Cupcakes? Yes.

I took another night off last night, if only because I was grading for hours and hours and hours to get progress reports done on time.  For those of you out there that are teachers, you know what I'm talking about.  Sometimes, going to work is easier than grading the subwork that you have to generate to make sure the kids don't go haywire.  Whee.


Heads up, I'm a tad bit melancholy tonight...


Yesterday, my sister came up to our place, and took some pictures.  It was awesome, yet bittersweet.  It's always great to have pics taken of all of us... I take plenty of the girls, but there's very few that I'm in...for good reason because I ruin them.  :)

On the way up, she asked if the girls might like some cupcakes.  Here was their response.

They had a great day, and many more of the pics are up on FB if anyone wants to see all of them.

This is the one I like the most, personally.  Amie was just loving her little dandelion.  I managed something close to a smile, if only a smirk.

Amelie's curls have been such a huge surprise to us, and we've pretty much written them off as we approach Chemo. If Amie loses her hair, I'm going to shave my head clean to be with her... granted, I don't have far to go...

Some of Shel's relatives up at the top of the thumb crocheted these hats for the girls.  Shelley, being a prolific knitter herself is already planning out all the hats she'll knit for Amie.  We have one she found that we're not sure if its the best hat ever, or the poorest taste.   We'll see when it's done.

We're headed into surgery tomorrow for two things.  Amie will get her port installed, for the chemo, and they're going to do a spinal tap (You see, it goes up to 11) to see if the cancer has spread yet.  The MRI said no, but they're all about making sure.

We've also got a post-op follow up with Dr. Cormac (Blood Meridian) Maher on Thursday.

We don't have any idea when she's going to formally start Chemo, but know that it's going to be soon.

Amelie has been so..... interesting this week.  She's been perseverating on a small number of things (Play Doh, Eating, Drawing) all at the table.  Way....WAY more than she did pre-surgery.  But at the same time, she's shooting out new words 1-5 a day.  Stuff she'd never said before...today she said 'bike', so there's a weird mix of developmental milestones being met mixed with strange regressions.  What a strange thing that the brain is.

I'm taking the day off tomorrow for the surgeries, as it's Professional Development.  I think I'm developing professionally quite a bit for the time being.  

...and just to restate this.  Everyone who has supported us in all the ways that you are (monetarily, logistically, emotionally, dietarily, and all other ways) amazing.  We can't even process the generosity that has poured in.  Thank you.