The Annual Harris Christmas Party

Once again we attended the Harris Christmas party at Cruise's school that was held this year on the 14th. I love that Mr. Harris does this every year for current and former students and their families; I don't have to go find a mall Santa somewhere and wait in a ridiculous line.

We got there a little early, which means the kids helped themselves to the snack table. Then the party started with the usual indoor snowball fight game:

 Then the kids all got on stage and sang songs. Well, Jett just sat there with an unamused look on his face the whole time. Apparently he's too cool to sing. Miles just sat on the stage and drank his bottle.

 Cruise, as expected, belted out each song so loudly that I honestly thought he was going to pass out.

And finally Santa showed up!

Cruise apparently had quite the list memorized,

Jett had his list all ready to go beforehand,

and Miles wanted nothing to do with the fat guy.

I'm  kind of loving poor Mr. Santa's face in this one.

Another successful Christmas party!

Health Updates Part 2

Well, the good news is that Cruise's EEG came back normal! The bad news is we still have no idea what is going on. I will be taking him in to see his pediatrician again and ask him about a hunch Dave and I have about Cruise possibly being hypoglycemic. So, we'll see how that goes.

As far as my meds go, they still have me on the mood stabilizer and started me on a new antidepressant just this week. The one I was on before was an SSRI, but now they put me on an SNRI in hopes that I don't experience the same side effects as I did with the SSRI. So hopefully in the next week or so I will be able to see how effective it is. And, of course, I still am using an anxiety med as needed, which seems to always be more often this time of year with Christmas and all things surrounding it. It's a love/hate kind of season. But the upside to staying busy is that I don't have time to sit around depressed and spaced out. So that's a good thing.

Cruise's EEG

On December 2nd, I took Cruise in for his EEG at the American Fork Hospital. Beforehand, he had to miss 4 hours of sleep and to not take his ADD meds. So that was fun. He stayed up til 11 the night before, so Dave and I hung out with him and played Angry Birds UNO. He was in heaven! We actually all had a lot of fun just hanging out with him and giggling. He finally went to bed and then I had to wake up at 5:00 to get him up. I actually had a hard time waking him. He must sleep pretty deep or something because I was pushing him and squeezing him and calling his name. It actually reminded me of that scene from What About Bob? Ha ha! Anyway, I ended up waking Dave up to pull Cruise off the top bunk because he just wasn't going to wake up. I walked with him downstairs and gave him a tablet, played one game of UNO with him, and then told him not to fall asleep as I headed back upstairs to...fall asleep. I then woke up at 6:30 to make and feed him breakfast because he wasn't allowed to eat past 7. So I made him eggs and hot cocoa. And then...I went back to bed. Until 8. Then I got the both of us ready and we headed out at 8:30.

We got to the hospital and he was really nervous. The night before, I had him watch a YouTube video about what happens at EEGs, so he wasn't as nervous as he could've been, but he still had a little anxiety. They called us back and the technician started hooking him up. It took a good while to measure his head with a red paint pen, then put on the glue, and then attach the wires. He watched TV while she did it.

Once that was done, she had him open and close his eyes a few times to get a baseline, then told him he could go to sleep. He didn't end up falling asleep, but he laid there with his eyes closed for about 20 minutes or so with the lights off as the technician and I stared at a screen of squiggles, peaks and valleys. Then after that, she had him keep his eyes closed as she did a few sets of strobe lights in his face, all at different speeds, and then had him do some deep breathing. And then he was finished! She started to clean up all the glue and stuff which he was not happy about. It didn't feel good for her to be scrubbing on his head. So when we got home, I washed his hair to get the rest of it out.

We should know the results hopefully early this week.

Thanksgiving

This year was...different. Abby and I decided to go out for Thanksgiving rather than make it ourselves. Dave and I thought on it at first and then decided it would be nice to not worry about making all the food, and Miles is so good at eating at restaurants, we figured, "No big deal!" So Abby reserved a place for us in the Tree Room at Sundance. We got the 11:00 spot, which meant brunch AND all the Thanksgiving stuff. So I was really looking forward to their amazing food. I have never had a bad meal at Sundance.

Well, we got there and immediately Miles started fussing and crying. He wouldn't touch ANY of the food. I had them even make him scrambled eggs and he still wouldn't eat. So Dave and I spent the entire time taking turns hanging out with him in the hall so as to not disturb the rest of the diners. Half the time we returned to a plate of cold food. Still delicious, but cold. Cruise and Jett actually did awesome. We brought their tablets because they always finish before we do, so they discreetly played their tablets while Dave and I ate until we were full. Unfortunately, we didn't get to have much conversations with Abby & Casey because we were so busy dealing with the two year old, who finally fell asleep the last ten minutes.

But let me touch on the food for a minute. The food was incredible. My favorites were the sweet potatoes, the garlic mashed potatoes, the salmon, and the prime rib. Oh my gosh, I ate so much prime rib! Prime rib is so expensive, so if you are going to pay a bunch of money to eat at a buffet, you must eat a lot of the most expensive thing. So I kept going back for their prime rib. Their dessert table was awesome. My favorites were the chocolate toffee pie and the berry crisp with fresh whipped cream. It was all amazing.

Okay, so we got out of there and headed home, a little put out that Miles was not cooperative. Once we got home, we noticed he felt a little hot. Well, as it turned out, the poor kid had a fever of 102 degrees. So that would explain the fussing and not wanting to eat part.

That evening, we decorated for Christmas! Cruise became very dedicated and made sure ALL the decorations were put on the tree. Jett started out decorating, but then found the Santa hats and decided to get into character. And Miles had fun walking behind Cruise and taking off the ornaments he put on, much to Cruise's annoyance and frustration.

 

The next day, Miles was still sick. His only symptoms were the fever and diarrhea, but nothing else. It was really odd. But I put off taking him to the doctor since his fever didn't get any higher and he was still at least drinking a bottle. Earlier in the day, I took Cruise & Jett to go see Disney's new movie, Good Dinosaur, which was really cute! We all really enjoyed it.

I got home and Dave was just starting on a green bean casserole for his family's Thanksgiving dinner that was happening that evening at the Ybarras. Miles had napped the whole time I was gone, so he woke up just as I got home. And stayed awake the entire time Dave was gone with the other boys. We watched a mind-numbing 2 1/2 hours of Little Einsteins.

By Saturday, Miles was all better! Miraculously he no longer had a fever or the diarrhea and no one else was sick. It was weird, but I was glad I didn't have to take him to the doctor or the ER. That's always good news.