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LIFE WITH MY 3 BOYBARIANS
LogansMom28w |
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BLOW OUT BIRTHDAY CANDLES... CHECK!
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May 20, 2007 12:30pm (EST)
Logan's party was a success!
We have the best friends and family anyone could ask for. My reinforcements (aka, my mom!) arrived Thursday to help me pull off a guest list of about 40. The weather was perfect - sunny and 74. Blue skies, warm sunshine, cool breeze. Our decorations were made (at home, thanks to Disney who has no Little Einsteins stuff  ), cake defrosted, goodie bags stuffed, helium tank ready.
Logan's guests came from 3 states. I was humbled by the amount of driving some of our loved ones made to celebrate with us. You know who you are - thank you. Really, really, thank you. Having you all there meant the world.
The kids, all 20+ of them, were so good. Generally someone cries at a party... but the kids were all polite, well-behaved, wonderful children who had big smiles and frosting faces, and just the right amount of playground dirt. We had lots of multiples there! We had my college roommate's twin girls, Kara's triplet boys, Stacey's quads. And if London weren't sick at home with daddy, we'd have had more. Shonda came and had fun with us, anyway, and I'm so glad she did even though we missed London and Camden. One of Logan's very first friends was there, too, his pal Preston (and family) from the NICU. My nephews showed us that it is possible to reach 3 stories high in a tree.  Trying to get a photo of all the kids together was a riot. Impossible, but fun trying.
And I have to mention Colton. Colton is the son of our local MOD Division Director, Carla. He is 12 (I think!) and was such a great helper! Not only did he save the day by helping me figure out how to work the candle lighter thing, but he helped out with Logan a lot, following him around and keeping him safe. Thanks, Colton!
Afterwards we invited our out-of-town guests back for a pasta dinner. Understandably, many wanted to hit the road and get back home, but we were able to spend more time after the party hanging out back at our house. It meant a lot to Randy to give a tour of his handy work to his family members and our friends. We still have quite a few unfinished projects around the house, but it was fun to be able to let our loved ones see a full year's worth of his hard work. I'm very proud of Randy and was beaming for him as he led his mom and sisters through his magnum opus.
Randy took 800 pictures. We pared them down and put them on Flickr. Since they aren't my children, I'm only leaving them up for a few days. There were way too many to post on Share.
We missed a few dear friends who were either out of town or sick. We wish we could have seen you, but we will definitely get together soon! Thank you to everyone who helped make this a very special day.
By far and away, the coolest thing about Logan's party was getting to watch a "regular ol' little boy" blow out 4 candles on his birthday cake. And as he bent over to blow, I felt a flush of what can only be described as bliss.
Logan blow candles
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Posted by LogansMom28w | Comments: (22) | Permalink
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HAPPY BIRTHDAY, LITTLE BEAR!
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May 08, 2007 10:54pm (EST)
It seems like just yesterday my water broke unexpectedly when I was only 6 months pregnant. I remember riding from my home to the hospital in the pre-dawn hours, over an hour-long silent drive. Neither my husband nor I said a word; both mentally making check lists and trying to prepare ourselves for what it meant to have a baby 3 months too soon when we had beautiful, healthy but still needy 1 and 2 year old boys at home.
It seems like yesterday when so many questions were unanswered.
What does such a massive brain bleed mean for this child?
Will he ever leave this hospital?
Will he walk or talk? Will he play? What about school?
How will I manage 12 doses of meds around the clock?
How many years will he need to drag these oxygen tanks around, always a spectator, never participating?
When will he grow?
But today... today he is four. He is not a frail, red creature on a warming bed whose body shakes eerily because of the oscillating vent. Not only can he walk and talk, but he is a moving hurricane and and starts sentences with, "Actually, mom, ...". He is gloriously oxygen and medication free. He is no longer a spectator. He is a son, a brother, a preschooler, a grandson, a MOD mission-affected volunteer (if by cuteness alone). He is a boybarian.
There were many, many days when prematurity loomed over my family like an untamed Everest. I felt constantly armed... and at the same time weary of battling invisible demons. I just ached for normal. I wasn't expecting a valedictorian or a marathon runner, I just wanted a boy who could learn, laugh, love his family and friends and feel love from them in return. I wanted him to feel success, shrug off ridicule and not take himself too seriously.
