Mother's Day Race for the Cure

I decided this year I wanted to try the Komen Race for the Cure. The local radio station was giving away a plane ticket to bring someone to walk with you and I thought maybe I'd win it. Indeed, I didn't but I'm glad we went anyway. My cousins Kathleen and Karen joined us and it was a beautiful day for a walk. I'm not sure I felt any more connected to the cause. In fact I felt a little on the outside. In the pink washing that is associated with that pink ribbon, no one really talks about those of us fighting the metastatic battle. The not-so-happy, smily and pink part of cancer. I'm really happy about all the money that gets raised for screening, prevention and early diagnosing. Disappointed that more doesn't go to the 30% of us who see it rear its ugly head again, much too soon. In any case, I'm glad we went and now, even if we don't ever go again, we'll have the memories of a fun day!

Here we are pre-race...

 Amidst the mass of pink people

 Catching up with some of my Yoplait friends

 And post-race winding down

All in all it was a great way to spend my first mother's day with my angel!

Project Weighted Blanket

My darling Katy sometimes struggles to get to sleep. At daycare it's been especially difficult. In her crib she can jabber on in her own language of sorts for an hour or more. Completely content but very much awake. Hard to do that at daycare though! So after much research and the advice of Katy's occupational therapist, I embarked on the mission to create a calming weighted blanket. I found a great tutorial at Craft Nectar. It was very easy to follow and it has helped settle Katy's restlessness a lot.

First the supplies: fuzzy, fleecy type fabric (non stretchy) and a soft cottony fabric, poly pellets and a scale. The striped fabric made it easy for this rookie sewer to keep in straight lines. I used 4 lbs of the pellets and the finished size was about 30"x45".

 Sewing the two fabrics together and creating channels

 Starting to fill the channels

 Almost finished

 The final product!

 Closer view, scrunchier face

Katy is loving her blanket and is sleeping much better at home and at daycare. I have enough supplies to make another so we don't have to carry it back and forth every day. Now just to find the time...

May Highlights

I know I still have some catching up to do so I'll break it down a bit. May was a good month for us! I finally got the ok to finish chemo for good. Or at least for hopefully a long long time. I started back at work, then ended up taking two weeks off to recover from a hysterectomy. That was fun, oh yea. Amazing things, these robot surgeries. Only four little incisions and I was up and around soon after. Wild.

I got to attend a k.d. lang concert! She is an amazing singer. I only wish I could have jettisoned the rude woman next to us. She came in late, breezing in on a cloud of freshly smoked cigarette smoke. She proceeded to spritz herself with some kind of smelly whatnot and then pulled out the smelly lotion. Once she was done motioning her hands, she removed her shoes and lotioned her feet. And the final touch was then taking out a wad of gum and chewing it so loudly I could hear it over the concert. Good lord. Some people create a large wake, no? Ish. Other than that, the concert was fantastic!

Katy has grown by leaps and bounds. She started out below the first percentile in height for her age and now stands at 66%. She's almost a yard tall now. Not yet jumping from two feet but walking is getting stronger and faster. Speech and occupational therapy are happening at daycare. By all accounts she's catching up quickly! I made a weighted blanket for her which appears to work wonders to get an antsy kid to sleep at nap and at bedtime. Working on a second one we can leave at daycare. More on that later.

I celebrated my birthday with a dinner at Red Lobster with my parents. I know, going all out, right? Katy ended up eating crackers and ketchup that night. Oh well! This is our thank you for the fun birthday cake present from Aunt & Uncle...

The month ended with a great visit by my sister and her mister but I'll save that for it's own post. Here's a look at Miss Katy, having fun and getting to be a big girl!

Sliding on the big slide for the first time, don't her legs look long?

Falling asleep at the table...

We're having fun, who needs toys!

Rockin' the free hairstyle!

And finally, a dip in the pool.

We'll be back again soon!

Catching up

Hello again to my few but faithful readers! I'm back in the saddle and ready to get back to regular posting.  And by regular I mean more than once every four months anyway. So here's the scoop on what's been happening in our house...

Katy is amazing, growing like a weed and always in constant motion. Just looking at the last post I made she seems so different from that time! Such a sweet, confident, sassy kid I feel blessed by her every day. Like so many kids these days she had ear tubes placed in her ears to clear out fluid. They fell out already and she got new ones last week. She's still not saying real words much (but talking in Katy language constantly) but I think with the clear ears we'll be having two way conversations in no time.

The day Katy had her first tubes placed I had my own doctor visit for a liver biopsy. I had gone to the doctor with a pain in my stomach. I was hesitant to go because I figured it was something embarrassing like gas or indigestion but for some reason I decided to check it out. Unfortunately my breast cancer has returned in my liver and abdominal lymph nodes. damn. No longer one of the happy pink ribbon survivors but one of the many stage 4 fighters that don't get much media coverage. I took chemotherapy pills until mid April and I'm happy to report that my tumors have reduced greatly and I'm on my way to what is hopefully many years of stability.

I've spent the last few months really paying attention to my body, being good to myself and enjoying every minute with Katy, my family and my friends. I have such an amazing support system that has bolstered my mood so many times I can't count. I've decided I just am not ready to be done with this life yet. Katy deserves that. Hell, I deserve that, don't I? In any case, I'm not going anywhere any time soon.

So enough of that nonsense, I'm sure I'll have more on that later but not today. On to some Katy eye candy, that's way more fun anyway.

