Good bye card to Ms Brown

Addie's substitute Miss Brown will be leaving next week, since Miss Melgarejo is back from maternity leave. Last night when I was reading Ben's bedtime book, Addie explained that she needed to do something. She asked me to fold a piece of paper in half, so I did and she was off.

At the foot of my bed, she furiously scribbled away. The card had to go into her folder for today, but I didn't want to lose what she wrote, so I copied it word for word.

This is what she wrote:

Miss Bron Sary that you haft to go I howp you have fun!!

I will mis you and I howp you mis me to.

Have a grat day Love Addie

You are deftly coming to my brthday I will com to yours if you com to min

Good biy

I LOVE that she can read so well and yet doesn't make the connection between the words she reads and how she spells things. It just makes me smile. I howp you enjoyed reading that!

What a year

I love having this blog and being able to go back to old posts. Today I did that and realized that one year ago, Addie gave her hair to kids with cancer!! What a year! Her hair is now back past her shoulders, having had it recut to her chin twice! In Ben follow-up news, there really isn't much to follow up on. You'd never know that a day ago he was under the knife. He's been fine. No big deal!

Bye bye bump!!!

We had to be at the hospital at 6:30 this morning!! We were excited because that meant that Ben would be one of the first patients in the OR, and that means we'd get out relatively early.

We waited about 30 minutes or so before they called us back. He did his blood pressure, etc and we were shown into our little holding bay. We got him dressed into his gown and then they gave him "silly juice" to help calm him so that he wasn't upset when it came time to separate from us.

The Silly Juice has a nasty after taste and he wasn't loving that at all. This is him just after the silly juice, he's kind of making a gross face because of the flavor.

The "silly juice" has no effect on Ben, as you'll see... :)

Just after this video was taken, the surgeon came in to say hello and she said, "Hi Ben. How are you?" He looked at her and instead of saying a word, he raised and lowered his eyebrows at her. Oh my God, it was so hysterical. About the same time, he told me he wanted to have the blanket up over him, so I pulled it up over his body and he proceeded to cover his whole head with the blanket and started giggling under the blanket, then he would slowly pull the blanket down under hiseyes and put it back up. It was really funny. Like I said on Facebook, quite possibly the funniest thing is watching your child be loopy and see how they behave.

He went into the OR at 7:55am and at 8:22am the doctor came out to say that he was done.

She believes it was actually an angioma, because once she shaved it off, the blood vessels underneath were really deep. She cauterized those blood vessels. Right now it looks like a dark scab. It will transition to a pink dot and then gradually fade to light pink and eventually white. He may have a small white-looking freckle as a scar. Because of it being an angioma, there's a chance it could grow back. If it starts to look puffy pink, we are supposed to go back to see the plastic surgeon, because that means it's growing back.

This next picture is of him chilling on the couch. He's not allowed to walk by himself at all today, since the anesthesia stays in his system for 12 hours. He looks like he's still feeling good, right?

Now he's hanging out cuddling with Muddy for the day. He got to drink a post-anesthesia slushie, which has been a point of conversation all week long. He was in the PACU (post anesthesia care unit) for maybe 30 minutes before we were discharged. Overall total time in the hospital=less than 3 hours!

It looks so good to his face without that thing sticking out of it!

Addie was upset she couldn't come with us this morning. After the surgeon told us he was done, I started to email Addie's teacher to ask her to let her know he was ok, until I realized she hadn't gone to school yet! So I called home and talked to Muddy who put Addie on the phone and Addie was so relieved that Ben was ok. She giggled at the story about playing peek-a-boo with the blanket. Muddy said after that, Addie was like normal- where prior to that she was in a funk being so worried. :(

Special shout out of appreciation to Muddy for being at our house at 6:15 today to allow Brian, Ben and I to get to the hospital in time!

A preview...

Afterwards, her teacher gave her flowers and the kids had all made special signs cheering her on! Awesome!

That's Miss Brown, her substitute while Ms. Melgarejo is on maternity leave. She's been helping Addie during lunch time with rehearsing the words.

Pre-performance. She was just a wee bit excited, in case you can't tell.

