One small step for Mom

You'll never guess where Elise is right now... on her very FIRST playdate, sans Mom.

And I'm not even freaked out!

It all started at Target (as all good stories and blog posts do), when I ran into our neighbour, B. Elise LOVES her 5 year old twin girls, A & G. At some point in the conversation, B asked me if Elise could come over this afternoon to play.

I hesitated, because Mattias usually naps from about 1 - 4:30-ish (I know, how lucky am I?), which means Elise would have to go without me.  B was totally cool with that, and Elise was beside herself with excitement (me too)!

Thankfully, B only lives two doors down, and I feel completely confident that she'd be able to handle anything that happened. 

When I dropped Elise off, I gave B a crash course in bolusing for a snack (which I sent as well), and as I was finishing up, Elise was trying to push me out the door.  I think someone is ready for a little independence.

So here I sit... blogging in glorious silence, while I should be doing something constructive like laundry or mopping. Now that my post is done, I think I'll watch a little olympics instead.

I could really get used to this.

Summer Camp

For us, sending Elise to a summer camp was a very far off dream. I'm not talking about diabetes camp, but your ordinary, run-of-the-mill day camp that a lot of parents send their kids to during the summer; filling their days with art, science, gymnastics, and other fun activities.

At least, parents of kids that DON'T have type 1 diabetes.

Somehow Elise heard of these day camps, and had been bugging me to put her in one. I remember going to them as a kid and loved it. So much so that when I aged out, I became a Leader-in-Training; earning a cool $50 a week at the age of 12.

But I just didn't see how it was possible. Most of these camps featured a snack AND lunch. Plus running around. And 100 degree weather. And people who haven't a clue about diabetes.

So you can see why these camps weren't even a possibility for us. Until Elise's pre-school teacher from last year (who totally rocks BG checks and bolusing) told us that she would be helping out with the summer camp that would be held at the pre-school, and would Elise like to come?

Ummmm, yes please!

Elise completed her first week last week and had an amazing time. She came home every afternoon just bubbling over with excitement. Her favorite thing? Getting to eat lunch there. She has always wanted to stay for "lunch bunch" after her pre-school class, but we never did it... I was just unwilling to let go of that control.

She loved it so much that we signed her up for the second week. The theme of the camp is "Busy Town"... Businesses come in and teach the kids all about what they do. One day last week they had a pizza place come in and teach the kids how to make their own pizza. We rocked the pizza.

This week? A donut store will come in on Wednesday. They get to make donuts and bring them home. We've never done donuts before. You know what? Bring it on... We totally got this.

Summer camp... Yet another step on the journey of letting go.

Elise in her dance recital costume from a few months ago - too cute not to share!

Why yes... she CAN eat that!

The "that" in question being chocolate fondue, which Fred, Elise and I enjoyed last night as a Valentine's treat. Poor Mattias, who was running a temperature of 103 was not able to partake. Poor little croupy baby.

Elise was 170 pre-fondue (which is not too shabby considering we did a pump change and had Chick-fil-a for dinner), and came in at 180 four hours later. What she did during the in-between is anybody's guess, but waking up at 94 sure sounds like victory to me.

And because this post has a shiny-happy overtone to it, I'm not going to rant about how Valentine's has turned into yet another holiday where the kids bombard each other with sugar-laden crap at school. I told Elise that our new mantra is going to be, "just because you can eat that, doesn't mean you should."

Because NO ONE should eat a stick made of artificial flavours and colours dipped into even more artificially flavoured/coloured sugar.

NO ONE.

Beating diabetes at its own game

Le sigh.


You know how everything old is new again? Well, we are back to almost having to use wrestling holds to give Elise her shots. That might fly with a 12 month old, but a freaked-out 4 year old is proving to be way, way stronger than me.

Crap-on-a-stick it's ba-a-a-a-ad. And if her BG is high? Freaking near IMPOSSIBLE.

