Great Day

Top to bottom, start to finish, it was a wonderful day.

This morning, The Boy enjoyed his oatmeal and yogurt for breakfast. He was very enthusiastic about it. Oatmeal is, and always has been, a finger food. It dries up pretty quickly. We mix it with a bit of honey, which doesn't do much for the consistency. Yogurt, however, requires a spoon.

The next item on the agenda was just the fact that my kids at school were really pretty good today. Because I'll be leaving soon and the concerts are coming up, in addition to reviewing concert music, my 6th grade students have been spending half of their lesson times, this lesson cycle and next, collecting stickers. We have sticker charts, and selected exercises or pieces are played for a sticker. Many of the students' collections were not so complete, for whatever reason. The pieces don't have to be "perfect" but need to be played competently in the group. It is very easy to see, with string students, who knows it and who does not, just by watching fingers and bows.

The Boy went for an appointment at the treatment center today, accompanied by Ms. R, and the expectation was that he'd need another blood transfusion. Our fear, as I mentioned, was another fever. When he arrived, as the nurses and child life specialist, and Ms. R, mentioned, he looked pale, and they were sure he'd need blood. Except...have you met me? Have you met my mother or my father-in-law? We're the whitest, palest, most colorless people you could meet, and it's not surprising that my child would share that trait.

They now know that appearances can be deceiving. The Boy had great counts--reds, whites, and platelets--and was sent on his merry way after enough of the bloodwork was back. His ANC is about 14,000 which means that we don't even have to do Neupogen shots for a whole week! Longer, because he doesn't get it while on chemo either.

Major props to Ms. R for staying 2 daytime shifts in the hospital with The Boy and taking him to this appointment today. Of course, she was paid for the time and paid a bit extra because I insisted on doing so, but still, no one signed her up for this kind of babysitting, and she was very helpful in that regard.

It appeared yesterday that she also taught him to blow kisses although I haven't yet gotten him to repeat what he did yesterday.

After we got home, we had a great snack. He had rice cakes--no longer allowed in the living room because they're very messy--and a little snack pack of applesauce as well as several bites of cottage cheese with cherry preserves. That's one of my new favorite snacks. I figured that since they sell "cottage doubles" with the fruit in them that preserves works just as well for extra flavor. I was glad to see that he enjoyed that one. Full-fat cottage cheese is a great snack for him because it is higher in fat--good for kids his age anyway--and calories.

When Musical Daddy returned home, we enjoyed some crazy baby time on the bed before leaving to go to a party at the hospital.

Crazy, right? A party at the hospital?

Actually, the party was held in the hospital auditorium and it was FANTASTIC. It was for all the patients and former patients at The Boy's treatment center. We're so glad that we went. There was good food (mostly kid food, of course). Most of the people that we had met during our numerous visits to the center were there, as well as the nurses, the child life specialist, and the two doctors that The Boy usually sees. There was a clown, a magician, amazingly detailed face painting (which The Boy wasn't quite ready for so we didn't try it), stickers, lots of music, and such a lively environment. All the kids were having a great time, and the adults seemed pretty happy to see the children enjoying themselves.

The Boy did quite a bit of assisted walking at the party, where we hold his hands and he walks. He's working on it, he really is.

He also put several stickers on his head.