And four years later I have all that and so, SO, much more in this boy. And even though somedays I was afraid to hope for circumstances this good... I can say that Logan has conquered his own personal Everest.
Happy birthday to the bravest boy I know.
   
     
   
web L Mom NICU
web L Mom 4 yrs
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Posted by LogansMom28w | Comments: (27) | Permalink
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WALK AMERICA, CHA CHA CHA!
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May 08, 2007 10:14pm (EST)
Saturday, Cinco de Mayo, was our WalkAmerica. It was such a fun time. Our Central Division Director, Carla Marcellus did a great job making sure everything went off flawlessly.
The Des Moines Girls showed up bright and early for some bounce house fun and some serious volunteer work, too. I even managed to remember, pre-coffee consumption, to go to Caribou Coffee instead of Starbucks, since Caribou was one of our sponsors (I know Carla loves me when she secures a coffee house at our Walk. Amen, Carla, Amen!).
I couldn't hear the Potes from waaaaayyy back at the helium tank on balloon duty, but my husband reports they did a great job as our ambassador family. Walkers got a little Salsa dancing lessons and Carlos O'Kelleys brought both great food and one fine-looking waiter ( ¡Olé, Señor, Aye Carumba!).
Despite losing a major corporate sponsor this year, Team Boybarian has pulled in a respectable $850 so far... and still holding out for a hopeful few more donations. Des Moines is at $215,000 as a very early count. I am very proud to be part of those numbers, even if a very small part.
It was great to see Braden, London, Camden, Gavin, Alexis, and of course, Logan there representing our Share kids. I would have loved to have gotten a picture of all of them together. But I did get many, many photos. Here are a few:
web L Cinco de Mayo
web is she scaring you
web Logan Shonda sombrero
web Carla Logan Randy
web WalkRoute flood
web Logan giddyup
web Gavin and Logan
web Carla and I get it ooooonnn
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Posted by LogansMom28w | Comments: (3) | Permalink
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MY BANISTER HAS A SECRET
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May 02, 2007 02:11pm (EST)
I love watching those shows on HGTV where the families discover things in walls, writing behind wallpaper, or century-old treasures in the floor boards. I mean, how cool is it to have something sit untouched, undiscovered for so long? Then a voice from the past speaks directly to you through this long-lost, probably long-forgotten message.
So, I created something for the generations to come to find in my hollow banister in our stairwell. My kids drew pictures and wrote their names and ages. I wrote a letter to a future someone about 2007 and included a love letter to my husband.
And I hope it stays there for a long, long time. Now if it's being discovered it means someone is messing with my house, and since my house is perfect the way it is (  ) and I have no idea why anyone would ever, ever want to change it (  ) I hope I'm long gone! I don't even know if it'll ever find my husband or my children, but I've made a request for the reader to seek them out and deliver the letter to my children or their children. In the year 2107, it's quite likely that even my grandchildren will be old folks. But they will know how much their grandmother, or great-grandmother or great-great grandmother Darcy loved her family.
To Randy - who secretly reads my blogs and pretends not to - thanks for building such a cool house and working so hard to make your family a home worth passing down the generations. I hope you never see the letter, because it means either our décor is out of style (so much for picking something "timeless", eh?) or something has destroyed it. But one day your grandchildren or great-great-great grandchildren will know how much you were loved and that you built this home for them, tile by tile, wood beam by wood beam. You should be very proud of your hard work.
I still don't forgive you for the registration though. So there.
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Posted by LogansMom28w | Comments: (8) | Permalink
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OH, I ALMOST FORGOT...
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Apr 29, 2007 11:48pm (EST)
Don't miss the oogles of pictures in my weekend blog below!
In all my excitement of mushrooms and kite flying I forgot to blog about a couple of things.
Kara reminded me that I forgot to follow up about the Endo appt. I had to cancel it. Iowa was hit with a week of storms, winds, and floods. I don't mind the drive normally, but 5 hours of trying to fight that drive with semi-trucks on I-80 sounded like a nightmare. His doc is booked out until the end of August. So now I'll spend nearly the whole summer wondering. Bummer, huh? Instead we stayed home and watched all our beautiful grass-less soil run off into the pond.  I need to get our silt-fence up before we have no dirt left.
