Wonderful Update

Wow it has been a long time since I have updated this blog. So much has happened in our lives. Here is a copy of the latest update that I posted on facebook on 8/24/2013

"The earth is the Lord's and everything in it. The world and all its people belong to him. For he laid the earth's foundation on the seas and built it on the ocean depths." ~Psalm 24:1-2

As I share this update with you I am reminded that everything, belongs to Lord. Everything we have, and everything that we are. All of our time, and talents belong to the Lord. Also, our children belong to the Lord. A wise friend once said to me, "Rebekka we present our kids to the Lord in these beautiful ceremonies in front of family and friends, but are we really willing to let the Lord use these children in the way that he sees fit?" I thought for a moment. Was I willing? I mean I had sung the songs, prayed the prayers, "Oh Lord use me, use my life," But at what cost? 

As we have watched Ethan have hundred's of seizures a day for the last two years, my prayers have changed. They had become, "Oh Lord please heal him." These prayers are not wrong by any means, but what if I wanted things my way? Trust was becoming an issue. Did he not hear me? Did he not hear the pleas of the countless people that were praying for Ethan? Well I believe that he did. But more than that I believe that Lord was right there walking with us through all of this. Another dear friend said to me, "We pray in our time and God answers in his time." 

My faith is growing and I am learning so many new things. I am learning to seek that healer and not the healing. I know that God loves us to much to not let us grow through this. 

Update:

The past few months have been challenging. The doctors once again said that they were out of options. No medication was working. So we weaned him off all medications. It was rough. The withdrawal seizures were unlike anything we had ever seen. They were intense, and sometime the rescue (emergency meds) didn't even work. But we know that the daily meds were only making him worse. So about six weeks after his last pill he had one week of seizure free days! It was amazing. We were overjoyed. But then the drop seizures returned. We continued to pray. I specifically was praying for direction. Then God sent another mom to me. A mom that had little boy with doose syndrome and had been on the ketogenic diet. She looked at Ethan's records and suggested changes in the diet. We slowly made those changes over many weeks. He started growing again. The drop seizures nearly all went away. 

As of today it has been over a month since his last drop seizure, and 15 days since his last grand mal seizure. If we see any seizures they are only at night while he is sleeping. This last month has been amazing. One week ago we let him take off his helmet. (That was harder for mom and dad than Ethan. I don't think that we will ever forget watching him slam his head into things. But we know that this is the next step for both him and us.) He is growing and learning by leaps and bounds. We had forgotten how much a toddlers brain can take in when they are not seizing. He is learning his letter sounds, colors, and shapes. We are excited for what each new day brings. 

Thank you so much to all of you who have been faithfully praying for Ethan, and our family. He is making big strides of improvement right now. We are down to just a few evening seizures. Keep the prayers coming. God is faithful in the good times and the hard times. May he bless you today.

Playing outside with no helmet! 

Faith takes time

Today was a 'good' day!! Only a few seizures in the morning.

Faith is something that takes time.

I need to remember to take one day at a time, or in our house one minute at a time...

Thank you for your prayers!

Rain Drops

Honest thoughts from a mom who is struggling with what it means to have a child suffering from Doose Syndrome:

It seems as though I have been watching life in slow motion lately. We have been told multiple times that Ethan is not responding to any treatment, and that the medical team does not know what else to try.  The thing is...there are other options. I just have to be the one to do the research, find the things that are working for other families and then suggest them to the doctors. (an honorary neurology degree...yeah I have one. :)  It is a long process though. After searching the web, reading article after article, to many medical journals to count, then it happens! You think you find something that might possibly work. SO  I call to make an appointment and the receptionist says, "Well we are all booked up at the moment. I can put you on a waiting list." (I really hate those 4 month waiting lists.) It is so hard to watch your son fall, and hurt himself continually and then be told by the medical team, "Well we have an opening in September with the doctor." Really? This is life threatening. You want me to wait 5 months to see the doctor? Craziness.

Then one day you find yourself in a place you never thought possible. You look around and 3 months have gone by. You have cleaned up blood so many times a day it just seems like part of normal life. You spend more time on the phone then you ever thought possible. (Who knew that doctors and insurance companies couldn't get along?) Well I get the privilege of playing middle 'woman.' This is what life looks like now. I had unknowingly kind of become use to it.

