Mother's Day

Mug of boys' mugs..a favor from the godparents

Mother's Day flowers

Moms' wine. We made our own wine a few years ago and one of the Moms designed this label

So now it is all quiet after a week of noisy but loveable babies. Shanna et al will return to Boston tomorrow. This is the first Mother's Day that I have been home in a few years. We had a brunch at our house as taking 11 people to a restaurant with 3 babies in tow would not be fun. So until the wedding, this will be the last time we are all together for a while. It was a beautiful day today. I did not run but later, Steve and I went for a walk. Lots of fruit blossoms out now, delayed a few weeks.

To all you mothers out there, Happy Day!

Scenes from a baptism

After the baptism at the luncheon. Steve and I and our children and their spouses and their children

Before the baptism with Ramy's sister's family and Ramy's dad

The altar. Shanna got married here almost 4 years ago

Danny walking in front of the priests, parents and godparents

Maya making friends

Oliver watching the ceremony from afar. He did not want to drink the Blood of Christ

Now cake..that would be better

The Michigan branch of my family

Shanna relaxing with Oliver at the lunch

Before the ceremony in their prebaptism suits

Being baptized is tiring..

Watching the baptism is too

Both boys went into the font at once in their birthday suits. Danny was none too pleased though this was the only part that Oliver liked.

The church. Very pretty and I do like the weeping cherries in front

These cakes came from the same baker that did Shanna's and Josh's weddings. Very tasty but printing is not their forte

Naomi, Don'tae and Maya before the ceremony

The Moms minus one 

Maya practising her walking with grandma

Raisin toast and Tiffany

From AA News..Tiffany below; Picasso above

Shanna had an 18 hour break from the boys, which she spent largely with me. We drank peach martinis while watching HBO at night and in the morning went out to Angelo's, home of the raisin French toast.

I hadn't been to the UM Art museum since its expansion so we went there. What they have that I appreciate the most is their Tiffany glass collection, especially  the above chandelier. What I appreciated least is their clay exhibit consisting of numerous pots on the floor. The boys would have had fun destroying them.

We had both scheduled appointments today with our hairstylist without knowing that the other had. I waited too long between appointments and my hair was becoming more and more unruly. The chemo curls have almost disappeared but if my hair is short and scrunched up, some waves will appear. And now my hair is a darker shade of blonde but it will fade over the next month.

Cinco de Mayo

Josh's Mexican co-workers told him that this day is not celebrated in Mexico, just by Mexican-Americans here. I got several books on Mexico/Mexico City from the library for him. Seems like there is plenty of interesting things to see. The books downplay the crime saying that most inner cities of the US are more dangerous. Kidnapping is what I am most afraid of. He is paying his co-workers to come pick him up to take him to work while he is down there.

It is finally spring here, almost 3 weeks late. I went for a long run this morning. Sadly I am not becoming faster. Am I gaining weight? Too scared to check. I will make an attempt to look good on the wedding day beginning next week.

What is aggressive?

This dog looks aggressive (from net) but looks can be deceiving

One of the words commonly used to describe triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) is aggressive. (The other words used are lethal or deadly).But what is meant by this? Never are these terms defined. Does aggressive mean fast growing or likely to colonize? The latter is more scary. Just because a tumor is fast growing doesn't mean that it is more likely to spread. Some slow growing tumors do spread. The faster a tumor grows, the more susceptible it is to be destroyed by chemo. It is easy to tell how fast growing a tumor is but whether it has the propensity to spread is another matter. If it is found in the nodes, there is a greater chance that it has spread but still it might not lead to mets. Conversely, the tumor could spread through the blood stream bypassing the lymph system entirely.

Nothing sucks the air out of a newly diagnosed patient with TNBC than to read the word ' lethal'. But the truth is that most patients with TNBC do not die even though TNBC accounts for about 10% of BC, it is responsible for  30% of BC deaths. The PARP inhibitors are not showing the results in large trials that were seen in the initial trials against TNBC.

