not daddy. Not Elizabeth.  Your light is not green yet." (we have a teaching alarm clock for him)
...about ten minutes later he is still awake and fussing and Elizabeth is having a tea party in the play room.
Me "Do you think he needs his back rubbed?"
EB "Sure mom, I will take care of it"
I am not really sure how she did it, but they were both quiet as mice for the next hour!

Today in the car:
EB "Did it take you long to fall asleep last night?"
Grant "yeah"
EB "It took me about 20 minutes.  How long did it take you? About 20 minutes?"
Grant "yeah"

Later in the car:
EB "You are justing being a big hot dog"
Me "Don't call your brother a hot dog"
EB "I wasn't talking to him, I was talking to someone else"
Me "Really?"
EB "Yes, someone else, not Grant!"

At bed time I had just tucked Grant in and I get summoned back to Elizabeth's room and she requests that I sing her the McDonalds song.
Me "I didn't even sing your brother the McDonalds song tonight" I start singing it to her but in a whisper
EB "Are you whispering because you don't want to rub it in his eyes?"
Me "The expression is face, I don't want to rub it in his face....good night!"

Grant mainly likes to label people as being "nice" or "not nice."  For instance if Brandon raises his voice at him, he says, "Daddy, not nice!"  If he wants a jelly bean because he and his sister are getting along well he will say "Nice? Nice?" Of course mostly we hear, "Elizabeth, not nice." Well maybe that's because she is calling him a big hot dog!

Pediatrician Follow-Up

We just got home from the doctor.  Let me just start by saying I was not thrilled when the only appointment time they had for us was 1:45 - right smack dab in the middle of his nap.  He through a major tantrum because I wouldn't let him stand on the bench to look touch the picture while we were waiting for the doctor.  I finally had to tell him to look at the hair on the floor, and to notice that it wasn't ours, to get up him off the dirty floor! Luckily he calmed down before the dr. came entered.

The doctor believes that most likely it was just a fainting spell.  Perhaps a case of getting up too fast in the morning and he was light headed and passed out.  (Something I can relate to!)  Elizabeth had gone in and woken him up and I did carry him down the stairs.  He had only been standing a few moments before it happened.  They didn't run an EKG at the ER so he put in orders for that.  There is a lab in the same building so we were able to just walk right on over and get it done.  Thank goodness it wasn't busy, because we were really pushing it with not having a nap yet.  They had to put 12 leads on him and then he had to lay still for 10 seconds.  Only 10 seconds.  "It's not that long" the nurse said.  FYI 10 seconds for a 2 year old is a long time!!!  It took a few tries but she finally got a good read, or at least good enough!  We picked out our stickers and were on our way.  Of course the whole time Elizabeth is whispering in my ear "Can I get a sticker too?"  Yes everyone gets a sticker!  Then we had to peel 12 of them off Grant - not fun.  We won't have results until next week.

Doesn't he look thrilled?!

My First 911 Call

We woke up yesterday morning at 7:15 and Elizabeth went in and woke Grant up.  I followed behind her and carried him downstairs.  We stood at the back door watching Jack take care of his morning business and Grant fell backward.  At first I thought he had just lost his balance, but he didn't even try to catch himself and his head hit the hardwood floor hard.  I immediately reached down to pick him up and his eyes rolled back into head, his head started moving from side to side (not violently, but still moving right to left) and he was mumbling.  I laid him on the floor, reached for my phone and called 911.  I calmly explained what was happening and the operator dispatched the ambulance.  I am thinking he has had a seizure. Grant was just laying on the floor with a very blank stare.  While I am waiting for the ambulance I ask Elizabeth to go get my robe, because I am in my pj's.  I tell her to unlock the front door.  I asked her to kennel Jack so he wouldn't be in the way. She did everything perfectly.  It felt like forever for the ambulance to arrive.  I later looked back at my phone and the call lasted for 10 minutes.  The operator stayed on the phone with me until the paramedics got there.  Ten minutes isn't that long, but it felt like forever. When they arrived and Grant saw three strange men in our kitchen he got up and crawled into my arms.  They asked if I wanted to go to the hospital and I said yes, but I needed to change first.  As I am changing clothes I realize that if I go in the ambulance I have no way to get back home.  Brandon was in Georgia, my parent's are in Florida, Robin was getting treatment and Kenny had hammer toe surgery on Monday and can't drive.  Needless to say for family so close, they were not able to help me on this one.  Because Grant was coming around I decided I could drive him to the ER.  I asked Elizabeth to put clothes on and have now learned that all of her good/nice clothes are out of her reach.  She came down wearing pink sweats and a pink tye-dye shirt that I would no way let her wear to school, but she gets a gold star for trying - bless her heart!  While I am grabbing a few things Elizabeth asks if she can go downstairs.  I tell her that's fine.  When I come down a few moments later she is striking up a conversation with these guys. "I go to school 2 days, I am learning my letters, my friend goes 3 days." It was like she was entertaining guests in our home and it was rude to leave them by themselves so she felt compelled to make chit chat with them!  Is this really my shy, reserved Elizabeth?!  This girl is coming out of her shell! My two phone calls to my friends went like this, "Today I need you.  I need to get Grant to the ER, I am sending Elizabeth next door, come pick her up there and get her to school for me."  and "Grant fell I have to get him to the ER, I am sending Elizabeth over." I had a plan of what needed to happen and bless my friends they just listened and executed.  I sign the refusal papers, sent Elizabeth next door (with new clothes) and off to the ER we go.  I should mention I had two other neighbors see the ambulance at our house and they came over to check on us.  We are SO LUCKY to have such awesome friends and neighbors.

