Day 161 & 162

Overall, Ella did well this weekend. She had more energy, definitely more energy! She melted down on Saturday night, then the entire family melted down. Then she got sick later in the evening, but she woke up this morning just fine. She has clinic again on Tuesday.  We really hope that her counts are good, because it is the last day for this phase and then we get to go to Maintenance! 629 days of Chemo left.

Ella has gotten really brave about not wearing her hat. Steve and I took her to Home Depot. All bundled up, with this cute new hat on (see picture) to run in and look for a handle. We were walking through the store, and I turned around and her hat is off. It was interesting to see others reactions to her shiny little head. Some gave looks of understanding, other just looked scared. It did make me wonder what they were thinking. If they would let their cancer kid run around without a hat on, or even be out in a store. It's not the first time I've thought about how we are doing "this".  I'm not perfect. All I can do is try to give her a little a little bit of fun and normalcy while she is going through this. Trying to remember that this is her journey, and I'm sure that everyone would handle it differently.

The one thing that I hope, is that both "Understanding" and "Scared" would not judge us for the way we are taking this journey unless they have walked through a store with their bald child.

Some of Ella's Grandma's friends made this cute hat for Ella, and a matching one for me. So far, it is the only hat she will wear. It is so soft and I think she likes that I have a matching one and can wear them out together. On the upside, it covers my bad hair days!

Josh and I are counting the days til our special trip to visit Grandma and Grandpa in Florida. As soon as Ella is done with this phase, she gets a break before the next and final phase. So Josh and I are going to take a break and go to Florida while Ella and Dadda spend a special Valentines week together. She already has big plans for her Dadda.  When she overheard that Josh and I were going, she said "Are you going to Florida with Joshie?" I think everyone in the room froze. We were all waiting for her to have a complete and understandable melt down. Instead, she said "Okay, but bring me back some glittery shells if you go to the beach". Pretty mature reaction for a four year old. Just love her to death!

Hope you all had a good weekend.

Blessings~Katie