2010 in Blog Post Review

I am stealing Kerri from Six Until Me's 2010 meme idea to wrap up/sum up 2010 in blog posts.

Enjoy joining me as we take a stroll down memory lane of 2010...


January I posted about feeling so TORN between all of the responsibilities of everyday life. Still feeling this each and every day.

February Bra Shopping. Worse than shoe shopping. Enough said.

March Celebrating/remembering 10 YEARS since a bad car accident. Crazy how time flies.

April I got a desperately needed BREAK.

May We enjoyed one of the BEST parties I have ever been to! Our Diabetes friends ROCK.

June We had a mostly fun play date at the mall with Wendy and her girls.

July We celebrated 2 YEARS with Diabetes.

August We made it through the first week of pre-school for The Superhero!

September Memories are sparked because of a tiny little straw in a Juicy Juice box that at one time could have killed my baby, and today can save his life!

October The Princess got tubes in her ears. (Rod and I also celebrated our 5th Wedding Anniversary AND The Princess turned 2 years old!)

November I spent ALL of November/ National Diabetes Month to post one fact per day about Type 1 Diabetes.


December I posted about how normal things seem to us on the inside, but how strange it must all be to those on the outside. (and of course, The Superhero turned 4 years old!, and he promises me he will stay 4 for at least a whole year. :-) )


Thank you to all of the readers of The Superhero and The Princess who have been with me all year and to those who are new readers. I love having such an inviting place to blog and share with all of my closest friends, YOU.

Happy New Year!

*Disclaimer: I am a mom of a T1 Diabetic child. I am NOT a doctor. I just play one in real life. Please do not take anything in this post or any other post on this blog as medical advice. If you have questions or concerns of your own, please seek advice from your doctor.*

A view of our Christmas, from the outside...

Reyna, Hallie, and I seem to be thinking the same this Christmas...

As I was going about our morning routine on Christmas I thought that for anyone on the outside, it must look really strange in our house. And how for us it all seemed so normal.

Normal to be poking fingers. 


Normal to be counting carbs.


Normal to eat before opening all the presents.


Normal to be watching the trend on the Dexcom.


Normal to realize the pump site is on day 4 and should have been changed yesterday.


Normal to realize it when you see a number in the 300's pop up on the meter. 


Normal to wonder "Could the pump site be why he is high?"


Normal to think about having to poke a needle into my 4 year old to hook up a new pump site.


Normal to actual have said 4 year old on the counter screaming that he does NOT want a site change.


Normal to know his mood is now affected by his BG in the 300's and not necessarily because you are about to poke him with a needle in the tushie.


Normal to hope and PRAY you gave him the right amount of insulin to bring that BG down without crashing him.


Normal to come home from Christmas festivities so exhausted you end up crying about how much all this NORMAL sucks. 


Normal to have a little pity party quietly while your Diabetic 4 year old fights going to sleep in the next room.


Normal to wonder what we look like to people on the outside.


I had a REALLY hard time Christmas night with all this NORMAL happening in our house. I am over it now. It is what it is.


Then I ready Wendy's post this morning about CHOOSING JOY and have moved past my pity party once again and am trying hard to choose JOY over sorrow.

I am JOYFUL that I have my 4 year old here and ALIVE with me.


I am JOYFUL that I have the medical tools necessary to keep him alive and healthy.


I am JOYFUL to have SO many other D Mamas living and thinking the same things as me.


I am JOYFUL to have Diabetes to make me appreciate life so much more.


I am sure I will have another pity party in the future because Diabetes will always suck, but I am happy to know I can see the JOY in the end. And it is not the view from outside that matters most, it is what is happening on the inside that counts.

And what was happening on the inside, was definitely JOYFUL.


*Disclaimer: I am a mom of a T1 Diabetic child. I am NOT a doctor. I just play one in real life. Please do not take anything in this post or any other post on this blog as medical advice. If you have questions or concerns of your own, please seek advice from your doctor.*

Christmas Traditions

After reading Donna's blog yesterday, I decided a Christmas Traditions post would be fun to share.

Here's how we roll this time of year...

We used to spend Christmas Eve dinner with Rod's parents. This has changed since they participate in the choir at their church and end up attending all of the services that evening. Then we started doing a breakfast with them Christmas Eve morning instead. But with Rod working at the church this year, he had to go in at 10am. So, we decided to get together with them on the day before Christmas Eve for dinner. There doesn't seem to be a specific tradition here, as long as we get together with them sometime in the holiday maddness.

Christmas Eve we go to the early service at the church (usually around 2pm). We like to avoid the crowd a little and then we can spend the rest of the day with the family. My dad volunteers at the church and has helped with all 4 services this year and last. And again, Rod is now working there on the weekends typically, and this included Christmas Eve this year. So he went in at 10am and did not come home until around 8pm.

