beheaded chicken

Beheaded chicken... is exactly what I have felt like the last 24 hours. Preping for Julians birthday party has turned into such a job! But let me know complain, I am enjoying every second of it, and know seeing his little face light up saying, " ooo toodless" will with out a doubt make it worth every oz of energy and every penny put into making it all happen.

Today as I ran errans to gather last minute items, and tie up loose ends- I have worn a proud motherly smile. It so hard to believe my baby boy will be two years old tomorrow. Where has the time flown off to? I am so blessed to have spend every day of his life at his side, through so much that has come our way with in the last two years. I give so much thanks to my husband for allowing me to be a stay at home mother, and thanking God for giving us such a great lifestyle, that being a stay at home mother is even a option.

I am so proud of Julian. He is such a bright kid and has reached so many milestones earlier than the 'normal', and formed into such a poliet, sweet, little toodler with a amazingly pleasent personality. Julian has overcome his medical issues, and does not let any of the treatments slow him down, or phase him in the smallest ways. He took to the treatment, and change of life with no fuss, and has made this entire process a breeze.
I thank God for giving me Julian, he is a blessing, and such a delight to our life. The love that I feel for him is endless, and overwhelming.

: "Hiii!!! How are you?"
:sings, ' 2 by 2..hooraaah
: row row row ya boat

:e i e i ooooooh

: can point to and say: eyes, nose, ears, hair, teeth, arm, fingers, leg, toes, bellybutton, butt & bird

:counts to 5

: says ABC's (with help)

: Loves to help mommy unload the dishwasher, and water our flowerbed

: we color daddy a picture every day that he is on duty

:still loves barney but also a freak about 'a bugs life' and all the 'toy story' movies

: enjoys playing with trains, and cars

: LOVES when the jets pass over our house, he yells JET!! and points to the sky

:wears a hat 90% of the time.. and almost always has either shoes or socks on his feet.. and 9 out of 10 times it's not his shoes or socks! lol

:finally enjoys to sit still for a bed time story, and loves that daddy and mommy say his prayers with him every night before bed.

:calls all boys & tabatha connor and all girls kenzy

:tries to do everything your daddy does- including open beer bottles with your teeth!!!!

:has used the potty since 15 months- but still struggling to be fully potty trained.

:is NOT a fan of pizza!!but has no issue with eating chicken nuggets every single day!

:thinks that he has "boo boo's" everywheres and insist that he needs a bandaid- and mommy kisses on each " boo boo" (( imagination like no other))

:makes choo choo noises, and car noises when playing with toys

and much much more i am sure, but these are thing things that are sticking out in my mind right now.

We love you Julian Elijah, and we will love you until forever! You are our sunshine, and the best gift ever to be given to us! HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!!!

oh when it rains it pours

So as I mentioned in my last post- Julian is STILL having unexplained diarrhea. And to add to the fun, tonight he started to act a little funny.
He was 'sleepy', or so I thought?! We had an eventful day- woke at 5:45 to bring Josh to work so we would have the car while he is out to sea until Friday.. and really have not stopped since. Julian so quietly walked over to the big comfy chair.. grabbed a blanket.. brought it to the sofa.. picked up his cup on the way.. so gently crawled next to me on a pillow and begun to doze off. after a little while of me watching him, amazed at how calm he was being- but sure it was just due to being OVER tired, I knelt next to him to kiss his forehead, wrap my arms around him to pick him up and carry him up to his bed. To my surprise, Julian was burning up with fever, and snot was pouring out of his nose. Talk about confused.... none of these sick symptoms had been present all day long. I called the doctor after taking his temp and seeing it in the 102's.. to be sure I should pursue with sick day treatment. Julian's doctor assured me that it did sound like a good idea, and questioned me about anything else going on that might be causes his fever and high's. I reminded him of Julian's consistent diarrhea that hasn't gone away, but has come and gone over the past weeks. Julian's doctor wants him to be checked to see if he has celiac disease.
After treating Julian for his fever, i brought him upstairs for bed and was getting ready to go take a bath and head to bed myself, when Josh caught me on Facebook chat. We were chatting when i saw Julian turning over on his bed- back and forth he was rolling- and his little face spotted the camera..and his eyes were as big as silver dollars. I ran upstairs, i could see something was wrong with him. As I approached him in his bed.. he did the whole " look straight through me" thing as he did before when he had a seizure, and i knew what was coming- way more prepared this go around. I checked his blood sugar, to find it was fine, 255. I was so thrown off, because I had no clue how to make this seizure stop, where as before it was due to a low.. so we knew to give sugar. His little arms locked up, and his scream tore through my soul, and the convulsing begun. It was not as long or as sever as it was before, but was equally as scary, if not worse because I was clueless of what to do besides console him, and hold him on his side while waiting for the doctor to call me back for the SECOND time tonight.
Julian's doctor did indeed return my call after I paged him twice( lol). He told me this seizure was not due to his diabetes, but maybe due to his high fever. He told me what to look out for for the next few hours and when I should go ahead and go to the ER and to be sure to follow up with Julian's PCM as soon as possible.