On that note, I have trucks 'n' trucks of dirt being delivered for landscaping hopefully this week. Boy the boys'll love that!
Also, Friday we got to meet with our homeschool supervising teacher. I love those meetings. I really think I *need* those meetings. Not that I learn anything, but my ego loves the stroking. Boy genius is a genius. Doesn't every mom hope to hear that about her kid? He's on track everywhere he needs to be and then some. Hallelujah. It's such a refreshing change from the normal repertoire of trying to guess how far off developmentally your child is from some imaginary curve or knowing that your 4 year old weighs as much as a normal 10-12 month old. "Doing great" is just what my ego needs. 
We spent Friday afternoon at a park where I learned that Aleks is afraid of both heights and swings and Logan rather hang out with mom than go play. Hmmm. Considering I've rented a park shelter for his birthday, I sure hope he decides between now and Sunday that parks are fun. Maybe he'll change his mind if cake and balloons are involved?
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Posted by LogansMom28w | Comments: (11) | Permalink
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SPRING HAS SPRUNG!
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Apr 28, 2007 04:34pm (EST)
I hope those of you who are walking this weekend in Walk Americas across the country have as beautiful weather as we do here in the Midwest. Thank you to all who raised money and walked! Our is next weekend - May 5th - in Des Moines.
So, on to the blog!
One of the things my in-laws do for their grandchildren is buy them a basic life insurance policy. It's just a nice thing to have in our back pockets should the unthinkable happen. We've gotten policies for all the boys. I just find out Logan was denied. *sigh* And it leads me to wonder... how many other things will be harder for him? While life insurance is a nice things to have for a child, it isn't as important as say, when he is a bread winner and has a family to support. What will happen then? Will he be able to do such a thing? Will he ever be denied health insurance for his high-risk category?
He's remarkably healthy now. He takes no medications, he has been off oxygen now for almost 10 months. I find it hard to believe that his life is "uninsurable".
We've appealed and I had an "interview" with the company and now it's on its way to the underwriters. I guess we'll see. It saddens me that the population who probably needs these things the most - both life and medical insurance - are the same populations who get so quickly denied. Ironic, isn't it?
Anyway, it is *beautiful* here in Iowa! After facing a week-long continuous rain cloud, it is sunny and 76! We decided to take advantage of the great weather. Randy took the boys morel hunting. Those of you who have never had morels - you're missing out! Unfortunately, I think because of the rain and floods this week they aren't quite out. Soon though, I bet. They came home empty handed, but had great stories of the wild turkey and deer they encountered while hiking through our forest.
Logan (who isn't quite big enough for morel hunting) and I decided to walk down to a more open, tree-less part of our neighborhood and take a turn at kite flying. Logan has never flown a kite before and the Easter Bunny brought him one in Logan's Easter basket. The wind wasn't constant so we had trouble keeping Mickey aloft. But all in all, we had a great time and Logan can check off yet another "first" on his long list of cool stuff kids should do. Kite flying? Check!
I've got lots of pictures of our Saturday fun.
web mushrooms
web morel hunting
web for you mom
web success!
web up up away
web L grass
web L grass kite
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Posted by LogansMom28w | Comments: (6) | Permalink
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TWICE IN ONE DAY!
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Apr 24, 2007 11:10pm (EST)
I'm not sure I've ever blogged twice in one day. Well, technically it's 1 am here in Iowa. So it's really tomorrow.
Today (uh, yesterday?) was Logan's follow-up eye appointment and since it's nothing but good news it's worthy of a blog-hogging!
His visual acuity improved by a TON! At our last appointment - a month ago - his vision in his weak eye was 20-60 with his glasses on. Without correction, it wasn't even measurable because the eye crosses and he doesn't respond.
So.... today... one short month later...
his acuity improved to 20-30! *wild cheers*
This is fantastic, since the discrepancy between the good eye and the weak eye isn't nearly as dramatic. His good eye is 20-25 with correction (meaning, when he wears his glasses).