We get checked into the ER.  They put a neck brace on him since he fell, as a precaution.  I had to take a picture because I thought it was a little silly.  Grant is still pretty quiet at this point, but he is such a trooper.  They did a basic examine and were able to remove the neck brace.  They needed a urine sample and through the bribery of a popsicle I got him to pee in a urinal.  They took a rectal temp and he didn't even squirm.  He had an IV put in and he didn't even flinch.  The nurse even said he was the easiest two year old to put in IV in.  Three popsicles later all of his tests came back normal.  That was great news!  The bad news is we don't really know why it happened.  The doctor didn't want to do a CT scan because of the radiation exposure and he had no other symptoms...not even a fever and has been healthy for weeks.  They don't believe he had a seizure because of how quickly he came around.  He said usually kids who have seizures will be out of it for hours after an episode.  We will follow up with our pediatrician today.

To make this even stranger I was on FB last night and a friend of one my friends (you know how that FB networking goes!) had an 8 year old taken by ambulance to the hospital for the same thing.  I don't know if there is some weird virus out there or what.  I am anxious to talk to the doctor about it.

Grant's camera smile. EB later commented. "I knew they would put him in a bed"

He had cherry and orange

IV in - popsicle was at the other end, that's why his tongue is out!

I called my grandma last night and told her that I learned two important things. One, I need to step up my pajama wardrobe so at least I am presentable in case you have an emergency!  Two, when your family isn't around, your friends are priceless!  They were right there for me and I could never thank them enough. Of course I am very proud of Elizabeth for following all of instructions and just going with the flow.  Later we discovered that she thought there was something going on with Grant's belly button.  When I had him laying down his stomach was drawn in and I was worried about his breathing, well his belly button (which is normally out, because he has an umbilical hernia) was retracted.  I don't know if she thought, Wow it's a miracle his belly button is fixed or Wow that is not what my brother's belly button looks like!  At any rate when she saw that my friend was picking her up from school her comment was, "Grant's belly button must really hurt!" I am also very proud of Grant, he was such a good boy and so brave.  I held it together pretty well and felt like I didn't cave under the pressure.  One of the nurses did come pat me on the back and say, "it's ok now mom, you can breathe, you are in good hands." I did sigh a breathe of relief.  Later my neighbor said the look on my face was pure terror.  I was scared for my little guy.  I have never been so happy to see Brandon walk into the house last night.  I melted into his arms.  What a day!

The Letter H & Potty Training

For some reason both of my kids latch onto a first letter.   For Elizabeth it was the letter W. For grant it is the letter H. He recognizes the capital H and pointed out on a regular basis.  Of course  whenever we are talking about a letter his answer is always an H! Every once in a while he is actually right!  He even likes to build his Lincoln Logs and make a letter H.   of course wouldn't you know out of all the letters in theirs names  neither of them have an H or a W!

