RIP Sabi

Per my last post, Sabi had been having health issues (a torn ACL and seizures).

We started the potassium bromide medication for seizures on Friday after Thanksgiving. He was fine the first day, but as we added more days of medication, he became very confused, uncoordinated, and aggressive. The uncoordination is normal, but it was amplified by his bad leg. He would fall down on the floor and snap at Josh and me if we tried to help him back up. He was also vomiting and peeing in the house.

We went back to the vet in a week and told her that it was not going well. She took his blood to check the bromide levels and said that she would check in later that week.

The vet called a couple days later and said that Sabi's bromide levels were actually about half of what they should be. However, since the medication was affecting him poorly, she didn't think they should increase the dosage. The other medication option for Sabi needed to be monitored closely for its affect on liver levels. Sabi already had elevated liver levels and would need to have his blood checked frequently.

 

 

After considering for another week and watching Sabi's reaction to the regular levels of medication, Josh and I made the very hard decision to put him down. He was not improving, seemed to be in pain, and continued to be aggressive.

 

Sabi was a wonderful dog and we did not want to remember him as he was for the last few weeks. We love you, Sabi! RIP.

 



Thanksgiving 2012

We spent Thanksgiving at Nissa and Brian's house. We went down on Wednesday and came back on Friday because we needed to stop by the vet (more on that later).

I would rate this year's Thanksgiving dinner as the best I've had. Brian smoked the turkey and Nissa made her usual delicious sides (cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, stuffing). I made the green bean casserole. Everything turned out well. Even Jesper (a somewhat picky eater) was impressed.

 Jesper really enjoys playing with Walker every time he can, but he's a little shy at first. When we first arrived, he grabbed my hand and pulled me over to where Walker was sitting. I asked him if he wanted to say hi, and he said "yes" (still holding tightly to my hand). Walker got out his matchbox cars and Jesper was in heaven for the rest of the trip.

 

 

 

 

 

Jesper is just starting to become very attached to his puppy. Unfortunate, because Sabi has had increasingly more health issues this fall. First, he tore his ACL in late September. It seemed to be healing (or at least, not hurting as badly), but a day later he must have reinjured it somehow and he was back to limping very badly.

Then, in late October, he had a seizure just as we were coming downstairs one day. He laid down, chomping and drooling, and was very disoriented afterwards. A couple weeks later, he had another minor seizure right before bed (about 10pm) and a grand mal seizure at about 3am that same night. We woke up to Sabi seizing on the floor, legs kicking, chewing, frothing. It was terrible. We took him to the vet and they recommended pitassium bromide for medication. However, they said it could make him a little loopy and wanted us to keep him away from Jesper until the loading dose was over.

We needed to head back to Minneapolis on Friday after Thanksgiving to pick up the pills.

 

Halloween 2012

Jesper trick-or-treated for the first time this year. He was a puppy. I found the costume at a garage sale in May and was praying that it would fit him. It did, and it's also one of the only animals that he can say. I wasn't sure what he would do if someone asked him what sound a puppy makes though...sometimes he says "quack quack" to that question. :)

Halloween 2012

 

The hood did not stay on longer than 3 seconds all night

 

Trying out the spoils

The weekend before, Joe and Becky Pitzl came over with Ben for dinner and to try out the costumes - a puppy and a gorilla. :)

Joe with Jesper (Puppy) and Ben (Gorilla)

Jesper and Ben play so well together!

The next morning, we carved pumpkins. Why does it always sound like more fun than it actually is?

Other Updates:
Earlier this fall, we played in the leaves with Jesper. The late summer was so dry that they were the perfect leaves to play in - big, beautiful and crispy. Jesper would "help" me rake them in a pile and then we would jump in it, run through it, throw them in the air, and generally have a great time. Jesper LOVED it. His teachers told us that they had gone outside to play in the leaves the next day and that Jesper had spent the entire time with the pile even after the other kids had gotten bored.

One other note - Jesper loves to play "ring around the rosy" and fall down. He will twirl in a circle as soon as the music comes on and fall to the ground laughing. I have to get a video of it one of these days...

These pics are from September when Josh had grown in his beard. :)

Visit to DC & Meeting Gavin

We had the opportunity to visit Jodi, Paul, and Gavin in DC from October 18-21.

The flight in was one of the worst flights we had ever been on. Take-off was delayed by a couple hours and when we finally got close to DC we had to circle for almost an hour. We ran low on gas before we could land and were redirected to Raleigh, NC. We took off again for DC and were about to land when the pilot pulled out and decided to try again. When all was said and done, we had arrived at the airport at 3pm CT and finally arrived at Jodi and Paul's around 1am ET.

