Our past week has been filled with new experiences.   Saturday night Sharmi sang, “Six Little Ducks” at our church talent show.  She did a wonderful job.  We were all so proud of her.  It was cute, with every verse she dropped the pitch one note.  It actually was really “clever”.  I wouldn’t be able to do that.    When we came to sit down Chantel was begging, “me sing by my-self, pease.”  She asked me over and over during the night.  She wanted to sing “Jingle Bells”, which is “my favrite.” 

Last week Sharmi started spelling all on her own.  She asked me to give her a word  (mom, dad, dog, mat, bat, cat, fat, ….) and she sounded them out and spelt them.  She is stubborn and tries to do them in her head.  I think she believes saying them out loud is cheating.  Her eyes roll up in her head as she tries to figure them out.  I can tell when she gives up and isn’t sounding them out, and then she just guesses “n”.  It is cute.  This weekend she also started to read with Grandma.   She read three stories and did a bunch of exercises before she wore out. 

Chantel and mommy are having mixed emotions about Chantel growing up.   We had a “big girl party” for Chantel on Sunday with my parents, which included cake and presents.  This marked the end of nursing and we also put a big girl bed in her room.  She said, “papa broke my crib.”  She thought it was a good idea before it was gone.  The two changes have brought some happiness and many tears from Chantel and mommy.  Mommy is sad that her baby is grown up and Chantel is very upset that she doesn’t get to nurse-to-sleep anymore.  Chantel does like her new bed though when it isn’t bed time.  She climbs in and covers herself with the bedspread, she tucks her stuffed animals in, and Sharmi and her enjoy reading stories and eating crackers in her bed.   

My back and doing fine.  I am doing the maintenance program that will keep me moving, and in a few months I will try to do the “fix me” program.  All in all we are doing good.

God bless you all,

Cheris

>евтини мебелиy New Year,

Life at the Curry’s is going fairly well.  I am finally feeling less pressured with things to do.  I am trying to run on less adrenaline.  The down side to this is now I feel much like a sleep deprived slug.    I threw my back out a couple times over the holidays.  The worst day I couldn’t even lift my head off of the pillow.  I yelled for help for awhile and finally gave up until I heard Sharmi running down the hall.  After the second time, I finally decided to go to a chiropractor.  He says I need several months of therapy.  However, I am choosing to postpone me again, because this year is going to be about spending quality fun and educational time with my children.  Our life has been a prefect example of quantity not being the same as quality.  Pushing drugs on sick kids certainly consumes many hours of the day, but it is no fun and the only thing we learned was how much we hated cancer.  So once again I am putting my heath on the back burner, but I believe that the time spent with my kids will far surpass the value to my heart. 

The girls have had colds and sinus infections for almost two months straight.  Just when I think they are getting better they both relapse.  They are both hacking a lot and they clearly have an infection, not just a basic cold.  Today I decided to try something new.  I have given them bentonite clay to drink.  It is supposed to work as a detox.  I am hoping it will absorb the infection.  Only time will tell. 

Sharmi had another doctors appointment last week.  The poor girl.  Going back keeps getting harder and harder.  I didn’t tell her until one hour before her appointment and she just lost it!  She cried and absolutely refused to go.  She said she wouldn’t go, wouldn’t get in the car, was never going to have her blood checked again……  I just kept apologizing over and over again that I had to take her and I kept telling her it was unfair and awful but we still had to do it.  Once she pulled herself together she was very compliant and sweet and there were no other issues in getting ready to go or with the doctors appointment itself.  I haven’t got the  lab results back yet, but as far as I know everything if fine.  She is mostly very brave and grown up, but she is sometimes a scared little four year old.   Imagine that….

Sometimes I think she is more educated and grown up than some adults.  Actually I know she is!  (A few names come to mind.)  She doesn’t talk about is much but she is proud of herself for being a survivor.  For Christmas, Dean bought me a cosmetic gift that has galvanic current which helps heal skin and reduce scars.  I asked Sharmi if she wanted me to use it on her chest, where the scars are from her port surgeries.  She said, “no thank you mommy.”  I asked her why not and she said, “I want to be able to show people, that don’t know, that I had leukemia.  I can show them my scar and tell them I had cancer.”  I was shocked.  Who am I to take away her battle scars.  She doesn’t deserve for them to be minimized in any way. 

The girls are coming to an age where they really enjoy playing together. Tonight when I was trying to get them into bed, I finally gave up and just sat down and watched them.  They were wearing matching monkey pj’s and Sharmi was crawling on the floor on all fours with Chantel clinging for dear life onto her back.  Sharmi said, “mommy, she is the baby monkey and I am the mommy monkey.”  When Chantel couldn’t hold one any longer and would fall off, they would both laugh and do it again.  It was good for everyone. 

I hope the new year is filling your lives with love, jobs and all the things you need.

Cheris