Let's Talk About The Good Things

That's a picture of the beetle we saw in the street while walking Lucky and also stuck to our screen door.

"And it came to me then that every plan is a tiny prayer to father time" - Death Cab For Cutie

Isn't that the truth.

My friend Gabrielle told me that before bedtime, she and her kids talk about the best 'thing' of the day. It sounded like a great idea, so Sylvie and I adopted "The Good Things" where we recap the day. She LOVES it. I do too. It is VERY important to me that the last thing Sylvie and I talk about before she drifts off to sleep conjures up a happy memory. At least an hour before bedtime she pleads "let's talk about the good things" and I tell her we can only talk about them when we're going to sleep. Upstairs. Not on the couch. We lie face to face on her pillow, which used to be mine until she usurped it, and I begin recapping the day. It's always a 'good thing' when I am not in the city at work. There are usually references to Sylvie's favorite nurses, her physical therapist Tracey and stickers. Last night, Michael and I went to a party. My parents, fresh off the plane from a 2-week vacation, babysat. So we did not get to talk about the good things.

When Sylvie woke up in the middle of the night, she immediately asked if we could talk about the good things and I asked her to tell me a good thing in which she definitively replied, "Grandma's soda."

We're a very health conscious family and I've been reading lately about pediatric cancer post-chemo nutrition. The pediatric cardiologist had brought it up to Michael last month and Dr. Rosen also recommended we speak with an integrative pediatric oncology nutritionist. I joke that once Sylvie is eating normally again, there will be a new sheriff in town. In a nutshell, there are so many survivors of pediatric cancers that they are finding, no surprise, that nutrition is VERY important. There will not be any soda on Sylvie's good things list anymore! Sylvie also told me that Grandma doesn't know how to play the Laurie Berkner movie or use TiVo which we found pretty funny. As I've mentioned before, Grandma and Sylvie share in their love of shopping. I was hesitant when my mom walked in with a 2 Ecco shoe boxes because I've been trying unsuccessfully to get Sylvie to wear any other shoes besides her white sandals and didn't want my mom to face the wrath of Sylvie. But instead, Sylvie opened the box and was totally mesmerized and instantly in love with her fall shoe collection. It was pretty cute and a welcomed surprise.

On that note, Sylvie is starting to eat a little again. Yesterday she ate a few bites of an egg wrap, one strawberry and one Boca Burger fake-chicken nugget. It's a start. Today she ate about 2 nuggets, 1 strawberry, a few bites of cheesecake, a spoonful of Annie's 'Arthur pasta,' a bite of turkey and some salmon. I have high hopes for tomorrow.

Today we were supposed to go to a picnic but Sylvie fell fast asleep so we just drove into the city. I ran into Commodities while Michael sat in the car reading The New York Times with Sylvie sleeping in the back. There's a wonderful op-ed that you probably missed entitled "It Takes a School Not Missiles" about Greg Mortensen who wrote "Three Cups of Tea" and more importantly continues to build schools [for girls] in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Sylvie's 2-year birthday party was a Pennies for Peace party and in lieu of gifts we asked friends to bring pennies. We ended up donating over $200 from the coins. This year's not-for-profit is of course, the Tomorrows Children's Fund.

After Sylvie woke up, we zoomed around the East Village. The only good thing about Sylvie not walking is that for the first time, she's content in a stroller. Sylvie was hell bent on finding Hello Kitty stuff but "settled" on a bag full of carefully chosen marbles from Dinosaur Hill and then even more from Sons & Daughters. We stopped for Cupcakes at Butter Lane which were pretty divine. You can actually see the vanilla bean in the frosting. Then we headed home with a brief stop at the community garden. Michael ran ahead and planted stickers strategically in our garden and the adjacent one. We tell Sylvie that the garden fairy leaves her special presents, hence she is very happy to go with us and sit on a tarp while we pick lettuce, chard and tomatoes. She soon forgot about Hello Kitty.

Tonight may very well be Sylvie's final Neupogen shot ever!!!! You cannot possibly imagine how happy that makes all of us. It was terrifying learning how to give Sylvie an injection and the daily fight with her has been awful. That being said, it took 5 months for Michael and I to realize that the best way to do it is to wake her up right before we go to bed. She doesn't even remember it. It is a little hard maneuvering the syringe in the dark, however.

Sylvie has to go for lab work tomorrow but after last week's marathon of platelet and blood transfusions, I'm not expecting anything like that.

When we're bored at night we search endlessly for vacation ideas having no idea when we'll be able to travel but dreaming about it none the less.