So so thankful

We had a lovely Thanksgiving this year. It was really simple - just family gathering and children playing. Kris made the turkey and the stuffing so my mum was able to relax and enjoy the day a little more. Eleanor was kept busy by chasing around her big cousins and I ate alllllllll the food. It was awesome. We couldn't help but reflect on our year and what Thanksgiving was like last year. Eleanor was crazy sick and I begged Kris to stay late at the hospital with me. Henry's grandparents were kind enough to bring a Tupperware container full of turkey dinner to us from Ronald McDonald House. We dined in Eleanor's tiny hospital room, the two us squished on my cot and whispered to each other about how much our lives sucked. It was a very different story this weekend!

Eleanor had a visit with all her doctors at the end of September and they all went pretty smoothly. We continue to struggle with early mornings (she wakes between 4:00 and 4:30 every day) so endocrine suggested we test her blood glucose every morning. Sure enough, it's super low. It levels out as the day goes on, but she definitely wakes up a cranky-pants. I don't know how we are going to fix this; maybe we can feed her cookies in her sleep? Liquified? But I am nerding out gathering all the data! We are tweaking a couple of her meds: we've cut her Mitotane down to twice a day instead of three (I think I mentioned that before), we've added an extra florinef to boost her sodium levels and we are phasing out her blood pressure medication completely! Her little ticker is doing great and the cardiologist thinks she will be fine without it. We will do an ECG in a couple of weeks to make sure he's right(!) and then we are only on adrenal replacement drugs. And her adrenal suppressant/chemo/insect repellent (Mitotane), of course.

I posted awhile ago about Eleanor pulling herself up to standing. It has become an obsession. She no longer needs a "flying leap" type take-off; she can sit right next to the couch/ottoman/chair/side-of-the-bathtub(!) and pop up. It's crazy. Well, it's not CRAZY, it's just...no, it's crazy! I was combing through photographs of the little lady from the spring, and I have this whole series of her sitting up and playing. It looks like nothing, but I took them because it was the first time she had sat up on her own. Until April she couldn't do that and now it's October and she can pull herself to stand. Pretty soon she's going to be cruising and then comes walking on her own! Gah!

I've been taking advantage if her good health/mood/disposition and have been taking her to various baby groups around town. She's making friends! There's this one little girl who thinks Eleanor is AWESOME. She sits really close to her and they hug each other lots. I caught her stuffing Eleanor into the oven in the play kitchen and she said that yes, she was baking the baby. So cute! She's only six months older, but she dotes on her like a little sister. Sweet.

Before I sign off for the night, I want to apologize for being a little MIA over the past little while. Eleanor has kept me really busy and her early mornings make for tired nights, so I haven't had the energy to post. So here's a super cute (and super blurry) photo of Eleanor and her bestest friend, Atia.