BINGO night!

FAMILY NIGHT BINGO
Saturday, Oct 20th, 6-9pm
Red Mountain Multigenerational Center in Mesa
(on Power Road and University)

Asher's eosinophilic disorders support group is going to do a Bingo night. It costs $5 per person (ages 3 and up). There will be prizes for every winning Bingo card. It should be fun, and the money we raise will all go directly to medical research for this disorder.

Some days, I think, "How involved do I need to be in this? Asher is doing well. Frankly, he's got enough foods he can eat now that his diet is nice and varied--we even have a few fast food resturants."

But, there are lots and lots of kids who aren't doing as well as Asher. Kids who sit and eat ice chips while the rest of their family eats dinner. Families who sneak their meals while their toddlers play because the toddler still doesn't get that he or she can't eat what every one else does. Think of all the social events we go to where food is the focal point of the gathering...

I still remember a post from my Yahoo groups over a year ago when the topic was "Helping your kid through a hard day." One mom wrote, Sometimes, when my daughter is throwing up and sad that she only gets her formula, she turns to me and says, 'Mom, do you think Dr. Putnam (the current expert on this disease) is working with those rats right now to make me better?'

Even if it's 1 am, her mom always answers, "I bet he is.

Ok, off my soapbox...come enjoy a night of Bingo! We will!

Luke: 5 months old!

I haven't written much about Luke on the blog, which I feel bad about, so I thought I'd do a little introduction.

Luke is already 5 months old! He has many interests, like screeching at the top of his lungs when he's happy. Nate says we should pinch him every time he does so he stops, but I think that's mean. He's just trying to express his happiness.

Luke is a delight. He'll smile at anyone and show his cute dimple! And, he likes to laugh and laugh, which quickly turns into the screech described above.

I'm afraid thus far, he's about 90% Clyde, 10% Curtis. He's got my white, white skin, our family's dimple, and looks like a combination of my brother, David and my sister, Sarah when they were babies.

He loves his walker. I know, kids aren't supposed to be in walkers, but exersaucers entertain my kids for about 5 minutes. It's much more fun to run over Mom's feet and bang into her shins!

Luke has just started to enjoy his brother this past month. Asher can make him laugh and lets Luke pull his hair and grab his face.

And, best of all, Luke is a sleeper. Asher still doesn't sleep through the night, but Luke will go down at 7 pm and wake up cooing around 5 am, gets a little snack and sleeps until 7 am (assuming Asher isn't too noisy).

We love Luke (aka Yuke)!

Superheroes to the Rescue

Asher and his cousin, Evan, were being superheroes last week. Evan taught Asher a thing or two about proper superhero attire and proper superhero posing. I guess Evan was a kind of Super Cowboy, and Asher was, well, Asher was Super Leftover Guy (he got all the leftovers of our extensive dress-up collection).

I'm Stuck in the 1990's

Since I know most people come to the blog for pictures of the boys...

I post on another blog far more frequently than this one because I work with a fabulous group of Mormon feminists and have scheduled days to post. Usually, I try to write something high-minded for that blog, but I opened my Word doc to post this morning to find only about 1/3 of what I wrote had saved. So, I posted this instead.

New Pictures of the Boys

Here's some pictures of the boys...the first one is of Luke in the only part of Nate's blessing outfit he could fit into and another one of Luke looking puzzled.

There's a picture of the boys enjoying some Baby Einstein, Asher in an outfit he picked out for himself (a football jersey, no pants, shoes and socks), and one of Asher being silly. Enjoy!

And, finally, a video: Asher loves gum, and he found some boullion that was wrapped in a foil wrapper that made it look like gum. I thought I'd be taking a video of him eating it and making a funny face, but instead, this video turned out to be a much rarer moment captured on tape--Asher actually listens to me and decides not to eat it.

The Joys of YouTube

Uncle Tom has gotten Asher and I addicted to YouTube. Where else can I find Muppet and Sesame Street classics?

Here are some of Asher's favorites:
Mahnahmuhnah-I guess newborns really do absorb some of the world around them. I used to sing this to Asher all the time when he was in the NICU. I tried to sing something more touching or spiritual like hymns or lullabies, but I would start to cry. I didn't need to know the words to this song, and it made me feel better. And, now, Asher will walk around the house wanting to do a duet with me for this song. (Nate prefers this version.)

Swedish Chef making cake
Ernie catching fish

Not really classics but Asher loves them:

Elmo and the Goo Goo Dolls
Elmo and Andrea Bocelli
Do De Rubber Duck

This is one of my favorites.

Enjoy! (I'm sure we'll be finding more to post soon...)

Final Video Clips for Eosinophil Awareness Week

Just wanted to finish the week with two video clips

If you go to this website and go to the side bar on the right, there's a link called "View Just a Glimpse Video." (Warning: it makes me cry every time I watch it)

And, here's a video about a girl from Kansas who was selected to go to Capitol Hill as a patient with an eosinophil disease. Most of the kids in Phoenix who have this disease are Asher's age, so I was curious to hear what a kid who can talk would say.

I'm glad I did this whole week of blogging. It was helpful for me to realize that I'm not all that incompetent when it comes to this disease. It seems I've have learned a thing or two after all! Thanks for reading this week!