mommy's girl

I've created a mini chocoholic. Reese now opens the fridge and points to the butter dish (which holds my not so secret stash of chocolate) and not asks but rather demands chocolate. It must have been all that chocolate I ate while pregnant :)

Baseball with dad

After what felt like weeks of doing nothing but sitting on the couch and watching world cup while it rained outside we finally had a nice outdoor weekend. Speaking of world cup- ....Nate has been playing a bit rough on the soccer field - watching too much world cup ;) also I witnessed a brilliant fatherhood moment. Somehow nate deleted the recording of the final world cup match (you can imagine how pissed michael was)...and yet he let nate live and didn't even yell. It was a true test of his fatherhood patience skills.

Yesterday we enjoyed a lovely afternoon watching Michael play baseball. It was warm and sunny like one of those fabulous Seattle weekends in February where all of a sudden it feels like spring in the middle of winter. We had quite fun- a nice picnic, playing catch (kinda....poor nate is stuck with a mom who can neither throw nor catch), and the kids playing in the dirt (nate looked like the kid in charlie brown surrounded by a cloud of dirt- pigpen wasn't it?). It was a great family day.

Reese starts school

All of a sudden the kids look bigger to me. This isn't just an illusion as Nate's shirts and pants are now an inch or two too short. So here are some updated pictures. Reese starts preschool on Monday. She went there on Thursday for a craft day (the school runs a program over the holiday break). She did great....no teary farwell, and more importantly no pee pee accidents!!! We'll see how she does on her first real day on Monday.

Here are some pictures of Reese at her new school.

update on Mimi

Sorry for delay in entries....
Everything is going well. I am one week into radiation. If you recall I will be going daily Mon-Fri for six weeks. It is a bit of a hassle driving there and the commute is longer than the treatment. The session itself is pretty short- about 10-15 minutes once it is my turn- with the zapping only lasting a couple of minutes. Most of the time they are making sure that I am in the perfect position and aligned for the rays. I have 5 new tattoos - nothing exciting just permanent black freckles uses for the alignment of the machine. I've been told that in a couple of weeks the area from the middle of my chest to my armpit will be red and sore- like a repeated bad sunburn. In the meantime I am religiously using the ultra sensitive skin lotion and following orders not to shave or wash that side of my chest. I took Nate and Reese to my appointment on Friday. Dr. Nate was fascinated by the huge machine and process. And of course my cuties were a hit with the staff.
hair update: my whole head is cover with fuzz. I actually have mini spikes in a couple of places- Michael and the kids tease me about now being able to have "bedhead". On the negative side I've never notice how much fuzz I have on my face...or perhaps more grew in than before??? The hair (head hair) is so soft - like a newborn and so fare a boring brown color (I was hoping it would come out like Reese color like when I was a baby).

cooking time

Now that I have my full range of taste buds back I've enjoyed doing a little more cooking. This weekend I made beef bourgion and lemon bars for dessert (Michael's favorite). I was pleased with how both turned out. Today I made this sinful chocolate chocolate chip cookies after watching Nigella make them on her show. These babies aren't for the faint at heart- only a true chocoholic would enjoy them. They have a lot of chocolate in them. They are good but even I could only eat one ( a good thing). The remind me of the chocolate truffle cookies that are sold at Pasta and Co in Seattle. Yummmm
here is the recipe -
http://www.nigella.com/recipe/recipe_detail.aspx?rid=100

While I made my cookies Reese "made" her own- a combination of leftover quesadilla bites, lemons, goldfish crackers.....I'll hold off from trying them as long as I can.

Take care

potty training

Now that Reese has been accepted to preschool we've decided to take a more active approach to potty training. I'm on day 2 of Reese wearing only "big girl" undies and sitting on the potty every 40 minutes whether she has to go or not. This is the 'sure-safe' method we've been told from numerous sources. So far so good. Only 1 accident and 10+ successes. To quote Reese- "I was scootering and scootering then pssssss".

Phase 2 complete

Phase 2 complete!!!!

Just a quick update to let you know that I am doing well. I had surgery last week to remove the tumor and check my lymph nodes. I wasn’t worried about the lymph node biopsy since it was highly unlikely that the cancer spread and that those cells were chemo resistant. As expected no cancer cells were found. The amazing news is that the tumor had shrunk (reacting to the chemo drugs) to the point where my surgeon couldn’t even see it on an ultrasound. She called it a “complete pathological response”. What can I say- I am the poster child for chemo. In all seriousness it was the best result we could have hoped for. Of course she still went in and removed about 3cm of boob. She must have done a great repair job because I can’t really tell- lefty doesn’t look noticeably smaller to me. Ha, now you’ll all be looking to see a difference next time I see you. Overall the surgery went well and I was able to go home the same day. I was up and walking around the next day. The only thing that is still bothering me is the underarm. The nerves sometimes get affected when they remove the nodes. Hopefully it is only temporary.

My body is coming back to a ‘normal’ (pre-chemo) state. My hair is starting to grow back. The fuzz has doubled-check out the pictures below.....and no I didn't walk Nate to school like that I wore my scarf. My energy level is high. I’ve even regain my taste buds- no more yuck mouth and wine tastes good again.
Only one phase left- radiation. Despite how well my body responded to the chemo and the lack of cancer cells found in surgery I still need radiation therapy. I will likely start my treatments at the beginning of July. I have to get daily (Mon- Fri) treatments for 6 weeks. UGH! I haven’t read about any nasty side effects (just redness, sunburn skin and fatigue – which I think is more from the daily drudgery of going to the doctor’s office) but we’ll see how it goes. Hopefully everything will be done by September enabling me to come back to the States for a visit.

Many thanks to everyone for the thoughtful emails, call and generous care packages of support. I appreciate the prayers, well wishes, and positive juju sent my way. It all helped!!!! That plus those wonder drugs;)