And for an RIP encore...

Paige came in while I was changing a diaper and asked, "What do snail moms give their kids when they misobey?"

"I have no idea," says I patiently, not really paying attention since no blood was gushing from anywhere and there was no smell of smoke in the air.

"Slime outs."

I paused with the (clean) diaper hanging in the air to think about what just came out of my 4 year old's brain. She was grinning like a chimpanzee.

"Where did you learn that joke?" I was casually trying to do fasten the aforementioned diaper without looking overtly curious. It doesn't happen often that Paige is the bearer of never-before-heard jokes, although a little mistranslation is nothing new.

"In (pause to run down the hall and return with magazine in hand) this Ranger Rick." We got a new one in the mail a week ago and it looks like she's already zipped through the joke page. I knew she could read well, but I didn't think her comprehension was THAT good when it came to knee slappers.

I like my kids. :-)

In memory of the recently departed

The kids' favorite joke is -

There was a snail who slimed over to a car lot and said, "I need to buy a car."
The salesman said, "What kind of car are you looking for?"
The snail said, "A fast car with the letter S painted on the side."
The salesman said, "Why do you want the letter S on your car?"
The snail said, "So that everyone who sees me will say 'Look at that S car go!'"

The end

;-)

So glad I'm not French

Jeff did have two whole years in Belgium and France to try escargot, but in spite of even specifically asking for it at meals, no one was willing to make it for him (they didn't want to have to eat the critters with him). But for those who enjoy the so-called delicacy, come on by anytime before next Tuesday when the garbage man stops by and pick up a baggie or two out of our trash. We've got enough to feed the entire neighborhood... and there are more where those came from. It rained all night long and was still overcast this morning, leaving the little snails living in our yard in a quandary. They're supposed to go home during daylight hours but the sun never came out so that left them climbing up and down walls & fences and wandering across walkways just as the kids woke up.

I promised they could go to Thanksgiving Point to buy something from the farm if they did their jobs and had enough money earned to buy the toys they wanted. Those who didn't had to earn it in whatever way they could. The fastest-paying job around here is snail catching. Paige is the grand master, but the rest of them are pretty good, too. All together, within an hour they had picked up over 180 snails (Jason and Paige stopped counting after 15 or so because they were more worried about the snails climbing up and out the bag, but they average about 30 apiece on normal mornings). At a nickel for each snail or slug they all made enough to buy prizes - including a stuffed horse, peacock feather, plastic dog, and little sea shells. Seriously, if anyone wants to hire some expert anti-pest-os, these kids come pretty cheap!

Yellow Brick Road

Well, more like black asphalt path, really. During physical therapy last night they were testing her strength, balance and endurance so we went on a 25 minute jaunt down the Provo River Parkway (just across the parking lot from the clinic). Sada was outwalking all of them and having a great time until we came to an underpass that was about a foot under water from the run-off. So, we turned around and headed back the other way. That was about 10 minutes into the walk and just enough time to start getting her a little tired. When she does get tired, her muscle strength on her left side really starts dragging and it's a little harder to keep her leg facing forward - it starts angling out to the side. We went for 15 more minutes of running and jogging just to see how much stamina she could pull up from her gut. She did remarkably well. I got to be her left-side guide so she wouldn't step off the trail into the river... not a great way to impress three therapists looking for improvement. :-)

I'm so glad when Daddy comes home!

Doctor Daddy took a quick trip this weekend to Portland for a conference. There wasn't any whining or meltdowns or gnashing of teeth while he was gone because on his way out he told the kids that if they were obedient and got along well this weekend he would bring them surprises. Yes, we believe in the reward system (it isn't bribery if they have done their jobs well, right?). Besides, it's always more fun to receive presents if there's a little bit of anticipation to get excited about!

