Category: Kids & Cute Stories

A Space Walk for Jacob

This was sent along by Emily, official younger daughter of NewMexiKen. It’s from a colleague of hers.

Two years ago Jacob was a typical 3-year-old. But in mid-August 2004, everything changed. I noticed that he was drinking a lot of water. He would beg to go outside to play with the hose. Rather than splashing around like most 3-year-olds, he would just suck down all the water he could. He started having multiple “accidents” every night where he could easily flood the bed three times in one night. Despite a HUGE appetite, Jacob started to lose weight. The final weekend before diagnosis he stopped eating, lost all energy, and threw up twice. He was in ketoacidosis—a life threatening complication of very high blood sugar. His blood sugar was not able to get to his body cells as needed so instead his body had to use many, many of his fat cells. When fat cells get destroyed rapidly they can leave an acidic buildup of ketones.

I took Jacob to the doctor, and she immediately sent him to the emergency room. When they tested his blood sugar, his level was so high that it was beyond what the meter could read. He was in PICU for two full days. At one point he was at risk of brain damage, but that was avoided.

By the third day in the hospital, Jacob was in a regular room and it was time for the education to begin. He had to take a shot at every meal plus one extra at dinner. I was taught how to count the carbohydrates in his food, how to give him his four shots a days, how to poke his little fingers 4–10 or more times a day, how to balance the food he eats with his insulin and activity, and how to give a big shot of Glucagon to save his life in case of severe low blood sugar. He handled things very well, but it was very hard to see that he was having nightmares about the shots. He knew the shots would be four times a day, every day. He learned that there is no cure. This is a lot for a little guy to have to deal with. On the fifth day we went home, and I was to somehow keep everything balanced for him—something that used to be the job of his pancreas.

Jacob is now on an insulin pump. Every 2–3 days, I insert a little tube into his hip, stomach, or leg for the insulin to be transferred from his pump to his body. Sometimes I miss the numbing cream and the infusion site hurts for a while. He must wear this pump every day and night. He now has the flexibility to eat almost like any other five-year-old, but sometimes things still go wrong and we must deal with high or low blood sugar. Jacob cannot just run into a sprinkler or go into a pool without me first taking off his pump. I must then test frequently to adjust for the pump not giving insulin while he is in the water.

Now that he is in kindergarten, there is the added challenge of keeping him healthy while finding ways to not let his diabetes get in the way of his school experience. On a good day, he must go to the nurse three times a day. On days that his blood sugars refuse to stay in range despite my best efforts, he finds himself in the nurse’s office more often and for longer periods of time. He should be listening to stories, participating in circle time, and enjoying recess. He should not have to spend time every day going to and from the nurse. But, until there is a cure, this will remain a part of his school experience.

If you’d like to donate to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, you can do so online. If you would like to support Jacob, go to Support a Walker in the lower right-hand corner and search under Team Name for “Jacob’s Space Walkers.”

This Seems Unreasonable (and Impossible to Do)

Jill reports:

“The school sent home a letter today that we are not to send in snacks for our child that may have been made in a factory where anything including nuts is made.”

NewMexiKen understands the need to protect children from allergies, but is the nut problem that severe? I don’t mean to sound insensitive, but I don’t remember classmates dropping in the lunchroom while we all ate PB&J day-after-day when I was kid.

I asked Jill what she would do if one of her boys had an allergy. She replied:

If my child had a peanut allergy, I would teach them from the age of six months never to accept food from other people. I would ask the teacher to remind the class of this rule and to “police” snack sharing. I would request that children not be allowed to bring peanut butter or peanuts into the classroom. I would provide special snacks/treats that were safe for my child to have when the other children were having something potentially unsafe. I would provide my child with an epi-pen.

I would NOT expect 1,000 people to basically act as if all of their children had a peanut allergy.

Opinion anyone?

Mack Update

Green Lights

Considering that Mack got a “Yellow Light” and lost his car on the second day, it seems only fair to update you with his most recent chart.

And, he reports, kids are getting “Red Lights.” In fact, it appears, using the “f-bomb” in kindergarten will get you a red without delay.

But Mack has four greens and one yellow after a week.

More Natural-Born Leader

Mack

Yeah, [Mack’s] a leader all right. But he’s going to lead them all right over a cliff.

Today they went around their room each saying their favorite color. Mack’s table was the last to go. As he tells it, “I said my favorite color was black. And then four little hands popped up and they all said, ‘Actually, my favorite color is black, too!’, ‘My favorite is black, too!’.”

Great, now I’ll have a bunch of moms wondering who turned their five-year-olds into Goths.

All I Really Need To Know I Learned In Kindergarten, Redux

Remember Tuesday and the Red-Yellow-Green behavior system in Mack’s kindergarten? And remember Mack being told by his dad that if he got through the whole year without any yellows, he’d get a car? Well, Mack’s mom reported today, the second day the system was in effect.

“Mack’s not getting a car.”

Update: He was talking when he should have been listening. Jill reports:

I spoke to Mack about it and told him that it wasn’t fair to be loud in class. I said that all the other students were being quiet and trying to learn, and if he was loud that was disturbing to them.

His reply was, “No. The other kids see that I am talking and then they all do it, too.”

Natural born leader.

Remember this?

NewMexiKen posted it a year ago today (September 5, 2005):

In the chaos that was Causeway Boulevard, this group of refugees stood out: a 6-year-old boy walking down the road, holding a 5-month-old, surrounded by five toddlers who followed him around as if he were their leader.

They were holding hands. Three of the children were about 2 years old, and one was wearing only diapers. A 3-year-old girl, who wore colorful barrettes on the ends of her braids, had her 14-month-old brother in tow. The 6-year-old spoke for all of them, and he told rescuers his name was Deamonte Love.

