Christmas at Ronald McDonald House

Emma and Evan are convinced that it is Christmas everyday at RMH and I can understand why.

Mark and the kids arrived about noon on Saturday. The first thing out of Emma's mouth was 'did you get the mail today?'. She knows people send care packages and she thinks that is the coooolest thing on the planet (as a matter of fact, so do I-thank you!). Shortly after their bags were deposited in the room, we walked (ran) down to the mailbox.

Ca ching! The motherlode had arrived! In fact, the motherlode wouldn't even fit into our mailbox, so we had a note to 'visit the office for our PACKAGE'! Yee haw! Emma and Evan were in the office before my mind had even registered the words on the note. Not only were there TWO care packages, there was a card, AND the office manager gave Emma and Evan Build-a-Bears! Wow! The kids were in postal heaven!

Aunt Maria sent a package of fun stuff for Ethan, including a cool twisty straw cup shaped like an ice cream cone and some lavender soap and bubble bath for me, among other things. Thank you Aunt Maria!

The other package was from the Feldstein family, generous souls they are! I can't even begin to describe how absolutely adorable Ethan looks wrapped up in the Thomas towel after a bath! The kids at the Woodfield pool will be oh so jealous when we get back! Thanks so much for thinking of us. Emma and Evan were blown away by the 'vintage' candy. I told them these were the types of things we bought at the pool when I was young. They'll be asking Mr. Murry for a Woodfield pool snack shack when we get home!

Grandma Jean sent a card, she sends one about every week. They are so cute because they all have a clever saying about food. This one said 'Rocky Road can be an obstacle or an ice cream...I'm willing to help you make either one disappear.' So clever!

Feeding over the weekend went well, OK, it mostly went well. I successfully used the protocol for breakfast and lunch on Saturday before the kids arrived. Snack was another matter. We took Ethan away from his sibs for the snack feeding and he was not happy about it. He threw his drink and food at least 3 times during the meal. What a fiasco. There was macaroni & cheese puree, sweet potato puree, yogurt, and strawberry milk everywhere! Not to mention the fact that housekeeping had just mopped a corner of the dining room so we would have a clean spot to work on protocol. Thank goodness the housekeeping staff is used to feeding program kids and their messes. Mark and I were a little stressed!

Giant, a local grocery chain, provided dinner at RMH on Saturday night. It was a big party and I've never seen so much food in one place at one time. Giant also brought HUGE gift bags for each kid. Needless to say, that reinforced the whole Christmas thing so Emma and Evan can't wait to come visit Ethan at RMH again!

Later Saturday, the dinner feeding went well as did Sunday breakfast and lunch. We were even able to do snack protocol at Port Discovery, a children's museum. That was big! Ethan slept through Sunday night dinner, so we missed that meal. All in all, it was a wonderful Father's Day weekend!

Today was a great day in the program. Shhhh...Ethan doesn't know it, but he actually took his medication in applesauce! Hooray! Because he's been doing so well eating, we decided to cancel the G-tube surgery. If we find that Ethan still needs a G-tube, we can always schedule it for a later date. Whew, that is a big worry off our minds!

As if the weekend packages weren't enough, we had a package today from Aunt Leslie & Uncle Tim. Books! I'm able to write this blog early, because Ethan is sitting on the bed reading! Bonus! Thanks for the peace & quiet Tim & Les!

Five weeks down and three to go. We'll be home before we know it!
Have a wonderful evening!
Molly & Ethan