Day +860: Readjusting

Family's been home for a little more than a week now, and the readjustment period continues. Mina has been having kind of a hard time -- crying easly, needing lots of attention, not listening very well, not treating her brother very well. I think it's mostly just the transition. School doesn't start until next week, so right now there's no schedule and no sense of routine at all. Plus she's been tired, of course. She doesn't usually nap anymore, and we can never get her to bed early enough. And she really falls apart when she's tired. She becomes like a different person. To top it all off, work has been really crazy so I haven't been able to take any extra time off to help ease the transition. I think it's hard on Mina when I'm not around, so it hasn't been easy leaving the house in the morning.

She seems to be quite healthy though, so that's the good news. She had to get a physical for school this year. It's a bit of a joke -- no kid has been as closely monitored by physicians as Mina has, and I mean every aspect of her anatomy and her development, by all kinds of specialists. Yet she has to have a form filled out by her general pediatrician. But Keri said it was a nice chance to see Dr. Aicardi, who is of course thrilled with how Mina is doing. The physical form said that Mina had no medical issues "that were relevant to the school." It then went on to casually mention AML and a bone marrow transplant. If Dr. Loh or Horn had filled it out, they would surely have mentioned the Grade IV GVHD as well. Keri was getting a kick out of Dr. Aicardi's matter-of-fact language on the form, though. She did mention a possible issue with one of her eyes. Seems she misidentified one of the forms she was supposed to see with one eye. Sounds like eye tests are kind of hit-and-miss with 4 year- olds anyway, but that will be something to watch for.

Isaac took a few days to get back into the groove as well, but he's back in full swing now, playing garbageman and street sweeper and any other adult he sees doing something interesting. He talks a lot about getting a ladder and getting up onto the roof, because he saw Uncle Bill doing that. And he saw the garbageman pull some garbage bags out of the neighbors recycling bin and throw them onto the truck, so now he's putting bags into other bags so he can take them out and throw them onto the bed, which is his garbage truck. He was happy to see his musical instruments, and he's spent a fair amount of time playing songs with them and singing. He sings whole sings, walking around the house as he does it. Sometimes I recognize tunes from songs, but usually the words are unintelligible. Lately he's been marching around the house using a stick as a baton and moving it up and down, singing his own rendition of the "Zuckerman's Famous Pig" song from the old Charlotte's Web DVD that Lyn bought us. He misses his guitar, though. It broke while we were on the way up to Washington. I tried to fix it at Auntie Teri's house, but then it got left behind in their garage. We're going to get him another one anyway.

The other day we were talking about the Washington trip, and I asked both the kids what their favorite part of the trip was. I thought for sure both of them would say Uncle Bill and Auntie Kristi's house, Mina because of the kitten and the other animals, and Isaac because of the digger and all of the work that was happening there. But to my surprise, Isaac said "Auntie Teri's house!" When I asked him why, he said "Because I LOVE Auntie Teri ... and Bella." Mina said her favorite part was the two hours when we stopped in Portland and saw her friend Anika. That girl just loves her friends so much. And Anika was totally thrilled to see Mina too.

We're heading up to Camp Mather for the weekend. It's a camp run by the City and County of San Francisco, up in the High Sierras near Yosemite. It's supposed to be pretty fabulous, in an organized camp kind of way. Keri and the kids left today, and I'm heading up Thursday or Friday, depending on work. Should be a lot of fun. We're just hoping it will be worth yet another change in the routine. Thank goodness school starts next week!