All about Kenz

I am constantly writing about Caden and Cierra and their health/neurological issues and their progress, but I haven't posted much about Mackenzie. She is just spectacular. I seriously couldn't ask for a sweeter, kinder daughter. She is always thinking about other people and is always willing to help me out in any way that she can. Of course she has her grumpy moments, but her everyday personality and attitude make up for it. She constantly tells me how much she loves her siblings and how happy she is that they are in our family. She is always very patient with Caden and will accommodate his every need and want. When I am having a bad moment or day, I can always count on a note outside my door that says "I love you" or a hug or anything else she can think of to be kind. You can always find her reading a book and I never have to tell her to do her homework. She is so responsible, more than many adults that I know. I just love her so much and I'm so glad that she was willing to come down from heaven to a young, single Mom and give me a chance. I don't know what I would do without her. Love you Kenz!

The funniest video of Caden

I just love this age. Caden has the two-year-old mentality that if he can't see us, we can't see him. So he hides under his blanky numerous times a day and wants us to look for him. The funny thing is that he answers us from under the blanky when we ask him questions. It is a riot. And you have to listen to him talk. He is making AMAZING progress in the speech department in the last few weeks. We are so proud of him and love hearing his cute little voice all the time. In June he had one word, now he has at least 20!!!

Lagoon

Saturday we went to Lagoon for Erick's work Lagoon day. We decided to bring Caden with us this year, but we weren't sure how he would react to all the people and noise and such. Overall, he did really good. He didn't like the rides very much, so we only took him on a few. His favorite was the train because he LOVES trains right now, so we had to ride that one several times. The girls both had a blast. They both loved Odyssey. I took Cierra on the white rollercoaster and she did NOT like it one bit. She was crying pretty much the whole time. Kenzie and Erick went on it also and Kenzie didn't love it, but she said she'd go on it again. Erick and I were both exhausted by the end of the day and we barely made it to church in time for classes Sunday morning. Here are some pictures from our day!

Cierra and Caden on the car ride

Caden and me on the train

Caden and Cierra on the train

The family, minus the picture-taker

Erick and Caden on Odyessy

Kenzie and Cierra on Odyessy

Grandpa Bill

A few weeks ago (about 4 days after Cierra was diagnosed with epilepsy), my Grandpa was diagnosed with colon cancer. He is my Mom's Dad and I am very close to him, so it was very hard to hear. He found out on a Monday and had surgery to remove the tumor on Friday. The surgery took much longer than expected and the Dr.'s were certain that it had spread to his lymph nodes when they were through. The tumor was larger than they expected and was affecting other parts of his body. Thankfully, all of the biopsies have come back normal, so the cancer has not metastisized at all. They have not yet decided if he will need to undergo chemotherpay. He was finally released from the hospital a couple of days ago, after fighting an infection in the hospital. I went to see him tonight and he is looking good. The home health nurse was there and taught my Mom and me how to change the dressing in his open wound. I'm so glad that he's on the mend and I am thankful that it was not more serious. We love you Grandpa Bill and hope that you have a speedy recovery from here on out!!!

Our Week in Review

We have made it through a whole week without any injuries, accidents, or illnesses(besides the existing ones). And we haven't had any tests done, evaluations or doctor appointments. It has been really nice and mellow around here the last 7 days, except for the everyday drama and arguing that goes along with having 3 children. On Sunday we actually made it to church on time and stayed for the whole three hours! I am quite proud of that accomplishment. On Monday Caden had speech therapy with Kimber and did great, as usual. It was actually his 6 month review and he performed well for it. We will have the results of that next week. Wednesday Caden had toddler class. He is still adjusting and cries on and off the whole time that he's there. Yesterday, Erick and I took the kids to Chuck E Cheese and everyone had a lot of fun. After that we went to The Healing Field and let the kids run through the flags in the dark. Cierra had all of us stop and say The Pledge of Allegiance. It was really sweet. Seeing all of the flags is very awe-inspiring. 9/11 is a day that I will never forget and I'm so glad that we have a place to go and pay our respects every year.



Today Caden and I ran some errands and he is now down for a nap. I have taken a nap with him almost everyday this week, but it's early day for the girls today, so I can't. Tomorrow we are going to Lagoon for Erick's work Lagoon Day. It's the first time that we're taking Caden, so it should be interesting. So that's our week in a nutshell. I hope that next week will be just as mellow......but I doubt it.

MRI update

Cierra had her MRI last Friday evening. She did really well. They normally sedate all kids under 8, but we decided to try it without sedation and after some coaxing from the tech and me, she got in the machine and did great. She got to watch Harry Potter during the MRI and I think that really helped. The neuro called today with the results and almost everything looks good. They didn't see any lesions, tumors, or structrual abnormalities, which is great. However, they did find a small, arachnoid cyst on the left side of her brain. The neuro assured me that it's nothing to be worried about, but we will need to monitor it by MRI every couple of years to make sure that it's not growing. Since her seizure activity is only on the right side of her brain, they are certain that the cyst is not the cause of seizures. This means that she has idiopathic (without a known cause) epilepsy, which means that she has a much higher chance of "growing out of it" as she gets older. About 80% of kids with this kind of epilepsy stop having seizures by adulthood. We are relieved that there isn't anything more serious going on.

Cierra has been on anti-seizure medication for a little over two weeks now and in the beginning we saw a huge decrease in the amount of seizures that she was having everyday. Unfortunately, they are slowly starting to increase again. She is still on a very low dose, so we increased it again a couple of days ago and I hope that it will continue to work and stop her seizures all together. We have a med check with the neuro at the end of this month, so we'll see what she says at that time. Thank you so much to all of our family and friends. We truly appreciate all of your thoughts and prayers. This has been a very hard summer for us and we are grateful to be surrounded by such a great support system.

Another Sullivan girl joins the family

Jaklynn Jade Sullivan was born September 1st, 2008 and weighed in at 8lbs 7oz and is 20 1/2 inches long. She is Roger and Daphne's first baby and we are so excited for them. Congrats you two! She's beautiful!!! This means that Erick and I now have 23 nieces and nephews, 20 of them coming from Erick's side of the family and only 3 from my side. I can't wait to see how many we end up with overall.

Caden's first ER visit

Saturday afternoon we decided to go to the pool for a couple of hours. After we had been there for about 45 minutes, Caden slipped and landed on his face, on the cement. We got everyone out of the pool and ready to go home because he was bleeding pretty badly. We came home and tried to figure out exactly where he was bleeding from (both his nose and mouth were bleeding), but he refused to let us look. He soon fell asleep, so Erick and I got a flashlight and took a peek. I won't go into details for those of you with a weak stomach, but it was bad. We knew that it was unlikely that they would stitch inside his mouth, but decided to take him to the ER anyway because of the severity of the cut and the amount of bleeding that he was still having an hour later. They did not stitch his mouth, but I'm glad that we had it looked at. Caden was great the whole time we were there and even let the doctor look at his mouth without putting up too much of a fight. The inside of his mouth still looks pretty bad, but Caden is back to his normal, sweet, little self today.


Don't mind the binky ring of blood around his mouth, I tried to clean him up before I took any pictures.