It's been a hard days night...

** This is actually Saturday's post...I had some trouble with getting my pictures transferred over -- sorry it's a day late!  **

This week Eric and I feel like we've been working the midnight shift, except we haven't gotten the days off.  We have been in the throes of an extremely alarming, unexplainable, and just plain weird reaction that Cade has had to his new medication.  It has been unlike anything we have ever seen, and the doctors cannot seem to explain it, either...isn't that always helpful?!  I have already told you the basics...and we're mostly still living it.  He just completely lost all impulse control all week.  Thursday morning he was up at 4 am and then continued to be up for almost 24 hours into Friday morning.  This morning he went to sleep around 2 am and was back up at 7.  He seems to be doing better - he was in the bed by 11:30 tonight - which is a huge improvement!  They have told us that the meds should be completely out of his system by Monday.  Let's just pray that that's true.  And then we have to make decisions about what we are going to do as far as meds...we know he needs something for his impulse control, but we sure aren't putting him back on that!

On Friday while I took a 5 minute shower I came into our den to what can only be described as a disaster!  From what I can tell (and also by simply watching Cade throughout this crazy time when he is just plain manic), Cade just began to dump everything...no, I mean everything...he could get his hands on.  It was just as if his motor was completely on full speed and he just couldn't figure out what to do with himself.  Ok, so here is the sight I had as I turned the corner into the den...

Note the cat...wandering aimlessly around the room...I would love to know what he was thinking!

Now I'm quite sure that Kai just joined in on the "fun" -- but you can imagine my shock and horror when I saw this.  After picking my jaw up from the floor, and saying a prayer under my breath that I wouldn't just completely blow my top, we began cleaning up.  I use the word "we" loosely...both boys tried to help but honestly Cade was so out of sorts that he couldn't even focus on what we were doing.  After a short time it just became easier for me to clean it myself.  I did, however, promptly send these pictures to Eric on his cell phone -- yeah, he came home a short while later.

So of course all of this sleep deprivation has transferred to both Eric and I as well as Kai.  I'm sure it's hard to get any sleep when your big brother is running down the halls and crashing into the walls...we have all been a pretty tired bunch this week.  It has been so hard during all of this craziness not to be disheartened by our major setback.  We saw so much progress during our trip to Denver and for the first week we were home...it is so hard to sit back and watch Cade fall apart again just from this medication problem.  I am quite sure Satan is reared back in his chair sipping a drink and just watching what will happen next.  The discouragement is hard, especially when I am so sleep deprived!  But I know I must not let him win...God has done many miracles for my little boy over this summer and I simply cannot crumble under this pressure.  I am really hoping for a good night's sleep tonight, though...I think that will bring a whole new perspective in the morning!

In trying to keep us sane today I decided to do some activities with the boys.  Thank goodness for their daddy...he let me sleep in this morning!  So I was able to muster up enough energy to decorate cookies with them this afternoon.  They love this activity...especially Kai, who I swear is going to be a cook one day! 


Mixing icing colors



Kai put on as much as he could fit on his cookie!



This is the cookie Cade decorated...



and this is the cookie that he actually ate...he cannot stand the icing!



Kai is fussing about his messy hands...this cracks me up since he lives with messy hands!

Our Back to Denver countdown is now 3 days.  I still have a ton of packing to do...it seems a lot harder to get ready to head back out this time.  I think it's because we have so much happening here at home - and that Cade's school situation still isn't nailed down.  I'm praying we can get some of these loose ends tied up before we leave on Wednesday.