Julian is doing better now, and is just very sleepy and even more worn out from the seizure. He is resting on the sofa and watching nick jr. He still has a fever but it has come down some(not sure of the numbers just yet, i will be checking in 30 minutes) but i can feel that his body temp is cooler.
Please keep my little man in your prayers. Please pray my baby boy does not have celiac disease, and that these seizures will subside as we learn his diabetic needs better and his fever breaks.

never ending worry of a mommy of a diabetic

the changes are never ending, and the stress level seems to always be code orange. Julian's fragile, and unstable little being keeps this mommy on the edge with no breaks. He is still so sensitive to insulin and continues to peak and crash with a blink of a eye.

The soft baby fingers and toes, that were so small, wrinkled, and soft ( man, how many countless times I kissed them endlessly) are now being starting to become hard and calisted. Just in the past week I have had to change the gage on Julian's finger pricker to level 2 and sometimes 3, because how tough his skin is becoming due to scar tissue. Such a small this has saddened my mommy heart, and really makes checking glucose harder. How difficult to inflict pain(small amount but none the less pain) and draw blood from my just shy 2 year old from his fingers and toes- knowing someday he could, and quite possibly will lose sensations because the protocol to his disease. I many times wonder, will he need sensation to his fingers as a teen? Maybe to play a musical instrument of his choice? Or maybe as a adult, for his choice of career?

Julian has been on what we call " sick day treatment" due to unexplained diarrhea( i think maybe 2 year molars). It has been hanging around for about two weeks and is causing Julian to have sporadic highs and lows. Last night Julian went to be with blood glucose of 138(perfect) and woke up 2 hours later screaming with a blood sugar of 26. So very scary to see your child in such a confused, disoriented, sick state.

Recognizing your life is in motion and always changing is one thing- but adjusting to it is another. I many time wonder as I am doing day to day things.. how many parents and people out there take their lifestyle for granted? I know I sure did, prior to June 5th of this year!! As I am tyring to plan Julian's 2nd birthday party- I find myself debating and weighting food choices by the carb intake per serving. I do not want my child to have to be told " no, u cant have that" at his own birthday celebration because of the carbs he would consume. So instead of potato chips- we will have cheese, and rather than sucking on lollipops- we will have pickles. Of course we will also have treats just as other birthday parties would, but I would like to cut corners to make life easier and less painful for him if I can help it.
Do you know how many carbs per serving are in your child's birthday cake? Probably not. I wish it was easier to inform and educate people on the reality of this life style.. but the ugly truth is- PEOPLE don't care until it personally effects them. But that's just it- you never know when or who will be diagnosed next.
Just this week Josh and I brought Julian to a play place at the mall of MacArthur. As I checked Julian's blood sugar before setting him free to play. A lady sitting to my right, politely said, " I don't mean to pry ma'am, but are you checking his blood sugar" i told her yes, and explained that he is a type 1 diabetic. She was shocked and was full of questions. She went on to tell me that the day care her son is attending keeps telling her, he is having frequent thirst and urination. She pointed out who her child was, and I got chills up and down my spine. The look in and around her sons eyes, was deja vu. It was bone chilling, but i calmly began to explain to her about diabetes, and showed her how it is managed ( just so she had heads up if her son were to be diagnosed. that way she would have some knowledge) I advised her to bring him to a doctor just to be on the safe said- but in my heart i was terrified for her, but didn't let her know that. She proceeded to tell me that her husband is a type 1 diabetic, and that pretty much put the icing on the cake for me, I am almost certain that this little 4 year old did/does indeed have diabetes as well.

Life is short and very unpredictable.. I challenge you to learn something new about a disorder or diease this week, that you do not know much about! :)

let the rain fall- and the wind blow...

Hurricane Earl started to show his ugly face, and stir up the weather here in Virginia Beach.... which trapped Julian and Myself indoors at home while daddy had duty at work. Josh has been having to stay overnight on the ship since he has returned to work. We color daddy a picture for Daddy on the days he has to stay on board... so today was no different.

After coloring daddy a picture, I noticed my creative bone was actually hanging around and thought I should prolly utilize it. I got about 10 pages of Julian's scrapbook completed along with party decorations.

the rain came- down...down... down

After two days of being indoors- we finally were freeee....

below-- Julian broke a piece of bark off the tree and was walking on it like a cell phone. hahaha

^^ this is where the ball belongs- he makes sure to put it there before we returned inside.

Love his facial expressions in these...

my flowers were so happy after the rain! even a butterfly came visit.. :)

haha, Josh raked some leaves that blew among the yard from the wind- lol i couldnt help but laugh when Julian thought daddy did it just for him to run through and jump in!! hehe,Boys Will be Boyyss!

enjoy!! xoxo

mickey madness...

oohhh toooddllessss is all I hear nowa days. I been working on Julian's party decorations and invitations and every time Julian sees anything shaped like Mickey's head he starts...

"oohhh tooodlesss" (repeat 100 times..lol)

I have created Julians invitation's, with a scrapbook design (pictures are coming as soon as everyone recieves theirs) and I am including some pictures of our big 2 year old with the invitation.

here are some of the pictures I was able to get...

Julian is such a camera hog- he loves it when i pull out my camera..and he just cheeses it up! he poses his little body all on his own..its adorable! :)

Overall, everything for the party is nearly done- and this Mommy is MICKEY'd outtt! I could do without seeing Mickey or hearing "oh toodles" for a good five years! haha

and as most of you already know-- my wonderful husband has got me a new wedding set..

i LOVE itt!

enjoy..

xoxo