All by my own self

Emily had a proud moment recently, when she actually was able to test herself one hundred percent on her own!! She has done parts of it by herself, but this time she actually did all of it on her own. I just loved her triumphant smile as she announced, "I did it all by my own self!"

Tummy Time!

We started out with carefully rotating the injection sites, like we were taught in the hospital. Some people even have little charts they mark to make sure they don't mess up their rotation. Then I discovered that being able to say where she got her shot made it easier on Emily, and she was pretty good about taking a little guidance if she was choosing the same area too often. Every now and then I have been asking her about trying some new sites, particularly in the tummy, since I've been told that some kids "like" (isn't that a strange word to use in this context?) it there. Finally one day, she said she'd try it, and YEA!!!! She "liked" it!!!! For a while she never fussed about her shot, and she'd even pinch up the skin for me. She would tell me, "I be brave!" Gradually though, the novelty wore off (or something), and now she's back to fussing. Big time. Sometimes she will plead with me, "please not do this, please not do this!" It is so horrible. People often ask me, how is she with her shots? The easy answer is Oh, she does pretty good. The selfish answer is that I HATE hate hate that I have to give my daughter shots. The honest answer, the long answer that I rarely give, is that it goes in cycles. I keep having to mix it up. Try to find the next thing. For a while it was having her siblings dance or sing or do something silly while she got her shot. Sometimes she'll be really brave and quiet so she can trick the rest of the family into thinking that she hasn't gotten her shot yet. But right now none of that seems to work, and she breaks my heart daily. So now I'm back to searching for the next little trick that will temorarily make it okay.

Emily's Songs

Okay, this is kind of on the lighter side of life with diabetes as well.

Shortly after Emily was diagnosed, there was a song that was very popular, called "Low" by FloRida. It's a real hip hop dance song, and the kids and I loved to crank it up and have a dance party. We also decided that it should be Emily's song, since she had to worry about being "low."

Then, her daddy started singing the Leona Lewis song to her, except he sang it, Keep bleeding blood, instead of keep bleeding love, in reference to her frequent finger pricks. So now "Bleeding Love" is her song too, and she always (with the persistence that only a 2 year old can muster) wants to listen to it every time we are in the car.