Knee Deep Blog

Growing up with Eli: His first sleepover at the house

Most of Eli's friends on the block are a year older and have all just turned six during the past month.  They are at a point in their kid lives of experiencing and enjoying sleepovers.  Eli of course wants to be just like them - you know, be a part of the bigger kids club.

To date he's had sleep overs at his cousins, but I don't really count that as a kids sleep over because it's family.  And, after my first round of chemo Kimm kept Eli at her home and created a sleep over with her ten year old son, but that also didn't quite meet the kids on the blocks standard.

On the block to have a sleep over means all day long (generally on a Saturday) you tell every one else on the block you're having a sleep over with X, you actually sleep over, you "stay up to midnight", and then the following day (generally Sunday) you pal around with your "sleep over buddy" and tell every one you "stayed up to midnight" and "today's very special and I can't play with you because I had a sleep over with X and we're playing together."  For Elias this has been hard to watch but not be apart of over the past six or so months, but he was only four.

Growing up with Eli: He Turns 5 Years Old

This past week was a big one for Eli, he turned five years old and has already had friends and family sing happy birthday three times - preschool, Spanish school and home. Eli's birthday is in the middle of the birthday frenzy on our block.  Over the past five weeks there have been a total of five other kid birthdays.  In fact there were two other parties this Saturday so his "fake birthday with friends" will be next weekend when 19  five and six year olds descend upon our home.

Any one that knows me is probably thinking, what the hell?  You've been going through your own stuff with chemo and breast cancer, why would you have so many kids over for a party?  Why not make it easy?

Well call it temporary annual insanity and forgetfulness. Or simply call it caving in to the wishes of your child to have his favorite friends over because if you don't he will be emotionally inept for the rest of this life - ha!  Truth be told if we did it Eli's way we would have about 30 or more kids over because every one is his friend...he's a plus on the extrovert friendship scale so justifying that we only invited 19 seemed reasonable at the time.

Chemo Side Effects: The Last Chemo and The Flu

If you're just catching up with me you'll want to start here to learn about my discovery of lumpiness behaving badly which is also known as breast cancer to the every day person, as well as why I am writing about my journey of breast cancer and for the time being a breast cancer blog.

My prior post is here. 

A little over a week ago I sent an email to my basecamp Project Boob Management Group letting them know that hurray it was my last chemo and I was eagerly waiting to write a follow up all about how easy it went and the great dinner I had that night with some wonderful girlfriends that I initially connected with in a mastermind group a couple years ago. 

But, yes there is a big but, the next week had other plans for me, plans to which I wasn't officially invited, rather sucked into like a big vortex.  On the eighth day I came out of this mostly horizontal and running for the bathroom vortex grateful that it's over and life goes on.

My final round of chemo was truthfully no different then the rest.  I brought the fourth girlfriend to my series of catch up with the girlfriends while your body is being pumped with drugs session at Swedish Hospital.  I've even developed a liking for this three plus hour block where it's all about me and the rest of the world doesn't exist for those precious hours. There's no work, no house stuff, no take care of a child, no be a wife or mother, no grocery shopping...it's forced sit there and be present to what ever you want.  Sure you can get up and mosey over to the "nutrition room" or snack room to the rest of the world or take a bathroom break or go any where you want to wheel your IV around, but I prefer to relax into the chemo seat and enjoy the company of a friend, peruse through a magazine or just be in silence.