Friday, November 2, 2012

Happy Halloween!

What a day!  Of course, Halloween and dressing up was great (awesome photos below)... but before that George and Olivia had a Halloween parade with their school and Samuel had his own Halloween parade at the hospital, ha!  That makes for a very long day.

Starting with Samuel, he had four appointments on the same day... whew.  Because it's such a hike to get most of our doctors, it's nice to schedule one full day of appointments when possible rather than make the trip more often, but man it can be exhausting.  In a nutshell, we left the house at 7:30am and pulled back into the driveway at 6:30pm.  Which is one of the reasons Samuel wore his costume to the appointments :)  It was Halloween, darn in, and what a great opportunity to dress up!


A little more detail... we started with ophthalmology  which was great.  I love our doctor!  Samuel's eyes look really good still, and he did some neat tests that tell us Samuel is using his glasses well.  This was great to have reassurance because while Samuel seems to like wearing them, I'm not really sure how to assess if they're helping his vision processing.  It would be one thing if he couldn't see without them, but while I get the gist of the processing stuff it's still confusing to figure out best practices.  We also had some really useful conversations about some lingering visual patterns and possible sources.  He was such a good listener and full of good info.  Good way to start the day!

From there it was off to get blood drawn, ugh.  Luckily, our favorite phlebotomist was there and she is a pro with the needle.  For the first time, Samuel sat in the chair instead of lying down on a table, and the crying was over before the draw was.  Incredible.   We had a pause in appointments so we made visits to the NICU and PICU, wow was that a flashback.  The folks there are just awesome!  Even when you don't see them for weeks, months, or even a year, they still feel like family and their love for children just beams.  Samuel was a little shy, but did show off some of his new skills :)

Then it was off to pulmonary for another great visit!  Dr. B was thrilled to see how well Samuel is doing!  Not sure I've mentioned it in a while, but his O2 sats have been incredible for some time now and that day he was satting 95/96 with no extra O's!  This kid blows my mind sometimes... well, pretty much all the time.  Then Dr. B pulled the rug out from under me again and told me to stop giving Samuel his respiratory meds.  WHAT?!  I think this is the third time this year I almost fell on the floor in his office... I don't know if it's panic, joy, disbelief, or a combination of them.  He came of most of the meds about three months ago, but I was not expecting at all that we would stop this one too.  So far, so good... but my fingers are crossed and I started sat checking Samuel for the first time in ages.  Ha!

Last appointment of the day (seriously, the never ending day) was developmental ped's.  An okay appointment.  I want more feedback than most are able to provide... I know time will tell, but sometimes I just wish I knew more now.  Then again, sometimes I should really just soak in the moment!

Meanwhile, George and Olivia were on a Halloween parade with their school friends!  I was so sad to miss it, but was incredibly fortunate to have a friend keep me in the loop with a few pics :)

Olivia decided to be Fancy Nancy during the day too, while George went with Spiderman once we realized he couldn't take his garbage can to school :)  Good choice George!  Plus, he loved wearing his cape to school. 




On to the real deal!  Time to trick-or-treat!!!

The crew!


Kristen and BB: Olivia, what should we be for Halloween?
Olivia: Fancy Nancy, of course!!!
Olivia did a great job dressing us :)

Garbage men, big and small!
Although DB was not interested in hauling around the normal size trash can, ha!

Batman was joined by Superman/Clark Kent!
Loved this, Josh!

The boys enjoyed traveling in style, especially towards the end of the evening.  And, George was all about comforting Samuel when the day started catching up with him.  Such good brothers!

After stopping at a few houses in the neighborhood, and ending up at a wonderful party which our friends host every year, it was time to head home.  Although, not before Olivia informed me, while we were inside at the party grabbing a bite, that she was ready to go outside and hang with "the girls" (a group of high schoolers, one in particular who was dressed like a ballerina).  Not only that, but she did not want mommy to take her, only Kristen.  And it begins :)

Another great night!

No comments: