Day +484: Nice to be home with healthy counts

Everyone arrived home safely, Keri in the Civic and the kids and I on the plane. I had to turn around and head back to Boise the next day, but it was just a one-day trip so I'm now getting accustomed to being back at home again. Mina and Isaac are very happy to be home. They've kind of been bouncing off the walls all week. Just in great moods, getting reacquainted with their toys, with their friends, and with our daily routine here. Twice this week they were so busy all day that they didn't take naps and were in bed before I got home. Today we went to the SF Zoo with Rich, Olgica and Nikola, and the only naps they got were Isaac's 20 minutes in the car on the way home. It was pretty chaotic, but they did pretty good considering.

Mina had an appointment with her oncologist on Tuesday, and Dr. Loh was very pleased with Mina's appearance. She happened to drive by while I was waiting for my train Wednesday morning, and honked to get my attention to tell my that Mina's counts were looking great. She cares a lot, and I'm sure it has to be a joy for them to see Mina thriving now after all she's been through. Still such a long road ahead of us, but Mina is really blossoming these days. She's climbing everything in sight at the playground, and loves to hang from bars and lift her feet up. And she's running and jumping a lot. She has lots of energy, and she really seems to be catching up physically. Emotionally and developmentally she's doing all the things she's supposed to be doing. And she looks really fantastic. It's so nice to think about normal things like preschool starting in a couple of weeks, Keri's and Isaac's birthdays coming up, etc...

Day +476: Lots of adventures

Logging in from Grandma and Grandpa's house in Wenatchee. Keri arrived in San Francisco with the car late last night. The kids and I are flying out tomorrow night around 6 PM, arriving in San Francisco at around 10 PM. They've had a wonderful summer, but will be happy to get home. Mina has been saying that her house misses her. She knew Grandma & Grandpa's house was our last stop and at first was asking about when we were going home. But she's been having so much fun the last few days that I think she's forgotten to ask.

We've been doing a lot of swimming, and Mina Brigitta absolutely loves it. My godparents Jack and Nancy Smith have a special swimsuit with a foam ring around the waist that allowed Mina Brigitta to float all over the pool. She was cruising around the deep end saying "Yook at me Dadda! Yook at me!" Then the next day we went to Lake Chelan and swam in a public park there, and Mina Brigitta wanted to swim by herself in the deep water just like she'd done at the Smiths. Except she didn't have the magic suit on. She ended up with her face in the water a few times, but she didn't seem to mind much. Then today she tried swimming with water wings, and she was again able to cruise all over the pool. Isaac has never been quite as comfortable in the water as Mina is, but Grandma Judy managed to get him in up to his neck yesterday, and he was closing his eyes and leaning his head back to get his hair wet. But he wouldn't go back in today, so we still have some work to do with him.

We played a family baseball game the other night with Philipp, Grandma, Grandpa, Isaac and I on one team and Carmen, Kari, Eric, Astrid and Mina on the other team. The whole thing was hysterical, but the comedic highlight came when Eric hit the ball into the big pine tree and got it stuck. Grandpa tried unsuccessful to poke the ball out with the bat, then tried throwing the bat into the tree to knock the ball down. Of course the bat got stuck. We were all in stitches as Grandpa went to get the rake. After a few attempts at knocking down the bat and ball with the rake, he decided to throw the rake into the tree to knock down the ball and bat. Then the rake got stuck. We eventually got all the equipment back down to earth and were able to resume the game. Today Isaac was playing with the bat in the back yard, and he walked over toward the pine tree, looked at me and said "throw it up here". He then made several attempts to throw the bat into the tree.

Isaac I think may be a bit disoriented with all of the changes of venue. He keeps asking where everyone is. He usually starts by asking "Where's Auntie Kristi, Dadda?" I explain that she's at her house in Idaho. Then he asks about everyone in the extended family who isn't present: Uncle Bill, Grandma Lyn, Zane & Zoe, Carmen Rose, Auntie Kari, Auntie Teri, Nicholas & Kennedy. He had such a great time at Auntie Kristi and Uncle Bill's house that he definitely didn't want to leave. When I arrived in Idaho the first time Isaac told me over and over again that the big tractor was "too youd". But the little tractor was "not so youd". The drive to Wenatchee was nearly five hours long after a quick stop in Spokane, but when we were 15 minutes from the end Isaac pointed toward the back of car and insisted that we turn around and go back to Auntie Kristi's house. The other funny thing he said was when Keri was pointing out the sagebrush to him. Uncle Bill has two golden retrievers named Sage and Tucker. Isaac commented on the sagebrush, then asked about the "tuckerbrush".

Kari and Carmen left two nights ago, and it's a bit sad that we're already leaving tomorrow, especially since I don't feel like I've had much of a vacation. The kids have had a great time, and I've got to share some of that with them, but not nearly as much as I would have liked. I guess that's just the reality. I do think the kids will be very happy to be home, and with Mina starting preschool in a few weeks, it will be good for everyone to get into a routine.

Day +466: On the road

Logging in from Spokane tonight, in the middle of my six-city, 12-segment tour over the course of a week. I was in North Idaho at Kristi & Bill's house over the weekend, in Idaho Falls on business last night, in Spokane tonight, Boise tomorrow night, back to North Idaho, then heading to Wenatchee with the family over the weekend, to Eugene next Monday, then back to Wenatchee for a five days before bringing the kids back to San Francisco on Saturday the 19th. It's a lot of travel, but I haven't had to do a whole lot of it over the last few years so I shouldn't complain.

The kids are having a great time on their vacation. I didn't see them for nearly three weeks, which was really hard. I could hear Isaac's vocabulary and syntax improving each time I talked to him on the phone, and Mina kind of stopped wanting to talk on the phone after a while, though she was really glad to see me when they pulled up to the Spokane airport on Saturday. She looks really good. I'd been getting kind of irrationally paranoid, just because I hadn't seen her in so long and Keri was always describing how tired she was -- because she's too busy to want to go to sleep at a decent hour. They've been having a ball. They stayed at Teri's house for a few weeks, took a trip up to Guemas Island to see Zeedie, Russell, Emma and Otter Moon. Mina informed me several times that there were two Emmas (the other one is her friend Emma Mughal in the Bay Area).

Kristi & Bill's house has been a lot of fun for them too. They have two dogs, a cat that makes himself pretty scarce, three horses and a goat. Mina got to ride a horse the other day, which brought a big, delighted kind of smile to her face. Kristi led it around the round pen, and I walked beside the horse holding Mina's hand. After a while I let go and just put my hand on her leg in case she started to slip, but she sat up on the horse by herself. They have a full house there: Nicholas and Kennedy, Grandma Lyn, Karissa, Zane, Zoe, & Kendra. Teri and I were both there for hte weekend and are both coming back on Thursday. Monday they posed for a grandkids' picture for Lyn.

We're heading to Wenatchee on Saturday for a week. Eric, Astrid & Philipp will be there, as will Kari and Carmen. It will be nice to have some quality time with my side of the family as well. The kids are having a ball, seemingly not missing home at all and unfazed by all the changes of venue. They're a little short on sleep and out of their normal eating patterns, but I suppose that's to be expected. All in all they're doing very well.