Kids say the funniest things...
I have a family tradition of watching the Macy's Thanksgiving parade. A tradition I'm forcing on my daughter. And while she likes the floats and giant balloons she finds the multiple high school bands and singing floats dull. A bored 8 year old equals a naughty 8 year old.
Me: You know if you don't start being good Santa isn't going to give any gifts. You know that right?
Jilly feeling overly saucy: Yeah. Instead he'll stuff my stocking full of chocolate cake with out any insulin.
Thursday, November 26, 2009
Sunday, November 22, 2009
Another reason why she's amazing...
When Jilly started grade K her teacher had the class make these little school buses out of construction paper for the front board. Each bus was brightly colored and had the child's name and the words 'I can (fill in blank)'. One kid said 'I can say my A, B, C's'. Another said 'I can play with my dog'. All pretty normal 5 year old thoughts.
Jilly's said:
'I can save the world.'
I hope she keeps that belief with her forever.
When Jilly started grade K her teacher had the class make these little school buses out of construction paper for the front board. Each bus was brightly colored and had the child's name and the words 'I can (fill in blank)'. One kid said 'I can say my A, B, C's'. Another said 'I can play with my dog'. All pretty normal 5 year old thoughts.
Jilly's said:
'I can save the world.'
I hope she keeps that belief with her forever.
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Double checking doesn't mean it's perfect..
The morning routine...
Our morning's are becoming a consistent pattern now:
6:45 - Alarm goes off and I smack snooze.
7:00 - I finally get out of bed. Let the old dog out, use the bathroom, feed the cat and take my pills.
7:20 - I pick out Jilly's clothing which often involves me going out into the laundry room because who has time to put the folded clothes away? I then cuddle up with Jilly and try to wake her up. Usually it takes me blowing in her face and tickling her ear with a lock of her hair to get her to wake up. And by waking up I mean 'she pretends to sleep while trying to hide a smile'. I then end up removing her blankets, and telling her she needs to wake up because I can hear the puppy crying.
7:35 - I have a 50% chance of remembering to put my pants on before I walk the puppy. Otherwise I realize it as i'm standing out in my slippers and pajamas in front of all the traffic driving by.
7:45 - Puppy is in her big crate having breakfast, then gets walked again then is let loose to play. While she's having breakfast Jilly comes up stairs with messy hair and hauling a blanket, 2 stuffed animals and her D kit. The first thing she says to me is 'Can I watch TV?' to which I always reply 'Is your hair brushed and your back pack packed?'. Answer is always Oh..yeah..
8:00 - Jilly checks her blood sugar. I've made breakfast: 1 cup of cereal, 1 cup of milk, 2 pieces of bacon, and a fruit (usually bannana).
8:10 - Jilly gives her morning injection after me asking multiple times if I need to turn the TV off so she can focus. She checks her kit to make sure it's got everything she needs for the day. Then while she's eating I check her kit again because you can never be too careful.
8:15 - I'm making lunch. She wants to eat the same thing over and over again for lunch and I've relented. I'm learning to pick my battles. I make her a bento box with mini hot dogs, a milk, a cheese stick cut up, a fruit, crackers and a little dessert such as one mini twinkie. I make it look cute and pretty, something she can proudly show off to her friends. Food that shows my love. And as I'm putting it in her lunchbox I look up at the clock. Poop!
8:20 - I'm yelling at Jilly to turn the TV off, get her shoes on, get her coat, get her bags and kit. As we're late. I'm scrambling to get dressed, brush my hair, put make up on, get pets where they need to go, find my wallet - find my keys, yell at Jilly again that she needs to put a 'coat' on as it's winter. Not just a light weight hoodie - her coat. Get out to the car, verify we have the kit, lunchbox and D kit. And then I realize I haven't had time to make my own lunch or breakfast.
That's my morning. So it didn't really surprise me today when the school nurse called to tell me the humalog vial in Jilly's pen was empty. It was then that I remembered that when I had done the 3am check earlier that morning I had seen that the pen was low and had made the mental note to replace it in the morning. Who can remember what they were thinking at 3 am? Not me that's for sure!
I had them check her BS and feed her lunch while I had a frantic drive home from work. I then grabbed two vials - one for the pen and the other for the nurse's fridge as a back up. Now that we're into month 3 with T1D we're starting to get enough supplies to be properly prepared. When I got to the school Jilly was fine. She was sitting in the nurses office playing a game with another little girl. She replaced the vial, did her injection and went back to class as I drove back to work. She also thanked me and told me how much she loves me. Which is really the most important part of it all.
So the new rules I learned today:
Even if I make a mistake in her management she'll still love me just as much as ever.
And
Double checking doesn't mean it's going to be perfect.
Our morning's are becoming a consistent pattern now:
6:45 - Alarm goes off and I smack snooze.
7:00 - I finally get out of bed. Let the old dog out, use the bathroom, feed the cat and take my pills.
7:20 - I pick out Jilly's clothing which often involves me going out into the laundry room because who has time to put the folded clothes away? I then cuddle up with Jilly and try to wake her up. Usually it takes me blowing in her face and tickling her ear with a lock of her hair to get her to wake up. And by waking up I mean 'she pretends to sleep while trying to hide a smile'. I then end up removing her blankets, and telling her she needs to wake up because I can hear the puppy crying.
7:35 - I have a 50% chance of remembering to put my pants on before I walk the puppy. Otherwise I realize it as i'm standing out in my slippers and pajamas in front of all the traffic driving by.
7:45 - Puppy is in her big crate having breakfast, then gets walked again then is let loose to play. While she's having breakfast Jilly comes up stairs with messy hair and hauling a blanket, 2 stuffed animals and her D kit. The first thing she says to me is 'Can I watch TV?' to which I always reply 'Is your hair brushed and your back pack packed?'. Answer is always Oh..yeah..