The two younger best buds got desperately needed sandals that should last them for a year or two, and will be passed down looking decent when they've grown a foot or two. The more mature siblings both ended up with sewing kits, complete with 20 mini-spools, scissors, pins, needle threaders, pin cushions, and a 12x12 lined box to keep it all organized. All morning Alexis was embroidering some kind of sampler that I promised not to peek at, and Sada made two purses within the first 6 hours. Pretty impressive! I also received a sewing kit since mine was destroyed in last fall's bathroom flood... really, the only item that was moldy and had to be thrown out (aside from two walls of drywall and a tub, but they're not truly items. They're more like things.) Kyra received two books, chewed cardboard off the cover of one of the books before her nap and threw up all over the carpet - the kids promised to never leave books on the floor from now on so maybe the object lesson was worthwhile. And we all get to play a lovely fairy & elf game that looks fun for the whole family. Now they're asking when he gets to go on another trip. Oh, what love!

Hawana wakawakawaka niki pupupu

Yes, it's a silly song. We've been listening to it for a while because Sada stretched to it during dance class warm-ups last fall and started singing it to Daddy as a farewell on his way to work one day, knocking his socks off with amazement that she had the whole thing memorized syllable by syllalable (yes, syllalable - get it, lalala).

She gets it from her ex-DJ father who knows just about every song ever released from 1980-2001, when he finally stopped moonlighting at weekend weddings and graduated from med school.

April MRI scan

The radiology disks finally arrived, so here's the inside scoop (that's a funny!):





The offending spot is lit up right behind her eyes in the middle of the brainstem and cerebellum, in the top half on the back side of the skinny black space (the 4th ventricle). It is 10mm at the widest measurement. Her ventricles are still bigger than normal, but compared to previously they have almost shrunk to half the size they were pre-surgery. The original scans are on the January 25 post.

Hoppy Easter

We had a really relaxed Easter. We dyed 6 dozen eggs last week - mainly because that gave everyone enough eggs to be creative to their hearts' content and not cry when they dropped and cracked one or two or eight. Since we had plenty of eggs, they had 4 hunts! That was great because we could keep getting sneakier hiding them and Paige and Jason never became frustrated since they knew they would find some eventually.

Before the last hunt, Paige was getting really onery and didn't want to take a nap. When she got the news that unless she went to sleep she wouldn't get to find eggs, she came up with a brilliant insight that was quite true, "But it won't be any fun without me!" Five minutes later, she was snoring. And we had quite the happy hopper for the rest of the day!

I think I thunked a thought

During Sada and Alexis’ “Frog Prince” five-act play for Mom, Dad, Paige, Jason and Kyra, there was an intermission with a bee who explained what pollinators do, a praying mantis who informed us that if he were a girl she would eat her husband, and a butterfly who told us about flying and asked:

“Any questions?”

Paige obliged:

“I have a question. What is a question? (no answer)

Is a question a question? (pause)

Is the word “question” a question? (small pause)

Can you imagine what you think? (no pause)

Can you? Imagine what you think?”

I was laughing so hard I cried. Everyone else decided to ignore her and the stinky, slimy frog and his promise-breaking princess went on with the play.

School's out (side) from now on

I've been in touch with Freedom Academy to figure out how to get Alexis back for the last month of school and make sure we have places held for the kids when classes start back up in the fall. And yesterday, I got a call that is good for all of us!

This week Freedom was scheduled to be out Friday and with Spring Break next week they're only having classes Monday and Tuesday. Realistically, the soonest Alexis could go back would be April 20th (so she wouldn't be held accountable for the end of unit tests and projects). But state testing starts that week, and after that there are only three weeks of school left since their last day of class is May 22 (Sada's birthday, fyi). The administrators thought it would be best if Alexis stayed in home school for the rest of this year since she'll be right in time for the major tests but miss all the prep work.

Even though Alexis won't be back this year, they'll still be assigning teachers for Sada, Alexis and Paige next fall!!!! That was the biggest reason to push for Alexis going back, in spite of the fact that the flu and that hacking, lingering cough are still going around and I was really dreading having to deal with any colds that might come home accidentally. So this plan works for all of us. WHOOOOOOOOOO! And I'm still doing history, science, literature, recess (the kids feel it's their job to remind me about that and PE three or four times a day) and math to keep them all caught up without having to stay back a level when they start in the fall. I'll just spread math out a little longer to give us something to do this summer and we'll be perfect!

And the results are.....

