Early on in our special journey, I took some wisdom from Christopher Robin. Remember when Pooh rescues Piglet from the flood caused by, what Owl calls, the "mild spring zephyr"? The flood also wipes out Owl's house and Piglet displays incredible selflessness and offers Owl his own house to have. Christopher Robin knew exactly the way to recognize such acts of valor and sacrifice -- he threw them all a Hero Party.
My little bundle of acorns are constantly displaying just such acts of heroism. Through each of Bridger's acute frightening health encounters, or sustained periods of difficulty, my little troop has shown compassion, endured and sacrificed. Consequently, years ago, we started the tradition of Hero Parties that we have after each such challenging time.
Our latest Hero Party took place on Thursday. We had just endured the health challenges I mentioned in my previous post. I didn't mention in my previous post, however, the part that they each played.
Bridger's seizure was a scary one - it lasted over 2 hours. His little face was contorted and his muscles were chomping away at the interior of his mouth, turning it into a pulp. I couldn't pry into his mouth to keep his teeth from grinding at his flesh and he was gagging on the blood it produced. While I was on the phone trying to get a hold of the neurologist on call, Evie's job was to hold her brother's head while he was seizing and wipe the blood that was dripping from his mouth.
What 10 year old girl has that as her after school activity?
The following day the older two girls were at piano lessons and I had to unexpectedly pick them up. Bridger was still experiencing the "after shocks" of his seizure. He was still too weak to hold up his head and was vomiting. I carefully carried him to the back seat of the car and buckled him next to his 5 year old little sister, Eliza. It was her job to hold his head up and to place the vomit bowl under his face when he would retch and to wipe his mouth with the towel after each vomit.
What 5 year old little girl has to go on car rides with Mom like that?
My other two children would jump in to cuddle, love, and tend to their brother. They did extra laundry, cleaned the house, made meals and endured days and days of screaming from their brother without complaint.
Their life experience is all they know, yet I know it is so far from the experience of a typical child their age. Their actions of the past two weeks definitely called for a Hero Party.
I secured a caregiver for Bridger, threw them in the car and whisked them off to Sweet Frog. . . *cough* for dinner.
I listed to each of them their acts of valor, selflessness, compassion and sacrifice that they displayed in helping their brother, and our family as a whole, thrive during their brother's health challenge of the past couple weeks.
They are my heroes and deserving of every Hero Party we hold in their honor.
It is unnatural, yet amazing - pathetic, yet wonderful to admit that we have a lot of Hero Parties around here.
Thank you, my little heroes!
