Hello there....no, I haven't fallen off the face of the earth.  :)

Cody is on week 4 of Vimpat and it still seems to be reducing overall seizures - but this past week we've had to give diastat twice for seizure clusters of about 20+.   So yes it is helping a bit, and no it is not a miracle drug (for us anyway.)  Cody's continuing to communicate up a storm and I think he's feeling a little drunk with the power!  He drags swings over to us and shoves them in our hands and acts all impatient that we don't move quickly enough.  Or he'll walk up to the table and grab his tub of  crackers and walk toward us as if to say, 'why can't you stand a bit closer so I don't have to trek this far?!?'  It's still fun, exciting, and we are so grateful.

Still, Don and I were giving him a bath today and, yes, he pooped in the tub.  It's a regular occurrence and SO SO SO very disgusting when the jacuzzi jets are on.  I won't elaborate.  But we just started talking about life 'down the road' - will he do this when he's 10?  Will he ever be potty trained?  What will we do when he has facial hair - how in the world do you get near him with a razor!   And what happens when our living room won't accomodate a 6 foot tall Cody who wants to swing from end to end?  We wind up just shaking our heads, rolling our eyes, and distracting ourselves with laundry, dishes, pizza...............

Casey started stuttering this week.  From what I read, it can be common for a 2 year old who is having a 'word spurt.'  I hope so.  He is a nervous nellie - hates any unusual sound - hates the sun in his eyes - gets very nervous if there's an unexpected knock at the door.  In general he's a happy go lucky child, but his fear of noises, lights, etc. does creep in far too often.  He gets scared every night and is up 3-4 times screaming about 'shadows' or 'sounds' or 'lights' he sees.  So I pray the stutter isn't 'nerves-related.'  We certainly have an intense home and if Cody goes into seizure mode, Don and/or I drop what we're doing and tear across the house yelling 'seizure!' while the other grabs the magnet, times it, gets the diastat, etc.  Those moments are frequent and very scary for Casey.  We try to talk him through them, to debrief with him, etc.....but the plain truth is that several times a day it is just plain intense.  I often have to yell 'NO EYES' to Cody across the room is he's jabbing at his eyeballs because we can't even wait the seconds it would take to run over to him.  Or if Cody's about to put something dangerous in his mouth, a 'NO CODY NO!' from across the room stops him in his tracks.  But unfortunately it also makes Casey squirm from the loud noise we have to make to get Cody's attention.   

Lots of collatoral damage when you have a child as impacted as Cody.  Casey pays a price......we all do really.  That's just the way it is.  I hope Casey's night wakefullness goes away soon because we are getting NO SLEEP.  Cody is up every night for at least 2 hours - and when you add Casey's 3-4 screaming sessions - we are walking zombies.  Don sleeps separately during the week so he can sleep for work - and I have both boys to manage overnight.  By Friday, I usually feel like I've been hit by a bus and Don pitches in over the weekends so I can get some rest.  And Monday we start all over again.

That's our story for now -- thanks for checking in and sticking with us.  I leave you with the words to my favorite song - which I have been humming all week.  These are the words I choose to live by - hope you like them too.

Love, Shawna