Favorites

Jeremy Update:

Last night and again this morning Jeremy laughed when dad told a joke. They haven't attached a voice box to his trach tube yet but my mom described it as him hunching his shoulders, bouncing, and smiling with his mouth open. We will have to give him a hard time later that deep down he really does think dad is funny! During his OT he practiced the skills he worked on yesterday and added in brushing his teeth. The OT asked him to throw a ball to dad and he did. At one point he gave a nurse the thumbs up and he continuously gave Thomas high fives. He is much more active and is able to move around a lot more. That includes slapping around and he's come in contact with us a few times. The policy at the hospital was that they keep a neck brace on trauma patients until they are able to verbally say their neck doesn't hurt. Jeremy's X-rays showed no damage to his neck but they left it on so he had been wearing it for 4 weeks. The staff here did an X-ray and went ahead and removed it. They plan to put a smaller tube through his trach so they are able to place a voice box which will allow him to speak. I'm excited to see if he's able to talk and have a feeling he will be able to from what we've seen as far as mouthing words and laughing. He seems to be nearing level 4 of recovery which is agitated and confused and can lead to aggression. I know emotionally it will be a difficult stage for us, but I'm excited to see him continue to move forward! Now on to a random post I wrote a while back and discovered when I was seeing if I had anything to post today...

One of the moms in my mom's group wrote a Facebook post about how all moms have a favorite child. While I appreciated reading her point of view and reasoning, I can't begin to fathom having a consistently favorite child. When I was younger my mom told me as a parent it's not possible to have a favorite child. She said there are days when one child is your favorite in that day because what they've done or how you are interacting. That seems natural to me. You'll have your moments where one child is driving you bonkers and then the next day it's the other child. Or you luck out and they are both angels at the same time! I have experienced that with Carter and Elise for sure. There are days where Carter is pushing every button I have, whining, and being defiant. On those days looking at Elise's face and being greeted with her two-toothed grin keeps me sane and helps me regain my patience with Carter Typhoon (Ty's nickname from his grandma as a kid was Typhoon and it definitely fits Carter as well). Then there are nights where Elise is being a pickle going down for bed and knowing I get to go out and snuggle Carter while reading night time stories keeps me from getting too frustrated. To me that's the beauty of having more than one child. You aren't so focused on the misbehaviors or difficulties of one child because you have the other(s) there to brighten your day. There's a balance with more than one. One can bring you smiles while the other is making you want to pull your hair out or at the very least shut yourself in the bathroom. For me it shifts throughout the day as well. One day Carter was a real toot all day long and I had just about had it with him. Then we went for a run and Elise started crying right after we turned around to go back to the car so our only option was to continue on. Sweet Carter started singing to her to get her to stop crying. It was heart warming. He went from frustrating to favorite in just a moment. What are your thoughts, is it possible to have a favorite child?

I mean, how could you possibly choose between these two cuties!?!