I've tried all the old tricks, but it's almost impossible to reason with her. I even promised her that if she didn't resist her shots, she could give me a shot. In the bum.

Oh yes I did.

And yes she did. I let a 4 year old stick a needle in my arse (with Fred's supervision, of course). I'm a little taken aback at how gleeful she was about the whole thing.

And she did pretty well for awhile after that. Now she's back to her freaking out ways again. And there is no way I'm going to implement a shot-for-a-shot philosophy around here.

So yesterday morning over breakfast, I laid it all out for her. Maybe it was too harsh, I don't know. But diabetes is a harsh disease. And the sooner she gets that, the better. It went something like this:

(P.S. - please don't judge me for the way I choose to talk to my kid about diabetes. I am a realist... I don't believe in sugar-coating things or making things pretty when they're not. M'kay?)

I let her know that we love her very much. And we are so sorry that she has diabetes. In fact, I told her I would give her my pancreas in a heartbeat if I could. But it doesn't work that way. I told her that we don't like to give her shots, and we don't do it for chuckles, but the plain truth is; she will DIE if she doesn't have insulin.

I explained how heartbroken we would be if she wasn't with us anymore. How we would miss her. And that's why we have to take such good care of her. Then I went into the whole "everybody-has-something" bit. It's what you DO with your something that makes you who you are.

Then I appealed to her competitive side (and ohmygosh, don't ever try to beat her at anything). I told her that it's okay to be sad about diabetes sometimes, but when it makes us sad, mad or scared ALL the time, we're letting diabetes win.

When we show diabetes that we're not scared of it; the shots, the finger pokes, the dr. visits... then we are the ones who are winning (damn you Charlie Sheen for forever tainting that term).

Now, this girl LOVES to win. At everything. If you want to motivate her to do something, turn it into a race or a competition. Elise totally perked up when I started talking about beating diabetes.

"So if I don't cry at my shots, I'm beating diabetes? I win?" She asked.

I told her yes. That when diabetes isn't the boss of us, then we win. She liked that. In fact, she was ALL OVER that.

And you know what? It's working. With each shot, instead of crying, she now yells, "I WIN!"

So stick THAT in your pipe and smoke it, diabetes. You loose.

You're a loo-hoo-ser, diabetes!
(Elise at 15 months)

The fair by the numbers

Today we went to a local fair that we have been going to since we moved to the area. It's close by, family friendly, and FREE if you go before 5 pm on Friday. This was the first time since Elise's dx that we decided to partake of the fair fare; a risky venture to be sure. There were so many unknown carb factors, my head nearly exploded.

So here is how we fared at the fair:

BG at dinnertime: 259 (blurgh - she was a wee bit excited)

Food eaten by Elise: 1 corn on the cob, 1 hotdog, 1 fruit kabob with strawberry and banana; covered in white and milk chocolate, 1/3 of a smoked turkey leg, 4 huge handfuls of cotton candy, 1 small handful of caramel corn, 1 sip of lemonade.

Approximate amount of carbs: I actually stopped counting after the fruit kabob.

Amount of insulin for that carbfest: 2 units u-50, 1 unit u-20 (for her correction).

BG at bedtime: 121

My elation level at how it all worked out (using MDI, no less): through the freaking ROOF!

Of course, now that I've been all braggy-braggerton about it, we'll probably be up all night dealing with some BG craziness. Oh well, I'm going to savour it while it lasts.

One small step

Actually, it was a pretty big one.

Let me explain. Like most parents of kids with D, Fred and I don't get out alone much. Like, AT ALL. Because we have no family here and no one who can care for Elise. Of course, we have fabulous D-moms like Jessica and Laura who can help out in a pinch, but we don't have anyone close enough who can help on a regular basis.

The cool thing about our new neighbourhood is that it's VERY social. Every Friday night during the summer, they have a happy hour. It's at a different house every week, and there's food, drinks, one house had live music and another had a margarita machine.

