I just wanna grow up. Don’t rush it young lad.
Today we had the orientation at school for Tyler and Alex at school. It does look like they have a couple of teachers that will be a good mix for them. Unfortunately the youngest child, who is only three, is wondering when he gets to start school as well.
The youthful anticipation of a child brings and the lack of understanding that they display is what reminds me of how precious this time in their life really is and it was in ours. Sometime I look for ways to to recapture those moments in whatever way I possibly can through them.
Today I found myself helping the boys create some mischief in the grocery store and mom was not very pleased at first. We started a game of placing things in the buggy that we wanted that were not necessarily items that were on the shopping list. If you are a parent your kids have done this to you, if not you are wound way to tight. I just joined the party!!
We were able to get to the checkout line with some goodies us guys can really appreciate. As I sit here eating this bowl of ice cream with chocolate syrup, sprinkles, whip cream and cherries on top it makes me remember why we don’t need to rush growing up and sometimes need to take the opportunity to try to recapture that age of innocence even if it is through our little ones.
Things that Mean a lot to Me
I use squidoo for many different things. Mostly though it is a search engine monster when marketing goods or services I usually save content that has no marketing appeal to my personal blog here. Hoever I could not resist to try squidoo out for talking about Raising a Child With a Cleft Lip and it was met with overwhelming acceptance by that community and was given the honor of “Lens of the Day”.
Letting expecting parents know that having a child with a cleft lip or palate is no different than raising other children is very important to me. I just hope that it gets some of the search engine dominance it deserves for the terms I geared the page to to help other parents.
So if you want to know more about raising a child with a cleft lip or cleft palate please visit my first ever Lens of the Day.
“How Big a Boy Are Ya?”
My son Alexander is a big boy no doubt, but I never had put things into perspective until his recent class picture. He is without a doubt the biggest kid in his class.
If you cant figure out which one he is go see an optometrist…
So Much Going On - Ready for a break…
I need a vacation. No work just mindless activities with no schedule. My daily regimen is taking a toll. I have so much going on with work, kids and my online business it is starting to wear me down some. I don’t think I have a type A personality but one is starting to creep in to the point of being cynical at times.
The bad thing about having so many different things going on it makes it hard to do one thing exceptionally well. I put being a father to my children first in my daily priorities, but other task are interfering with this largest priority in my life. It is not a bad thing that I am busting my ass to make things better for them in the future, but at what expense?
I will wake up one morning and realize that the kids have a life of their own that does not include me in their daily plans. I am already experiencing that to some extent with my oldest children. Benjamin and Rebecca are now young adults and living their life on their terms, which I expected they would, while the younger three are still very reliant on me for everything and because of this reliance I am forced to be away from them during the best times of the day with them.
I have planned a vacation with the whole gang after the youngest ones are out of school for the summer. Nothing really extravagant but it will be 5 days with with the whole gang having no schedule and no place to be at a certain time. Hopefully we can enjoy some uninterrupted family time with the whole gang present.
Going Coastal - Spring Break
Well spring break is about over and with my new position as an Internet Sales Manger at Carl Gregory in Brunswick we had to sacrifice our customary trip to Wild Adventures in exchange for a trip to the beach. While a trip to the beach for many is a once in a lifetime event we are fortunate to live “Coastal”, so it is always available to us.
Sometimes we take these things for granted. Living in the middle of so many natural resources we overlook obvious inexpensive family outings. This was Preston’s first visit while Tyler and Alex have been to the beach a few times it was a great inexpensive family outing.
This trip reminded me why I chose to stay in this area and not take advantage of opportunities in other parts of the country. We have a
moderate winter climate and I just love the water. After moving inland a few years ago I had forgotten how much I actually love the beach and all of the things that it entails living close to it. So now we have decided to buy a new home within walking distance of the water while the real estate market is getting hammered down in Brunswick, Georgia.
We found a nice property today that needs some repairs and are going to make an offer on it tomorrow. I hope we they take our offer, because it will allow us to casually sell our current home and not worry about being in a financial bind as we make the transition to “Going Coastal” and having the freedom to casually stroll the beaches at the end of a long day.
Raising a Child With a Cleft and a Political Rant..
My youngest child was born with a bilateral cleft lip and palate. I have some before and after pictures of the start of his repairs in a previous post. I have a a page on HubPages that reaches out to people who have discovered that their child was going to be born with a cleft lip or palate. I usually receive an email or two a week from expectant parents and try to encourage them that everything is going to be ok.
One recent email I received was from a young lady who said because I took the time to reach out and encourage her she decided not to have an abortion. I was in tears from this email. Having dealt with the stress of surgeries and doctors appointments after the birth of Preston has been a hair raising experience at times and if it were possible for me to trade places with him and allow the doctors to work on me I would do it in a heartbeat. If we would of known that he was going to have a cleft lip and palate prior to him being born an abortion would of never been an option. That is a personal choice of mine that my wife agrees with. There is nothing more precious in this world than the unconditional love that you give and receive from your children.
Abortion to me is an aberration, I do believe it does have its place, but to terminate an unborn child’s life over a correctable situation would be unconscionable, but in todays society it takes even less than that for people to decide to have an abortion. This email though made me do some research on cleft lip children and abortions and I found a story that once again that cause me to have tears well up.
It described how doctors were given a pass for performing a late term abortion on a woman who was pregnant with a child with a cleft lip. Knowing what I do about a two year old with the most severe form of this birth defect it made me realize that I need to use my SEO skills to help spread the word on how normal a child with a cleft really is and in time everything will be ok.
If I can change just one more persons mind it is worth it.
