He can lift a foot while he stands!!!!

The extra PT is starting to REALLY pay off. Look what the Chick Magnet can do now!!!!!

Slaving away at PT.

We've set a goal for the year. Steven wants to be able to transfer in and out of his chair independently.

He just doesn't want it to look like he's working too hard.  ;)

The Man Cold.

I'll preface this by saying the Chick Magnet is THE bravest guy I know when it comes to the painful, messy and gut-wrenching medical procedures he's had to endure. If you can manage to flirt with nurses just hours after the surgeons break your femurs and pin them back together, you just win the Pain Tolerance Trophy. There is no contest.

I can't even complain about the pain of childbirth and those last three stitches without numbing afterward with any credibility compared to what Steven's had done... some 24-ish times in his 22 years of life.

But...

He has a...

DUNDUNDUN....

Man. Cold.

"Moooooooooooooommmmmmmmmmmm......... I have boogerssss....."

Mooooooommmmm, I don't think I'm going to make it. How long is this going to laaaassttt???"

Me:  "Well, you woke up stuffy about three hours ago, so my best guess is a few more days."

Man Cold Sufferer:  "AAAARRRGGGHHHH.... *cough hack*  I hope we don't have to go to the hospital.  I'm suffering.  I love you. Can you get me a cool cloth for my head? It feels explody." How much LONGER? Am I going to be stuck at home forever?

How did this happen to me? I hate it when people don't cover their mouths or touch things. This is why I'm not going to EVER leave the apartment again. We need to stay home and away from germs!"

Me: "What about the girls? Won't they miss you"

MCS: "SIGH.... yes, but... but..."

Me: "You know, I warned you girls have cooties. I bet it was one of your girlfriends."

MCS: "Stoooopppp. I'm serious!

Me: "Well, I suppose we could become hermits, never leave the apartment, and just sit here TOGETHER forever, mother/son bonding and I can tell you stories about when I was a little girl and... "

MCS: "STOP! I get the point! That was too sarcastic and I think I my head will explode again."

Welcome to my world, son.


He's showing great improvement this evening, the grumbling and airing of grievances from his room will soon give way to sleep. In the past 48 hours, I have embedded the lingering scent of chicken soup and vapo-rub deep into my pores.

It should fend off the Mom Cold.

Question time!

There's been a request for a question and answer "Chick Magnet" post.

Here's your chance... ask away!

They can be for me, or for His Majesty, and I'll do the best I can to get a straight answer out of my comedian. ;)

Happy New Year!

 Our wish for the new year is that there are fewer tears and more smiles.

As we leave 2013 behind, I'll share a few of my favorite grins with you. :)

In no particular order...

The Hope, Inc. Fashion Show.

Meeting Alfred Robles at the Stand-Up Revolution

Raising money for the animals. 

FINALLY getting to meet Lisa Green from KVLY. He's loved her from afar for years.

 Octoberfest... the wienerdog races were something new. Loud crowd enjoying beer samples and nervous pups. There were more shaking wieners than the men's room at half time.

Steven made a new friend. :)

Three guesses...

Bowling is always fun!

We brought home a new family member, Elvis.

What we think of all the UNhappy things of 2013.

He has my eyes, don't you think?

Have a very happy 2014!

Working the Mall, Finding Gifts Not For Sale

 I had a lot of worries back when I decided to pack up and move Mr. Chick Magnet down to Fargo from our comfy small town home.  I can imagine Fargo doesn't seem a teeming metropolis to a lot of you, but when you understand we have more people in our apartment complex than our hometown, it's easier to imagine.

Home is where everyone knows Steven, where he grew up with the security of rolling down the street to the sound of people greeting him by name. Even the people who didn't much care for me weren't shy about loving him.  They remembered his Daddy, and it was through the collective memory of family and friends that he has a lot of the happy stories he falls back on to this day.

 When his medical needs rapidly started outreaching the resources available to us, it was time. That last close call with a shunt failure shook me to the core.  The scales tipped, and we made the move.

 We've been here a few years now, but it was our trip to the mall last week that gave me clarity.

If you've never tried to navigate a shopping mall with a power chair, there's a level of frustration you haven't gotten to experience yet. ;)  We chose a weekday, hoping for the best.  Steven had a list of things to do, lunch, haircut with his favorite cute hairdresser, visiting his favorite cute salesperson in Best Buy Mobile... and I had an agenda. Steven was disappointed the day he helped at the giving tree because only one person took a tag on his shift. We needed to remedy that.

We opted to use Paratransit to save the frustration of mall parking, and when the bus pulled up...

That's when the giggling started.

A happy Steven emits a belly laugh somewhere between a giggle, a cackle, and a honk.  It's a wonder of diaphragmatic breathing and sheer joy.

We loaded up, and I noticed Steven was already buddies with the new driver. He had him broken in, that's for sure.  Steven is apparently a VERY good supervisor, keeping the drivers on the straight and narrow with his knowledge of rules and procedure. By the time we were dropped off at the mall, the driver had the giggles too.

