random elise update

Little Miss Elise is up to lots of new things. 

My cheeks hurt from smiling at this kid all day. 

 She says tons of new words - sometimes making little sentences.   Tonight I came in after mowing the yard and she says "mommy all done mowing".

When she woke up from her nap today I hear her say "happy happy happy...mommy happy...daddy happy...mommy?? out??"  

I also taught her that when I am "pretend sleeping" she has to kiss me to wake me up.  Kind of like Sleeping Beauty.  She also can say "Belle" when she sees her.  Thank you Disney Cruise.

We've started reading potty books.  She sits on the potty but gets bored of it pretty quickly.  We're moving super slow on this one.

When I ask her what we should do today she either says "Ama's house" or "meow" (this means PetSmart). 

Big news -- I busted out the hair dryer for the first time in almost a year!  Also, Elise afraid of it.  She closed the door to the bathroom and went and hid under the covers.  She's also afraid of the dust buster. and vacuum.  and blender.  and food processor.  I really want to make her a smoothie but I'm pretty sure she'll flip her lid.  As soon as she sees any of these things she runs as fast as she can into the playroom and closes the doors.

Today for lunch I gave her some noodles and sauce, broccoli, blueberries, and pretzels.  She only ate broccoli and blueberries.  And she doesn't care for chocolate pudding. 

 Where does she come from??

Enough random information about a 2 year old for you? No? 

 Okay here's a video.   Oh yeah - another favorite word is "no!"

Disney Cruise!

There are an obscene amount of pictures in this post. And although I took about a million pictures I failed to get any of our families together...not a single one! I realized this on the way home from the airport and it made me a little sad...I guess we'll just have to go back and do it all again. Okay guys??

This cruise was amazing.  The boat was beautiful, the food was delicious, everyone was super super nice.  They made really good martinis. There were characters everywhere - Elise loved it.  She still wouldn't touch them but she got SO excited and giggly.  One of the best weeks ever.

We booked this cruise September 1 of last year - before I had even started chemo.  Almost a year later and we are doing so much better!  And the weirdest thing ever -- my oncologist was on the boat.  We ran into him at breakfast one morning and we were a little freaked out by this crazy coincidence.  He was there with his wife and little daughter about Elise's age.  And then we kept seeing him everywhere and I told him that even though I was obviously his favorite patient he really needs to stop stalking me...

We met Pluto the first night!  Elise was actually pretty excited...

The portholes all around the ship were perfect for her.

We met Minnie!  See hilarious video below this picture.  She was so excited she was shaking...

Daisy is her favorite...and she was waiting for us when we got off the boat at Castaway Cay.  They give you a paper every night that tells you everything about the next day - even where all the characters will be at what time. 

The snorkeling at Castaway Cay was so good!  They had sunken submarines and ships and even a Mickey statue in the water by all the fish.

Princess night.  All the staff on the boat called her 'princess' all week. 

We brought her favorite thing - duplos - to dinner every night where she would build a house.  And then give it to Grandpa Goote to take apart and give back to her so she could do it again. 

Not really into dancing with all the other kids...

We had one day at Nassau where we went to Atlantis.  That place is amazing - Elise loved the aquarium.  They had some super cool lazy rivers and zero-entry pools that were perfect for a two year old.  Elise was getting pretty brave in the water.

More duplos and crayons.

We had a different towel animal every night...

We spent two days at Castaway Cay.  Beautiful.

They had this little freshwater splah pad on the island that we loved.

And this is the luckiest girl in the world...

Was that enough pictures for you?

We had so much fun.  Thanks so much everyone for going on this awesome trip.  It was the best way to end the crazy year we've had!

what a big girl!

We have moved the high chair - the last of the baby stuff - to the basement!  We got a booster seat (this one - it's awesome) and she loves it.  She thinks she is big stuff.  It was a rainy boring day for us.  We didn't go anywhere and wore soft clothes all day.  We busted out our play tent and put all the animals in there for a snuggle party. 

Lunch today was leftover Panera Mac & Cheese, grapes, and bananas.  

