So many wishes

We've had a busy couple of days.

In the last 3 days we've had 2 interviews with reporters from 2 different, local newspapers. I worry a lot about whether I remembered to say the things I feel are important to say: there's not enough funding for childhood cancer research, childhood cancer isn't as rare as you might think, and childhood cancer really sucks and is killing my kid and a lot of other people's kids. Will the reporters, when they paraphrase get the message right? Will I sound dumb? This is about my child and my family, but it is also so much bigger than me. I have to do right by all of the children. 

On a happier, less stressful note-We got to Skype with Giada de Laurentiis! John picked the teens up from school early so they could be there too, and at about 2:05 (the call was scheduled for 2:30) I took Sam to the bathroom so there wouldn't be any awkward interruptions. So Sam's sitting on the potty, I'm sitting on a stool in the bathroom. I brought the iPad with me-just in case. At 2:06 John and the teens walked in the door and a call came in on the iPad. I figured it was an assistant of sorts setting up the call for Giada so I didn't worry too much that Sam was sitting on the toilet. It was her! Giada appeared on the iPad screen all casual and beautiful with sunglasses on top of her head. And Sam's pooping. Pooping. 

May 2013

The teens and John and I crowded into the hallway outside the bathroom. Ben figured out why Giada couldn't see us (I had inadvertently turned off video. Good thing, huh?), John and I switched places and he went into the bathroom with Sam, and Ben and Abby and I went to the living room to chat with Giada. She wanted to know about Sam. Not sick Sam. Sam. So I briefed her on Sam the Adventurous, Sam the Kind, Sam the Smart, Sam the Artistic, and Sam the Wise-Beyond-His-Years.

May 2013

Sam and John joined us moments later and we talked about food, cooking, the pleasure of using a good knife, her children's books, which of her recipes we'd tried, and the difficulties of cooking with just one vegetarian in the house (Ben). She was a little shocked at Sam's use of ranch dressing as a pizza sauce, but encouraged us to experiment a little-"Maybe try a little ranch mixed in with the marinara sauce to make it creamy." She also urged us to try the recipes included in the children's books (which we are really enjoying, by the way). We signed off with a promise to send pictures of the pizza we would make from the recipe in the first book "Recipe for Adventure: Naples."

Zia's Tomato-Basil Pizza

Today was the premier showing of "The Many Adventures of Cow and Kid," and animated short produced by many generous hands for Sam. It's the cartoon version of a game Sam played with John from the time he was 2. Sam laughed hard. It was just the reaction we hoped for. Because of time constraints we were only able to include a couple of cow stories. There are probably a dozen more scenes that John and Sam acted out with Sam's plastic cow and pig, Legos, and Lincoln Logs, but that would've taken years.