I'm OK, but...

On Friday evening I was ready to go out for a girls' night with Cassie, Stormy and Tanya. We were going to go to dinner, then to see the 'Twilight' movie (we were all completely addicted to the book series). It ended up being the fasted evening out ever. I only got a half mile away.

I decided to take Jeff's Toyota Highlander, to leave him with the car seat in case he decided to take Caleb out anywhere. I was stopped at a stop light, then started to go when the light turned green. When I was almost all the way through the intersection, someone driving a Honda Civic ran the red light, hitting the rear passenger side of my car. My car ended up rolling one complete revolution, ending up back on its wheels.

My back, neck and some other joints are pretty sore, and I'm a little shaken up. Miraculously enough, I walked away from the accident without a single scratch or bruise on my body. I realize there is so much to be grateful for. The car may be totalled, but at least no people were. There were many kind bystanders that stopped to help. One of them was a gentleman who was on a motorcycle, and my car almost rolled over him - I know he's feeling pretty grateful right now, too.

The one thing I'm the most grateful for is that Caleb was not in the car. Not only did the car hit mine exactly where Caleb's car seat would have been, but the force of the impacts could have done some serious damage to his fragile little neck.

This experience has also been a great reminder of the incredible support we have from our family and friends. Everyone has been helping in whatever way they can.

Jeff has also been amazing throughout this. Not only has he been a very supportive husband, making sure I get the rest I need as well as emotional support, but I have also been fortunate to get around the clock supervision from Dr. Gold.

Thank you all for your well-wishes and prayers. I'll keep you posted if anything changes, or if we need anything. For now we're just taking it easy and trying to get back to life as usual.

How To Play With a Floppy Kid

Caleb is a very difficult kid to hold, and it takes a lot of practice to get used to how floppy his body is. Jeff and I are so used to how to hold him and pick him up that we almost don't know how to hold typical kids anymore - we always try to hold their head and stuff. However, once you get used to how he feels in your hands and get comfortable with it, he's not quite as fragile as he looks. Jeff and Caleb "wrestle" very regularly. This is a fun pastime for both of them. Check it out.

Although I love Caleb's Doctors, I'm sick of seeing them (no pun intended)!

Caleb has a wonderful team of doctors that oversee his health. His pediatrician has always been wonderful, creating a healthy balance of respecting our opinions as well-educated parents who are the experts on Caleb with her being the expert in the medical field. His neurologist is a very caring doctor, and without her we would probably still be without a diagnosis. There are other doctors that come and go, but overall we have been very blessed with the medical professionals that have worked with us to better Caleb's quality of life.

However, I am totally sick of seeing them right now! We had Caleb's 3-year check-up a few months ago - normal, no big deal. Then a couple of weeks ago was his bout with pneumonia, which took us to the pediatrician 3 days in a row.

On Wednesday we had his appointment at the muscle-disease clinic down at Children's Hospital. This is an appointment that happens every six months or so and it's a whole team of specialists that take a look at him, monitoring things like his scoliosis, respiration, etc., or answering (or taking their best educated guess) any new questions we have. Being that it's a whole team, this appointment typically lasts 2 hours, at least.

So we went to that appointment, got some answers, some more information, as well as more questions popping up. That night, Caleb started to get a rash. We called the Dr. and she said it's probably hives. We gave him some Benedryl and it was pretty much gone in the morning. By the time I got home from work, he had a rash all over his legs and feet, and it was starting to pop up on his abdomen and arms. So this brought us to the pediatrician once again. When we arrived, the Dr. (whom is not our regular pediatrician) said, "Weren't you guys just here the other day?"

The diagnosis: hives. Cause: an allergic reaction to something he stuck in his mouth (we're not sure what). Prognosis: the rash can last a week or so; we need to keep giving him Benedryl (so sleepy boy), and as the rash heals, it will leave little marks that look like bruises (I can hear CPS knocking at our door right now). Luckily the rash isn't itchy and there's no fever or anything.

Hopefully we can stay away from the Doc for a while. Although, I'm still waiting for him to be healthy enough to get a flu shot. Aaaaaaaaaahhhh!

How Much Can One Family Spill?

Now that Caleb is learning to drink from an open cup, spills are a somewhat regular part of life around here. But last weekend, spilling took on a new meaning.

On Friday, Jeff refilled our 5-gal. water dispenser with a couple of 2.5-gal. containers that had gotten punctures in them. He left a little (probably about a half gallon) in one of them and left it on the counter. About an hour later, we were watching TV and I said, "What is that noise?" Jeff went to investigate, and water had been slowly dripping and was all over the counter and floor.

Saturday, I was getting Caleb some lunch, which was noodles. I accidentally hit the container against the counter, spilling the entire contents onto the kitchen floor. After cleaning that up, I sat down to eat with Caleb. I then knocked over my full cup of water, splashing water all over Caleb, the table, and the floor.

That evening, we all went to the movies. When we came home, we found that Bumblebee (a.k.a. "Spaz") had been up on the kitchen table investigating. What she found was a half-full cup of water, and thus knocked it over.

Perhaps this has been some metaphor for our lives. Maybe some kind of flood is coming (please let it be a flood of money :), or maybe it signifies that we are in the midst of cleansing our lives. I'm not really sure. I do know that we have washed more towels in the last few days than I think we have all month. I'll keep you posted if I figure out what all this signifies.

Totally Recommend It!

This weekend we took Caleb to see Madagascar 2. We loved the first one, so we figured it would be a good one. This one was even better! We were all rolling throughout the movie (although the beginning is a little sad). The lemur king was my favorite.

I definitely recommend seeing this movie, even if you don't have kids.

Halloween Festivities

We had a wonderful Halloween this year. Caleb got to be one of his biggest heroes - Lightening McQueen!

On Thursday Caleb's school had a costume parade. I wasn't able to get very good pictures because he was crying the whole time - it was hot, noisy, and I think just generally overwhelming for his first day back after being out sick the whole week.
He enjoyed doing the arts and crafts much more.

Here's Caleb with his buddy Hunter.

Celebrations seem to be so much more fun these days because Caleb is so much more aware of what is going on. I was a little concerned that he would get scared by some of the costumes, etc. But we took quite a few walks in the neighborhood in the last couple of weeks to prepare him for some of the decorations. This seemed to do the trick, and he was able to just enjoy Trick-or-Treating with all the other kids.

Before going Trick-or-Treating, some friends/neighbors had us over for dinner. Here's Caleb playing with Jayson.

We're ready to race!

Here's Caleb posing with the creative geniuses behind his costume, Randall and Jessica. Thank you both for making such an amazing costume!

Caleb even got to play with cars on his car!

Papa Mickey came to help us go Trick-or-Treating. Check out how Caleb is holding on to his bucket of treats for dear life. Next year... a hook on the side for the bucket

Last weekend Jeff and I went to the adult costume party in the neighborhood. We were the Spartan cheerleaders! Yes, we even had a cheer worked out.

We got third place in the costume contest - beat out by the tranny from Rocky Horror Picture show, and "Beerman" with his wife...Beer, of course!