What to do, what to do?

Jared has a non-contagious, night-time barfing problem.  I have blogged about it in the past, but not recently, and sadly, we have been dealing with it on and off for about three years now.  It's super lame, both for him and for the parents that have to sit up with him in the middle of the night and clean up messes (us!).

Basically what happens is Jared will sometimes wake up and throw up several times but then go back to sleep and be just fine the next day.  He's been medicated now for two different illnesses (acid reflux and some weird illness called cyclic vomiting syndrome--might be related to "abdominal migraines"), but unfortunately the medications aren't foolproof and we still have episodes here and there.  We have also weaned him off medicine several times since we haven't wanted him to be on anything long-term.  He'll be fine for months at a time until it all starts up again.

About a month and a half ago we got Jared in to see a pediatric GI specialist, who unfortunately doesn't know what is wrong with him!  He said only a few of his symptoms sound like acid reflux, and only a few of his symptoms sound like cyclic vomiting syndrome.  He ordered an MRI of the brain for Jared, which we did, and we are glad that it was normal. (Wow, the MRI is another story in itself.  Jared had to be sedated, and its effects lasted most of a whole day.  The whole ordeal was kind of a big stress--not to mention the fact that we are out LOTS of money for it...Sedation is expensive!)  Anyway, I'm not sure what to do now.  He had another barf episode last night and poor Alan had to do all the damage control by himself since I wasn't feeling very well last night.  Jared is still on medicine for cyclic vomiting syndrome, but it increases his appetite a LOT (it is also prescribed in children to stimulate appetite for weight gain), and I'm worried what will happen to him if he stays on it for a long time.

I'm glad that Jared doesn't have a brain tumor or anything horrible that is making him sick, but it is a big puzzle what to do and  this really does interfere with our lives.  It makes me nervous to have overnight babysitters for Jared and to go on vacation anywhere (Jared threw up on our Arches trip in September--luckily NOT one of the nights we were camping in a tent!)  It's not fun to have to have your child always sleep with a "barf bowl" next to his bed. I guess I'm just hoping he'll grow out of it someday????

It happened!

After about 3 1/2 weeks of two wiggly teeth, Jared lost both of them on the same day!  One of them accidentally got knocked out by Aunt Angela's elbow while we were waiting for Aunt Rachel to finish her half marathon.  Then, later that day Jared asked me to just pull out the other one.  I was grossed out, but happy to oblige.  I thought the Tooth Fairy would enjoy only having to visit once to get both of those teeth!  Jared received 4 quarters and was pretty excited!

This is just a random video I found of Alan playing the "Couch Game" with Jared and Maggie a couple of weeks ago.  (Shawna: "I played the Couch Game with Jared.  What is that?") This game has existed for about three years and pretty much consists of the kids jumping off the couch onto Alan.  Yeah, it's a blast.

Halloween

We are lucky to have two Halloween parties every year--one with each of our families.  

This year we had a fun chili dinner at my brother's house, ate yummy treats, and sang Pumpkin Carols.  

 I made this spider cake this year.  There was a special surprise inside--green jello guts!

Dishing up delicious chili and cornbread

We lit the candles in our pumpkins while we sang our Halloween songs

These next two pictures are from Jared's Halloween parade at the elementary school. Maggie and I waited so patiently for it to begin...

Jared was going to wear his Mr. Incredible costume to school, but I was worried that he wouldn't be able to go to the bathroom by himself because of the zipper in the back.  So I talked him into wearing last year's skeleton costume to the school parade, and then he could be Mr. Incredible for trick-or-treating.  This year he didn't want any scary face make-up.

The rest of these pictures are from our annual Stout costume party.  It was so fun!  We ate soup and breadsticks, had delicious treats, and played games (donuts on a string, anyone?)

Alan as Napoleon Dynamite.  This was before he gave the wig a trim for his talent show dance.  

Maggie was Dorothy and I was Glinda the Good Witch

Maggie and Uncle Steve went outside for a while to jump on the tramp and find the kitties.

Jared was Mr. Incredible, but I couldn't get him to wear the black gloves or the black eye mask.  Oh, well. 

Jared "helped" make the homemade root beer.

We are already looking forward to next year's Halloween!

Alan "Dynamite" Stout

I still need to blog about all our Halloween festivities, but I just had to post this funny video.  Last night our ward had a talent show, and the final act in the show was Alan doing the Napoleon Dynamite dance.  It was so hilarious!  This isn't a super great video I took because I was trying to film with one hand and hold Maggie with the other.  

This next video is kind of underwhelming compared to Alan's dance, but I also participated in the talent show.  A lady in my ward organized four women to play "Stars and Stripes Forever" on two pianos.  It was actually a really hard song for all of us to learn, and I only had three weeks to learn it.  I think it turned out pretty well, though.