Day +539: Three and a half

Mina turned three and a half yesterday! She doesn't really get it, but it means a lot to us that she's halfway through her threes. It's kind of a tough age -- she's very willful, and we sometimes have a hard time getting her to brush her teeth, get her pajamas on, get ready for school, etc. But it's a lot of fun, too, and she's doing great. She has so much color and so much energy these days, it's really amazing. She gets these little bruises on her knees and shins, and every time I see them I panic a little. Frequent and large bruises could be caused by low platelets, which would be a primary indicator of the leukemia returning. Yesterday she had a very dark one, nearly black, on her knee. But when I look at them closely they're always relatively small and contained, and they frequently have a little raised bump indicating that they were caused by a hard impact. Then I look at how pink her hands and feet are, and her face, and I start to relax. Someday I won't get these feelings anymore. I'll look forward to that day. In a few days, on the 29th, it'll be 18 months since her transplant. We may be able to start to relax a little in a year or so.

Isaac's toe has nearly recovered. It's been a bit sore still, particularly if the nail gets tweaked, like the other day when I was putting on some pajamas that were a bit tight. He's still eventually going to lose it, I think. But otherwise he doesn't notice it anymore. Grandma Judy is home from the hospital and doing really well, though she's still taking it easy and is not able to hike or climb for a while. Today was Grandpa Monte's 67th birthday, so we called up there tonight and the kids sang him Happy Birthday. They love to sing, but sometimes get shy on the phone so I was happy that they were belting it out tonight. Grandma and Grandpa are coming down in a couple of weeks, so we're really looking forward to that.

Mina and Isaac both had visits to the dentist last week, and Momma proudly reported that the whole crew was amazed with how good our kids were. They both sat in the chairs and opened wide like alligators and allowed the dentist to clean and inspect their teeth. Neither of them had any cavities! Mina has since gone back twice for sealant -- she inherited deep grooves in her molars from her father, so they wanted to seal those up to prevent cavities.

Mina has another new baby. I forget how or why she and Keri were at a store together where Mina fell in love with one of the baby dolls, but they were and she did so Keri couldn't resist. Mina loves this new baby a lot, and wanted to give her other new baby to Isaac right away. When I asked her why, she said because she didn't want to have three babies. I asked who the three babies were, and she said "the new baby, the other new baby, and Waah Baby. But I don't know where Waah Baby is." The new one looks a lot more like Waah Baby, with a full round plastic head and blue eyes that open and close. She's finally gotten used to the idea of having three babies, so she's kept the other new one as well. She's not calling it "Tada" anymore, she's now saying her name is "Baby". It's handy to have two at times, in case we can't locate one of them. But occasionally we now have to locate both of them...

Mina is really enjoying school, and she's definitely picking things up from her new friends. Now she frequently starts a conversation with "Hey, do you know what?" Or sometimes she says, "Do you want to hear what's weally funny?" She has lots of new friends there: Cassidy, Maddy, Reilly, Miranda, but she says her favorite is Annika. Isaac gets to get to school when Keri works there, which has happened a couple of times, and he has a great time too. He'll be able to go as soon as he's poddy trained, but so far he's not showing a lot of interest in that. Kaaren and Keri are working hard on him, so we'll see how far they get.