Girl meets Destiny

Happy Birthday Larry! I'm so glad that we were able to get you just what you wanted! Rock on, little girl.




As a side note: Claire asked for a "chocolate cake with chocolate frosting, that looks just like me!" Uh, I did my best.

Little Larry the loveable leper

This picture doesn't actually do justice to just how red and swollen the poor thing was. She's finally getting better after three days of looking shockingly terrible. No clue on why. But we're glad to have her sweet little self getting back to normal!

I've lost my faith in humanity

One of the perks of rooming with an elementary-ed major in college was digging through her stash of children's lit. (Thanks Monica!) When I picked up Bridge to Terebithia one afternoon, I spent the next few hours absolutely transfixed. By the end I was curled up in a ball on Monica's bed, sobbing my heart out. It is one of those books that give you that glimpse of what it must feel like to be in heaven; it is trulya peircingly beautiful book even though the events it describes aren't exactly happy ones.

And that is why this makes me want to vomit.

I freaking hate Disney. Hate them. Hate them!

How does a book about friendship in its deepest and most soul-searing incarnation turn into a movie about kids running around some cheesey fantasy-land with swords? How the heck were they able to put the name of this book that I absolutely love on this crappy Narnia-clone of a movie?

Augh. I guess there are no members of the race who know Joseph in Hollywood. At least, there aren't any working for Disney.

OK, am I on Punk'd?

No fevers this morning. But when Claire hopped into the bath this afternoon, I noticed that she had little red blotches on her hands. And her belly. And all over her legs.

It could just be a random case of hives - these happen to my kids from time to time, thanks to Chris' weird hive-prone genes. But if she still has it tomorrow? Well, after spending the morning at the Oncology clinic, I guess we'll be making yet another stop by the Pediatrician's. So fun.

I guess I can't exactly complain about not getting out - we're getting out plenty, it just happens that the destination always seems to involve a doctor.

In praise of my husband

With the girls hovering around various levels of illness the past two weeks, I have begun to increasingly feel like a rat in a cage.

A gigantic, crampy rat in a cage full of smaller, constantly chattering mice.

So Chris stepped up to the plate yesterday and released me out into the wild. "The wild" being Bed Bath and Beyond, and then the Towson mall with Vanessa.

Do you know what it feels like to step into a foul-smelling, cramped mall bathroom and get a surge of happiness because you realize that you don't need to finangle any little bottoms (with layers of toilet paper, let's hope those pants don't touch the floor, please don't fling your hair into the toilet when you pull them up!) into the stall with you? It's heaven.

So, I was MIA for a good four or five hours when I finally got a call from Chris, politely asking me to stop by the store to get Coke for Claire. Because she had spent the whole day throwing up. When I left the house, Claire hadn't even begun to sprout a fever (and yes, I checked - part of the daily routine lately has been a temp check for everyone upon waking.) Chris spent all day bent over the toilet holding Claire's hair out of her face, just so that I could get a little break.

Forget flowers and schmaltzy Hallmark cards; this, young ladies out there, is what true love is all about.

another man down

Katie still has a fever.

Claire spent all day vomitting.

Will Abbie make it? Tune in to find out!

Update on our health

Beth's fever is down, and her appetite is returning. By tomorrow she shouldn't be contagious anymore.

Abbie is still fever-free.

But Katie just said that her belly hurts. And her temp was 100.9.

$@#%!

The Magic of Bob Books, or How Beth is Incredibly Smart

Beth is going a little stir-crazy so I've been pulling out all sorts of things that were still in storage, in an effort to keep her entertained. I pulled out the "Bob Books" we used to re-inforce Katie's reading lessons, and to my surprise Beth was quickly able to read through the entire first box!

I've done nothing with her this year. She's gone through letter sounds in her kindergarten class, but they hadn't really begun to go through those in earnest until after Christmas. We went through the first book together, and I showed her how to mash the letter sounds together to sound out the words. And that was all it took - like magic, she suddenly could read!

She's excited beyond belief, of course, and has been doing nothing but reading the Bob books all day. I'm excited, too. I can't believe how easily she picked this up, and how quickly she's picking up new concepts. I'm so proud of her, and already I can't wait until she's ready to start The Wind in the Willows on her own!

Strep Throat

So that's why Beth wasn't getting any better.

Prayers that Abbie can avoid this would be appreciated!

First successful quarantine

I probably shouldn't even post this, since I'm officially waiting until tonight to declare victory. But, things are looking pretty optimistic.

Three days ago, Beth came home from school with a raging fever. This sort of thing is never fun, but Abbie's condition puts a whole new spin on things. Her blood counts are down - not so much that it is alarming, but enough that her resistance to infection has been impacted. Plus, her broviac puts her at a much greater risk of sepsis; even a small infection can quickly travel to her heart and put her into septic shock.

