unnerware

lee and i have been trying to get payton to wear unnerware (underwear). this is the conversation payton and i just had.

• payton: no unnerware, biaper
• mommy: you don't need a diaper
• payton: yes biaber
• mommy: do you need underwear?
• payton: no
• mommy: do you need to be nakie?
• payton: no
• mommy: do you need a hug from mommy?
• payton: no
• mommy: do you need...
• payton: i neeeeeeeeed ....a biaper.

this could be difficult.

tara

tayte update

so tayte's official diagnosis was he had a seizure. we don't know the cause of it and may never know. he fell out of a golf cart on saturday and hit his head pretty good. one doctor said it could be related another thought 4 days was a long time to have something manifest.

one thing i learned through this was that every sign you have ever been told about head injuries are not absolute. he showed not signs of anything, no unconsciousness, no vomiting, no head aches, and he remembers everything about the fall and the time after. so 4 days later he has his seizure, not the 24 hours that most think are the hours of concern.

how he reacted during his seizure was also something lee and i had never thought about. he didn't start shaking like we thought. he just kinda spaced out, couldn't focus on us for long. he couldn't speak no matter how hard he tried to get the words out. his speech was slurred and he had to fight to get the words out. there also was a long pause every time he was asked a question. it was definitely hard for the question to process and for him to get his answer out.
his right arm hung to his side, he was swaying from side to side, he was not able to keep his eyes in one place and he couldn't walk steady. it reminded me of all the things you here about a stroke victim having, but really can a 5 year old have a stroke?

right now he is as normal as he has ever been, with one exception: he cried when he couldn't jump on the trampoline. usually we have to force him outside to play, but maybe this change will stick. all his speech and motor skills are back to normal. we will never know what the cause was unless he has another seizure. then they will treat him for that other than a one time thing.

i am grateful that he really doesn't remember much about it. i asked him that first night if he knew why he was in the hospital. "i was trying to make my words and they wouldn't let me." he doesn't remember being in pain and he doesn't remember all the prepping the nurses did when we first got there. he was such a trooper throughout the whole thing. he did tell one nurse after she took his vitals for about the 4th time, "you've already done that." he really doesn't forget much.

tara

according to baylee

i really like the hospital because of 3 things.
1. the food-not usually high on people's lists of favorite places to eat
2. you gets lots of visitors
and
3. the video games- while tayte was getting his mri they brought in a playstation. so baylee is in hog heaven.

tara

here we are again

the hospital. i really wish we could go a good looooooonnnnnnggggg time before we have to be here again.

today has been the scariest day of my parenting life. we have made a emergency room trip with payton, but that was completely different. with payton we were acting on the "what if" and trying to be proactive. today we were acting on the "something is going on and we need to figure out what."

i left the house without the boys because i woke up late. lee wasn't going to work until later so he was going to bring them into town to me later. his original plan was to head up just in time to go to his lunch with a client. for some reason they left earlier. lee was going to take the boys to get a donut. when he got to town he noticed that tayte was acting funny. he was making noises and trying to find a place to rest his head. he stopped at washington street and was getting on to tayte because he thought tayte was just being a normal kid and ignoring him. but then tayte started screaming uncontrollably lee pulled him out of his seat and tried to comfort him. nothing worked. lee called me and told me something was wrong and he was getting me and we were going somewhere.

i got in the car and tayte looked bad. he had a glossed over look in his eyes. he could focus on me. he could move his head in my direction when i told him to look at me but couldn't keep looking at me. i asked if he hurt and he could barely mumble a "yeah" but really more like he was breathing out, not talking at all. i asked where he hurt but got no real answer. his right arm hung by his side and he couldn't keep his body upright. he leaned on me the rest of the ride. we went to his pedi's office. he could walk a little but was not steady on his feet.

we went to the dr's office because i felt more confident with them because they know him and all my concerns with him. at the time i wasn't sure if that was the right choice, but am glad i chose that. the only problem was of course we got the new girl behind the counter. talking to her i thought i had made the wrong choice. apparently she didn't get the urgency. i understand that there are things you have to do, but when you have to repeat everything you say it gets extremely frustrating. she went to the back and talked to the nurse. as soon as carmen saw him you could see in her eyes she knew there was a problem. dr williams looked at him and within a couple of minutes she said we needed to go to the hospital. she asked if he could walk and he tried to take the most wobbly steps i have ever seen. we went to bsa and they within a few minutes were filling out the paperwork to get in a room.

