Tony's Birthday to Devin's MRI

Last Monday was Tony's birthday so after breakfast and getting ready the kids suggested taking a Happy Birthday Daddy picture to send to him, so we did! Then it was school and outside play, lunch quite time, screen time then off to theater class. When I got there I realized tuition was due, so after dropping Elizabeth off Devin and I went to Walmart and picked up a present for Tony, and got the cash needed, oh and Devin was thrilled to find a box of Mike and Ikes....his favorite treat! Elizabeth reported a great class, then we came home and Tony brought home dinner from Famous Dave's for his special birthday dinner.  Then the kids couldn't wait to show him his Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cup with a bag of special M&M's! And the special birthday card they made together for him! It wasn't much but we did our best to make his birthday special! Tuesday Devin had a REALLY hard time going to preschool, after not being there for a week and a half! But I managed to get him there. Elizabeth did school then they came home and played for a bit while I got lunch ready. After lunch they ended up just playing outside and inside until it was time to go to Cookie Cutters in Bountiful to get both or their hair cut. Elizabeth was thrilled to finally be getting her hair cut! We agreed that short was best, so I went with a chin length Bob cut, and it turned out sooo cute! She even got to have her hair washed at the special fire truck! She was nervous at first as she HATES water on her face, but once she realized it was much better than standing under a shower head she relaxed a bit. She didn't appreciate the blow dry at the end either, but she looked adorable when she was done! Devin just got a typical haircut, and looked handsome too! Then we went over to my Grandma and Grandpa Walkers, as the kids now insist upon! They had fun visiting and playing, and I got to catch up with my grandma which was very nice! I think it was that night that we went to Papa Murphy's pizza and turned in Elizabeth's reading pizza pledge. She ended up reading two more chapter books, totaling five in all, so really close to her goal of 6 books! And honestly 5 chapter books in 12 days is SUPER impressive for a 6 year old! It was a great deal....pizza for reading!!! Wednesday was just school, and play. We didn't get to Bravo because Devin slept long and refused to go. Se La Vi! Thursday I couldn't get Devin to go to preschool for ANYTHING! So he came to the homeschool co-op with Liz and I, and did alright. He even played toss the ball with another boy his age named Jacob for about ten minutes! The fact that he shared the holy blue ball with someone is HUGE! He did have several struggles as well, but I like to focus on the positive! After lunch I dropped Elizabeth off at Tisha's house for her older kids to look after her, as she played with the younger kids. Devin and I went to his first OT appointment with Anna, which went pretty well. Anna was kinda shocked by all the needs our kids come with. She suggested we look into a in home behavioral therapist, who would be far more helpful with the root of the behavioral issues both kids have. I don't even WANT to know how much that costs!! But we'll look into it. We picked up Elizabeth and went home for dinner play and bed. Friday morning we woke the kids about 6 am got everyone ready, dropped Elizabeth off at Ashley's house as she had kindly agreed to take her with them to This is the Place for the day! Then Tony drove Devin and I to PCMC where we Devin's spotted a Cozy Coup right inside the door, and "drove" himself to the imaging dept. We were the first ones to check in! We didn't wait long for them to take us back to get Devin's height weight and vitals. The part I was most nervous about turned out to be the easiest part! The IV. They had a little trouble finding a good vein and had to use a special light to find one, but they got it on the first try and Devin didn't feel or say a thing! The nurses and I were bracing ourselves for the screaming, and fighting, but it never came. He didn't even flinched. He literally didn't feel a thing! As the nurse said that is crazy in both good and bad ways. They let Devin pick a prize, where he found a fun Spiderman case with a little book and coloring book and crayons. He was very happy with his cool prize! After a little while they came and let Devin drive the cozy coup to the MRI machine. Devin absolutely refused to lay on the "bed", and so they gave him the sedative via his IV while he sat with me in a chair next to the  bed. Once he seemed pretty drowsy, Tony picked him up and laid him down, which somehow he knew he had been put on the awful bed and he got upset, so the point he held his breath(he already had his oxygen tube on so we weren't too concerned), so they had to give him more sedative to calm him, then he could fight it no more and was finally asleep! While he had his MRI Tony and I went to the cafeteria and had some breakfast. We then went back to the waiting room for a while, before they let me go back with Devin. They told me he started to stir a bit about 15 minutes before the MRI was done so they had to give him a little more sedative to keep him still. So he was out like a light! After about ten minutes we started trying to wake him, and once we stirred him he wanted to be awake but had a hard time staying awake. He took about ten minutes to drink his apple juice, and ate a few goldfish crackers, but was really struggling to stay awake. And when the nurse checked his temp it was a bit low, so they covered him with three warm blankets to bring it up, but he couldn't stay awake all warm and snuggled up like that. Once his temp was back up we woke him up again, then after about 15 minutes of being mostly awake....ish and not throwing up, they took his IV out, and got a wheelchair for him, gave me the discharge info and we were on our way! Devin was getting really upset about Elizabeth not being at home, so we bought his happiness with the promise of going to the store on the way home a getting the movie Big Hero 6 for him to watch. It worked wonderfully! Devin slept all the way home, then laid and watched his movie. After a few hours he was a bit more active and playing. Ashley brought Elizabeth home late in the afternoon, and we all chatted about their fun filled day, I thanked her about a hundred more times for helping us out and for showing Elizabeth such a good time. Then we just chilled the rest of the day. Saturday morning Tony and the kids worked outside for a while. After lunch we went to our next door neighbors for their daughter Mariann's birthday party. The kids had a blast on the awesome inflatable bounce/fun house they rented. Elizabeth scared us all to death when she climbed up the side of the slide portion then slid off the side and fell to the ground. Luckily she didn't get more than a couple bruises! They served hot dogs and fancy hamburgers, and such, we stayed for presents and cake, then departed as we still had some grocery shopping we needed to do. After the kids were in bed, my dad went with Tony and I to Walmart for a few things and we picked up dinner on the way back. We watched a couple shows with my parents while we ate dinner. Sunday we bathed the kids and got all dolled up and went to JC Penny and got family pictures done. They turned out so good! After we took the kids to McDonald's as we had bribed them to be good for pictures. Then we went to the Nester's house to pick up something they had been storing for us, and had a great visit with them! Then we picked up some dinner on the way home and watch the new Annie for family movie night. And that was our week!

Tony's Birthday!

Some pics before Devin's MRI