Lily’s luau birthday bash

Posted on February 9, 2019 by mommabear0208

This kid turned 8 today. Can’t begin to explain how proud I am to be her mom. In anticipation of her upcoming Make-A-Wish trip to Hawaii, we celebrated with a luau!

The party was a success. It started with a ballet class taught by New York City Ballet (check out Lily independently getting her feet into 5th position in the second set of photos) and then the luau at school with pizza, cupcakes, giggles and dancing. Lots of dancing!!! After school we had a play date with her friend Xan, followed by dinner at her favorite restaurant. And then we went home, exhausted, full and happy.

Today

Posted on January 25, 2019 by mommabear0208

It’s 5:30pm on the 24th of January. And it just hit me. Today marks 5 years since d-day–Lily’s Rett diagnosis day.

What a 5 years it’s been. What a roller-coaster. But I wouldn’t give it up for anything. I’ve got the sweetest, coolest almost 8 year old I know. She is my joy, my inspiration.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s not easy. Every day I say to her when she’s having a tough moment–like trying to walk in the morning or crying uncontrollably in the middle of the night–that I can’t fix things. But that I can make them better. With love and comfort and compassion. But I can’t fix it. I can’t fix it.

That sucks. No one should ever have to see their child suffer so much. Every day. Every day. I’ll say it again: every day.

And we are so fortunate right now as Lily is going through a relatively stable period. And the ‘relatively’ is truly that. I am not trying to sugarcoat any of it: our ‘normal’ is anything but that.

So it’s been 5 years. And we’re getting closer to the ‘cure’ but it’s still not here. And every day as Lily grows and Rett continues to ravage her body, that ‘cure’ looks less and less like a cure for her. At this point I’ll take whatever it is we can get. Just to let her have the ability to breathe with ease, to wake up and not be in pain… I’ll take it.

I can’t believe she’s going to be 8 in a few weeks. I can’t believe how much she’s grown and changed. I can’t believe how much I’ve transformed because of her. And for that, I am grateful.

In so many ways, she’s such a ‘normal’ kid. She’s been putting together weekly hair menus letting me know how she wants her hair done every day. How freaking cute is that? Currently she’s all about pigtails. As you can see from the menu and hairstyle:

Her birthday is on the 8th of February. And I wish I could give you a list of things she wants as presents. But I don’t have one because she cannot tell me outright. So if you want to do something for her, consider making a donation to Rett Syndrome research. Not only will it go to her future, but the future of all her other Rett sisters and brothers.

With love,

C & L

A visit from the tooth fairy

Posted on July 11, 2016 by mommabear0208

Was anyone else aware that on top of all the more well-known symptoms of Rett Syndrome (like loss of language, physical disabilities, breathing problems, severe anxiety, sleep disorders), there are so many lesser known ones, like excessive tartar buildup? Yup, my kid has that too. So what does it mean? We go to the dentist every 6 weeks for a cleaning.

Thankfully we’ve found a wonderful dentist who puts Lily completely at ease. For example, the last time we were there for a cleaning, we had to get her two bottom front teeth pulled (her baby teeth had popped up behind them and were there for a while). This kid didn’t cry once – not when they gave her the novocaine. Not even when they pulled her teeth. I cried. But not her.

Earlier that morning, I explained to her what was going to happen. And I told her that if we put her two baby teeth under her pillow, the tooth fairy will come. She became very excited.

That evening, she and one of her therapists had a conversation about it and they wrote a letter to the tooth fairy. All the words underlined were her exact words on the Tobii. The tooth fairy found it when she was picking up her baby teeth and putting money under her pillow. And it made this tooth fairy extremely proud!!!