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I promise you, I don't go looking for bloggable moments from Charlie. I don't follow him around the house like the Verizon Wireless guy, asking, "How do feel about diabetes now? How do you feel about diabetes now? How do you feel about diabetes now?"

Take last night, for instance. I was minding my own business as I dried him off after his shower and we walked into his room, when he hits me with ,

"Dad, do you ever wish you had diabetes?"

"Well ,," I said, stalling while thinking how best to respond.

"Well, sometimes I do because I don't want you to feel alone."

"Oh," Charlie said with a thin smile. "I thought you were going to say 'no.'"

"Why?" (READ MORE)

What you don't want to hear from your diabetes educator is "hmm, good question." That is, unless it's immediately followed by a good answer.

There has been a burning question of ours since Charlie started on the pump back in September of 2006. During that time, we posed the question to several different people along the way, but never really got a clear answer.

So I present this burning question to you - the true gurus of diabetes.

How can Charlie skip a meal if he wanted to? Is this a mythical notion or do people out there actually achieve this? If Charlie didn't eat something two to three hours after a bolus, he would most certainly go low. I'll ask you exactly what I asked the doctor and nurse practitioner the other day. (READ MORE)

We try really hard to stay away from high fructose corn syrup around here, although, man, that stuff is in everything! Even bread. I think there are two or three brands that don't have it.

Olivia used to drink a lot of diet soda. I'd buy a couple of 2 litre bottles every week for her, in addition to drink mixes like Crystal Light. Sometimes I'd make diet Kool-Aid, using Splenda instead of sugar. One week, I added up how much of my grocery money was going towards diet drinks and was apalled - it was easily $10 or $15 a week.

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They say if you want to hear God laugh, tell Him your plans. Well, my birth plan must have had Him in stitches.

After nine months of cramming for the "final exam," I had developed a good picture of what I wanted my son's birth to be like, and drew up a birth plan as instructed in Lamaze class. I knew flexibility was key, but I didn't realize it was the only thing I could count on.

The plan was to try to go as naturally as possible, with the option of pain meds if needed. I wanted mobility, a birthing ball, comfort techniques and the labor positions we had practiced for weeks. I wanted to let gravity do its job. (READ MORE)

When Charlie started school, I just knew he'd provide me with plenty of material to blog about. Which is good, because we do have our dry spells when he's not doing anything particularly diabetish.

A good journalist goes out and gets the story even when there seemingly isn't one.

"Come on, Charlie, I've got a story to write! Do a little something diabetic for daddy for heaven's sake! Anything!"

"OK, here's the scene: You're blood sugar is pretty high. You're super mad at the world and you don't know why. Maybe you'd like to destroy something of emotional and monetary value? Mommy's English bone china tea cups perhaps? What? Did you hear that? I think the green cup just said you wear pink underpants." (READ MORE)

Blah, blah, blah, here she goes again, pissing and moaning about logging.

Back when the year was shiny and new, as opposed to snow-covered and grubby (and enough with the snow already, ok? I'm SICK of it. Sick.) I resolved to be more diligent about logging Olivia's blood sugars. And for a few weeks I was. And then I forgot for a couple of days. And then it was Thursday and I thought, well, I'll just start over on Monday. And I forgot again.

I've logged in fits and starts over the last 2 months, but mostly, I haven't logged at all. And now she has an endo appointment tomorrow and I'm not going to have that much information to give her and I'm pissed at myself.

I just don't know how to make myself log. I forget. And if I'm forgetting to log, how am I supposed to teach Olivia? I'm not setting a good example at all and they always tell you (who are they anyway?) that you should lead by example when it comes to your kids.
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