Quinton's Birthday!

Our baby is 4!  Correction - we no longer HAVE a baby!  Isn't that insane?!?!?

  It's so bitter sweet to watch Quinton grow up!  He's a hilarious little dude and so full of spunk!  But I'm already mourning the loss of my sweet, not-so-little baby.  I am trying to get used to the idea that the next baby I get to snuggle with and love so deeply will probably be a grandchild.

 One of the greatest things about Quinton's birthday was that every single gift he received brought him tremendous joy!  Each thing was "just what I always wanted!!!" and "super EPIC!!!"

 He got a new bubble machine.  His last one broke, but not until after bringing hours of joy to both Quin and all the other children in our neighborhood.  Plus, it bought me extra time in the flower beds without having to blow bubbles for him.  So it was kind of a gift for me too.

 Oooh! Power Ranger toys!  Why? Why are Power Rangers so cool? They drive me BONKERS!!!

Nicole had a basketball game at 8:00 that morning, so we decided to bring the whole family along.  We usually leave the little kids home with Alison so that we can actually WATCH the game instead of herding boys.  However, this time we had big plans for after the game so everyone came.

Quinton just played on his tablet the whole time, but I was okay with that so I could focus on Nicole's game.  Alison was super excited about me taking her picture...as usual...

After the game, we went to Golden Coral for a birthday breakfast buffet.  How fun was that?!?!?  Quinton LOVES breakfast food.  All the fruit, yogurt, pancake, bacon and eggs you can eat PLUS desserts and ice cream?!?!?  It was like a dream come true for him!

They even sang a birthday song to him.  It was great!

That evening, guess what Quin chose for his birthday dinner... breakfast food.  So we had eggs, pancakes, yogurt, and fruit for the second time that day.

Grandma and Grandpa Smith came over and gave him some big-kid legos.  He's only had lego Duplos (for little kids) before - but now he's old enough for the big-kid kind!

He and his brothers wasted no time getting to work on them!  

And look who else came to celebrate Quinton's birthday with us!  Suzette's family drove all the way from Idaho for us!  Just kidding.  They were on a quick weekend family vacation and they called to let us know they were going swimming nearby.  We invited them over for cake and ice cream and they were sweet enough to oblige.

Nothing fancy for a birthday cake here - just a blue velvet cake mix I had in the basement.  But Quinton thought it was awesome anyway.  So did the dog on his shirt!

Happy birthday, sweet boy.  Look at that face!

Quinton's ice cream of choice was Playdough flavored.  Between that and his blue velvet cake, he had a very colorful birthday.

Night of a mother's terrors.

Sunday January 14th was a very nice day.  As I went to bed that night, I commented to David on how well things were going.  "Getting Buddy was the best thing for our family, don't you think? The kids love him so much!  And they're learning to take care of him and have responsibilities!  He's the best dog in the world!"  David doesn't usually gush as much as I do, but he admitted that Buddy was a good dog.  He was mellow and patient, he never ONCE had an accident in our house. When he needed to go outside, he'd go sit by the back door.  If he needed to go out in the night, he'd walk over to me, and I'd hear his footsteps and get up with him.  He was easy to walk and never chased other dogs,. etc. Plus - those jowls!  And that hound-dog bark! Perfection!  I drifted peacefully off to sleep with a smile on my lips and a dog on the floor at the foot of my bed.  Then, the nightmare began...

At 2:30 in the morning, David and I were awakened to a strange rustling sound. Buddy was asleep on the ground at the foot of our bed, but he was going crazy!  At first I thought he was chasing a raccoon in his dream.  He was totally sprinting!  But then, I couldn't get him to wake up!  He just kept going and going.  And then I noticed that he was foaming at the mouth.  I started to freak out a little.  After about one minute, he slowed down and "came to."  He stood up and immediately ran into the wall.  He was clumsy and dizzy for a little while.  Then, he became super hyper, running back and forth around our house for a long time.  I was terrified about what had just happened.  I could not sleep! So I sat on the couch for over an hour googling everything I could and getting more and more terrified by the second.  I was pretty convinced that he'd had a seizure.  I just didn't know the cause.  But whatever the cause - it's never a super great thing to have a dog that has seizures.

Somewhere around 3:45, I dragged my exhausted body back to bed.  I was still semi-awake (feeling like the mother of a newborn who is listening for every movement and breath and convinced that the baby's dying) when I heard someone in our kitchen.   "Oh great," I thought.  "What now?"  I went out into the hallway and found Alison leaning on the kitchen counter.  She slowly lifted her head to look at me and said, "Mom.  I don't feel very good.  I think I'm going to..." then she kind of slid off the counter and melted onto the floor.  I ran over to her.  By the time I got there, she was lying on her back, passed out, convulsing as she spewed vomit into the air like a volcano.  I rolled her onto her side and she woke up.  After cleaning up the kitchen and helping her get showered, I knew sleep was going to be next to impossible for me.  So I set up a little nest on her bedroom floor and held vigil while she slept.

To make a long story short, Buddy had three more seizures within a 48 hour period.  It was kind of a blessing that Alison was home sick because I could leave Quin with her and take Buddy to the vet (who happens to be David's cousin and his cousin's son in law).  They took blood work and discovered that Buddy has kidney disease.  It's not a good diagnosis for a dog. They often don't live very long.  I was crushed!  Not only was it sad to think about losing the dog so quickly after we got him (Merry Christmas, kids!) but I felt so bad for Buddy! The seizures are HORRIBLE to watch - and I'm sure worse to experience.  After a seizure, he'd lose bladder control, be dazed and confused for a while, super hyper, then super exhausted. The kids only saw one seizure, but it was enough. They were pretty frightened.  David comforted me by saying that at least we knew that Buddy had a good end to his life and that he was very loved.  We told the kids to prepare for the worst.  Buddy's next seizure would be his last - we wouldn't make him suffer through a bunch of them.

Well, since then, Buddy's been a lot better.  For about a week, I slept on a couch in our basement because every time Buddy moved or sighed or anything, I would jump up in a panic thinking he was having another seizure. Every morning, Quin would find me and say, "Mom!  Buddy's still alive!"  After a while, I started to trust that he would be okay.  We have to buy special prescription dog food, which costs $70 per month. And we know that he probably doesn't have very long with us, but at least he seems like he feels better.