Shooting Stars - The Boys

Wil

As I stated before I know that my doctor was truly guided while tending me through my pregnancies. When I was in labor with Wil, each contraction would bring a reduction in his heartrate. The nurses told me that it was just that the contractions were confusing the monitor. When it came time to push though, they realized that it was more than that. My attending nurse explained that she thought we were going to need a C-section since Wil's heartrate would go dangerously low. Just as she went to leave the room to call the doc, he opened the door. He said he felt impressed to come check on me. No time was wasted and Wil was delivered without a C-section.

It was also during this pregnancy that I first heard Dr. Hartman utter the phrase "You're not in labor. You're in misery." This was in reference to contractions that did nothing to progress delivery. There are times when I still wonder if Wil will ever stop giving me "misery" pains.

Wil has always been the most daring of my boys. When the kids were little, I would store the cookies/candy on top of the refridgerator so that they were not easily accessible to small hands. This changed when I walked into the kitchen one day to find Wil on the fridge. He had used a system of chairs, counter top and small appliances to reach the cookies. By the way, he was only two at the time. Yes, he is very ingenious.

Something else that has always amazed me about Wil is how self-contained he has always been. He very rarely loses his temper. In fact when he is angry or upset, he will go off by himself, not to sulk but to regain his composure. He has been this way since he was very little. At the time we lived in Virginia he was about two years old. One day I had put the kids down for a nap and then went to rest myself. When I went to check on the kids, Wil was gone, blankie, Barney and all. The doors were all still shut with the security chains safely in place, the windows were still shut, yet Wil was no where to be found.

At the time we were living in a 14' x 70' trailer in a park just off a busy highway. We had only taken one car with us when we moved across the country and Rick had it at work. I went outside to look for him, just in case he had found some way out of the house that I could not imagine - no sign of him. I called and left a message for Rick to call me. I was just about to call the police when the door to one of the kitchen cabinets opened and out came Wil. He told me that Hunter had been bugging him so he couldn't sleep, so he went to sleep in his "cave" to get away from him.

Wil is the most compassionate of all my children. He is the first to notice when someone needs help and seems to have an ability to offer the right help at the right time. He has always been very observant and notices things that most people would not even recognize. He is the one who made the first finds at our home as we went through the rubble.

He is also my child most willing to test limits. He once asked me how I always knew what he was going to do before he did it. I replied that there is nothing he could do that either his dad or I didn't try at one point in our lives. I have often joked that when my mom uttered that phrase, "I hope you have a child just like you one day!", she was talking about Wil. I know that what she meant to be a curse has also been a blessing to me, because in Wil I see the best parts of me as well.

All children dream of what they want to be when they grow up. Wil has wanted to be an engineer designing rollercoasters, an artist, a comedian and right now he is planning on majoring in music to become a music teacher. He also plans to fund his future endeavors by competing on and winning Survivor as the youngest contestant ever.

I know that whatever the future holds for this son, he will approach it with a positive outlook and a sense of humor.

Jon

Content is the word that first comes to mind when I think of Jon. When he was little he would love to just sit and let Hunter and Wil entertain him. It became a game with his older brothers to see who could get him to laugh the most. I contribute this to the fact that he got most of his crying out in the first two months of life. From the moment the sun went down, till it rose the next morning, Jon would scream. During the day he was fine, but at night the only way we could keep him calm was to keep him rocking in his swing. This was before battery operated swings, so Rick and I would take turns winding the swing and drowsing before it stopped. Luckily this ended right when he turned two months old, and he hasn't done much crying since.

Jon is steady and dependable. He holds the course on what he knows is right. At times we have had to explain the whys, but once he understands, there is never a deviation. Jon has an inner calm that is contagious. I have heard more than one person say that whenever they are upset, they just need to be with Jon and he will calm them down. With Jon, what you see is what you get and this is reassuring.

When Jon was little, he needed glasses in order to see. He was about 18 months old when he got his first pair. The doctor told us that in his experience, we would probably have a problem keeping them on Jon, since small children did not like the extra weight on their face. The reality is we had just the opposite problem. Every night when we would put Jon to bed, he would cry when we took his glasses off. This continued until we found a special place for them to be set at night that he could easily reach in the morning. When he could finally explain to me why he was so protective of his glasses, he told me that without them, he would see two of everything. Wearing glasses literally brought the world into alignment for him and he was afraid of losing that .

On the day of the fire that destroyed our home, I was overcome by the strength and courage of this son. When his dad yelled for everyone to get out of the house, this son had the presence of mind to grab the dogs' leashes, then got a garden hose and held the water from the back of the house till we could get out. He was so determined to help us get out, that by the time we realized he had not followed us around the house and Rick called for him, he could not get through the fence in the same place we had and had to jump the fence farther down. Yet having been through that, he was the one who took care of his sisters and kept them entertained while I made phone calls and his dad stayed at the fire.

And that is Jon - steady, calm, easy-going, dependable and did I mention smart. Jon has always loved to learn. When his brothers would come home, he would sit with them while they did homework. By the time he started preschool, he knew every song and poem that his brothers had learned. He continues to greet every new year and new experience with excitement.