Fred and I planned to attend these happy hours, but we would do it in shifts. Meaning, we would never get to go together. It kind of became a running joke. I would just tell people that Fred and I were like the president of vice-president of the United States; we never attended parties together for security reasons.

We had many offers to babysit, but when they found out Elise was a T1, their eagerness waned. Except the parents of one girl who I'll call "A".

According to everyone in the neighbourhood, A is 17 going on 30. She's very responsible, smart, and is thinking about going into medicine. And she was interested in learning about what it takes to care for Elise.

So we set up a time when A could come observe. Elise loved her instantly. And she did a great job watching, asking questions, and even did a finger poke on me (we had just tested Elise before she came over). We booked her for Friday (last night).

On Friday I tried to come up with any excuse not to leave Elise. Her rash. She had been low all day. Saturn was in the fifth house of the rising sun. Whatever. I just wasn't ready.

But Elise was so excited that her friend A was coming over that I willed myself to leave. People at the party were excited to see Fred and I together. I stayed until 11:30 and had a great time.

In fact, the only reason I went home is because babysitters now get $10 an hour, and we have a mortgage to pay. All was quiet and Elise was a steady 178.

Am I glad I finally was able to leave Elise? Yes

Will we do it again soon? Not unless we become independently wealthy.

But it's nice to know that I can do it. Such a small step to some.

Such a big step for me.

Meet the newest member of our family!

Insulin family that is.

Let me start by introducing the long-standing members. From left to right we have; Pink Lady, Greenie, Mr. Blue, and Agent Orange.




Pink Lady. Our basal. NPH. Our behind the scenes gal.

Greenie. Humalog. The breakfast bolus. He handles the heavy lifting for us.

Mr. Blue. Diluted Humalog. U-20. Diluted to 1/5 the strength of full strength. Mr. Fix-it. He handles our screw-ups and is used for the smallest of jobs.

Agent Orange. Also diluted Humalog. U-50. Diluted to 1/2 the strength of full strength. Our NEW dinnertime bolus.

Why 4 insulins? Because we've been experimenting, and the U-50 is our solution. Remember all my posts about Elise's crashing dinnertime BG? It seemed no matter what we would do, we couldn't fix it. We'd give her shot up to an hour afterwards and she would still come crashing down. So Fred and I decided to try something.

A few nights ago, we decided to give her NO insulin at dinner. She was 94, ate 36g of carbs. She stayed steady for awhile, but about 1 hour after eating, she starting rising rapidly. So we chickened out and gave her 1/2 a unit of full strength. About 45 minutes later, she was 50. FAIL.

So the next night, we stuck to our guns. No insulin at dinner. She was 110 going in, ate 35g of carbs. Held steady at 180 for over 2 hours. We were elated. Except by three hours later, she was 357. FAIL.

When Elise was on U-20 for her bolus, she would get 12 units at dinnertime. That is just too huge of a shot. So we decided to make U-50. Here's how it went down on night #1:

She was 92 at dinner. We gave her 2 units of U-50 (theoretically the same amount of insulin as her full strength dose). She ate 36g of carbs and two hours later she was 213. One hour after that she was 133. YEAH!

Night #2
She was 129 going into dinner. She had 2 units of U-50 (given BEFORE her meal... something we haven't be able to do with full strength). She had 33g of carbs and was at 124 three hours later. Can I get a HOLLA?

Night #3
64 going into dinner (oopsie). She had 45g of carbs, and the 2 units of U-50. Three hours later, she was 134. I'm sensing a pattern. Again, no spike and no crash.

As an added bonus, her nighttime numbers have been so much steadier than they have been in a long time. It's so weird to me that she can received the SAME amount of insulin, and just because it's diluted, we don't get a crash.

Her 24 graph... Nice (well except for the low we had waiting for that 2-hour start-up)!



