Tuesday, December 23, 2014

Tuesday, December 23, 2014

Tonight's picture was taken in December of 2002. Mattie was 8 months old and typically squirmy at that stage, but we clearly got him in a more mellow mood that day and I propped him in front of the tree. I happen to love this photo, though it wasn't the one we featured on the front of our Christmas card that we sent to family and friends that year! 

The back of thet onesie was equally adorable. Look at the reindeer! Mattie was only 8 months at that point, yet he really wanted to skip crawling (which he NEVER did) and moved right onto walking. He was always UP on his feet!






Quote of the day: It came without ribbons! It came without tags! It came without packages, boxes or bags!... Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn't before! "Maybe Christmas," he thought, "doesn't come from a store. Maybe Christmas... perhaps... means a little bit more! ~ Dr. Seuss, How the Grinch Stole Christmas!

This morning I ventured to Pennsylvania Avenue because I had to get sworn into my position again as licensure board chair. This position is appointed by the Mayor of the District of Columbia. For those outside of Washington, Mayor Vincent Gray's term ends this month and Muriel Bowser takes over in January as our new Mayor. As such all board members needed to get reappointed before Ms. Bowser takes office and we had until 5pm today to do this! So it was like a mad scramble.  

Mid-day, I met Peter for lunch. When our bill came for lunch, the waiter handed Peter this pen. When Peter showed me the pen, I took a photo of it. It may not mean much to any one reading the blog, but it means a whole lot to Peter and I! Why? Because when Mattie underwent treatment at Sloan Kettering in New York, we stayed at the Affinia Gardens Hotel. When we saw this pen today, we both were transported back to January of 2009!

I went back into my electronic photo album for January of 2009, and I found this photo that I snapped of Mattie by our couch in our Affinia Gardens hotel room. Mattie received a welcome to NY care package from Linda (his child life specialist at Georgetown University Hospital). As you can see we opened it up in the room for Mattie to play with and he was very happy to be thought of in this special way. Also notice Mattie's left arm in the photo. It looks bent like a chicken wing! He wasn't doing this on purpose. Somehow his prosthetic arm bone turned around somehow and his arm was permanently bent throughout the entire time we were in NY.

When we checked into the Affinia Gardens Hotel, the front desk took one look at us and our situation, and literally upgraded us to a suite! This was our second time staying at the hotel. We visited Sloan Kettering once before in September of 2008, but during that time Mattie was walking because it was prior to any of his limb salvaging surgeries. Yet during our second visit, we as a family looked much more harried and Mattie's cancer and disabilities were much more profound. Needless to say the upgrade to a suite was a kindness Peter and I will never forget. The suite had a kitchen, two bedrooms, bathrooms, and balconies. 

 The Front of the Hotel

What the Kitchen looked like!

While at Sloan Kettering Mattie made this HUGE plane
out of cardboard boxes! The only reason the child life staff saved these boxes for Mattie's arrival at the hospital was because Linda (from Georgetown) gave them a heads up that Mattie LOVED boxes! They couldn't understand this AT ALL and really couldn't understand what Mattie was going to do with the boxes. I think they were a bit surprised to see the final product. But I want you to know that this plane was actually carted OUT of the hospital, into a NYC taxi and into our Affinia Gardens hotel room! A real feat. Mattie wanted us to take the plane home to DC, but fortunately we were able to convince him to leave the plane in NY. This was important because we were overflowing with all sorts of items from friends, family, and the hospital which were accumulating within our home.