The week of Halloween: I had a fantastic lunch with a Stephanie Floodeen! We took the kids to Chick-Fil-A for food and play time. They had a great time and I really enjoyed getting some good adult conversation in! On Halloween Eliza had a Halloween party and presentation at school she did a great job with her songs and I loved every bit of being able to be with her for that! I think I am enjoying school as much as she is I love how excited and happy it makes her to go and then tell me all about it! We are working on her willingness and ability to expound on her school day other than the standard "it was fun" answer! In that week there were a few trips back and forth to Denver to spend some time with Ben! He had a tough week having his counts continue dropping was difficult it wears you out to have that much massive cell death. He started getting some really horrible mouth sores that were miserable and made it extremely difficult to eat and drink. They eventually put him on some pretty powerful pain meds to help with his mouth and the pain in his legs. They were very helpful in getting him the rest that his body really needed!
The first full week of Novenber we got the best news ever!! Ben's counts finally started coming back up! His marrow is starting to work! The stem cells started to do their job and I was thrilled! I went to the dentist which went shockingly well. I am not doing as much damage to my teeth as I expected with the reflux issues I have been having. I have a fantastic dentist! Eliza had school and Alayna and I did all kind of things together. I made a few trips to Denver to snuggle up with my hubby! The kids had a play date on Wednesday so I could finish up some birthday shopping for a certain young lady who turned 3!! On Thursday the day was insane. I mean that in every way possible! I don't even remember everything I HAD to get done that day but I do know that by the end of the evening trying to get everything settled for our family get together to open gifts I called for re-enforcements! We had a fantastic time celebrating Alayna's birthday Ben participated via facetime on our phones as one would die we would call him on another! It was a good time. Alayna got all kinds of things that she just LOVES! The two things she ask for specifically this year were a pink elephant and a giraffe... the giraffe was the easy one to find... pink elephants are hard to come by but we finally found one! She loved everything she got! So Happy Birthday to the BEST, happiest, cuddliest, and most cheerful 3 year old ever! We love you to the Moon and Back Miss Alayna! Sadly I did not take a single picture that day. Terrible but true. That Friday we got the final and official word that Ben would be getting out of the hospital on the following Tuesday! This was beyond exciting because it was about 12 days sooner than what we were expecting!
Now on to this week! I can give more details about this week because it is a little fresher in my mind! That and in a sense it has almost been simpler and less stressful... at least parts of it have been! Let me start out by stating that as exciting as it is to have Ben get out early it really threw me off so I was not mentally prepared for the actual process. After a little melt down at the Merritt's house that was thankfully managed very well thanks to Mallory who helped Diane and I make a plan! Most of Monday was spent playing with Natalie and Jackson and making some tree's for Grandma for her Birthday that day! It was a fun activity for me and the kids had a great time running around with friends!
Tuesday was busy. I got Eliza off to school left the other two kids with my mom and made my way to Denver. I got us checked into Brent's place (the apartment we are staying in) and then went to the hospital and got Ben all packed up. After all the packing and training was done we finally left the hospital around 3:30 that afternoon. I then unloaded everything and got Ben moved into the apartment before his mom came with food that we moved into the apartment as well. Mom cooked dinner and I quickly made my way home to get the kids and put them to bed! It was an exhausting day I was thankful for my bed at that point!
Wednesday started out nice and early with my nephew Gavin joining us for the day! It was fun to have the extra little one in my house again after going so many months without allowing other kids into my house due to germs! I felt a little bad for poor Gavin who seemed to have a bit of an off day. He screamed for a few hours and had two blow out diapers that finally resulted in getting a bath he wasn't exactly happy about either! Poor kid it's tough to be a baby! The good part was that I still had fun playing with him and once he finished his fit he slept for 3+ hours! That afternoon after school Lindsay (my older sister) came from CO Springs and took the girls to lunch and then the Children's museum before meeting us over at Brent's place where there was a wonderful and happy reunion between Daddy and his kids! It was fantastic to see him wrap them up in his arms again and see their little faces light up when they saw him! It made for a bit of a late night but we worked it out just fine and the kids passed out in the car on the way home which was perfect!
Thursday I spent the school hours packing up to go to Denver. Then I spent another few hours after school packing some more things for Denver. Then after that I took the kids into the doctors office for the other half of their flu shots. Alayna also had her well child check which proved that although she was my biggest baby she is my smallest child by far! She is in the 25% for her height and weight where both her siblings are about the 50% for those things. She is my petite little snuggle monkey! After the doctors appointment I booked it home then to the Mott's house to borrow a high chair since I managed to lock my portable one up behind a freezer. I then followed up with a long drive into Denver in the evening traffic and thankfully had my brother in law Evan there to help me unload the week and a half's worth of stuff for me and the kids. Did you know we require a TON of junk to function! Especially when you are going somewhere that you need to bring your own toys and other quiet activities! That night it was difficult for the girls to fall asleep but that is normal for any new and exciting place!
Friday was quiet and darn near perfect! Who would have thought that I would ever feel like a perfect day would happen in a little apartment in downtown Denver!? I sure didn't but being together as a family with kids that are happy and healthy makes for a darn near perfect day! It's all about perspective! I cleaned and did laundry and I sanitize everything all day long but my kids are patient and very helpful with it! They love doing the laundry here and think that having an elevator for their house is the coolest thing ever! We played games and colored all day it was great to be together as a family no matter what we did!
Saturday has been good as well. Grandma Merritt came and sat with the kids while I went with Ben to his doctors appointment. That took forever! The Saturday appointments apparently always take a long time so I am thankful that he will be switching to Monday, Wednesday, Friday appointments. On mention of his appointment Ben's blood work came back very well! His counts are ALL up in the normal range! They are low normal but they are still normal for a healthy normal person! The only thing that is still low is his hemoglobin which is why he is still exhausted but he is doing excellent! We are hoping to get permission next week for him to go to Longmont to his Parents house for Thanksgiving dinner... It would be awesome if he could but if not we will still have a fantastic Thanksgiving as a family here! We also took the kids to City Park today which was fun. Parker thinks it is really funny for mommy to hold him while she pushes Alayna on the swing he was laughing so hard! I have no idea why it was so funny but it was! The other major funny of the day was an interaction between Alayna and Daddy:
Daddy - "Alayna, are you eating a lollipop!?"
Alayna- "NO! It a Sucker!"
Daddy- "oh, is it yummy?"
Alayna- "yes!"
Thinking that the conversation was done daddy laid back down in bed only to hear a little voice chime in and add "I suck!" ... makes sense when you're 3!
Sunday hasn't officially happened yet but Abby will be coming to take care of Ben while I take the kids to our ward for church. Ben is going to sacrament meeting here but after that he will come home to rest up some more before we get back from our own meetings!
