Birthday & Mother's Day pics & more

The last picture of Summer at age 2 ~ making sugar cookies with Mommy thanks to a kit from Aunt Leisa.Summer looks excited about the game we got her. A birthday card for my sunshine.... big smile from the birthday girl!

Miss Ashley gave her this Barbie at the clinic on her birthday.

The girls laugh at Summer's bow boobies. LOL

She really does love it when I read to her....she just does not like to smile for the camera.
Making Mother's Day cards for Memaw & Nanny.Going for a walk through the art district

Summer & my cousin Alex having a tea party

Lexie spent the night with us over the weekendAunt and niece play together Lexie loved this toy
Me & my baby on Mother's Day Lexie was a doll on Mother's Day
Summer with her song of love CD cover - SHE LOVES HER SONG!!!!

I will post an update on her party and pics in a separate post. They deserve their own because it rocked!!!!

Two birthdays to celebrate

Today is Summer's 3rd birthday party. It is also her sister's 19th birthday. So, I will be celebrating along with these two pretty girls, friends and family. It is really Summer's party since I mostly invited toddlers and their parents. Amanda will have an aunt and uncle their as well. :) Sorry Amanda. It just kind of worked out that today was the perfect day for the party. And, by perfect, I mean the weather outside is GORGEOUS!!! Summer's counts were over 5000 yesterday so she is ready to be around other kids. Plus, she has to go back in the hospital tomorrow so if not today, then when??? I am so excited and so is she although she will tell you that she wanted to have her party at Candyland. LOL. I decided that an outdoor party is better for her health wise. Plus, can you imagine two and three year olds actually all sitting around a table doing crafts and not rummaging the candy bins filled with yummy goodies??? I got the idea for a park party from one of her nurses who had a similar party for her child. It just sounded perfect so we are having a playground / beach party with a Barney cake and Dancing Princess decorations (Thanks again to our lovely child life specialist Ashley!). They do NOT sell Barney decorations at Wal-Mart or purple plates so we are going all pink! I think she'll like the color. :p I made up some homemade chicken salad, egg salad, pimento cheese and PB&J sandwiches today. We'll also be having chips, cake and ice cream. This morning Summer helped me make a couple of gallons of lemonade. She really enjoyed that and was sure to say "sorry Mommy" when she made a mess on the counter. It was no big deal to me, but I did think it was cute how she fessed up to it and apologized. I am hoping to raise an honest kid, but these days it seems to be tricky. Or maybe the sour apples just really stick out and make you hope your kid doesn't turn out to be sour. I want a sweet apple! :) Even though if I were actually going to eat it, I'd want the sour one. Hmmmm.

Last night when I went to the store to pick up stuff for the party, Summer didn't want me to go. I gave her a little attention and sat with her for a few minutes. Then for some reason she started whining and I decided I was going to the store after all. Well, I left and she started pitching a fit. I kept going, but when I got home she was in my bed asleep. Clint told me she was very bad and apparently she agrees. Today when he asked her if she was bad she said, "Yes." When he asked her what she did she said, "I wanted my Mommy." Well, when you put it like that..........LOL. Anyways, he said he got some of it on video tape, but I haven't taken the time to watch it yet. I'll save it for a day when I'm bored. I have lots of pics to upload too, but they are on my laptop. Maybe while we are in the hospital I will get some time to sit on my computer. Although, it rarely works out that way unless she is on Benadryl and sleeping. If she is awake and I pull out my computer, she usually wants to sit in my lap and cuddle. I always choose the cuddling over the computer unless I am finishing up a blog post. Then, I try to do that quickly so I can hold her. One day, she just might not let me so I'm taking all I can get now.

