If you are wondering.....

.....how J.J. faired on our camping trip last weekend.....


This picture was taken the morning after our first night!! NINE....count them.... NINE!! LOW, correct, LOW!!!{Editing note: Blogger cuts off this picture...follow the link to Flickr...you will see nine!!:-)}

The second night was much better but I let him eat the evening snacks without bolusing...... smores, roasted marshmallows, more marshmallows.....chocolate. After we determined what his body was going to do with all that sugar, we only had to give a small correction in the night.

This just goes to show.....exercise makes a huge difference....HUGE.

The Same Old J.J....

I asked the girls to write in their journals their thoughts and feelings about J.J.’s diabetes. This is Sarah’s…age 10:

How I feel about JJ’s diabetes

by: Sarah Bretz

Feb. 15, 2008

I’m sad that he has it and I would not like to have it, but I am glad that I know what it is. I did not know what it was before J.J. got it. He is the same old J.J., but he just has diabetes.

February 18, 2008-----Happy Birthday J.J.!!!

Thought I’d share a quick recap of J.J.’s 5^th birthday!! The day started with me baking his cake. This was the first time I’ve baked something really sweet since his diagnosis. The process was typical except for the fact that I couldn’t just let the kids lick the spoon, bowls, beaters, etc. That was somewhat sad, as that is a fond memory I always had as a kid. But it wasn’t too bad because only a couple of the girls were in the room drooling, while J.J. was off playing so he didn’t even notice I put everything in the dishwasher right away. We’ve gotten used to the fact that we calculate all the carbs for his meals, etc., but counting the carbs for this cake was a shocker...powdered sugar has a ton of carbs!!

I decided to take the kids to the gym with me to go swimming…..at first J.J. didn’t want to go, but we convinced him it would be fun. It took him over an hour to finally decide he could leave the stairs of the pool….he’s very cautious!! Once I got him out there he had a blast!! We ended up staying 3 hours!! I checked his blood every hour. The first time he was 98….so I gave him a juice box….next hour 160…left him….next hour 78….gave him crackers since we were heading home. His exercise is so unpredictable…..sometimes he skyrockets, other times he crashes.

When we got home he had his birthday dinner….hamburgers and tator tots. Then he opened his gifts. It was a Lego year!! The rest of the evening we sat around putting together Lego kits. We then had cake and ice cream…it’s hard for me to believe he can have cake and ice cream!!! When we were in the hospital with him I thought he’d never have a normal birthday again!! Our endo has us giving his shots after he eats, rather than before, but this time I went ahead and gave it before we even sang to him…knowing the high carb content, and the fact that they were fast acting I wanted some insulin on board before he ate the cake and ice cream.

I only choked down tears once today….when he first started coming off the stairs at the pool.... he was just having a blast swimming to me. He was so happy and giggly. I am just so thankful that he truly is the “same old J.J.” Thanks, Sarah, for that reminder!!