Evan

 

Potty Talk--SB Edition

I tell my kids constantly to stop using potty words, and yet here I am doing potty talk on the internet. 

Anyway...I've mentioned before that I've been able to attend Spina Bifida leadership institute where I have met incredibly fun people who understand and relate to my life in a different way than most people can. In that group we can talk openly about uncomfortable topics, like potty talk. After all, Spina Bifida is much more than difficulty walking. Bowel and bladder incontinence is almost always a given.

So at leadership institute last year, I met a man with Spina Bifida who I really connected with. Although he is a few years older than me, I saw a lot of my son in him--who my son could be, what his life could be like as a working, professional, adult male with Spina Bifida. At some point this guy was sharing an experience where he was in a very public position, presenting in front of a crowd or something, and he...had an accident. He went #2 in his pants right there, up on stage, where the show must go on. I was both laughing and crying through his telling of the story. Not where you're laughing so hard you're crying, but actually crying because I have seen my son in a similar space and I know the horror and trauma. It's not funny. But then also laughing because, years removed from this experience, this man was able to move on with his life with the understanding that Spina Bifida really stinks, sometimes literally, but life goes on. He was able to find the humor in the situation that is all too common when bowel control is just non-existent. 

I went to the store today to pick up a prescription and stock up on enemas for Evan. Since he's had a regular enema routine he's been much more successful with avoiding accidents, especially at school. I only had Cameron with me, and he wanted to help carry the boxes of enemas. As we stood in the checkout line, a lady behind us was watching Cameron, so he started smiling at her and dancing around, showing off the enemas he was holding. My first reaction was embarrassment. I felt like I needed to explain, or hide them, or quickly put the "blame" on my son by saying something like, "Those aren't for me." But then I thought, so what? What if they were for me? If I needed an enema, especially for something 100% out of my control (like SB), I would owe no explanation to a stranger behind me in line. And I should have zero shame about it. So I didn't say anything. I hope she got a good laugh out of Cameron's dancing and showing off our enemas today.

On the way out the door, as I'm holding the prescription and 4 boxes of enemas, the employee at the door said, "Ohhh, someone's having a procedure! That's horrible!" In my shock, I just kept walking, but it would've been a good teaching opportunity for her. As a matter of fact, lady, this is just normal life with Spina Bifida. And it's not horrible. Enemas are a wonderful tool that my son has to keep his body healthy and regular. 

I still disapprove of most potty talk at home, but you know what? It's gonna happen when you live with Spina Bifida, and sometimes it helps to find humor in it.

PS. My big guy turned 9 this month!

Spring Break to Redding

Seth: One time we went to a hotel. And there was an alarm clock there. And we liked to look out the windows to see our car. When we were there we started to unpack. We swimmed in the pool. And it was pretty cold but we got used to it. And me and Evan were swimming all the way to the 5 feet part. And mom holded Cam when he was swimming. And the first day we got there, for dinner we got pizza so mom got out and went all the way to Domino's to get pizza. From Redding ALL the way to Domino's. And we drank hot chocolate. We watched basketball every day. And the second [morning] we watched Saturday cartoons and so we watched Power Rangers. We got some breakfast in the morning. I liked that we got to pick our breakfast. The part I liked was they had some Danishes. First I had a cheese Danish and second I had an apple Danish. On the first day (Friday) we went to go hiking and after we played fishing. We catched just one fish. It was like a black bass.  (The people in the boat near us caught it.) We did swimming again and had nachos for dinner. And when we were going home we went to a store with lots of fun games (the arcade at Oasis Fun Center). I liked air hockey and I won.

Evan: On the first day we unpacked in Redding. And then we went to our hotel room and we took the stuff out. There was a bed, a TV...there were curtains. We went swimming. I took some swimming lessons without my floaties. We went under water...well, I did. We got hot chocolate and then we had pizza for dinner. We watched some basketball games. I thought I would sleep better in my bedroom, but I actually slept better in the hotel. In the morning we got breakfast. There were Danishes. That was my favorite part. We ate breakfast in our hotel room. We went fishing and saw some people catching some bass, some black bass. Dad put a new reel on my fishing pole. It worked pretty good. We went swimming. This time when we went swimming we saw coins. We watched some more basketball games. We had nachos for one of the days. Then we got ready for bed and went to bed. The next morning is when we packed. We went to the arcade. We got to do skee-ball and a racing game. [My favorite was] the basketball game where we got the most points and the most tickets. And when we finished we had 101 tickets! We got to pick some prizes. Then we drove all the way home and had In-N-Out. Then we drove the rest of the way home.

Evan learned how to whistle on this trip

2019 Photo Dump

 I've missed posting some pictures here...

Our annual trip to Redding this year (2019) involved taking family pictures for the first time in 3 years and having the Esparto Hudson/Sefos join us.

I made a Very Hungry Caterpillar cake for Cameron's 1st birthday because he is a very hungry boy. He loves food. Clara Cobb was the only one to join us for dinner and cake since we would be seeing family for Seth's birthday/Thanksgiving the next day.

Birthday Bucks

After having Cameron steal his birthday thunder last year--remember, I had just had Cameron so we ate cake in the hospital--this year Seth had to deal with his birthday being ON Thanksgiving. He really didn't seem to mind. I let him pick what pie he wanted, and then told him his birthday party would be on Saturday, and he was cool not doing much on his actual birthday.

We invited preschool and ward friends for Seth's dinosaur birthday party. He got approximately 9,723 dinosaur toys, and loved it. They broke frozen dino eggs (Seth was the only casualty of little kids playing with hammers), played Pin the Horn on the Triceratops, and had a dinosaur soundtrack in the background while eating Seth's favorite foods: mac & cheese, fruit, rolls, and Dinosaur cake, of course.

Apple Hill

Always the mechanic

This is probably about when both boys became voracious independent readers.

Breakfast with Santa & Mrs. Claus

Kids & Cocoa at Evan's school