Ingram the Conqueror: Wednesday and Thursday March 6th and 7th, The Ups And The Downs

All three kids woke up extra early Wednesday morning after going to bed extra late Tuesday night hoping they'd find Mr. Aaron! Unfortunately he had already left for work by the time they all came looking. After we were ready for school with kids in the car, Beau had snuck in the car and I pulled out of the driveway before I found him. I have a feeling a brown headed 9 year old little girl helped him to go unnoticed until it was too late!! Ingram stayed in his pajamas for the day as we did a few errands in the car and also took Daddy lunch. Ingram was extra excited when we saw Daddy and rolled his window down for a "goodbye kiss" after we dropped off Daddy's lunch. He was definitely not extra excited when it was nap time, but three hours later a certain sleepy head emerged from his room in time to have a crazy afternoon with the girls. Madison had soccer practice, but Ingram and Lindsey stayed home and watched a movie together before bedtime once her homework was finished. Lindsey was practicing her guitar before they had to go to bed and the girls were being so sweet to each other...some days that's a rarity with girls close in age and it melted my heart!

Speaking of melting hearts, mine pretty much overflowed. Thursday morning after the kids were at school, I was at a cute little kids store buying a baby gift for friends that just had twin girls. I was trying to decided between a little newborn gowns, burp clothes, blankets, and then I saw it. It was Lamby...the same Lamby Ingram was given when he was a baby by the Wade family. I started sobbing in the store and I'm sure the people thought I was an idiot. Lamby went with Ingram everywhere; she went to church, to school, to the grocery store, road trips...everywhere. She was at school with Ingram when he had his first headache Thursday March 29th, at Dr. Ellis' office Monday April 2nd after he had headaches and vomited all weekend, and with Ingram while he got his CT Scan on Tuesday April 3rd at 2pm when they saw the tumor the first time.

Lamby also went to Lebonheur with Ingram after Dr. Ellis called on Tuesday April 3rd at 4:45pm with the scan results and she was with him everywhere he went at Lebonheur and then she was with him on his first day at St. Jude on Thursday April 12th. Lamby was with Ingram every day at St. Jude, but we lost Lamby at St. Jude Wednesday May 23rd after Radiation when the girls were with us since they were out of school. I've only seen one Lamby out before and it was a little girl carrying her through the parking lot at Target and we weren't even close enough to really see for sure. Today was much different. I didn't have Ingram with me and when I saw her bright white color, and felt her soft and silky "skin," and held her in my hands, I just lost it. Even though it was the exact Lamby we had, the emotions just came out of nowhere and I just sat in the floor in my little corner of the store and cried. I took her picture, emailed it to Craig, and then called him. I decided to get it for the Etz twins and hope that this Lamby gives their girls as much happiness as Ingram's Lamby gave him.

The day turned better once I picked Ingram up from school; it was either his biggest smile ever or the best hug in the world that started to turn the day around! Then, I had a text from my sweet friend Jane Tosh as I was in car line telling me she and her whole Bible Study group were praying for us; she even sent in an "all hands in" picture with our green bands. Then I got to talk to another sweet friend Paula Callender and that cheered me up even more and helped me be able to face the afternoon and evening which was a crazy.

Ingram, Lindsey, and Madison all had 5:30pm starts for their sports in three different parts of town to make things even more interesting around here. Madison had two soccer games back to back and I dropped her off at a teammate's house to ride to the game while I took Ingram to t-ball and Craig took Lindsey to her practice. After Lindsey was with her team, Craig headed over to Mike Rose for Madison's two games and then took her out to dinner afterwards as a reward of sorts; it was pretty cold on the soccer fields and she played awesome! I watched Ingram's practice for the first time, granted it was only the second practice they've had and several kids are brand new just like Ingram. I should add that 's Ingram is quite the little entertainer on the field. He did all the baseball things he was supposed to do like practicing catching grounders and fly balls, throwing to the coach, and batting off the tee; but he also showed them how he could hop on one foot, how fast he could run, and talked so much to one of the dads helping out that he (the dad) had trouble staying focused on the job of throwing balls for the boys to catch because he was so entertained by Ingram.

I've never laughed so much at a practice in my life and I have a feeling that the games can only get even more funny! Once he was finished, we drove across town to Lindsey's practice and watched the tail end of it. Her team of 8 and 9 year olds were scrimmaging another group of older girls and from what I could see, they were doing pretty good! Then we headed to Farmington Elementary to watch about 20 minutes of a championship basketball game where they were sporting Team Ingram green t-shirts during their warm up each game. During the half time of the game, Ingram decided that he wanted to go out on the court and play like all the other kids. So he ran laps around the basketball court thinking that someone was going to be chasing him, but no one was. The funny thing about that is that after it didn't work out the first time with being chased around the court, he decided to try it again and made another lap around the gym with no one chasing him that time either. He said he was done after that and so we headed home to finish homework, showers, and bedtime. All of the sports plus homework, dinner, and showers happened between the hours of 5pm and 10pm...but all is quiet now...I think!