8:00 - Jilly checks her blood sugar. I've made breakfast: 1 cup of cereal, 1 cup of milk, 2 pieces of bacon, and a fruit (usually bannana).
8:10 - Jilly gives her morning injection after me asking multiple times if I need to turn the TV off so she can focus. She checks her kit to make sure it's got everything she needs for the day. Then while she's eating I check her kit again because you can never be too careful.
8:15 - I'm making lunch. She wants to eat the same thing over and over again for lunch and I've relented. I'm learning to pick my battles. I make her a bento box with mini hot dogs, a milk, a cheese stick cut up, a fruit, crackers and a little dessert such as one mini twinkie. I make it look cute and pretty, something she can proudly show off to her friends. Food that shows my love. And as I'm putting it in her lunchbox I look up at the clock. Poop!
8:20 - I'm yelling at Jilly to turn the TV off, get her shoes on, get her coat, get her bags and kit. As we're late. I'm scrambling to get dressed, brush my hair, put make up on, get pets where they need to go, find my wallet - find my keys, yell at Jilly again that she needs to put a 'coat' on as it's winter. Not just a light weight hoodie - her coat. Get out to the car, verify we have the kit, lunchbox and D kit. And then I realize I haven't had time to make my own lunch or breakfast.
That's my morning. So it didn't really surprise me today when the school nurse called to tell me the humalog vial in Jilly's pen was empty. It was then that I remembered that when I had done the 3am check earlier that morning I had seen that the pen was low and had made the mental note to replace it in the morning. Who can remember what they were thinking at 3 am? Not me that's for sure!
I had them check her BS and feed her lunch while I had a frantic drive home from work. I then grabbed two vials - one for the pen and the other for the nurse's fridge as a back up. Now that we're into month 3 with T1D we're starting to get enough supplies to be properly prepared. When I got to the school Jilly was fine. She was sitting in the nurses office playing a game with another little girl. She replaced the vial, did her injection and went back to class as I drove back to work. She also thanked me and told me how much she loves me. Which is really the most important part of it all.
So the new rules I learned today:
Even if I make a mistake in her management she'll still love me just as much as ever.
And
Double checking doesn't mean it's going to be perfect.
Sunday, November 15, 2009
Family Retreat
Time really flies when you're busy with D...
I haven't posted for a bit - been busy with home, work and fun. We are now going on 2 months with T1D and it's beyond amazing how far we've come. Not to go all sappy but I'm so proud of Jilly. When we were first diagnoised one of our biggest fears was full day - day care. Our family is dependent on both of our jobs so quitting wasn't a possibility for either of us. But with no one to give Jilly her injections at day care I had no idea what we would do. Talk about stress!
I brought my fears up with her endo and thanks to him she is giving her own injections, is learning to carb count and read her chart. And following the endo's advice (and with the help of the day care teachers) we ran through two 'trial' injections at after school care. Ren picked up McDonalds for dinner on his way to pick her up from the center (we never eat McDonalds or most fast food so it was quite a treat). And she did her dinner injections there with the staff. Then she had a full day of day care on Vet's Day. Her and the staff handled the injections, and double checking the dial up amount perfectly! I'm still nervous about summer care because the kids take 3 field trips a week. But we'll make it work.
Jilly and I went to Family Retreat two weekends back and I can not recommend it enough. She met a really good friend, interacted with other T1D kids and had some good mom bonding time. I discovered that our family having T1D is an invite into a club of supportive parents. The club even has it's own lingo. I haven't discovered if there's a handshake yet, but I feel a sense of kin ship with these other families.
The panels I went to were very informative. My favorite was the teen panel where a group of kids honestly told us what it's like to be a teenager with T1D. I want Jilly to be as confident as these kids were. Because they were really amazing in individual ways.
The retreat taught me a new rule:
Never get mad at a kid for high blood sugars. It's just a number, and getting angry or using terms like 'bad and good blood sugars' makes a kid feel responsible or to blame for the diabetes when it's no one's fault.
I haven't posted for a bit - been busy with home, work and fun. We are now going on 2 months with T1D and it's beyond amazing how far we've come. Not to go all sappy but I'm so proud of Jilly. When we were first diagnoised one of our biggest fears was full day - day care. Our family is dependent on both of our jobs so quitting wasn't a possibility for either of us. But with no one to give Jilly her injections at day care I had no idea what we would do. Talk about stress!
I brought my fears up with her endo and thanks to him she is giving her own injections, is learning to carb count and read her chart. And following the endo's advice (and with the help of the day care teachers) we ran through two 'trial' injections at after school care. Ren picked up McDonalds for dinner on his way to pick her up from the center (we never eat McDonalds or most fast food so it was quite a treat). And she did her dinner injections there with the staff. Then she had a full day of day care on Vet's Day. Her and the staff handled the injections, and double checking the dial up amount perfectly! I'm still nervous about summer care because the kids take 3 field trips a week. But we'll make it work.
Jilly and I went to Family Retreat two weekends back and I can not recommend it enough. She met a really good friend, interacted with other T1D kids and had some good mom bonding time. I discovered that our family having T1D is an invite into a club of supportive parents. The club even has it's own lingo. I haven't discovered if there's a handshake yet, but I feel a sense of kin ship with these other families.
The panels I went to were very informative. My favorite was the teen panel where a group of kids honestly told us what it's like to be a teenager with T1D. I want Jilly to be as confident as these kids were. Because they were really amazing in individual ways.
The retreat taught me a new rule:
Never get mad at a kid for high blood sugars. It's just a number, and getting angry or using terms like 'bad and good blood sugars' makes a kid feel responsible or to blame for the diabetes when it's no one's fault.
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