Happy Birthday, Olivia!

I cannot believe Olivia is two! Where did the time go? We had a nice birthday party with family on Saturday to celebrate. Olivia got lots of cool gifts and really enjoyed her special day. We did a 'Miss Spider' themed party because she is all about Miss Spider. We have a lot of the toys from when Abby was her age and some dvds and books. It was hard to find the plates and napkins! Thank goodness for ebay! Here are a few pictures of her party.....


The birthday girl opening presents


More presents!!


So cute!!!


Great Grampa and Great Grama


Grampa aka 'Bumpa'


Sissy


Grama and Lulu reading a new book


Mommy (my new do as requested!!!)


Nana and cousin Andrew


Daddy and Ethan showing off the shirt Uncle Matt brought

Kevin's brother Matt, his wife Tricia and their twins Andrew and Anwen (almost 3 years old) spent the weekend with us. Tricia and I let the guys watch the kids while we went to the new Homegoods grand opening. It was a decorators dream come true! Very cool stuff at insanely affordable prices. I am gonna be in trouble with how close that place is to my house! But we had such a good time and found so many great things for Matt & Tricia's new home. The kids and guys had fun playing the Nintendo Wii that Matt brought and we pigged out on tons of good food. On Sunday, we all went to the Apple Orchard a ways from our house. Everyone enjoyed themselves! I came home with my favorite Honey Crisp apples, a bag of homemade apple cider doughnuts, homemade strawberry rhubard jam, apple butter and pumpkin butter, and a mix for pumpkin pancakes! I love fall!! Here are a few photos of our fun afternoon!!


Abby and Anwen - the two A's


Abby


Andrew in the grass


Andrew in the tractor


Pretty Anwen


Little buddies


The Wii addiction


All the little ladies


Cuties!


Cousins at the orchard


Lulu on the fence


Uncle Matt & Andrew


Mommy and Olivia


My girls!


Little pumpkin head




Peeking at the animals through the fence


Little punkins


The kids!!!!


Little did we know that such a fun weekend would turn out so awful. On the way home from the orchard, Olivia had a seizure in the van. It completely caught me off gaurd. Despite being a little tired and a bit quiet, she seemed totally normal Sunday. It has been almost a whole year since she's had one, so needless to say we are quite devastated as we thought she was outgrowing them. Luckily, we were less than five minutes from the hospital when it happened and it was relatively short lived in comparison to the last one she experienced. Kevin floored it once we knew what was happening. She started crying to get out of her carseat and then slurring and drooling. At that point I took her out so that I could hold her. She went limp, pale and her eyes rolled back and then she got sick on the floor mat. Once we got to the hospital, she was looking pretty bad and I was having a hard time keeping her awake and looking at me. It made her really sleepy. The nurse got us back right away and started monitoring her and taking vitals. She was physically doing well and answering questions, but just very sleepy and weak. They examined her and found her throat to be a bit red, but other than that all tests were normal thank God. We stayed for about four hours, they monitored her and then we were released. She perked up quite a bit just by being home. She hates the hospital. I do too.

Today she is very irritable. I took her to the pediatrician this morning where they've concluded she has hand foot and mouth disease. Her entire throat by noon today was red and covered with the tell tale sores. I remember Ethan and Abby having it and it's miserable. So the doctor thinks that most likely the seizure was a result of the virus. Her threshold just gets lower with certain illnesses and can bring them on. Sometimes she gets them when she's sick and sometimes she won't - it makes no sense to me. There is no pattern or trigger that is true. It's just a puzzle. But that's how seizure disorders are I guess.

So now we are looking for a new neurologist with our new insurance. Most likely they'll make the meds speech. Since it's been a year seizure free, I don't know what to think. I let my gaurd down in thinking all was well. All seemed well right up until yesterday. I just thought she was tired. I was hoping things were getting better and sure didn't think we'd spend her 2nd birthday in the ER. Now there are more questions than ever, but we may never get answers. It's that whole gray thing. It would be so easy if everything were just black and white. If someone could just tell me what I am supposed to do now. What will help Olivia? What is the best thing for her?? Right now I don't have those answers. Hopefully this bad memory will fade like all the others and we can remember her 2nd birthday as the beautiful celebration is was. We had such a good weekend despite the way it ended up. As usual we appreciate all of your thoughts and prayers of support and encouragement. We are so blessed to have such wonderful family and friends who celebrate with us during the good times and give us their ears, hearts and shoulders during the hard ones. It means everything. I will be sure to keep everyone up to date with the latest. I am still working on a great slideshow of Olivia's first two years, but haven't had time to finish and am still working out the kinks of my computer idiotness. I will post it as soon as it's finished!!!