I am so relieved that we seem to have a handle on this dinnertime stuff. Those horrible crashes had been going on for MONTHS. We had wanted to try diluting her insulin like this for awhile, but it seemed so unorthodox, we were afraid to try it.

Let's hear it for thinking outside the box!

***Please Note*** This is in NO WAY medical advice. It's not. I'm not a doctor. Just a crappy stand-in for my daughter's pancreas . Just because this worked for us doesn't mean it will work for everyone. You should discuss changes to your child's treatment with their doctor.

Best. Day. Ever

So I've become a little obsessed with posting dexcom pics. Have you seen the weather in Texas lately? Snowy. Icy. Sleety (is that a word?). And just downright COLD! This morning it was 16 degrees F. That's -9 for my Canadian and other Celsius peeps. Translation... BRRRRR!

So there's not a whole lot to do around here except micro-manage Elise's diabetes and take pictures of the results. I give you my exhibit:

Blood Sugar Beauty; Dexcom Bears All.

I call this one "A 3 Hour Tour". It includes her bedtime snack.

This is "The Disappearing Line". It encapsulates 2 lunches, 1 breakfast, 1 dinner and 3 snacks. The missing data is from overnight when she was lying on her sensor.

"24 Hours of Bliss" Her BG didn't go above 170 or below 85 during this time period. Oh my, I love this picture so much, I am going to print it out and take it to a romantic Valentine's dinner.

I think I need a hobby.

BG Nirvana

Things have been going so terribly BG-wise the last few weeks, I thought I would take the time to celebrate today.

That huge spike and drop you see is dinner last night. She goes crazy high and them plummets back down. I'm slowly trying to figure it out

Oh sure, I was up three separate times last night to deal with a low blood sugar, but we started off the day at 151, and that's the highest she's been so far. Her BG today has ranged from 80 - 151. Aside from that spike, that's a pretty good-looking 24-hour graph.

Even better, that first mountain (more like a hill) you see in this pic below is Elise coming down while she's eating her breakfast. Note, there is no post-meal spike. Ha, I totally made breakfast my bitch today. Dinner... you're next.

post-breakfast

We did it!

After reading everyone's advice, and a call to Elise's doctor, we decided to send her for her first day of pre-school. The clincher? When she cried after we told her she wasn't going to school this morning. Yeah, she has us wrapped around her little finger.

She did amazing and never even looked back when we left her. I, on the other hand bawled like a baby.

Diabetes-wise, everything was okay... she has been high since yesterday, and remained high throughout the morning. Even this afternoon we're having trouble bringing her down. But high is better than the alternative.

Right before I woke up, I had a dream that her BG was 742 and her ketones were 9. Can you tell I was a bit stressed about the whole situation?

The best part? She absolutely LOVED it. She told me her favourite part was cleaning up, and she made lots of new friends one of which she danced with. And I got to spend some unhurried snuggle time with Mattias. I think I could get used to this sending-her-to-school thing!

Check out these cute pics of Elise:

Come on Mom... let's go!


My little pre-schooler


Does she look ready?

Now she's not so sure

That's nice to see!

I'm trying to upload some pictures of the birthday party, but blogger is giving me grief this morning. I did, however, manage to upload this picture of Eileen looking quite beautiful this morning. Except for one dip into the 80s last night (when we gave her 7g), this is pretty representative of Elise's numbers from overnight.

Of course, now that I've blogged about it, it's all over... isn't it?

I just about peed my pants... and it's not because I'm pregnant

The number is in and it's good. No, it's great. Fred and I are freaking rock stars. Elise's A1C was 6.6. Her endo walked into the room and asked if we were ready to pass out. We didn't faint, but I teared up. Hearing a number like that (after TWO rounds of strep throat and antibiotics) is so worth all the crap we go through.

It's worth every sleepless night.

It's worth every carb we weigh.

It's worth every calculation.