I am not looking forward to this trip to the hospital. Last time she got these meds, she was nauseous most of the time. It makes me so sad to see her like that. Fortunately, she has been flying high on life the past few days. Giggling, laughing, acting silly, running, jumping, and having fun! I feel so blessed to see her like this. After the rain, there is always sunshine. You just never know how long it will last. So, enjoy it while you have it. That is what I am doing with her. It makes all these trips to the hospital worth it knowing that I will have her in my life for at least a while longer....hopefully until she is all grown up and has a family of her own. I am so thankful for my little "SUNSHINE" who lights up my life every day. I made her a birthday card on her birthday that said "You are..." (outside) "my sunshine!" (inside) I cut out a sun and put it in the middle of a heart I made from construction paper. Then I wrote her name in the sun. It was very clever if I do say so myself. Anyways, it just came to me when I went to make it and it turned out awesome. I have always sang that song "You are my sunshine" to her whenever she needed comforting or just to hear me sing. Anyways, I am so thankful for the sunshine in my life. All of it!!!!

Ready for the weekend

Summer's counts are headed back up so that is good news. They are only around 319 so not great, but we may go to church on Sunday if she looks as good as she does today. She will be wearing a mask though so don't get too worried. Her hemoglobin was good today, but her platelets were low so she had to have her port accessed so she could get more platelets. It wasn't too bad today. The nurse took extra care to not bandage her too much so it would be easy to remove after her 30 minute infusion. I wouldn't say Summer was a happy camper, but she didn't feel the needle go in or come out and the nurse had the bandage off in no time at all so I would say it was one of our better days. Summer knows several of the clinic nurses by name now and she kept asking me why Ms. Deborah had to do that to her. It was sad, but life is sometimes. She also pitched a pretty big fit over the finger pricking again. When is this going to get easier for her???? We are only two months into this, but I think we are adjusting rather well. Ms. Deborah hooked us up with some adhesive remover so we got all of her adhesive off after we got home today. It has been all over her chest and shoulder for the past 2 or 3 weeks. She looks so much better now.

Tonight the grandkids are having a sleepover at my mom's. Yay!!! I know they have all been missing each other. I know I sure have been missing eating in restaurants and I am so excited to go out to dinner tonight!!!! I do love to cook so it hasn't been too bad. Summer and her daddy love my cooking too so that makes it even more rewarding. Last night we had tilapia, fish sticks, baked potatoes, greek spinach (spinach, tomatoes, onion, and rice) and green beans. Guess who didn't want fish sticks? Yep, she wanted the tilapia. I gladly traded her mine for the fish sticks. I haven't had them in years. She said she didn't want any spinach because she doesn't like it anymore. But, when I put a bite in her mouth she said it was good. LOL I think she just doesn't like to have a bite that has mostly onions in it. Today she started off with a bowl of chicken noodle soup and actually ate the chicken too. I guess I didn't look hungry to her. :p

Clint and Summer went to the Barn Nursery yesterday for an event put on by Lana's Love Foundation. They got to pick out some flowers and plant them in a planter to bring to me for Mother's day. They did an excellent job and I just love my new flowers. Plus, it was some good bonding time for Clint and Summer. I think they both enjoyed it.

Summer is ready to go check the mail so I'll wrap this up. Hope all you mothers out there have a Happy Mother's Day! Enjoy your children and your family. You never know just how long you will have with them!!!

Three years old today

Summer officially turns three in about half an hour. We have had an awesome day despite having to make a trip to the clinic this morning. She spent the night with my mom last night and was up before 6 a.m. this morning. As soon as she was dropped off, she opened her birthday presents. I figured she might want to take one of them with her to the clinic to play with. She got Mickey Mouse Memory and a Tinkerbell wrap blanket. She wanted to take both so we hopped in the car and left. We didn't have to wait long. One game of Memory and half a book was all we go in before they called her back. She weighed 31.6 pounds. Yay! She pitched a fit when the time came to get her finger pricked even though Miss Ashley was trying to distract her with her whale light. During this, the nurse and Miss Ashley found out it was Summer's bday so Miss Ashley went off to get Summer 3 birthday presents since she was three today. We went to the craft room to pass a little time and Summer made a glue / glitter picture. She really enjoyed it since she has never really worked with either one of those in that way before. Then Miss Ashley showed up with the gifts. Summer got Rio de Janeiro Barbie, a whistling frisbee type thing, a purple bandana and a few other odds and ends. Miss Ashley also gave us Dancing Princess party decorations. That was awesome too because now I don't have to go buy them myself. She even got a pull string pinata. That should be lots of fun too. That is if we get to have this girl a real party.

