Sunday, January 27, 2008

A rough Friday night...

On Friday night, Tom got home from a pack meeting about an hour later than we thought it would last (9:00 p.m.) and it had been a long week with lots of meetings (he's having to do a bunch of fundraising presentations for the next couple of months). So, we were both excited he was home for the weekend. Around 9:45 (we had been playing a board game) we noticed that our dog Maddie was acting very strange and it seemed like her back legs were bothering her and she was very uncomfortable sitting or laying down. About 20-30 minutes later she fell over on her side and went into a really bad seizure. It was one of the scariest, saddest things we've ever seen. Her eyes rolled back into her head, her tongue dangled out of her mouth, she was foaming and salivating like crazy and her limbs were shaking uncontrollably. We really had no idea what to do so I ran and called my mom b/c she once worked at a vet clinic and my dad's a doctor so I was hoping they could help. She told me to call an emergency vet clinic so I did and they said we should take her in right away. So, Tom managed to get her outside where she continued convulsing like crazy. Our friend/neighbor came over to help and they got her in the car and to the clinic where she continued her seizures until they finally got it to stop sometime after midnight.

Anyway, Tom was there at the clinic until after 2:00 a.m. They had to give Maddie I.V.s and lots of meds and when Tom left it was with the understanding that they would slowly take Maddie off the meds and if she went back into convulsions they may have to put her down. It was a very hard night for us! We've had Maddie since she was 8 weeks old, she's turning 4 in just a little over a month and she's Taylor's best friend. She's such a good, sweet dog and I often feel like she's watching out for us. She's a very important member of our family. So, we weren't sure what would happen and if she'd be okay. We woke up at 7:15 and called the vet and thankfully he said she was doing much better and was feeling much more hopeful about her. She stayed there all day yesterday so they could monitor how she was doing and we got to go pick her up yesterday evening. She was totally medicated and looped up (not herself at all) and the vet prescribed some valium for us to give her all this next week (it makes her VERY loopy). The vet also said we needed to be careful having Taylor and Maddie be so close b/c the medications could make her moods be different and she might snap at Taylor. (Which is quite scary for us)

They don't know why she had this happen. We read up on seizures in dogs and they typically last just a couple of minutes and hers lasted for over two hours! We are having to watch her closely in case she has another one. She could have epilepsy, but they don't think so b/c she's older than it usually appears in dogs. They think that maybe she just got into something toxic but we couldn't come up with anything b/c she's an indoor dog and our toxic stuff is all out of reach. The only thing that it may be is if she happened to eat a cigarette butt that our lovely neighbors threw down from their balcony during one of her escorted outings to pee and poop. The vet said if it had enough nicotine it could possibly have caused it, but who knows?

We are just glad we've got her home and she actually seems to be doing better and a little more herself. I hope so badly that that was her first and last seizure. It was so scary and sad to watch. I'm glad Taylor was in bed and Tom was home when it happened. Sorry this is such a long post and I know it probably seems lame to some, but I know some of you (especially you Mary) understand how hard it was for us. I just hope she stays better.

Wednesday, January 23, 2008

Taylor and Maddie's morning...

This morning was pretty normal. I just happened to have taken some pictures to catch some of the exciting action that takes place in our home on an average weekday morning...
Taylor loves to put on shoes; any shoes (mine, Tom's, hers) this time it was hers and as you can see in this picture she accidentally got them on the wrong feet. Good thing they are bigger so her feet weren't too squished.
taking care of business...
probably finishing up on that "business"...

about ready for naptime...Taylor loves to lay and cuddle with Maddie.
we have the best/sweetest dog!
reading...she goes through her books lately and in a very loud voice jibber-jabbers like she's reading a story.

Some of the fun/funny or monumental things Taylor has been doing lately are sticking things down her sleeper/shirt/outfit. Yeah like crayons, pens, balls, food...there's typically a small collection of something everytime we change her diaper. She's also talking and signing a lot more. She puts her bathtime toys away after every bath. She has actually eaten dinner (meaning what I cooked for dinner) the last two or three nights! She also has a collection of peanut butter (6 jars from our food storage) in her cabinet but lately she's been stacking them one on top of the other so there's this tower of peanut butter in the middle of our kitchen. We had friends over for dinner on Sunday night and (we're so used to the peanut butter always being there that we didn't think about it) and they asked..."so I guess you guys really like peanut butter?" when they saw our "tower". I need to take a pic and post it. :-)

a pregnancy update...

Well, I will be 31 weeks tomorrow and am getting huge as you can see (especially in my mu-mu shirt)! The doctor is going to induce me a little early to hopefully prevent some complications and ensure that she'll be there so Tom and I have been trying to decide between having the baby on Mar. 17 or Mar. 20...which would you choose? You would think I would be all for going earlier but I'm feeling pretty decent with the pregnancy and am so nervous about delivery and having another baby that a big part of me wants those 3 extra days to try to get ready. Although maybe by that point I'll just want to get it all over with. It just seems so soon... 7 1/2 weeks or 8 weeks away. Yikes!

