#10on10 Day 13 in Room E582

I did this last month, and so here we are again, on the 10th of the month, with 10 pictures. Okay, I'll admit. There are 11. Bear with me, math isn't always my best subject.

8:30 am - morning hand-washing (and I remembered that it was the 10th so we could do this silly project!)

 9:30am Miss Theresa, the hospital teacher, was here. She and Sam worked on math and other fun things using her fun school iPad apps.

10:30am A little jaunt around the hospital

11:30am Sam's kindergarten teacher, Ms. E, came to visit! (I totally messed up the time but she still found us!) We showed her the Healing Garden and shared some books outside along with some sword-fighting.

12:30pm Opening mail and checking out the Spiderman stickers

1:30pm Doing schoolwork with Ms. E - that was awesome for me - he was such a rockstar student (and she was a rockstar teacher with him today)! (Also, he totally won't read in Spanish for me but he did for her. Isn't it annoying how kids will hold out on their parents!?)

2:30pm Bubbie and Zeyde came to visit

3:30pm A mouth-check. Chemo can cause mouth-sores so they check pretty regularly. I think he has a molar coming in, which is causing him a little annoyance. He was also eating a scone, and he wouldn't stop chewing long enough for her to check him out! It's hard to say "stop eating" when we are spending so much energy trying to get him to eat!

4:30pm Since they heard there were a few rabbis hanging around the hospital, the idea was floated for a daily campus minyan (the Medical College of Wisconsin and Froedert Hospital share the same campus as Children's Hospital). Since then, Michael and I have been taking turns (when we are here) leading a brief service at 4:30pm, Monday-Thursday, in the hospital chapel. I have asked Sam to join me almost every time but today was the first day that he came with me! And would you know it....no one came to minyan today. So Sam and I "did synagogue" (his words) - he was the rabbi and I was, well, the kid. It was hilarious to watch him run through a bunch of the songs we usually sing at Sunday School (I wish I had video of him saying things like, "good job, everyone! now repeat after me!") and he put a prayerbook on every seat, while saying to me, "It's fun to be the rabbi, mom!" So this is where you get 2 pictures instead of just one. He was fascinated by the different religious items in the chapel, like the kneeler and baptismal font. I also pointed out where our prayerbooks were kept and the Muslim prayer rugs. There's a very large Bible open on a table, and I don't think he had ever seen such a big book. At bedtime he told me that this was his favorite part of the day. {heart melt}

Name that tune? Anyone?

"it's fun to be a rabbi!"

5:30pm Finally a little downtime with DragonVale.

Actually, that's 10 hours of our day, but of course, there was a little more. Huge burst of energy at about 7pm and then finally he is down for the night. I've seen the labs, I tell you that his numbers are very low. One of the nurses told me that he is the most energetic kid she's ever seen on this floor! I am so thrilled with all of his energy and non-stop-go-go-go....but man, I'm exhausted! He wasn't very interested in exploring during our first round of chemo, he was confined to his room for the second round, and now here we are, third round - he is totally comfortable in the hospital, confident in his routine, and so far...handling all the side effects without too much trouble. It's only Day 13 and so we have quite a few left to go. May they all have this day's energy and spirit.

Thank you for your continued support. Sam and I talk about it all the time - he still marvels that there are people who don't know him who are praying for his healing. It means so much to us.