Christmas

We had a wonderful Christmas at Grandma and Grandpa's house. We also got to visit with some friends that we don't have a chance to see very often, and that was great too. Madeleine got more toys than any child needs ever, but she's happy about it.

Cookie decorating is really fun.

Santa showed up on Christmas Eve for a visit! He looks awfully relaxed here for a guy with such a busy night-before-Christmas schedule, doesn't he?

Christmas morning. The dollhouse was her big Santa gift.

Madeleine's paparazzi

Medically, there is news I haven't really wanted to share, because I'm choosing to believe that it isn't true, until we have more conclusive data. Mad's MRI in early December showed that the tumor may be growing. It's been stable for a number of months, but this measurement showed that it was bigger on all measurements. The measurement could be wrong. Her markers remain about the same, so thankfully they also are not showing growth. Instead of retesting in four months, as was the plan had this scan been stable, she will be rescanned in two months, and she will also have an MIBG (radioactive nuclear medicine scan that shows how much of the tumor is still active) in a couple of months as well. Neither of these scans has been scheduled yet, but I'm holding my breath until then...

Santa

Shabby Chic

I finally got around to taking pictures of Madeleine's room:



















































































I love that the headboard and the frames completely match, that was unplanned. I repainted the dresser to match the headboard. It took a whole lot of sanding and many coats of paint because it was originally stained to match her crib, which was a dark cherrywood color. I'd like to get a small night table too, and I'm occasionally scouring thrift stores for that, but haven't found the right one yet. I didn't show you the blank, white wall that faces the bed. I don't know what to do with it. I'd like to put up some children's artwork, but don't want to spend any money on that project.