and now here is your moment of Dan

Oh to be as flexible as our young Tae Kwon Daniel! Even his master teacher is impressed with how he can just fold himself completely flat to the ground as if he is hinged in some way. One of the hazards of prematurity finally pays off.

almost wordless Wednesday: healing comfort

I’m sick again. I will spare you my massive, amazing bed-head and bright, red nose. But I will share with you Daniel’s Curious George that he insisted I cuddle with while I lay on the couch sick and miserable.  It helps. It helps a lot.

Speaking of help, Anissa Mayhew, blogger extraordinaire, mother of three and first runner-up of Bewbfest ‘09, suffered a massive stroke yesterday and is currently in an ICU in critical condition. If I could, I would send her Curious George. I can’t because George would miss Daniel so. But I and everyone else can still pray and help.

fight for preemies

Daniel Quinn- age 7 born at 24 weeks gestation weighing 1lb 60z

We need to fight ― because babies shouldn’t have to.

November 17 is dedicated to raising awareness of the crisis of premature birth. The March of Dimes invites bloggers like you to get involved.

• Learn about premature birth at marchofdimes.com/fightforpreemies
• Put a badge on your blog during November, Prematurity Awareness Month®
• On November 17, blog for a baby you love and to help others

Tae Kwon Daniel

When you are seven and the size of your average 4-5 year old it can be a challenge. When you still struggle with some of the physical after affects of spending the first 132 days of your life in the hospital while you finished doing the work of four months of growing and developing that should have been completed inside the womb it can be a challenge. We all know that Daniel is challenged. But we all know that Daniel faces and works at each of the challenges that comes his way not unlike the Little Engine That Could.

Daniel is at an age where he loves being active. He loves to run and jump and play with his buddies on the playground at school or with his best friend across the street. Still he has his frustrations and his barriers. He wants to play organized sports but his physical challenges are augmented with some mental as well. Although we have yet to have a definitive diagnosis of ADHD along with his global delays, it is more than clear to us that Daniel has marked attention issues. No, he is not the bouncing off the walls type of ADHD kid but he is very easily distracted and often can’t refocus even when we attempt to redirect his focus. Most of his care and education team have suggested martial arts  as a great organized sport for him as it seems to help many kids  with attention deficit issues. Taking that into consideration, we decided the time was right to explore martial arts for our little man and see if this is the right fit for him.

Today he earned his white belt. I think that it quite possibly might be the right fit for him. He may be small but he still remains oh so mighty.

best in November

Overheard under the Big Top early this morning…

“Mom, what’s for dinner tonight?”

“Blueberry pancakes.”

“Oh great! I love pancakes for dinner, especially in November.”

What? You didn’t know that blueberry pancakes are best served for dinner in November? Well, now you do.

chocolate chip cookie crumbs

Keeping Daniel’s face clean remains a hopeless endeavor. I can’t imagine there ever will come a day when his face will be clean. But I do have to admit that nobody in this circus wears chocolate chip cookie crumbs as well as he does.

For Daniel’s fans, you’re welcome!

HIS choice for Halloween

It would seem that Daniel is not so much my Little Man anymore as this year he made it very clear that he wanted to choose his costume for Halloween. Fair enough I thought and I took him to the “Halloween Store” a couple of weeks ago to make his selection. While he walked through the store occasionaly marveling over the awesome and gruesome decorations and carefully considered his costume options, mom couldn’t help but recall the past few years of Halloween celebrations for Daniel and how much he has grown and changed.

There was that first Halloween where I really felt comfortable with taking him out trick or treating and how it just was not meant to be.

And then that year even Johnny Depp just couldn’t measure up to his awesomeness.

And last year, as a young, dimpled, Anakin Skywalker, he clearly defined what Trick or Treating was. ..oh, and yes, he did get lots and lots of candy!

But this year it is clear that my Anakin has grown up…

Because I would LOVE to win a Flip (please pick me!) go check out SITScation sitsta and fellow mom of five and circus, Angie over at her Wordful Wednesday edition of the Seven Clown Circus. And to answer Angie’s question:

Why do you want a Flip?

Why? Oh my goodness! Angie! Like you I have five kids and I have a grand-girl. All of them are doing such funny, amazing things that I just HAVE to be capturing with a Flip. It would be sooo much easier than begging hubs to borrow his camera with the video and then cussing over frustration as I try to upload and edit my efforts. I know that Bill is over it. Waaaay over it.Also Jen Hinton totally inspired me at SITScation to give this vlogging thing a try. I NEED the Flip! That’s why!

keep our secret

Okay, no one, and I do mean NO ONE tell Daniel that his niece is wearing his hat and getting her girl germs all over it. Perhaps he shouldn’t have just left it lying around the Big Top for her to find it. But then again, Hazel’s G’ma should have put it up and away from Hazel’s reach. Let’s just keep this a secret, mmm-kay?

perception

Daniel age 9 weeks/31 weeks adjusted age

“When I was born I was teeny-tiny, tiny. I was REALLY tiny. Even tinier than Baby Hazel was. I lived in the hospital. My mom says that even though I was soo very tiny, I was the strongest baby ever. And now I am not tiny at all. I am big!”

I am quite impressed with Daniel’s perception of his beginnings. As he recalls and shares with others his perception of the beginning of his life it is easy to see how impressed he is with it. Although I do believe that sick, premature infants do have memory of the NICU experience on a subconscious and primitive level, I doubt he can recall how tiny yet how strong he was 7½ years ago. But it is clear that he is beginning to understand how scary and amazing it all was.

And again I find myself in awe over just how amazing this child of mine is.

his selection

I love to read. Always have, always will.

Over the years with each of my children I have read to them since they were tiny babies in my arms. Some would scoff at doing such a thing. I mean, how much really does a 2 month old understand “I love You Forever” some might question? Regardless I still would read to my babies all the time and as they grew 4 of them grew to love books so much that I would catch them reading in their beds in the wee small hours on a school night. While I wanted them to have a good night’s sleep part of me understood their need. I was and am the same way. It made me all warm and happy inside knowing that my girls loved books and loved to read as much as me.

But Daniel, well Daniel is different. As an infant he was my captive audience curled in my arms while I read to him. As he grew, I am not ashamed to admit that sometimes I took advantage of his being tethered to his kangaroo pump and tube feedings to read to him. But then as a mobile, active preschooler he seemed to want nothing to do with books or mommy reading him a story. If the story wasn’t a part of computer animated graphics, he wanted nothing to do with it. As he started school he struggled. Reading high frequecy word lists, easy readers sent home in his weekly homework packets and the massive library of family favorites here under the Big Top just did not appeal to him and it showed as we pressed on in spite of the protests, tears and frustrations. It was a small victory last year when his education team saw what we saw and agreed repeating the first grade was in his best interest. His successes so far into this new school year prove to us all, especially to Daniel, that this was the right thing to do.

Still the reading has been challenging. Good intentions to read more during the summer fell by the wayside. But then again, few selections in the family library appealed to him. He would sit with me every night to do the required reading time but he still struggled recognizing and recalling the expected high frequency words. He has been trying but it has remained a struggle. And then one day while roaming through the book section at Target a light bulb went on in  my head.  Sponge Bob Square Pants easy readers….Scooby Doo…Star Wars…and more. No, they are not classic, award-winning children’s literature treasured by generations but…Daniel LOVES them. He wants to read them with me over and over and over again AND he is recognizing and reading out loud parts of the books we read together. The cherry on top is HE is reminded me that we need to read tonight.

It is a simple enough solution which is why it probably took me so freaking long to realize it. The family library is growing and my boy is falling in freakin’ love with books! Life is good!