A Great Few Days

Tucker did very well once he got back to school this week.

It always takes me awhile to get myself and the house back together after a trip to Houston, but by Thursday we were back to our routine. Tucker came home with a surprising note on Thursday: He had Good Behavior and did Awesome at Academic Tasks!! :) He usually gets fair behavior, and the teacher usually just checks off the time that he spends on academic tasks; so I knew for her to write a note, he must have done great! She even let me keep the note (usually we sign them and return them for the next day), for myself, haha.

Tucker's usual therapy was cancelled for that afternoon, so we headed to Wal Mart for groceries and party supplies. I told Tucker since he did so well at school that he could have ANYTHING at Wal Mart as his prize. He replied "eggs!" I told him, "no, you can have anything...chips, cookies, crackers, even a Mickey toy." Again he said, "eggs!" So we went to the egg section, and he took his time picking out the perfect dozen! Then he held him very gently for the entire trip. We also had taken the trip in Chris's truck, so it was an extra treat for Tucker. When Tucker had to give his eggs to the cashier so we could pay for them, he was very hesitant. I told him "we have to pay for the eggs so that we can get in the car and go home." He replied, "ride the truck!" and I said "Oh I'm so sorry, I forgot we were in the truck! Thanks for keeping me on my game!" He is such a mess, ever since he started putting 2 words together he has been such a boss....well, maybe way before then actually...

On Friday morning, Chris, Mom, Dad, Maw Maw Rose, Paw Paw Charles, Jessica, and I all headed to Cracker Barrel for breakfast to celebrate my sister Jessica's 30th birthday. I got her a blinking button that says "30 rocks", which she wore with pride:) She was so excited to eat breakfast with all of us, and she ordered pancakes and sausage. We all enjoyed ourselves, and were joking that Jessica better have brought her birthday money to pay for all of us...then the waitress came up and said our ticket was taken care of. A gentleman had paid for the whole breakfast, and said,"just tell them the servant of the Lord Jesus Christ took care of their meal, and enjoy their day." We had never had something like that happen to us before, so we were a little shocked. Chris and I had to rush out to make it to Tucker's class Halloween party, but Mom and Dad went to the nearest few men and told them thank you, but it wasn't them! So thanks to whomever it was, we appreciated it:)

Tucker's Halloween party was only an hour long, so it was a little rushed. The kids went to three centers to play games and make crafts, and the parents were invited to mainly observe. Tucker ran up to Chris and me and hugged us, then he was very obedient and ran back to his teacher and his seat. During the party he struggled to follow directions, as all he wanted to do was play with his Daddy! Chris stayed very close to Tucker and Wes and helped them with their projects, so Tucker did okay once he realized his Daddy wasn't leaving.

The rest of Friday and Saturday were spent getting the house and decorations ready for the Too Cute to Spook Party. We ate dinner at mom's Friday Night for Jessica's Birthday party; Mom's lasagna is so delicious, maybe one day Tucker will appreciate that! We all had a last-minute strategy meeting (as I call it) about the party....in my family, parties go up to a whole different level...they require strategy meetings:) We discussed last minute necessities, who needed to be where at what time....plans were good.

Gina came over on Saturday to help with food and decorations. She made the cutest backdrop for the party, I am having trouble posting pics, so I will have to do that on my next post. My friend Lacy took pics of all of the food and decorations, we had so much food, like "Mummy Toes", "Monster Punch", and "Dragon Eyes," but the obvious hit of the party was the "Vampire Blood" and "Witch's Blood", which were really lime jello and strawberry jello pulled into Tucker's 60 cc feeding syringes!! My sister Meagan had the idea, and I thought we could really make it work. Chris put them together Friday, and I knew they would be cute...but people really loved them. Some kids even suggested that next year we put different puddings in them and other toppings....I guess we will have to save up Tucker's feeding supplies:) My sister Sarah took pictures of everything for me, and was my party assistant. She did a great job, thanks!

We also worked very hard on a Trick or Treating game that involved clues. There were 18 characters, and 18 types of candy. So each kid got a list with 18 pictures on it over different characters...ladybug, mummy, princess, etc. So they went to each grown-up, who then read out a clue. The clues were like, " I like to walk around in my fancy gown, I even get to wear a beautiful crown," so then the kid would guess "princess", get the picture of the princess marked off, and then get their candy. I just wanted it to be different than just a rushing free-for-all for candy that was over in 2 minutes. It took a while to get set up for this game, and the kids were getting antsy. My mom was leading them in song, it was hilarious! But once we got all the ducks in a row, the kids really enjoyed the activity, and it was a nice way to get them thinking and focused on the game, not just the treats:) This was also a family affair-Mom bought the candy, I made up the game and decorated the characters, and Meagan made up the clues. Of course Superman did not take part in the trick or treating:( He was too excited that the swingset was empty! So he took that time to swing on his swings, and then when he decided to join in, he tried to steal Wes's candy...but that didn't work!

My favorite picture of the day is the one I posted at the beginning of this post-it's the Super Friends, Wes as Spiderman, Daniel as Iron Man, and Tucker as Superman. You can kind of see the backdrop Gina painted, but you can see it much better with just one child in the picture, so I'll have to post some of those. I just love Tucker's hair, Chris slicked it down just like Clark Kent:)

Tucker has a hard time interacting with other kids, but I'll always remember what one of his therapists told me: Kids with autism don't interact with other kids well....they learn pretty quickly that they are not good at it, so then they quit trying.....we all like to do things we are good at, so if you teach your child how to be better at interacting, he will want to interact more, and then he'll get even better...and so on and so on.

So we give Tucker lots of opportunities for fun and games with other kids. He loves having kids over to his house, and he is pretty good at sharing, except for his favorite swing. At one point, he was swinging, and I said, "don't you want to get down and play with the kids?" and he said "play wit the kids! play wit the kids!" and I took him down and he ran and played....it was precious:)

Next year's party plans are already underway...Gina wants to use our shed as a Haunted House...the point of the party has been "fun not scary" for the last 2 years, so I told her we'll have to think about that. As the kids get older, they will probably want to be scared, though, so we'll see.

I have a few medical updates, nothing big, though, and I'll get to them later. I have been really enjoying the last few days with Tucker, and keeping in mind so many of his friends who are in the hospital fighting for their lives right now....and the ones who are up in heaven eating more candy than any of us....those sweet kids and their families are never far from my mind, and I am so, so grateful that I have been able to focus my attention on planning a party for Tucker and his friends. We are a lucky family.

