What kind of parents are we???

Today I'm thinking about...
Maximizing my time
Smell the roses
Love myself
Be strong

My days Monday through Thursday are busy, and tiring, but mostly I miss being able to spend quality time with Lourdes. When I get home late, I'm tired, but I want to hold the little bundle of joy. Last night she was so cute talking and chirping, smiling at every sound that I made to her precious tiny face. Those eyes she has are just so big and beautiful. I have a hard time understanding how she is a product of this gruff looking, rugged faced man? I have a special chair for holding Lourdes in(though I would hold her anywhere), and I love that, sometimes, hours that her and I melt together in that chair. Lourdes' ear infection seems to be improving, and she has a better demeanor the last day or so. I wonder how long that she was inflicted by the reddened, swollen ear drum before we took action? Lulu and I have never been the parents to react quickly to sickness, infection, or traumatic falls (I think in the 9 years of having kids, we have only given antibiotics twice, and showed up at the emergency room once?) Does that make us neglectful parents, or does it mean that were teaching our kids that not ever scrap and bruise stops the world? I think that it just makes us us, and every parent finds his or her way through child raring differently. That's one of the things that make all humans different from each other.

Lulu and I had a great discussion over dinner last Saturday night. We talked about how far we've come in this last year, what was our feelings about the future, and how we were going to tackle the next 6 months. We spent a long time on the radiation treatment that she is to have at UCSF. One thing that we found out is there's still a lot of planning that we need to do. We made a list of who we thought would be able to stay with the kids when we were both in SF, and who would be best to stay with the older two in Reno? Logistically we never had to plan some thing like this before, we have always included the children in trips or made sure the trip was short so we didn't have to worry about someone to care for our children. We talked about being thankful for having so much support from family and friends, and how we could reach out to people that want to really help us during this period. Normally during dinner alone we talk about our love for each other, how busy we been with the kids, or what we can do as a family in the next few months; however, this night was the most I think that we've spent talking about the future and how we can best approach it?