Starting anew

Dear Friends, Family, and Followers,
It has been quite a while since I blogged last. I am starting to blog again for the ease of letting people know what is going on with our lives, especially Sonora. So much has happened since the last time I wrote that I am going to give a "quick" recap. We moved from Kansas to North Carolina in June. Well, technically we went to Minnesota for a month first and then came to NC in July. We had a great time seeing family and fishing however, as the trend goes, by the end of our vacation Sonora was not feeling very good and was having some pretty bad days. We arrived at Fort Bragg and about one week later found the local ER and UNC hospital quite quickly as Sonora's shunt decided to stop working again. Sonora had surgery on her shunt and while in the hospital I started pushing for them to start helping us with her seizures. Ten days later we ended back at UNC in the hospital where Sonora had a video EEG machine hooked up to record her seizure activity for almost a week. The results were not good. Sonora was having a multitude of seizures both day and night. There were even times that she was having seizure activity but nothing about her seemed to change, ie no eye rolling or staring etc. So, a new drug regimen was started. By the end of her stay the doctors thoughts were and I quote, "she's a puzzle". As you can imagine Sonora's was still having much more seizures then they wanted to see on the EEG but it was time to get home and let the medicines work. If anyone has been in the hospital for a week you know the feeling of needing to be at home! The hospital is uncomfortable, boring and just plain depressing at times.
For the next couple of weeks the seizures really seemed to be disappearing. Sonora was not having many staring spells and just seemed more alert then she had been in a long time. Then one day she started getting a rash. Sonora was on a medicine that if a rash began, the medicine would have to STOP. Of course, that is what happened, so good bye to lamictal and hello to zonisamide. Now ever since changing, I have noticed more seizures again. Also, school started.
School, what can I say about thee. This year we put Sonora in a self contained classroom (there's about 8 kids with different special needs to 1 teacher and 3 aids) instead of a normal 1st grade class. Last year she just seemed to be overwhelmed by the amount of children and the pace. However, Sonora is going to "specials" with one of the 1st grade classes this year. I would love to be able to say so far so good, but that is just not the case. It seems Sonora is a little defiant and refusing to do some of her work. Per the teacher she gets up around 1 o'clock everyday to get her backpack to go home because she is done for the day. She still has no real desire for learning and I am just not sure if she really understands WHY she needs to. She would love to just stay at home and be the queen in her dress and crown and be able to watch her movies, play her games or put together her puzzles all day. Any suggestions would be great. I have reverted back to putting sight words and other information she needs to learn on paper that is pinned to the hallway walls.
Anyway, Sonora's neurology appointment is tomorrow so we will have to wait until then to find out what is next. As for the other 2, well Carson loves preschool. He goes for about 2 1/2 hrs in the mornings every day. He is the social butterfly who would rather be there all day! Evret is walking everywhere. He is a climber and is into EVERYTHING. His two favorites are the dog water and the cupboard with the kids cups and bowls. He is definitely giving us a run for our money.
Please feel free to post any questions, comments or suggestions. Thanks for lending an ear;)