May 30

It’s 2am here and I’m awake because my body is malfunctioning once again. A sweet case of hypoglycemia (low blood sugar) has me up and enjoying  the sweats, shakes and a mind that is both foggy and eerily focused on random topics. Sometimes diabetes is like getting kicked in the balls and the kidneys and the teeth, too.

I’ve had diabetes on the brain today for various reasons (not all bad). I spent several hours this afternoon with an insulin pump consultant because I am hoping to be able to replace my current pump with a new one and I’m seriously considering switching brands. The talk has me seriously excited about the possibilities with the new pump and so we’ll see where we get and if my current insurance coverage will actually pay for the pump like I’m hoping it will.

The very lovely insulin pump rep told me about Kerri at sixuntilme who blogs about life with diabetes and I looked her up as soon as the rep left my house. It was like sitting down with someone who truly gets it. I dont’ write about diabetes a lot, but it is obviously a huge part of my life and I know very few people who live with it and I don’t know anyone personally who uses a pump like I do or who has children or has done this as long as I have. So it was so exciting for me to read some of her posts about what it’s like to be up in the middle of the night, feeling as crappy as I do at this moment and knowing how I’ll be feeling in the morning with the low blood sugar hangover, and know that I’m not alone. Is it possible to bring on low blood sugar by reading about it?  Eek??

But what really got me thinking about blogging in the middle of the night? Orange Juice.  I have typically used orange juice to treat low blood sugar at home and obviously there are times when my blood sugar is low and so it the pitcher of juice I usually have in the fridge. It’s expensive to buy those 2L cartons of pre-made orange juice so I buy the frozen concentrate stuff, however the obvious downside of those is…their FROZEN. So when I’m awake at 2am, shaking and sweating and desperately needing that juice fast, the last thing I want to be doing is trying to thaw a chunk of orange ice.

Now let me show you something….

Tada!!! No metal cap! I can zap this baby for a few seconds and it is ready to make! I’m totally sure that no one at McCain thought about how this little concept could save my life, but one day it could. Sometimes I need that juice fast. Yes, their juice is a little bit more expensive than other brands of a similar product (ahem, McCain, could you do something about that?) but this is not just about convenience. In a moment when speed is of the essence, this juice is so much easier to open and the fact that I can prepare it in a minute is a HUGE DEAL!

So McCain, diabetics everywhere (or,uh, here in Canada anyway) salute you for your diabetic friendly packaging. You have no idea what a big innovation this is for people like me!

Aaaand now I’m going to check my blood sugar again and hopefully get some more sleep! If I look a bit groggy tomorrow morning you’ll know why!

 

May 21

Oy. I have always hated the phrase “Use your words!”, but sometimes it is appropriate. I’ve spent some time in the past year or two thinking about how people sometimes suffer from a lapse in creativity when it comes to talking about their kids and after a recent discussion with some friends I felt like I was able to frame it out a little more clearly for myself. Parents (and possibly people in general?) sometimes fail to adequately describe their feelings about parenting and their offspring and that can cause them to come across as boring, coarse or worse, boastful.

Some time ago I remember hearing someone discussing how almost vulgar they found it when parents discussed their children’s potty-training successes and failures on facebook and how they felt nobody needed or wanted to know about such things.

My first suggestion would for that individual be to trim down their facebook friends to only the childless if you are that discriminating about what you want to read on facebook because, let’s be serious, it’s FACEBOOK.  Also, there are a lot more annoying and offensive things to be read on the internet than unsolicited information about someone’s kid’s poop. But beyond that, I really started to think about that particular topic because I have blogged about potty-training and I’m not sure if I’ve ever put anything potty-related on facebook but it wouldn’t be completely out of the realm of possibility. I wondered if that was truly inappropriate or if a majority of people, especially childless people, feel that way about that kind of subject material? I have no desire to offend people if their request to avoid certain subject matter is reasonable.

My conclusion was this: some seemingly mundane, unimportant, or even kind of gross details of child-rearing are actually really meaningful but because we fail to properly express what we are thinking or feeling, we can fail to really communicate their significance.

There are a lot of people who do not get why “my two year old has been using the potty for two days with no accidents!!!!” is worthy of being expressed anywhere on the internet or in polite company. I totally get that people might see that as inappropriate and vulgar or just totally boring, particularly if they’ve had little exposure to kids.

Here’s the thing: Parents don’t celebrate milestones because their world has become so small they have nothing better to do or think about than the little people who consume their lives. We do so because each little milestone is a huge step in the process of becoming an independent person! The reason potty-training is such a big deal is because when you have a had to take care of every physical need of an infant or small child for several years, the fact that they can now eliminate waste without assistance is a HUGE DEAL! It is also one of the last steps a small child takes to become a much more independent person, not relying so much on mom or dad for their most basic hygiene.

Maybe I, as a parent, have not clearly expressed why certain things feel like such a big step and that is why I have been misunderstood. I feel like I should take responsibility for that. What if I chose to say “I am so proud that my two year old is becoming such an independent little person, able to care for her/himself and many of her needs! This a an enormous step in her/his development and maturity and it is really significant to me!”.

Ok, that is a bit more formal and stiff than I would normally post on facebook, but I think the point is, we can do better than just saying “Suzie pooped in the potty!”. We can try to explain why that is such a big deal to us as parents. Maybe not everyone who is disgusted by potty talk would react differently, but I think some people might.

I think the same thing goes for what I like to call the Christmas letter crowd. Many people get annoyed by Christmas letter updates that seem to be nothing more than bragging about one’s extremely intelligent, fabulous and talented children. I honestly think there are very few people who sit down to write their Christmas letter and think “How can I make everyone see that my kids are smarter and more accomplished than theirs are?”. I believe most people sit down to think over the last year and they are not able to clearly define what they are excited about or what qualities they are proud to see developing in their children and end up writing a laundry list of activities their offspring have participated in, rather than why they feel excited or satisfied with the outcome of those activities.

What if we learned to say “I am really proud of Johnny for the dedication he has shown to his piano lessons in the last year! It was really difficult for him to spend the time he could have been using for X to practice piano but he worked really hard and learned so much and it is great to see that he is learning to put his best effort at something and being rewarded with a lot of improvement!”. Instead of bragging that our five year old is reading Tolstoy, why can’t we just express our true and honest delight that our child is excited about reading and because we also love to read, it is thrilling to see that our child is discovering the very same things we love about reading!

I guess I’m trying to learn to better express myself because it is really important to me that I am understood. I disklike thinking that I am being misinterpreted and so I usually try to explain myself as clearly as possible and choose my words carefully. That said, you can’t make everyone happy all the time, and some sentiments can’t be expressed in the amount of characters allotted a facebook status. Truly, some people need to get over themselves and embrace the fact that not everyone sees the world the same way they do. But I am going to try to explore my ability to express why some things are important to me when it seems appropriate. I, too, need to get over myself and realize that not everyone understands why I consider certain things significant or noteworthy and if we all learned to be a little more creative or thorough in articulating our thoughts, maybe we would be better understood.