Then all of sudden I am smacked with the reality of the situation yet again. We are now getting letters from the insurance company wanting to know why Ethan is hurting himself so much. We now have to fill out reports as to 'why he fell,' 'where he fell,' and 'how he fell.' They are skeptical because there have been so many x-rays, so many doctor's visits, and so many injuries. Also his preschool teachers are very concerned. They say "Wow I can't believe how hard and fast he falls," or  "Are you trying any new medications?" I just cringe at the comments. If only they could come and live in my house for a day.

How come the doctors don't see the seriousness of the situation?


When Ethan falls down time after time during the day he is less motivated to try again. So we see him regressing. He has taken to crawling lately. It is sad, but I can't help but think I would do the same thing. If my brain kept turning off and I found my self lying on the floor in pain (not quite sure how I got there) over and over again, I would be hesitant to stand up.


I want so badly for things to look up. For Ethan to have some 'good' days. But that just doesn't seem to be the path that life is taking at the moment. We are stuck between a rock and hard place. The doctors don't know what else to try. We are praying and Ethan is still falling.

I am just being honest--Today was hard. Tomorrow is a new day and we will rise in the morning and try again.

"But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope: The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.  "The Lord is my portion," says my soul, "therefore I will hope in him."

Lamentations 3:21-24

Twists and Turns

Since my last post Ethan has taken a turn for the worst. He had 6 amazing days that were seizure free. Then he started having grand mal seizures in his sleep. We were shocked. He was doing so well. I just kept thinking..."This is not happening.." Then the doctor calls to tell us that his labs (the ones that we had drawn 5 days prior) came back with to much depakote in his system. In other words he was toxic. I was honestly quite angry that no one called right away. Now he was having grand mals because the medication was to high. So we reduced his depakote by half a pill on the evening dose. For the first 4 days he seemed to do well, then Sunday came. We thought we saw a slight drop in the morning. As the day went on he had more and more. I was so upset. Not again!! 


This last week has been really difficult. His body is adjusting to less medication and the drop seizures have been terrible. He is hitting the ground fast and hard. Just imagine dropping a bowling ball. Ya, that is what it sounds like when his helmet hits the ground. Also all of the crankiness has returned. I guess it would though, I mean if I was hurting myself that much I would be REALLY cranky.
Today was the the first day since the medication decrease that he has been happy. He is still starring a lot and dropping lots, but he seems a little happier.

SO now we have decisions to make. Lots of them. Do we continue with the diet? It doesn't seem to be working anymore, and it is making our lives crazy. The medication is making him toxic at an increasingly lower dosage. So we have to keep removing it. But that causes major fall out each time. He is losing more and more learning time. His cognitive skills are not going forward. We can no longer justify waiting for something to change.

We have been looking into both steroids and brain surgery. (Did I really just type that?) I can't believe that we are considering brain surgery. But then I think of all Ethan has been through in the last 2 years and I just want him to have a chance at life without falling on his face constantly. Generally with Doose Syndrome brain surgery is not an option. But we are looking a corpus callosotomy. It is an option that worked for another little boy with Doose Syndrome. You can read more about it HERE. It would take some major convincing for the doctors to even consider this option. We however know that God will provide the right medical team if this is the direction that we end up going. 


Please, please being praying for us. The everyday issues that we face are enough to leaving me crying by bed time. We need the strength of the Lord to make it through. He is able to provide abundantly more than we could ever ask. We also need direction. Lots of doctors have told us that Ethan is not going to make it through this. He is a tough case. Doose Syndrome is so rare, but Ethan is more rare. Nothing is working. We will not give up praying. We know the one who made him, and we know that only He has the answers to all of these questions. 

Seizure Free

We are so completely overjoyed at the moment.

It is so hard to put into words all of the emotions that we are feeling.

Just short of two years ago Ethan had his first seizure. That seizure turned out to be the first of thousands. Our life was turned upside down. You can read more about that here. 

In recent blog posts I had stated how frustrated the doctors were, and that they didn't know what else to try. Ethan has failed every drug he has tried. The ketogenic diet did seem to lesson the amount of seizures he was having everyday, but slowly the numbers went back up. Soon he was back up to having 20-30 drop seizures a day and absent seizures every few seconds. So we continued to pray. 

