I’ve never thought of my son, Dean, as tough.  He’s sensitive in a way that little things that really aren’t a big deal set him off.  (Note to self, what things were a big deal when I was two?)  And once he’s going, there is no recovery.  Think uncontrollable tears, crying so hard there’s gagging, no rationalization, and no consoling.  Often times I think, “Dean.  Really.  This is embarrassing.” but what does a two-year old boy know about embarrassing?

What I will tell you is that my image of Dean as the opposite of tough has been changing recently.  Case and point, he just started learning to ride a tricycle the past week.  To put this in perspective, Kate didn’t start riding this thing well until three and a half; Dean is two years and two months.  It’s way too big for him but he does amazingly well…for the most part.  He’s fallen over three times that I’ve seen.  There may be one brief burst of a cry but five seconds later, he gets right back up, gets back on, and rides that thing over and over again as if nothing happened.  I could not have imagined this happening a year ago.  One fall would have been at least fifteen minutes of crying…no joke.

I had a recent experience where I could see firsthand how unbelievably uncomfortable life must be when Dean has an allergic reaction.  For an 8-day period in August, I had multiple days of unexplained allergic reactions which were quite frankly, debilitating at times.  I had so many hives and constant itching, I felt miserable, couldn’t focus on anything, tried hard not to claw at my skin, frustrated at what was going on, and sleep-deprived since I was being woken up by itching two or three times a night.  To summarize, I was in the ER twice in 6 days, once when I had profuse hives covering most of my body except parts of my face and feet and another morning when I woke up with hives, my lips were starting to swell, and I was feeling a tightness in my throat.  I left the ER the second time with a prescription for an epi-pen…like son like mom? Continue reading →