Merry Christmas

To all my wonderful, amazing D moms:

Merry Christmas!

I ran out of cards--

I ran out of stamps--

I'm sorry if you didn't get one by mail!

The Circle of Friends Award

Shamae tagged me with "The Circle of Friends Award". It been long time since I've been tagged, so I'm very excited to take part. Here's my list of 5 things that I love (in no particular order):

1. I love strawberry yogurt mixed with vanilla flavored granola and dried cran-strawberries.

2. I love listening to my girls giggle.

3. I love reading a book during my girls' nap time.

4. I love dancing with my husband.

5. I love watching "Community" on Thursday nights.

I'm sure everyone has been tagged by now....I'm a little behind in posting this.

Rufus, The Bear With Diabetes

I found this book buried in the hall closet last week. At first I wanted to throw it away, because of my "anti-diabetes" attitude as of late. But after second thoughts, I placed it in the book drawer in Lainey's bedroom.

The following day, Lainey found it and has been looking through it 2-3 times a day. She'd show me pictures of the boy who was "sick" and had to "go to the hospital". I didn't take the time to explain anything, nor did I think she'd make a connection that the boy and her had the same sickness---diabetes. I should have realized it was on her mind, since yesterday she got out her stuffed "Rufus Bear" and asked for a syringe. (See this POST about Rufus.)

Last night, after Dustin put the girls to bed, he related to me this story. I asked him to write it down so I could blog about it. After reading it, I'm glad I asked him to put it into words. It's not often that you hear how diabetes affects a dad.

"Tonight I went to put the girls to bed. I went through our normal routine of singing a few songs and reading a book. Lainey picked out a book called “Rufus Comes Home” . It is about a boy who gets sick and goes to the doctor. At the doctor his family discovers he has diabetes. The rest of the book tells the story about how he learns to take care of himself, and about the “diabetic” teddy bear that helps him learn that he is not the only one with diabetes.

After the story was over Lainey broke down crying. This is simply not like her. I asked her what was wrong. She said, “I don’t want to get sick.” It occurred to me that she believed that having diabetes would make her sick. Lainey defines “sick” as throwing up, so she was concerned that this would happen to her. She laid her head on my arm sobbing, and I was ready to cry myself.
I sat her up and explained to her that she isn’t sick anymore because we are taking care of her. I opened the book again and showed her that the boy was sick when he didn’t have his insulin, but once he had that, and tools like his meter, he was happy and healthy again. I tried to help her understand that she would be sick if she didn’t have these things, but she is okay.
It has been interesting watching Lainey gain a better understanding of her situation. Often she takes things in stride and learns a little as she goes, but once in a while a realization hits her pretty hard, and it is scary for her. It is times like these that I wish the most that she didn’t have this disease. It is so hard to see my 3 year old daughter worry about things that are so real.
Lainey finally calmed down, and seemed to understand that diabetes would not make her throw up, but it can make her feel bad. She knows that her pump and her meter are tools that help her condition. Most importantly, she knows that we are here to support her, along with her Diabetic Teddy Bear that she has named 'Lainey'."

I just wanted to say a big "Thank You" to all my diabetic moms in the blogging world. Thanks for the comments on my post last night. They buoyed me up. You are all truly wonderful people, and I'm grateful to be apart of "our family". Those comments made me realize how much I've missed you.

We're Still Here

This pic is from Lainey's dance recital a couple days ago.

We're alive and well. I'm just being a slacker in the D world-- with blogging, Facebook, and the Sunday Night Chat.

These last two weeks, I just don't want to talk about diabetes. Any of you feel like that? Probably everyday, huh. Some days it's all I can do to check Lainey's sugar and give her a dose of insulin. I don't want diabetes to be the #1 thing in our lives, but sometimes that can't be helped.

Lainey's numbers have been higher than normal too. We see the Endo at the end of the month, and I'm not looking forward to her A1C result.

Ah well...

I'm just typing what's on my mind.

Lainey is very excited about Christmas: the tree, the lights, her presents. We're gluing cotton balls on Santa's beard to count the days until Christmas. And the best part--we're going to AZ for the holidays. I need some warm weather!