oahu!

thursday after school we headed off to oahu for a long weekend with aunty mary and uncle dean. we love our trips to oahu. both kids were really excited to get off our island, i think they were having a bit of big island fever!

 

 

hanging out, waiting to board.

 

 

so the real reason we spent the weekend in a oahu was for mr c. he needed to have a sedated MRI on his brain. doesn't that sound terrifying? here is the background: he has been having on going episodes of telling us that "everything looks far away." and also that objects on the computer seem to shake. we had his vision and eyes checked out with the eye dr, and everything was perfect. since it seemed to be happening more frequently, our pediatrician decided it was time to rule out any odd possible causes. she also assured us that most often, this is simply the way a migraine manifests in a young child. they do not get painful headaches, but rather they experience distorted vision. this phenomenon is called, "alice in wonderland syndrome." crazy, huh? one morning before school i was standing in front of him and i was holding marin, he was sitting on the couch. he looked at me and said, "you look really far away and your head looks small." ummmmm, ok. anyway, we were doing the MRI to rule out something more serious, since you can't test for a migraine. MRI's are terrifying for anyone, so they sedate children coen's age. they don't do sedated MRS's on the big island, hence why we had to fly to oahu. we made it a big fun thing, and he handled it all pretty well. he was NOT NOT going to let them put him to sleep without a fight, but when you are being held down with a gas mask on your face, the sleep takes hold. he was yelling, "stupid! stupid! stupid!" through the mask as he drifted off to sleepy land. ha. i was so impressed with the care we had at kapiolani children's hospital. they let me hold him during the sedation, and walk him to the MRI. i was reunited with him as soon as he was out, and with him when he woke up. he was much happier when he woke, and they gave him as many popsicles as he wanted. they even brought by tucker, the hospital dog. other than being a little dizzy for a few hours, he came out of the sedation real easy. here's the GREAT NEWS, coen's brain was fine. no masses or tumors or any funky stuff that we need to worry about. so we can go along with the theory that he is experiencing this super strange thing called, alice in wonderland syndrome. i mean, it is coen. of course he is. #complicatedchild. (yes. i just hash tagged.)

 

playing go fish in the waiting room.

sleeping through the whole thing. thankful for awesome care. 

 

nom, nom, nom.

 

really mom. we heart tucker!

 

recovering with homemade bubbles with aunty mary.

the rest of the weekend we totally relaxed and enjoyed ourselves. aunty mary and uncle dean make us feel so comfortable. lucky for us, they have a grandson and that means our kids get to play with his endless amount of toys. wes went golfing, and surfing. i snuck away to ala moana shopping center BY MYSELF for like, HOURS! we didn't take the kids anywhere (except to dinner one night) and they never complained. it was delightful.

 

mama's day out. 

 

dinner on the waterfront with these wild munchkins.

 

ok, i asked them to sit still for a picture and marin leaned in and kissed coen. i captured it so perfectly. i can NOT handle his total surprise after. i will show them this is 10 years, as a reminder of how sweet and cute they once where.