Early summer

Thank you PNW for some beautiful weather and the chance to be outdoors in May and saying "wasn't that winter weather worth it?!".
We have been at parks, taking long walks, and getting our fair share of vitamin D.
Delaney is doing great at bike riding, but is not ready emotionally for those training wheels to come off. Dash is having fun climbing playgrounds an has learned to roll down hills. And drop his pants in the middle of a soccer field as he hears the call of nature.

Spring is here!

We had a great day today. I helped out at Laney's classroom. One advantage to that is that Dash begins to get the experience that hopefully means he will be able to make it in PK3 next year.

After school we went to the park with some of our best buddies. At one point I looked up and Dash was dropping his pants while standing in the soccer field and relieving himself. Thankfully it was just a little pee.

After we got home, we did some rock painting. Tonight, Zap is going to try a twilight bike ride (the hour not the movie) and maybe the two nuggets will be asleep when he returns an hour later.

It was a good day.

We are still here.

Despite all appearances to the contrary, we do still run the blog. Facebook seems so much more convenient but then we don't end up talking about our day.
It's May here and we finally got some beautiful weather. Zap took Laney for a long bike ride yesterday, I made some curtains for her room, and Dash and I had a great time out at the park with Edgar.
We are fighting some bedtime battles. We have a little girl who would prefer to never sleep. I think she thinks she would miss out on something.
We are getting ready to celebrate Dash's third birthday. He's my baby and I'm not sure how this happened.
Zap took me out to Seattle for an amazing 5th anniversary trip. The highlight was a food tour with white mustache urban adventure company. If you are ever in Seattle and want to eat some amazing food, call Bryce and go!

Snowmageddon 2012

So we didn't have a white Christmas, but we got a white January and then some. When I took the kids out in the snow this morning, it was up to my knees in places. It's beautiful, quiet, and fun. They had a great time running, falling, and generally playing in it.

We stayed in today and made some valentine's day crafts and also played a target game with paper plates and marshmallows.

Well, well, well...

Okay, here I go again: attempting to keep my blog up to-date.

Here's what I want to remember about my day.

We started a green/yellow/red light behavior system at our home. It does take a lot of initial energy, but I found that my "loud voice" moments were substantially decreased. That's my resolution for 2012.

Zap and I had to parent through a 2 hour tantrum with Delaney, who -Lord, love her-turned into the spitting image of a 13 year old when she said "I can leave because you hurt my feelings". Yikes. We got her calmed down and she even managed two bowls of soup at dinner.

Dash got put to bed by Zap but woke up around 10:30. I had been in Laney's room and walked in to see if I could help Zap. Dash was in bed all grumpy, telling us "no pet" but when he heard it was my voice, he turned around, all sleepyheaded, and raised his arms to get some snuggles.

And, I rocked out an hour long workout class today. Gotta get in shape for the 5th anniversary surprise gift :)

an upsweep on the roller coaster

We had a long day in Seattle yesterday and we had some good news come out of it. My mom does not have the genetic breast cancer, so she has more options in terms of her care. Also, I won't be at a higher risk of breast cancer than the general public and neither will Delaney. All good news.
We spent a very long time at the breast surgeon's office and had a very long talk with her. We liked her a lot this visit and she listened to my mom's concerns as well as mine and did not discount anything that we had to say.
We learned that she has some more options in terms of surgery, reconstruction, and medical intervention. Right now, we are considering a single mastectomy with concurrent or delayed reconstruction. Other options are a lumpectomy with radiation, or a double mastectomy with concurrent or delayed reconstruction.
Today we have an appointment with an oncologist to get to know her before we begin the process with her. I'm already thinking of questions I have to ask her :)

some big changes are coming

to our home. I haven't posted about this on facebook, mainly because I'm not sure that my mom wants me to share. But this experience is going to impact my life and the lives of those I care for in so many ways and the best way for me to feel better and find a little less anxiety about things is to share. So here goes.
My mom has breast cancer.
She got an unofficial diagnosis on January 23rd when she went in for an ultrasound and consultation about a fibroid she had in her breast. At this appointment, the tech took one look at the lump and called the doctor in to see. They told her then that there was an over 95% chance that the lump was cancerous and that it had likely spread to her lymph nodes, since they looked so poor on the ultrasound. We spent the next few days in a panic and my mom had a biopsy. The biopsy came back positive on the breast and negative on the lymph, which was the best news we could have hoped for at that point.
We saw a surgeon and we have three or four appointments lined up next week with oncologists and another appointment with the surgeon to talk plan and then we also have an appointment to talk with another surgeon to get a second opinion. My mom had a MRI done a few days ago and she's got to go in for another biopsy on her other breast and have a thyroid ultrasound done as well.
I think emotional roller coaster doesn't even touch this. You go from being terrified to being relieved that it hasn't spread, to scared again because she'll likely be facing radiation and chemotherapy and sandwich all of that into living a life with two little ones who are bursting with life and joy.
Sometimes I wish I had a sibling to help me in dealing with my mom in this. I wish I had someone who knew her like I do. But it's just me and my amazing family and friends here to support us while we all battle this.
I've been wondering how to talk to Delaney about cancer and how Nana will be sick.
I've been wondering how we all do all of this.
I think it's going to be a big change for our family. Already I'm missing days from work to be at necessary appointments with her and help her to take in all the information.

In other fun news, Dash just turned 18 months and he's just growing by leaps and bounds. He's learned a lot of new words in the last week or two and he's really starting to show more personality. I've learned that he's empathetic and that he cares for his sister. He hates it when she is upset. I've learned that he's a lover and just really wants to snuggle most days. He loves being outside, especially on a cool, sunny day. He thinks that everything his sister does is completely cool and the next best thing for him to be doing.

Delaney's cracking us up, as usual. She has a new phrase: "if I want to" or "if you want to", as in: "Mama, if you want to, you can put me bed" or "If I want to, I can have a tic-tac". She also uses the words "otherwise" and "actually" fairly appropriately. She said "I have to put this bandaid on; otherwise I will get hurt" and she likes to say "papa. No. Actually Mama" when you ask who is putting her to bed.

More later I'm sure. It feels good to find a place to ramble.