The best laid plans

The Boy is visiting with his uncle this evening while Musical Daddy is in rehearsal. Since we had thought we'd be in the hospital, we had asked for help in the evening. Help came instead to the house in the form of "Cousin" J, a very good friend who went to college with one of my sisters and happens to live very close to the hospital (and has a lot of connections in the area). I guess Tiny Guy knew that he was later than expected because he fell asleep in the sling and stayed that way until Cousin J arrived.

I was able to eat my dinner in the meantime, not worrying much about when he'd wake up (my mom said that babies tend to wake up to eat as they hear the food being served).

So we puttered around the house doing some straightening as Tiny Guy finished sleeping. While Cousin J organized the linen closet, I sorted laundry. At this point, Tiny Guy woke up wanting to eat and I figured, why not go for it and keep him in the sling? I have had varying degrees of success over the past few days with Tiny Guy's meals to go (as in, him nursing without me being anchored to a chair), and this time it worked famously. After he finished eating, Cousin J took him for a walk, and I did some cleaning. My dresser and nighttable are now clear and a few other odds and ends around the house are taken care of, and I did a cursory mopping of the floor in our room (hard to do when the laundry is still there).

Sometimes that's all we need, either at home or at the hospital, is an extra person to entertain the children while we get things done, or to help us do some things that we may not otherwise get to.

Working backwards, since it has been days since I've posted:

The Boy was supposed to go in for chemo on Monday. Actually he was SUPPOSED to go in last Wednesday or Thursday. But the platelets still have not recovered. That is due to a combination of extended time on Neupogen and the fact that sometimes the platelets just take longer to recover after Carboplatin. We had a whole team lined up to assist in the hospital, only to have to tell them "nevermind." Nature of the beast. Anyhow, the doctor is giving him a full week "off," counts on Friday, and admission next week on Monday.

The complicating thing is that next week is band camp for Musical Daddy. Not a big deal, as my mother had already committed to coming here to help out with the kids during that time. Additionally, one of her friends is coming for the week, someone who also had lots of kids including twins. Even so, The Boy LOVES LOVES LOVES his Daddy.

Since he was supposed to have gone in for chemo on Thursday, my mother had already made plans to come in. She couldn't have stayed home and waited, because she had my younger cousin visiting from New York and was taking her home. My cousin stayed over and was really helpful with the kids.

Yeah, I have kids. Two of 'em. I guess that being able to say I have multiple kids means that I know something about the whole Mommy gig.

We had a pretty good weekend, especially since we had Grandma here to help. A 3 to 2 ratio of adults to kids is pretty reasonable when it comes to getting things accomplished. At least when you're talking these kids. They're little.

We are considering buying a minivan and trading in Musical Daddy's car. A used one. And we are in a position to say "this is what we want, this is what we're willing to spend. Don't have it? Okay, bye." Because we don't HAVE to do this right away. But the reality of having multiple small children is that they come with stuff. And once they don't require as much stuff, they have friends. And musical instruments and/or sporting equipment. Or large artistic displays. Point is, if we can make it happen, we may just get ourselves a minivan.

I used to have one. It was purple.

We spent a lot of time around the house just playing with the kids and having fun. Walks were plentiful. We got to take The Boy, just him, out for breakfast, as we didn't know when we'd be able to do so again. We didn't know that we'd have this week available.

I've been very good about my anti-thrush diet. As a side effect, I have lost 5 pounds. Losing weight that fast may not be permanent, or it might be. Not a bad thing to go on a diet like this after pregnancy, in that I can eat as much as I want but my choices are limited, and very few things on the list are a problem with weight gain. I don't plan on sticking to this diet so strictly, but after The Boy's birthday party, I think I'll follow a slightly less stringent set of recommendations that just say to avoid white foods and yeast, and cut down a lot on sugars.

I am hoping that it does the trick. I am definitely feeling better even if appearance doesn't reflect it. Tiny Guy still doesn't show physical signs of having thrush, and hopefully he won't.

Back on today, though: we visited Musical Daddy at rehearsal today to have lunch. After lunch, he was running a section rehearsal and reminding the kids to mark time. For those who aren't up on the marching band terms, marking time is to march in place without lifting your feet. Sometimes the expression is used to mean waiting for something. Anyhow, the kids marked time...and so did The Boy! It was so cute!!!

So Tiny Guy is asleep, and I'm going to join him.

It's been nice to have at least a little bit of real summer.