...pretty good after spending another 6 hours in impromptu appointments at Primary Children's (and none of that included time to eat lunch!). We got to mosey around 4 separate clinics on different floors and were even told that we know how to navigate the hospital better than some of the employees - how'd that happen?

We got to the Imaging waiting room right at 10:30 and they called Sada in 2 minutes later to start her MRI. She didn't get music or a movie this time, but she did get the super expensive REALLY powerful scanner. Comparing the two machines they have, these latest pictures look like professional portraits next to cell phone photos (the previous scans). We didn't get to bring home the dvd of the photos because their disk writing machine froze this morning, but they are going to mail it to us this week (so I'll put them on the blog soon).

The scan showed:

1. The little spot on the brain stem where the tumor had infiltrated hasn't changed at all and wasn't showing up as anything on the new MRI. That means it probably won't come back.

2. The little "artifact" (thingy) that appeared after surgery at the base of the cerebellum hasn't changed - so it is most likely part of an artery or a calcification - but it's not any cause for concern because it hasn't changed a bit.

3. The cerebellar area at the top of the tumor (where the surgeon said it was really hard to get into without damaging healthy tissue) does show up lighter with the contrast MRIs, so the tumor cells have been growing there. It's about the size of a pinkie nail right now. Comparing it with the post-op MRI, the tumor spot is a lot clearer and larger... mainly because there was swelling and some bleeding obstructing the view the day after surgery. It is sitting below the 4th ventricle on the cerebellum and has enough room to grow quite a bit before it would start causing symptoms like gross central balance loss.

We talked to the neurosurgeon, he wants to wait another 2-3 months for another MRI and see what happens to area #3 - 1 out of 3 resected (surgically removed) JPAs grows more, 1 out of 3 stays the same forever, and 1 out of 3 goes away on it's own. But he did send us up for an oncology consult so he could have someone else collaborate his opinion. The doctor completely agreed with a wait-and-see approach, and if it does grow a lot over the next few months she'd much rather do surgery than chemo or radiation. Yeah, we'll agree with that opinion. Believe it or not, surgery is much less traumatic than chemo or radiation... and doesn't carry a bucketload of side-effects to dole out along the way.

To sum it up - the tumor is gone in the most dangerous spot (the brain stem). The tumor area where the surgeon didn't want to "explore" during surgery did grow more - but Sada didn't loose any necessary brain cells then, and it's clearly defined now which will make a resection easier if it is needed next year. The spot is growing, but slowly, and isn't going to cause any problems for a long, long while. And we have plenty of time to try a few more aggressive ideas without feeling like this is a last chance effort.

Officially, Sada's stable - no new symptoms and no new treatments. Interesting diagnosis, huh? As Dr. Seuss puts it, "You're in pretty good shape for the shape you are in." And now that the wait for the MRI is finally over we're going to play outside - 70 degree weather deserves a celebration!

Ouch!

Sergio worked Sada HARD today - she's never been so limber. He made her lie down on her back and do a butterfly (legs pulled up with feet touching) so her knees were touching the floor by the time we went home. She's had really rigid muscles since December, so to say it hurt is an understatement. Then after doing that, about 50 squat-and-stands and climbing up and down a wall ladder for 5 minutes, her legs were jello and shaking until she finally went to bed. She had her feet taped again, too, which has made big changes in her gait and balance. She's decided pain is the price you pay for perfection and she's going to get therer sooner or later!

I played a joke on you!

We didn't go all out this year, but didn't get skipped over, either.

April Fool's Day Rundown:
1. We cut a hole in a box bottom and pretended we caught a vole, then scared dad by grabbing his nose with our fingers when he looked inside.

2. We put an elastic band over the kitchen sprayer to get mom (but Alexis got sprayed in the face first).

3. Sada and Alexis spent all afternoon in the bathtub stringing up a bucket full of origami to tip onto mom and dad - they were surprised.

4. Jason got all dressed in red clothes and a blanket, then Alexis helped him "fly" onto mom and dad so they would be attacked by the dreaded dragon.

5.. We smooched Kyra so she wouldn't feel left out. She burbled in appreciation.