Adventures in Bennionland

I should have known the minute he came into our world. Everything Walker does he does with gusto, gumption, and no fear. It started with his birth and has been true for almost every minute since. The only minutes when he seems fearful are when roller coaster or new dogs are involved…and those are pretty rare.

So it shouldn’t surprise me, or anyone reading this, that Walker is often found climbing, jumping, hitting things, bouncing, or running. When he woke up at 5:00am this morning it was followed by him running from room to room, in search of me (he failed to check the bedroom first), and then him climbing up onto our bed (which already had Will in it) and then jumping around. 5:00am means nothing to this boy.

Being a little tired this morning I made oatmeal for breakfast. It’s easy, it’s a favorite in our family and will probably forever since it’s gluten-free. Will was playing on his computer and needed my help. I had turned the stove off and moved the pot. Doesn’t matter. Before I knew it Walker had climbed up onto the stove and was screaming. Turns out he burned four of his left-hand digits on the still hot stove.

He has now spent most of the morning having me recite which finger is which (i.e. pinky, pointer, etc), playing with his Thomas band-aids (he needed one for each finger!), and crying because they hurt. I don’t doubt that they hurt, they are already turning into white blisters on the tips of his fingers…BUT I do know that part of the tears come for show!

Look at those band-aids!

Oh, woe is he!

After all the trauma he was still excited to eat his oatmeal, and then promptly fell asleep at the table!

There are so many reasons that I love being a mom. And so many reasons that I think my kids are the best in the whole wide world. One of them is that my kids are fantastic road trippers. Eric and I love to road trip – we are always willing to hop in the car and head for an adventure. We worried about how our road tripping would change – and the only way it has changed is that we have less time! However our kids are amazing on the trips. And we don’t even take a DVD player! See, they are AMAZING!

Last week the boys and I, along with Papa Paul, traveled up to Utah. We left early in the morning so that the boys could sleep, and so that we could get their fairly early. The boys were great.

On the way home, with Eric joining us, I was a little bit worried. We slept through our alarm to get up at 3:30am, so we ended up leaving at 7:30am. This meant the boys would be awake, hungry, and tired.

My fears were unfounded – the boys were absolutely wonderful. We listened to ‘Wee Sing’ music, read stories, played hide and seek, did I Spy & Waldo books (their current faves), and had a great time as a family.

It’s confirmed! Our eldest child is a Silly Yak! After meeting with Dr. Berry this morning to discuss the results of Will’s endoscopy. It was, as he said, ‘positively conclusive that William has Celiac Disease‘.

As I mentioned to my Mom and Dad when I called them this morning, it felt pretty anti-climatic. See, I did not realize that when our pediatrician in Salt Lake told us that his blood work determined ‘celiac’ that it wasn’t 100% conclusive. Pretty darn close though. Will’s blood work showed that he was measuring 13.6 on his tTG/tTA (celiac sprue tests) when 7.0 or LESS was normal for his age. So I immediately went to the library to get books on what Celiac was. Then I bought books, stickers, shirts, more shirts, buttons, magnets – you name it!

So when he confirmed it with me today, I think he was thinking that he would need to give me tons of information. I was pretty clear that the news he gave me was better than learning that Will didn’t have celiac. That’s not to say that I wouldn’t be THRILLED if Will didn’t have it. However, with all the symptoms he has I am glad that it is something we can deal with versus something that we don’t understand or is harder to live with.

We will be sending more information out to all of our family over the next month or two to better explain Celiac disease and set our expectations. It will be vital that everyone understands what he cannot eat.

Eric and I feel good about moving forward and starting to live gluten-free. We’ve got lots of resources. And if you’re wondering what to get us for Christmas…think GLUTEN FREE!