Sunday, January 13, 2008

Nursery!!!

Today was an exciting day for our household! Taylor is two days from turning 18 months so today was her first official day in nursery at church! It was great and she loved it! She didn't get upset when we left and they never had to come get us from our classes so it was real nice for us. She made the fruitloop necklace she's wearing in these pics. She also drew a "self portrait" which looks like a circle with a few lines around it. :-) The nursery leaders are so great and she just loved playing with the different toys and watching the other kids. Also, our church time changed from 1:30 in the afternoon to 8:30 in the morning and we love it so much! We've had church at 1:30 for the last year and a half and it stinks for Taylor's nap schedule, but we love getting up (Taylor always wakes up at 7-7:30 anyways) and going to church, coming home and having lunch and everyone takes a nice nap. Then Tom has choir practice at 3:30. So, I don't know what we'll think about it when we have the new baby...and what his schedule will be like. I definately think we'll have to get up earlier to get everyone ready. But, for now we LOVE church at 8:30!

Taylor is eating her fruit loop necklace in this picture! Who can blame her?

Saturday, January 5, 2008

We had a great holiday break. Tom got off work on the Friday before Christmas at 4:00 p.m. (2 1/2 hours after it had started snowing) so our drive to Arkansas to my parents began slowly. We had to drive about 40 mph and there was lots of traffic. We stopped around 7 for dinner and after about 30 minutes the storm had caught up with us so we just kept on driving and driving and got to my parents around 8:00 a.m. the next morning. I'm usually not a great co-driver (Tom usually drives about 80% of our trips) but this time I had lots of energy so I drove at least half the way and did most of the driving from midnight to early morning! I just turned on music and drove away while Tom and Taylor snoozed. We ended up missing a pretty intense snow storm literally by hours so if we had stopped overnight somewhere like we planned we would have been stuck.

We had a fun time at my parents. My brothers Matthew (just older) and his wife Janette and 3 kiddos and Ben (just younger) were there for Christmas. Tom and I took advantage of the reliable babysitting services that grandparents provide and went on some dates. We watched Enchanted and the Golden Compass (had to see what the controversey was all about for ourselves). I took lots of naps and we just enjoyed being with family. My mom and I got to spend some time together which is always nice. We came back the next Saturday and drove a different route through the Oklahoma panhandle. It was very pretty farmland and not very populated. We stayed overnight in some smaller town and got home Sunday afternoon.

We had a fun new Years Eve. We are big goal/resolution makers so we had our little planning meeting that evening, watched a movie, drank our traditional frappes (that's what we call them-orange sherbet and lemonlime soda) and watched the ball drop at midnight. We are looking forward to making this next year a great one and I hope you all have a great year as well!

Since we've been home Tom went back to work on Wednesday, Thursday Taylor and I drove to the outlet mall a half hour away and got some very cute and very good priced baby boy neccessities, last night we went to our friends for dinner and today we ran errands and now Taylor is sleeping, Tom is at an Eagle Scout reception and I'm getting ready to scrapbook and watch a movie. Well, that's what we've been up to since the last post. 'Till next time!

To catch you up...

Once again these pics are very out of order....oh well! These are pictures before, during and after Christmas. This is me holding the rag quilt I made for our baby boy at my parents. I started it on Christmas and finished it the next day which is record timing compared to the one I made for Taylor (I think it took about 6 weeks or so!) I am not a sewer so I really like making these little rag quilts b/c they're so soft and cozy and it doesn't require any difficult sewing. Just lots of straight lines. Taylor and her friend (at their house). They look so cute sitting in these chairs. This was last Sunday evening. We went over there to check on Maddie (our dog) and have dinner.
This is at the park near my parents on Christmas day. The first few days in Arkansas were beautiful...then it got cold and rainy...

Tom and Taylor at the park...
Christmas evening. Taylor got this apron (and a chef's hat and oven mits from her Grandparents) and these shoes happen to be her aunt's.
While making the quilt. We tried it out on Taylor! :-)


26 weeks pregnant. This was the week before Christmas. Some friends of ours that live in our apt. complex came over and watched a movie right after we put Taylor to bed so Tom and I could go out on a date...It was the best!
Back at my parents on Christmas Eve...this is Taylor and her 5 year old cousin Sophia whom Taylor absolutely adored!
Christmas morning...Taylor eating fruit snacks from her stocking.
Christmas morning. Taylor got a big kit full of toy cleaning supplies.
Taylor loved sitting in this window. She did it everyday we were at my parents'

This video was taken the same night before Christmas that Tom and I were going on a date. Taylor has a very standard bedtime of 7:00 p.m. and is 99% of the time very ready for bed then, but this was about 5 minutes to 7:00 p.m.! She chose this of all nights to be totally wired! Our friends were coming over in about 20-25 minutes and amazingly, she went to bed really easy and they didn't hear a peep from her all evening! (If you haven't already you'll want to pause the music before playing the video...then you'll be able to hear Taylor screaming all the more better! :-)