His eye still crosses the moment he takes his glasses off, but the amblyopia (lazy eye) seems to have improved a lot with the new script and the (somewhat haphazard) patching.
This means (more cheers, please) he does NOT need bifocals at this time, and she doesn't NOT see surgery in his foreseeable future. WAAAHOOOOOOOOOOO!
I couldn't be happier if the eyes were mine. Furthermore, he has not broken or lost the new glasses (for more than 48 hours) in TWO WHOLE WEEKS. Laugh if you must, but that is a huge improvement.
Today... I feel victorious.
Tomorrow... is endocrinology back in Iowa City. *gulp*
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Posted by LogansMom28w | Comments: (11) | Permalink
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LOOK WHO IS OUT 'N' ABOUT!
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Apr 24, 2007 09:56am (EST)
Not long ago I remember complaining about being stuck at home all the time with a fragile oxygen-dependant boy. Oh, he was worth every week, day, hour and minute we spent at home keeping him safe, he really was. But I was longing for days of errands activities and general busyness.
Well, I really think those days have finally arrived for us. And I couldn't be happier. While some moms might complain about having to run back to the library, grocery story, ATM, store, etc. But not this mom. I love the activity and ability to go where we need to go instead of waiting for Randy to get off work and run errands for us.
Friday we went out to dinner and to a baseball game. We had great seats right behind 3rd base. Our local team happens to be the farm team for the Chicago Cubs, the I-Cubs. Goooo Cubbies! What was most moving was the moment of silence before the game, and instead of wearing their uniform caps, they wore Virginia-Tech caps (which they threw into the crowds after the game). Afterwards we watched fireworks and the boys stayed awake until 10:30 when we reached the car and they all fell asleep on the ride home.
I have also included pics of our now unfrozen pond and of my shaggy dogs' hair cuts. It's tick season out here in the sticks, so they all got buzzed so they can play in the forest. Those of you who were on Share last spring when I found giganto tick on Gavin's head (*gag*) remember my drama with having to be the mom who debugs her boys. Ew. ew. ew. ew. ew. Now their hair is super short.
I have been offline since Saturday - storms knocked out our electricity, satellite and internet. While the former were returned within a few hours, we had no internet on Sunday or Monday. It's good to be back!
web go cubs
web take me out
web spring sprung
web bright outside
web L buzz
web L i'm itchy
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Posted by LogansMom28w | Comments: (12) | Permalink
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HO-HUM. FOOD.
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Apr 16, 2007 02:39pm (EST)
I had to blog just so I could post these pictures. We order Chinese take out quite a bit. It's the one sure-fire thing all three of my boys like - Chinese or Mexican food. There is not one other meal that I make that all 3 will eat. Somewhere along the way I lose at least one of them - even the "easy" meals. Gavin doesn't like pizza or spaghetti sauce. Aleks doesn't like ravioli, all will eat chicken, but none like it prepared the same way. They don't like soup, pot roast, tacos, burritos, steak, potatoes, etc. etc. etc. Cooking for these picky eaters is totally ungratifying. Kind of like doing their laundry, if I'm being honest, or scrubbing their toilets. I do it because it needs to be done. I will not get a "Yummmmm, mom!" or "thanks, mom!".
They don't like most vegetables, anything green or orange, most sauces. Yesterday I made a pot of yummy homemade spaghetti sauce, and 2:3 boys ate their noodles plain. Unbelievable!
Logan, however, is my eater. He is one that I can count on to give a "MMMmmm, mmmmm!" or a "I like this!" along the way. He will shove as much as possible into his mouth as if it might just disappear off his plate. For being a sprite 22 lb, he eats like a horse.
We go back to endocrinology next week. I'm sure it'll be more of " ...that's strange, he isn't growing well despite his excellent caloric intake"... which is the same thing I've heard every other visit. But who knows, maybe this time they'll surprise me. It's a 5 hr round trip drive so I hope I get more than just the usual.
Either way, no one can honestly look at my child who will be 4 in fewer days than I have finger and toes and tell me that it's okay that he weighs 22 lb.
web L mmmm
web L mmm good
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Posted by LogansMom28w | Comments: (13) | Permalink
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