We took the boys to see their new doctor for annual visits last Friday.  The MA checked the vitals for both of them, did the hearing and vision tests for Connor, then just a vision test for Logan.  We thought it was easier to do both boys’ visits together; in some ways it was, but the two of them were giggling often that it was hard for the doctor to ask them questions during the exams sometimes.  The doctor was thorough and spent quite a long time with us.  Everything checked out fine for Connor and his weight has even out with good BMI now.  Logan is getting taller, so now his BMI is on the lower side, but the doctor said it is fine that he is a slim tall boy.  During the exam, the doctor found a fade murmur from Logan and suggested a follow up with a cardiologist.  We wrapped up the visit, and the boys were happy that there were no shots involved.  Height estimates for both are currently at 6’2”.

Connor’s Vitals:

Wt 57lb (76 %)

Ht 4’2.7’’ (90%)

BMI 15.5 (52%)

BP 89/44

Logan’s Vitals:

Wt 64lb 8oz (53%)

Ht 4’8.6” (94%)

BMI 14.15 (7%)

BP 87/56

   We practically swam the entire weekend.  I rushed home on Friday for us to go swimming in the late afternoon.  The boys definitely seemed more comfortable in the water.  Connor was able to swim without using full arm movement and popping up his head all the way down the long side of the pool.  He was so excited to tell us what he did.  He must have been drinking water in the pool as he got out to go to the bathroom 3-4 times in two hours.

    On Saturday we arrived at the pool at the same as our neighbor, and we sat together again.  They had a friend with two kids joining them; they planned on barbequing for the guests, and they asked us to join them.  So we ended up staying at the pool for the rest of the evening with them.  There was a huge excitement of the day for us to be proud about.  While Cole and his two friends wanted to go to the diving pool, Logan decided to hang in the pool with them.  After watching them doing some dives, Logan suddenly told me that he was going to jump.  He walked up there to the board, he tested the spring, and he jumped.  He came up to the surface and swam to the side.  Since then, he did a few more jumps and he became so much more comfortable afterward.  Connor had been tempted to jump for the past couple of weeks, so after seeing Logan do it, Connor was definitely ready to try.  He was up on the board, looked a bit nervous, and he jumped.  He came up to the surface looking proud and swam to the side to me.  When I was able to get hold of my phone, Logan and the bigger boys went to to play Marco Polo at the big pool, but Connor stayed for me to take a video of two of his jumps.  Stuart and I were so amazed what the kids did that day.

   Rohan came to play with the boys on Sunday afternoon, so we took them to swim again.  Logan, Connor and Rohan tried to dive to pick up the rockets.  Connor was the first to figure out how to do it, and Logan got the hang of it quickly after.  They played around for awhile, then Logan and Connor wanted to go jump in the diving pool.  Logan did not want me to video his jump, so a picture would do.  Later Cole came and the four kids played tag and other games together.  It was a very hot day; we did wrap up the swimming outing and went home for the boys to play a bit of video games instead.

    It was finally time for Logan to begin this journey.  It was decided six months ago that Logan would have an expander placed on the upper palate in July.  Last week was a tough week for Logan; after being ill for 24 hours, he had poor appetite and felt weak for days afterward.  We had considered postponing the start of the treatment, but at the end, Stuart and I decided to keep all the schedule appointments.  Last Friday was the first appointment, and all four of us were there.  Stuart went into the treatment area with Logan to have the spacer bands placed.  According to Stuart, it took lots of convincing before Logan willing to sit down and open his mouth to proceed.  Then the procedure went quickly and we were good to go.  Surprisingly Logan never complained about having them in his mouth, just a couple of times saying that he could not eat something too hard.

   Friday was the second appointment to take an impression of the upper palate, and Stuart accompanied Logan again to this one.  The appointment took long; Logan could not keep his mouth open long enough for the mold making, and sometimes he almost gagged.  Logan was relieved and Stuart was pleased when the mold was finally made.  The third appointment will be in another week to put the expander in place.

