Watching Jamesie tonight :)

Tonight I watched James over at Nae's house and Lance was there, too. First, I must say that Lance is really growing up and maturing. He just kind of does his own thing. He's got his dinner routine down, he knows how to entertain himself, etc. I also don't know if I mentioned this already but I saw him change James' diaper a couple of months ago and he's a PRO! And he stepped right up to do it without complaints. Luckily, the one I saw wasn't too yucky of a diaper but he still did a really good job of cleaning up Jamesie. It was pretty sweet - despite the poo poo. I still get nervous changing diapers and I never know if I did it right. I suppose they stay on well enough to do their job, but I always wonder if they're too tight? Too lose? Lopsided? Either way they never seem right. I can at least now tell the front from the back. That was until I came across the Swim Diaper which apparently has no back or front - it just goes on either way. Thanks for confusing me right when I sorta get it down, Diapers!

Anyway, I also told my mom recently when she had a few days in a row of not feeling well, that she could let me know if she needed help with Lance. She said "he's so good". It's just nice to know that at least lately she's had some peace with him. It was hard growing up with him and I know it was hard on my mom and and the rest of us, too. There's not really a way to explain it until you've lived it. There are good and bad sides to having a family member with a disability. And I still don't think that my parents' days with Lance are "easy" but I'm just pretty proud to hear that he's matured a lot over the years. He's really sweet with the boys (James and Joey) and just likes to be helpful. It's funny - I was going to go online a few days ago, and I opened up internet explorer and it defaults to like a Yahoo homepage. It has news and different stuff on it. Well, there was a story about a girl on there - I think the headline was something like "Always hungry, all the time". I clicked on it and it was a little glimpse of this girl's life with Prader-Willi Syndrome and a little bit of a look into her daily life. That being, her parents locking the cabinets at home, her having to live in a group home most of the time to control her diet, and her gaining 25 pounds on her week long visit home. Yeah, yeah, stuff I've heard before, right? The news lady that was kind of interviewing her and her family said to the other news woman "I spent the day with a woman who is always - and this is no exaggeration, this is not a metaphor - ALWAYS HUNGRY." and later "some people say the have an 'insatiable appetite' but what if it was literally true??" She later talked about how there are some meds available that help things like obsessive compulsive habits such but - the words she used - "the hunger remains". It's just SO WEIRD because I've grown up with Lance all of my life. I've known that he is always hungry, never full. The "need" for food never goes away. But for some reason, somehow, I didn't REALIZE what that meant until I heard someone else's story and the words coming from someone else's mouth. It's so weird. I just kind of caught me off guard I guess. I mean, I think I grew up at times thinking "We have it so hard as siblings of a person with Prader-Willi Syndrome" or "oh, my mom and dad have it so hard having to care for Lance day in and day out". Those things are true - it's very hard sometimes and I know that is/was especially true for my mom. But I guess I've rarely thought about it from LANCE'S point of view. How hard it is for HIM to constantly have the struggle going on in his mind. He has the tendencies to want (or even NEED) to eat, eat, eat, must... find... food. But another side of him, I'm sure, wishes to be RID of that need. I think it's probably a constant battle for him. It's not something he can control - maybe he can control 10% of it, I don't know, I don't want to put a number on it. But it's not really something he can "teach" himself to stop doing/wanting/needing. I just wanted to say publicly that I'm proud of him. I never thought Lance would "grow up" but in a lot of ways he has.

ANYWAY! The post was supposed to be about my time with Jamesie tonight and turned into a Lance post. Oh well. :) So, tonight I got to watch Jamesie because Lynae and Seth were going to Lynae's 10 year highschool reunion tonight (eekkk!). Josiah went over to my Grandma's house so that I wouldn't have to have Lance, Joey, AND James. I suppose I could've handled it but I'm sure "great-grams" loved some Josiah time. :) When Nae first told me Joey would be with Grandma I kind of thought to myself "aww, dang." I love Jamesie with all of my heart, but I'll just say it - Josiah snuggles more these days - yes, kind of because he has to since he doesn't have the strength to pull away from me yet. But still, I get to hug him the WHOLE TIME! James used to be my little snuggle bug but now that he's getting older he likes to have his personal space. Ugh. :) Still, I was happy to watch James because I love him sooo much. It turned out to be WONDERFUL! I asked him what he wanted to do. "Watch ELMO in the moobie woom!" (movie room). "Okay!!!" James watched Elmo while I went on Facebook and checked my email and all of my various portals. He would get so excited if I sang along with a song on the movie or danced or clapped my hands. I LOVE how easily entertained he is and also how much he loves music. (BTW, I really think he has a good natural beat and probably some sort of musical gift in his future). The couch was folded out into a bed in the "movie room" (the guest bedroom) so that's what we were laying on while watching Elmo. James actual SNUGGLED with me and let me rub his hair and give him kisses. Lately he's been saying "NO AUNT LEE LEE!" when I try to snuggle him. But for some reason tonight he let me. And we just had such a blast together watching Elmo. I know that sounds really funny but it was quality time with JUST James that I hadn't had in a while. I had so much fun lovin' him and being his aunt Leelee. :)

A little while before I put him to bed I decided to see if he wanted some yogurt since he had barfed up some of his dinner. It sucks when that happens because I'm sure he gets hungry again like 30 mins later. So I fed him some yogurt - should've stopped there. I figured he was still hungry and asked him if he wanted some "okey sticks" (aka "turkey sticks" aka rolled up pieces of lunch meat). He did. He didn't throw up. Yayy! Since we had watched several Elmo movies, I thought maybe it'd be fun to give him a bath and let him splash around and play with his bath toys. I brought him into his room and put him on his bed to finish drying him off and to put his diaper and jammies on. For some reason he started gagging and barfing. Aaahhhh! I caught what I could with the towel but some of it got on his bed. Then he just kept going! I brought him off of his bed onto the floor. I caught some more of it in the towel but some got on his little ikea rug. Dang it! Several more hurls later the towel was full and his tummy was covered in vomit. :( Back into the bath!!! I screamed for Lance so that he could get his sippy cup which sometimes helps him stop vomiting. Lance wasn't responding and I was guessing that he was just ignoring me. Turns out he was on the potty. "LAAANNNCCEEE!" He comes in a couple of minutes later. "What?! I had to cut myself off!" HAHAHA! wow. TMI. He watched James in the tub while I cleaned up. I came back and I thought James was crying but it turns out he was cracking up and him and "Adu Ubby" (uncle Lance) were having a blast. So cute. :) I got James to bed after that and he fell asleep pretty quickly. But not until after he played with my ears and poked my face. Sounds weird, but it's something he's been doing forever. So cute. :)

I love my James and I had so much fun with him!!! Dealing with the mess was hard but he's worth it. Plus, Nae and Seth deal with it on a daily basis. I was glad that they had even just one less mess to deal with. It sounds like they had a fun time out without the kiddos!