After church my mom, my younger brother, the kid and I went back to my mom's house for the day. We played and watched movies, etc. We worked on getting dinner ready before Rod and my dad came home. We had super yummy ribs. This is going to become a new tradition I think. :-)

The kids and I made cookies for Santa. We cheated this year and just made Otis Spunkmier chocolate chip cookies this year. I was not in the mood to make the sugar cookies with frosting like we did last year. I really would like that to be a tradition, maybe next year when the kids are a little older.

Christmas day in our pre-kid days was spent at my parents house. We would open all the presents and then make a big breakfast. Sit around all day just hanging out and then have a big dinner that night. We still pretty much do the same now that we did then, but we do part of it at our house. Since having the kids, I have my parents (and brothers if they are in town) come over in the morning. We used to open presents and THEN eat breakfast. Since Diabetes entered our lives 2 1/2 years ago. Now we usually eat first and then open all the presents. Santa is nice enough to leave a few things unwrapped, so the kids can play with those while they wait for breakfast to finish cooking and the grown-ups to eat. (the kids eat FAST, or very little on this day)

After breakfast and presents at my house, we get ready and head over to my mom and dad's house where we have another gift opening session. The kids are ALWAYS spoiled and get WAY TOO MANY gifts. But, they love it and I know how hard it is to resist all the cute and fun things for the kids. This year they are going to be VERY spoiled, I saw SO many gifts under my mom's tree for them. (I told the Superhero we should take some back because they are too many, he doesn't agree. Good thing I was joking. :) )

After present opening over there, we just hang out for the day. Watch TV, eat a light lunch, make the food for dinner that night. We then eat a big Christmas dinner. Usually that would consist of ham, potatoes, gravy, biscuits, zuccini pie, etc. We are having a banana cream pie and a chocolate cake for dessert.

So, I guess our actual tradition is not so much the days we do things, because as we have all gotten married and my brothers moved away, we don't always do the same things on the actual days, it is more about spending time together. And that is what it is really all about.

So, how do YOU celebrate?


And MERRY CHRISTMAS to you and your familes.


*Disclaimer: I am a mom of a T1 Diabetic child. I am NOT a doctor. I just play one in real life. Please do not take anything in this post or any other post on this blog as medical advice. If you have questions or concerns of your own, please seek advice from your doctor.*

Happy Birthday to The Superhero...

I cannot believe 4 years ago today, The Superhero was born.


4 YEARS.

We are celebrating with mini golf today and a pizza party tonight. Lots of fun will be had by all. :)


I hope you enjoy the trip down memory lane as much as I did looking through all these pictures.

My little Superhero has grown from in my tummy...to a 7lb 11oz baby boy...to a Big 4 year old Superhero.

(Sorry you can't read the captions well. Picture 1-profile in the womb; Picture 2-28 weeks along, at the Grand Canyon for our 1 year anniversary; Picture 3-30 weeks along, just out of the shower, with wet hair; Picture 4-38 weeks along, 6 days before he was born, headed to a Christmas Party)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, SUPERHERO! I love you SO much!

*Disclaimer: I am a mom of a T1 Diabetic child. I am NOT a doctor. I just play one in real life. Please do not take anything in this post or any other post on this blog as medical advice. If you have questions or concerns of your own, please seek advice from your doctor.*

I wish

*SIGH*

I wish I could tell you I have not been blogging because I have been SO busy with the holidays. You know, all the planning, shopping, partying, etc.

BUT, that is not entirely the case.

You see, the kids have been SICK for WEEKS.

It all started on Thanksgiving (yep, 3 1/2 weeks ago).

The Superhero woke up on Thanksgiving night with ear pain. Trip to urgent care at 2am and back home with antibiotics an hour or so later.

Then The Princess and I got sick that weekend too. I can't remember, but I think Rod avoided illness #1.

The Princess was coughing a lot. We started breathing treatments up again 2x per day, or more if needed.

We all started to get better within a few days.

Then a couple weeks later, it started again. I blogged HERE about The Superhero and his croup/steroids. I took both kids to the doctor the following Monday. They were both pretty miserable. LOTS of coughing.

The Superhero had an ear infection. Antibiotics. Cough should get better with Xopenex treatments.

The Princess also had croup. Keep doing breathing treatments and humidifier. And the doc thought one of her tubes might have a problem, it had a little dried blood around the tube. I should follow up with her ENT and use ear drops 1x per day for 7 days. I decided to wait to make the ENT appointment until I could see if the drops seemed to help at all.

I took her in again the next day since her breathing was worse AND she had a fever above 102.0 degrees.

She was breathing FAST (up to 50+ times per minute). Her O2 rate was 95%. Sent for chest x-rays and blood work. Her chest x-ray came back normal. Her blood work came back with white count low, which means it is just a virus.

