Man of the House

Before Todd left on his 3 day trip, he had a talk with Drew about him being the man of the house since he would be gone. Drew has taken on this responsibility and it has really touched my heart. All 3 boys have been good so far, but Drew has also helped out with grown up responsibilities. This morning was the sweetest. I accidentally fell back asleep after Aiden woke me up around 7. When Aiden woke me at 8:20 (stop calling me bad mommy, I haven't been sleeping well lately), I found out that Drew had made pancakes for his brothers for breakfast. (He has been taking Advanced Classy Cooking as one of his Children's College classes and has been loving it). I got breakfast cleaned up and went to make my coffee.....the coffee pot was completely cleaned out. Now, I don't clean my coffee pot.....until the next day right before I make a new pot. So sue me, my pot is probably dying a slow death, I know. As you can imagine, I was confused by this. Turns out Drew had gone to make me coffee for breakfast and had it all ready but didn't know where I kept my coffee (in the freezer). I was so touched I just hugged and kissed him all up....and he let me. He said he knows that Dad likes to surprise me with coffee on weekend mornings so he wanted to do that too. I just love this child.

The other thing that really touched Todd and I was Thursday night before Todd left. At bedtime, Drew started crying in bed and Noah came to get us. Drew was scared about Todd trying to swim in that big lake with thousands of people with his bad back. He was scared of Todd getting hurt and drowning. I guess he had overheard Todd and I talking earlier. He was considering, if his back could take it, doing just the swim and bike portion of the race. He knew he couldn't handle the run at all yet, still too much pain there. I was very apprehensive myself. Someone died in the lake swim last year when we were there (heart attack I think) and I was worried about Todd's back too....it's a mile swim. Todd was feeling really guilty after that and we were suprised by Drew's emotions. He doesn't show that kind of emotion to us much....he's a macho 10 year old now you know. Todd was planning on doing the practice swim on the lake yesterday to see how it felt (he has a picture on Facebook already of some of the guys after the swim). It went fairly well. The actual race is tomorrow. He said he will let us know of his plans and call us after so we know he is ok. I know how badly he wants to race but he also doesn't want to do anything to worsen his back.

(For the family I hadn't talked to yet, his MRI showed he has degenerative disk disease in the same area he where he had his back surgery in '93. This is basically arthritis I think. He also has a bulging disc in that area that must be pushing on a nerve causing all of the leg pain. He goes to the Pain Management on Thurs. to see about getting an injection)

Me and the boys are missing daddy but we are having our own fun here and the boys are behaving pretty well for me. Aiden keeps telling me that all he wants to do is make me happy. I told him he just needs to be a good boy. I love these 3 kiddos!

5k Turkey run at YMCA on Thanksgiving Day 2008