Day 167

Monday January 31, 2011

Nina had an awful night. She was up every couple of hours. Sometimes she’d had a bad dream, other times she was just simply mad at nothing. On several occasions I got woken up from a deep sleep by her punching me in the chest and yelling, “Where’s my caterpillar?” “Where’s my money purse?” Being woken up from sleep by brute force is quite the freaky experience!!! Scared the living shit out of me and I don’t know how I didn’t scream from fright. My poor little girl!!

Nights like these feel so long! When the sun does finally rise, I’m relieved even though I’m exhausted. Around 7am I got up and started getting Teddy ready. Nina remained asleep which I was thankful for. Teddy woke up in a wonderful mood and commanded that I cuddle with him. No need to twist my arm to do that!

Shortly thereafter Mario dropped off Molly and my mom immediately fell in love! She got the biggest kick out of Molly and how cuddly she is. As a kid, we only had cats, never a dog. Molly is exactly the kind of dog my mom would love to have, one that is playful but super sweetly cuddly! I told my mom that after breakfast with Nina, I had planned for the three of us to give Molly a bath. My mom burst into laughter! I love hearing my mom laugh, especially now in the middle of all of this sadness. My mom has known way too much pain and sadness in her life and it further breaks my heart to see the torment that Nina’s illness is creating. I just pray that God fills her heart with strength and the continued capacity to laugh, regardless of our outcome!

As I drove Teddy to school, I told him we were going to give Molly a bath and blow dry her hair. He looked at me with furrowed brow, “Is Mario going to like that?” What a character this boy is! I asked him what he’d like to do with Nina today. He scratched his nose and said he’d like to go shopping and spend their allowance money on something cool. Then he wanted to go to Zodo’s and play in the arcade. Sounded like a great plan!

As I promised, this morning was bath time. First, my mom and I gave Nina a warm bath. I never know if she is going to like her baths or not but today she did. She especially loved it when I poured warm water over her shoulders, “That feels good mama!” After bath number 1 was done, we started bath number 2 J Nina sat on top of the toilet and just cracked up at poor Molly soaking wet, “She looks like a Chihuahua!” she belly laughed, making my mom and I laugh! Per usual, Molly was an angel. She did great with her bath and even survived getting her hair blow dried!!! Blow drying Molly’s hair was definitely Nina’s favorite. She just giggled and giggled. My dad grabbed the camera to catch the magic. We are constantly trying to catch the magic and this morning there was plenty.

At one point, sweet Molly actually stood up against me, wrapped her paws around my neck and buried her face into my neck. It was sooo cute and made us all giggle with delight. Not soon enough for Molly, we finished drying her hair and let her go. That’s when we really cracked up! Molly walked forward and violently shook her body….turning into a massive ball of white fluff!!! Nina’s laughter was delicious and I kicked myself for not having video recorded this! Molly seriously looked like a cartoon character, after it had fallen into a dyer and been tossed around J Too cute!!!

Molly after her spa treatment 

Mario must have sensed that we were torturing his puppy because shortly after we finished drying Molly, he stopped by to visit Nina and pick up Molly for a few hours. When he saw Molly he also burst into laughter but that quickly subsided into shock when we pulled out bright pink booties for her to wear! My dad just shook his head with laughter as we helped Nina put Molly’s booties on J “Oh Rosy, only you!” he said over and over again. He’s right….only Nina and I would have so much fun playing dress up with Molly and torturing our friend J

Sadly, it was time to say goodbye to Vovo and Vava. I hugged my parents tightly, reassuring them I would be okay but not sure if they actually believed me. My dad finished loading up the car and they kissed Nina goodbye. Then….my mom asked the million dollar question, “Anyone seen the car keys?” Now that made me laugh!! I am constantly misplacing my keys and so is my mom J We spent the next 5 minutes searching everywhere, eventually finding them on the mattress where she had been sitting!! As I walked my parents out, Mario sarcastically said, “Now I see where you get it from!” Smart ass!!!!!!!!!

I was grateful for the time my parents were able to spend with us. I understood that they cherished every second, even if they were seconds infiltrated by pain and sadness.

Teddy flashed me the biggest smile when I met him outside of his classroom. His smile is breathtaking. As we walked around the corner of school building, he tossed his backpack at me and yelled, "Race you to the fence!" What a cheat! He took off in a flash and I followed, willing my legs to fly :) We must have looked like to race horses reaching for the finish line. What Teddy didn't expect was that I'd catch up as much as I did :) I almost (almost!) beat him. By the time I also tapped the fence we were both winded and laughing hysterically. What a fun surprise!! We crossed the street and walked over to the car where upon seeing Nina Teddy said, "Hi there Nina, you look more beautiful than ever!" Nina beamed as she said hello and told him how we had bathed Molly. The love that Teddy has for his sister is beautiful!

After we picked up Teddy from school, we went to Kmart and wandered around the toy department. Nina was in a fabulous mood and so was Teddy!! They had sooonerf toy. The laughter was sufficient enough reinforcement to prompt Teddy to repeat his shtick several more times before I threatened his life J

We had a blast exploring all the blue light specials. I sent a bunch of photos to my family and friends and my brother Bruno (per usual) had the best text response:

Lmao! U guys are totally gonna get kicked out of KMart! 

That would easily be the most White Trash thing anyone in 

our family has ever done!

I’ve come to find out that it doesn’t take much to have a good time. Our Kmart adventure was proof positive of that J

At Zodo's arcade

Before bed, Nina asked for a fudge-cicle so I brought her one. Apparently, she was so moved that she said, "I'm starting to love you Mama...I used to not like you but now I love you!" I burst into hysterics and thanked her for starting to love me, that I was glad it happened later rather than never :) She smugly laughed at me and returned to her fudge-cicle.

Sadly, although the bedtime routine was relatively easy today, Nina woke up at 10:50pm and couldn't talk. This completely panicked her!! She tried to say something but no sound would come out. She looked painfully scared :( Luckily, I figured out that she was upset because she was hot and couldn't find her caterpillar toy. We found her toy and I reassured her everything was okay. Then she explained that she was hungry for cereal, which I brought her. Wen I brought her cereal she said, "Thank you mama!" with biggest smile ever and then went back to sleep.