The Last Few Days

A lot has been going on over the last week or so; Tucker attended a full week of school last week, yay! I didn't want to post about his first day back, and brag that it was a success only to jinx us. So I waited until we were done, including a great field trip. Tucker started feeling better on a Wednesday, then that Thursday I kept him home to monitor him, and he was much better. That Friday, school was out for parent/teacher conferences, so Tucker didn't go back to school until Monday; he was out for a total of 8 school days, and 13 calendar days. We were quite nervous about how we would get back into the school routine, especially when his speech therapist came to our house and said she could tell he was out of his work routine. So that Monday morning I woke him up and told him he was going to school. He was SO excited, and rushed to get ready. He had a hard time letting go of Spiderman, but I promised that he would wait on the couch until Tucker came home. We ended up outside a full ten minutes before we usually are, and he kept looking down the road, waiting for the bus to appear. When the bus arrived, he ran on! The bus driver said they missed him, I replied that obviously Tucker missed them, too. That day was pretty hard for me, I missed Tucker:( I stayed home, just in case the teacher called me and needed me to pick him up. It was so odd to have "me" time again, even though most of the day was spent on neglected housework. At least I could control the TV and/or radio, I had watched Elmo Firetruck and listened to Chamillionare rap songs for a whole week! When Tucker got off the bus, he ran past me into the house. He said two words when he got home: "Peye-da-man", then he found him, then "Huck" meaning the Incredible Hulk. He held both of them and was so happy! No "Mommy", haha! He did not miss me so much as his stuff. He did pretty well at OT that day; he had missed the previous week from being sick. According to his notes, he had a good day at school, so by Monday night he was very tired. He made it through the rest of the week just fine, and he got a good behavior note on Thursday. Tucker missed school on Monday and Tuesday because he made a trip to Houston. Tucker had his echo/EKG on his heart on Monday, then an appointment with the mito dr, Dr K, Tuesday. The trip was not as easy as usual; Tucker almost never sleeps in the car, he really never has. So when we take a 5 hour car trip, you would think he would at least sleep a little, but he doesn't. He is very good in the car and usually enjoys trips, but after about an hour he started asking to "get out the car" and "home". So we stopped a few times for gasoline and breakfast, and he was not happy to get back in the car each time. I was worried that he would be even more upset when we got to the hospital, but he was fine. I think he was just happy to run around. We signed in, and Tucker got his orange patient bracelet. Chris took Tucker for escalator rides for about 10 minutes, (he really loves that!), then we went into the imaging center. Tucker looked around the waiting room, then looked down at his bracelet, and burst into tears! He said "home, home" and tried to escape out of the door. We had already told him that it wouldn't hurt, so he decided to believe us. He sat down and watched Mickey Mouse on the laptop. He was happy when the techs came to get us, and he was very compliant with the EKG. The tech told him the leads were stickers, so Tucker liked that. For the echo, Tucker had to lie down for at least 20 minutes while the tech moved the wand around and took pictures of his heart. We thought that was going to be hard; they had even offered to sedate him, which we declined. They had on cartoons for Tucker to watch; well, he put his hands behind his head, propped his leg up, and watched the monitor with the pictures of his heart. He was totally at ease, like he watches echos all day long. He even "helped" the tech move the wand around. It was dark, and Chris and I both almost nodded off. When the tech said she was done, we were surprised; we thought it was going to be much longer. We left and headed to the Knights. Lauren was sick, and her pedi wasn't sure if she was contagious, so she spent the night at her grandparents' house so Tucker wouldn't get sick. So that left the whole house of toys for Tucker, he loved running around getting into all kinds of trouble! Pictures and signs of Samuel were everywhere; Tucker didn't understand that Samuel wasn't there, but he appreciated playing with all of his toys and bossing his Mommy:) I got to talk to Missy a little bit while Tucker napped; I miss her so much, I wish we could have talked more. We ate dinner with Ben and Missy, then we got ready for bed. Tucker was running around like a crazy person, and by 10pm he was not even tired. Missy gave Tucker his first dose of Melatonin, which helped him sleep. Within 10 minutes he was out, and he really needed to sleep after his long day. We will be using Melatonin from now on. We are not trying to knock Tucker out, it's just that sometimes he literally can not slow his body down to go to sleep, and his sleep is necessary for his health. Dr. K said it was fine to use Melatonin. The next morning we headed out early for our appointment with Dr. K. We had to wait for about 20 minutes in the waiting room, which is very short for this doctor. The room got crowded, though, so we had to buckle Tucker into his stroller; he does not know how to keep his hands to himself! We took out the laptop and put on his Mickey movie with his headphones. I have said this before: thank goodness for technology! I don't know how else we would occupy Tucker for such long waiting times. Tucker was so compliant for the weight and height check, and even the blood pressure check, which he usually HATES and fights against. The resident came into the room and examined Tucker and talked to us. Going to a teaching hospital is such a different experience for us. We have been in doctors' offices where one or maybe two residents observe a doctor's appointment, but at this office the doctor comes in with a whole team of students. Tucker was pretty rude to them, he wouldn't even look at Dr. K until she touched his purse! Then he was pretty mad at her. Dr K thinks Tucker looks great, she said that he looks much different than when she first met him. It was funny because Missy said the same thing to me that morning. They both said he looks much more proportional, something that I had noticed also. He used to be all belly with little stick arms and legs, and he is much more solid now and more proportional. Missy asked what we had changed, and the only real answer is that we added his mito supplements. So they are doing something positive! Dr K even suggested that we increase his dose of CoQ10, but if he seems to have too much energy, we could drop it back down. It's funny, because we give Tucker the supplements to increase his energy chain at the cellular level; while at the same time, he seems to have a ridiculous amount of energy! He bounces off the walls sometimes, and has attention problems because he can't slow down. One of our main concerns was Tucker's high blood sugar. Tucker has random high blood sugar readings, and lately they are almost to 300. This is very alarming, but for the most part his blood sugar is normal. So the endocrinologist in BR decided to just monitor him, and Dr. K agrees. She said it would be hard to decide how much insulin to give Tucker because we might give him too much and his sugar could get too low. She wants us to see the Endo in Houston, along with the Pulmonologist/Immunologist (one doctor who takes care of both specialties) that specialize in Mito the next time we come in. We are slowly moving Tucker's specialties over to Houston, while also keeping the ones in BR for regular monitoring. Dr K ordered the second round of genetic tests for Depletion Syndromes. The first round was taken in July, and they all came back negative. The hope is that we find the exact gene that caused Tucker's mito, that way the family and our future kids could get tested for that gene to see if we are carriers and/or affected. It would also help mito research to know what genes cause which types of mito. We know that we may never find that gene, but we will still take all the tests to see. Dr. K also ordered another A1C to test Tucker's blood sugar over the long-term, and an IgG level to check his immunity level. The last few times that Tucker had blood drawn, it was easy for the techs to find a vein and get the blood; the problem was that Tucker flipped out and had to be physically held down by at least two people to get the blood drawn. This is the main reason that I made Chris come with me to Houston; Mom and I had a hard time forcing him to lie down last time. This time, we told him that we had to get blood drawn so that we could go home. Tucker went into the basement lab and sat on Chris's lap, held out his arm, and watched as the tech set up. Once she stuck him, he held her hand and sat very patiently! Chris and I exchanged glances, and wondered where our feisty Tucker was! The tech said she was reading her Bible, waiting for next patient, so she must have gotten blessed by having a good little boy to take labs for. I looked at her desk, and sure enough, an open Bible was sitting there. I told her we should always ask our techs to read the Bible, because that was the best experience we'd ever had, lol. Tucker went back to school today, and we hope to have an uneventful few days. Then on Saturday we have our annual Halloween party (it's only the second one) for the kids. We started this last year, and it was a big hit! We have games, trick-or-treat, crafts, and Halloween-themed snacks. The theme is usually "fun, not scary", and the kids love that. Chris tries to sneak scary elements in, but so far I haven't let him! I like to give the kids a chance to get together in their costumes, and it's a fun reason to get together. Most of us go our own ways for the actual Halloween night, so it's nice to see all of the kids together in their costumes. I hope this party is as fun as last year's, but I have quite a bit to do before then.

