Frank headed to San Francisco last week for a conference. Lots of love on FaceTime!

So long Kindergarten, Meryl is a first grader! She flew into first grade running across the stage as a butterfly in her ‘Moving On Ceremony.’ We danced, we posed for pictures, and we thanked her wonderful teachers, Linda and Ama, for a fantastic first year in elementary school!

When the vet tech texts you pictures because Lummi finds a way to charm pretty much everyone in her path:)

In the midst of coming and going, the time magically worked out to see Baylie on her Ridwell route! She’s since transitioned to working with Ridwell (which started in our neighborhood, courtesy of a curious son and a supportive father!) to gather plastics and reusable materials so that we can all (try to) save the planet together. Bonus for Holmes!

Last jumps before our couch gets a refresh next week! And no doubt, the jumps will then begin again:)

From the start, this has always been one of Lummi’s favorite positions to sleep in. Not the most attractive, and contorted in a way no one would believe is comfortable, but Lummi’s Lummi.

Pajama day! And an all school celebration. Hyped and sticky:)

“Mama, I can’t stop doing dangerous things.” Seriously, he said that.

Last day of Kindergarten for Meryl!

New tradition! Dick’s burgers for graduation. It’s a Seattle institution and, well, here we are celebrating while being ignored:) Meryl chose to eat up front - slow down, sister, you’re not driving yet! Have we graduated as parents?

Thank you, Lola, for keeping us all sane while Frank was in San Francisco! Tito too!

For about 48-hours this week, this was to be the last picture of Lummi on the block. Her health declined quite a bit last weekend and we barged our way into the oncologist clinic for ideas. They gave her a Hail Mary of a chemo treatment and told us to rush her to the ER for oxygen support. That bad? ER doctor(s) assessment: She’s not going home.

So much crying. Frank and I visited Lummi in the morning, we took the kids to see her in the afternoon for (silently) their last time to see her. We only got 15-minute stints with her off oxygen as she couldn’t last longer on her own. Tired and out of breath, but she was still all there. It just didn’t seem real. ER doctor(s) assessment: She’s not going home. Oncologist recommendation: See if she can make it a full 48-hours, stabilized, for the chemo to work.

We figured if it was going to be Lummi’s last day, let’s eat cheese. American cheese to be specific, her favorite. (All of our favorites? It’s chemically designed to be delicious after all.)

This was really how the visit went:) Normalcy for Lummi in her last hours? Let’s pile on the chaos and distraction.

6am night shift ER doctor update: She’s not going home. That was it, no marked improvement in her breathing. In fact, she seemed worse. I reiterated that we still wanted the chest x-rays we’d asked for, even though it was expected to only show what we’d been consistently told. And then, we got a call at lunchtime from the daytime shift ER doctor: She’s breathing on her own! Better than she had been (on oxygen) several hours earlier, and it was time to talk about Lummi’s discharge to go home! And then our oncologist saw the x-rays and said there was an 80% improvement since the ones they took on Tuesday! We visited Lummi in the afternoon (HAPPILY!) and decided to keep her in the ER one more night to taper down off oxygen and practice breathing on her own while supervised.

With Lummi on the up and up, breathing under the watchful eyes of ER professionals (thank you, pet insurance), we went to the Seattle Children’s Theater to look up ourselves and see the preview night of Air Play! It was so much fun and even more fun to know that it was developed and premiered at Aunt Lisa’s theater in NYC! Airy connections from coast to coast.

Back on the block and breathing like a champ! Loafing around and sleeping like a champ too:) What ER visit? What crying?