Author: Triann Benson

Daniel talks in his sleep. Often!
Eric likes to have conversations with him – it amuses him greatly. I’m too afraid Daniel will wake up!

Anyway…this morning he was talking in his sleep, mumbling mostly, but soon he is adamant about wanting to ride his Spiderman bike.

‘I want my Spiderman bike! I want to ride my Spiderman bike!’

About 10 minutes later he is actually awake and runs into the ‘big room’ and is looking for his bike.

‘Mom, where is my Spiderman bike?’

He does NOT have a Spiderman bike. He doesn’t even have a bike!
A tricycle, though. Does that count?

It is tough to calm down a 2-yr old who has just woken up expecting to ride a Spiderman bike, when there is no Spiderman bike to ride.

This is one time I can TOTALLY appreciate his trauma.

Two nights ago I dreamt that I woke up and my dishes were done. When I woke up, fully expecting my dishes to be done, and they were not – Oh Man! I was MAD!

Perhaps it is genetic!

Yesterday in the car Emily asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up.
I responded with ‘A Mommy!’

That was not a sufficient answer for her, so she asked me again.
I said I want to be a writer. An Author.
I asked what she wanted to be and she said she wanted to be an illustrator.

Daniel pipes up ‘I want to be an elephant!’

That’s my boy! =)

I thought I was ready to go back to Houston. I think the closer it gets, the more reservations I have!

We will leave the afternoon of February 24th. I have CT scans, MRI’s, and blood work all day Wednesday which will leave me crashed out Wednesday night! Thursday, Eric and I will meet with the oncologist and get the results (pray for great ones) and the next course of action. Hopefully, I will be done in time to get a nap in so we can take the kids to the Houston Children’s Museum Thursday night. It is FREE on Thursday nights and we took advantage of the free admission last time too. There is a ton of stuff for the kids to do and they really enjoyed themselves on the previous trip.
Friday, weather-permitting, we will head to the zoo before driving north. We were gifted a zoo membership in November – yet another free activity for us to enjoy! The perfect way to celebrate Daniel’s 3rd Bday as well – which is the 27th.

Detail-wise things are coming along. Some friends of ours have generously donated hotel points for our stay, so that is covered (Thanks you guys!) Eric’s Mom is flying down thanks to some friends whose husband works for Southwest Airlines who have given her a voucher for the flight. She will help out with the kids again, allowing Eric to be there as a support to me while at the hospital and another set of ears to take in everything I hear from the oncologist!

Please pray for a safe trip, that every detail will be taken care of, and that in the moments that don’t HAVE to revolve around the cancer, we can enjoy spending time as a family.

Triann

It has been WINDY here. Crazy windy last night.
This morning Eric asked Daniel if he heard the wind last night and Daniel’s response was ‘it woked up my ears!’

Tonight at dinner I commented on how popular the chicken was – everyone was taking seconds!
Emily exclaims ‘I’m just a chicken eating machine’
Without missing a beat, Daniel shouts ‘I’m just a Root Beer Vacuum Cleaner’

They crack us up!

Daniel has finally taken an interest in potty training. I think in part because of his age and in part because I started bribing him with chocolate. (Note to all other pre-potty training mommies out there – no chocolate after 4pm!)
We have accumulated 3 different potty seats that go on a regular toliet over the years in addition to a potty chair that is more his size. He requested the potty chair – which has been packed up still since our last move (7 months ago)!
We took it out of the garage, removed it from the plastic bag it was in, clorox wiped it down, and put it in the master bathroom.
He was stripped down to nothing before I could stop him – trying to explain that not ALL of the clothes have to come off is pointless at this time, as many of you may have also experienced!

So I gave him a board book – easily sanitizable, right? – and stepped into the bedroom to sort laundry. DO NOT LEAVE A TODDLER UNATTENDED ON A POTTY SEAT! They will not stay there. Duh! I could have told me that!
Next thing I know I am hearing a strange thumping noise that I just can’t place. So I call out and ask Daniel what he is doing. ‘Going Potty’ he responds.

Obviously there is more than potty-ing going on in there, so I round the corner and see that he has chosen one of the toilet-top potty seats and is up there rapidly unrolling the toilet paper off of the roll – hence the thumping sound.
‘STOP!!’ I holler. He has already half filled the toilet with paper and the remainder of the roll is in a pile next to the toilet.

Mommy: ‘Daniel, that is NOT what you do with the toilet paper!’
Daniel: ‘But toilet paper is for the toilet’

ARGHH! How do you respond to such logic? It is more than I can deal with this early on the morning! Especially since I am trying to stop drinking coffee. Maybe I’ll conquer my caffeine addiction after Daniel conquers the potty!

Monday started out rough. Really rough! But I have an amazing friend who took Daniel for the day so I could run some much needed errands and clean my kitchen. (Thank you Liz!!) It was a big debate for me: Clean the kitchen or Take a nap. A nap might have been the ‘right’ choice, but I went with clean the kitchen. I haven’t seen my counters in weeks – perhaps longer. The satisfaction of having CLEAR counters was TOTALLY worth skipping the nap. I posted the above photo as proof!

