Mommy time

Nicholas has been a little delayed in receiving some of his vaccines since I'm immunocompromised (and some vaccines contain a little of the live virus....= risky for me).  In preparation for preschool in September, and in an effort to be an upstanding member of society, he finally received his MMR vaccine just over a week ago.  To be cautious, I had to be away from him for a week.  So I went on vacation.

Nicholas was, understandably, a little upset that he couldn't go on vacation too (after all, we had just gone on one to AZ).  But he eventually seemed to accept that this was just a "mommy trip."  I went to my parents' place in Gig Harbor, WA, and was joined by my mom.  Here are some pics....

(breakfast of champions)

I'm the proud new owner of a set of.....

Punctal plugs!  These tiny silicone plugs were placed into my tear ducts yesterday in hopes of relieving some of my dry eye symptoms (a common side-effect of stem cell transplants).  It took less than a minute, and was painless (no needles!), yet nevertheless made me woozy :)  Anyway, I'm still waiting to fully evaluate them.

Nicholas and I went to Arizona last week to visit Nanny, Grandy, and Aunt Whitney.  We also drove down to Tucson one day to visit Auntie Susan and Uncle Don!  Other than that, our days were filled with lunches out, swimming, splashing, cooking and playing!

And we made these Almond Blueberry Scones....OMG so delish!

Nico's Nibbles

Nicholas definitely shares Daddy's love of the kitchen.  He recently wrapped up a 10 week cooking class at Peekadoodle that he really enjoyed, so now I try to do some sort of cooking/baking project with him once in a while.  He especially loves making cookies (I buy prepackaged dough that he can "cut" and "make" all by himself....I actually highly recommend Immaculate Baking Co. dough!).  He also recently discovered the SEVENTEEN jars of sprinkles in our pantry, and he has used each and every one of them during his endeavors!!

Nicholas and I also started SoccerTots on Friday mornings and within ten minutes he reported, "Mommy, I LOB ("love") soccer!!!"  We play on the Marina Green with views of Alcatraz and the Golden Gate Bridge.....we are lucky :)  

Just a couple more...

For Father's Day, we sailed around the Bay and had lots of fun!!

Weekend Things

We visited the Botanical Gardens...

Got a haircut.....

(so did Daddy!)

And went to Ben's birthday party!

"It's not you, it's me"

This last period of blogging inactivity has been the result of lots of different factors!  In March, we transitioned from a full-time nanny to a part-time one, so my Director of Household Operations role has expanded to include more childcare duties :)  Nicholas has also started a drop-off preschool prep program for 3 hours on Monday mornings.  Concurrently, I developed a GVHD relapse (likely a result of finally getting off an immunosuppressant in February), which, over time, led to a pretty debilitating situation for me.  My joints ached and I was so fatigued, and it kept getting worse.  Finally, on Friday I started Prednisone, which will be a "wham-bam" fix to the issue.  So now I'm bouncing off the walls and was back in action in time for Easter weekend!

On Saturday, we went to the annual Bunny Party at Peekadoodle.

Nicholas was not happy that the BIG bunny came to this party.  He likes the LITTLE easter bunny.

But then he figured out that the big guy brought all these great eggs..... 

And he warmed up a little.

 

Organizing his Easter basket loot.....

This morning, we went to Peekadoodle for school and Nicholas was very upset to find that the Easter Bunny had gone home.

Other things we've done....

Taller than a cone, shorter than a digger's wheel!

Pre-swim class stamp session (he got looks!).

We went to play with Gregory and Giuliana!

Dining at the farmer's market.  So good, they're right!!

Check out this falafel sandwich!!!!

Updates....Good Ones! :)

I've anxiously been checking my UCSF chart online for results from my PET scan on Tuesday.  Finally, this morning Dr. Andreadis called to say it was clean!  Whoa!  I'll continue receiving my brentuximab treatment for now, but that's fine.

Aunt Rara came to visit us all the way from NY for 9 days!  We had great fun visiting supermarkets, grocery stores, gourmet markets, and restaurants.  No time for museums with so many stores here!

Cristina's last day with us was last Friday.  We're sorry to see her go, but Nicholas will still hang out with her on a weekend day occasionally.  Nicholas and Carson now have a new nanny named Tania on Tuesdays and Thursday, who is wonderful.  She's a former preschool teacher and perfect for this phase of their lives.  Nicholas will be in a preschool prep program on Mondays and Wednesdays part-time, and I'll be a mommy the rest of the time!  Big changes but it'll be fun (and challenging) to be with Nicholas more.

Taking pics of ourselves before music class....

Not much time to write/post/search for pics (not sure why a bunch are missing from my computer right now) since Nic is needing attention!  Cheers! 

Suggested Reading

I like to follow a blog called "A Cup Of Jo".  Today she posted a link to this article.  It's beautiful, and heartbreaking, and just....so....complicated.