A return to Normalcy (What's that?)

I'm way behind in my blogging, mainly because we jumped right back into life after Ella's port was removed and we have been quite busy! In the past 6 weeks we have had 2 weeks of visitors and one fabulous week in Disney World. Ella has returned to school and ballet, she has had colds, a stomach bug, strange rash (treated with antibiotics) all to be expected as her immune system builds itself back up to a healthy level. To quote Ella "I just can't believe it, first I have cancer now I have this nasty cold!" yeah sweetheart, they're not quite the same but I'm glad you don't realize that.

To prepare her for people's reaction to her talking about having cancer we've told her that saying she had cancer could be like someone saying they were bitten by a dog. An initial reaction would be shock and worry, did the dog bite off their hand? To which they may say "no, it was just a small dog, they bit me and I hurt, but I'm fine now." She gets this, has no fear of dogs nor is reacting with fear to others concerns.

Now to finish out February-

For Valentine's Day Ella had been requesting to go to Build a Bear and Mallards, our favorite icecream shop. We were so happy that she got her port out 2 days before the holiday and we were able to bring her out in public!


It's been one month after her last dose of chemo and look how much hair she has grown! The photo below was taken the week she finished treatment.

Ella had long anticipated her first visit to the new children's museum in town.

Ella's FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL!!! One week after having surgery to remove her port Ella headed back to school. I never imagined we would send her back so quickly, I had thought we'd keep her home for another month and ease into the return to normalcy. But once that port was removed I was shocked at just how "done" I really felt. And Ella was so excite to return to school! So very excited that we had her first day occur on a Friday, giving her a weekend to recover and regain energy for the next week of school (although she has yet to make it through a complete 5 day week at school without being home sick or too tiered)
Ella decided to wear her beads of courage on the first day of school, each bead represents part of her treatment- white beads for chemo, stars for surgeries..... It's a great way for her to open conversations about what she's been through.
And after all she has been through, she is still TOTALLY ELLA!
After school I brought the kids out to lunch to celebrate, here Ella is talking to nana on my cell phone while sitting in a statues lap.
Lumi Island, Ella's choice of what to do on a sunny Saturday. She was an efficient little "project manager" in getting her stone castle built (we lack sand on our NW beaches) E-"Let's make a stone castle" Me- "How do we do that" E- "Mom you gather the rocks, Dad you get the seaweed, I'll collect some sticks..." and she in continued to gently direct us until the castle was built the way she had envisioned.

@boulevard park
My friend Christian came to visit for a week (from Vermont) and wanted to go up to Vancouver to see the Olympic activities. (Vancouver is only about 40 minutes from us) Above Ella enjoyed the animal displays at an exhibit about Canada's northern regions.
@ Canada Place
our first view of the Olympic flames, through all the fencing (Bini was sleeping)
Waiting in line for a better view. You can see the Olympic rings out in the water. We also enjoyed watching the sea planes come and go.





Bini is now pulling himself up!
Hiking in Bellingham

The beautiful snow capped Olympic mountains
Ah, Biniyam. I just can't get enough of him (Greg pointed out that this is because he's always asleep. True, he is a great sleeper/napper and if he were not I may not be singing the same tune.) But he is just completely delicious, I totally want to just devour him. He is full of joy, laughter and sweetness. And if someone told me he grew in my uterus I would believe them because he is so completely a part of me and I am his mama, and that is a beautiful thing!