It's worth every moment that we sit and pour over her numbers, trying to figure out how we can do better.

Elise's doc did go over our numbers to make sure that the low A1C wasn't a result of too many low BGs, and was pleased with what she saw.

6.6... oh my. I am so in love with that number that I am going to run off to Vegas and marry it.

She did it!

40 shots (she gets 3 shots/day) without making a fuss. Her prize???

A brand new princess bike (still wondering how MY daughter likes princesses)

Hopped on it like she's been riding a bike all her life

So proud of herself

Watch me go!

C'mon Seven, let's get outta here!

The first time she rode her bike, we checked her BG right before. She was 71. So we tried to get her to eat some banana before she went for her ride. The problem was, she had already gotten on the bike and was trying to pedal away. Have you ever tried to feed your child food while they're riding their bike? Not easy, my friends... not easy.

Thankfully, she stopped long enough to get some carbs into her, and then she was gone again.

Crazy kid.

I Did it! (all by myself)

This post is about a year and a half old. Re-reading it made me smile and realize just how far I've come.

Someone who just happened across this blog, and didn't know the whole story, would probably read this post and think, "man, this lady gets excited over the dumbest things." But you know what? I just don't care.

Because I took Elise to eat at Chick-fil-a, all by myself without Fred there to help. I know, how intoxicating, right? This was big for a couple of reasons:

1. I was going out with a bunch of Moms and their kids. It's really hard to concentrate on talking to people when you have to keep a watchful eye on your daughter to make sure she eats everything on her plate. Plus I was a little nervous about checking her sugar and the potential of giving her a shot in front of all those other people. I especially didn't want to scare any of the kids. As it turns out, her BG was a bit high, but not so much that I needed to give her extra insulin.
   
   
2. She got to eat Chick-fil-a too! Of course I looked up the nutritional info before I went and determined what she could eat (btw, Chick-fil-a's website is wonderful for this). I semi-cheated and brought her some stuff from home, but she seemed to enjoy those Chick-fil-a nuggets!
   
   
3. Although she's 16 months old, I have never taken Elise to a restaurant by myself. I mean, I did when she was little, but not lately, and especially not since her dx. The logistics always overwhelmed me... got to make sure I get there in time (Elise needs to eat at very specific times), check her BG, maybe give her a shot, get the food, make sure she eats everything while trying to eat some of my own food. When I write it out, it doesn't sound that bad, but when I think about it, I get tired.
   

I almost didn't go (which is typical of me... not trying because I'm scared I'll fail), but I did it, and it's amazing how such a small thing can boost one's confidence.

So D, I politely request that you stick THAT in your pipe and smoke it.

Having her cake and eating it too

Pictured to the right is THE best cake in the world. We get it for every birthday, nay... every celebration worth celebrating. It comes from a bakery which is about 40 minutes from our house and it is so worth the drive.

The problem with the best cake in the world is that it is unlike any cake you've ever had. It is made up of two types of layers. One is meringue-like (but not entirely... it's like a really crispy meringue. And that doesn't even describe it well), and the other is a whipped cream/ice cream hybrid. It is then covered in this whipped cream/ice cream hybrid, which in turn, it covered in chocolate shavings.

All that to say, guessing the carbs in this thing is like trying to guess how many stars are in the sky. Or how many ellipsis Meri has used on her blog. At best, it's a total crap shoot. I once asked if the bakery had any nutritional info on this cake and the lady gave me her best wise-ass smirk.

Because of how the timing worked out on Fred's birthday, we were going to give Elise some cake as part of her bed time snack. Fred and I put our heads together and came up with our best WAG (wild ass guess) at a carb factor. We chose .70. No, I don't know how we arrived at that number.

About 2 hours later, her BG was in the high 300s. Oops. But four hours later, she was back down in the mid 100s with no correction, and she woke up at 89. Nice.

