Smile....It's Chemo!!!

Who do you think smiles for photos during chemo??? Nanni, of course!

Every Monday Nanni, Pa and I set out for chemo. We like to think we are the life of the party there, and the truth is...we probably are! Our routine is that we all go to see the Doc together and then Nanni and I get the chemo. She likes for me to stay with her to chat.

Although she does get a bit upset sometimes if people aren't doing well, we have met some really wonderful people in the chemo chairs. Most are even jealous that Nanni has hair and you know she loves that! She even runs her fingers through it for added effect!

We try to have the best time possible at chemo and it turns out to be one of Nanni's best days. Tomorrow we are a bit off schedule for chemo b/c the doc is in Greece so we are going on a Wednesday and Tanta gets to come. I will likely go run some errands during the infusion so that Tanta can sit by her. Nanni is really enjoying having Tanta here!

P.S. This picture was taken before her recent procedure so she is no longer yellow as she appears if you enlarge the photo...its a good thing!

Tanta Comes to Visit!

We are all very excited because Tanta is coming to visit today from California. We leave in a few hours to pick her up and Nanni is so excited. Tanta is Nanni's sister - my aunt, and H's great-aunt. Nanni wishes her entire family was here with her, so she is very exicted that Tanta is coming for a visit for a whole week. I thought H would want to come to the airport and see the planes with me, but no - he wants to stay home with Nanni and Pa. Guess Tanta will have to settle with just me picking her up!

Update: H fell asleep so he stayed home with Pa. Good thing, because we ran into manjor problems at the airport. Nanni really wanted to come, but was so worried that she would get tired or not feel well. She convinced herself she could make it if she drove - she likes to be in control :) So, off we went. Since she has a handicap sticker from her knee surgery we got to park right up front. Piece of cake so far. Then, we get inside to take a look at the arrival board. Its flashing so fast, I can't find her flight. When I think I see it the board says "Now 4:41." What??? Her flight was to be in at 2:50 and we chose that one specifically so she wouldn't loose a day. She hadn't called...what is going on. So, Nanni marches up to the Delta counter and cuts in front of everyone to find out what is going on. The Delta person said they were in the sky, but there were technical delays. My guess was that Tanta fell asleep and didn't even know she was delayed...gee, how right I was!

So, we wait. I offer to take Nanni home and she said no, we will just try to see what happens. As the time nears, I go check the board a million times. Then, at the time when it is supposed to leave, the flight disappears from the board. We figure it must have come in early and we must have missed her so we head to baggage claim, but there is not sign with her flight on it. We wait 40 minutes then really start to panic. I kept thinking what if something happened...would Delta just take the flight off without saying anything. So, what do we do......Nanni goes back and cuts in front of about 1000 people stating loudly that a flight was missing! She got their attention!!!

We were told that b/c it had been raining and storming about 2 hours earlier that a bunch of flights were in a holding pattern over Atlanta. Ok, so we sit down again. I tell Nanni that I will take her home and come back, but she said no it should only be a few minutes. Anyway....as we are sitting down about 30 minutes pass and the phone rings. Its Tanta and guess where she is ... Tennessee! What, Tennessee...what are you doing there? She said the pilot said the Atlanta airport was closed...can't figure that out b/c we were sitting under an atrium and the storm didn't look that bad and we couldn't tell.

Turns out Tanta fell asleep in LA at checkin and they gave her seat away...then, she woke up and started to run down the tunnel and they said she couldn't come in...then, she talked her way onto the plane...then, she fell asleep again only to find herself in Tennessee!

So, we waited, waited and waited until she came out of the gate at 7:30. Poor Nanni was so tired, but I kept telling her ... see, what you can do! We were exhausted, but the day got worse when we tried to get her bag. I have never seen anything like it at an airport. She bags were flying off the turnstyle and knocking people over...someone smelled like dead person ... and we stood there for an hour only to not find her bag. Then, we looked up and realized the flight was off the screen. What?? Tanta asked the guys standing on the turnstyle and apparently they diverted her flight's luggage to another turnstyle but didn't tell anyone. So over we go and there it is just waiting for us!

We got home about 9:30 and H was so thrilled to see Tanta...especially since she spoils him so much!

