Now A Family of *gulp* Six.

With all of Roman's issues we've dealt with, we were sure that he would be the most affected by Doug's hospitalization. Maybe because of how he and we have learned to process things, however, Roman did well! It was Charlie, who we first thought was taking things in and we were doing a good job with, who has suffered the most. When Doug returned from the hospital Charlie was very excited, but within hours was gravitating toward me for everything. He got clingy, emotional, whiney & weepy. He would not go to Doug for anything, and sometimes would even deliberately skip over his Dad to ask me for things. The other night it all came to a head, when it was Doug's turn to put Charlie to bed. Char wanted nothing to do with him and started crying and having a tantrum over wanting me. As I finally calmed him down and agreed to put him to bed, out popped the fear that Charlie had been dealing with in his little 4 yro mind - "When is Daddy going to die?" With some ...

Surgery for Doug went fine, and after many more days of recovery, he returned home this past Tuesday. It's a delicate mix of resting and yet building his stamina back up. Doctors told him to go ahead and do normal things, but just do them very slowly. He's allowed to drive, but he can't report back to work until clearance from doc, which won't happen until at least next Thursday. A conundrum for Doug - on one hand, he doesn't mind sitting around the house for once with no stressors. On the other hand, it drives him crazy that he can't do the things that pop into his mind. The boys were so thrilled to have him back. Charlie, especially, seemed to struggle this time with a parent gone. He became more and more clingy to me, and even his preschool teacher said he was like a "lost puppy."  There was quite a change even the night that Doug got home. We had so many people step up for us - some we can never repay. Meals, watching the kids, and to top it of...