Pumpkin Patch 2010

Today Tucker's class went on their first fieldtrip. Chris and I joined the class at the Pumpkin Patch. Last spring Tucker's 3-year-old class went to the Strawberry Patch, and that place becomes a Pumpkin Patch in the fall, so I thought we were going there. It turned out that we went to a different one, and even the busdriver had no idea where it was! I am usually the overly controlling parent, who plans out all the details, and Chris just goes with the flow. Today we followed the bus driver and other parents in through neighborhoods near Chris's plant, which we KNEW was nowhere near the pumpkin patch, and Chris was freaking out:) I told him to relax, that we would get there, and we had to trust the people in charge, he was not very good at that! We knew Tucker was having a blast, as it was a much longer bus ride than they planned, it took us about an hour and ten minutes to actually get there. Mrs. Amy said that Tucker loved the busride, and they fed him on schedule while the bus was rolling. I am proud of Mrs. Amy, they are getting very used to his tube feedings. Since we got to the Pumpkin Patch late, we were scared that we missed our scheduled ride. Since we were such a small group, they fit us right in. Big tractors were hooked up to large wagons; we all stood up in the wagons, in a pretty tight fit, and rode out to the pumpkin patch. I love this picture! I couldn't get down on his level, because there was no room, so I snapped the picture from my (not too high) vantage point. Once the tractor started rolling, Chris picked Tucker up so he could see over the big kids' heads.

Then the big kids' from another school were so sweet and moved out of the way for Tucker to see.

We were near the front of the wagon, right behind the tractor. Two of Tucker's classmates loved being right behind the tractor, and when Tucker noticed them, he joined them. This is a picture of Brian pointing at the tracks and explaining to Tucker that the tractor made the tracks, how cute:)

The kids mainly stayed with their parents, but it was so sweet to see Tucker interacting with the other kids. In the classroom before we left, Tucker just kind of sat around and stared into space while the teacher and kids talked. But out on the field trip he really interacted much better.

Once we got out of the wagon, the kids took all of 3 minutes to pick out their pumpkins!! Tucker was ready to actually ride the tractor, but that was not allowed. He got in the wagon and stared at the tractor, saying "get in the tractor," but the answer was a firm NO. He did not have a fit or anything, he was very well-behaved.

Then I just took some pictures of Tucker walking in the field.

And some pictures of him back on the wagon, waiting patiently for the tractor to GO!

The ride back was so hot! By the end of the ride we were all ready for some water. Tucker drank pretty well out of the cup, then we found a spot for a picnic. True to Tucker form, guess who was the first one ready for lunch?? ;)

He is hilarious! He has always been the first one ready for snack and lunchtime, even though he only licks the food. We had to keep telling him to "stay out" of the lunchbags until we had the blanket set up. He even went around digging in the parent's lunchbags! I had to stop him until Chris got back with our lunch, including 3 bags of chips-one for each of us.

Tucker's current favorite chip is Fritos, so that's what we bought for him. I brought Cheetos for me, and that is what Tucker wanted instead of his chips. He sat and licked every single chip while the other kids ate their PB&J sandwiches, apples, and juices. Mrs. Amy works hard with Tucker everyday to lick his lunch as long as the other kids eat. We have seen a difference in him at home as far an attention span at meals. Well today was wonderful, he sat there and licked the chips all during lunchtime, then put his discarded cheetos into the trash, which is much nicer than his usual method, which is to lick chips and then feed them to us!

After lunch, Chris cleaned Tucker's face and hands in the water fountain, then we brought him to our car to change his clothes. We had him in pants, but it was too hot! Luckily, we had packed his shorts. Once we got back, the kids were in line for the potty. Tucker kept saying "ride the bus" so I told him he had to ask Mrs. Amy. He found Mrs. Amy, and I told her Tucker had a question for her. She asked him what he needed and he said "ride the bus!" She told him it wasn't time, so he held her hand and waitied until it was time. He was so patient! :)

Once the kids were loaded on the bus, the parents discussed how to get home. Chris suggested a much better route, and the parents agreed to follow us out. We got back much sooner, thank goodness. I think the teacher and aides were tired of the pumpkin patch and ready to get the kids back for naptime. This is only the first fieldtrip, and the teacher has planned one per month. All of the parents can't attend each one, though, and next month only two parents are going to Global Wildlife. Global Wildlife is about an hour away, and it's a place where you ride in covered wagons to see Safari animals. Since there is limited space on the wagons, only 2 parents can come, including me. Chris has had his fill of field trips for now, so he is not jealous of me at all! I told him "this is only the beginning of our field trip years," haha, we are lucky to be looking forward to hopefully many more trips to the pumpkin patch and other oddly educational places.

Today was enough excitement for us for a while! Hopefully we will just relax this weekend, then leave for Houston bright and early Monday morning. I will update more on that this weekend.