 Grant has been making great strides in the potty training area. He is only wearing a diaper at nap time and night time. His rewards have been  mainly food. Right now we're on to gum drops, green is his favorite!  If he stays dry for seven days in a row we told him we would buy him the fish.   We did that for Elizabeth and her fish, Mr. Fish, is still with us!   He does a great job and usually goes into the bathroom by himself and then yells for help when he is done or will just run around without any bottoms on!  Often times he asks Elizabeth for help and she has been a big part of his success.  She gets a tinkle treat each time he does potty too!  It seemed kind of crazy to reward her too, but it actually worked out because she became his biggest cheerleader!  When the two of them would be playing together I would hear her say, "Do you need to go potty buddy? We can get a treat!"  I am especially proud that he does both, #1 & #2 on the toilet and not having to change diapers is nice too!  We will see when Grant gets his fish.  Seven days in a row is a lot, but he can do it!  I know some kids can potty train in a weekend, that was not the case with either of mine. It was a fairly lengthy drawn out process, with regression for both of them, but end result is the same! I am hoping Grant has had his relapse and we are on the home stretch and we will be fish shopping soon!

As a side note, Elizabeth would like everyone to know that she can whistle.  She doesn't take not being the spot light of a blog post well! Good job sweetie on the whistling!

Grant's Speech Progression

I was putting Grant to bed tonight I asked him what he was going to dream about.  His response "Joy!" his speech therapist.  It made me think that I hadn't blogged about it in a while.  In the beginning we were just trying to build sounds and then words.  His vocab is pretty good now and we work hard on putting words together and not loosing articulation when his words are combined.  I finally figured out what his speech intonations remind me of....an Native American Indian (and I mean no disrespect, I am basing this off of hollywood portrayals, so please forgive me).  He doesn't feel the need (or just can't) to use connective words.  He will say things like, "Milk! Now" and "Rub Back!" (like "Man make fire!").   I guess he speaks in commands.  I do request "please" and "thank yous!" It really is pretty cute, but obviously we wish he were speaking in phrases.  He is doing well with putting two words together. He is an excellent Go Fish player, "GO FISH!" When he started speech 8 months ago his vocabulary was less than 10 words.  I now keep a running list on my iPad and although I only have 75 jotted down, I know it is even more.  It is really awesome when he puts new words together.  He still shakes his instead of using the word "no" in front of another word or making negative phrases.  Instead of saying "No apple juice", he would shake his head and just say "apple juice" so his visual cues are still important.  We didn't actually finish the evaluation this week, but it will be completed next week.  He will be transitioning in to the school system once he turns 3, which is over the summer, which means he won't have therapy until September when school is in full swing - assuming he still qualifies.  He was 41% delayed when he started, it will be interesting to see where he is now.

Right now his favorite song is the "McDonalds" song (lyrics below!).  I was getting tired of Do Re Me (or as he calls it the "Deer" song - you know "Doe a deer, a female deer...").

Mc Donalds is your kind of place
They throw food in your face
Hamburgers up your nose
French Fries between your toes
If I were you I wouldn't eat there
I'd rather eat my underwear
Mc Donalds is your kind of place!

(Expanded lyrics created just for my hot dog loving Grant)

Mc Donalds is your kind of place
They throw food in your face
Ketchup between your eyes
Hot dogs the size of fries
If I were you I wouldn't eat there
I'd rather eat my underwear
Mc Donalds is your kind of place!

(Expanded lyrics per Elizabeth's request using a parfait)

Mc Donalds is your kind of place
They throw food in your face
Parfaits in the air
Salads on the stair
If I were you I wouldn't eat there
I'd rather eat my underwear
Mc Donalds is your kind of place!


Speech Report Update (3/18/13)
His percent delayed has gone down, as we expected it would.  There are two different scales that are used.  One scale is a measurement of 115-70 is average.  He scored 75.  So although now considered to be average, it is at the very low end.  He will be apart of Early Intervention services until he turns 3.  I got a phone call for the speech coordinator in our district and he will be evaluated there in May and will start services through the school in August.  He says a lot more now, but commonly drops the beginning of words or will replace the first sound with a sound that is already in the word.  He says "mamel" instead of camel.  Making him aware that he is saying it wrong is just as important as letting him hear how it is supposed to sound.  But do you know how funny it sounds to say "it's not a mamel it is camel" (since a camel is actually a mammal!)  So yes he is talking, but not clearly.  We still have a lot of work to do, but figuring out what to focus on has helped us be able to work with him more during the week.  "Caps for Sale" has proven to be a great book for him to listen to because of all of the "c" sounds, which he really struggles with.  "S" sounds at the beginning of words are also hard for him. When asked he will reproduce the "s" sound, but doesn't really connect it with the rest of the word.  The good news is he really tries.  He rarely tells me "no" when I ask him to try again.  Joy assures me it is a good sign that I can't always understand him because it means he is processing new things.  He also really likes to sing songs.  I have caught him singing "My Bonnie," "BaBa Black Sheep," and Taylor Swift's "I Knew You Were Trouble." Today he said "Happy Birthday Mommy!"  He has some other phrases too, like "Poopy Elizabeth" and "Not nice! Time Out Elizabeth!" (or Time out Mommy/Daddy)

