The Progression of the Mom

I sat down tonight to write a Mother's Day post, something with a few fun pictures and not much text. I opened Google Photos and quickly got lost in memories from the early days of my job as mom. Every time I think I've got my role and responsibilities figured out, the game changes. Here's an interesting thing to know about kids: they're always growing. What they need from day to day shifts, what works to help them varies from kid to kid, and then it's only effective for a brief period of time.

Motherhood is like walking a tightrope while juggling flaming swords and watching out for something to fly out of a cannon at you: the line between happy-well-adjusted-child and please-stop-screaming/crying/whining/moping is thin, you're responsible for the physical and spiritual nourishment and social and emotional well-being and academic and religious education of other human beings while still being fun enough to entice them to pay attention to you instead of everything else which is so much more interesting around them, and (at least in my house) you've got to watch out for objects being thrown through the air.

In other words, it keeps you on your toes.

And while I'm pretty worn out most of the time, I marvel at how far I've come. When I look at that young mom in those pictures, I'm overwhelmed at how much I've learned in the past eleven plus years. My practical skills have grown by leaps and bounds. I can cook and garden. I've gained a few more sewing skills. I am a much better manager of my time. I can clean and declutter like a champ. I can move my family across the country. But more importantly, I'm more patient, I'm more flexible, I can see the humor when things go sideways, I can see more silver-linings.

I can also see my faults and failings magnified. When I had one young child I thought I had a decent handle on this gig. But now I understand that I understand so little. Anytime unrighteous motherly pride tries to creep into my heart, one of my kids does something to remind me that I'm basically flying blind.

But that's not altogether true. I have a wonderful husband, great parents and grandparents (both that I was born to and those that I joined by marriage) to go to for guidance and comfort, and the companionship of the Holy Ghost to whisper in my ear when a child needs something different from what I'm doing. I also have four children who teach me on a regular basis, maybe not intentionally, but they continue to refine my skills and expand who I am and who I can become.

The young mom in those early pictures is going to grow in ways she can't begin to imagine.

When I sit down to write about Mother's Day eleven years from now, how much more will I have learned?

Rollin' Rollin' Rollin'

Career Aspirations

One morning last week during breakfast, Cooper got an excited look on his face and said the following.

Cooper: Maybe our family can be professional readers! We can leave school and read all day.

Peter: (giving him a sidelong look of disbelief) Yeah, and live in your parents' basement.

He may have a point...

Retest

Peter's school EpiPen was part of a recent recall. The auto-injectors were found to be defective. We contacted the Pharmacy and were surprised to learn that the prescription our pediatrician wrote in September didn't have any refills. Even though our need was because of a recall, we were told that we would have to get another prescription.

So, I called the pediatrician. I explained the situation and asked if I could pick up a new prescription for the Epi-Pen. The receptionist said she would need to check with the doctor and would call me back. I was running errands that morning and decided to stop in at the doctor's office, hoping to speed things along. I cheerfully asked the receptionist if she had any news from the doctor on the prescription. She informed me that I was required to bring Peter in for a well-child visit before the doctor would give us a prescription. I told her that we only get one well-child visit per year from our insurance and past experience has taught me that I needed to save it for the beginning of the upcoming school year. Nothing had changed with his diagnosis, and even if it had, she's a pediatrician and not an allergist, so she had no way of checking. No, I was told writing that possibly life-saving prescription would be a liability without a doctor visit.

Wait, what?

That didn't sit well with me. Bryan and I discussed our options and decided that if we had to see a doctor to get an EpiPen, it should be an allergist. It had been almost two years since his last round of testing, so it was nearly time for another. Thanks to a patient cancelation, we were able to get an appointment on Friday morning.

We met with the doctor, explained Peter's history of eczema, reactions, and positive tests. He agreed that retesting was the way to go. We were led to a small room with a big comfy chair and a TV. They tested Peter for indoor and outdoor allergens, tree nuts, and peanuts. Here's Peter right after they pricked his arms.

And here he is eleven minutes later. See the big welt closest to his right hand? That's the peanut site. That's right, he's still super allergic. The technician administering the test wiped off the peanut shortly before I took this picture. The doctor walked in and said, "Yup, he's allergic."

He also tested positive for the two previously know allergens of cats and a grass mixture (we knew he was allergic to Kentucky Blue grass), and to three new allergens: a weed called Lambs-Quarter and two kinds of dust mites. All of the tree nut sites were negative.

The doctor wrote us an EpiPen prescription and scheduled a follow-up after we do a blood test as well, just to get more information. While we were all a little disappointed that his allergy hasn't changed, none of us were surprised. Now the trick is finding a pharmacy that actually has EpiPens in stock. People replacing recalled EpiPens have cleaned most pharmacies out.