The funniest part of the whole flight was when Jesper woke up (he had fallen asleep on the way to DC but was woken up by our landing in Raleigh) and was having trouble getting comfortable again. Suddenly he sat up and yelled in the perfectly quiet plane, "All done! All done!" He had had enough, along with the rest of the passengers. Thankfully we only had about 15 minutes of the flight left to go.

Feeding ducks

Jesper and Jodi at the Lincoln Memorial

Josh and Debi in front of the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial

Sisters

Jodi and Paul

 

Family Photo at the Lincoln Memorial

At the Lincoln Memorial

Vietnam War Memorial

We visited the monuments that we hadn't been able to see the first time around (Lincoln, Vietnam, Korean, Martin Luther King Jr.) and went out to eat at a fun mussels restaurant. However, the biggest highlight of the trip was getting to meet Jodi and Paul's beautiful little boy, Gavin. What a sweetie! He is just so cute. I had forgotten, however, how often little babies need to eat, sleep, and be changed. :)

Gavin and Jesper

Reading books with Jesper and Gavin

September 2012

Jesper transitioned into the Toddler room in early September. It was one of the harder room changes because he is required to go with the room's schedule rather than his own. They sleep on cots during naptime instead of in cribs and sit at little chairs at the table for lunch. In the mornings, I drop him off now at the large muscle room (basically a small gym) and the three toddler classrooms are all in there together. It's definitely noisier and more chaotic than the infant classrooms.

Josh and Jesper playing golf in the basement

At first, Jesper was exhausted at the end of the day and seemed to need a little more downtime and longer naps on the weekends, but he has adjusted well. I think it actually took Josh and I longer to adapt to the new daily forms and expectations and match them at home (he needs to eat with plates and spoons/forks and use an open cup).

Playing with Sabi

I also had some changes at work because I transitioned teams in September. It had been a rough summer with one of my main accounts, so I was happy to have new clients and a new team.

Josh and I celebrated our 4th anniversary on September 20. We didn't go out to eat because we didn't have a babysitter, but we made a nice dinner and had a bottle of wine. Love you, babe!

Gourmet Group September 2012

 

Hilton Head - August 2012

(Totally playing catch-up with these posts, sorry)

We visited Hilton Head, SC with the Carlson family and nearly everyone was able to make it (we missed you, Brett). We flew to Atlanta on Friday, August 24 and drove to Hilton Head the next day. Kai and Ashley and Brian and Nissa drove from IA and WI to join us there on Saturday. We rented a townhome within walking distance of the beach for a week.



Josh with Walker and Jesper

Brian and Nissa reading the same book

Paul and Josh

Walker and the iPad

Grace, Nissa, Brian

Kai and Ashley

Paul and Gail

Josh and Debi

 It was a fun, relaxing vacation. We spent some time at the beach, took Jesper to the playground, went swimming in the pool, took a couple walks around the area, visited a lighthouse and Savannah, and hung out with the family in the evenings. Josh and I even got to play tennis a couple times. The only damper on the vacation was Hurricane Isaac. The storm didn't reach us, but it caused high waves and rain part of almost every day. Because of the unpredictable weather, Josh wasn't able to golf. We will have to  make it back to Hilton Head sometime in the future so he can see what he missed.



Grandma and Jesper playing in the puddles. Our townhome is behind them.

Waiting to go into the lighthouse

On top of the lighthouse

Walker and Grace on top of the lighthouse

 



Playing with Papa Paul

Bottle with Grandma

Jesper had a lot of "firsts" on this trip - first time in the ocean, first stick-on tattoo, first long car ride (thankfully, it went much better than Josh or I could have hoped). It was not his first time in the pool, but that might have been his favorite part of the whole trip. :) He liked to play "catch me Mommy" and step into the pool for me to catch him. We also spent quite a bit of time with him at the playground (it was only about 50 feet from our door). He learned to climb up the slide and then slide back down. So much fun for him!

Josh and Jesper walking in the waves

Josh and Jesper

Jesper and me

Playing in the sand - way better than the water. :)

He also had a scary first - he fell down about 6 stairs on our first night there. I put him on the floor after changing his diaper and he went charging towards the staircase and couldn't stop his momentum. He was scared but perfectly fine, but I was very careful about shutting the door to our while he was being changed for the rest of the trip. Thank God he wasn't hurt.

We didn't bring a  lot of toys for him on the trip, so when we were indoors we handed him the coaster ring from the table. He played with that for an astonishing amount of time. I'm always amazed at how the items that are not toys get played with the most. :)


Jesper and his "toys"

Our pictures from the vacation are a little foggy because it was so muggy while we were there.  Typical weather was about 95 degrees and very humid.