The next two times she ate it, we used the same carb factor, and tweaked the amount of other carbs she ate, as well as giving her a bit of extra insulin. By the third time she had the cake, her BG was in the low 100s about 2 1/2 hours after eating it. Success!

I hate when we run across foods that are hard to figure out carbs for, but we have decided it won't stop us from letting Elise enjoy it.

Letting your child have cake... it's such a small thing to other people, but for us, it's a triumph.


And I love the smile it brought to her face.

***note: the above picture is not an actual picture of said smile (nor is it really a smile), but a rather adorable picture (in this mother's opinion), that I wanted to share. I'm shameless... I know.

By Jove, I think we got it!

And by it, I'm talking about the correct dosing for the Amoxicillin Elise is currently taking for her strep throat.

I knew it was the antibiotic making her run high, and not the infection, because she was constantly running high (in the almost 400 range) about 2 hours after getting her dose (breakfast and dinner). We usually see numbers in the mid-100s or lower at these times. Her numbers at other times during the day were fine.

The incredible Meri suggested adding a correction dosage to the shots Elise was getting at breakfast and dinner to see if that would help. Elise gets 1 unit of diluted Humalog for 301-400, and 2 units for 400+. I decided to start with 2 units, which didn't make much of a difference, so I got bold and upped it to 4 units. We're now seeing numbers in the high 100s. Not perfect, but I'm reluctant to up the dosage any more than I already have.

THIS is why I love my D-community!

Disclaimer: This correction dosage for Amoxicillin, of course, pertains to Elise only. Every child is different, and will respond differently to medications and/or insulin. Please follow your doctors advice, and use caution when giving your child a buttload of insulin.

Hello win column

I have learned that diabetes is crazy mix of disappointments and victories. I don't like the word disappointment, but I like the word failure even less, so disappointment it is.

I try not to take the disappointments personally, but I hate when I guess a snack amount wrong. Or over/undershoot a carb amount to bring up a low. Or get the carb/insulin ratio wrong. Or I try a new recipe, carefully counting out all the carbs, and it ends up shooting Elise's BG through the roof for no apparent reason. Or I miss a low... the list could go on forever.

But I savour the victories. Perhaps it's the disappointment to victory ratio that makes them that much sweeter, but I swear if those victories could manifest themselves as a dewy meadow, I would run barefoot through them. No, naked. AND barefoot.

We had one such victory the other day when we went over to a friends house for dinner. I make probably THE best cheese fondue ever (and I'm so modest about it too!), and I love making it for my friends. Of course, these days, my house really needs to be declared a state of emergency, so hosting is out of the question.

So I took my fondue set on the road and went to work creating my dish of cheesy goodness. When it came time to eat, their kids joined in, but Elise had already eaten her dinner about 90 minutes prior. Of course she was curious as to what was going on, and REALLY wanted to take part in the "dip dip".

Fred and I just looked at each other, tired of all the crap that comes with diabetes. You could tell we were just worn out because we just shrugged our shoulders at each other and told Elise to "have at it". Although we just let her dip the apples and kept the bread out of her reach. No matter, she was happy.

Following the cheese, our hosts decided to break out some chocolate fondue. Again, we just looked at each other and said, "if she wants it, let's let her have it." The interesting part was we never even checked her. I think we were just so burned out at diabetes running our lives, we figured we'd deal with the repercussions of a high BG later.

After all this "extra" food, we figured her BG was going to be uber-high, but when we checked it at her snack time (about an hour after we ate), she rang in at 108. Whaaaaaaat? So we gave her her normal snack and insulin. She went off to play with our friends' kids until we left at about 11:00 pm.

When we got home we decided to check her one more time, and she was 129. I think we learned a valuable lesson that night. We can try like crazy to "control" Elise's diabetes, do everything "right", but it doesn't always work out as planned. Then there are the times we throw caution to the wind and sometimes it all works out, with no explanation as to why.

