January 22, 2007

I’ve made two New Year’s Resolutions this year. 

Number one – I am going to call my friends and family on the phone more often.  I’m not sure when I slipped into my phone-funk, but for a while now I’ve been absolutely horrible about picking up the phone to chat or return calls.  I’m going to get better.

Number two – I’m going to write a book.  There… I said it.  I have almost zero ideas on how to start this massive undertaking and I’m quite frankly scared out of my wits to try.  But, I’ve had many people encouraging me in this direction over the past five years or so.  I think the people most anxious for me to do this are my mom and Drew’s dad.  Nine out of ten times that I talk to either of them, they tell me about someone else who thinks I should write a book.  Now, I am aware that it’s a distinct possibility that it’s the same five people who perhaps work with my mom or go to church with my father-in-law who are asking them to relay these messages to me.  In that case, maybe my book-to-be will sell five copies!  The hard part of the plan will be carving out time by myself to actually put it together.  And beyond that… well, I have no idea what to do with it.  So, there are some strikes against me for sure.  I’m just praying that it’s not a huge failure.

Canon and Creed are doing really well these days.  They are constantly on the go, which is mostly a good thing… except for the fact that it seems like we’ve been snowed in (or frozen in) a lot this winter.  They absolutely received too many Christmas presents, but at least they have had plenty of options for inside play time.  One of the favorites has been a huge Thomas the Tank Engine train set from Jordan’s family.  The gift was completely unexpected and we were all overwhelmed.  Canon and Creed love it and they have had friends over that are equally entranced by it.  We are so thankful.

Another favorite gift was from Drew to the boys this year.  Drew bought them a bounce house on sale at Walmart back in July.  He’s been chomping at the bit ever since then to blow it up in the living room and surprise the boys with it.  So, when we made it back home on New Year’s Eve from our out-of-town holiday celebrations, I was not at all surprised when Drew started talking about clearing the furniture out of the living room to prepare for the grand unveiling.  On the morning of New Year’s Day, Canon and Creed walked down the hall to a little boy’s dream come true!

Creed is now answering questions with a very energetic “Tay!” which means ‘okay’.  He says “hold you” and “love you” (it sounds like “Ha-hoo”) and knows countless one-word labels for things.  From the moment I pick him up out of bed in the morning, he narrates our walk to the kitchen for a cup of milk.  “Mommy!  Bed!  Blanket!  Horsey!  Window!  Snow!  Drink!  Milk!”  The cutest thing he does right now is look for Canon.  He lifts both hands up in I-don’t-know fashion and says “Canon?”  Then he’ll walk around saying “Canon!  Where are you?!”  We’ve been very impressed lately that Creed has been trying to say the prayer before we eat.  Creed is the one who will remind us on the nights when we get in a hurry or we all start eating at different times.  He’ll reach his hand out and persistently call out “prayer, prayer, prayer.”  All by himself, he’ll say “Dear God… Mommy… Daddy… Amen.”

Canon’s prayers have now begun to deviate from the same old things we always pray for.  The other night he thanked God for his new tiger towel and puppy dog towel.  Recently at the dinner table, he had Drew and me biting our lips with this sweet addition: “Thank you for shapes… like the triangle.”  He has also taken it upon himself to be Creed’s translator.  When Canon decides that it is his turn to ride the firetruck down the hallway, things can get ugly pretty fast.  The commotion becomes unmistakable and Canon will yell out, “Mommy!  Creed wants to get off the firetruck right now!”  I recently overheard him calmly ask his brother, “Creed, do you know what’s going to happen?  I’m going to give you a spanking.”  And, yes, I did intervene before he could make good on his promise.  Despite his Alpha Dog tendencies toward Creed, he really is very sweet to all of us.  When Creed falls and starts to cry, Canon is one of the first responders, kneeling down with his comforting assurances, “Oh!  Poor baby Creed!  You hit your head?  It’s okay.”  He’ll hover over me while I comfort Creed asking, “Mommy, what happened to Creed?”  He really wins us over when, after a separation of anywhere from an hour to a day of work, he runs over to us open-armed hollering, “Daddy!  I’m so happy to see you!”

Canon’s been going to physical and occupational therapy every Monday and Tuesday now for a few months.  He seems to really enjoy it and I have been impressed with the therapists that work with him.  The Glycogen Storage Disease delayed the development of his muscles, generally.  Then, add to that, the effect of a distended abdomen on learning how to walk.  The outcome of those two things is a rather unsteady gait and skeletal-driven, marionette-like movements.  One of his physical therapists, Ryan, compared his posture to a pregnant woman compensating for her large belly.  Having personally experienced that state, I agreed immediately.  The part that doesn’t make sense is that he didn’t learn to walk until after he had the new liver and his tummy was no longer so cumbersome.  I guess the effects of a year and half of discomfort were just too hard to overcome immediately.  His occupational therapist, Jennifer, thinks that a lot of his upper-body weakness is due to the fact that he spent so little time on his tummy as a baby.  He absolutely hated it, for good reason.  Anyway, to build up his shoulder strength, she tries to get him to tolerate working on his tummy – doing puzzles and such – and even getting him to crawl around to build his shoulder and abdominal strength.  We have a big yoga ball at our house, at his therapists’ suggestion, which we’re also using for abdominal strengthening.

That’s the latest on us, pretty much.  If anyone out there has any advice or resources on the book-writing front, I would be very grateful.

God bless you!

P.S.  Our little oak tree in the front yard?  Stronger than ever!