Then last week as were asking the Lord want to do, he brought a person to mind that was able to offer another perspective. She is a specialist with the keotgenic diet. She suggested adding fish oil, COQ10, and folinic acid to his diet. For those of you not familiar with the ketogenic diet let me just say that this is not as easy as it sounds. I had to search out the right brand of each supplement making sure there was no sugar or carbs in them. Then I have to get him to take them. Remember he can't have sugar, and he has never swallowed a pill, so how do you hide them? The form they come in is a gel cap, almost like a vitamin E. So I knew I wasn't going to be able to crush them. It was big undertaking. So when the supplements arrived in the mail we opened the bottle of the fish oil and gave him one. He proceeded to chew it up and ask for more. Ewww! Isaiah and Isabelle were laughing and of course Ethan loves attention so it worked out well. Everyday since then he chews them up and we all tell him how great he is for eating them. 

Just two days after starting the supplements we noticed a huge decrease in the number of seizures he was having. Then on Monday he only had one slight twitch. Tuesday was our first seizure free day in nearly two years. It was an amazing day!

Today however marks day number three of being seizure free!! We are praising the Lord for his faithfulness through all of this. He is so good. 

Here is a video clip that we took at the end of day on Tuesday, February 26th 2013. It was his first seizure free day. 

Thank you so much for praying! 

God has done a miracle! 

Please keep praying for him as we know it will take time for him to heal.

"Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good. 'His love endures forever.'"

Psalm  136:1

12 days

We are 12 days into the depakote wean and he is doing well. To be honest he is a little better than well. He is talking and playing with his siblings. This makes my heart so happy.

The first 8 days (or so) after we decreased the medication we saw an increase in seizures. There was an increase in both number and intensity. I remember on one occasion (he did not have his helmet on) he had a drop seizure in his brother's room and put a big goose egg on his forehead. They were playing with legos and he was standing to close to the book shelves. Lots of ice and a few hours later he was ok. Although the goose egg was so big that his helmet didn't fit for awhile.

We see him get better after each decrease of medication. It just takes about 8-10 days for his body to adjust to the change. But after that time he is so much happier, and he has less seizures. The last two days have been wonderful. We have seen just a few slight jerks. (Insert big smiles here) In this roller coaster of seizures we know that his body will slightly increase seizure activity again soon. Then it is time to drop the medication again. It is almost as if his body is saying, "This stuff is making me sick." But we can't take it all away at once or he will have bigger problems. Believe me I wish we could.

Also we have consulted another specialist on the ketogenic diet and she has recommended adding several supplements to Ethan's diet. So far we have added fish oil, and COQ10. He cracks me up because he will just take the pills and chew them up. ewww!! The other kids laugh, which makes him want to do it even more. He doesn't know how to swallow pills yet and I was concerned about how I was going to get him to take them. They are oil gel caps, much like vitamin e. Tonight we will add folinic acid to the list of supplements.

It has been really nice to have a few restful days.

Much prayer would be appreciated for the next couple of days. After church today we caught him in his room with Isabelle's tootsie pop she brought home from her class. I was a little surprised. He doesn't really ask for food from anyone because he knows that he can't have it. However, as he has been coming off of the medications he has become more and more alert. He is not so "zombie like," anymore. He is now aware that he is missing out on things. We are all praying that his ketones stay high through the night and that he doesn't have a grand mal from the sugar.

One day, one step, one moment at a time.

Thank you again for your prayers.

********UPDATE:  2/25/2013

No seizures in the night and his ketones remained high!! Praise the Lord. Today he attended his preschool class and the teachers were shocked that he didn't have a single seizure in class!! So excited! They usually see to many absence seizures to even count them all, and about 6-10 drops (where he actually hits the ground) in the two hours that he is there. We are hopeful that God is answering prayers! Thank you all so much for praying.

Faith is a Journey

"Faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen, it gives us assurance about things we cannot see." Hebrews 11:1

Some times I have moments where life seems hard, a little to hard. At those times it is easy to fall into a pattern of heart ache, and selfishness. Then all of sudden perspective hits. While sitting in hospital rooms I see other parents losing their children to cancer. I see single moms who are being told that they may only have a few hours left to hold their sweet babies. I am blessed to get to hold my child every day. He is still with us, and I am so very thankful. 