*You can see the video on my Facebook page- it isn't loading on my blog the right way, for now at least.*

My daughter the superstar

Addie's school has a program called "Reading Basketball Association" (RBA) which is designed for third-fifth graders and involves story reading by the principal followed by a basketball game. They practice for 12 weeks and have games with other elementary schools. Apparently the kids all insist the most important part is the reading-- ok, I don't quite get it yet, but I'm sure by the time Addie is in third grade it'll make more sense to me.

Her principal has a habit of pulling Addie out of class and having her sing during the upper grades' lunches. He gives her the mic and all and let's her perform her heart out.

Last week he asked Addie if she'll sing the National Anthem for the RBA's All Star game, which is in front of the entire school (700+ students). She of course said yes, so this Friday at 1:30PM my daughter will be singing her heart out in front of over 700 people, and will be as proud and confident as is humanly possible.

Of course there will be video to commemorate this event. I, unfortunately, will miss the real thing because I have a conference for work that I'm hosting and we've been planning for over a year. So I'll have to enjoy it after the fact like the rest of my loyal blog followers. Don't worry, Brian, Muddy, Ben, Aunt Erin and Claire will be there in person to cheer her on.

She's excited because the cheerleaders are going to give her a rose after she sings. It's the little things, right?Can't wait to share the video with you all!

Ben's favorite movie

is "Die A Rumpy Kid." In case you don't speak Ben-ese, or at least haven't brushed up on it recently, that translates to "Diary of a Wimpy Kid." For some reason though, he's convinced it's called "Die a Rumpy Kid." He says it with such conviction sometimes it makes me think, "do I have that name wrong?"

Update on the bump

The silver nitrate hasn't changed it one iota. So Ben will be heading under the knife for plastic surgery. He's scheduled for his plastic surgery consult on Tuesday the 22nd. Wednesday he has his pre-surgical screening and then he'll actually go into surgery on Tuesday the 29th. I have no idea how intense a procedure it will be yet, but he's going to the OR, so I'm guessing it'll be full anesthesia, which I'd expect considering I doubt there's any feasible way for a child to lay still on a table while someone cuts into his cheek and pokes around. No idea about how long it will take or how they'll close the incision. Will update the blog after our appointment on Tuesday.

By the way, Ben couldn't care less that he's having it done. :)

St. Patrick's Day

St. Patrick's Day was so much fun for me this year. As a little girl, I remember getting all dressed up for school to celebrate. Addie was excited to do the same. She was thrilled to have green hair and an all green outfit, not to mention the bow and shamrock Muddy whipped up.

Her teacher emailed me to say that she looked so cute.

Sunday in the park

We went to the park this morning, and it turned out to be colder feeling than we expected so it wasn't that long of a trip. Still, it was nice for the kids to get out in the fresh air.

Ben only has one speed and it's fast. He literally ran from each piece of equipment to the next, never slowing down.

Addie enjoyed the swings, in case you can't tell by this picture. She made her loud belly laugh the whole time.

Ben was more subdued in his typical way. His bump is now clearly brown (and his skin around it is too- but not because I haven't tried to not have it contact his surrounding skin, mind you- I've tried very hard, but oh well) and it hasn't changed size at all. I'm thinking we'll be heading to the plastic surgeon.

Again, she hated every second of this.

Peek-a-boo, I see Ben.

"The red bump"

So you've probably noticed that Ben has had this red bump on his cheek for several months now. It started in July (you can actually go back to the blog and watch it develop! Thanks to technology and my photographic journaling, I can pinpoint when it was) as a little pimple type thing that he scratched and it's gotten bigger progressively since then. When he went to his 4 year old well child visit in November the pediatrician said she thought it was either a pyogenic granuloma or a spider angioma. Not matter, it would fall off and not be a problem.

Well here we are in March now and it's still here and obviously getting more pronounced on his cheek. Strangers are now asking what it is! We were at breakfast this weekend and a stranger commented how much he liked Ben's red hair and then said, "and he's got a red thing on his face." Kids in Addie's class have asked about it a lot, etc. Ben feels like he's always had it, and his answer is usually like "it's my red bump." Duh!

