Fuzzy Little Duckling

Here she is. Our "other" boy. She laughs at this and says, "people think I'm a boy because of my short hair, (laugh), but it will grow long." No joke she so does not care. This child of God amazes me. We love rubbing her head, even Aaron rubs it... it is as soft as duckling fluff and thicker than down. I love watching the cowlicks grow in and witnessing the strange sleeping positions she has present themselves in her hair after a slumber.  We have received many comments from people guessing as to why our daughter has short  hair. That is if they first figure out that our children are A.) not twins B.) not both boys (you'd think the pink and purple clothes might give it away, or perhaps the jean skirt with heart polka dotted tights...hmmm). One lady came up to me and asked, "Does your daughter pull her hair out?" She was so sincere in her questioning, and hit me with it so unexpectedly, I stared at her in complete and utter amazement literally saying, "uh, uh...". I searched her face for some sort of clue as to where this line of questioning had been developed and finally answered, almost in question form, "Umm, she has cancer?!" I was completely thrown. Turns out that she was a desperate woman looking for help. Her 2 year old daughter pulls her hair out in fits of frustration and the doctors are suggesting that she buzz it. I saw her daughter later... she has a perfectly bald spot the size of a pancake on top of her head. I apologized for not being of any help to her and wished her luck.    ?!?! I've received other comments, but none so strange. "Does your daughter cut her own hair? Did you just hate doing her hair? Did she get gum stuck in her hair?" All to which I reply, "She has cancer." and then watch as the quizzical expression quickly changes to that of complete

embarrassment and sympathy. I feel kind of bad for shocking them like that, but... they asked. I think cancer would be my first question if I saw a little girl with Livi's hair, I suppose no one wants to assume the worst.  It is pretty funny how her hair is growing in. Other kids have patches or patterns as to where there hair is growing faster, but Livi's is perfectly even all over. We all LOVE IT!

Beyond the hair, she's doing fantastic. We're still slowly working her back up to full strength chemo and she seems to be handling it well. (Because of the ear infection at Christmas time her counts fell to 0 and she was taken off chemo for two weeks. They have to ween her back on so it doesn't hit her body too hard and cause her counts to plummet again.) I took her in on Wednesday for a follow up CT scan of her abdomen and pelvis to see how her pancreas and the 2 cysts are doing. We should get the results back next week at her spinal tap/lumbar puncture on Wednesday. For the CT scan she needed a line started in her port so just like the good old days I accessed her the morning of... she did so great. I must say for myself... I was faster than the nurses! Livi and I both agreed, "Easy Peasy. Piece of cake!" (She still wigs out in the onset of the whole ordeal. Needles, believe it or not, still make her very nervous.)

And beyond the disease she is cracking us up. She has discovered that she can "whistle" (see attached video), bike ride (now that she has her bike gloves, thanks grandma!), and is quite the nutritionist. EVERYTHING she eats she asks, "Is this healthy?" or  "What's good about

this?" or "What's in here that's good for me?" She asked it while eating a chocolate chip cookie. We laughed. Luckily I make mine with whole wheat flour, which made it a little easier. But we talk about fats and how certain fats are really important and what different sugars do for our bodies and protein and vitamins and fiber... and on and on and on. I swear, sometimes I think she's a sponge absorbing all this information just so later in life she can find how to prevent cancer 100% or find a cure for it. She blows my mind. Enjoy the video. She was definitely sent for something great. I feel blessed to be a witness.