Responsible

Brendon will feign exhaustion if asked to clean up the mess he's made on any given occasion, regardless of the fact that seconds before I asked him he was running around like a lunatic. If I ask him to put away his clothes after I fold them, the furthest they get is on the floor at the entrance of his bedroom.

While he goes "half-way" with undesirable chores, I always make note how he goes full throttle when it comes to being responsible with his own diabetes care.

We had gone on a three hour trip to visit family and on the way home, we stopped at a rest stop for snacks and gas. I let the kids pick whatever junk they wanted if it meant a peaceful car ride home. While they picked at the assorted crap, they all zoned in on the "forbidden" Pop Tarts. Jessica and Jacob made their choice...some sort of Chocolate Sundae thingy. Brendon immediately picked up the same, but rather than tuck it under his armpit as his brother and sister had, he looked at the carb count.

"90 carbs!!?? I'm putting this one back."

And so he continued to look for a more suitably lower carb snack. As much as he's begged me in the past to buy him Pop Tarts ("Just this once, Mom.") he passed because he took his diabetes into account first and foremost.

When he gets his equipment packed for baseball practice, he may forget one thing or another, but he never forgets juice boxes and his test kit.

There are times when I'll tell him he needs to be checked while he's in the middle of playing, and he may tell me, "I feel fine, Mom. It's OK, you don't have to check me", but when I insist that he does need to be checked, he never balks or sulks or kick at the ground the way he would if I told him he has to put his dirty underwear in the laundry basket. He takes his lumps with dignity.

Yes, there are times when he wants to just be a kid.

The school nurse called yesterday to let me know he was in the 300's before lunchtime and when she told him how high he was, he pleaded with her to not make him wait around for a ketone check. He wanted to hurry up to the lunchroom so that he could eat in time and get to recess.

Overall, he certainly has made our job easier to deal with. Even as a toddler back during the early diabetes days.

I give him tons of credit for taking his diabetes care like a champ.

I worry at times that I let him take on too much and that as he gets older he'll burn out. But he seems to deal with his care without a second thought.

He knows his limits though. If he's had a long day or he simply doesn't feel like dealing with it and I've told him how many carbs he's getting for dinner, rather than automatically entering into his pump, he'll ask "Mom, can you do it for me?"

I do so, willingly.