Tuesday I had Bible Study and it was so nice to be with other women. My table group has been very supportive and they send dinner home with me on Tuesdays – I LOVE not having to think about what to fix on Tuesdays =) My amazing friend from Monday, came over Tuesday after Bible Study and did my dishes and swept my kitchen floor. Seriously an angel here on earth! Not to mention having ‘company’ for lunch.

I had the kids in bed by 6:30. I think that’s a record.

Today started out as a blank page in my daytimer (I like those), but is quickly becoming a day of necessary things that are being added to my calender by others. Which I suppose is OK since I didn’t have anything else planned! =)

I went in for another set of labs last week. The results for my Mitotane levels won’t be available until next week, but the rest of the results should be in by Thursday – I will give updates as I receive them. Most of my symptoms are remaining the same – fatigue, some nausea (but that is less and less) and dizziness. The only addition recently has been headaches. And it is questionable as to whether or not my memory is worse now than previously. You can’t ask me though, I don’t remember!

I cannot believe it is already February. We have three family birthdays this month and at least one friend birthday. It is a good month to celebrate!
We are heading to MD Anderson the last week of February. Eric’s mom is flying down again to help us with the kiddos, which will be great! And we will be celebrating Daniel’s 3rd Bday while in Houston. We plan on going to the zoo – pray for great weather on the 27th!

I am looking forward to the scans – not actually doing them, but getting the results. I fully expect wonderful news from the doctor. Please keep this in your prayers for me – us! I know many of you have prayed faithfully for me and my family and I am so grateful and truly blessed because of this.

Two of the gals at Bible Study had heard about a program for women with cancer called Cleaning for a Reason. It is a non-profit that works with local cleaning businesses to provide once a month house cleaning (for a total of 4 months) to women undergoing treatment for cancer. I submitted my application last night! How could that not be part of my already excellent day? Now I just have to get rid of the clutter so they CAN clean =)
Their website is http://www.cleaningforareason.org/ if you know of someone who could also benefit from this incredible service.

Here’s to another great day ahead!
Triann

The kids are SICK. Hence the lack of communication. Basically we have all been struggling with some bug or another. My greatest struggle the last couple of weeks – aside from having to keep up with doctor visits, urgent care and pharmacy runs, and sick, whiny kids has been my dizziness. I have no idea if it is from the meds – which several of my meds list that as a possible side effect – or if I am fighting some sort of bug myself.
Today was a good day. I was actually able to get out of the house for an hour and visit with a new friend over a cup of coffee – thanks to Eric’s folks who arrived last night. Bliss!
I need to have labs drawn tomorrow. I return to MD Anderson at the end of February.
Will check in again soon.
Triann

We were all in the van heading to the airport to pick up the granparents.
We stopped at a red light and the conversation is as follows

Daniel: Why are stopped?
Mommy: Because we are at a red light
Pause…
Daniel: But the ones on the side are green. We could go that way.

I love that he is a think-outside-of-the-box problem solver at 2! =)
The backseat driver part, not so thrilled about.

Daniel was supposed to start soccer last week, but he has been sick – which makes it 2 weeks he’s missed so far out of a 6 week session. I’m wondering if we should just skip this round and go on to the next ‘season’. We’ll see.

Anyway…I had thought that being tired, feverish, sick, and whiny would mean we would have a ‘funny’ break, but not so. At least not from my perspective! We have had to alternate between Motrin and Tylenol to keep his fever under control and he has been extremely resistant to taking his meds.
I’ve read several parenting books over the last several years and one of the things we try to use, and typically works, is to give him two choices. For instance, ‘Do you want a banana or an apple?’ Instead of ‘What do you want?’ And giving him the opportunity to answer ‘jelly beans!’ Don’t you wish you hadn’t set yourself up for that one?

So, in the fashion of offering choices, I ask him, ‘Do you want to give yourself the medicine or do you want mommy to do it?’ And his response is ‘you take it!’ Okay, I see how it could have been perceived that way.
I try again. ‘Daniel, do you want to give yourself the medicine, or do you want mommy to give you the medicine?’ And he chooses to take the syringe and do it himself. Great! Not the end of story. Next he says ‘I’m going to hold it while I sleep’. And he rolls over and closes his eyes, holding it like he might Fenrus(his favorite stuffed buddy). I decide the syringe route is NOT going to work without holding him down and forcing it down his throat, which I would really like to avoid.
My next plan is to put the Tylenol into his beverage of choice for this week of being sick – blue Gatorade. I gave the kids a choice of what Gatorade flavor they wanted and Emily chose purple and Daniel chose blue. It has nothing to do with the flavor and everything to do with what they think are boy colors and girl colors! The Gatorade has worked wonderfully so far in keeping them hydrated because I can cut it with water and they think it is a wonderful treat – and are indeed staying hydrated. Yea – I reached one goal!

However, when red Tylenol is mixed with blue Gatorade it turns – you guessed it – PURPLE. Then, as mother – and deliverer – of said concoction, I am immediately accused of trying to give him Emily’s Gatorade and he wants HIS blue Gatorade! (Tears, fits, you get the idea) So it is off to the pharmacy we go for Dye-free Motrin and Tylenol. Isn’t it amazing the lengths we go to? Thank goodness for dye allergies! (I don’t really mean that – no nasty e-mails) All in all I am glad to have found some way to give him the meds he needs without putting him in a wrestling hold, nor having him traumatized for having to drink a ‘girl-colored’ Gatorade!