Parent/Teacher Conference

On Friday I attended Tucker's Parent/Teacher Conference. Tucker is only 4 years old, but I have already attended many of these....none of them ever bring good news or warm, fuzzy feelings...the pride that comes with knowing our son "fits in" at school and is learning and progressing as he should. At least now I don't go to the meetings with the hope that I will hear something different...that I will leave the meeting with the knowledge that Tucker somehow "caught up" to other kids, like the doctors said he would....at least now I have the perspective that any improvement is a reason to be cheerful, as there are many kids who never improve...it still hurts, though!! For any of Tucker's therapists or teachers who read this, please don't take any of this as insulting. Giving us honest evaluations of Tucker's progress is a wonderful gift you all give us; each of you gives us many positive things to look at while also giving us the truth. But this was the first teacher's conference of this school year, the first conference in a classroom with 13 kids, half of which are neurotypical. As I've said before, I love the set-up of this class. The teacher and aides gear the class to the typical 4-year-old curriculum, and they put help in place for the kids who can't keep up, like Tucker. This way Tucker is not placed in a room with just kids with special needs; he has the opportunity to interact with typical kids all day, and be exposed to all that other 4-year-olds learn. Obviously, he can't do all this, so he also has the support to learn the things that he can handle. The other kids are still young enough that they don't bully or exclude Tucker, which is a concern we have for the future. For now, he is just another kid in the class, which I love. His teacher opened the conference by talking about how sick Tucker got. The other kids who went home came back in a day or two; Tucker missed 8 days of school. Chris and I knew that this year would be a trial of Tucker's immune system. As a former preemie, Tucker should have spent months sick, and any little bug that we caught, Tucker should have caught it much worse. This has really never happened! It has always perplexed us and his doctors; we just thought maybe since he spent the first winter of his life in the hospital (which would have been when he was most vulnerable to infection) maybe his body was exposed to so many bugs that his immune system figured out how to fight them. Last year Tucker attended preschool with 3-5 kids in the class for 3 hours each day. Tucker goes to many therapies, and other kids run around during his therapy sessions. Tucker also goes to many public places, like the carousel at the mall and Chuck E Cheese. His doctors haven't told us to avoid any of this, and this last illness really threw us all for a loop as Tucker is not sick very often. Well, I would like to think that this sickness was a freak occurence, and not just a sign of things to come. Tucker's teacher asked me what our plan is if every time Tucker gets sick, he misses 2 weeks of school. The truth is, Tucker NEEDS to be at school....he has to work twice as hard and twice as long to accomplish way less than the other kids. Because of this, each day of school he misses keeps him even further behind. As a mom, I know that Tucker and I have tried the "stay at home" approach to school, where the teacher comes to our house once a week. It is not enough! Tucker is developing by leaps and bounds based on just Tucker's baseline...but really he is much slower than the other kids, and having a homebound teacher just wouldn't help that situation at all. So my plan is: Don't get sick! I think that all parents are amazed by what their kids learn at school. As a parent, you are always worried about your kids, and when they come home knowing new things, it makes us proud. Tucker is learning his colors and different routines. His vocabulary is expanding rapidly-if only we could understand him! But when I got the last few class newsletters with the class activities, I knew Tucker was out of his league. The science section talked about inferences and observation, the math section was about counting to 10 and language was about learning letters. So that was the main question I had for Mrs. Amy: How does Tucker even fit in here? She said for times like that, they pull Tucker and 2 other kids out to the side to work on lower level skills that still fit in with the theme and ideas. She said that Tucker probably won't know his ABCs by the end of this school year....but maybe he will recognize a "T" and other meaningful letters, so they work on that. They also do a lot of language work with him, since he wants to talk and be understood so badly, so they are helping him with that. I am very happy with how they accomodate Tucker into the classroom, without letting him run the show!! Tucker gets two tube feedings during the day; these can't be changed around as they are ordered by his pediatrician. The first tube feeding was scheduled during playground time, which meant that Tucker missed out on Outside Time. Well, that didn't work! He cried real tears and fought the feedings the whole time, so the teacher moved playgroud time around for the whole class so that Tucker could be included. They also put Tucker in an empty classroom for rest time. There are 13 kids, and they all rest on their mats for 1 hour and 15 minutes each day. Well 2 of the kids still don't sleep and make noise; the other 10 kids are fine with this and sleep anyway. Tucker does not! He crawls around and even rubs the other kids' hair! So since Rest is SUPER important for Tucker, the teacher and aides take turns each day taking Tucker and his mat to a different classroom so he will have NO distractions. So far it was really working, but then he missed all that school, so we'll see how it goes. Mrs. Amy also said that Tucker is enjoying lunchtime more. At the beginning, Tucker's only requirement at lunch was that he licked everything on his plate at least once. He also had to stay in the cafeteria until one of the grown-ups was finished; then that person would take him to the classroom while the others stayed at lunch. Tucker would help Mrs. Amy set up for journal time until the other kids came back. Mrs. Amy said that now, Tucker doesn't like to leave early. He wants to stay with the other kids. He also used to sit "alone" at reading time and rug time. He had to sit in a chair instead of on the floor because if he could reach any kids, he'd hit them! So now he doesn't like to be alone, so he sits on the rug with Mrs. Amy, who keeps a close eye that he doesn't hit anyone. Mrs. Amy also said that he's making progress with interaction, though not much! Tucker is very much "all about me." I wonder why, haha? Tucker loves older kids, and he is very into babies lately (especially Kate, aka "baby Tate"), but he is not too great with kids his own size or age. This is one of those very autistic characteristics that Tucker meets. Anyways, Mrs. Amy said that lately he will let the kids hold his hands while they walk in line, and he will tolerate the kids being near him! I guess tolerating them is progress, right? Mrs. Amy said that she feels like she pushes Tucker so hard all day long, and he gets very frustrated. She said it's a fine line between pushing him just enough to make him work, and pushing him too hard. By the end of each day, she is "Tuckered out." I told her to keep pushing, and that Tucker has been progressing, so she must be making the right choices. We all wonder this about Tucker-how hard to push, how much is too much, and how far is too far....really no one knows! Today Tucker went back to school for the first time in two weeks. He was SO excited to ride the bus again, I am hoping that he transitions back into the school routine very easily:)

