Happy Birthday Amanda!

This is shaping up to be Amanda’s best birthday yet! Not hard considering her actual day of birth, what with not being able to breathe, eat or even open her eyes yet. Her first birthday was very joyful and a bit relieving (for us) considering the year we had been through and we patted ourselves on the back a bit that she had made it to her first birthday. We did have to stagger our celebration between three different parties as; we could not fit everyone in our house all at once. However, I doubt she understood the celebrations, though she did learn that she LOVES cupcakes. Then last year even with the new sled, giant teddy bear and Elmo chair the joy just did not sink in through the pink eye and pneumonia she had contracted…on her birthday.

Today should be better. We have been talking up birthdays in general and she knows she is turning 3! Also, she is between weeks of chemo so her numbers are up and she is actually feeling well. The timing worked out perfectly.

I said to her last night, "Yay Birthday"!

To which she replied, "Yay Birthday Cake"!

*shrug* She is a kid. She knows what she wants and says what she thinks. So, today we shall celebrate our dear girl making it through another harrowing year with cupcakes and presents and TONS of hugs and kisses. We will wish her health and happiness and keep our fingers crossed for a good uneventful year, and many more.

Original Birth Day 2-17-06

First Birthday - Handful of Cupcake

Second Birthday - Sick

Third Birthday

Meow dressed up for the occassion.

Super Panda

Amanda's Cousin Isaak is eight months older than she is. He calls her
"Panda". I have always loved this as I have called her Manda Panda since
before she was born. Seeing how well she has done through the NICU and now
through her cancer treatments we have started calling her Super Panda. It
seems to fit really. (I envision a sort of cartoon like the recent Kung Fu
Panda with a mask and super-hero cape.) She seems to always come out with
the best case scenario. Her heart defect healed itself, her eye doctor says
if you didn't know she was a preemie you wouldn't be able to tell by looking
at her eyes (her glasses are the result of a congenital birth defect not
related to her prematurity). She has passed every hearing screening, even
after they gave her chemo which could result in hearing loss. Her
vocabulary, while slow to start, has picked up speed at a surprising rate.
She is smart and funny and...fearless. All the makings of a good super-hero.
She acknowledged this herself the other day while getting settled into her
car seat. She called herself Super Manda! (Grammy believes this stemmed from
her recent viewing of a Sesame Street video in which SUPE-R Grover played a
large part.)

She proved herself invincible once again on Sunday when we took her to
CenterPointe Mall to play in their kiddie play area. She decided to LEAP
off the top of the slide instead of simply sliding down. HOLY CRAP!!! I
saw her poised at the top, knees bent, arms back, looking like a skier on
the slopes. I yelled her name and started towards her JUST as she took off.
(Though she has passed all of her hearing screenings, LISTENING is a skill
she has yet to master.) Luckily, she landed on her butt about half-way down
the slide and slid the rest of the way down. I scooped her up at the
bottom, still terrified, but she was fine. Another parent said she was glad
her daughter had not seen it, as she would probably try to follow suit. Note
to self: Stand next to the slide!

As impressed as I am with our girl, I wonder how many times she can tempt
fate! Even Superman needed help from time to time when the kryptonite got
too close.

Mere :0)

Please visit our website for the March of Dimes, March for Babies.
www.marchforbabies.org/AmandaRileySoddy

Almost Normal

This past week was out patient chemo for Amanda. These are long tiring weeks for her (and us). Usually by Friday we are all pulling our hair out. This time was different. She was definitely more tired than normal but we didn't have the tantrums or the huge battles and tantrums that we have come to associate with the out patient weeks. Yay!
Also, our girl seems to have developed a new skill. She is now "reading" her books to us! This is huge step in early reading and associating words with the pictures, etc. She should be ready for MIT any day now. :-)
She also decided to share her cold with me. Grammy said she might have it to. This tells me we probably all picked it up at the clinic last week, or Grammy and I got it from her despite our constant hand washing after wiping Manda's nose all last week. I am sitting in the waiting room at the doctor's office now (gotta love smartphones) hoping to avoid yet another case of labyrinthitis (ear pressure induced vertigo) which seems to be my trend the last few years. Amanda will be seen in the clinic tomorrow, unless she develops a fever before then. So far so good on that front. As long as we do not run out of tissues we will be just fine.
Other than that we are just keeping up with everyday life. Looking forward to Manda's birthday next week. How (and when) did she get to be 3 ?!?!

Mere :0)