Living, Loving, Learning

My sweet little, well not so little, girl is 6 today.  Hooray!!  I LOVE this age, so happy and inquisitive and yet beginning to become a bit more independent.  This year has seen Lucy conquering so many of her fears, she has really been an inspiration to me.  It has also seen Bruce and I struggling to find the middle ground between helping her find her footing and being her best self and pushing her too far, too fast for her comfort level.  Her first momentous leap was at swim lessons this summer.  We signed her up for 5 weeks of daily lessons at the pond near the house on the Cape.  The first day was wretched with lots of tears and her practically having to be torn off me by the instructors to get her into the water.  The second day was only a bit better and only then because I bribed her with ice cream to get into the water (yeah, I occasionally bribe my kids, got to do what you got to do. ;0) The third day she made it into the water with t...

Hey there.  This unusually cold winter has seen the Gast family hibernating.  Between Bruce's health concerns, various weather events and a general feeling of gloominess we have all been laying low.  But now, it's almost SPRING baby and we are kicking it off with great news!  We went to see Bruce's oncologist today and found out that his test results have come back CLEAN!  No sign of cancer!  WOOT WOOT!!!  His blood work was totally normal (who knew being normal would feel so special) and his x-rays showed no new tumors.  There is still a small cause for concern that the shell of the tumor itself has not shrunk but they are sure that there are no cancer cells alive there.  The radiation will still work for several more months and may continue to shrink it, as well as the vertebrae repairing themselves and forcing what is left of the tumor out.  All in all, we couldn't have gotten better news and the Dr. feels like Bruce is showing every...