Her counts, aka ANC, was only 100. For those of you who don't know, less than 500 is very low and she shouldn't go into public places. Less than 1000 is still considered low. She has to get up to 2000 to stop her shots and then it has to be 1500 to start the next round of chemo which is due next week. I am not sure exactly what a normal ANC is, but I know it can be 14,000 or higher for her when the white blood cells are producing good so normal must be higher than that. So, we continue with the shots until we go back on Friday to have them checked again. Her hemoglobin and platelets were good so she didn't need any blood. Another, yay!!!

Too bad this is Mother's Day weekend because if her counts are up, it is when we would need to have the party since she is due chemo next week. Of course, they might not be up so we might have more time to get the party in. I really don't want to wait until after the next chemo because then she will be nauseous and not feeling good for a while. :( So we wait to see what her counts are going to do.

We did go to our friend's house today for lunch. They are not sick and are mainly homebodies so I thought it would be safe and fun for her to at least go somewhere on her special day. Selena made Summer's favorite food, spaghetti, although Summer didn't actually eat too much of it today. Melissa had brought chocolate cupcakes with pink icing, but Summer wanted chocolate icing. LOL. Anyways, she got her way because they had left some of the cupcakes plain and don't you know my buddy has almost everything in her cabinets. Melissa also picked up some balloons for the kids and they loved them. Summer got a special Barney balloon so that was awesome too! After that, the kids played outside a little before we headed home.

Summer fell asleep on the way home and I carried her in to finish her nap. She was not a happy camper when she got up, but I held her and babied her a little until I had to start dinner. She ate her mashed potatoes with corn on top. I mix mine all together so I guess that is where she got that idea from. She also ate a little chicken and baked beans. Since then we have been playing, reading, and just enjoying the rest of the day. Now it is time for us to hit the sack. I'll try to get some pics up tomorrow if I get a chance. I just hope we don't have to go back to the hospital. I took her temperature a while ago and it was 99.9. So I gave her some Ibuprofen to hopefully pull it down. I am really hoping it doesn't go up to the magic number because then we will be spending at least part of Mother's day weekend in the hospital.

Anyways, Happy Birthday to my little girl! And, many, many more!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Going home today

Summer is getting one last antibiotic, Ceftriaxone, before we leave the hospital. Of course, I am excited to go, but she is not. Nothing unusual there because going home means being de-accessed. I hope we don't have to come back later today or this week for that matter, but it is possible if her fever returns. This morning it was 99.1 which I guess isn't really a fever they are worried about. We have to go to the clinic on Wednesday, her birthday, for a blood check. Maybe her counts will be up by then and we can discontinue the shots. That would be a great birthday present! Some of our friends visited us last night (Thank you!!!) and they got to witness her getting a shot. She was her usual unhappy self until it was over. I think her counts are in the 200's today so that means they are on there way back up. Yay!!! She still shouldn't go in public places or around a lot of people, but they are headed in the right direction. We may take a trip to the carousel today if it isn't raining. It is usually pretty empty during the day so I will just take a handful of antibacterial wipes to disinfect the animals she rides. We never get out of there with just one ride. :)

I am still thinking I am going to hold off on having her party until next week since her counts are still low. I'd rather be safe than sorry. She says she wants a chocolate Barney cake so that is what I will get. Don't know if I should go with the Barney shaped cake I got made last year or get a square cake from Wal-Mart. Decisions, decisions. I still have to decide what to give her too. I have a closet full of things to choose from so at least I don't have to go shopping. I like to shop ahead especially when I find things on sale. I am a CRAZY clearance shopper. Clearance aisles always get me in trouble, well they would if we were broke. Thankfully we are not yet. :)

She is eating like a horse today. She woke up and wanted a Popsicle so she called the nurses station and asked for an orange one. Then she ate some macaroni and cheese left over from yesterday. She had half a jar of spaghetti, 3 peanut butter cookies, 1/2 a sugar cookies and a couple of bite of other noodles. She has also had two apple juices. She weighed 31.4 last night which was up almost a pound from the day before. Woo-hoo!!!! It looks like we are not going to be getting a feeding tube anytime soon.

