No News Is Great News

After not hearing all morning from the our friends at the Reuten outpatient clinic, Michael called Annette to see if they had the radiologist's report from yesterday's CT scans. Annette was surprised that Dr. Harris had not called us himself. She then told Michael the wonderful news that Sylvie's CT scans were perfectly normal! After 7 months of one shit sandwich after another, finally some positive news! I guess the good thing is that Sylvie is healthy enough to be at the end of the To-Do List.

After school and physical therapy, we headed into the city for the Dan Zanes screening and performance at Housing Works Bookstore. Caroline got a whirlwind tour of New York City as I navigated Friday traffic. Sylvie had on her favorite dress, actually Samantha's, with fruit all over it, for the occasion. I happened to post our whereabouts on Facebook and was ecstatic to be joined at the toddler music fest by my friends Stephanie, in town from Los Angeles, and Janice who is one of my most cherished and longtime friends. Sylvie had never met either of them. When Dan entered the room, Sylvie's face lit up. We said hello and Sylvie tried to follow him around. During the screening, Sylvie chose to sit on my lap for most of the show until Stephanie offered to whisk her off her feet and dance the funky chicken. It is a side of Stephanie I have never seen! They were like Fred & Ginger's kooky relatives. Steph works on House MD and I was equally thrilled and surprised to see my friend Ana cast in the season opener. She's also the cellist in a band I work with (Into the Presence) and my friend Luis' girlfriend. This week was definitely six degrees of Stephanie.

Dan and Sonia played a few songs which was more like Sylvie and I calling out our favorite tunes... "The Fine Friends Are Here," "Wonder Wheel," "Pay Me My Money Down" and more. During "Catch That Train," Sylvie made Caroline, Janice, Stephanie and I form a train with her. I hope Dan appreciated my maurauding crusaders enthusiasm.

Afterwords, we walked over to the Scholastic Store where Sylvie went beserk over the larger than life Clifford which Janice animated. Janice and I have embarked on many adventures in our lifetime, from camping (on a gravel bed in a KOA campsite) to hiking in the Shawagunks without food and practically shaking down a park ranger for a granola bar to learning how to kayak in the Hudson River together as well as rock climbing. We were known to wear vinyl pants back when I preferred Southern Comfort to soy milk but really, watching Janice make Clifford the Big Red Dog come to life ranks up there with sharing a rock ledge together on a multi-pitch climb. I forgot to tell her that our first climbing teacher is in jail for killing his roommate's ex-girlfriend's pet rabbit and making fricassee.

Sylvie was pretty much insane on the drive home. There was so much traffic that I hopped out of the car on Broome Street to MariBelle Chocolate shop, got a bag full of goodies for us and back into the car which had inched forward maybe 10 feet. Sylvie stuffed her face with a buttery cookie filled with fresh caramel. Her fingers were so gooey that Caroline had to rub the caramel off them while Sylvie tried licking off the rest.

When we finally got home, we finally opened that bottle of champagne which we've had waiting and waiting and waiting for such an occasion as today. I made Mark Bittman's soba noodles for dinner (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/23/dining/23mini.html) and took Sylvie upstairs for bedtime. She asked me to give Dan Zanes a message and then proceeded to tell her Sleeping Beauty "the good things" of the day which went something like this, "Sleeping Beauty, let's talk about the good things... I won't drop you off and leave you at school. Today we spent the whole day together and I didn't go to work. It was a good day. One day when you were a baby, you were in my tummy and were (gesturing) this small." I couldn't stop telling Sylvie how much we love her and then kissing her fuzzy head over and over and over.