Three Year Progress Photo

I'd like to be one of those people who turns out some fabulous time lapse of how their child has changed. One picture a day, that kind of thing. So far the only consistent image I have is a random shot that I happened to recreate one year after coming home and then again the next year. So I did it again this year. Three years home!

June 2011, first day home

June 2012

June 2013

June 2014

So it may be the last year she can put on these clothes. But then I said that last year too. Thank goodness for stretchy clothes! I can't believe how loose those pants once were on her. She was so little then. I just noticed that we forgot the socks. Probably wouldn't have made it over her heels :-)

June Grand Adventure

When we get together with Rachel and Evi, we are prone to do more than we probably should. We are getting better at it but it always seems like there's way more to do than we have time and energy. We've hit upon a strategy that seems to be working. We call it a

Grand Adventure!

It starts with a bakery or doughnut/pastry shop. Then there's some exciting activity and then some down time. Sometimes there's another activity after the down time. Depends on the cranky scale. Much cranky, more down time. Easy, right? We've had a few unofficial runs at it. This time it's official.

Morning starts out with doughnuts and breakfast sandwiches at Mel-O-Glaze Bakery near Lake Nokomis. They have raised glazed doughnuts the size of your head! We enjoyed every bit of the pastries we chose. I liked having the option of getting something savory (and with a little protein). It wasn't super expensive and there were lots of choices. The cookies also looked amazing but we were too full to think about getting any.

After a brief rest at home and a wardrobe change, we headed to the Children's Theater for a matinee showing of The Cat In The Hat. We all loved the show! Katy didn't need her headphones for any of it. I think she's getting used to the idea of the dark theaters and bright, loud stages.

Blogging about our Grand Adventures is still a work in progress but soon I'll be remembering more details to share. I do remember we had fun, so that's all for now!

Summer Fun Part 1

Summer began on Katy's last day of school at Armatage. She graduates to Hi-5 Pre-K in the fall. We will miss all of our friends, especially teacher Amy. We made Thank You cards for them to remember us by.

We piggy-backed on our friends' Coffee Crawl on the day of Open Streets on Lyndale Ave. Perhaps overdid it on the bike and went a bit far but other than that it was a grand time! Fun to spend time with new friends!

We also found time to play with G & F. Gentle hugs, kids. Gentle hugs...

Dad and I golfed our favorite tournament the Jim Bucheit Memorial Tournament. 20th annual even! I think the last two times we went I was just finishing chemo. Much more energy this year.

We were proud to host part of the Airgas racing team during the North Star Bicycle Festival. They couldn't have been more polite guests and fun guys. Hopefully we'll get to host them again next year. And now that I know what to expect I can be more prepared!

Katy tried a few more sessions of gymnastics as well as more swimming lessons. We're still working on the 'listen and follow directions' part. She knows how to have fun, that's for sure.

We joined some friends for a light rail ride to our first Twins game. As expected, the ride and the popcorn were the highlights of the day for Katy. We lucked out and got perfect ball game watching weather.

The Hopkins' Stages Theater is one of our favorite places to see shows. The tickets are reasonable and the shows are fun and engaging. Katy loved seeing The Wiz but then wasn't too sure she wanted to actually meet him.

So if you take Katy's aversion to excess noise and flashing lights, and factor in my love of fireworks shows, our Independence Day celebration is always a bit of a compromise. I tried an out-of-the-way spot to view fireworks. Across the lake from where they light them off, not too busy and also room to run around. Would have been perfect except someone next to us brought their own. Sigh. So Katy watched from the car. She liked them, but spent more time rummaging around in the glove compartment and scattering the contents about the car. Typical!

Music and movies in the park with our friends Sandy and Ava. I wish we had gotten to more concerts. Next year!

Rachel and Evi returned in July for another fun weekend. We hauled the 'donuts' all the way to the lake only to find out they weren't allowed. So we swam, met Wyatt from Super Why and had some ice cream. Then went to the pool :-)

After the pool we joined my friends at Pathways for a 25th year celebration. If you live in Minneapolis and struggle with any kind of health issue and would like support, please check them out. Angels, they are. And finally we just had to check out Minnehaha Falls and all of it's flooding rains splendor. Certainly not a trickle this year!

Next up, A Grand Adventure!