Pink Popcorn Tree

We Love Books

Based on this picture I found, we've nearly outgrown our bookshelves. I did some fancy squishing and rearranging, so now that big mess has been taken care of. If we acquire any more books, we'll need to visit IKEA for another bookshelf.

Picture credit goes to Cooper, who grabbed my phone and took several pictures of his foot and knee. This library shot was a bonus.

The Doctor Is In

I sometimes marvel at all the events that never make it onto the blog. For instance, I've never written about Cooper's tics. I first noticed them when he was three, I saw little movements that appeared involuntary. I finally mentioned them to his pediatrician at his five-year checkup. She dismissed my concern without much investigation. Bryan and I continued to watch as Cooper would shrug or scrunch his face or clear his throat over and over and over. At times they seemed to disappear, while at others they were very strong.

When we moved to New Jersey, I pointed out the tics again. This time he happened to be in a heavy tic season, so the nurse and doctor were able to observe him and agreed that they did look like tics. We talked about the possibility that it could be Tourette Syndrome. The doctor also mentioned that sometimes, if a person has too much strep in their system, it manifests as tics.

We ran a blood test and found that Cooper had more than four times the safe level of strep in his bloodstream. The doctor recommended an extended regimen of antibiotics. For the next three-months Cooper took medicine everyday. And you know what? The tics disappeared.

I shared this story with one of the moms that hiked with us on Saturday. We had stopped for lunch and the boys were skipping stones in the river nearby. Peter was sitting on a log retaining wall, eating and listening to us talk. As I explained the symptoms, Peter would add details. I was just about to say that we wondered if Cooper might have Tourette Syndrome, when Peter piped up.

"Yeah, we think he might have meningitis."

All three moms burst out laughing. Warning: when seeking medical advice, don't ask your eleven-year-old.

By the way, those tics have come back.

Hiked

We took the cub scouts on a three-mile hike on Saturday. This fulfilled a requirement for the Webelos, but all the Cubs were included. Peter tagged along to fulfill another need: an activity with the Boy Scouts. Since there was also a Temple trip for the youth that morning, Peter was the only Boy Scout available. The weather and the trail were really beautiful. There was a chance of rain and a projected 80 degree high, but neither of those happened.

I only took the last picture, so thanks go to the other leaders and parents who hiked with us for the other photos.

We don't do much hiking, and I was worried that the length would be too hard for my boys. They were pretty worn out by the end, but they made it. And thanks to my migraine-required daily exercise, I wasn't sore at all afterward.

Niner

Last month Cooper entered his last year of single digits. Instead of our traditional streamers on the top of the door, I splurged and spent $5 on this fancy door curtain. It looked awesome, but it held a lot of static electricity, so it was a shocking experience whenever we walked through. For the next birthday we'll return to the old-school streamers.

Our celebration happened to fall on a very cold, very dreary day. Cooper really wanted to see a movie, so instead of trekking out into the elements, we stayed in and turned our house into a theater. We got the digital version of the movie Sing, the very show that Cooper had requested, then enjoyed traditional movie theater snacks like popcorn and red vines.

Cooper enjoyed reading his birthday cards and opening his gifts.

Cooper asked for a cake just for him, plus a cake for everyone else. It was a happy accident that two cakes from my smallest pan could come together to make a barrel shaped cake. After all, Cooper means barrel maker. He was delighted.

I baked the cake and put it together with the white frosting, Bryan did all the decorating.

Cooper had a great ninth birthday. Here is his list of favorites for this year:

FAVORITE FOOD: Pancakes and pizza

FAVORITE ANIMAL: Cheetah

FAVORITE CANDY: Chocolate and caramel

FAVORITE BOOK: Fairytale stories

FAVORITE COLOR: Blue

FAVORITE SHOW: Ninjago, Super Why!,

FAVORITE MOVIES: Harry Potter, Sing, Star Wars
FAVORITE SONG: I Am a Child of God and awesome theme songs (I have no idea what this means...)
FAVORITE BOARD GAME: Monopoly

FAVORITE CARD GAME: Uno
FAVORITE VIDEO GAME: Minecraft
FAVORITE THINGS TO DO: Play video games, read books, play with siblings, ride my scooter, and build.
FAVORITE MEMORIES FROM BEING 8: Getting baptized, going to Six Flags Great America, and going to Washington D.C.
FAVORITE PLACE: The Temple, amusement parks, and non-fast food restaurants
FAVORITE SUBJECTS IN SCHOOL: Computer lab and math

FRIENDS: Carter, Ben, Zoryah, Addyson, Jonathan, Chase, Peter, Phoebe, and Sophie

Little Farmers

I learned recently that our HOA rules allow container gardens on decks and perennials in the flower beds. Since this will be the first summer in five years that we haven't moved (yikes!), I'm returning to my long-neglected love of growing our own food! Or at least trying to grow our own food.

We began on Saturday by planting a few tomato plants and starting a tray full of seeds.