— Los Angeles Times

Well, Digby brings us up to date. Go read.

All I Really Need To Know I Learned In Kindergarten

“He also told us about the green-yellow-red behavior system and said that he won’t get any reds but we should expect a few yellows.”

That’s Mack’s mom reporting on Mack’s first day of kindergarten.

It’s difficult to go through kindergarten, or any other part of life, without a few yellows.

Update: Mack says it’s not that he might purposefully break a rule, it’s that you don’t always know the rules. Indeed.

Mack’s dad told Mack that if he gets all the way through kindergarten with no yellows, he’ll get him a car.

Elmo Is an Evildoer

Joel Stein doesn’t like Elmo. Some excerpts:

“Elmo doesn’t grow. People show him something and he laughs. He doesn’t learn a lesson,” says Lee. “It’s the exact opposite of what old ‘Sesame Street’ used to do. Elmo has been learning the same lesson his whole life, which is that Elmo likes Elmo.”

I understand that “Sesame Street” has to compete in a Nickelodeon-Disney Channel-Wiggles-Pixar universe. In fact, the new episodes start with ” ‘Sesame Street’ is brought to you by the following — ” and then, instead of gently mocking consumerism by listing letters and numbers, they actually show real spots for McDonald’s, Beaches resorts, Pampers and EverydayKidz.com — the last of which apparently helps children spell only if they want to be rappers.

I desperately don’t want the show to go away, so I know they can’t afford to run the “Elmo accidentally drank bleach and died” episode. Instead, they need to simply take Elmo and his buddies and give them their own hourlong show for the idiot spawn. Then put Luis, Gordon and the cool Muppets on their own half-hour “Classic Sesame” for the kids who will one day actually contribute to our society.

Read it all.

Amenities

Four-month-old Reid, the youngest of the Sweeties, had to be taken to the emergency room Friday for some diagnostic tests. (He’s doing OK, thank you.) The urgency meant that his older brothers came along.

An experienced traveler, five-year-old Mack took one look at the hospital’s newly remodeled entry area with its marble and granite and knew exactly what was important.

As his mother checked in, Mack asked the receiving nurse, “Do you have a pool?”

Because it’s there?

Veronica, official daughter-in-law of NewMexiKen, ran in the San Francisco Marathon today. Arriving home, she showed two-year-old Sofie the finisher’s medal with its depiction of the Golden Gate Bridge.

“Sofie, mommy ran over that bridge twice today!”

And she looks at me like I’m a total nut job and says, “Why?”

6 + 4 = 1 Tenuous Existence

With two teenage daughters at home and triplets still in diapers, Angela Magdaleno’s family overflowed from a one-bedroom apartment in South Los Angeles that they strained to afford.

Diapers had to be changed 15 times a day, feedings held every three hours. One triplet, 3-year-old Alfredo Jr., needed special attention because he was born with liquid on his brain and partially paralyzed.

Even simple events — like going to the store — required complex orchestration.

And that was before the quadruplets arrived.

— Read more from the Los Angeles Times

Flying With Children

From an article about Flying With Children (Yours or Theirs):

On another occasion, a woman who was among the last to board could not find space in the overhead bins for her bulging carry-on bag. “When she opened the compartment and saw my kids’ backpacks, she pulled them out and said, ‘Children don’t need overhead space,'” Ms. Reiss said. She managed to settle the matter quietly — which, I might add admiringly, is more than I would have done in a similar situation.

Is it art, or is it abuse?

Steal a toddler’s lollipop and he’s bound to start bawling, was photographer Jill Greenberg’s thinking. So that’s just what Greenberg did to elicit tears from the 27 or so 2- and 3-year-olds featured in her latest exhibition, “End Times,” recently at the Paul Kopeikin Gallery in Los Angeles. The children’s cherubic faces, illuminated against a blue-white studio backdrop, suggest abject betrayal far beyond the loss of a Tootsie Pop; sometimes tears spill onto naked shoulders and bellies.

The work depicts how children would feel if they knew the state of the world they’re set to inherit, explained Greenberg ….

Read more from the Los Angeles Times.

Here’s the exhibition.

Last But Not Leashed

Scott Adams doesn’t seem pleased to see a kid on a leash:

My first reaction to the kid on the leash is that it was humiliating and wrong. But the kid seemed happy enough. And so it made me wonder if the father is ever tempted to take it to the next level, i.e. walking the kid naked and picking up the turds with a plastic bag. That has got to be easier than changing a diaper. If it weren’t, dogs would wear diapers. I think that’s obvious. And once you’ve decided that humiliation isn’t an issue, all bets are off.

Cherry-O

NewMexiKen has been munching on Rainier cherries today. A few at a time. Anything that good (and expensive) has to be savored.

Anyway, the cherries reminded me of a story two years ago from Jill, one of two official daughters of NewMexiKen.

[Three-year-old] Mack and I picked out some lovely ripe cherries at the market today. We’re going to chop them up put them in homemade ice cream.

At lunch I diced some of them and gave them to [8-month-old] Aidan.

He grabbed a couple and stuffed them in his mouth. Immediately, his eyes shot to me with an expression that perfectly conveyed two thoughts:

“My God, but I do love you, woman.”

and

“Exactly what else have you been keeping from me?”

Like father, like son

A Little League father from Kent, N.Y., has been charged with misdemeanor assault, The Associated Press reported, after he allegedly punched the coach of 9- and 10-year-olds who suspended his kid for uppity behavior.

“A word of warning to youth baseball coaches,” wrote Bob Reno of BadJocks.com. “If you kick a kid off the team for insubordination, you can probably assume the little acorn hasn’t fallen far from the big nut tree.”

The Seattle Times: Sideline Chatter