After nearly two years of daily seizures (some days 100+) our faith is what has kept us going. We know that God is with us. We have been asked many times over the last two years, "How do you have faith in a God that is not healing your son?" Our answer, "God is God and we are not." I have the faith to believe that Ethan will be seizure free some day. It may not be while he is still here on earth, but someday he will be. Right now God has asked us to be faithful and trust in his plan. That is incredibly hard for this control freak momma to do sometimes, but I know that God is the one in control not me. As I was reading through Hebrews 11 today I was reminded of all of the people throughout the Bible who had enough faith to do what God asked them to, even though they really never got to see the outcome. 

So as we take the next step in this faith journey we are asking for your prayers. We got word just last week this team of doctors in Seattle is out of ideas. "Ethan is puzzling us," they said. No medications have worked thus far, so trying new ones doesn't seem like a good option. Currently his blood levels are showing that the medication is hurting his liver, and his kidneys. After much prayer we have decided to wean the last medication that he is on. It is not an easy decision as nothing we do with this child seems to calm the seizures. However this particular medication and ketogenic diet seem to be interfering with each other. There have been quite a few parents that have reported their kids get better when the medication is removed. The hard part is removing it. It has to be done incredibly slow, and each reduction brings on more seizures. But the long time in-between reductions is very important. It gives his blood enough time to level out, and his brain can adjust to the change very slowly. Ethan is on such a high dose of medication that it could take over a year of weaning to get him all the way off. That is  going to be quite a journey. 

A promise from the Lord found in Isaiah 30:18-21:

"So the Lord must wait for you to come to him so he can show you his love and compassion. For the Lord is a faithful God. Blessed are those who wait for his help. O people of Zion, who live in Jerusalem, you will weep no more. He will be gracious if you ask for help. He will surely respond to the sound of your cries. Though the Lord gave you adversity for food and suffering for drink he will still be with you and teach you. You will see your teacher with your own eyes. Your own ears will hear him. Right behind you a voice will say, 'This is the way you should go.' "

We are asking for your prayers as we start this new leg of our faith journey. We are calling on the Lord for help and we believe that God is faithful to his promises. So no matter if we get to see the outcome or not we must be faithful to what he has asked us to do. 

Toxic

About a week ago after all of the labs were drawn we finally got word that Ethan was indeed on way to much medication. His levels of depakote were toxic. So we took him down to 375mg in the morning and 500mg in the evening. His energy has started to return in the last several days, and he is even a bit happier and his seizures are a little better. He is only hitting the ground about 10-15 times a day, but the absence seizures are every few minutes. Way to many to count. :(

Today as we entered Seattle Children's hospital (for the 3rd time in 2 weeks) the check in clerk said to me, "Hahn right? This is Ethan?" In shock for a moment I wasn't sure if I should be happy that she remembered us, or troubled. She checks in hundreds of families at the door each day.  "Since you are here so often I can issue you name badges that are good for six months. That way you don't have to stand in this line each time you visit." --Needless to say we can now sport our name badges at home if we want to.

After everyone was checked in we headed over to the lab to have his blood drawn again. He is such a trooper. Bob gets him all excited about picking out the color of the bandage before we even go in, and the then the blood draw is usually tear-free. We won't hear anything on the results until next week. I know his ketones have been low, but I really think that the depakote is preventing him from producing high ketones. I praying that we can get them back up in the 5 range. Last week he was at 3 and the seizures are showing it.

Also he is losing weight. We may have to increase his calorie count, but we know that he is very calorie sensitive. The more we increase the worse the seizures get. However now that we have gone down on the depakote he is more active and maybe he needs more calories? Not sure.

Would you all please be praying with us over the next serval weeks. It is so hard to watch him go backwards. Over Christmas he was doing so well. We even thought we saw some seizure free days. Now we are not sure what is going on. We need to hear from God so we know which direction to go. At this point he is puzzling the doctors. We have had several phones calls from them, and each time they say, "we have had emails going back and forth between the team members all day and we are all puzzled."

Father, I ask you to please put your loving hand on Ethan's brain. We want healing. Please guide the doctors as they search for the answers. Bring things to light that need to be helped. Show them which path we should take. Thank you for being in complete control. We trust you in everything, and thank you for each and every moment that we get to spend with this child. 