Mona Lisa and The Gizzard

Mona Lisa is my beloved dog. I have had her for 13 years through college, lawschool, marriage and the birth of H. She has been an incredible pet and an amazing companion. Mona Lisa has been very sick on and off throughout the years, but we have been incredibly blessed that she always seems to have a little life in her. She really is showing her age, but this is a common look in our house as she guards the cat food can. You may think the photos are the same, but they are not. She holds rock solid for hours with that can in her mouth!

This is Gizzie a.k.a. Gizmo a.k.a. The Gizzard. Nanni and Pa adopted the Gizzard about 4 weeks before we found out Nanni was sick. She is so cute, but she is an old girl who has had a hard life. She has many things wrong with her, but we are so happy that we found her when we did and that she has come to live with Nanni and Pa. We can't imagine her not being here!

The Twins!

H and his Nanni are like twins. They have the same haircut, the same phrases, the same expressions and sometimes they even dress alike. H loves his Nanni and his Nanni loves him. Its a great relationship except when H picks up "Nanni-phrases" like "What the heck" and "Oh, my gosh" which are not quite fitting for a 3 year old boy!

Nanni was the first person to babysit H and watched H exclusively when I went back to work. Nanni was the first person to give H peanut butter - at about 6 weeks not worrying about alergies. Nanni was the first person to give him a Reese's cup and Nanni was the first person to let H sleep on his stomach.

Nanni and H have had many firsts over the past few years and we are incredibly lucky that we live so close to Nanni. Unfortunately, Nanni received a horrible diagnosis a month ago and we are all having a hard time dealing with it - especially H who doesn't understand why Nanni can't play with him. They do still love to take long walks up the driveway when Nanni is feeling ok. H makes sure to give a running commentary the entire way!

Strange Things at Nanni's House

We spend almost every day at Nanni's house helping her with what she needs done and we have noticed some really interesting things in the past few weeks. The most unusual is how the butterflies and lizards (or Zardos as H calls them) are acting. I haven't caught the butterflies on camera yet, so I will have to follow up with that later. However, today I got some really great photos of H's Zardo friend listening in on my conversation with Nanni in the flower garden. Nanni and Pa have a great flower garden outside their front door and Nanni, Pa, H and I spend hours and hours sitting out there each day. Today, Zardo decided to join in!

The funny thing was that I really think he liked being photographed. He never moved and actually the first picture is the last one I took and he let me get right up on him. He stayed after that to add his two cents to our converstation.

The Masked Man

As I continue with this blog, I realize two things...(1) I want to stay away from using our names since this is a public site, and (2) I am getting really sick of not using our names! So, from now on my son will be referred to as "H." Not sure why I think I will like this better, but it is worth a shot.

In case you haven't picked up on it yet, H loves to have his face painted. I think its part of his acting side. Even in the post where is he showing his lion craft, he has a cow painted on his face. Since my brother in law showed me how to download my camera pictures, I have a bunch of backlog to enter. This particular one is from our trip to Disney at the end of May beginning of June right before Nanni got her diagnosis. We were totally oblivious of what we were going to face when we got home and we enjoyed every minute. These are some of my favorite photos of H taming his snake!!!


Can you tell how much H loves this? We were so excited to find that our resort had free face painting, so we took full advantage.

Coming up for a breather.

Up close at the work in progress. What a handsome boy!

H wanted to make sure the painter knew exactly what she was doing...notice his eyes checking her out.

Adding the snake's detail and sitting very still.

The finished product...but, wait...that doesn't look like the face of a snake tamer!

Ta da!!!! The snake tamer in action. H proceeded to go throughout the entire resort attempting to kung foo his snake on innocent visitors.

Never Drink Yellow Bath Water

"Don't worry, there is nothing wrong with this water...it just looks yellow!"

"See, taste...I told you so. Baths are important because you can also clean your teeth!"

"Why are you looking at me like that...the water tastes great!"

"Its so hard trying to explain things to kids younger than me....see how frustrated I get!"

These pictures really cracked me up. This is my son and his cousin who is 18 months and its their first bath together. They had a ball in the bath, but what I didn't realize is that the yellow Elmo fizzy tab would make the bath water look like "tee-tee" water in all the photos. Of course being boys, they loved it.