Andy & Jessica

One of the highlights of my work day is when I get an email from Jude Olson, my high tech 4 year old. Today I got one that said, “i want mom.” It just makes my heart all mushy. I think it’s so cute how he calls me mom over email since it is a shorter word to type than “Mommy,” which is what he usually calls me. I can’t wait to get home and give my little Valentines some love.

Levi is a sweet little boy. He’s also snuggly. He loves to find my or Andy’s bare skin on our arm or elsewhere just to caress it. Andy thinks Levi starting doing this because Andy has always gotten Levi to sleep for naps or at night by putting Levi stomach to stomach on him and caressing his back. Someday we will see if Andy is right.

I got a call today at work (as I did last Friday) that Jude had to go into the doctor yet again. This time, it was more serious than an orange juice overdose. Little Jude was tearing down the stairs and through the living room and tripped and hit his head smack dab in the middle of his ear on the corner of the coffee table. Thankfully, Andy’s dad was in the area so he came and babysat the little boys while Andy loaded Jude up and picked me up from work. We went to the ER. We waited and waited and waited. Clearly, if it had been a real emergency, we would have gone by ambulance so that we could get right in. He had to be physically restrained by some giant velcro device and a grown man and me while the nurse sewed him up. All the while, Jude verbally assaulted the nurse screaming that she was, “a bad doctor,” a “dumb doctor” and demanded to let him leave. He even yelled at me and Andy, “Stop distracting me!” He didn’t want us to try to get his mind off of what was happening. The stitches took forever to get done and Jude ended up literally dripping with sweat at the end of it. 5 hours later we emerged with Jude and his 6 new stitches.

On Friday I heard from Andy that Jude was pointing at his kidneys and screaming. I left work on the next bus out of town and we all went to the doctor’s office. It turns out Jude and Levi were having issues, likely relating to too much orange juice. After I went back to work, Andy had been feeding the 2 boys a half a gallon a day of orange juice every day.  So glad it was nothing serious.

Jude’s cute sayings:

• When I got home from work, he wanted to get busy and play with me.  He whined, “I haven’t been played with today.”
• “Ash, I think I love you one trillion.”
• “I don’t like this coat.  It makes me look fat.”
• To my mom and dad who are at a car auction, “Enough cars!”  He quickly changed his tune when he learned he may be gifted one of them someday.
• To me when he must have thought he was babysitting:  “Mommy, can you watch over Ash?”  He then ran into the other room to get a toy and ran back.  He’s always looking out for Asher!
• To me when I told Jude and his brothers that I have the best boys ever: “Maybe you’re wrong.  Maybe some other kid you’ll like better.” 

Levi will be 2 in a month. He still barely talks. I’m not that concerned for 3 reasons: (1) Jude barely talked at that age but was reading before he turned 3; (2) Levi is learning German at the same time as English; and (3) everyone knows what Levi wants so he doesn’t need to do anything more than point and yell.

Asher is 4 months old and just as happy as ever. He is such a joy to have around. Definitely the best surprise of my life. His big brothers are so good to him and it’s just so fun to watch Jude and Levi interact so lovingly with Asher. Asher is sure a lucky baby to have such nice brothers. Jude said the other day (which was a little creepy), “If Asher or I had to die, I’m not sure who’d I’d pick. I love him so much. (long pause) Maybe none.”

Jude will be 5 at the beginning of April. We are still homeschooling him and he’s making great strides and doing work way above his age level. It seems that he will be the type of learner who enjoys lectures. He kept telling me when I was trying to quiz him down on his addition/subtraction, “Don’t ask me a question, just tell me the answer!”

On January 3rd my wonderful maternity leave was over and I had to head back to work. Andy’s vacation ended that day too, with him being responsible for taking care of the boys while I’m at work. The boys are struggling a bit with the adjustment. Asher is in a great mood, as always, during the day, but just doesn’t sleep. Maybe he’s looking around for me all day long. Jude and Levi have responded by waking up way more than usual during the night and getting up earlier so that they can see me off. But, I think Jude is getting used to me being gone. The other day when I came home from work, Jude lit up as bright as a Christmas tree and said, “I forgot about you. I’m really happy to see you, but I forgot about you.” At least he was having fun with his dad and brothers!

We got an early start to the day yesterday. We all headed to Children’s Hospital for Jude’s 6:30 a.m. MRI. He has an MRI every 4 months. He does well with it all, but hates getting poked for his IV. The numbing cream and astronaut gas don’t seem to help too much. The scan looks stable. They think the bright tissue on the scan is probably just scar tissue rather than tumor cells since it does not appear to have grown or changed.

Every appointment with the oncologist seems to reveal a bigger piece of the puzzle, with us learning a host of new things to worry about. It seems like the gradual revelation is intentional so that we won’t get overwhelmed at first. At the last appointment we learned the MRIs would have to continue for 20 years since the tumor is so slow growing. This time we learned about all the hormonal and growth issues that having a large brain tumor and brain pressure can cause. So, at this rate, I will breathe easier in 19 years.

On a recent airplane ride, Jude dropped part of his hot dog on the ground. I was sitting with Asher on my lap so I told Jude to pick it up. Jude looked up and saw that the seat belt light was on. He said, “I don’t want to suffer” (a fancy way of saying he didn’t want to get hurt or a really fancy way of saying that he was too lazy to pick up the hot dog and wanted me to do it). I told him that the flight attendants were walking around. He countered with, “But they are professionals.” I ended up picking up the hot dog. Score: Jude: 1. Mommy: None.