Back at 100%...or maybe 110%

Tucker started feeling better Wednesday, and by Thursday he was feeling great! He is cracking me up, and has been since he got his little personality back. He has taken out every toy, even ones that he hasn't played with in months. My house was so uncluttered for a few days, but it was only because Tucker slept for that time. Now that he is back up and around, stuff is everywhere! Not that I'm blaming all of the mess on him, but now I have to chase after him and keep him busy, so I don't have any time or desire to clean up....which is fine with me:) He cries when I take his toys away at bedtime and naptime. Tucker has slept in the "big bed" with Chris and me off and on since last November when he got his trach out. I finally got him into a good bedtime routine starting last Sunday night....but maybe it only worked because he was tired and sick. The last few nights he has really fought bedtime, but I think it is because he is trying to make up for lost playtime. Last night he had about 30 toys in his daybed. He wouldn't let me get rid of even one; So I let him keep them in the top bunk of the daybed, since he sleeps in the trundle. That lasted about an hour, when I went in there and found every single toy in his trundle bed, with no room left for him! I had to take every toy out except for Mike his turtle. Five minutes after that, he fell asleep. It is very obvious that he is bored and so ready for some interaction. He has been carrying around two toys, his potato head and plastic dog. He bosses them around, it is hilarious! On Wednesday he was telling Potato Head, "sit up, tay-toe head" over and over, so I peeked into the room. He had his dog set up on a pillow to watch TV with him, and he wanted Potato Head to sit there, too. Well Potato Head is round, so he kept flopping over, and Tucker got SO mad! I couldn't decide if it was cute that Tucker had an imagination, and thought that Potato Head had the ability to obey him...or a little worried that Tucker expected a plastic toy to do what he said. I went in and explained to Tucker that Potato Head is round, so he can not sit up by himself. A few minutes later I heard Potato Head hit the floor, as Tucker screamed "sit up Tay-to Head!" So Potato Head was removed from the room until his shoes could be located... Tucker's temper is getting him in trouble already, mainly because he is trying to do too much too soon. He is not happy anytime that I make him stop to rest. He is also getting mad at himself for not being able to do things as easily or as quickly...I keep telling him to SLOW DOWN....he is getting way too frustrated. Tucker has missed 7 1/2 days of school, and school is cancelled Friday due to Parent/Teacher Conferences, so Tucker will go back on Monday. For the first few days of sickness, Tucker stared out the window asking to "ride the bus", and he carried around his booklet with the pictures of all of his classmates. Then he got more sick and just slept, and I was starting to wonder if he forgot all about school. Thursday afternoon Mrs. Joy came back to our house for Speech Therapy; she hadn't been to our house in quite a while because of some insurance hold-up. I told Tucker that Mrs. Joy was coming over, and he ran over to the window, saying "Joy, Joy" waiting for her car to come in the driveway. I told him we had to wait for a long time, because we still had 45 minutes until his appointment. When she pulled up in the driveway Tucker was so excited, he said "Joy in the dribeway." He took her hand and brought her right to his work table to get started. Mrs. Joy said she could tell that Tucker had been out of school for awhile, he was desperate for attention, haha! It is pretty boring staying home with me for 10 days. For the first few minutes she had to be firm with him, then he fell back into the routine and she was pretty impressed. I love that Mrs. Joy has known Tucker since before he was 2...and back then he was such a mess! Of course, he still is;) But their therapy sessions used to be an hour of screaming and fighting...once Chris was home on a Thursday and almost went in and stopped a session, he couldn't take it. Now Tucker is so happy to see Mrs. Joy and he works very hard. We still only understand maybe 50% of what Tucker says. This leads to a lot of repeating and frustration. We have noticed that lately Tucker's problem is more with pronunciation, not vocabulary, which is a huge improvement. He seems to have the words, he just needs a lot of work to get them out of his mouth so that other people can understand him. Sometimes we will think he's saying something, only to realize he is saying something more complex or longer-something we had no idea he knew...so this is great. He also communicates to get his needs met, not to really have a conversation. Every once in a while he will point out random sights, like "beeg truck" (big truck) so for now that is what we count as a big conversation. This weekend I have plans for a Spa Day with Lauren on Friday, and a girls' day with the Galatas/Christian ladies on Saturday-we will shop, eat lunch, see a movie, and have a sleepover:) We haven't done this in years, haha! And I have never been to a spa. So I'm looking forward to it, and I know that Tucker will love having "Boys' Weekend" with Chris. They will go to Cabela's, play outside, and probably spend Saturday night at Mrs. Mia's. All in all, Tucker will be very happy to feel better and be out of the house. Me, too!

A little TOO Excited:)

I am probably about to majorly jinx myself but....Tucker has now been diarrhea-free for 24 hours!!! And to add to that, he had a solid stool today!!! I sent out a mass text to announce the news, haha, so sorry if you are my friend and didn't appreciate the text:) Tucker woke up with more energy today; I'd say that "normal" Tucker is at 100%, well today Tucker is at more like 20%, but it's much better than the past two days when he was down to about 1%. Yesterday and last night especially, I was very scared. Tucker had no energy, he just laid in his bed. Tucker has never ever been slowed down by an illness....even when he had an ear infection I wouldn't know, other than the awful smell! He went to school and had therapy, but was fussy....I made sure he had some extra sleep during that time, and then he was fine. But this sickness was just something else....really freaked us all out:( Last night Chris and I broke out the sat monitor to check Tucker's oxygen (100%) and heartrate (99), along with checking his blood sugars more often (stayed in the range of 100-119). Tucker's blood sugar is too high, we all know that. What I didn't know (thanks Missy!!) is that a quick increase in blood sugar can cause "dumping" which leads to diarrhea, especially when it happens after every feed (like Tucker's was) and when his energy is completely wiped out. So when other kids got the same virus Tucker got, they were sick for 2 days then went back to school. But the virus threw Tucker's whole body off guard, and his sugars possibly went nuts which made the problem much worse. To counteract this problem in the short-term, we could have put Tucker on continuous feeds, except we don't have a feeding pump! Tucker has always received "bolus" feeds, which means that we feed him five meals a day in his g-button. If for some reason his body can't tolerate that amount, we would move him to continuous feeds. This means that a bag of formula would be hooked to a pump and to Tucker's button, and that a small amount of food would constantly drip into Tucker's tummy all day...or for many hours a day. Tucker would carry the pump and formula around on his back in a backpack....a very common sight with Mito kids. Tucker's stuffed animal Mito turtle even has a removable shell since so many of the kids have the feeding backpacks. So last night I e-mailed Tucker's mito doctor. She emailed me today and said that Tucker should not be having diarrhea this long. So she suggested we stop his Levo-Carnitine, which I did today. Tucker has been on Levo-Carnitine since September 7th to give his body more energy. Dr. K's nurse said that we can restart it at half-dose once his poop is back to normal, and if the diarrhea returns then we will discontinue this med. It doesn't make sense that this would have caused the problems, but maybe since he had the virus the Levo-Carnitine didn't help matters at that point. She also suggested that we talk to Tucker's GI doctor and make a plan. The GI doctor would be the dr to order a feeding pump, and she is in New Orleans so we could always drive to her office if she needed to see Tucker. I called the GI doctor today, she was probably susprised to hear from me since we hadn't seen her since May. The nurse called me to get all of Tucker's symptoms, and they are supposed to call me back later. I want a plan in place in case this happens again. We are only at the beginning of "sick" season, so who knows what the next few months have in store for us. I am posting the link to an article called "The Poop Chronicles." All new moms know the importance of their baby's poop cycle-it has such a big effect on their happiness and health! Well, moms of special needs kids don't really ever let that fascination with poop go away! One of my main concerns when Tucker started preschool was that I wouldn't know all the details of each BM, which are an important indicator of his overall health. This might sound silly to most people, but it was a big deal to me. The past 9 days have given me a whole new appreciation for the moms and dads of the kids who deal with chronic GI issues....I really hope this sickness is over and not a new symptom for us, as I don't think I'm cut out for this. http://articles.complexchild.com/oct2010/00242.html

