Half way!!!

We were up slightly earlier than normal this morning as we were due into proton about 45 minutes early. Millie was up at 8am so we didn't really need any alarm clock! However, she then spent the next hour or so sat in her bed playing tea parties and other imaginary games with her cuddlies. She was happy in her own world and needed very little interaction. This independent play is a new thing for us, Suzi never did it and still needs a lot of interaction but that is who she is, and we love her for it. Millie has always been pretty independent and happy to play by herself for a short time before finding something else to occupy her. The two are like chalk and cheese still. And it is good to see considering the past few months. Someone mentioned to me that they have to do this stage of independent play before they can play with others (and share). I can see that it is one of many toddler stages but not sure it is a necessity to learning how to share. However, it is nice to know that we are going through normal toddler stages! All at the same time!

She might have been happy in bed but as soon as she was up and aware of what the day held she was grumpy as anything. She started by saying she wanted to stay at 'ronald donalds house' and have breakfast and play. Then when I explained that we had to see Kendra again so her wigglies could have her medicine she decided we had to leave for Kendra's house immediately. I was still in my pyjamas and she was only half dressed! We got there eventually, with a grizzly Millie who never really settled enough to deal with the daily procedure. I put it down to being the end of the week. It is affecting us all. It has also been a grey and damp day so maybe we are missing our daily dose of sunshine.

The last space shuttle was launched today at 11:26am. Guess where we were?!? Yep, taking Millie into the gantry, as I had predicted. Well, it wasn't quite that bad, we got out 2 minutes before the launch and then couldn't figure out where to stand to see anything. The cloud cover was like at home - complete, and rain clouds were coming in from the south, where the shuttle was being launched. After a few minutes of waiting in hope, we went down to one of the computers and, with help from Bryson's mum, tried to find some information. We had missed the launch but at least it happened. I still need to look for some footage of the launch as I haven't seen it yet. Ollie's family came back this evening. They had managed to find a quiet spot 12 miles from the launch pad where they could see everything and were able to get back to the house they were staying in within 40 minutes. Ollie and his sister were pretty excited, understandably. I am very jealous!

Millie woke up ok - she slept for over an hour this time. She kept kicking her probe off and going back to sleep so one of the recovery nurses would try and put it back on again only for it to be kicked off a few minutes later! Obviously getting used to the place. As soon as she was awake, and whilst still fighting to get the blanket off her head she said "I want to eat now!". She seems very aware of what is going on. And, as always, ate well. As she was getting ready to go I slathered some more of my cream over her head. She wasn't all that impressed to be honest but the cream seems to be helping so it is going on regularly. I just hope I have enough we are getting through it at some rate. The tub I am using was an unexpected bonus gift from Lush. I went in before coming out here to pick up some necessities and was talking to the shop assistant about what I use most and how and why I was there now. I also asked where the nearest store to Jacksonville was. When I got home and put the shopping away I discovered a large pot of Dream Cream in the bag. So, Thank You Lush - it has another use.

I slathered more cream on when Millie had gone to sleep. I ummed and erred about it for a while, trying to decide whether to use the recommended chemical one or the nice gentle one. I plumped for the nice one having read everything on the small tube of the other one. It mentioned washing your hands and not eating it and contacting the Poison Control Centre if you do. It also reckons it is a healing cream for dry, cracked or irritated skin. My nice one can deal with all that and I don't have to wash my hands afterwards (except to remove the hairs that have come out whilst applying it). The hair loss is still going on. It isn't anywhere near as dramatic as it was a few days ago but there are still a brushful of hairs coming out in the morning and more during the day. Washing her hair this evening (yes, she let me - just, but with much distraction from Daddy) produced more loose hairs. I just have to hope that most of it will grow back sooner rather than later. Hailey as starting to loose her hair as well. They are the only girls going through this at the moment so her mum and I are going to put our heads together to see if we can find any good headwear. It will also be good for Millie to see someone else lose their hair. She likes Hailey, even though Hailey is 12. And Hailey thinks Millie is cute so they have a mutual like for each other. Hailey has very limited sight and she can't always see Millie but I'm sure she can hear her laughter! Hailey is very sweet and has offered Millie some of her hairbands. They finish treatment at about the same time.

After proton we went off on a very odd route to St John's Town Centre which is an outside mall. It is a very large mall with 100's of shops. It is so large you have to drive from one part to another but 'inside' it looks like an old traditional american high street (apart from the numerous cars). It is a bit weird to be honest. We reluctantly went to find the ToysRUs store. We haven't been able tot find any suitable threading beads for Millie so this was our next option. Fortunately, we found some suitable ones. We also bought a few other bits and pieces for her. We did some threading this evening and she was doing really well. She was putting the thread in her right hand (the weaker one) and putting it through the chunky beads. It was interesting to see her use her right hand without thinking about it. She is doing it more and more which is a very good sign. We may have to come up with some more things that will get her using both hands.

Well, as the subject heading says we are half way through the treatment (or as close as you can get). We have now done 16 of 33. We have another 3 weeks and 2 days to go, so hopefully in 4 weeks time we will be home. The weeks are slowly being ticked off. I was hoping to get away this weekend but haven't been able to sort something out. We will definately have to do something fun though. We are all feeling a bit fed up with being here and with each other. We just don't get the opportunity to spend any decent time alone and the routine of proton is quite wearing.
Breakfast tomorrow - I think I will suggest we find a Waffle House!