Back home again

We got home yesterday afternoon from the hospital….Peyton was well-rested, fever-free and it took all of 5 minutes for her to get in a screaming match with her sister….it was good to be home!

Pete was sweet to take the kids swimming at the Y while I took a snooze. Normally I sleep regardless of who's doing what at the hospital, but this trip I was awake a lot, so I needed to catch up on some rest.

Pete's mom came over and watched the kids while we went and played poker with our friends….neither of us won, but we always have a good time.

But more importantly….more vacation catch-up

Day 3 – Saturday

We decided that we weren’t going to kill ourselves hitting the parks every day, so we took every other day off to do something low key. Pete’s mom Sharon came over to spend the day with us, my mom and dad were supposed to come, but because my dad wasn’t well they couldn’t come. We went to Downtown Disney after showing Grandma a bit of the Village and the villa we were staying in.

I think every vacation has the “IT” moment and for me, Saturday had that moment. We went to DD so that we could hit the Lego store, which ranks high up on the list of Pete and Nathaniel’s favorite places on the face of the earth. We took the kids to the Rainforest Restaurant, which thrilled them because it rains in the restaurant and there were animals and fish to look at. Pete and Nathaniel took off for the Lego store and Grandma and I took the girls to the Bippidy Boppidy Boutique. This is set up at DD and will soon be opening a shop in Cinderella’s Castle at Magic Kingdom. Princess Peyton and Princess Rachael showed up ready for their turn at the ultimate little girl pampering party. Each girl was set up with two “fairy godmothers” who painted their nails, put makeup on their faces and then did some serious fancy work on their hair….now I use the word hair loosely. Rachael, of course, had hair for them to work with and they did an amazing job of making her into a fun princess with a huge spray of color all over her head. But when Peyton pointed to the princess hair-do she wanted the fairy godmothers were sort of stunned by the fact that they had no idea what to do. I had tried to explain to Peyton that because she had no hair, there would be no fancy hair-do….but in the thrill of the moment with all the other princess getting their hair done, she wanted the same. It broke my heart to see her little face just fall in disappointment when I told her again that they couldn’t do that style because she didn’t have any hair….I think it was the first time that she realized that she was really different from the other girls because of being bald….and I just hated that. She got all teary, I got all teary and I thought that maybe the day was going to be ruined because of this. I wanted this special time for my girls and it was just going to be an event that made Peyton feel bad because she couldn’t fully participate.

Her fairy godmother told me to hold on and took off and I was surprised to see her come back with a wig. I didn’t even think of it, but they came back with a costume wig from Belle and they put that on her little head and glittered her up and she got to see herself as a princess. I’m not too big with the tears, but I bawled throughout the whole thing. She was just so beautiful and happy (even though she quickly ditched the wig because it was scratchy on her head, and they just sprinkled her little bald head with sparkles like the other girls) and it was phenomenal to see her so perfectly thrilled.

When I looked at her celebrating her inner princess….THAT was my It moment of the week…that was giving my little girl the world.

f.r.o.G…fully relying on God
–Anissa

**Another valiant cancer warrior went home to the Lord.
Skylar-Jade Maxson battled so bravely, fought for so long, she finally earned her Angel wings and is now perfect, whole and cancer-free in Heaven. Please keep her family in your prayers as they grieve the loss of their sweet girl.