Higher daddy

Loren finally got Andrew's swing up and so we thought we would test it out. I didn't realize that Andrew was going quite so high until I downloaded the picture. Don't worry, he was having fun and he let us know when it was time to get out.


Well, Andrew's baseball team played the championship game today and won with a score of 14 to 11. They really did a good job. Aaron has improved so much this year. He's fielding the ball better and hitting better, we do still need to work on the throw.

So tell me... what does Andrew like better? Watching the game? or watching VeggieTales? I'll give you one guess. This was picture was taken during Aaron's bench time.

The first place trophy.

"Wavy" clouds

Thank you Jen for the pictures of the "Wavy" clouds in Cedar Rapids yesterday. I didn't get to see them (boo hoo) because I was out front cleaning out my flower bed which is to the south of the house. Those of you who saw my patch of weeds a few weeks ago will be happy to know that it's been weeded, mulched and flowers planted. Ha!

Pop Pop Pop Popcorn

I think first I will update on Andrew. I haven't in a while and I've had several of you ask how he's doing.

On the positive note, he's doing much better right now in relation to the Clonazapam. I was really concerned that he was going to be a zombie forever. He's seemed to be more like his old self although still needs a little more stimulus to react at times. But he's back to doing his "butt bounce" across the living room floor and also loves to "dance". I finally got on the ball and put new batteries in his Bouncing Tigger and he seems to be very happy about that.

Unfortunately the clonazapam has not helped with Andrew's seizure activity. In fact the seizures seem to have evolved again. At this time last year we were seeing what we thought might be some absence and startle seizures. They gradually have evolved into what was diagnosed as "tonic seizures" with a little bit of a clonic signature and also some "myoclonic jerks". Well, Andrew is now have "tonic clonic" seizures, or what some may know as "gran mal". The don't last a horrible long time, only about 20-25 seconds, but the point is that he is having them. And they come any time of the day, not just in the morning anymore. He had one at school yesterday and has also had some tonic jerks hard enough that he's hit his head on his tray at school. So I've got a call into the neuro and we'll see what comes next.

Now onto some better stuff. Loren and I have been busy planting the past couple of weeks. We are way behind, so far behind I don't even want to think about it. Hopefully everything will catch up. But as of now we have about 500 hills of pumpkins, gourds and squash planted. All of which we have done by hand. Makes me happy it's raining today. Anyway, Loren was pulling the tractor out of the garage the other day so he could cultivate the sweet corn. He no sooner turned the thing on when it turned into an automatic popcorn popper. Apparently a mouse had dragged some of the colored corn from last year into the muffler of the tractor. As soon as the engine started heating up the tractor started making popcorn. It was quite amusing.

Aaron thought it was amusing.









If you look close you can see it shooting up.
















Ever heard of wavy clouds? That's coming next.

Take care,
Laura

Our First Grade Field Trip

I went on Aaron's first grade field trip Wednesday. We spent the day at the Indian Creek Nature Center. We've been out there before for the Maple Syrup Fest and to learn about tadpoles and frogs. They've also got a wonderful bunch of trails to walk on. This was a guided tour and very nice, except for the nasty squitos. I'm still itchy and it's two days later. Here's the link to the Indian Creek Nature Center website if you're interested.

One of the things the kids did was walk through the prairie and spread some seed that had been collected last year. They were saying that 150 years ago Iowa was mostly prairie except for near the rivers and creeks where there were trees. Iowa now has less than 10% of it's natural prairie left.




The kids got to see some of the things that live in the prairie habitat. We saw several blue birds and some wood duck and bat boxes. We also saw lots of bugs. We saw what was called a spit bug. If you're looking at the prairie grass and see what looks like a cacoon, it's actually really slimy like spit and there is a bug in each one. Kind of fascinating but gross too. The kids got to roll over a log and see what was underneath. They seemed to be quite fascinated by the centipedes.

This is a group of friends from school. They got to sit and eat on the log, nevermind the ants. Can't have a field trip without friends.