Good times

The last two days have been quite pleasant.

Today, especially. Mollie and I whipped up a big batch of granola. She has fun mixing in the honey and oil with her bare hands and making a big mess. (And I had fun cleaning it up and eating the granola).

Mollie declared that she wants to be photographer when she grows up. And a mama. And someone who takes care of Germans (don't ask) and mamas and babies. So, she took a few pictures with my camera:


This afternoon, we went to donate blood (well, I donated, while Lucy slept and Mollie chowed down on Chick-fil-A and got pampered by the blood center volunteers).

We stopped at a children's consignment shop on the way home and Mollie started thinking about Christmas. She gave me permission to start working on her Christmas gift- she wants a hand-made nightgown like she got last year!

After dinner, we played *princess* memory. Note to self: next time remove half of the memory cards before playing so it's not so HARD! While we were playing a package arrived from Denny and Susan with some goodies and it totally topped off Mollie's day.

Food = Love

Photo by Alli Jiang on Flickr

Usually, I don't mind cooking. But there are days, clinic days and steroid days, when I often don't have the time or energy. When Mollie is taking decadron, I find myself making 15-20 little "meals" for her during the day. She will often beg for something only to be totally disgusted by it when it is put on a plate in front of her. By dinner time, I really don't feel like making yet another meal!

So... thank you to everyone who has given us food. We devoured homemade chocolate chip cookies from Richmond, CA during one of Mollie's hospital stays. We loved the huge package of Peet's coffee and tea. We have also received some Trader Joe's Indian food (just heat and serve!) and gift certificates to Very Vera's (yum, yum). And Mollie's grandmothers made food and put it in the freezer when they were here visitng.

Best of all, two of our neighbors, Michelle and Mara (and their families) have been making us delicious homemade food for clinic days. Lasagna, noodles with peanut sauce, chicken soup, and more. Often complete with wine, salad, dessert. It is so wonderful to end the day with a nutritious meal when you are too exhausted to cook.

We are lucky to be blessed with such caring friends and family.

D.I. - Week 2

I took Mollie in to clinic this morning for more chemo- doxorubicin and vincristine. For some reason, she was really scared of the whole visit, including the port access. She is off the steroids for 7 days, but I think the withdrawal is worse than the pulse itself. Her numbers were fantastic: ANC = 4800 (last week was 4700), platelets and hemoglobin were also good. We expect these numbers to fall this week, since she is not getting the steroids.

I talked to a few other "leukemia" moms this morning whose sons (all in long term maintenance) had experienced some sort of cognitive decline after chemo. We were told this is one of the common side effects of the intrathecal (spinal) chemotherapy. In some kids it is more noticeable than others. Right now, I am not extremely concerned about it (first, let's get through the chemo), but it is something to keep in mind and watch out for.

We ended up having a pretty good day. We went to lunch after clinic and then came home and made clothespin dolls from a kit (thanks Cameron!). After dinner, Mollie and I made brownies. Then she played a spelling game (Design Your Own Superhero) on the internet (PBS Kids- SuperWhy!). She loves SuperWhy! and was so proud that she could use the mouse and play the game all by herself!

She went to bed saying, "Mama, I had a really nice day. I always have a good day when you and daddy are here." She is just too sweet sometimes.

Awake at 1:22 a.m.

Why? It has nothing to do with Mollie. Well, actually, just a teeny tiny bit. Mollie loves to change her outfit and I didn't realize quite how much her laundry had backed up, so I washed a bunch of it today.

Tonight the plan was 1) fold mounds of laundry 2) go to bed.

Here's how it went down: I started folding the laundry. I was about 1/3 done when Lucy started screaming. Went up, checked on her, tried to get her back to sleep, but no luck. I decided to let her cry for a little while while I folded some more laundry. That is when disaster struck- Otis (the cat) puked, leaving a big trail of cat vomit all over the living room carpet. Meanwhile, Matt got up and was, to put it gently, a little miffed at Otis. We still couldn't get Lucy to stop crying. I guess all the commotion woke Molle, who came downstairs to "make sure nobody fell down or anything."

How sweet is that?

Back to cleaning up cat puke...