I believe we need to find the balance between the two, and firmly plant ourselves there. Living in either extreme is not good for my soul. The tricky part is figuring out what it looks like for us.

I'm happy to say that after a year and a half, we just might have found a place in which we can rest.

Sleep issues continue... and the State Fair!

Well, it looks like it's not the higher BG keeping Elise awake at night. We upped her NPH dose from 2.5 to 3 units, and had to give her some banana last night at 1:45 when her BG was 102. About 30 minutes after we gave her the banana, she woke up crying like she always does.

Granted, last night was not a typical night and in hindsight, we shouldn't have changed the dosage. We went to the State Fair, and I think all the excitement caused Elise's BG to be higher (230 as opposed to about 100) at what is her normally her bedtime check. We were still at the fair at that time and didn't get Elise to bed until almost 11:00!

She was 114 at wake up this morning and that would be great, except for that 102 in the middle of the night (she went up to 201 after about 8g of carbs). So what this tells me is 3 units of NPH may be to much and 2.5 may not be quite enough. But again, we chose a bad time to change her dosage. Oh well, call it a learning experience! I'm still not sure if we'll try again tonight...

But, the trip to the State Fair went great! If I'm being honest, I hate the fair. The crowds, the smells, all that fried food (I'm sorry, it's just sooooo gross), and the fact that it's in the not-very-nice part of Dallas. But Fred loves it, and we got some free tickets, so we went.

It was a last minute decision, which totally grates on my plan-every-last detail personality, but we just rolled with it. The timing with dinner, shots and snacks were a bit awkward (like eating dinner on the train and getting her nightly dose of N at the top of the ferris wheel), but we made it work, and Elise had a fabulous time. Which makes it all worthwhile.

I didn't get too many pics, but here are my favourites:

Elise and Poppa in front of the fountains

Our friend's band is playing at the fair, he's the guy playing guitar on the left

We also watched a bit of a soccer match while at the fair (both Fred and I play)

Elise watching the pig races... yes, pig races

Moooooooo!

Elise strangling, er, hugging a goat

Enjoying the view at the top of the Texas Star ferris wheel

The obligatory family picture

Proud of my girl!

Okay, she may be driving me nuts with this sleeping issue, but I have to tell you how proud I am of how Elise handles her diabetes lately.

When it's time to check her BG, she runs to the sink so I can help her wash her hands. She also likes to pick if we're going to test her fingers or toes, and generally shows me the exact one she wants tested.

Same with her shots. When I tell her it's time, she runs over to the spot where we usually sit to give her the shot, and then picks which arm or leg she wants it in. And it's sooooo cute the way she says, " how 'bout THIS one!"

She also likes to check her baby's BG, and sometimes I catch her trying to test the dog too!

It makes me a little sad that she's had to grow up so quickly, but I am also filled with pride that she handles this disease with such maturity.

Glad THAT'S over for another year!

Don't get me wrong... we had so much fun, but WOW am I tired! The weather was perfect and we had a great turnout... something like 26 adults and 15 kids. Elise's BG was 241 before dinner, and after pizza, some fruit, icing-less cake, tons of excitement, running around the playground and lots of bounce house fun she came in at 118 before bed. Go us!

And because you asked (and because she's just so darn cute)... pictures!

I know the picture is blurry, but it was too cute not to post! Elise having fun in the bounce house... thanks Winston and Shirley for letting us borrow it!

Hunter and Elise hanging in the bounce house

Adorable Avery

Wonderful friends Chris, Val and little Mavis

Cute, cute, cute Madison

Cristiane, Marcelo, and itty-bitty Liam - our youngest partier

Elise with her best bud Val

Happy Birthday Elise, boy that is a lot of icing!

She was so excited she started singing before we even lit the candle!

She loves to blow out the candle

Waiting to sing again (we sing to her in English and Portuguese). On a side note, I love Travis' mischievous little grin in this picture

Caaaaaaaake!