The Birthday Post

Today is Mollie's 5th Birthday! Wow, we are SO glad to all be here to celebrate.

We wanted to have a big celebration, but Mollie is just not feeling up to it; she is so tired and grumpy from the steroids. So, I'll bring cupcakes to her school and then we'll let her pick our dinner location tonight.

We'll keep things low key for the birthday girl and have her "friend" party next weekend.

Happy Birthday Mollie!

Some pictures of Mollie through the years...

Mid-steroid mania

I wish we had a Panera discount card... because that is all Mollie wants when she's on steroids. She cries, begging me to take her there. Apologizing for being so hungry and waking Lucy up. I can distract her for a little while and she'll eat little bites of other food around the house, but it always comes back to Panera.

I think we'll probably be having her birthday dinner there tomorrow night. And maybe her pre-birthday dinner tonight.

Poor kiddo! She knows this medicine makes her feel like crap, yet she has never refused to take it. And even through her tears she is so polite.

Clinic Update

Clinic went well today.


Mollie's ANC was 2200 and Hb and platelets were in the normal range. The purpose of maintenance chemo in ALL is to keep the bone marrow suppressed, without inducing neutropenia. The goal is for Mollie's ANC to be between 1000 and 2000. If her ANC continues to be on the high side, Beth will up the dose of chemo. However, Beth also said that since the effects of chemo are cumulative, the counts will probably come down over the next few months.

Mollie was happy and excited to go to clinic. She didn't even bat an eyelash at the finger stick. We saw her friends Courson and Zackary and went out for pizza (pasta for Mollie) with Zackary after clinic.

When we got home, Mollie took her first dose of steroids and a long nap. Then she picked out a wonderful fairly activity set (thanks Genevieve) from the present stash; it kept her busy for a few hours. She is currently reading books in her bedroom.

In other news, Lucy can now drink from a straw and stole Mollie's juice box at clinic!!

Thoughts of the Day

One of Matt's former co-workers, Frank, is shaving his head to raise money for childhood cancer research. He is honoring Mollie-- see the link to St. Baldrick's in the side bar. Matt may have a little more to say about this later, but he's told me that Frank is a "prince of a guy."

Mollie's musings on the way to school today focused on houses. She is currently pondering "who invented houses."

Tomorrow (Tues.) is a chemo day. She will go in for blood counts and IV vincristine. And she starts steroids again.

Mollie celebrates her 5th birthday on Friday. She doesn't seem to think it's a big deal, but we do!

Mardi Gras and Pancake Day--UPDATED

We made the news.... go here for the video.

Mollie and I are off to serve short stacks of pancakes at IHOP for Pancake Day 2009. This is a fundraiser to raise money for the Children's Miracle Network, an organization that supports many children's hospitals throughout the country.

Celebrate Mardi Gras with a free short stack of buttermilk pancakes until 10 PM tonight and make a donation to the Children's Miracle Network. Mardi Gras, or Shrove Tuesday, is also called pancake day because pancakes (or fried batter) were traditionally made to use up all the fats and dairy products in the house before Ash Wednesday and the beginning of Lent.

Normal days

Mollie is really enjoying being normal. Now that her hair is growing back, people sometimes think she's a boy (yes, even when she's wearing dresses). It doesn't seem to bother her if it is adults, but she does NOT want her friends to think she looks like a boy. Luckily, she's got some great friends, a great attitude, and fast growing hair!

Last week, the child life specialist and two interns did a special presentation/project with Mollie's class to help the kids become a little more aware of Mollie's special needs. Mollie loved it! They didn't single her out or talk about cancer, they just talked about medicine in general and some of the side effects of "strong medicine." The child life staff people are awesome!


Mollie is very excited to have her grandparents (both sets) and aunts and uncles visiting this weekend for Lucy's baptism. She said, "Maybe when all of them come you and daddy can have a vacation?" Um, yeah right. But it will be great to see everyone, especially Uncle Sam who has just arrived home from Iraq.

Love...

to all our friends and family this St. Valentine's day. This might just be Mollie's favorite holiday. She is working on a story called, "The Girl Who Loved Valentines."

She had a great Valentine party at school yesterday. We made a special mailbox to hold all her goodies. Today will be low-key; the weather is bad so we're going to have some play time and take it easy.

Hope everyone has a happy weekend!