We had a ideal weekend. It was nice and relaxing and just what the doctor ordered-literally! Autumn had a birthday celebration with her friend Adelina at the movies, popcorn and all! Three friends celebrated her fifth birthday and they had a ball! It was perfect timing as the theatre was only sparsely populated which is always a concern with her counts remaining low these days. She has just had so much chemo given to her in the past 8 months that it has become harder for her to recover each time.

We are sort of in a waiting game right now, waiting for Autumn’s counts to be high enough to go for her last week-long hospital stay chemo. It will seem so very close to the end when we are all on the other side of that week. It has been pushed back another two weeks, so hopefully it will begin then! The holidays are coming up and it would be so lovely to have that one tough week over and done with!

A test in patience this whole process has been. Someone asked me last week how it is that a 4-year old can stand being in a hospital room that long. I honestly cannot say how she does it, but I can say that she has developed an amazing personality through all of this and she does love attention for which I am so thankful! She loves making the nurses laugh, it always makes her feel better. She has grown very sensitive to people laughing at her and not with her. She is very keen on the difference and does not entertain the former with much ease. I cannot imagine what she must feel inside, I think about it 10 times a day. The littlest situation will cause her great frustration which can lead to tears and screams that are discouraging for all. Sage and Lindsey have built some resistance to this, but they too are sensitive and can lash out at the attention and forgiveness of negative behavior that is granted Autumn through this tough time. At times it seems almost cruel to discipline her with everything she is experiencing. However, I have heard that if the parents do not maintain some sort of chaos-control with a four year old, it has the ability to lead to a terrible five year old. Ugh, there is always something, isn’t there? I guess none of us on this planet can really ever say we are bored, can we??