Sugar Rush

On Thursday, Daniel, Eve, and I took Natalie to the dress rehearsal for her ballet recital. Eve looooves ballerinas. Well, she loves them the first two dances. Maybe even the first four dances. But by the time the Village People come out, she's done with bow-wa-weenas.






I took Eve to get her counts checked on Friday and what would you know? Severely neutropenic. Of course. Luckily for us, a friend came over and stayed with Eve on Saturday so the family could go watch Natalie in her recital. We've made it this far with no infections- no risking it! We're in the home-stretch now.

I made an off-handed comment to Matt that Daniel needed a hair cut. The next thing I knew, my bathroom floor was covered with blond hair.

Nat: Ooh, that's a cool hair cut, Daniel!Dan: Thanks.Nat: Did Daddy take you to get all your hair cut off?
Dan: No.Nat: Then how did it get all gone?Dan: Daddy did it.Nat: Oh! Daddy cut your hair? What kind of scissors did he use?Dan: He didn't use any scissors.Nat: But then, how did he cut your hair?Dan: I don't know.Nat: What do you mean, you don't know?
Dan: I mean, I don't know.
Nat: But he didn't use scissors?Dan: No.Nat: How did he cut your hair, then?Dan: I don't know. You can ask Daddy.Nat: Daniel, go ask Daddy how he cut your hair.Dan: No, thank you.
And she never did find out about those electric clippers.

Sunday was an exciting day. I made everyone in the house feel compelled to straighten up BEFORE 20 preschoolers armed with popcorn entered our home. We had a combined birthday party for Daniel's 4th and Natalie's 5th birthdays. Everyone had a blast with Cotton the Clown. I wonder if she'd come out for my birthday this year?


This was an exciting day for me because not only were there all-you-can-eat hot dogs, but we had soft pretzels AND (most importantly) a nacho cheese pump. Nacho cheese goes with everything, from chips to spoons. There are two kinds of people in this world who I don't trust: those who don't like nacho cheese and those who don't think Will Ferrell is funny. That's a very sad life, and those people are capable of unspeakable things.


That's Matt in the red shirt on the floor, defeated by all those preschool kids. Well, to be fair, there were a couple who were already in elementary school, so don't be too hard on him. It was a rough crowd. You won't see Eve in that dog pile because she was upstairs in her own protective bubble. She was given circus peanuts, a juice box, and a non-stop YouTube channel of Ni Hao, Kai-Lan! All was well; Upstairs Eve remained Upstairs Eve.

I'm not quite sure what Nat was sad about. There was plenty of nacho cheese to go around.


Cheer up, birthday girl! There are cookies...


And cake...




And cotton candy.

What's that? You say you stayed up too late last night feasting on junk food and separating cards from presents before I could write down who gave you what? Try not to exert yourselves too much. I will clean up, but just this once.

In the meantime, I took my parents with me to watch Eve rock the house with her lab work.

I love to show her off. She's like a sweet little freak of nature who doesn't mind the pokes and prods. Good news today- her counts have moved from the severely neutropenic category to just plain neutropenic. Small victories.

Eve has some jaw pain, which is a side effect of the Vincristine she has been getting. Fortunately this happened at the end so she never had to skip any chemo due to toxicity issues this time around. But it sure makes for a mean face. Is that Downstairs Eve coming out to play, or is she just grinding her teeth?