while filling out the paperwork tayte looked at payton and yelled that he wasn't playing the game right. i have never been so happy to hear one of the boys yell at the other in my life. but that joy was short lived. we went to a treatment room so they could start all the poking and prodding they needed to do. tayte was such a trooper. he cried very little when they put in the iv. he could still not talk very well. he could name some people but then not be able to name them. at one time i was baylee. when we got to the icu room the nurse had to ask who baylee was.

he went for a cat scan and that came back normal. we came back to the room and he slept for quite a while. he is in an icu room so he can be monitored more closely.

so right now is just a waiting game and no real answers as to what caused his behavior earlier. and he is not acting like the kid we brought in earlier. he is acting like himself. he is watching his favorite movie bolt and repeating all his favorite parts. he is wiggling in bed and being loud and rowdy.

as i sit here tonight i am grateful. that is hard to comprehend even for me. how can you sit in a hospital room and be grateful. the are so many things that could be worse. we have been in this room all day and watched so many nurses and doctors going in and out of the room next door. we have been left pretty much alone. so no pestering is good.

lee is at home with baylee and payton. payton even as young as he is understands some of what is going on. he was gone when we left to get the cat scan and was so excited to see tayte when we came back. baylee is having a hard time with the whole ordeal. he has only known people to go to hospitals and die. he started crying and told me, "i hope what happened to papa doesn't happen to tayte." he saw the sock they put on tayte's arm and started to cry. the sock is there to keep the iv from being pulled out. but baylee had his own ideas of what that is. baylee called tayte tonight to talk to him. to tell him he loves him and to make sure he is ok. after he talked to tayte i talked to him for a while. baylee was concerned and asked me if tayte was his normal self. baylee my gentle heart is too wise for his 8 years.

today has been long. but today ended a good day. be careful what you pray for because it may end up happening but the road may not be the path you wanted.

thank you to everyone who came by, called, sent well wishes. most of all thank you for the prayers.

tara

the things tayte says

tayte: mom, can i sit in your lap
me: no
tayte: i love you
me: i love you too
tayte: so that means i can sit in your lap?

tayte: baylee can i have a hug
baylee: yes
tayte: when you squeeze someone you say, "and i can just squeeeeeze"

he comes up with some of the funniest things. they may not be funny to anyone but me, but maybe that is because we have the same sense of humor.

tara

pool time

we haven't been spending as much time at the pool as we would like, that darned weather just isn't cooperating. but we did go hang out today. lee met us up there and that makes for the perfect time to take pictures. i don't have to watch to make sure one of them isn't drowning and get to take their pictures.

payton's thing this year is to "walk" the pool. he probably would go the entire way around the pool if he ever figures out there is more on the other side of the ladder. he moves one hand to the side then the second to beside the first. then over, beside, over, beside until he gets from the steps at the 3 foot to the ladder at the 6 foot.

story of my life, payton running away from me.

tayte has discovered jumping in. i am so glad because that is when they have the most fun. each and every time he jumps in from the side he yells "i believe i can fly." comes up out of the water wipes his face and does it again.

it looks like he is praying, but really he is "diving" i think. he puts his hands like this and then jumps in feet first.

baylee has decided that playing the various big kid games, most involving a football, are the most fun and the best way to occupy his time while at the pool. he is getting too big, too quick. just the other day i swear he was scared of the water. now he hangs out with the big kids and plays all those big kid games. but luckily for me he reminds me "no matter how big i get i will always be your baby." yes i have told him that a time or two hundred.

he was so proud of himself after this. "i swam the whole way and didn't hold my nose." lee has been giving him grief about that. i don't blame him i was the same way. i hate water in my nose.

we love hanging out at the pool. this year's goal: get tayte off the diving board. he might just do it.

tara

that's ok...

the other night tayte was climbing down from the bathroom sink and he scraped his stomach. i asked if he was ok and he told me yes. i looked at him and he had stuck his finger in his mouth to lick his finger. then he rubbed that on his hurt stomach.

later that night he came up to me and told me he had hit his head (he is a little clumsy... ok a lot clumsy). i asked if i need to kiss it and he told me, "that's ok i will just like it). so i guess a lick is just as good as a kiss to make an owie feel better.

