Good Evening,

Last Tuesday the girls were swimming in a little pool in our back yard with the neighbor girls and today a week later we were at the park, with sweaters and we were still cold.  Fall has definitely arrived.  The rain and the cold has once again returned to Marysville.

I was just looking at some pictures on the web site.  I can’t believe how much Sharmi has grown.  One year ago she was still wearing 18-24 month pants and now she is wearing 4T.  She has really shot up this summer.   She is doing good right now.  We have had a couple of really good days with health and attitude.  That may all change tomorrow since she took her methotrexate tonight, and it always makes her feel lousy.

The one thing however that she has been complaining of is stomach pain.  She can’t really describe it to me, all she says is,  “Mommy my stomach hurts.”  I have asked if it is cramping, nauseous or yucky and she can’t tell me any more than, “I just don’t feel good.”  I am hoping that it is just due to the increase in her chemo dosage and I hope her body will get used to it and the pain will go away.  Her hands are still peeling.  She just showed me some more spots tonight.  Her entire face is chapped now as well.  It must be bothering her some, because she willingly let me put lotion on it tonight, and she hates lotion on her face. 

She is still actively being a doctor.  This evening she was making her daddy better for at least a half hour.  She had all of her medical equipment out.  She put a tagaderm on Dean’s hand (the sticky bandage that covers her port).  When she took it off she dug at it with one of her midical tools to get it started and then she ripped it off.  Dean told her that they probably had better techniques at the hospital, but I assured him that it looked very similar to me.  Yesterday, Sharmi cured me of all of my sickness with her bucket of crayons.  The crayons doubled as oral medicine that I had to take and shots that she put all over my body.  She insisted on giving me every last dose of medicine (every crayon).  So, when she wasn’t looking I had to slip some into the completed pile.    Last week she also gave my mother very good medical advice.  My mom was headed to a lab appointment for a health study and Sharmi asked.  “Is is going to hurt… Are they going to check your blood… Are you going to get medicine?”  After she got the answer that they would check her blood and it would hurt a little she said, “Grandma, you make sure that you tell them that after they check your blood they need to put a band-aid on it.  Then, when you get home, you take the band-aid off and all of the blood will be in the band-aid and then NO MORE OWIE!”   I am starting to think that she is predestined to be a doctor. 

Chantel had a busy week.  Last Wednesday she took 3 to 5 steps  between Dean, Sharmi and I several times.  She was very proud of herself.  I am proud of her too, but I am not really encouraging development.  I learned the hard way that smart children are very challanging   Mobile children are difficult as well.  I am shooting for “as easy as possible.”

The last couple of weeks I have been working diligently on getting the girls to sleep better.  I  think I finally got Chantel to sleep through the night.  Last night she slept from 6:55pm until 5:55am without making a peep.  That is pretty good considering she has a cold and she has just cut through her 6th tooth.  The only problem is that she is now getting up at 6:00.  Previously, the 4:00am feeding would at least let me sleep until 7:00.  Oh well, I will at least be able to have more quality sleep, once my body learns not to wake up at 2:00am and 4:00am.

Sharmi’s sleep on the other hand is still a challenge.  I have her going down for the majority of her naps by herself now, but I am not making much progress on bed times.  She still wants us to lay with her.  Last night between Dean and I, it took 2 hours for her to fall asleep.  I think we are going to just have to be tough, but that can only last until the next round of steroids.  What an uphill battle. 

Well goodnight to you all.  Thank you to those of you who reminded me that you are still there and praying.  I was surprised, Rick looked it up and said that there are still 250 individuals that check the website a month with 50 hits a day.  That is amazing!  Thank you very much for thinking of us and praying for Sharmi and our family.  Prayer does work!  Thank you from my heart and soul. 

Love Cheris and the Girls,