The first 8 weeks of togetherness were nothing but a downhill ride. I tried breast feeding, but soon realized that he needed more than I could produce. Maybe because he "never got enough" on breast is why he is now a "boob" man. He has always pushed "our" buttons, and I mean literally. Just ask Mark Hjelle a neighbor of ours, who witnessed the button pushing when I was in swim suit on a cooler day. Get my drift?
Dan developed a pretty terrible colic during his first six weeks and I developed a terrible breast infection and between the two of us we were a terrible mess. Thank goodness, Jeff and his mother Ag, assisted during this time because I was hospitalized and put on MAJOR antibiotics and felt near death. All his happened around May 1st - May 15, 1990, at the same time Muppet's creator, Jim Henson developed an terrible infection and died from it (May 15, 1990). Funny how a person never forgets some of those significant times of their lives.
We got through the worst of it and survived many more near death experiences because Dan was a loose cannon. Riding his bike down the neighbors driveway without looking to see an oncoming car headed right into his path.....His first car accident at the age of 2 or 3, in the daycare providers driveway. He managed to get the car in gear while Jeff was visiting with the provider, and he coasted down the driveway right into another family's brand new truck.
All of these before the age of five, including two choking episodes. One at Grandma & Grandpa Poferl's, where he ate a piece of cucumber and choked on half a slice. Choking was and still is my greatest fear as I choked myself. I managed to stay relatively calm and performed the Heimlich maneuver to avoid a 911 call. The second episode I wasn't home and Jeff, Mike and Dan were in the family room. Jeff was cleaning the fireplace and Mike and Dan were playing, Dan with a piece of hard candy in his mouth. Dan started choking and ran out of the room distressed. Mike saw his distress and at about the age of 8, performed the Heimlich on him and saved his life. Wow, as often as they fought, it was nice to know that Mike truly loved his brother enough to save his life.
He managed to get into many scrapes and predicaments during his school years, and in first grade he "goosed" his teacher while waiting in line for bathroom duty. He loved nylons, and she, of course, was wearing them. He just wanted a good feel, I guess. Being this was a Catholic grade school, and being "sexual harassment" was on the rise, we were called by the school principal to inform us of this situation. A FIRST GRADER charged with sexual harassment! We were SO embarrassed! What did they think we were like? Then there was the time that Dan locked himself in the school bathroom and wouldn't come out. I don't even remember why he did this, but again, the school called and I tried to talk him out of the bathroom by phone to no avail. I ended up having to leave work and go up to school, no kidding. Yikes!
In middle school, 6th grade at the public school in Mahtomedi, when he was 11 years old, he was "Voted Off" his lunch table because he was so squirrelly. The lunch table friends (some were neighbor friend) held a tribal council and booted him. He spent the rest of the year at the "misfit" table. This was quite a setback for him and is one of the reason he is shy today. When he was at St. Jude of the Lake grade school, he was a big fish in a small sea. When he went to MMS, he became a small fish in a big sea. They swallowed him up.
He managed to make it through middle and high school, and went on to Culinary School (Le Cordon Bleu) and is now working in his field. Dad and I are very proud of him and his accomplishments. He is working his passion. From a very early age he loved to be in the kitchen baking. One of his childhood Christmas or birthday presents was an Easy Bake oven. Did you know that they are no longer producing the Easy Bake oven? How are kids going to obtain the passion for cooking without it????
Dan and I are so much alike, including physical facial features (which he hates to be told) that we often times don't get along.
Through all the turmoils throughout the years, he is still a great joy and I'm proud to be his mother. It's like looking in the mirror. Dad and (Mom R.I.P.), was I this much trouble?
Dan, if you read this.....I love you with all my heart and soul, even though we were wrestling this morning over my typing this blog, and your fear I may share a certain picture that I promised NEVER to share with anyone. I, unfortunately had my fingers crossed behind my back when I promised this. You just never know when that picture may appear in your future, but for now it is locked in the vault.
I love you forever, I love you for always, as long as you're living, my baby you'll be.
Enjoy the photos down memory lane.