Surgery and “Tater Logs”
Well today Preston had another surgery on his ears. This one was a fairly minor surgery in the big scheme of things. They had to replace ear tubes and do some ear canal reconstruction. Total time from the time we got to the hospital until we were headed home was only 3 and a half hours.
What is rough on a two year old when he has a routine of eating when he wakes is not feeding him before we went to the hospital. He was not allowed to eat after 11 pm the night before. Needless to say he was somewhat cranky prior to the surgery.
After it was all said and done on our ride everybody was starving. Mom and Dad did not dare eat when he was not allowed to. I stopped at a local deli to get food to carry home with us and Preston was not gonna wait. He loves “Tater logs” so he was snacking before we made it home.
All in all other than his reaction coming out from the anesthesia, confused and cranky, it was not a bad day for Preston or Mom and Dad. After he had his “Tater Logs” and a sandwich he was off to the races like nothing happened. What is amazing is he only weighs 30 lbs and he ate four of them and a sandwich. I don’t think I could eat that many plus a sandwich.
I just hope as he gets older and has more intense surgeries that his resilience remains the same. The big ones he has had so far really did not even seem to bother him much. He is a trooper with all of the energy that a two year old is expected to have.
Sunday update 8-26-07
Ok daily updates may not be able to happen. I just don’t have the time with everything else going on. I am committing to updates 2 times a week now on Wednesday and Sunday.
With my new job, monitoring other online properties, creating content for them and spending time with the children there is not much time for online stuff that does not make any money! I am not selling any products or advertising on this blog so it is really not a priority.
I am really torn on what to do about my current employment situation. I feel like I could make a go at it on my own and work with dealers on building blog networks to help support their main site and increase their online presence and be able to spend more time working on my online properties. Don’t get me wrong I really enjoy my new position it is just taxing on my family life that I have grown accustomed to. After a year of self employment as a full time affiliate it is tough to work hours like 9 am to 8 pm.
——-Kid Updates——
Preston need to have the tubes replaced in his ears before they will perform the next round of surgeries. They don’t want an ear infection causing other problems. Makes since to me. This is a simple procedure however anytime you put a little guy under it is a major deal. So that surgery is coming up in the next week.
Alex is still getting into mischievous trouble at school. We are working with him on this. The complaints we have been seeing are making noise in the bathroom and not stopping play time when told. So he just needs to learn to listen a little better.
Tyler is going to have his own blog soon and you can hear about his day there in his own words. Tyler is the quiet socialite so he can tell you more about what is going on with him than me.
All is well in Coastal Georgia
Well Preston’s appointment with the Cleft Team went well. They have changed the format some. In the past they had a conference with us the same day. Now they follow up afterwards via mail and telephone. He is having a small problem with his ears. So we are following up with his pediatrician next week prior to receiving the update.
His pediatrician, Dr. Townsend Cooper, Jr., is awesome. He has truly gone the extra mile for Preston and us. Sometimes in my diligence of making sure Preston is well taken care of I don’t take the time to say thank you like I should to those that help us with him. Dr. Cooper is also the pediatrician for Tyler, Alex and my granddaughter Savanna, I know he cares about the children’s welfare and for that I am very thankful.
Here is a story about how serious Dr. Cooper is in helping us with Preston:
A few days before Christmas 2005, Christmas was on a Sunday, we found out that the anesthesiologist would not take Dr. Coopers recommendations for surgery due to the fact that Preston had a heart murmur at birth. It was not present when he had his physical from Dr. Cooper prior to surgery, but the anesthesiologist wanted Preston to be cleared by a cardiologist in addition to Dr. Cooper. Preston’s surgery was scheduled for December 30th, with Christmas being on a Sunday the following Monday was a “Holiday”. So we basically had four days to get Preston cleared for surgery or miss it. He was already months past when he should of had his first surgery, another story, so I was in panic mode. The problem with finding a cardiologist to clear Preston on such short notice was that none local to us wanted to see an infant, also most specialist don’t want to give a recommendation without seeing the patient and then there is the scheduling issues a few days before Christmas. Dr. Cooper was able to find a pediatric cardiologist to see Preston on short notice and get him cleared. If it were not for his efforts Preston’s care would be further behind.
Dr. Cooper you are truly one in a million.
Oh, I am supposed to do this every day!?!?!
Wow, sometimes I forget things and I have ignored this blog for the last few days. I have really been busy with work and gearing up for Preston’s appointment tomorrow, err today. Just thinking about it has got me where I cannot sleep. I need to work on some of my personal online properties and can fill this sleepless time with that. It is easier to think when the house is asleep.
This appointment is a big one. He was born with a bilateral cleft lip and palate and the guy is getting ready to start his next round of surgeries. We meet every six months with the Cleft Team in Jacksonville, FL to plan his treatment. The concept is great he will see plastic surgeons, dentist, oral surgeons, speech therapist, psychologist (I think that is more for mom and dad at this point) and pediatricians. What is good is we get to see all disciplines in one appointment and layout treatment plans. This is so much more convienient instead of running around to these different consults one at a time. They also collect data for the University of Florida so if we can contribute something to others for the advice we receive so be it.
Being a South Georgia boy helping the University of Florida goes against everything ingrained since birth. All of my family are University of Georgia Alumni, my father, brother and grandfather, and we have the border battle every year in Jacksonville, Florida aka “The World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party.” However, I can let bygones be bygones we just need to win this one, I traded opening day at the Masters this year to be on the 50 yard line three seats up!
Here is some of the good work done by Preston’s plastic surgeon, Dr. Dean Glassman. So I do have to give the Gators a break.
Hats are off Dr Glassman
-
-
Other "Stuff"
