Sometimes I have bad days.

I'm no stranger to blogging about sad things. It happens, and it happens often. But, I like to pick and choose the bad days that I talk about. Last week a woman asked Roman, "What's wrong with you that you have to walk in that thing?" directly to his face. I didn't write about it, because the truth is Roman and I are going to hear junk like that for a long, long time. I just stare daggers at the people and then spit on their property. Because that'll show em!

But yesterday was a bad day that I can write about, because hopefully it won't happen a lot. Or at least that's my askew look at the world, and it's my blog so I make the rules.

 Roman got his third set of braces. He got some KAFOs. meaning, Knee Ankle Foot Orthosis. Or, Korean Association of Futures and Options. But, we're going to talk about the first definition and never mention the second one again.

Compared to Roman's first braces (AFO) and second (DAFO) the KAFO is much longer, and a little more cumbersome. Think Forest Gump.

Today when trying them on Roman said what no Spina Bifida mom wants to hear, "No. I can't walk." except he wasn't just saying it, he was screaming it! My little kind-hearted boy was yelling at me. I tried to talk them up, "Roman, these are your big boy braces, they're going to help you walk!" He just yelled the same swear words, "No! I can't walk! I can't!" At this point I'm totally crushed and just kept repeating, "Yes, you can." After my third or fourth repeat of this he grabbed my face and said, "JUST SAY NO, MOM! I CAN'T WALK!" 

And that's when I hid in the baby's room. It's not like anybody is sleeping in there anyway. 

We've all had bad days, and nobody is promised good days forever. I think the general rule for moms like me, is that when we get hit, by doctors, defect or darling little boys who yell at their doting mothers (HE YELLED AT ME!) is that we allow ourselves to take a day to pout a little, cry a little and feel like doo-doo. But, we can't stay in that funk for too long. We have children to encourage, braces to battle, Ramen to perfectly cook in the microwave and the cat needs her antibiotic. 

So, the bottom line is this: Keep your chin up. When you get knocked down, get right back up. And at the very least you can eat all the ice-cream you had in the freezer that was originally saved for the kids. 

Because nobody yells at the mom.