    Logan was sick that day, but we did not want Connor to miss out on the festivities, so Stuart and I took turns taking Connor out.  In the morning, Stuart and Connor went to join the neighborhood parade.  Connor enjoyed walking with our neighbor following a fire truck during the 30 minutes parade.

   Later we switched off, I took Connor to the pool to watch the events.  Our neighbors shared some seats with us, and we watched the coin dive, watermelon battle, and diving contests.  Connor and I had hotdog lunch there, and I also enjoyed a margarita from our neighbor.  Connor hang out with Cole majority of the time; they enjoyed an ice cream treat and later played in the play structure for quite a long time. 

      In the evening we had to cancel our initial plan to go watch firework, but we actually all could use an earlier bedtime after an eventful 24 hours with Logan.

    We relaxed the rest of the day after we returned from Tahoe, and we all went to bed as usual.  After midnight, Logan woke me and told me that he was not feeling too well.  As I walked him back to his bed, he asked me to move his buddy Humphrey off the bed and he sat down.  Shortly after he sat down, he threw up all over our hands and over him.  I helped him change out of his clothes and sent him to the shower while I changed his bedding.  After the first big vomiting, Logan seemed to feel better briefly.  Unfortunately the 2nd and 3rd episode followed; Logan managed to keep those in a wastebasket and did not make a big mess again.  Logan laid down a few times, but only to get up quickly with heaving.  Stuart had thought about staying with Logan, but since I felt that I had been “contaminated”, I volunteered to stay with him instead.  Logan decided to curl up on the carpet next to the wastebasket, and I laid down on the other side of the room.  Basically the entire night, Logan got up every 15-30 minutes to throw up, and there was nothing but clear liquid.  He tried to sip some water and later it would come back out.  Toward the morning, I would doze off and almost missed Logan throwing up.  Finally by 6:30am, Connor woke up and checked to see what we were doing.  I had to stop Connor from coming in, and somehow after that, Logan and I finally felt asleep until 8am.

     After we woke up, I called the Advice Nurse to get a prescription for nausea for Logan. The whole morning Logan stayed in his room; he was still throwing up but less intense compared to overnight.  We gave Logan the first Zofran tablet; it did not dissolve well on the tongue and he threw it up shortly.  After the next episode of vomiting, I tried another tablet on him, and he kept it in for at least 20 minutes.  In the afternoon, Logan finally threw up less, and able to keep some water and Gatorade in.  He was weak and laid down the rest of the day; in the late afternoon Logan finally was more comfortable and fell asleep in the living room.  By bedtime Logan was tired enough to sleep again; by then Logan was warm and had a fever.  He slept through the night with some Tylenol.

    The next day Logan stayed home with Stuart.  He was tired and laid down whenever he could.  He drank water whenever we reminded him, but he barely ate much.  Of course he could not go outside to play with the neighbor kids, and he was fine with it, so Connor went alone.  A few days went by, Logan was finally himself again but his appetite was still low.  However Logan told us that he has enough energy.  On Friday late afternoon, Logan was well enough and wanted to play when the neighbor kid Cole came to ask.  It was cute that Cole gave Logan a hug to cheer for his recovery.

    We joined the Kaos early on Monday to have breakfast at a restaurant.  Again the kids were so busy drawing and talking that it took them awhile to finish their food.  We then said goodbye to our friends as they took off for biking while we returned to the hotel to pack up.  We had brought Logan’s metal detector with us and had initially planned to use it at the beach.  But after breakfast, Stuart got lazy, and we instead we decided to rest a bit longer at the hotel before we checked out.  The ride home was smooth and relatively easy.  We had considered stopping by our friends’ barbeque gathering at Sunnyvale, but after the somewhat lengthy drive we decided to go straight home instead.  We just unpacked and relaxed the rest of the day.