So, we had to try to keep her healthy through Beth's illness. Not easy, especially when Abbie was so delighted to have Beth home from school that she wanted nothing more than to hug her all day long. To make things more complicated, we were having our kitchen painted, thus putting the kitchen out of use.

So, we put a movie on in the basement for Abbie and Claire, and Beth was put into quarantine in my bedroom (the only other room in the houe with a t.v.) Then the power went out. No movies for anyone. So we had Abbie and Claire, sitting around the increasingly frigid basement and Beth, stuck up in my bedroom with nothing to do but look at books, and occasionally run to the bathroom to vomit. Oh, and since we have a well, when the power goes out so does the water.

We made it through, though. Beth finally recovered and was able to go back to school today, and so far Abbie is showing no signs of developing a fever.

Thank God for small miracles. :)

Update:

Beth threw up in school again yesterday. I have no idea what is going on with her - she had no fever, although her temp went up a little by the evening. We are going on over a week now of this: she throws up, spikes a fever, then seems to go back to being perfectly fine. Until she throws up again. Ugh.

I am a prisoner in this house.

She knows

Twice now in the past month Katie has directly asked me, "If Santa Claus was not real, you would tell me, right?"

Both times I took advantage of the usual family chaos to avoid answering her. But the time had come, both Chris and I agreed.

We were nervous about this, partly because Katie is scrupulously truthful and might not understand why we had "lied" to her, partly because learning the truth had been so sad for both of us and we assumed it would be a similar experience for Katie.

So, yesterday, Chris took Katie out to get ice-cream. And he leveled with her about Santa, the Easter Bunny, and yes, even the Tooth Fairy. Katie's reaction, though, defied every one of our expectations. She sighed, and nodded, and said:

"Well, good. It makes me more comfortable to know that there aren't really people who come into our house when I am asleep."

She is not angry, she is not bitter, she is not even sad. No, Katie is relieved. It's a well-worn phrase, but I guess the truth really does set you free, even in the most unexpected of circumstances.

Found on the floor while sweeping....

Jalen's File
by: Katie Mlinek

Katie loves Jalen in the way like I like him but I like him so much you can say you love him in the way of like.

Our story began 8 years ago this very day....

Eight years ago today, in the middle of a blizzard, Chris and I began our life together. My mom had sent away to have masses said for us at the Shrine of Our Lady of the Snows, so I've always viewed that snowfall as a sign of blessing for our marriage. Although, on a practical level, it was pretty inconvenient (but it made for some really great snowboot-themed wedding pictures!)

As inconvenient as the snow was, it actually set the tone for things to come. We have been blessed beyond measure in our marriage, but our blessings always tend to come in strange ways and inconvenient packages. Almost every event in our marriage that at first seemed to be an overwhelming burden has brought us the most unlooked-for, unthought-of, but ultimately necessary blessings. Babies born in what conventional wisdom would deem bad times, too close together, too often. Chaos when we thought we needed serenity. Serenity when we thought we needed excitement.

Who are we to know what is best for us? I don't know that I would have planned for my life to go this way - toddler with cancer, kids in public school, five times the amount of kids all our friends have. I haven't written that best-selling novel I had planned on. Chris hasn't set the world on fire the way it was predicted he would. But......I love my husband with all of my heart. I admire him, I respect him; he is not only the best friend I have in the world, he is my model of virtue, the bright spot in my day when things are bleak. And, improbable as it seems to me, he feels the same way about me. This is something; something really rare, something really good, something I am proud to be a part of.

So, happy anniversary Chris! I don't know what other surprises are in store for us, but I know that you will be beside me when they come. And that is all that matters.

Happy New Year!

We let the girls (minus Abbie) stay up until midnight last night, so this was a slow-starting morning. So slow, in fact, that we still - at 5pm- haven't really begun the day. We're having a lazily cozy, slightly frowzy start to 2007. Everyone needs baths, but nobody has had one. Chris and I, and Beth, are still in our pjs. I think we may have potato chips for dinner.

Last night was really nice, with the Lobers coming over to ring in the New Year with us. The Lober small folk are more used to late nights, and I was afraid that my girls would not fare as well into the wee hours. But they were fine - a little hyper, but who can blame them with all the candy and chips they were eating? And nobody puked from the excess, which was both unusual and very cool.

So today is spent in recovering - a lot of laying around , reading books in front of the fire, nibbling on whichever leftovers still seem vaguely appealing. Like I said, lazy and cozy, and really very, very comfy and enjoyable. Here's to a 2007 filled with days like this: nothing to do, and nowhere to go, happy and safe at home. :)