A Week in the Life: Monday

The day starts out with Liam waking up, getting dressed and going downstairs to watch TV. He now knows how to turn the TV on himself and use the remote to change it to Disney Channel (42). Since Liam wakes up at 6:00 most mornings and I am not a morning person, I'm glad he can finally take care of himself in the morning!

After I wake up, I make Liam's breakfast - usually some sort of cereal and rice milk, but sometimes I'll make toast or oatmeal.

Then I have to measure out Collin's meds... he gets zofran, dexamethasone, and pepcid first thing in the morning.

I put on a new feeding bag, empty a can of pediasure...

give Collin his meds...

and he relaxes in his bed...

while the feeding pump does all the work.

Of course, this morning his tummy didn't like the milk and he threw up.

So it was time to play in the bath!

 

Chris came home while Collin was in the tub, but he left shortly after for an appointment.

Collin actually got bored playing in the water and started exploring the tub, so I gave him a few whales to play with... this is the first time he's played with toys in the tub. Normally when he puts toys down he has a hard time letting go since he can't see so he'll put them under his leg so he knows where they are. In the bathtub, the whales floated away! 

After Collin finished his bath and got dressed, I had him practice standing next to Liam's bed... Liam decided to have his blanket hanging over his bed so he could hide out in his "cave".

We went downstairs to play some more... Liam was playing the train whistle and Collin was chewing on his giraffe.

Then Collin's vision teacher and music therapist showed up to have fun... Collin's getting better at holding the shakers in his left hand (hooray!) and even shook them around a little on his own too! Liam decided to hide out in the basement and play with his train table...

When he came back up later, he got bored playing with his train whistle and threw it down on the floor towards Collin, earning him a time out...

followed by a hug and apology to his little brother.

Of course, load number one of laundry for the week.

Liam's lunch today... yogurt, banana, and apple chicken sausage with V8 juice.

and my lunch of potato salad and a pepsi (I love these little bowls from Ikea... I got them for Liam but use them just as much for myself).

Liam got out the hot wheels track and played a little bit after lunch... Collin's still chewing on the giraffe...

Then Liam watched the garbage truck out the front window...

before we all went upstairs and piled on the bed for story time. We read a halloween book and Theres A Wocket In My Pocket.

I went downstairs with Collin and he had a little meltdown and needed some cuddles. 

Then it was time to put the feeding tube back in for his next feeding since it came out when he threw up earlier.

Ahhh... naptime!

Still asleep over here too! I also took a nap for a few hours.. the temperature was really cool today after the heat wave we had the past week, so it was perfect for sleeping.

After we woke up, Liam went downstairs and played with his Hot Wheels track some more before dinner.

"Here Mommy, you hold the truck. This is a car race, not a truck race."

Okay...

On Being a Cancer Mom

This layout was created for the July Technique challenge at Birds of a Feather Kit Co. The challenge was to do a layout with absolutely NO patterned paper.

This one just kind of came together all by itself. Last night I wanted to do a journal entry about "how do I do it" and the words just flowed out. Afterwards I decided I had to do a page with it as the focus, and this challenge seemed perfect. Using no patterned paper seemed scary at first... I started by deciding on a color scheme of red, blue, and green which are my 3 favorite colors. I took a light blue cardstock and inked it with 3 different blue colors, then took a cream cardstock and inked it with 3 different green colors. I then misted in red the white cardstock. I printed out my journalling and framed it in red, then put together the basic layout. I also surprisingly didn't use a sketch for this one either! Once I had all the cardstock down, I started adding embellishments, and added more.. and when I thought I was done I added a couple more. Of course, before I took the picture I looked through my stash and stapled the tickets to the side (also first time using staples on a layout). Now I love this layout, and I think it's my favorite one so far!



