It is Amazing how quickly kids grow up and start learning how to get what they want.  When I sat down at my desk tonight I smiled when I saw the picture Sharmi gave me this afternoon.  She has been begging for Mac n cheese for days.  This afternoon she tried again and said, “Mommy, I will give you this picture I colored if you give us Mac n cheese.”  In trying to get them to do what we want we have taught our children the fine art of negotiation. 

Sharmi’s swimming has made huge improvements in the last 4 weeks.  Four weeks ago she refused to put her head under water and freaked out if we weren’t securely holding onto her.  Last night, she held her head under water for12 seconds, she swam with her kickboard by herself without me even in the water, and she even swam several strokes to me all by herself on several occasions.  She keeps saying, ”I am so proud of myself.”  I ofcourse am very proud of her as well.  Chantal also thinks she has become quite the swimmer.  Last night she tried to swim to me and didn’t realize she couldn’t swim until she went under and swallowed some water.  Luckily I was close enough to catch her.   

Sharmi’s health is doing really well.  She had another visit to Children’s Hospital about 10 days ago.  She was so brave she didn’t even whimper.  She was so pleasant and cooperative you would have though I took her into an ice cream shop.  She was amazing.  Chantel was still worried though.  When we went into the lab for the draw Chantel asked, “Is it going hurt Sharmi?”  We told her it shouldn’t hurt much because she had magic cream on.  Then Chantel stood beside us with her hands half over her eyes and said, “I don’t want watch hurt Sharmi.”  The nurse was amazed at her concern and how well she expressed herself for a two year old. 

Dr. Thompson said that Sharmi’s labs were perfect.  I told her that several weeks earlier I was pretty concerned because Sharmi was overtired, her eyes were dark, and her coloring was yellow.  Dr. Thompson assured me that Sharmi looked great now and said that her platelets were better then hers or mine probably were.  It was nice to have the assurance.

Chantel has been fighting a little bit of a cold for a couple of weeks.  She hasn’t gotten it too badly yet, but it keeps hanging on.  Tonight she was so tired that I tricked her into falling asleep in my arms.  She was waiting to play “Duck Duck Goose” with Sharmi and I, but Sharmi was picking up hundreds of pieces of confetti that Chantel had spread all over her floor.  I am amazed at how patient and diligent Sharmi is at detailed tasks.  She had already picked up the confetti yesterday after the party off of the table, but then to pick it up out of the carpet for at-least 25 minutes was amazing.  She was very through and patient.  If only that patience flowed into other areas of life. 

Chantel’s learning is amazing me.  She is just as smart as Sharmi.  I am already able to see their different strengths.  Today Chantel built a whole house with foam blocks and brought two arm loads of little people and animals before Sharmi had talked me into helping her build her house for her.  Chantel is more of a “just do it” kind of girl and Sharmi wants to “do it the right way.” 

Chantlel has also learned her phonics.  Most children ask for you to draw a cat or dog or something, but Chantel asks me to draw by the phonics.  “Mom draw an “e” (I don’t know how to spell the phonics) once I have drawn the letter “E” she will then ask for drawings of elephants and eggs.   

Last week we enjoyed a warm day and went to the Zoo and Spaghetti Factory with Melissa and baby Amriel.  It was a lovely day.  We are looking forward to summer when we get more nice days so we can enjoy getting the beautiful outdoors more.

Happy Easter,

Cheris

Good Afternoon to all of you,

I have the kids down for naps and we are going to rush off to swim lessons as soon as they wake up.  Sharmi is trying to learn to swim so that she can swim with the dolphins for her Make-A-Wish.  She has been having a hard time with it because, it hasn’t come easy and she doesn’t want to put her head under water.  The girls had a couple private lessons in January which didn’t go well.  However, we have been able to get her in the pool three times in the last few weeks with friends and family, and she has come a long ways.  One of my challenges in raising her is that she has been smart enough that most things come easy and she isn’t used to things being hard to learn. Secondly, she has experienced the hardness of life that she knows bad things do happen and she doesn’t have that blanket trust that many kids have.  So I am going to try her in a small group lesson today and I hope things go well.

Speaking of Make-A-Wish’s, Sharmi was talking to Chantel about them the other day.  Chantel was stating that she was going to swim with the dolphins and Sharmi clarified, ”No honey, you aren’t going to swim with the dolphins.  You didn’t have cancer.  When you grow up you might get cancer, and then you can have your own wish.”  Then she continued, “Hopefully, you won’t get cancer but if you did it would NOT be your fault. Sometimes bad things happen because the devil likes to make us sick.  But it wouldn’t be your fault because mommy is a good mommy and she feeds us healthy food, and she tells us when we can’t have anymore macaroni or chocolate so that we don’t get sick or get cancer anymore.”   I just stood in the kitchen and listened; with tears in my eyes, pride in my heart, and fear in my stomach with a prayer that cancer will never be a part of our home again, especially in my girls. 

Sharmi is becoming quite the health conscious little girl.  I hope it serves her well in keeping her healthy for the rest of her life.  The other day she said to Chantel, “Chantel you need to drink more water and not so much juice, because water is Jesus’ medicine to keep us healthy.” 

Health-wise Sharmi does seem to be doing well.  Last months lab reports were good with no indication of concern.  We are of course grateful for that.

A few weeks ago we had the pleasure of going “home” to the Poulsbo church for their talent show.  Sharmi, after some coaxing, sang her six little ducks again and Chantel even ”performed.”  She mostly just breathed really heavy into the microphone, but she did eventually sing “jingle bells jingle bells”, and quickly got shy again.  The people we very gracious at applauding her and it was really nice to see all of my old church family again. 

Our love and prayers are with all of you, and we appreciate the continued prayers that you pray for our family.  God Bless.

Cheris