Dishwasher Woes

Brandon was gone a few days this week on a business trip. When we woke up Saturday morning I informed him that the dishwasher was making a really bad sound. Elizabeth followed this up by her best impersonation of the really loud dishwasher. Brandon's next question was "have you checked to see if there is anything stuck in it?" Well, no I had not.  Sure enough I walk over and it does appear as if there is something stuck in the bottom of the dishwasher.   It is a corn cob holder.  I go upstairs and retrieve a pair of tweezers to remove the corncob holder which happens to be in the shape of a corn cob.  In the meantime Brandon has decided to go ahead and turn the dishwasher on to hear this noise. Of course it doesn't make the noise but now the bottom of the dishwasher has water in it, making the corncob holder very slippery.  He attempts to use the tweezers to remove the corncob holder and promptly drops the tweezers into the bottom of the dishwasher. I know you are all wishing I would've taken pictures of this right now. We have a magnetic stick gadget that my dad gave us for Christmas a few years ago but it is too big to fit into the drain holes.   Luckily he also gave us a wire puller grabber thingy that fit inside the drain holes. (two very odd gifts, but they have saved us on more than one occasion!) After several attempts we finally managed to pull not only the tweezers and that corn cob holder, but also two toothpicks.  And after all of this, yes the dishwasher is still very loud :(

Snow!

 The kids love snow and thank goodness we finally got some the first of the year.  (I am a little behind...computer was in the shop).  Apparently I didn't take any pictures, but the neighbors have a little kiddie snowmobile and there was just enough snow that the kids could use it.  They hooked a sled up behind it.  Elizabeth hit it full throttle and Grant fell off the sled.  He was pretty much done at this point.  Elizabeth and Lauren would have stayed outside until dark.  It was very cold though, so I made her come in after a while.  They had a blast.  Elizabeth did a good job driving...well you know despite dumping her little brother!

Lauren, the dare devil, leaping off the garden box...belly flop style!

Elizabeth, trying to be dare devilish...like Lauren!

Brandon's phone must have photo stream on, so here are so some random pics.  We are in love with our new Costco!  If the kids are good we let them share a smoothie at the end.  Well they had the love turned up on this trip.  They hugged and kissed on each other, but half way through the smoothie bribe wore off and all bets were off and we left without a smoothie!  Maybe next time kiddos!

 Grant got Lincoln Logs for Xmas and we took them over to my parent's on day.  My dad was building with them and my mom and Brandon and I could overhear my dad saying "be careful, whoa watch out, you are going to knock it over...you got to be careful guys" This went on and on.  Finally they got it built and we took a picture.  I really don't remember why Grant doesn't have his shirt on.  Then my dad sits down in the chair and when he gets up, knocked the whole thing over!  You have to be careful Pops!

Elizabeth so zonked out on a car ride home!

2012 Memory Jar

I had this wonderful idea (mid-year) to put a jar on the counter and write down little things that happen and then read them all on New Year's Eve.

Well hello New Year's Eve and hello 7 tiny slips of paper! We will try to do better next year!

2012 Memory Jar

1) Me: Elizabeth would you like to read a book to Grant? Grant go pick out a book.
Elizabeth: Pick one that doesn't have words.  I can't read buddy!

2) Grant wearing his Thomas undies and Elizabeth's pink polka dot rain boots (7/1/12)

3) Elizabeth says, "Write this on your brain Mommy!" (10/12/12)

4) Grant says "Please" and "Thank you" (7/22/12)

5) Brandon is sweating and I comment that I am as cool as a cucumber.  Elizabeth says, "I'm a cucumber too.  Daddy you are a hot pickle!" (7/21/12)

6) After shopping at the Loft with me I promised the kids I would get the kiddie pool out when we get home.  I struggled with the air compressor and ended up having to blow it up myself.  Elizabeth comments, "Mommy your face is really red."  (note the date...6/29/12....it must have been 100 degrees plus outside!)

Oh, shoot there were only 6 pieces of paper.  Well it shouldn't be too hard to do better next year!

We celebrated the New Year with the neighbors.  Grant and I came home at 10:00.  Elizabeth and Brandon stuck in out until 1:00 am!  Happy New Year!