Growing Pains

Well, I guess the inevitable is upon us. By that, I mean Puberty. AGHHHHHHHHHH!!! My oldest son is 11, he'll be 12 in a couple months. It seems impossible that he's going to be 12! I know you moms know what I'm talking about, he's supposed to be my little baby still.

Earlier this month, their school had their 6th grade sex ed program for the students & I was fine with that because they push abstinence. One thing that was a little strange to me was they had the boys & girls in the same class. I always remember being separated into groups. Anyway, at the end of the week long class, my husband sat down with him & had "The Talk". My insides were just in knots over the whole thing. I guarantee you that I had a harder time with it than either of them did. But, it is for sure something that he needs to know about & be educated about the right way, instead of learning things from other kids in school.

So, that was done & I settled down, but a couple days later he was complaining about his right heel hurting. I had just bought him a new pair of shoes & figured he just needed to break them in & get used to them, but it didn't go away & just continued to get worse. To the point that he was walking on the ball of his foot to avoid putting pressure on his heel. Well, yesterday I took him to the doctor & he said that my son has Sever's disease. Which is not really a disease at all, it is pain in the heel caused by the bone growing faster than the muscles & tendons in the foot. He said that it's pretty common in boys from 10-13. The words that hit me like a lightning bolt though was "When Puberty Begins..." Oh no, it's beginning??? Yep. So he went on to tell me to give him Advil & get him some good supportive shoes with heel inserts for added padding. That eventually, his bones & muscles would catch up to each other on their own with time.

Is it just me, do moms usually freak out when this starts? He is my first born, maybe it will be easier the next time, I don't know. I am new to all of this. Prayer will help I know, and with time maybe I'll get better.

My Thomas

My youngest son is Thomas, we call him Tommy. He is 9 & in the 4th grade. When Tommy was born, he had some breathing issues & had to be in the hospital for 3 extra days under an oxygen hood and hooked up to all kinds of tubes and med’s until he was healthy enough to come home. He was born just about 2 ½ weeks early & weighed in at 6 pounds 11 ounces. He seemed so teeny tiny to me, I guess because Josh was quite a bit bigger.

All was going well until he was nearly 5 months old & started having breathing problems again along with a nasty cough. The doctors told me that he had RSV & admitted him to the hospital right away. (RSV is kind of like pneumonia) We were in the hospital for 7 days that first time. One thing that scared me was that the chances of a child having asthma go way up if they have had RSV. Well, he was eventually diagnosed with asthma a couple of months after that & a few more trips to the hospital. He spent a lot of time that first year in doctor’s offices & the hospital. Right before his first birthday my mom brought him one of those little push behind walkers & he learned to walk in the hallways of the hospital. It was a proud moment for sure & even the nurses were watching!

He still has a lot of trouble with the asthma; he has not been out for Halloween for the last 3 years because he’s been sick. We really are keeping our fingers crossed this year that he’ll be able to go & have some fun. He wants to be a Jedi.

I do have to say though, when he turned 6, his doctors figured he was old enough to start taking a med called Advair (the purple disc puffer) and it changed our lives. We could tell an improvement right away & since he’s started on that, it has limited our trips to the ER to once or twice a year instead of once every month or two. Praise God! (Pajama party day at school)

But Tommy doesn’t let too much slow him down. He LOVES being outside. He would rather be out playing or riding his bike or “hunting” (he’s constantly pretending to be on the hunt for a big deer) than watching a TV show or playing a game any day. He likes to do whatever dad is doing too! His dad hunts, a LOT, so that is why he loves it so much. When career day is going on at their school, he gets up in the morning & puts on his hunting clothes & puts his little plastic bow on his shoulder & proudly tells everyone that he’s going to be a hunter when he grows up and he’s going to have a farm with horses! I just wish my husband could make money from hunting! We’d have it made!!

Well, that is a little about my kiddos! I love you boys!!!!

A bit about our family

I have decided to make this more of a mom blog too. Sorry, not screamin' deals in this post. I guess the best way to start that is to write a little about the 2 wonderful boys I am a mom to! I’ll write about Josh today.

My first born is Josh, he is 11 & in the 6th grade. Josh was born at a whopping 8 pounds 12 ounces & 21 inches long. He has always been off the height & weight charts for his age. Always. Josh has always been very healthy & excelled in school. He is a hoot too, he is always cracking me up. His passion is football. Not just this time of year either, every day all year long! Sometimes I get frustrated with him because he will ask me some random question about some player from some team that I have no clue about. My answers are always the same, I don’t know honey, sorry. But that doesn’t stop him=) His dream is to go to college at Texas A&M & play for them. His “side” of the room is a maroon & white sprinkles shrine for A&M. He plays football now for a pee-wee league. These kids are not very peewee though. But they can’t play for school until the 7th grade so this gives them a good start.

I was telling you that he is a hoot, he has a very outgoing personality. I am not sure where that came from because I am SHY times 10! I am very glad that he is though. He loves being in the spotlight & making people laugh. He was at a Cub Scout campout one night a couple years ago & they had a gentleman come to sing a folk song & play his banjo. The older scouts had a skit they were supposed to do while he was playing his song, but Josh had other plans. He stood up where he was in the audience & started dancing, not tapping his toe & swaying a little kind of dancing, I’m talking a full on Hoe-down in the row we were sitting in. Within a seconds, he had the crowds attention & less than a minute later, they urged him down to the stage! So, there he was dancing circles around the man singing & the older scouts skit came to a halt & they all just stood & watched. He really stole the show! The next day some of the leaders went around asking some of the kids what their favorite part of the weekend camp was & several of them said “When Josh jumped on stage.” Like I said, I really really don’t know where he gets this, I would have NEVER EVER EVER done this as a kid, teenager or adult! But I am so happy that he is comfortable enough to be able to be so outgoing. I’d give anything to have even a little bit of that!

(Josh is the one on the left, this was their talent show at the end of last school year)

So, now that he is in middle school, he was able to choose his first elective & he chose Theater Arts. Uh-Oh, now he is going to have permission to be on stage! Should be interesting.

I really am wanting to get one of those little flip cameras that are out now so I can make some videos of the kids.
(middle, on stage AGAIN! this time with the High school boys hip hop act)