I took him to the pediatric dermatologist (actually Muddy brought him, and I met them since it's at my hospital). It turns out that it's a combination of the two! It will continue to get bigger if we don't do anything, so I'm glad we got it looked at now. Last night we started an at home treatment of silver nitrate on the red bump, which we will alternate every other night for a week. Ideally, it was shrivel the bump away to nothingness, just leaving a flat red mark. If that happens, then he will go back to the dermatologist for a one time laser treatment (it's just a flashlight, not really as exciting as it sounds). That will "kill" the blood vessels that are clustered and it'll disappear totally. If the silver nitrate doesn't shrivel it up within ten days, we'll be heading to the plastic surgeon to have it removed. I'd rather not have it go that route, but time will tell.

So if you look at the picture I posted from tonight, where he's being his sweet angelic self, you'll see the red bump has some brown on it and there are some brown ashes on his cheek-that's from the silver nitrate. It didn't look any different this morning when he woke up and throughout the day, that part turned brown and I guess he smeared it. Hoping the other stains come off of his skin eventually!!

What my kiddos look like

We got a new camera this weekend, as my old pal the Sony bit the dust.

Just after we got home, Ben was eager to pose. He's so cute.

Then later that night after baths, he was mad at me. :)

Cutie Addie was doing her homework

Then tonight they were posing while we were eating dinner.

The Addie-point-and-rotate move. On a separate note, she got some new clothes this weekend. On Monday, she wore the outfit that's in the picture of her doing her homework. This morning she woke up and got dressed and wanted to wear that shirt again. I told her she couldn't, so she chose this dress which is short sleeves. She's wearing her pink shirt underneath it. She is in head to toe pink. Quite a vision.

I took this picture tonight and said, "Uh oh, I know LouLou and Bub will be having a new background now!"

An email from Muddy

I got an email from Muddy on Friday that had the subject line "Your Conniving Son" which I knew just had to be a good one......

Muddy: Ben, how about if you go on a hunt for missing socks, all around the house-- under beds, under tables, chairs, sofas? I'll give you a Sour Patch Kid candy for each sock.

Ben: Sure!

Five minutes pass

Ben: Here, Muddy!
One pair of very dust-covered sock handed to Muddy; Muddy doles out two SPK candies. Ben's eyes glow. He disappears.

Five minutes pass

Heard overhead on the second floor: the slamming of dresser drawers.

Muddy: Nuh-uh! Ben, socks from dressers don't count.

Overheard from second floor: ooooooooohhhhhhhhh :(

Minutes pass

Ben: Here you go, Muddy!
Two immaculate but mismatched socks handed to me. Very ornery look on face of Ben.

Muddy: Ok, Ben-- where'd you get 'em?

Ben points to the pile of CLEAN LAUNDRY.
Foiled again.

Ben: DARN!

Just call him Benjamin "Dior"

Today Ben had to go to the pediatrician to get checked because he's got this bronchial irritation going on. He and Muddy met me there. He was very excited to tell me that he made a surprise for me and couldn't wait to give it to me. Muddy chimed in that Benjamin made it all by himself.

When I got home I was greeted to an apron, including a pocket with several colors of thread and designs on it, and a stitched line at the bottom that says "To Mommy Love Ben, 3-2-2011" repeated along the hem! Watch the video to see him make it.

This kid'll be selling them in no time! (Thanks Muddy too, for sharing your talents and skills with him! Most other 4 year olds wouldn't know what to do with a professional sewing machine!) There are pictures of him making it too, but I have to upload them. Of course I'll post a pic of me wearing it too.

I joked, "maybe I could wear it to work tomorrow," and he smiled and said, "I guess you could..." but he knew that wouldn't be a good idea.

Wacky Wednesday

In honor of Dr. Suess' birthday today, Addie's class was encouraged to dress "wacky."

Below is Addie's interpretation of "Wacky." When she was picking out her clothes, she said, "i don't know what doesn't match!" So I told her to bring me some options and I would tell her. She brought the striped shirt and the polka dots pants, which was perfect....just know that she also wore the exact same outfit one day last week...and it wasn't "wacky" day. Note she is wearing two different shoes. Under them, she actually has mismatched socks too. We threw her hair up into some pigtails and her cornrow braids are still in from the weekend. Muddy even made her a name tag that said "Eidda." Gee, we're so wacky.