December was busy with holidays and special events and a lot of sleeping (for me and Riley) and playing (for Katy). We enjoyed having my sister and her family here for Christmas.

While they were here we had Katy's baptism, in the same church I was baptized.

(here's what a good bit of the end of the service looked like)

January brought the completion of a major project, finishing the basement. It turned out so well I want to do the rest of my house! Guess I'll have to wait on that.

Then we headed to California for a welcome home party for Katy with west coast relatives and friends. It was so great to see everyone! And Katy did pretty well considering there were not many childproofed places and naps happened whenever we could. I was pretty tired but we managed to fit in the party, some fun at the beach and a trip to the zoo.

February and March we started gymnastics and generally lounged around at home.

April we celebrated our first Easter together with an Easter Egg Hunt at our friends' house. Katy got to wear the dress I knitted while going through treatment with a variety of shoe choices from white patent leather shoes, to red sparkly Toms, to Sorel winter boots. We dyed eggs and she slept through brunch at the restaurant. We also took our first trip to the Children's Museum with the daycare. Bless the hearts of the teachers there I'm amazed at their strength and patience, I had to sleep off the afternoon after only a few hours with all those toddlers!

And now it's almost May. I'm excited for the summer. Katy's already spent some time in the kiddie pool in the back yard, even though I thought she'd get cold. Maybe the rain boot shoe choice helped keep her warm? We are headed to the park more often and enjoying the outdoors. I love spring in Minnesota!

Sorry that got a bit long but it was five months worth. I hope the last few months were good to you. I'm glad to be back!

What a difference a year makes

I can't believe it has been one year today since I first saw my daughter's face. I remember it was a Friday, just at the beginning of one of many major snow storms we had that winter. It was such an amazing feeling. And I also remember not telling anyone for a while. It was like I needed to process the greatness of it all first.

This has been a year of extremes for sure. A roller coaster of travel, new experiences and life changing events, both good and bad. Blogging will be on the back burner as I tackle some medical junk for a while. But I couldn't resist today, remembering that wonderful day December 6, 2010, the day my life changed forever.

Then...

And now...

And to catch up on the last month, here's the sum of our Thanksgiving dinner, otherwise known as what happens when a toddler doesn't get a nap...

Our first cookie baking day...

And finally, an attempt at an actual hairstyle that involves more than a headband. Sadly it didn't last more than one naptime but it's growing and hopefully will hold once it gets longer.

I hope to be back blogging again soon. Enjoy the wonderful, crazy holiday season! Don't forget to tell your loved ones how much you care. Life is too short to keep it all to yourself...

Happy Halloween!

We had a great time on our first Halloween! It sure is a different experience being down on the street versus in the house handing out candy. We called on cousin Angela again to be our candy distributor and we took off around the block for a brief taste of trick-or-treating. So far, the concept is a bit lost but it was funny to see Katy's reaction to seeing the other kids do it. 

First we previewed the costume at nana & papa's house...

Then we officially headed out for our first trick-or-treating experience! Angela helped us get ready and took care of Riley as she always goes nuts with all the bell ringing and street traffic.

Afterwards, we enjoyed the animal crackers we got from our neighbor Lisa and sat outside until it was too cold to sit anymore.

It sure was fun but I'll be glad when she's walking more so I don't have to carry the little strawberry from house to house. Man she gets heavy! I figure I got paid in candy at least :-)

Catching up, again

We've had a few milestones in the last month. First, we turned two! Katy woke up cheery as usual, sporting an interesting look with her shirt (which has since been retired as sleepwear)...

Shortly after her birthday we had an open house to celebrate with friends and neighbors. (not sure if I can make the invite graphic work but I'll give it a try)

Menu was hopefully both grown up and kid friendly:
BBQ meatballs
Cocktail weenies (old family favorite-at least of mine!)
Prosciutto & Gruyere pastry pinwheels
Cheese pastry sticks
PB&J cutout sandwiches
Red pepper feta spread with pita
Herbed goat cheese with crackers
Spiced nuts
Ranch oyster crackers
Veggies & dip
Cupcakes (fancy butterfly cupcakes in place of cake)
Salted caramel brownies

The dahlias were in full bloom for the party.

Thanks to our good friend 'cousin' Angela, we have a few pictures from the actual party. It was too busy for me to remember the camera. Special shout out to Kathee, without whom I would have collapsed and not enjoyed any of the party. She was such a rockstar coming over early to help clean and prepare food and cleaned a bunch before she left. Amazing. So thankful for good friends like her!

I think we had some fun! It was great to see everyone.

Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures of the cupcakes. They were very cute with pink frosting and butterflies on top made of M&Ms and pretzels. I thought for sure I had a picture of the tray before we handed them out. hmm. We all enjoyed them anyway!

We had the 24 month checkup too. We found out that in addition to getting taller (from 1% to 18% for her age) Katy moved from 5% to 25% in weight! Oddly, her 50% head is still the same. Current tooth total is still 4, but there are two more broken through and coming soon. Feels like she's growing before my eyes. We went from the pediatrician to the ear doc and she'll be getting tubes next week. Her hearing has gone down since we arrived home due to fluid but I'm a little skeptical that she might just be more distracted. In any case, the tubes procedure is very quick and if it helps her with her talking, I'm game to try it.

And as we pass through the four month home mark, winter is decending. I'm still trying to figure out how to keep her hair from getting dry with all the hat wearing. She loves her mittens so that's good anyway.

Next post is halloween, I thought I'd let that one live on it's own...