My life with The Superhero and The Princess: Celebrating One Year

The day started as any normal weekday. I took my shower, checked my email/facebook/etc, waited for my kids to wake up. The Superhero came out of his room as he normally does, ran over to me for me to hold him, and then laid there on me for a quick snuggle before running off to watch cartoons. Only today I think I just wanted to hold on to him a little longer. Snuggling with him reminded me of where we were just one year earlier. July 10, 2008 was the day my baby was diagnosed with Type One Diabetes.

I spent a lot of time thinking about how I wanted to handle this first anniversary. After much thinking and encouragement from other parents of children with diabetes we decided to celebrate his life by doing something special. We spent the morning as we normally do, well sort of. I cut his hair, he needed the trim. :) He had a shower, he thought that was pretty cool since he usually had baths. We ate the normal lunch, PB&J, mandarin oranges, and milk. He took his nap.

Then after his nap, I had his daddy take the afternoon off of work. We had decided to take him to see his first BIG movie in the theater. We wanted to see the movie “Up”. We got all ready.

The Princess' bottle…check,

The Princess' baby food for dinner…check,

The Princess' diapers, etc for the bag…check,

The Superhero's snacks…check, Superhero diapers…check,

The Superhero's juice, just in case…check,

The Superhero's diabetes supplies…check.

Ok, off we go.

We dropped The Princess off with my parents. I did not figure she would do well with the movie. Then we headed off to see “Up”. We got our tickets (and we excited that The Superhero was still free :) ). We bought The Superhero the kids pack with popcorn, fruit snacks, and a diet coke, all a treat for him. We found our seats. Checked his finger. Let him enjoy his popcorn and diet coke. Then the movie began. He sat still for a while, well, until his diet coke ran out. Then he wanted to sit in my lap, then in his seat, then in my lap, then in his seat, then in my lap, then he just wanted to stand. Luckily we had the first row at the theater so no one was in front of us. He ended up standing/squirming for the rest of the movie and made it all the way to the end before getting noisy.

After the movie we took him out to dinner at Red Robin. I let him pick what he wanted to eat off of the picture menu. He chose a corn dog and mandarin oranges. (What is it with this kid and his oranges?). He was checked again, and had a higher BG than we expected. Bolus. Milk arrives and cheese sticks. We let him try them, which of course he has to dip in sauce like Daddy. He proceeds to eat very little of his food by the time it came since he had snacked so much at the movies.

When we came home we fought mildly low blood sugar (at least too low to go to bed with insulin on board). We finally got him up to 137 around 9pm, after he was asleep.

All in all, it was a great day. He was actually well behaved and did not go in time out at all. He enjoyed getting to see a BIG movie. He enjoyed his dinner, at least what he ate of it. The thing I enjoyed most was getting to spend time with just The Superhero (and Rod) on the anniversary of the day his life was saved. I am not sure if we will include The Princess next year or not, we will have to play it by ear, but I enjoyed having just one kid for a short time.

And The Princess REALLY enjoyed her time with her NaNa and Pompa. I was told that Pompa could not get any work done with all the giggles and cuteness going on down stairs. I am glad she enjoyed her time too.

It has been one crazy and long year. Now hoping for many more, happy, healthy years with my little boy!