Barbies, boats and doughnuts!

I realized after looking back at the last few posts that I haven't written any health updates for a while. If anyone of my fellow MBC sisters haven't abandoned this blog yet, here's an update!


As for me, currently my tumors are all stable and NED (no evidence of disease or also NEAD, no evidence of active disease). I continue to take Femara to keep those nasty buggers asleep and check in with the oncologist every three months to make sure it's all going in the right direction. Or rather, not in the wrong direction anyway. Side effects are fatigue and soreness and I'm blaming my swiss cheese brain on it too. Then again all of those things could be caused by being a single mom to a 4 year old. So there it is. Two years NED and counting. I feel extremely blessed and hopeful for more of the same.

Katy is healthy as can be, continuing her growing streak up to the 90% percentile for height and 60% for weight. You can practically watch her get taller! She grew 3 inches since her birthday in October, bringing her up to 43" tall. She might be a tall one, we'll have to wait and see.

Riley has recovered from her vertigo event finally. She's almost 15 now and just this morning she dragged me on a walk around the neighborhood like she has done since she was a puppy. The only difference is now I can hear her dragging her feet sometimes. Those back legs don't have as much strength as they used to.

So there you have it. Happy to be on the right side of the grass as always!

Now for more fun...

I broke down and took Katy to the Barbie Dream House at the Mall of America. Good gravy that is a lot of pink. When we approached the event center, Katy stopped and put her hands up to her cheeks and proclaimed loudly "Oh, my goodness, oh my goodness, it's the barbie dream house!" Giant smile and then a little hop up and down. Who could resist such cuteness! Our tour started with one of Barbie's friends. It was her first day. And we were literally the only people in there. Wednesday afternoon not such a busy day apparently. I was shooting for low key, not too crowded but solo touring wasn't as fun as it could have been. Regardless, Katy was fascinated by everything even if she didn't participate in all of the interactive activities. Her favorite part was the dressing room where the mirror would show her with Barbie's clothes super-imposed on her. Waving her arms would change the ensemble and cause stars to fly out everywhere. Super fun. The pent house was the main attraction. She got to have glittery makeup put on and got to dress up. Despite the loud music (do not take your kid if they have a problem with loud noises, hence our going when it was not busy) she went up on stage and did some kind of spoken word performance while chipper boppy music blared on behind her. So funny. Pretty sure I wasn't supposed to take pictures in there but by that time Barbie's friend had abandoned us and we were pretty much alone. Crazy pinkness.

We enjoyed the Linden Hills Festival for the third year in a row. Year one we decorated the stroller, last year was the worst tricycle ever made and this year Katy got to ride her new Wild Flower bike. And yes it was her idea to wear her Cleopatra beads over her helmet. Bling! Best bike parade so far, that's for sure. Next year hopefully I won't have to hold on to the bike for the whole way. Baby steps. We stuck around for some food and waited in some long lines for bouncy houses. We left just a moment before Melt.Down. and made it home for a nice long nap.

The next weekend adventure was at Evi's grandparent's place in Cumberland. It's always a fun time and I'm grateful for the time to relax. Katy loved it all, especially the moms vs girls squirt gun fight. We were all soaked!

I have to include this one of Evi because it's just so damn cute.

Katy doesn't have the sweet tooth that I have, but we both love our doughnuts. We happened by the newest shop in our neighborhood Bogart's Doughnut Co. just as they were having their 'soft opening'. We had a couple of their last ones and we're ready to go back! They've had such good response from the community that they are bulking up their capacity and trying to keep up with demand. We will get there early tomorrow to be sure to get some.

I just received the images from the photo shoot we did on Mothers' Day weekend. So many good shots it's hard to choose. Samples coming to the blog soon...

1st Quarter (ha) Report

I tried to set myself an attainable goal of posting quarterly (at least) this year. So far, I'm not doing so hot but I'm very very close! Since my last post was in September, I'll lead with last year's review via Shutterfly...

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We've covered a lot of ground since then.

In January, we broke the Christmas sled on the first run. Neither of us cried. Katy's more about the playground anyway and I'm not much for hauling her butt back up the hill multiple times. We saw The Mitten at Stages Theater in Hopkins. Highly recommend that theater for kiddos. Prices are reasonable and it was a fun show. I got a chance to enter the Winter Carnival Puzzle Contest with some friends and although we didn't come close to winning, we had a fun time. The veteran puzzlers are hard core, egads.

