Happy 5th Birthday!!

To quote Catherine, "I can't believe I'm 5 years old today". I love how she says it the way I probably said "I can't believe I am a mother". As is the case for every kid I know (especially mine), Catherine's birthday was a multi-day celebration. On Thursday we had her birthday party with 12 of her closest girlfriends. It was a princess party and I think all the girls had a blast. I hired two seniors from Darien High School to come and do face painting. Best money I spent at the party as the girls just loved it. Sunday morning we celebrated with Uncle Joe, Aunt Valerie and cousins Vinny and Joey at Grandma's summer house and then later that afternoon, we celebrated with Grandma and Pop-Pop, Uncle Nick, and Aunt Lauren who came to Cutchogue to spend the day with us. Today, Catherine brought cupcakes to school and got her presents from me and Dave.
Speaking of Cutchogue, it was so nice to spend Memorial Day weekend there as we normally do. Last year we couldn't because Catherine was feeling so horrible and we didn't want to take the chance of going out there and being so far from Yale. This year it was a big event. As usual we drove up to Guilford on Friday morning for counts, then we drove to New London (a 30 minute ride) and took the car on the ferry to Orient Point which is only 30 minutes to Cutchogue. It was a beautiful day and the kids loved being on the ferry. I loved it as I was able to avoid all the Hamptons traffic!! As many of you know, I always try to look at some of the positives of putting 100 miles on my car every Friday - first, I have gotten to know a different and very nice part of CT; second, gas is SO much cheaper in Guilford that I do not fill up in Darien; and now three, getting to the North Fork of Long Island is a piece of cake. The weather was great and the kids got to play in the water at the beach. It was just one of those weekends when I was able to forget all the shit going on in our lives.
Unfortunately, Memorial Day weekend ended last night with Dave and I not having one of our better parenting moments. For the past month, Catherine has decided that she doesn't want to take her medicine anymore. She is constantly asking me when she will be done, when will her port come out, etc. Every night has become a battle of wills getting her to take the medicine. It almost reminds me of the first month. To show how smart she is, she tells me that she hopes she has low counts because then she won't have to take her pills. I told her to be very careful what she wishes for. Well, last night I tried a different fruit roll-up that she said she liked. Long story short, she spit out what was my last 6-MP pill in the house (I just never got a chance to refill it sooner and the pharmacy was closed). The pill was irretrievable and deep down I knew it wouldn't be the end of the world if we skipped it, but we didn't want to set a precedence. Being the quick thinking mother that I am, I called another woman in town whose son is also being treated by Dr. Joe for leukemia. Basically, I borrowed a pill from her. As I was driving to her house, I couldn't help but think about how absurd the whole scenario was, "Hi Elsie, I don't need a cup of sugar, but I'd love it if I could borrow some 6-MP". After it was all done, it really hit me just how stressful this all is and I wonder how I can do this for 11 more months. The way Dave and I yelled at her, I am surprised my neighbors haven't said something to us. As embarrassed as I am about how we handled it, I dare anyone to criticize us until they spend a day in our shoes as it's not as if we are trying to get rid of an ear infection. I think she just wants to be normal like Alex and deep down she knows she is not.
So that I don't end this post on a down note, some happier news: Dave and I finally found a new house and Lauren and Nick are going to give Catherine and Alex an awesome Christmas present this year - a new cousin!! We are all very excited about the upcoming arrival of Baby Termini (I think Catherine is a bit jealous, but she'll get over it).
Tomorrow we start our 4th cycle of Maintenance with a lumbar puncture and a five day pulse of the dreaded steroids. As always, thanks for your support and for giving me a forum to vent.