Day 7 of Sickness

Tucker is still sick:( I feed Tucker 3-4 times a day, and after each feeding he has diarrhea at least once. Then I give him Pedialyte and he usually goes again. Poor baby, he has the drill totally down! Wherever he is, he screams out "change my diaper!" which sounds more like "shashe ma doppa." He is not allowed to move until we get the whole set-up: diaper, wipes, anti-bacterial cleaning wipes (for the floor), towel, and two shopping bags. Then he stands there while we strip him, clean him off, and re-dress him. He is SO tired all day long:( On Saturday he had several hours where he felt good, but since Sunday he has been laying around pretty much all day, and for most of the day and night he is asleep. He is so tired that he barely talks....he just points at what he wants and sometimes cries if we can't figure out what he wants...he sometimes just gives up. Luckily Mickey Mouse has been on the Disney Channel pretty much nonstop lately, so Tucker is content to lay in front of the TV. The favorite part of his day is his bubble bath. I bought him a big bottle of pink bubble bath on Sunday, and he is sleeping on the rug right now with the bottle right next to him! Yesterday Mom and I took Tucker to the pediatrician. We took him to the after hour clinic on Friday night, and the dr. there said he was okay and not dehydrated. He "prescribed" Immodium (it's really over the counter) which I went out and bought...then never gave Tucker. His pediatrician has made it VERY clear in the past that I should never give Tucker immodium or pepto, nothing like that. The last time we really had this problem was two years ago, so I thought maybe it would be okay to give it to him now that he's 4. However, I wanted him to be able to give me a sample for testing on Monday, and I was scared that he wouldn't be able to go at all if I gave him medication. Tucker was again very excited to go to the doctor! He wasn't quite as energetic as Friday night, poor kid, but he was still happier than he was at home. We waited a long time in the office (they fit us in at the last minute) and Tucker was okay for most of it. Then right before the dr. came in, Tucker pooped all over the place! I had brought a beach towel, several changes of clothes, and many bags...good thing I did.... The dr said he is not dehydrated at all (yay! for the g-button!!), and that he seems to still have a regular virus. His poop was sent off to be tested, so we should have some info about what's going on by Wednesday afternoon. I talked to Tucker's teacher, she said that the few kids who were sick last week only stayed out for a few days and are all already back....except Tucker. So maybe something is going on with him, or maybe his body is taking forever to fight this sickness off. I really hope it's not that his body is just taking forever. That would not be a good sign. The dr. said that a toddler having a virus for this long is very common. I told her then why hasn't anyone ever heard of it?? Not my mom, Mrs. Mia, my aunts, my grandma, my friends with kids?? I know that he could have much much worse going on, but this virus is just really taking so much out of Tucker, I want it gone! :( The doctor also said that we were NOT to give him Immodium, I said "I knew it!" It was so hard to not give it to him this weekend, to just give him a little relief. But I'm glad we didn't, because the dr. said that once the medicine wears off, the kids' symptoms usually come back with a vengeance. Thanks for reading my complaints, I am hoping that Tucker gets rid of all this soon!

Still Sick, and pretty Pathetic!

