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Today we were all up and ready because Ms. Kathy, our Parents as Teachers educator, was coming for her visit with Benjamin.  It is always so nice when she comes over because she always makes us feel like our kids are wonderful;-).  As always, she brought some really cool stuff to play with.  Benjamin went right over to her, gave her a hug, and started to play.  He definitely showed her his complete sense of curiosity by watching her and trying to figure out all the toys.  According to Kathy, he is developing right on target and doing very well.  -  Allyson was glad to see Ms. Kathy and get a little of the Ms. Kathy love too!

After naps and lunch, we headed to get Benjamin’s hair cut.  Tricia, the same woman that cuts my hair (and the one that cut Ally’s into the bob) cut his hair.  He did a great job for his second haircut since being here.  There was a brief moment when he thought about crying, but Brad gave him his mobile phone, and that made him happy.  He’s got the cutest little boy haircut now!

We’re trying to teach Benjamin some animal sounds now.  We taught him the sound a dog makes…we’ll have to record it for you and post the movie…not quite a bark, but it’s close enough!

Allyson did great today.  She got tired this afternoon, but fought taking a nap.  When Benjamin went down for his afternoon nap, I tried to get her to lay down and rest.  She did but wasn’t interested in sleeping.  We went downstairs and Brad snuggled her on the snuggle chair for a while and she was out.  Nothing like a good daddy snuggle!  She finally napped for a little while.

Tomorrow we have some friends from out of town coming over for lunch.  It will be good to see them.

Friday, that means a trip to the Cancer Center. These mornings are always crazy. We have to get Allyson up and going, feed her, and get all of the bags packed. Sounds simple but since Allyson can not have anything with milk proteins, we always have to make sure we have packed snacks and at least one meal.

Todays visit was actually very easy. Dr. Bob stopped in just to say hello and give Allyson a quick tickle. After that nurse Heather accessed Allyson, got the blood draws, and gave her the chemo. I think we were in the office for maybe a half hour. As a treat Allyson got to eat a bag of Wavy Lays on the way home (they are her favorites now). Once we got home and had lunch Allyson decided that she wanted to paint today. So, I put the easel in the kitchen, got her smock, and got the paints set up. Allyson painted two very nice and colorful paintings. After that we headed outside to do some “flying”. The weather we just nice enough to sneak that in.

Lisa and Benjamin got home around 4:30 and we all had dinner. Benjamin has a yucky cough again so it will probably be a tough night for him. Other than the cough he is all about playing, go figure.

Until tomorrow….

Lisa and Benjamin were out the door early this morning. Allyson woke up in a good mood this morning. We got dressed and we headed downstairs for breakfast. Allyson once again had meatballs and shells. We wished she would like to eat something else but she is really into meatballs and shells. After breakfast Allyson was very excited to go to school. We got in the car listened and sang some Backyardigans songs and headed to school. Allyson walked all the way to her class before she decided that she did not want to go in, so I scooped her up and we went in. Miss Robin can over to get her; once I left the room she was fine. Overall she had a great first week back.

Benjamin has been a little crabby and we think it is his teeth. Those stubborn teeth just won’t pop through. Other than that he is all about playing and making a mess.

Allyson and I head to the doctor tomorrow for our weekly visit. The good news is that we have finished our first week of dex (of course we have three straight weeks coming up really soon). This coming week should be pretty easy until Thursday - next weekend is a chemo weekend. The good news is that Nana and Gramps will be here for Easter.

Until tomorrow…

Today was another good day for Allyson at school! Rachel, one of Allyson’s friends in her class, gave her a snuggly blanket today as a gift. That was very sweet. We’re on the alert for pink-eye. The third day back in school and one of her classmates has pink-eye. What can you do?! We can’t shelter her from everything! Thank you to the parent that notified school though. Not all parents do. It is so important that we (and other parents) know when children in the class have a contagious illness. If she gets pink-eye, that is relatively easy to treat I believe. Other things would be more serious.

When we got home from school, we had to play bowling - no, not the Wii bowling. Allyson got a plastic bowling set for her birthday, and she loves to play with it in our foyer. Lets just say I had to shag bowling pins for about thirty minutes today. — Allyson was finally able to go OUTSIDE today! YEAH! She is an outside girl! She was able to swing on her swing about 45 minutes. Her sandbox had been covered all winter long. Of course, she wanted to play in it, so I uncovered it. Well, I saw what I thought was a bird’s nest in the sandbox….I was wrong. Brad and I think it was a rodent’s nest…the droppings in the sand, the TONS of droppings, gave that away. Now, we have to do something about that. I want all the sand out of the sandbox. That is soooo gross! There is no way I’m letting my kids crawl around in sand that has rodent poo in it. Even if we dig around and get it all out…gross! I’m sure we’ll miss some, and anyway, that cannot be healthy. What do you do with 20+ bags of sand? I know there’s a ton of sand in that darn sandbox! - Even though we couldn’t play in the sand, we were all excited to be outside!

Benjamin had a great time playing outside too. We have a little plastic playhouse outside on our patio. Both he and Allyson played in it…very cute. Benjamin had his first meal outside while Brad grilled. We told him he should get used to it because that is what we do all summer! Ahh, so nice to have warm weather.

Day 2 at school for Allyson! She had a difficult time when I dropped her off…she cried again. I left her with Ms. Robin again, and she was fine. I assured her I’d pick her up at noon after she went to Ms. Regina’s class. - She was putting her coat on when I arrived at the doorway of her classroom. As soon as she saw me, she got the biggest smile and hurried over to give me a big hug. She has another good day. YEAH! She was quiet today (as expected), but did participate. (Tuesday and Thursday are “big” class days for her. I believe there are about 17 children in the class on those days. On Monday and Wednesday, there are only like four kids. Allyson tends to be quieter on “big” class days.) - Thanks to all the parents of children in Allyson’s class for your kind words regarding Allyson’s return.

Benjamin had a good day at Tita’s. Thank God! He did not sleep well last night at all. I am certain his teeth are really bothering him. I stuck my hand in his mouth to feel his gums (brave, I know). His bottom gums are still incredibly swollen. The top molar has broke through even more. That must be what is bugging him.

I am so glad Allyson’s transition back to school is going well. Next week, we are going to get her used to going full days again so she’s used to it when I go back to work full time again the last week of March. I’m a little worried about how that is going to go. She’s got some intense chemo coming the first three weeks in May. I guess there’s no need to worry about that now. I suppose we’ll deal with that when the time comes.