Quote of the day: "God's promises are like the stars; the darker the night the brighter they shine." ~ David Nicholas
Mattie's grandparents came over this morning and played with him for a bit, before his next special visitor for the day arrived. Mattie had a visit from his lower school's head of school, Bob Weiman. Bob came over with a bag full of tricks, literally. In addition to being Mattie's head of school, he is also a gifted magician, a skill he learned from his father, and I think kids instantly relate to Bob because of this unique skill. Before Bob taught Mattie several new tricks, he gave him a very unique gift that his wife, Cara found for Mattie. It is a plastic ball, that when you squeeze it you see roaches and other gross bugs popping out of it. Mattie was in awe of this ball. In fact, Mattie wants to get a bunch of these balls for his birthday party in the spring.
Mattie performed a new trick with Bob's assistance. The peanut butter and jelly trick was great fun, and Mattie had a full audience to watch the performance. Peter's parents loved watching Mattie learning to become a magician. In the picture on the left you can see Bob performing the new trick with Mattie and in the picture on the right, Mattie is performing a coin trick, and you will notice Bob is proudly looking on as his student is entertaining his audience. Mattie is certainly almost ready to start performing at the hospital. It was a very good visit, and we want to thank Bob for a wonderfully generous lunch!
After Bob left today, Peter and I went out for the afternoon. We went out to eat together, chatted for several hours, and then did some chores. When we arrived back home, Mattie was having a great time with his grandparents. They built a world puzzle together, and talked about specific countries in the world that Mattie would be familiar with. They did a lot of fun things together this afternoon and even watched the movie, Cars. JJ (our Jack Russell Terrier) also came by to visit with Mattie. So in essence, it has been a busy day for Mattie, and he was in good spirits and very energetic!
This evening, Peter, Mattie, and Peter's parents went to visit our favorite local restaurant, The Magic Gourd. Before they left, I took a picture of this three some. Please note who is getting in the St. Patrick's day spirit! Mattie is sporting his shamrock sunglasses (thanks Tamra), his shamrock headband, and necklace!
I decided not to go to the restaurant, I was too tired, and I wanted the time to work on the art project for the hospital that is due at the end of the month. Remember I am trying to artistically answer the question, "What should a hospital be?" When Mattie got to the restaurant, he said hello to the owner, Frank, but he said it in Chinese. Mattie is learning some Chinese from a TV show he watches, and Frank was stunned but happy to hear Mattie's greeting. Mattie apparently ate up a storm at dinner such as chicken, rice, and ice cream! Way to go Mattie!Tonight, Peter and I changed Mattie's central line dressing. It was the world's easiest dressing change. A first for us, mainly because the dressing adhesive was loosening naturally. So we did a dressing change in about 30 minutes as compared to the usual 90 minutes or longer.
On Monday, Mattie is headed back to the clinic for a check up, vitals, blood draw, and MTP-PE infusion. I have been warned that Mattie will most likely need a blood transfusion as well. I want to thank Betsy for checking in today and being our Mattie helper for the day!
As I end tonight's posting, I would like to share an e-mail send to me by my friend Charlie. Charlie wrote, "Strange how our minds work isn't it? We can be somewhere else, do everything that is asked of us and yet a small piece of our mind continues to work on whatever it is that is the true concern of the day. Once we've done what we need to do it takes only a moment or a word or thought to drive it into the forefront of our being once again. Cancer is the elephant in the room. We can all see it, but no one knows how to get it to leave or make it take up less space so we spend a lot of time tiptoeing around it and pretending that it isn't there with us every minute. Everyone sees it but the words any of us have to offer fall far short and none of them will get it to leave so we don't speak about it rather than risk saying the wrong thing. As you said, no one can make it go away and all the words don't begin to describe how it is to live with cancer. Really listening and keeping company in a painful space is the best gift that can be offered."
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