This morning dawned EARLY!

This morning dawned EARLY!Actually, I should backtrack. Last night, after dinner, we were invited by Mikayla's family to take a field trip to the Chocolate Bar. How could we say no? Charlotte and I were the only ones who had actually been there. We had mentioned it the other night while chatting and Halle and her mom had gone past it on the bus but had never gone inside, so all 10 of us got into two cars and made the trip. Because, as the mantra goes, "Chocolate makes everything better". I got a few select pieces of good stuff (went with the dark chocolate peanut butter cup again). I asked Charlotte what she would like and she seemed to gravitate to the little chocolate coins again. I tried to interest her in other things but finally only managed to get her to agree to a slight variation (a chocolate star). I asked her how many she wanted and she said "just one". I asked her this MANY times because I was more than willing to buy her a few pieces. She kept saying, "just one." Well, I bought two (just in case). Sure enough, she downed both and asked for more. I bought four more and she at two of those! We did a little more window shopping in the area and then went home, full of sweet stuff.VERY funny story: we drove to the Chocolate Bar in a large passenger van. Charlotte was sitting in the back in her car seat. At one point while looking for a parking spot, the van had to go into reverse. Charlotte starts going (very quietly) "beep, beep, beep". I asked Charlotte what she was doing and she said, "We're backing up." That cracked everyone up!I made a very vain attempt at an early bedtime for Charlotte but she kept saying "just one more book". She finally let me turn the lights off around 11 (!!!). I was up at 5:45 AM and showered and dressed. Grabbed some breakfast and then I didn't even bother to dress Charlotte or change her diaper. Just put her in her stroller at 6:30 and we cruised to the proton center. Watched the sun rise. At least it was relatively cool. Still humid as all get-out but I was only partially drenched in sweat after the 20 minute walk. We were done with radiation by 8:30 and proceeded over to the MDA main building. In the meantime, she ate some cheetos (her new favorite carb) and drank her chocolate instant breakfast and changed into her outfit (the Dora/Diego scrubs today).Charlotte's appointment was not officially till 1 PM but I was hoping they could see her early so we could just get on with our day. They did see us by about 10-ish. As expected, Dr. Wolff was very happy with her progress and shared plans for her return to VA. She has a new protocol that consists of 3 different drugs in rotation (usually two at a time). Only one is IV and according to the protocol, it's only 2x/week every two weeks. That is VERY manageable. Let's hope it does the trick! The protocol does (right now) call for 100 more weeks (yes, two years) of chemo but that is all subject to change based on MRI results. Anyway, Dr. Wolff sent us a copy via email and sent a copy to Dr. Khan for his approval. We will be scheduling a visit to MCV soon (basically as soon as I know exactly WHEN we return to VA). On that note, I have contacted National Children's Cancer Center about our return trip. They have helped us with some travel funding and said they could help with our return tickets (for Charlotte and one parent) once we had a return date set. She needs a letter from our social worker and the balls are in motion. We are aiming to fly home either late afternoon on September 1st or sometime September 2nd. We returned to the RMH around lunch time and Charlotte played with some of the kids while I read books. I have been very "lazy" concerning emails, romp n' roll, and all things virginia-related for a few days. I think my brain has decided that it needs a vacation. I do have some paperwork to do and emails to cull through, but they can wait. With our early morning, Charlotte petered out pretty quickly this afternoon and has been resting in bed looking at books for a bit. Can't believe it's Wednesday already! Tomorrow is a proton appointment at 10...and that's it. Then one more on Friday and it's time for the weekend. Happy Wednesday everyone...Rachel