A New Year's Wish

"May all your troubles last as long as your New Year's resolutions."
~ Joey Adams

Seriously, though, I wish everyone health and happiness in 2009.

Thank You

Anita and Lauren, you have outdone yourselves. A package full of goodies just in time for Christmas (and my B-day). And not just for Mollie and Lucy, but for me too! I love it all. The handmade (cable-knit even) hat! The Listology book. Journal. Chocolate. Soap.

Mollie was overjoyed at the buttons, shells, and bath toys. And Lucy loved the wrapping paper and bows.

You're the bestest!

Down

I hate that Mollie has a life threatening disease.
I hate that she has been in the hospital for nearly a week and can't even leave the room.
I hate that Matt and I haven't had a moment alone in over a week.
I hate that I am missing out on this fun stage in Lucy's life.

Sometimes it all seems surreal, like I will wake up tomorrow and everything will be back to normal. No clinic, no hospitals, no cancer. It breaks my heart to see everything that Mollie has to endure. That our family has to endure.

Right now I feel like breaking every window in the house. Instead, I will try to sleep. To rest and get ready to entertain, console, monitor, and love Mollie in the hospital tomorrow.

Sisters

The cute little hats were made by RGW! And out of yarn made from recycled plastic bottles, no less.

Now that Lucy is on the move, she's also more interactive. Mollie is really enjoying this. She can always get Lucy to laugh by surprising her. She loves to "read" to her. She loves to bring Lucy new toys and show her how to use them. She always checks with me to make sure they are not too small. Every once in a while I hear, "Mama, Lucy is boddering me!" Most of the time, they play together very well. Tonight, Mollie was gathering all the ingredients (link-a-dos and teething rings) to make donut soup while Lucy kept trying to pull electrical cords out of their sockets. Mollie would make sure to let me know that Lucy was going for the cords (even though I was right there) and would try to block access.

Yup, got to "baby proof". Mollie was never interested in all those forbidden-to-babies things like cords, sockets, cabinets, bookshelves, drawers. Lucy is interested in all those things.

Mollie still likes to participate in caring for Lucy- picking out her clothes and shoes, washing her face, feeding her. She even wanted to decorate Lucy's bedroom for Christmas. It is so sweet. In return, Lucy is very sensitive to Mollie's emotions. She laughs when Mollie laughs. She cries when Mollie cries. The last two weeks she's been in the room when Mollie was getting her chemo shots, and as soon as Mollie started crying, Lucy would too.

I am sure they will have their share of fights, but for now I'm savoring the sweetness.

She can crawl, she can crawl, she can crawl!

Got to go catch her so more later.....

Happy St. Nicholas Day!

Today is the feast day of St. Nicholas. Mollie put all of our shoes out last night to see if St. Nick would stop by. Sure enough, he did. He filled them with fruit and candy, stickers and a snowglobe (and Matt was lucky enough to get a bottle of Sierra Nevada).

The St. Nicholas Center has a good website with a lot of information about the feast day and how it is celebrated around the world.

Every year, the commercials and store decorations make me start to have Christmas anxiety and stress. After reading a little more about Advent, I am feeling more relaxed (about the holidays, not in general though). We have our Advent calendars up and Mollie takes great joy in opening a door each day.

My goal for the weekend is to get out outdoor lights up because Christmas lights are one of my favorite parts of the holiday season. Our neighborhood is very dark (as in, there are not a lot of street lights) so the lights just give it a more cozy feeling.

Mr. Toad's Wild Ride

I feel like I've been on it and can't get off! The last few days have been full of ups and downs. Nothing particularly major, or surprising. I think I'm just tired. I have a to do list a mile long. The holidays are coming up. I fear Mollie will have to be in the hospital on or around Christmas (that is when her blood counts are expected to be the lowest).

I'm just going to leave it at that. Oh, and I made sure to vote today, after spending 8 hours in clinic with Mollie, and Martin lost the Senate race! (In a runoff to GOP candidate Saxby Chambliss).

I'm feeling so "bleh" right now, it's hard to write.

But, Thanksgiving was wonderful (even though the "button" in our turkey didn't pop for the second year in a row). We enjoyed eating in our dining room for the first time ever! It was great to have my parents visiting and helping out with Mollie and Lucy (and dishes and cooking, shopping, electrical updating, etc).