The journalling reads:

Being a cancer mom means staying up late and getting up early. My days are filled with feeding tubes, feeding pumps, medicine schedules, doctor appointments, chemotherapy, MRIs, physical therapy, speech therapy, music therapy, vision teachers, teaching my son to stand, pushing his limits, trying to get him to talk, to sign words, trying to get him to accept food in his mouth, cleaning when he throws up, washing rugs, piles of laundry, singing songs to calm him down, and sometimes multiple baths a day. I am no stranger to hospital stays, fevers and infections are my biggest fears, and waiting for the results of scans gives me anxiety.




In addition to these responsibilities, I am also a wife, a maid, a cook, and a mother to another son without cancer. I must not neglect these other responsibilities while also working from home when I can. In the past year and a half, many people have asked me how I do it.. how I handle everything and seem so calm. My only answer is because I have no choice. If I lose focus, it doesn't change anything. Collin still has cancer. The family still needs to be fed. The house still needs to be clean. Laundry still needs to be done. And sometimes, I even manage to get in a nap.. I do need to sleep sometime. I've lost connections with some friends who I guess just can't handle how different my world is.. and I've gotten close to new friends who maybe don't understand exactly what I'm going through, but they don't pretend it doesn't exist either. I manage to find the occasional hour or two to myself, to scrapbook or make cards, to recharge myself.



Of course, I can't always pretend everything is rosy all the time. I don't go to the mall anymore because I will yell at the girls at the modelling kiosk when they ask me if I want my baby to be a model... do they only see the stroller when they approach me? Do they not see the feeding tube in his nose? While he is always beautiful to me, I know he's no gerber baby, and I'm okay with that. Once I even yelled at the window/siding salesman at BJ's. He was standing in front of me so that I couldn't continue walking and after he wouldn't take no for an answer I started yelling at him.. I have a child with cancer, I can't afford to do home repairs. Of course, when I take Collin to the store, no one usually comments on his feeding tube or asks what's wrong with him when he doesn't make eye contact. Only a few people have asked questions, and they've all been nurses or people with experience with cancer or disabilities. These people I have no problem talking to... it was hard at first, but it gets easier. I guess it's hard to say "this is Collin, he has brain cancer". He is so much more than a cancer patient, and I am so much more than a cancer mom.

Celebrate Card

I made this card using pieces of a kit from My Mind's Eye and a Celebrate sticker from Little Yellow Bicycle.

This card is being entered into the following challenges:

Polka Doodles: Long Hot Summer

CAS-ual Fridays: Sweets & Treats

Wishes

Here is a card I made using scraps from my June Counterfeit Kit... it uses scraps from Basic Grey paper, a My Mind's Eye frame cut into a strip, and a Unity Stamp on yellow cardstock.




I am entering this card into the following challenges:

Unity Stamp Company Challenge: use circles

Sassy Lil' Card Sketches: sketch

Fussy and Fancy Friday Challenge: summer theme


Cute Card Thursday: Going Round in Circles


Annabelle Stamps Blog: Say it with circles

hey you - hello - howdy

Moxie Fab World has a challenge going to make a project using a botanical theme... looking through my stash, I found this flower by Crate Paper that really jumped out at me. I used pop dots to make it stand out on the card and framed it with a yellow patterned background. I layered the hello sticker and here it is!




This will be entered into the following challenges:

Moxie Fab World: Fanatical About Botanical Challenge

Pure Joy

This is another layout I made using my June Counterfeit Kit... Basic Grey papers, the large chipboard circle has been misted and the small chipboard circle inked, and a lot of rub ons!




I am entering this layout into the following challenges:

Birds of a Feather Kit Co: Use Your Stash Challenge (use rub-ons, and you must put rub-ons on at least 2 embellishments)

Sketchy Thursdays: 7/14/11 sketch

Crop Stop: use a wet medium (misting on large circle)

This Is... Me

I made this layout using Bo Bunny products (except for the white cardstock for journalling).

And here is a close up of the journalling:

This layout will be submitted to the following challenges:

Birds of a Feather Kit Co: Journalling challenge

Bo Bunny: Sketch Challenge