Life

The last couple of months have been wonderful for our family. We have seen a huge improvement in Ethan which has made everyday life a little better for all of us. In early November of 2012 we started weaning the keppra. It took 6 weeks but we slowly saw our child re-emerging. When the drug was completely out of his system he was talking and playing again. He even started putting several words together...to communicate what he wanted. It was amazing to watch. I distinctly remember hearing the word, "Christmas," come from the back seat as we were driving to church one evening. Bob and I looked at each other and smiled. I turned around and he was pointing at the Christmas lights. "Christmas!" he said again. A two syllable word!! Oh Praise the Lord!  Also he has been trying things that his syblings are doing. We saw him try to slide across the kitchen floor on his socks like his sister. He has seen her do it many times, but usually he just laughs at her. All of sudden he was doing it too! So many things that we are thankful for.

So as we are experiencing this "new" child, we are also asking ourselves, "Why did we have him on this medication for nearly 2 years?" It was actually causing the drops, or at the least making them worse. So at this point we were also asking ourselves...what about the depakote. He is still have slight jerks, (seizures) but nothing like before. He is not slamming into the floor, or walls anymore. He is actually taking part in conversations, and laughing. So our thinking was why not wean the depakote too? The ketogenic diet is the only thing that we have seen progress with. He was on all of these medications before we ever started the diet, and at that point he was up to over 100 seizures a day. Did the meds work then? Well the doctors tell us that the medications are doing something and that it would be worse if he wasn't on them. Really? I am not so sure. What about the keppra? Now that he is off of it he is not grumpy, dazed or confused. He is not having nearly as many drop seizures. I think that every kid is different, and you can't use the generalized idea that epilepsy is best treated by medications. We tried that for nearly 2 years. So we decided to start weaning the depakote. We took him down just a tiny bit each week and saw him getting so much better. The drop seizures were less dramatic. We even saw what we think were a few seizure free days. He was so happy. I don't think we have seen him this happy and engaged in what was going on around him in since he was two. (Before the seizures started.)

So that brings me up to about a week and half ago. We all of a sudden saw the grand mal, (Tonic Clonic) seizures re-appear. He was doing so well. But he had 2 (Tonic Clonic siezures) in the same week. Still no drop seizures. We called the doctor to report them and they told us to put him back on the depakote. What??? Really??? We know from the last two years that anytime we increase that drug Ethan will literally loose it. He will fly into walls, doors, and floors. It is horrible. But the grand mals are scary too. So we added two pills back. (per the doctors orders) One in the evening and one in the morning. Now we are totally regretting it. His speech is so slurred. He is cranky, and drop seizures are back. They are hard and nasty. Just imagine a bowling ball being dropped. That is what it is like only the ball is his head. No warning, just nasty falls. I really hate these drugs. I really hate epilepsy.

We have a meeting with the Neurology team on Tuesday. Not sure what is going to happen. They believe in keeping him on these nasty drugs and I don't want to anymore. I would almost prefer the grand mal seizures to the drop seizures. At least he is happy, and coherent the rest of the week. Right now he is drugged and falling down constantly. His poor forehead is so big and black. It looks like it is about to burst open.

We need your prayers for the Neurology staff meeting on Tuesday. We need to make a change. But at this point it is all a guessing game. No one knows what the right decision is. Please pray for guidance from the Lord. Only He can direct us at this moment. Ethan needs to get better not worse. At this point we are on a downhill slope again....

Special Friends

I found this letter the other day. It seems to capture my thoughts and feelings about all of my "Special Friends." So many of you that I have never seen face to face, and others of you that I have met because of our "Special" situations. I believe that God has given each of you to me during this season of life. Thank you for walking this road with me. May His grace be with you today as you continue the journey. 

To my special friends, Many of you I have never even met face to face, but I've searched you out everyday. I've looked for you on the Internet, on playgrounds and in grocery stores.I've become an expert at identifying you. You are well-worn. You are strongerthan you ever wanted to be. Your words ring experience, experience you culledwith your very heart and soul. You are compassionate beyond the expectations ofthis world.

You're my "sisters." Yes, you and I, my friend, are sisters in a sorority. Avery elite sorority. We are special. Just like any other sorority, we werechosen to be members. Some of us were invited to join immediately, some not formonths or even years. Some of us even tried to refuse membership, but to noavail. We were initiated in neurologist's offices and NICU units, inobstetrician's offices, in emergency rooms.. We were initiated with sombertelephone calls, consultations and evaluations.

