Signing a car

I have to apologise for all the entries tonight. I'm a bit behind in blogging with everything that we have going on at the moment. So please do scroll down and read the other entries!

Monday was our monthly hospital visit again and it was also our theatre day. So it was a long one. But all went well, Bianca's counts are good and her daily chemo dosages have been upped again. Of course that means we have steroids again this week, so I'm hopeful that this week will mostly be uneventful as far as the steroids go.

Here is Bianca in the play room waiting to get her treatment started:

As we waited we noticed a helicopter landing on the one roof:

This morning (Tuesday) I met Bianca's teacher for Bianca's 6 monthly review. They do this after the kids have been at school for a period of around 6 months. Sometimes it is hard to believe that Bianca's only been at school for around 6 months (okay, maybe it is a little more than 6 months). The feedback is great! Bianca is able to comfortably read at an age level of a 7.5 year old. Her teacher indicated that she would be able to manage at a reading level of a 9 year old (but of course it is important that kids grasp the concept of what they read and you don't want to push them too far too soon). Wow, that is mind-boggling. I don't remember much of my Year 1 year, except that I had to run around the field for talking too much, I remember one thing I made with clay and I remember making patterns as we practiced writing. But can't remember at which point in that year I was able to read, certainly I don't think I reached Bianca's reading levels as quickly as she did. Bianca's drawing ability is exactly where it should be and she is great with her maths too (a little bit ahead). I got to see some of Bianca's story writing and she even attempted to write the word "hippopotamusses". So all in all - great feedback. Of course this now means that Bianca will start getting spelling as part of her homework.

Next week is the launch of the CCF annual appeal week and so in preparation for this, Hyundai who is one of the sponsors of CCF, did a sort of a pre-launch event at the North Shore Wairau park branch today. This year one lucky winner will have a chance to win the Wheels of Courage car. At the Wairau park branch there was a car with some images of some of the beads that the children get to recognise their courage and some of the children have the opportunity to sign their name on some of the beads. And today Bianca had a chance too.

Please consider getting involved with the Annual Appeal for the Child Cancer Foundation. They are always looking for volunteers to help collect money and of course donations (whether big or small) and of course they will be selling bead bracelets again. Please consider helping the Child Cancer Foundation - they require a lot of money each year to do the work they need to do and they don't get any funding from the government or another cancer society.