Today was day 5 of the stomach bug, and each day seems to get worse. Yesterday was the worst day as far as the number of times I had to clean Tucker (poor baby), but today was worse because he is just so tired:( I had started the BRAT diet, and it clearly wasn't working, so yesterday I hit my gross-out limit as well as my worried limit and took Tucker into the after hours clinic. I called Tucker's pediatrician yesterday (I had already talked to them Wednesday) and they said the lab would close at 5 yesterday, so unless I could get a stool sample into them by then, I would have to wait until Monday. Well it was already the afternoon and Tucker was napping, so I asked them what else I could do. The nurse said that really the only danger would be him getting dehydrated, and it didn't seem that he had those signs. She advised that I take him to the afterhours clinic just to make sure he wasn't dehydrated. Once Tucker woke up, he was much more energetic and happier. He spent most of yesterday laying in bed watching Elmo Firetruck (as we call it), or staring out of the front window pooping. Yuck... I think he is staring out of the window just waiting for the school bus to come along so he can leave! Anyways, he woke up looking and feeling better, but we were still taking him to the dr. I told him Nana and I were taking him to the doctor and he was WAY too excited! He hadn't left the house since Tuesday at noon, so he hurriedly gathered his clothes. He actually found a shirt, shorts, sandals, and socks-I was proud of him! Anyways, we packed his booksack with tons of diapers and extra clothes. I accidentally got two left shoes for myself; when I realized my mistake, I went to my room to look for the right shoe. He watched me and screamed out "shoes on! shoes on!" Poor kid, he thought he wasn't going to be able to make his big escape. He was SO happy to be in the car, and even happier when we picked up Mom and Gina. We dropped off Gina at her friend's house, then headed to the clinic. We checked in and only waited for about 15 minutes. The waiting room was pretty empty, then a little old couple walked in. Tucker's face lit up and he yelled "people!" I mean....really....the poor kid has been stuck inside with me for three days, obviously he is going insane! The doctor examined Tucker and said he was definitely not dehydrated. He said that it's no fun having diarrhea for this long, but as long as he is getting pedialyte and the Brat diet he should be fine until Monday when we go in for testing. At that point, I said "no, no this has to be gone by Monday, I am losing it!" The dr. told us that he is not contagious, so that was good news. As long as we wash our hands after cleaning him, no one else should catch it. He also explained that I was doing the BRAT diet all wrong. The diet is supposed to be mainly rice and toast, with a little bananas and apple. Well, Tucker is tube-fed, so I can't really shove dry rice and toast down there. So I was making 90% fruit mixture with a little cereal. Last night I switched the mixture, along with a lot of Pedialyte to make it go down his tube. From last night up until today at 4pm, he didn't poop at all. I thought he was cured:) Then at 4 pm, he went all over the place, followed by another mess at 6pm, which Mom had the pleasure to clean. After that he was done; We were at Mom's for a trunk show; My friend Kristin makes adorable children's clothing, so I held a trunk show at mom's today. This morning Tucker seemed better, and he was begging to get out of the house. My niece Aliyah had a birthday party at lunchtime today, but I didn't want to go to the party in case Tucker made a big mess....they have a new house with a lot of carpet, so I was just being practical! Mom came over to get our present for Aliyah, and Tucker cried and cried "Nana House! Nana House!" So I promised him we'd make it to the trunk show (mom had offered to have it there whether I could make it or not, since there were several people who couldn't wait to see Kristin's cute stuff). For a while he was fine, until the pooping started. Then he was fine just laying in Sarah's bed (for those of you who don't know, NO ONE is allowed near Sarah's stuff, so this is true aunt love!!) or following Molli around the house trying to hit her. (Lord help us, when he is feeling better he is in for some strong discipline!) At the end of the show (the whole thing lasted about 1 1/2 hours), Molli walked next door to Paw Paw Ed's and that's when Tucker lost it. He was crying on the floor screaming "Paw Paw, Paw Paw," and that was when I knew he was done. I put him in the car and let him see Paw Paw and Maw Maw for a short visit before taking him home. At home, I fed him even more of the Brat Diet/Pedialyte mixture, and then rocked him. His eyes lit up when he saw the LSU/Florida game (he smiled and said "fooball") but then he laid down on me and demanded "sing." A few minutes later he crawled off my lap and laid on the rug. I asked him "you want the blue bed?" He didn't even pick up his head, just said "boo bed." I carried him to his room and tucked him in, he was asleep by 8 pm. I am thinking tomorrow we may move him back to his regular food. I have seen almost NO difference, and I think he is way too tired without his regular calories and protein. Maybe my plan will backfire, but I can't see it being worse than the last two days have been. Plus Chris is on his way home from the hunting camp right NOW and should be home soon. He missed the opening weekend, and won't be able to hunt for awhile, so he went this weekend. We both thought that Tucker would feel much better and it wouldn't be a big deal for Chris to be gone, but Tucker has gotten worse. So Chris got to hunt twice on Friday and Saturday, and now he is coming home, thank goodness! Mom has helped me out a lot, but it will be nice to have Daddy back:)

Still Sick, but Not Slowing Down

Tucker came home from school on Tuesday with diarrhea. It is Thursday night, and he and I are still home...he will not be going to school tomorrow. He still has an upset tummy every time he eats; other than that, he is his regular active, happy, bossy self. On Wednesday, I had already decided that he was staying home, so I didn't set the alarm clock to let us both sleep in. Well at 7 am, Tucker was standing next to my bed, smiling, saying "get up, get up." I thought, maybe he feels better? Then I realized he reeked....and the smell was coming from his diaper...lovely! So he definitely stayed home, even though he had no fever, and wasn't even tired enough to take a nap that day. He kept looking out of the window and asking to "ride the bus, ride the bus." By the end of the day, we were both tired of the diaper changes, and he was crying each time I fed him, because he knew what would inevitably follow. Last night I put him on the BRAT diet (bananas, rice, applesauce, and toast) to help him out, but so far that hasn't worked. Mom and Gina brought over about 20 jars of banana and applesauce baby food today, along with about a gallon of Pedialyte so that Tucker doesn't get dehydrated. I called his pediatrician today, and they said that a stomach virus is going around right now. (Tucker's teacher said they have already sent home 3 kids with it.) All they can do for Tucker is just keep him on the BRAT diet and watch for dehydration. This can go on for 5 days total before they would look into it further. So far, I think he is fine with his fluids. I think he is just in danger of losing his mind; after over 48 hours on house arrest, neither one of us is doing too great! I don't even want to take him to my parents' or Chris's parents' because I don't want anyone to catch his stomach bug and have to miss work or school. When Chris comes in the door at night, we are both so excited:) I am happy because I get to complain and get a break, and Tucker is excited because he thinks surely his Daddy will let him outside to play! I have actually kind of enjoyed having Tucker home with me, it's just that we are both used to being on-the-go, and he is especially used to his routine. He has been carrying around his booklet with all of his school friends' pictures. He can sit and point to each one and say their names, it is so cute! I told him that once his tummy feels better he can go back to see all of his friends. We had a few visitors so far that braved the exposure, and Tucker has sent them all home. Yesterday Alexis dropped off some clothes for Tucker, and he hugged her then tried to shove her out of the door. Today he did pretty much the same thing with Mom and Gina. At least when Mrs. Mia came over tonight he let her rock him for a few minutes, then he said "Sissy bye bye." Mrs. Mia and I were talking, and she told him she was visiting a little while longer. He was not happy, and kept crying "Sissy, bye-bye" until she finally left, which was at least 10 minutes later. He really likes watching people drive into the driveway, and then he likes sitting by the window and watching them drive out...but the in-between, visiting time is not really exciting to him! Even though Tucker has many medical issues, I am not used to Tucker being "sick." He has pretty much never thrown up, he almost never has an upset tummy, and he hasn't had a fever in a very long time. I actually had to go out and buy a thermometer the other day (which I have been needing to do for awhile) because I thought the one I had was broken. They both read at about 98.7 degrees, which is normal, but he felt so hot. I thought that maybe I just didn't take his temperature correctly since I hadn't done it in so long. Today Tucker took a long nap, and he was still tired at bedtime tonight. This is very un-Tucker like behavior, so I hope that his little body is just fighting off this illness and he will feel better soon!

