Nothing Like the First Birthday

The whole first year of baby girl's life has been amazing. She is a darling and a delight.

March 21, 2008.



March 21, 2009

Belated Happy St. Patrick's Day

We went to a little parade in Brooklyn on Sunday and here are some pics.

Student of the Month

I have no idea what type of schoolwork or behavior earns the "Student of the Month" honor but you get a t-shirt and a certificate as your reward. I am very proud of my big second-grader and his acheivement. At first he was shy about sharing his news but after I made a big deal about it...I could tell that he was proud. He also lost a top front tooth!

Latest Checkup

P had a checkup at his oncologist today. A checkup includes a blood count, height and weight check, and an examination. For the first time ever P's blood count was totally normal. It has been "fine" before, given his circumstances, undergoing chemotherapy or taking a break from chemo or just finished with chemo. He finished treatment four months ago and his CBC report had no numbers at all in the "out of range" column. Very exciting! He also had an echocardiogram because in some rare cases there is heart damage in some patients that have one kind of chemotherapy that P had at the beginning of treatment. P's heart was also pronounced normal. Yay for that!

It was on my mind to complain bitterly to the doctor and anyone else I could find about the 20 calls that I had to make between my pediatrician and the pediatric cardiology office over a 3 week span in order to finally make sure that the proper referral was in the right hands so P could have the echocardiogram...but after hearing so much good news...all my anger and indignation melted away and I sailed right out of the office. Sorry...that was a very long sentence!

M was an excellent little traveler as usual and is welcome to attend any and all further medical appointments that P has. K, however, required constant attention from everyone she met all day long. She asked the echocardiogram tech about 5 times if she would get a "prize" and "is that prize ready yet?" and "what could the prize be" and "do you have any prizes for girls?". I'm going to have to find another destination for K when P's next appointment comes along.

I Love NYC

First...my trip to the dentist...but I'll get to the loving New York City part. I hadn't been to the dentist in 18 months and I knew that I needed at least one filling. It is cliche..but...it is hard for me to escape and take care of myself. The plan was for me to go our dentist in lower Manhattan ALONE (yay!)...Mark would meet me there with the girls at the end of my appointment. My appointment went better than I expected but I do have to go back for more fillings.

I was done at 11 a.m. and had 4 hours until I needed to pick up the guys. The girls were tired and I didn't see any reason to go home when I was already in Manhattan on a beautiful day. I thought I might go to H&M to get some merchandise for my little ebay micro-business. I decided to walk from Wall Street up Broadway to midtown. I knew the girls would take a nap on the way.

Wow! I love walking! I feel like I've been locked inside the house for decades. I love seeing all the people of Manhattan...working people rushing to meetings, film crews setting up, tourists everywhere, moms and nannies like me with fancier strollers, young hipsters in irridescent ballgowns.

I saw new stores that I'd never heard of, stores that I'd always heard of but never had a chance to check out (Uniqlo) and old favorites that I hadn't visited in a while. The sun shone and the snow was melting. One church had yellow ribbons tied on their iron fence in honor of hundreds of U.S. service men with name tags for each one. I saw some old-timey cobblestones a couple of times and some famous landmarks that I always enjoy running into...Trinity Church, City Hall, Flatiron Building, Grace Church, Empire State Building.... I think I walked 40 blocks but I'm not sure. It took about an hour and K woke up at 34th street. Anyway...yeah...it is nice to just walk in the city.

Snow Day in NYC

It was the first snow day in New York City in five years and the first one that my kids ever experienced. It was also really cold and windy. I was GLAD when a friend from down the street called and invited C and P to go sledding with her and her kids. I just couldn't picture carrying M in the baby carrier for hours while watching everyone else sled. I COULD easily imagine the 9+ meltdowns that Kate would have for no apparent reason while traipsing around in 8+ inches of snow. I did feel a little bad that I couldn't take the kids out myself. I thought about my own childhood and realized that my mother never came outside and played with us in the snow. We lived in the middle of nowhere (no cars, no shady people and big hills for sledding everywhere) so she just sent us out alone and hoped we entertained ourselves for a LONG time.

It will be great though...when K and M are bigger and we can all go out and play in the snow together.

K and I baked brownies and we had two moms and three neighbor friends over for macaroni and cheese lunch and brownies after the sledding...then they all played and watched a movie while the Moms visited. What a nice day!

I did have to cancel Patrick's blood count and echocardiogram for the second week in a row though. Oh well...we'll get there eventually.

Is winter over yet?