World Hemophlia Day/ What Is Normal?

What is Normal?
I ask this because there are many times in a mom's life when you wonder if your kid is normal. They do things or don't do things and you quiz other moms and pediatricians to find out "Is this normal?" William is our second son and he has Hemophilia. This is a severe bleeding disorder that doesn't allow the blood to clot. Our first son Jack, is unaffected but also quite unique. Let's start with that one. When the time came for him to go head down in the womb, I felt him do a complete sommersault. While pregnant I always said that if he is as active out of the womb as in I was going to be in trouble! I am. He did everything ahead of schedule. I never worried if he was "normal" or on track in his development. In fact I couldn't keep up with reading those "baby's first year" books because he'd already done it by the time the month came around. He crawled and pulled to standing at 6 months and walked at 9. He talked at 12 months and was negotiating at 1820months. I always thought he was different than the other babies his age but never wondered if he was "abnormal." I was just trying to keep up! His personality matches his development. He is now 3. He never had stranger anxiety and is prett y much an ambassador for Friendly. He talks to anyone who will listen and will question, argue, or negotiate any chance he gets. People who meet Jack rarely forget him. You can't help liking him. (Unless your his mom and are tired.) He is challenging, spirited, precocious, and "active-alert." You get the picture. When I was pregnant with our second baby (cause we weren't busy enough with the first!) we really, in all honesty, wanted a girl but not for the usual reasons. Jack is such a big personality we thought being his little brother was just going to suck! Who could keep up with him? Always being "Jack's little brother." And we couldn't imagine having another one like him! So when the doctor told us it's another boy we were a little worried. Well, who knew we'd have two boys unique and normal in their own ways. It will be 1 year in May when we found out our little one, Will, (who was 5 months old at the time) had severe Hemophilia A, factor viii deficient. This means his blood can't clot. We found out when we discovered an abnormally large bruise on his chest. Blood tests and an overnight at Childrens hospita l confirmed it. It also means he looks like an abuse victim lots of time because, as we tell our 3 year old, "Will has hemophilia and bruises easily." Everyday toddler wear and tear leaves him with purple, bumpy legs. Will is now 15 months old and is cute as a button. His little personality is sweet, silly, and snuggly. He's very curious and ALL bo y. He loves to climb, explore, throw balls, run. You name it, he'll do it! So what is normal? In our house, normal means having an overactive, always thinking, non stop talking preschooler and a physical, athletic, risk taking hemophiliac in the house. Normal is what we make it. With Jack, normal means explaining why it's not okay to unscrew the hinges on the bedroom door. With Will normal is heading to childrens hospital to be infused with factor after getting a head bonk. This might not be normal for other families but it's just a usual everday at our house!
by Heidi whose mantra is: You will not be given more than you can handle!

The Garden

Over teh last couple of weeks The Capt and I have decided on and planned out a raised vegetable garden. He picked out the seeds: Lettuce, carrots, peas and catus. (this is known to everyone else as cucumber.) He calls it this because the picture on the seed packet is an illustration of cucumbers and not an actual picture. So to him it's a cactus because it's green, "prickly" and has little yellow flowers on it. If you tell him otherwise he will argue with him. So I just humor the child. We then took the gang to Home Depot and bought wood and garden soil. We now have a 4x4 rasied garden. 2 weeks ago we were able to plant the seeds. We also picked out marigolds to help keep pests away. In 2 other containers we planted tomato plants and chives. A few days ago we were finally able to see some little sprouts popping out of the dirt! Today I showed the Capt. how the tomato flowers are going to turn into tomatoes and that we can cut the chives with scissors and eat them. He really liked this and plucked several chives to nibble on. Tonight I made myself a big salad. The Capt wanted one too. I told him he could go out and cut some chives for it. Who knew this would be so exciting. My crazy little vegatrian sat and ate a SALAD with carrots and chives and dressing on it! Oh, and croutons of course. He also eats the whites of hard boiled eggs "but not the yolks because that's where the baby chicks hatch from." I pretty much left that one alone.