February rang in with a weekend getaway to The Depot hotel, waterpark and ice rink. Evi and Rachel came down to stay and Kat and Frances came swimming for the day (and the girls formed a band in the arcade). Lisa and Leo met us at Flamingo for Ethiopian food. Great food and comfortable atmosphere for our rambunctious kids (not Leo, he's an angel, just our two crazies). We celebrated Piper's birthday and then had another visit from Rachel and Evi to see The Hungry Caterpillar at the Children's Theater. Katy and I visited the Minneapolis Institute of Arts the week before for Family Art Day and also to get $10 tickets to the show. We also met some other single mom friends at the MOA for rides and Rainforest Cafe. Side note to that, never take a sensory avoiding child on a bunch of rides and then to a restaurant where it thunders and flashes lightening every few minutes. Melt. Down. The next day we were recovered enough to pop over to Geb and Frances's house for some light box fun. And still, winter marched on.

 Valentine's hair and sass. Because it's too cute to skip...

March we caught our breath a bit. Disney on Ice was a big hit and we didn't even use the headphones to muffle the sound! We also checked out the Auto Show and had a great time until we saw the mobile video game van and then had a Melt. Down. when we had to leave. Max and Adam took us to the Shrine Circus where there were also ponies to ride and cotton candy to eat and light sabers and balloons to take home and break.

 

We went up north to visit Rachel and Evi in April. It was a jam packed weekend as per usual. The girls sported their new elephant sweaters that I finally finished knitting at Zaria's birthday party (and yes that is a picnic table in the snow for depth reference). We had an awesome Pirate Bath and prepared to watch Frozen with dinner at Chilly Billy's. Yum. When it got dark we pulled out the Glow Stick Skirts! I had a lot of fun making them up and sewing them and I think the girls enjoyed them. Katy not surprisingly deconstructed hers after some encouragement to twirl a bit first. We wrapped up the weekend with our standard Big City Bagel breakfast and then some fort-making. whew! Easter came late this year and we celebrated with the Hansons at their 3rd Annual Easter Eggstravaganza. Not as warm as the first one but at least there was grass instead of a foot of snow like the second one. Katy raked in many eggs filled with treats.

May. Good lord, this goes on forever! If anyone is still reading, I'll keep going with our May adventures. We started the month with my birthday, which began with Riley's broken toenail and Blood. Everywhere. She recovered from the anesthesia at home while Kim, Max and Adam went with us to the park. She then went on to get Vestibular Syndrome, which is basically dog vertigo. Eyes zig-zag back and forth and she walks around drunk. Took two weeks but she's over it now. Still has a cone from the dumb raw toe though. ughA. Mother's day weekend Rachel and Evi came and we packed in too much, again. Friday was Katy's school carnival. Bouncy houses, cotton candy (when will we learn?), games and balloon hats. Super crazy and also fun! Saturday we did the "Besties" package with Laura Monahan Photography. Can't wait to see the pictures from that! Apparently we'll be on the bloopers page with Evi pulling Katy's hair. Yikes. We went from there to Broadway Pizza for a free birthday giant cookie pizza and got a pizza to go for the girls for dinner. Rachel and I left the girls under the charge of a new sitter and ran away went to dinner and a show. Plymouth Playhouse's Church Basement Ladies are a hoot! We came home to sleeping princesses and they had their first slumber party in Katy's room. I'd post the 'surveillance video' but I can't decide which part is the funniest. You'll just have to imagine. There were giggles, whispers, pitter patter of little feet and then some screeching. Sunday morning Glam Doll donuts breakfast and another Family Art Day at MIA. We nearly made it home safely without any Melt. Downs. but Evi saved us with a perfectly timed pull of sleeping Katy's hair in the car. Well, besides a bit of that, it was a great time!

And I'll finish this up with our latest adventure, Katy's new bike! We call her Wild Flower, mostly because that's what it says on the side of the bike. Katy loved it until the first few spills and now I'm pulling her on it. Baby steps. We needed to upgrade from last year's bike because she's grown probably 4 inches since then and it was tiny. Like a clown bike. I can't believe she's getting to be such a grown up girl!