She's REALLY six

There is no longer any question: Eden is six, for real. She went to see her dentist today for a full-on check-up complete with x-rays of her teeth. Guess what we all got to see? Eden is growing her twelve year old molars already, her six year old molars are beginning to emerge and those pesky little baby teeth are wiggling like crazy. She is right on track, dentally speaking, for a six year old.

The x-rays showed that she has not got second pre-molars at all. Dr Haid said that this is not unusual and she is sure that it is not cancer treatment related. Dr Haid said that these teeth would have been growing long before Eden started any kind of treatment. Go figure, Eden is normal, well, except for having cancer.

Last night she soaked in the bathtub and I hung out with her for a while. We talked for a while about the catheter that she'll have to have inserted in her "pee-pee" while she is Philly for treatment. How exactly to you explain radioactive urine to a six year old?

Then our chat turned to loose baby teeth. She didn't realize that baby teeth that are loose are DESIGNED to fall out. She thought that she might swallow it, WHO would tell a child not to wiggle a loose tooth or they might choke on it? What a loser! I showed her how to hold her tongue up so that when she wiggled her loose tooth the tongue would block it from going down her throat. She wiggled that little tooth for over a half hour. She asked me to check it to see how loose that she had gotten it. I SWEAR that I just barely flicked it with my thumbnail; I was not tyring to get it out. I wanted Eden to do it for herself in hopes that she wouldn't be nervous about losing teeth anymore. Nope that dinly little tooth just flew out of her mouth and landed on her leg in the bathtub. She laughed so hard she was crying.

Hearing her laugh so joyously had me laughing and crying, too. I am so lucky to get to be present at some of her most wonderful life events. The lost vacations, grown-up time and sleep are all worth it to me (not that I don't grouch about it sometimes). I am so happy to be a part of her life and so glad that the choices that Rourke and I make allow us to be a part of all of the special events in her life: even the little ones like losing a tooth. There's no amount of vacation time that could ever make up for missing the all-important day-to-day events. It's like winning the lottery every time that I get to witness her growing into such a spectacular young lady.

You know what my favorite time of the day is? When Eden and I hang out on the front porch and just chat, early in the morning before Riley and Rodger roll out of bed. We talk about that day ahead, the hummingbirds, why white butterflies disappear when they land on the rocks, deer sightings in our backyard, swimming, being a doctor, nurse or cheerleader; you know we just chat. She is such a sweet, kind and open little girl; I wonder who she is going to become. I hope that having me in her life helps her to become a strong independent young lady. It would be nice to know that I am a positive influence in her life not just a babysitter for her parents.

Here's an awesome thing that happened lately: Eden went to her Mom's on Satuday (after the big sleepover at Micah's) and so I packed up her pills and her injections and sent her off around 1 PM. Later that evening, Eden called her dad very upset. Her mom was trying to give her an injection and Eden didn't think it was the right time. Mom and Dad talked and Mom remembered that the only time we did evening shots was when we were preparing for the recent stem cell harvest. The injection was delayed until the next morning, as scheduled. Eden knew that it wasn't the right time and she stood up and said "NO, call Daddy and ask"! She is beginning to advocate for herself. I am so very proud of her.

Recently, when Riley went to camp he made the nurse call home and verify the adminstration of his medication. We had made some dose time changes and he wasn't sure that she had it right. Riley is advocating for himself, too. I just couldn't have been prouder of him. Just a year ago he fought us tooth and nail about taking medicine at all, now he's making sure that he's getting it and that he's getting the right stuff at the right time of day.

It is my hope that neither child will ever be incorrectly medicated, as they both know what their medicines look like and what they are supposed to do. For the number of drugs that these two ingest each day, I don't want them to just take any drug handed to them. So far, they're doing GREAT! I couldn't be prouder of them if I was their real mother!

So, Eden goes in for blood counts on Friday morning and we hope to make the rest of the day awesome by going to the zoo. It's very rare that I get to do the "FUN" stuff with the kids, usually I only get the work and then someone else gets to go to the cool places with them. Since Mom, CeCe, Joe, Andy and all the other "fun" people are out in Las Vegas, I plan to get something fun in before scan week starts on Monday. Hopefully Daddy will join us at the zoo when he gets off of work. He needs some fun, too!

Maybe next week Eden, Rodger and I can run off to a water park somewhere, since Riley will be at camp again. We're tired of being left out of the fun trips! We want to party, too. Ugh, her counts will be low next week, so maybe we'll just play in the sprinkler at home. Her health and safety are MUCH more important the going somewhere cool!

Keep cool everyone!