I'm also trying to infiltrate her mind with all things Disney - since we are leaving for our Disney Cruise on Saturday.  I had on some Cinderella clips on YouTube and she kept saying "All done. All done. Elmo!".   Unfortunately Elmo doesn't make too many appearances on the Disney Dream...   We're huge fans of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse but she has no interest in Cinderella, the Little Mermaid, or Snow White.   This should be interesting.  :-)

Last week I was making dinner or something and I hear Elise cracking up on the couch - she was doing this:

now that's a beautiful baby

I'm totally obsessed with these pictures. They turned out so great - we are so happy with them. I don't think family pictures will ever be overpriced. So worth it.  Elise did great too - She mostly just ran around and jumped up and down on the box the photographer brought.  If you're in the Grand Rapids area and are interested in photos let me know I'll send you her info.  Super reasonable and really good. 

john ball zoo

Today was the perfect day for the zoo. Not too hot. Cloudy. Awesome. 

Elise refused to touch any of the animals in the petting zoo.  

She thought the penguins were pretty cool though.

Really not sure about all the chickens walking around. 

On a random note - monkeys are totally gross.  They have gross monkey butts and ew ew ew.  I do not enjoy monkeys.

Nick's Mom and Dad went with us and took us to Mr. Burger for dinner.  The same Mr. Burger where Nick had his first job THIRTEEN years ago as a busboy.  Awwwww.....  Thanks guys! 

advice for bald people

Hey look!  I'm on a blog! 

 Last week Ashley at Lil Blue Boo asked people to send in their before, during, and after chemo hair pictures for her 'Cancer Chronicles' series.  I got brave and sent mine in.  I only took ONE picture of myself the whole time I was bald.   Bald mistake #1.  I wish I had more, honestly.  Bald mistake #2 was letting myself think that keeping the 45 stragglers sorta long-ish was actually doing something for me.  It was definitely not the face framing layers I had once requested and sorta made me look like that old guy in church who thinks his combover looks like real hair.  Sorry to burst your bubble, buddy. 

Anywho......

July 2011, then Jaunary 2012, and exactly one year later -- July 2012. 

There it is.

So my advice for bald people on chemo is:

1.  Take more pictures.  Because hopefully this will never happen again and YOU WERE BALD.  Weirdo.
2.  Just get rid of it all once your head starts reflecting light.
3.  Bask in the glory of the fact you don't have to shave your legs.  Or anything really.  Except maybe your head.  (See #2)

So I'm sorta famous now.   I wonder if I will start getting recognized in public. 

Color Run!

Sunday the sisters and I did the Color Run! It was so fun. My next door neighbor and new BFF Stephanie ran it with us too.

This is the 'before' shot.  Aren't my sisters cute???

The 'after' shot.  This took a couple showers to get off. 

We jumped in the lake and my mom threw us some shampoo.  We looked like little monkeys scrubbing each other down.   Such a fun day!

results, colbie, & a giant popsicle

I should first say - PET scan results are really good. The report states that "no abnormal foci of increased activity are noted withing the neck, chest, abdomen, or pelvis to suggest residual or recurrent lymphoma".  Phew.  So now we're good until another PET scan in November. 

After that was out of the way we went to FMG for their outdoor concert series.  It's pretty cool - everyone brings their own chairs and food and sneaks in drinks.  We used a home-made wine purse with a classy bag of wine (done by my crafty mom) but the people behind us had a binoculars flask.  Awesome.  We saw Colbie Callait who was totally adorable and so so good.  And I want her outfit. 

We got amazing spots because Aubrey sneaked to the front of the line and threw her body on the grass in order to hold spots for 5 chairs.  And a 30 pound wine purse. 

Gavin DeGraw was there too.  Eh.  We left his part a little early to escape the mob of traffic.  I'm pretty sure he's balding under that fancy hat.

I went to the lake at the crack of dawn Saturday morning for the Green Lake 5k.  Dad and all the sisters ran three miles.  Go us!  I ran the whole time but I have figured out I am the slowest runner ever.  Took me 36 minutes.  Gotta work on the speed now...

Nick's work rented out 5th/3rd Ballpark for their yearly party.  There is TONS of people that work for Gentex and they provided food and a really fun afternoon.  Elise never gets pop so we was loving this diet coke.  She wouldn't let go and kept wanting more "nummies". 

And then she got the biggest popsicle of her life.  All of this stuff was free!

It was pretty cool - they had the whole outfield open with games.  Elise just ran really really fast.  Fun fact - that giant Fifth Third Burger was featured on Man vs. Food.  It weighs like 20 pounds or something.

Our friend Jacob was there too!

I've got another post coming up about the Color Run.  This weekend was insane.  I have nothing on my calendar for next weekend and I can't wait.