Virus just means we watch and wait. I got sick again somewhere in there too.


We kept The Superhero home from school the whole week before his break to make sure he could rest and get better.

If either one of them over did it, they would start coughing and not be able to stop easily. It was much harder to breathe. So we tried to keep things low key with no major play time.

We spent the whole week being cooped up in the apartment. Let me just say, being stuck inside with 2 sick, but starting to feel better kids, while trying to get all of my work done before my break, was F.U.N. (NOT)

After 2 days of ear drops, I LOST the bottle. I waited it out until Friday morning when I realized she was getting worse. I called the doctor's office to see if they would refill the rx since I lost it, they did. We started drops again that night. Only now instead of one ear needing them, the right ear was leaking and was definitely infected. I chose to do drops in both ears. She has the tubes in place, but that does not mean she won't get an infection. The ear will just drain now instead of filling with fluid. And let me tell you, it is G.R.O.S.S. Blood and fluid coming out of her ears and into her hair. Drying on the outside of her face and ear. Yuck.

And then yesterday, The Superhero ALSO started complaining of ear pain. AGAIN. He JUST had an infection and JUST had antibiotics. This is NOT good. I am NOT going to Urgent care again. I have been drugging him up with Motrin every 6 hours and I will take him to the doctor on Monday if he is still complaining.

And then Rod and I got sick AGAIN too. We are both sinusy and not feeling well. My parents got sick too. They have been around the kids off and on over the last few weeks, so it was inevitable, but still sucks. They both have the same crap we have now. This sucks.

We all HAVE to get better.

My brother comes in town from Texas tomorrow. The Superhero turns FOUR on Tuesday and we are supposed to take him mini golfing and have his party at the pizza place. I don't want to miss the Christmas Eve service at church. I have missed SO many services lately and this is one I don't want to miss. Then of course Saturday is Christmas with fun filled plans. Then my older brother and his wife and my niece will be coming in on the 28th.

We HAVE to be better. Period.


*Disclaimer: I am a mom of a T1 Diabetic child. I am NOT a doctor. I just play one in real life. Please do not take anything in this post or any other post on this blog as medical advice. If you have questions or concerns of your own, please seek advice from your doctor.*

2nd verse same as the 1st

The Superhero started coughing that barky cough on Thursday afternoon. You know, the one that makes him sound like a seal. That can only mean ONE thing, CROUP.

He sounded worse on Friday. But, even though I KNEW I should take him in to the doctor, I chose to tough it out at home. I figured all she would be able to do was give him steroids. And I wanted to avoid those at all costs. We made it through Friday without too much trouble. Rod and I even got out KID FREE and went to his 2nd job's Christmas Party. My parents watched the kids and said that The Superhero hardly coughed at all.

We came home late and put the kids to bed. It was about 11pm by the time we were all sleeping soundly. That is until about 2am when I heard The Superhero calling me between coughs in his room. He sounded AWFUL and could barely breathe. I have never seen him struggle so hard. I finally grabbed him and brought him to the living room and got the breathing machine ready with medicine (which is actually for The Princess).

He then started gagging and even threw up a little because he was coughing so much. While Rod was giving him the breathing treatment I made the decision to take him to the ER. I was scared and did not know what else to do. So I threw on my clothes, called my parents to see if one of them would come with me, and we ran out the door.

Of course, all the way to the hospital, he sounded better and barely coughed at all. I am sure the breathing treatment helped along with the cool night air. The whole time we were in the ER he only coughed a few times. They ended up letting us go pretty quickly. Just some steroids and we were one our way. The steroids should be in his system for 48 hours.

And let me say, from experience, I HATE steroids + Diabetes.

BG's are through the roof and are not budging. He is still coughing a ton today and is NOT feeling well with BG's in the 450's ALL day.

Hopefully, he will be feeling better in the next few days. We have Christmas events to celebrate! And family coming to town.

This is all sounding A LOT like last year in our house.

Seems we had illness after illness last year too! And again this year, we were all sick around Thanksgiving and again a week later. I am ready for it to be over now.

We need a BG and illness break. I don't know how much more I can take.


*Disclaimer: I am a mom of a T1 Diabetic child. I am NOT a doctor. I just play one in real life. Please do not take anything in this post or any other post on this blog as medical advice. If you have questions or concerns of your own, please seek advice from your doctor.*

Hello blog!

I have missed you. I promise I will be back soon. Things are crazy this time of year, but I miss you so much.

I need my blog time. Lots of things happening here. I will be back soon.



*Disclaimer: I am a mom of a T1 Diabetic child. I am NOT a doctor. I just play one in real life. Please do not take anything in this post or any other post on this blog as medical advice. If you have questions or concerns of your own, please seek advice from your doctor.*