Well, her antibiotic is done so we are ready to get out of here. Now comes the not so fun part: de-accessing the port. :(

Still feverish

Summer is up and playing. She slept a lot yesterday partly due to the fever and partly due to the Benadryl they gave her. Her hemoglobin and platelets were low so she got blood and platelets yesterday. She is going to get blood again today because her hemoglobin is right at the cut-off point and may drop again. Her white blood count dropped from .3 yesterday to .1 today. So, that is no good either. She will still have to get shots probably for the next week I am guessing. She DOES NOT like them. I guess that is normal though.

She is still running a fever. Last night around midnight it was 101.8 so they gave her Tylenol. This morning it was 100.6, but they didn't give her any Tylenol...at least not yet. We can't leave until she is fever free for 24 hours so I hope she does not continue to run a fever all day like she did yesterday. Otherwise it will be Tuesday before we can get out of here. It may be anyway. You never know around here. I just hope she doesn't contract anything more serious while we are here. She is getting Cefepime, an antibiotic, every 8 hours and probably will until we leave. Yesterday they also gave her the monthly antibiotic she is on to replace the Bactrim she was supposed to take three days a week, every week. So, she should be good for the next month for that treatment.

She is really enjoying the Disney channel they have here. Yesterday I had to suffer through Hannah Montana. Boy am I glad we don't have the Disney channel at home! I'm just not sure I like the idea of her watching what I call children's soap operas at this age. It is a funny show, but she is only two and I'd rather her watch cartoons which I think provide not only entertainment but educational value as well. Of course not all cartoons do the latter. I think PBS does an excellent job of providing educational cartoons. Nickelodeon not so much, but occasionally we will cut it on and catch an episode of Dora. Right now they are talking about shapes on Mickey Mouse playhouse so she is learning or at least getting some positive reinforcement this morning. She knows most shapes.

I guess that is it for now. She is asking for an ice cream sandwich so I'm going to get off here and see what is holding her daddy up this morning. Please pray for her fever to go away. I don't want to spend the whole week here, especially with her birthday coming up on Wednesday. I think I will delay the party a week though because it just looks like rain all week and I want to have an outdoor party. Plus, I don't think her counts are going to be up this week either so it be would safer for her to wait until they are.

Hospital bound

We are headed to the hospital today. Summer had a temperature of 100.9 when she got up to pee at my mom's house last night. It was around 2 or 3 a.m. so I told them to just give her some medicine because I didn't feel like going to the hospital in the middle of the night. This morning it was only 99.6, but I still called the doctor knowing they would want her to come in and get on antibiotics. So, we are in for at least the next 48 hours. Bummer. But, at least I got to go out and have a little fun last night. I am paying for it now though. My head is pounding and I feel slightly nauseous. Oh what a way to start the day. I am going to try to make the most of it though. I know they serve spaghetti for lunch on Saturday at the hospital so I am going to order that for Summer as soon as we get there. Isn't it sad that I know that??? We were there last Saturday and that was our last meal before we left the hospital so I guess I haven't had enough time to forget yet.

I better go make sure I have everything packed that we are going to need. I am so not looking forward to this trip. On the phone the doctor said that Summer will have plenty of company. So, it sounds like we will be getting a small room. Plenty of company is never a good thing when you are referring to the number of patients she will have to play with. That means sick kids. More germs. I would rather it be plenty of visitors, but that's not likely to happen either. Oh well, it is what it is.