We got a few steps into the main entry of the mall, when we had to stop and visit with the firemen manning the Red Kettle. We asked if we could get a picture with them as Steven made his contribution, and they scrambled to amuse him by letting him hold the helmet and helping him reach the bucket.

More giggles.

We made it through lunch, then headed off to our haircut.  It's a good thing we allowed extra time, because every 20 steps or so, we ran into someone we knew. We stopped to chat a minute with his old school bus driver, then that cute salesperson met us at the doorway of BBM to make sure she was still at the top of Steven's Girlfriend List. An off-duty paratransit driver stopped to say hello, and as we got closer to our destination, we met a lady who worked with him at the high school.

Haircuts from Erin are always good for a Steven Hug. It's her extra tip. ;)

More giggles.

Off we went to get a tag to fill. Steven flirted with the ladies at the tree, of course, and we decided on a young man with special needs, since he was expert at "guy stuff". There were still plenty to choose from, so we picked one for a senior citizen as well, since Grandmas need love too.

Off to the Chick Magnet's Mecca...Sears. *Insert Tim the Toolman grunt here*

After much deliberation, he found a good deal on a nifty radio-controlled car he said HE would like if he were getting it. (I think that was a hint...) and we went off in search of batteries.  While I was examining the choices, he was approached by a smiling older woman. I assumed it was someone he knew through his day program at first, since they started right in about the merits of awesome toys. Nope, just making conversation.

More giggles.

She jumped when he honked out a laugh at her remark, but she caught the giggle bug too. "Oh, you are just PRECIOUS! Can I have a hug?" she asked. I should probably be jealous at his readiness to give her one, since I have steal MINE... but I'll try not to whine. :)

After picking out a gift for the Grandma on the other tag, we were off to the far corners of the mall again to get the gifts wrapped, take them back to the tree (Where he was greeted happily by the women he had already flirted with the first visit). We ran into a school friend, a Hope, Inc. friend, and eventually made our way back to the food court for a bit of DQ before hitting the road again.

We noticed, on our way back, that there were no kids in line for Santa pictures. We looked at each other and simultaneously said "Why not?".  It's become a bit of a tradition, after all. The HoHoHo-ing, honking Steven Santa Laugh could probably summon reindeer from the North Pole all by itself. By the time we got the pictures snapped, he had them all giggling.

I'm trying to learn that while it's better to give than to receive, it's okay to let other people have the happiness of doing something nice. It still threw me off a bit to have my money refused by Santa's boss. I'm getting better about not feeling so awkward about allowing people to do something nice for us, because I can finally see it's not out of pity for his disability, but out of joy from that honk and that smile.


Of course, after Steven accused me of STEALING them, I explained that Santa just wanted to do something nice for him like he had done for other people. That helped, but I was thisclose to the cuffs the way he was talking.

More giggles.


The driver who picked us up is one we've known since we moved here, but he's still not used to Steven's laugh when it comes out unexpectedly.  Steven honked, the driver jumped... which made Steven laugh LOUDER... the driver jumped higher... "Are you okay???"

More giggles.

Steven figured it was the sugar.

I think it was Christmas.

In any case, when we got home I finally got it.

Home really is where everybody knows Steven.













   

 

Grandmas.

     I think there's no better way to end the Thanksgiving holiday than to remember two of the best ladies in my life, my Grandma and my Mother-in-law. They never got to know each other in life, but wherever it is the best of the best go after this life, I'm sure they're having coffee, comparing notes on their grandchildren and great-grandchildren. They would have been two peas in a pod, and there would be laughter... and cookies. :)

     Grandma was the strongest woman I ever knew. She came up out of the Great Depression, married her one great love, and made it through some incredibly hard times... but she was also the kindest, warmest light in my life. No matter how chaotic or hard my home life may have been, once we rounded the corner into the farmyard and heard her hearty "Howdy do!", we were home.

      Her face would light up when we came tumbling into her, and her arms made everything bad go away. Every child should have that. As it was, I got to share her with my own daughter for all too short a time. We  lost her just as Steven was born, the day after we found out he would pull through and survive his early birth. Even though she never held him in those arms in life, I know in my heart she has carried him more than once when he needed her.

I wasn't amused?

Laura and her Gammy

    I worried Steven would miss the start in life Laura got with her "Gammy", since my own mother just wasn't  the type, but the minute my mother-in-law laid eyes on him, there it was. Vivian was just a smile come to  life. The first time I met her, she sat down and pulled a pair of shoes out of her purse, and we were friends from that moment on. 

You never knew what she might pull out of that handbag, heck, it was often a surprise to her! I'm pretty sure the kids thought it was magic, as if she might fall into Narnia if she dug too deep for things to occupy them in church.

She gave them the love I had from my own grandmother, along with some purse-raisins and a story. We all knew that under that veneer of Church Dignity, that twinkle in her eye was just a giggle waiting to escape.

I don't remember exactly what she said to crack everyone up, but it may have been a wee bit naughty.
She was full of surprises. :)

I'm not sure how I got so lucky to have had these wonderful women in my life to teach me, but if I'm ever blessed with grandchildren, they have my back.

Thankful doesn't even begin to cover it.