On the Cusp

Yesterday, we celebrated the 35 years that have resulted in our incredibly wonderful Mister.  As my Mama says, "He's just better than the rest of us."  And he is.  He really is.  He works unbelievably long hours at his job and spends every minute he is home seeking ways to serve us.  He does almost all of Buddy Boy's 10 PM and 2 AM blood sugar checks, and it is not at all rare that he will run to the grocery store or fold a few loads of laundry in the middle of the night.  When he painted a chalkboard wall for the children, he was up at 3AM applying another coat.  So, basically, he works all day and all night, and does it completely willingly and cheerfully.  He is awesome, and we are so very thankful for his life!

Speaking of blood sugar checks, Buddy Boy is sporting some new hardware to help us with his diabetic care.  It's called a continuous glucose monitor (CGM) and it uses a little wire embedded in his interstitial tissue to send to a handheld device a reading of his blood sugar every five minutes, as well as an indication of whether it's going up or down, and how fast.  It makes me feel like crying to see that CGM stuck in him, but the amount of information it gives us to help him feel better makes it worth it.  Plus, we've been able to go from pricking his finger 10-14 times a day to pricking it about six times a day.  That's a victory in and of itself.  Buddy Boy was SO brave about the first insertion...we watched the instructional DVD and a few youtube videos of children having theirs inserted and then he agreed to lie down and get his.  No fuss, no muss.  Between his struggles with speech apraxia and his daily battle against diabetes, he is constantly inspiring me to be stronger, be braver, be more determined, to keep on keepin' on.

It was doughnut Sunday at church this week.  Last time it was doughnut Sunday, we somehow thought we could slip a doughnut under the radar, to be dealt with by his lunchtime insulin.  Um, negative.  We spent a whole day dealing with the aftermath of skyrocketing blood sugars.  This time, I gave Buddy Boy the choice of a pre-doughnut shot of insulin, or no doughnut.  He chose the shot.  BUT by the time I had given him his shot, the doughnuts were all gone.  Blargh.  I am so not the type to normally soften this kind of blow.  I think they offer some of the most important little lessons my children learn.  But goodness.  The boy just took a shot to have that doughnut!  Plus, we were suddenly in need of about 25 grams of carbohydrate STAT, or Buddy Boy would be sweaty, shaky, and hypoglycemic in no time flat.  Sooooo....Dunkin' Donuts it was!  And he couldn't have been more pleased.

Lately, I've been keenly aware that we are on the cusp of a new stage of life.  We're moving from a season full of babies and schedules that were home-based and all our own, to a season of big kid life.  Little Guy will start full day Catholic school kindergarten in the fall, and Buddy Boy will join him there five mornings a week, because he needs the nursing care that the preschool can offer.  We are so excited about our new school community, but these changes me feel like we have just a few short months to enjoy lazy Friday mornings in pajamas, to go on impromptu adventures to farms and parks, to spend hours reading stacks of books in bed, or to play hooky in favor of a couple weeks with the cousins in Alabama.

With big school comes schedules and attendance reports and book reports and I don't even know what.  So far, it's mostly just been us...my little brood of chicks, doing as we pleased.  We haven't ever even taken a single class or lesson or played on a sports team.  That's all about to change, and I know it will be delightful in its own way, but I want to soak up the last days of this.  Because this has been pretty great (and thoroughly exhausting and completely insanity-inducing at times, but mostly just great).

I mean, Little Guy learned to pump yesterday.  Like, really pump.  That is totally the cusp of something new.

This little miss is just about to turn two.  And she is completely and totally hilarious.  She finally got some hair, as you can tell from her early morning sunshine mohawk, and she most definitely got some personality.  She would like to call all the shots around here, and succeeds in calling a fair number of them, because her brothers are completely devoted and her parents, hopelessly charmed.  

Thankfully, she is a sweet-natured little girl, with a very motherly disposition who mainly just wants to help.  As soon as I start pulling the chairs away from the breakfast bar after a meal, she's beside me with the broom and dust pan.  The moment she hears one of her brothers sneeze, she's running for a tissue.  When it's time for church, we often find all the children's church shoes lined up by the back door, courtesy of Baby Girl.  She tidies and straightens and rearranges, and takes care of us all, to the best of her ability.

Any bonks or tumbles are quickly met with hugs and pats on the back, until she pulls away and checks to make sure her job is done: "'Kay?  Yes?...Yes!  'Kay!" 

Mama stayed with us a whole two weeks while I was on bed rest, taking the children on outings and to preschool, and keeping the household running.  I really don't know what we would have done without her.  And just how many times have I said that in the past few years???  She is always swooping in to save the day!

I had a birthday recently too!  32 candles sure do light up a cake.  :)  This was another midnight labor of love by the Mister, finished off with a frosting by the children in the pre-dawn hours.

After a long and brutal winter, spring has finally sprung here in the DC area.  We are relishing it!