Emotional, Action-Packed Week

I have had quite an emotional week, or I guess it's been more like 10 days at this point. Early last Friday morning, I learned that sweet Samuel had passed away due to complications of mito. I wrote more about him two posts back; Samuel touched so many lives, and the whole mito family is mourning his loss and praying for his family. That Friday I kept Tucker home from school so I could take him to the pediatrician; he had been having a cold for about two weeks, so I brought him in to check it out. The doctor prescribed Omnicef, a broad antibiotic, but said he really looked fine. His cold didn't really go away until this Monday (8 days later), but I was reassured that nothing big was going on. The next day was Tucker's last TBall game. I don't know if we'd call this TBall season a success, but at least we made it! Anyone who has been to a game knows that Tucker spends 99% of the time trying to escape off of the field, either to sit in the stands or to "play" with trucks in the parking lot. Once my Dad was silly enough to park his truck near the dugout (of course so that Jessica wouldn't have to go far in her wheelchair), and Tucker could not contain himself! Dad had to move his truck farther away so that they could get some peace! By the 4th game, Tucker at least would sit in the dugout during his team's turn to bat, then go up to bat, swing the bat, and run to all the bases. So that's a big deal, I suppose. But forget actually fielding the ball; we all agree that it was just too hot and boring for any 4-year-old to really enjoy playing in the field, especially Tucker. Tucker got his medal for playing TBall, and we could not get home fast enough, I don't think any of us were sad to see the season end, although we will miss the great families we have met. A few hours later we learned that Chris's brother Justin got engaged to his girlfriend Jackie:) We are all very happy, Jackie and Justin started dating a few weeks before Tucker was born, and she really fits in. We love her so much, and Tucker seriously loves bossing her around. It's really pretty bad, he goes for either Jackie or Alexis as soon as he walks in the door over there. So they should be getting married next summer, and they want a beach wedding. That will be a lot of fun, and I'm sure Tucker will love it. On Sunday I went to church for the first time in months (Thank you Samuel, as my mom said!), there are so many feelings and thoughts that go right here, but that's for another time. Anyway, after church, I started making plans to go to Texas, as my whole family understood my great need to be present for Samuel's funeral and celebration of life. My only obstacle was finding people to care for Tucker. Tucker is not hard to take care of....at all!! I think that for the first years of his life, his care was so complex, so Chris and I got used to taking care of him on our own. We were too scared to leave him with untrained lay people, i.e., our family, so Tucker had nurses or us to care for him. My mom was trained from Day One to care for him...thank goodness, or I would have lost my mind. So anyways, now that I stay home with him, I often have the feeling that only I can take care of him, like I am irreplacable. I let that go, and his aunts took turns watching him afterschool, Chris had him at night, and Mrs. Mia and Mr. Ricky gave him his morning meds and got him on the bus. By all accounts, Tucker had a great few days, even though he did miss me enough to make me feel good about myself, just a little:) Traveling to and from Texas, attending Samuel's funeral, burial service, and celebration of life involved so many emotions. I have only been to a few funerals in my life; I could go on and on about Samuel's services, but I will just say this-Samuel touched so, so many lives, as shown by the huge crowd that showed up, and all of the stories people shared about him. The services were beautiful and were a real tribute to his life; I was blessed to witness them. When we got home Thursday morning (Mom and I spent Tuesday night and Wednesday night with the Poches in Lake Charles to cut down on driving and to see Aunt Kim for her birthday), I had a few hours to get myself together for Lacy's and Steve's rehearsal dinner. I have known Lacy since we were 10 years old, and I guess I met Steve about 3 years ago. Chris and I have become good friends with Steve, and we were both in the wedding this past Saturday. We have had a blast with all the wedding celebrations; we have met some great people, as well as had some nice, normal stress to keep our minds off of Tucker for a while. Thursday night was a lot of fun, and Chris of course cracked everyone up at the dinner. An added bonus was that our good friend Rachel drove in from Illinois with her boyfriend Sam. We hadn't seen them since January, and it was WONDERFUL to see them! We chatted Thursday night, then Rachel spent the day with me and the other bridesmaids Saturday getting ready, laughing, watching Glee, and eating. Chris and I ran some last-minute wedding errands on Friday while Tucker was at school. Chris went to Steve's bachelor party Friday night (which I hear was pretty tame, thank goodness), and Saturday morning Chris and Tucker drove me over to Heather's house to get ready. On the way there, we heard the Eminem and Rihanna song "Love the Way you Lie." As we all know, Tucker loves any music with a beat! I glanced back at one point, and he was dancing like a robot to the song; I tried not to laugh, then Chris saw him, too. We told him "you're a good dancer!" He was so proud of himself and he "danced" until the song was over, I loved it:) Saturday was wonderful; I loved having a girls' day, and getting my hair and make-up done, as well as wearing a "princess dress" as Molli would call it. After my hair was fixed, I wanted to take a nap! The bridesmaids all make fun of me, they warned me to get enough sleep before I came over on Saturday. I told everyone, it is hard for me to just sit around with nothing to do except relax, I am not used to it! When I sit down for that long, my poor body just wants to sleep, haha:) Lacy made an absolutely beautiful bride! I knew she would be, but it was still a nice surprise to see my childhood friend transformed into a bride:) We have been through so much together, and it is really amazing to see how far we have come in the last few years. Lacy and Steve are one of those couples that I am really proud to call my friends, and it was very nice for both Chris and me to be part of all of their festivities. After they cut the cake, all of the bridesmaids were called to the cake for the cake pull. I thought I shouldn't go, since I am married. Usually the cake pull is for single women, they pull a ribbon to see who will get married next. Well Lacy surprised us by picking 8 charms, and each charm was attached to a ribbon labeled with our names. We all lined up and pulled the ribbons with our names. The one that said "Leigh" had an angel charm on it. I wasn't sure what that meant, then I received the card that said "emotionally strong." Lacy had chosen a charm for each of us, and that meant so much to me that she took that time on her special day. By the end of the weekend, we were all exhausted! I spent a good portion of Monday in my bed, I needed to catch up on my rest:) I'm sure I missed some high points of the week, but for now I just wanted to document what I could. Mom had to pick up Tucker from school early today due to a nasty tummy ache (I was in Baton Rouge for a dentist appointment, but I quickly met Mom and Tucker at home). He has been sleeping well the last few nights, and today he woke up in a great mood, asking to "ride the bus, ride the bus." A few hours later the teacher called saying he had to be picked up right away because of his tummy troubles. He hasn't had runny stools in a very long time, so I actually asked the teacher if she was sure! He came home and slept for 3 hours, which is some kind of record for Tucker. He didn't have a fever, though, he was at 98.6....which technically is a fever I guess as his usualy temperature is closer to 97....weird, I know. He is still having nasty BMs, so he and I will stay home tomorrow. He has been running around the house like usual, though, so hopefully he feels much better soon and it was just a small stomach bug. It is October, which should signal the beginning of Sick Season....I would rather that it all just stayed away!