An ending and a begining...

Everything is rolling along smoothly here.   Plans are to start chemotherapy today.  We will come to the hospital every Monday or Tuesday morning for chemo for 52 weeks, no breaks.  We are hoping to have Ben go to Tyler's Place while Ellie is doing chemo each week.  That means at this time next year, we will be done.  Ellie has not been sleeping as well at night, the nurse's coming in to do their job certainly does not help at all.  Now that she is feeling better, she is a bit bored being here and missing her room.  At one hospital stay we played this game where we listed the silliest things we missed from home (i.e. the toilet seat or the sticky stuff on our living room floor, etc.)  Ellie suggested we play that this weekend but could not think of one funny thing that she missed from home.  Instead she said, "But I do really miss my room."  I imagine when we do go home (eta Tuesday afternoon) we will not see her leave her room for several days.  Ellie continues to make great strides in gaining back her walking, standing, but is having struggles with standing from a sitting position.  And we haven't even tried stairs yet (that'll be a fun at home experiment.)  Again, I am amazed at her ability to get it all back so quickly. 

Ben is super excited because not only did he get to go to Tyler's Place this morning, BUT he gets a playdate this afternoon with our great friends Cynthia and Caitlyn.  Caitlyn is so cute she can only say, "Ben Kennedy", not just "Ben" by itself.  I just wish the playdate could be recorded because I find 4-year-old conversations highly entertaining.  All that honesty and exuberance.  I think for him going home will actually be a bit of a let down.