only tayte.

tara

tayte's graduation

panhandle doesn't have a kindergarten graduation, so this was our first time going through graduation with a child. i almost got choked up.

he looks so handsome.

i was very afraid that he wasn't going to walk down the aisle to the stage. he stopped twice to look at everyone and with nudging from his teacher he finally made it down to the stage. when he got up there he stood. they sang 7 or so songs and and tayte sang one and then stood the rest of the time. that was the first time i heard him sing all year. everytime i asked him about the songs at school he says they are too hard and he can only do them in his classroom. he messed with his lips, hit his ear with his hand. did everything to show that he was not enjoying this at all. then out of the blue he fell off the stands. one of his teachers was standing on the side of the stage so she helped him up without much fuss. if you ask him about graduation he will tell you "and i fell." the sad part is that it didn't even phase him that he fell. he didn't really care.

here he is getting his diploma.

afterwards they came out to the seats to find their parents. he had his diploma like this for the final song and the kid behind him kept telling him, "tayte stop it." lee wanted him to sing more. i was just glad that he stayed up there the whole time. he really doesn't like things like this, but he was a trooper.

tara

foam soap

ok, we got some of that bath and body works foam soap. i thought it was crap because i couldn't get it to spray. i tried and tried but finally put it under the cabinet and left it there ( i have issues with throwing things out-i think in a past life i lived in the great depression). so payton found it and got it to work. i think there was too much stuff in there and when enough was pushed out you could shake it and really get it to work. we have 2 more bottles to test my theory.

here are some pictures of the boys with this stuff. it really is kinda cool.

here payton is shooting it at tayte.

tayte was not too happy about having it in his head.

payton thought it was cool to have it on his head.

here is a blob of the soap.

then i set the bottle down and it took on a life of its own. and it would not stop spraying for a long time.

tara

pee wee track meet

every year panhandle has the pee wee track meet. this is serious business, they keep records and everything.

baylee is halfway down the line here. he is running either the 50 or 75 yard dash. the kid would have a better chance of getting in the top 20 if he could run a straight line. he is not the quickest kid, but he has the heart to be good.

each kid has to pick 3 field events. this year baylee chose softball throw, bean bag toss, and hoola hoop. he had lots of fun which explains the lack of ribbons won. last year he did the frisbee toss and the wind caught it and it hit me while i was taking pictures. this year he chunked a softball at me, so maybe last year's wasn't an accident like i thought.

he got 4th in the hoola hoop contest, 3rd gets a ribbon. i had no idea he could hoola hoop.

the pre-k went out to watch the festivities. it was really funny because his teacher has a first grader. when she ran by all the kids jumped up, went to the side of the track, and cheered her on. then they all went and sat down on their letter.

baylee loving on payton. no matter what baylee can't get enough hugs from his brothers. he doesn't care that he is in front of all his friends at school.

they also had their teacher tie-dye their shirts. they went around all day calling themselves the cheese team.

and of course the day ended with popsicles while they waited in the stands for the relays.

lee left with the other two boys so baylee and i walked home. every "flower" that baylee found he picked for me. i ended up with quite a bouquet by the time we got home.

enjoy

tara

i didn't fall off the face of the blogosphere

it has been forever since i have posted anything, but that is because we have been busy (you'll see from all the posts that will follow).

to start off we had the boy scout cake auction. since this was our first one we (i) went overboard. i decided that i was out of my mind and was going to make an upright cake, i have never baked an upright cake. and i have never decorated a cake with icing except for the generic cover the top.

so i saw this rocket cake in a cookbook and decided that i was going to try to make it. here i proof that i made it myself.

baylee helped because it was for boy scouts. he wasn't too thrilled about putting the red hots on the cake but he did it without too much complaining.

here is the finished cake. that is a clear cup that makes the "cockpit" for the star wars guys.

the money that is made goes to help send the boys to camp. they had a lot of cakes, but not to many buyers. we bought 3 cakes. our cake went for the most $160. yes i was bidding on it too. the other cake in this picture went for $150. most of the other cakes were going for $30-40. they did end up making over $1000, so not too bad. i was super excited, i wanted my cake to go for the most. now i have to come up with one for next year.

tara