But as time goes on, cancer fades more and more.

Shanna and I had some alone time yesterday which I treasured. Lunch, shopping..and then it was time to get the boys. We will have some more time tomorrow night. 

I watched part of Josh's game last night. The threatening skies finally turned sunny. I then returned home to help Shanna and Ramy select some wines for the baptism celebration this Saturday by tasting several candidates. Oh the things we do for our children!

The Hands On Museum

Danny in his fireman suit. He moves so quickly that it is hard to get a good picture of him

Shanna and the grandboys spent most of the day with me. I am currently waiting for them to wake up.
We took them to Ann Arbor's Hands on Museum, much smaller than the Boston Children's Museum but still it has many activities for the boys. They do have different interests so initially I spent time with Oliver, 3, while Shanna was with Daniel, 20 months. Oliver ran at top speed for exhibit to exhibit rarely pausing for more than a second. I got my workout following him. We eventually ended up in the preschool room which has activities for the younger set. Unfortunately school groups were visiting that day. Somehow their chaperones are unable to read the For under 4 only! signs. Groups of larger boys, at least 7 years old, would come in and wreak havoc. I would tell them that they are big boys and that there are better things for them to see outside this room. Meanwhile Daniel was being a menace too. If another toddler was using something he wanted, he would either pull hair, hit or start to bite. They had a miniature fire truck here complete with uniforms for the kids to wear. Danny looked especially cute in it. Hopefully Shanna will let me post her pictures. Oliver after awhile, become obsessed with putting together puzzles and would not leave them. I took Danny out to see more interesting stuff. He liked the air shaft that kept a balloon in the air and pushing buttons in general. He also liked making noise.
Eventually I was able to persuade Oliver to see some of the exhibits that would impress him.

Shanna and I went out for Happy Hour minus the boys, a break for her. Unfortunately our time was interrupted with Naomi needing help with chemistry, her last day of it. Couldn't her dad, (a chemist!!!!) help her? No. So our Happy Hour was cut short.

Shanna will 'get' one night without the boys later in the week. Maybe that will not be interrupted.

Steve is out being an election official which pays much less than his low paying job that he has to take a day off from. An election here with only one thing on the ballot: whether a special education millage should be renewed. He is stationed in the student section. Past summer (UM is out now) elections have yielded only one or two voters with more on the ballot for his whole16 hour shift. They need to consolidate these elections even more than they do.

Babies

Maya enjoying piggyback ride

Maya with her aunt. Note uneven distribution of refrigerator postings. The magnets and whatever they were holding were moved up to the freezer level to not attract little boys

Right now is a rare quiet moment in our house. It is dawn and raining (again!). Fortunately the little guys are still asleep so that their parents could sleep. They drove all night starting Friday. We used to do the same on our trips to NY though the ride is shorter and our babies were not so close together in age. Still the restless toddler Josh was not fun to drive with. I had stayed up late myself Friday at the Moms ' group and I couldn't get to sleep when I returned. When I am out late, I usually go to Josh's old room to sleep so not to disturb Steve. It was after 2 am when I finally fell asleep. I heard a car door close at 6 am and instantly arose: the babies and their exhausted parents. The parents slept for a while while we entertained the boys. Our house is no longer kid-proof and the little boys are into everything so that is a challenge. I still have a train set with tracks left over from when I was a kid that amused them for a while. What I really wanted to do is go to a park and siphon off some of their considerable energy but it didn't warm up until noon and by then, they were gone visiting the other family.

Later they returned for our family dinner. With 3 children and with 3 spouses and fiance and 3 grandkids, its hard to have them at one big table. Fortunately the boys slept through dinner but awoke later so they could interact with their aunts and uncles.Miss Maya enjoyed all the people. She does not have stranger anxiety and will go to anyone who has something interesting in their hands.