Trick-or-Treating

We had not carved pumpkins yet, so I thought today had to be the day. We carved a big and small pumpkin so Kailani and Zachary each had one; they switched a few times.

Tonight we met at Danielle's house for a pre-trick-or-treating pot luck. The kids had a great time playing. We did a pin the mouth on the jack-o-lantern and a candy corn guessing game. We all set out for trick-or-treating together, but we lost some of the others along the way. Trick-or-treating is so much more tiring as a parent!

Halloween parties

Today the kids had their Halloween parade and parties at school. I felt really bad that I wasn't able to go, but I've already missed so much work this year and...for some reason the parade is always at around 9:30am, which makes it hard to go unless I take the whole day off. Luckily, Becky and George were able to go so someone was there to watch Kailani and Zachary parade around the playground. Becky actually went to watch Kailani last year too. Becky took some good pictures for us. Thanks Becky:) Kailani and I spent the afternoon together again. We had lunch and then got our nails done. She had her first class of the second art session. She did some painting for future projects, and she took home a turkey today. It's actually pretty neat...it's a lollipop holder. This evening, Kailani decided to skip ballet because I had signed the kids up for a costume carnival at another park before I had even signed Kailani up for ballet. I let her choose which one she wanted to go to and she chose the costume carnival. We had a great time. There were different activities set up throughout the community center. Kailani and Zachary both really liked the cake walk. Zachary got the hang of it fairly quickly...walking around to the music and finding a chair when the music stopped. He had a blast. Zachary won first and then Kailani won right afterwards. They each won a cupcake and some cookies. After the cake walk, they did a flashlight candy hunt. Zachary needed a little help with this, but parents weren't able to go out with them. Luckily one of the staff members helped him fill his bag:) They showed a movie after that, but we decided to head home instead because it was getting late. We don't really have much going on this weekend except trick-or-treating on Sunday, so it will be nice to relax a little.

Update on Bruno

I took Bruno to the vet today for a follow up from the ER visit on Sunday. After hearing everything that was going on and considering some of the other issues Bruno has had over the past few years, the doctor thinks it is possible Bruno could have cushings disease. This disease causes elevated ALT (liver enzyme) levels, which he has and had a while back. She recommended repeating the blood work for the liver enzyme levels today. She'll call me with the results tomorrow. If the levels are still elevated, she'll recommend a blood test for cushings and an ultrasound. She said cushings is very hard to diagnose.
What makes me think cushings could be the issue is that one of the symptoms is loss of blatter control, which Bruno has been having issues with for the past 2 1/2 years...ever since we moved into this house. In my heart, I know something is going on other than behavior. Other symptoms include an increased appetite and thirst. It's hard to tell whether or not he has these last two symptoms. Of course he wants to eat all the time and begs for food from us, and he does drink a lot of water...not sure if this is not normal though. The good thing is, if he does have cushings, it is treatable with medication.
So I guess we'll know more tomorrow, but I would be happy to finally have some answers if this is what is wrong. I would just feel horrible that it's gone on this long without knowing.

Another ER visit...this time for Bruno

Today was such a great day. We hung out at the zoo, shopped at Costco, did some much needed cleaning and organizing of the toy room, had a home-cooked meal, and even baked some cookies for dessert. But that all changed after...Bruno had his dinner. He got sick a few times, so Kailani decided he needed to go to the doctor. I took him in because this is how it all started about a year and a half ago when Kailani and I were supposed to travel to PA for Easter. It ended up being something serious and I didn't want to take a chance with going back to work tomorrow and all.
It was very difficult to take two kids and an 85 pound dog out at 8pm. Although it was bedtime, the kids were running around inside the vet's office. After an hour wait, we finally got to see the doctor. He suggested doing xrays and blood work, which was quite expensive, but again, I didn't want to take any chances. We had to go home and come back for him in an hour. Well, in the meantime, Kailani fell asleep...and it had started to rain. This time I decided to take the double stroller in to the vet's office. Both kids were sleeping, so it was much easier than it was earlier. After another hour wait in the office, I was finally able to talk to the doctor.
Bruno's ALT (some sort of liver enzyme) levels were about 2,000, which is pretty high; although, last time they were over 6,000! I think the levels should be less than 100. The doctor suggested taking him home and watching him over the next day or two rather than hospitalizing him and doing further tests, which I agreed with. He seems to be doing okay now. He is just sleeping. Hopefully I can leave work early tomorrow so he doesn't have to be home alone all day. I really would like to at least check on him to make sure he's doing ok. He'll need to be on a special diet of chicken, rice, and cottage cheese for a few days. I don't think he'll mind though. He seemed to like that a lot last time.
For now, all I can do is keep my eye on him and hope he'll be okay.

Meeting Jan Brett

Today we went to the zoo for an author signing. Jan Brett was there signing her new children's book. Probably her most famous book is "The Mitten." Kailani picked out "Gingerbread Boy" and Zachary got her new book, "The 3 Little Dassies." She personalized and signed a book for each of them, even though she was really only signing one per family. We got to meet a real dassy who lives at the children's zoo. I never realized it was there. Kailani enjoyed meeting a real author. She's been learning about authors and illustrators at school.

Not so spooky spooktacular

Today we had the annual Halloween "not so spooky spooktacular" party with the meetup group. It was raining on the way there, but luckily, the weather cleared up quickly and it turned out to be a nice day. There was a bounce house and an inflatable slide for the kids. Kailani spent most of her time on the slide. She loves those things. They had a pinata for the kids to hit. Every child got to take a few swings, but one of the dads ended up breaking it. Kailani and Zachary both got a full bag full of stuff. We did a mummy race...all the kids were wrapped up in toilet paper and ran a relay. The kids had a nice time.

Fun Fridays

Kailani and I have been spending our Friday afternoons together. It's been nice to have time to do that. This afternoon we did a little shopping to prepare for the royal tea party we are hosting for our playgroup in a few weeks. As of today, the meetup is full and there's even a waiting list...we'll see what happens the day of!

Today was Kailani's last art class of the fist session She made a Halloween gingerbread house. The teacher had baked the gingerbread from scratch. Kailani had a fun time decorating it with all of the candy. When she showed her finished house to the teacher she asked if Kailani was going to take it home to share with daddy...Kailani said "yes." She will actually be able to share the next gingerbread house with daddy...maybe he will even help build it. She'll start the next 5-week art session next Friday.

Kailani also had ballet tonight. I paid for the Nutcracker performance she'll be doing in December at the high school. Daddy will be here to see her perform:)