Charlie

Charlie fell asleep on the couch with me last night watching the Blackhawks game (great game, BTW!) When I got up to go to bed, like any parent would do without having to think twice about it, I lovingly wrapped my arms around him, lifted him off the couch, and carried him upstairs. I lingered in his room for a few minutes with him there in my arms before I leaned over to put him in his bed and kissed him about ten times and whispered good night. As I walked out of the room, I stopped in my tracks and my eyes filled with tears; the parent child bedtime routine I had so many times taken for granted would soon become forbidden, along with lifting anything else weighing over 10 pounds.

I won't be allowed to lift up and carry my own children. They won't be allowed to run to me like they always do and throw their tiny arms around my neck. How do you tell kids not to do that? When Charlie falls asleep on the couch like he always does, I'm going to have to wake him up. For those of you who don't know my son, this will not be any easy task. The child just does not wake up, and he's such an angel when he's sleeping, it’s nearly impossible to disrupt him without it breaking your heart.

I'm taking Charlie to the pool today for the first time this summer. He's been going for a week now to Reagan's swim team practices, and God bless him, he never complains about not getting to go in, but I always catch him looking over at the kiddie pool that he obviously remembers from last summer like it was yesterday. Well, the pool finally opens to the public today, and I am thankfully off school on summer break, and the weather is cooperating, so that's our plan. He loves when I carry him around the adult pool (he can't swim, but he's determined to learn this year, finally!) I'm hoping that after the surgery, we can come to the pool to escape the reality of gravity, because in the pool Charlie will weigh less than 10 pounds.