All of us have one thing in common. Yes, one minute everything was fine. Then,whether it happened in an instant, as it often does, or over the course of a fewweeks or months, our entire lives changes. Something wasn't quite right. Then wefound ourselves mothers of children with special needs.

We are united, we sisters, regardless of the diversity of our children's specialneeds. Some are unable to talk, some are unable to walk. Some live in adifferent world. We do not discriminate against those mothers whose children'sneeds are not as "special" as our child's. We have mutual respect and empathyfor all the women who walk in our shoes.

We are knowledgeable. We have educated ourselves with whatever materials wecould find. We know "the" specialists in the field. We know "the" neurologists,"the" hospitals, "the" wonder drugs, "the" treatments. We know "the" tests thatneed to be done, we know "the" degenerative and progressive diseases and we holdour breath while our children are tested for them. Without formal education, wecould become board certified in neurology, endocrinology and psychiatry.We have learned to deal with the rest of the world, even if it means walkingaway from it. We have tolerated scorn in supermarkets during "tantrums" andgritted our teeth while discipline was advocated by the person behind us inline. We have tolerated inane suggestions and home remedies from well-meaningstrangers.

We have tolerated mothers of children without special needs complaining aboutchicken pox and ear infections. We have learned that many of our closest friendscan't understand what it's like to be in our sorority, and don't even want totry.

We have coped with holidays. We have found ways to get our physicallyhandicapped children to the neighbors' front door on Halloween, and we havefound ways to help our children form words, "trick or treat". We have acceptedthat our children with sensory dysfunction will never wear velvet or lace onChristmas. We have painted a canvas of lights and a blazing Yule log with ourwords for our children. We have pureed turkey on Thanksgiving. We have boughtwhite chocolate bunnies for Easter. And all the while, we have tried to create afestive atmosphere for the rest of our family.

We've gotten up every morning since our journey began wondering how we'dmake it through another day, and gone to bed every evening not sure how wedid it.

But we, sisters, we keep the faith always. We never stop believing. Our love forour special children and our belief in all that they will achieve in like knowsno bounds. We dream of them scoring touchdowns and extra points and home runs.We visualize them running sprints and marathons. We dream of them plantingvegetable seeds, riding horses and chopping down trees. We hear their angelicvoices singing Christmas carols. We see their palettes smeared with watercolors,and their fingers flying over ivory keys in a concert hall. We are amazed at thegrace of their pirouettes. We never, never stop believing in all they willaccomplish as they pass through this world.But in the meantime, my sisters, the most important thing we do, is hold tightto their little hands and together, we special mothers and our special children,reach for the stars. ♥
~Unknown

Hidden Blessings

Wow a whole year has flown by once again. 

We have had our ups and downs just like so many others. 

But through it all we remember to look for the hidden blessings. At the beginning of 2012 we started a "blessings jar." The idea was to always be looking for the hidden blessing in the day. Each and everyday has its own troubles, but there are always things to be thankful for.  So we told the kids that when they spotted those blessings they could write them down and we would soon have too many to count. 

Today being New Years the kids were so excited to open the jar and read all of their entries from the past year. 

There were so many memories of God's provision, His love for us, and His grace upon our lives. 

In the midst of a family dealing with seizures non stop, there are still blessing. SO many things to be thankful for. It was wonderful to hear the kids read back the things that they had written. Also I loved seeing their faces as they realized that others in the house were thankful for them, or things that they had done. 

These are few of our favorites:

A few favorites written out incase you don't seem them in the picture:

Ethan: Thankful for fish, for playing in the dirt, and corn dogs

Isabelle: Thankful for Naomi, starfish, and pink rain boots

Isaiah: Thankful for new friends, (David & Jontay) and teachers

Rebekka: Thankful for God providing friends, Lisa teaching me how to get gas at Costco, money provided for medical bills, a full freezer of meat, a husband that loves me, a day with only 3 seizures, and a warm house.

Bob: A movie with friends, a father daughter birthday date, smiles from Isabelle as she learns to ride her bike, cleaning a friends yard, a date with my wife, a no helmet day for Ethan. 

Happy 2013 everyone!