Just proud of my children

I don't mean to turn this blog into a sounding board to brag about my children, but well, I'm going to. Knowing that they will read this, I just wanted to express how impressed I am by them and how proud I am of them.

Recently C. has been undergoing some things that are downright unpleasant (I have his permission to write about these things here). I think since birth he has had challenges with his digestive system which has led him to have stomach pains from time to time and other various bowel issues. About a year ago we took him to the doctor. An X-ray showed that he was throughly blocked up, and would need some pretty serious and long term cleaning out. For the last year we've been giving him the generic equivalent of Miralax once a day. We recently took him in again and found that we've really made no progress. So the doctor recommended a little more drastic measures. This time we were to give him 6 oz of mineral oil a day (in one sitting!) and an enema once a day for three days. If this doesn't work, then we may be taking him in for an extended hospital stay to have them clean him out, so we are hoping this works.

Anyway, have you ever actually tried to drink mineral oil? I don't mean take a teaspoon of it, we are talking 6 oz here - 3/4 of a cup. Our kids rarely drink that much water in one sitting. Well, it was not very fun to say the least. C. tried to just drink it, then we tried to mix it with Sprite (which doesn't work very well since water and oil don't really mix). He really tried to be brave but it was just too weird to try to drink - I tried it and although it is tasteless, every impulse in your body is telling you that something of that consistently and texture should not be swallowed. I had a hard time swallowing the one little sip I took. Finally I suggested he try to drink it through a straw and for some reason that seemed to work for him. Within minutes he had the whole thing down. I was very proud of him.

Later that evening it was time for the enema. Naturally he wasn't too thrilled with the idea, but he took a few breaths, got himself ready, and then just said, "OK, I am ready." He didn't want to do it, but he knew that it was something he had to do. That's a hard concept for a child to grasp - it's hard for adults - to force yourself to do something you just don't want to do, but know it is right and that you have to do it. It hurt, it was uncomfortable, and probably somewhat embarrassing for him, even with just mom and I there. It did was it was supposed to do, and later that evening he felt much better and seemed to be genuinely happy - partly because it was over, partly because he knew he had been brave and that his parents were very proud of him, and partly (probably a lot) because of mom's excellent motivational skills, which included taking him to Blockbuster to rent a game and getting to stay up late and play it. Honestly, I've rarely seen C. that happy. Although it's a lot of detail I wouldn't normally write about in a public setting like this, C. actually suggested it, and so I'm honoring that wish, and letting him know how absolutely proud of him I am.

But of course I have to take this occasion to let all of my children know how proud I am them. Last night's Family Home Evening was about courage - E. wanted to tell the story of when Nephi broke his bow. I used the occasion to tell a story about each of our children, and an example of when they showed courage. These are just one example for each child - there are many.

E. has been learning to do a back handspring. If she could learn it then she could do it in dance performances. At some point when you are learning to do something like that, you know you are not going to have a spotter there, and crossing that point from spotter to no spotter is a difficult and scary thing to do, even for people as naturally gifted as E. is. As the dance performances grew closer, the desire and pressure increased (although we reassured her it was totally OK to not do it, since most of the girls on the dance team wouldn't be). But she really wanted to do it, and so she did what she had to do. She practiced again and again, gradually decreasing her dependence on her spotter until she crossed that point of jumping backwards, with faith only in her own ability to catch herself with her hands and flip over. Last week she performed it in a dance competition and danced marvelously. Of course we are immensely proud of her - not just because she is a beautiful and talented dancer but because she did something on her own that took a lot of practice and was hard to do.

We recently discovered that A. needed to have his tongue clipped. The doctor told us that most kids his age will need to be put under for that - getting the shot under the tongue to numb it and the actual clipping are generally too much for kids to handle. When mom asked A. if he wanted to do it right there or go to the hospital where they put you to sleep, he volunteered to do it right then and there. Mom flinched more than he did when they gave him the shot. He didn't so much as wince. He never cried, just did what he had to do - not to menton the amount of money that saved us (doctor visit copay, which we already paid vs. coinsurance percentage).

Even little J showed bravery (he surprised us, actually) when he had to have his tonsils and adenoids removed. There came a point when we had to hand him off to the doctors and they took him back to surgery all by himself. He is very attached to mom, and we weren't sure how he would handle this. He was very brave and allowed the doctors to take him and was very brave during his recovery as well.

I am very proud of all my children - the amazing talents they have, the good choices they make, and their determination to do what is right.